Friday 29 May 2015

Breadmaker Sweet Egg Loaf 面包机鸡蛋甜吐司


Adding egg to the bread not only help to make the bread softer, but also gives it a lovely yellow hue. 
This recipe included a few extra steps which involved taking out the dough to roll flat and shape it during the second proofing period.The extra steps helped to reduce the appearance of prominent air sacs in the bread. It is perfectly alright to skip these steps :)

Yield: One 14Lx10Wx13H cm loaf
Weight: 455 g

Appliances: Whirlpool Breadmaker 1000

Ingredients
175g  egg whole milk 鸡蛋 + 牛奶
20g condensed milk 炼乳
20g unsalted butter 无盐奶油

40g raw sugar 黄砂糖
1/4 tsp salt 盐

225g bread flour 高筋面粉
25g top/cake flour 低筋面粉
3/4 tsp instant dry yeast 即发干酵母


Directions
1. Add cold fresh milk to cold egg, to make up a total mass of 175g.

2. Add cold condensed milk and butter to (1) and keep warm in a rice cooker for 15 ~ 18 minutes to melt the butter.
(Turn on the "Keep Warm" mode for 10 minutes, and let the ingredients stay in the rice cooker till the butter melted)


3. Remove (2) from rice cooker and let it cool down for a few minutes if it is too hot. 
The temperature should be comfortable to your hands.

4. Pour (3) into the bread pan with sugar and salt.

5. Add in the bread flour and top/cake flour.

6. Dig a hole and pour in the instant dry yeast.

7. Place the bread pan into the bread maker and select the "sweet dough" function and your preferred crust "colour", and press start.


<<<<<<<< OPTIONAL STEPS>>>>>>>
8. When the countdown timer appear at 1:55, remove the dough and kneading blade from the bread maker*. 
Wear a pair of disposable gloves to handle the sticky dough.
* you can also let the process continue by skipping step 8 to 13.

9. Sprinkle some bread flour over both the work top and dough before transferring it out.

10. Flatten the dough and fold in the four sides. Cover and let the dough stand for 5 minutes.




11. After the rest, flatten the dough and roll out into a flat oval dough.

12. Flip the dough over so the smoother side will be facing out after rolling up. Roll up the dough from the shorter end. 

13. Place the dough back to the bread pan. The loose end of the dough should be facing down.
Spray some water over the dough and close the lid. Let the dough continue to proof.

<<<<<<<< END>>>>>>>>

14. When the countdown timer reads 1:05, brush a thin coat of milk over the dough. Close the lid and let the baking continues.


To prevent the loaf from developing a pale spot on the crust, cover the window with a sheet of aluminum foil.


15. Remove the bread from the bread pan immediately after leaving the bread machine. Let the loaf cool down on a wire rack before slicing it.

16. Slice with a bread knife :)






Wednesday 27 May 2015

Black Bean Milk Pudding 黑豆奶布丁


An easy to prepare black bean milk pudding using packet drinks :)

Yield: 4 x 200ml pudding bottles

Ingredients 
25g raw sugar
1 tsp* agar agar powder (seaweed powder)
50g water

200g water
1  pandan leaf (optional)

390ml^ black bean milk 

* 1 tsp of agar agar powder is about 3 g. Reduce quantity if prefer a softer texture.

^ 1 packet of black bean milk has 195ml in volume.

Directions 
1. Mix raw sugar, agar agar powder and 50g of water in a bowl. Let the mixture stands for about 15 minutes.




2. Heat up 200g of water and pandan leaf, until you can see small bubbles appearing at the bottom of the pot. 
Cover the pot to speed up the heating up process.


3. Pour in the agar agar mixture from (1). Heat and stir till the agar-agar dissolves.


To check whether the agar agar powder has totally dissolved, take a small spoonful of mixture, and place in the fridge for about 5 minutes. If the mixture coagulated, then the mixture is ready.

4. Pour the black bean milk to the mixture in the pot. Stir to form a homogenous mixture. Cover with a lid to prevent the surface from forming a milk skin.
Take a spoonful of agar agar-milk mixture to check whether the mixture can coagulate well.


5. Pour an equal amount of agar agar-milk mixture to the 4 pudding bottles.
Cover with a lid and allow the puddings to cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge.



>>>>>>>>>>>>optional<<<<<<<<<<<
You may want to add an additional layer to the pudding:

Ingredients
15g raw sugar
1/8 tsp agar agar powder
2 tsp water

50ml hot water

Directions
1) Mix raw sugar, agar agar powder and 2 tsp of water in a bowl. Let the mixture stands for 15 minutes.


2) Heat up 50ml of hot water. When the bubbles starts to appear at the bottom of the water, pour in mixture from (1). Stir to dissolve completely.

3) Pour (2) into the pudding bottles to form the top layer.
Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. Serve cold :)




Monday 25 May 2015

Thermal Cooker Braised Pork Belly 焖烧锅卤三层肉


Succulent braised pork belly slow-cook in energy efficient thermal cooker.
As the liquid is served as a reservoir of heat energy to cook the meat to soft without external heating. It is typical to end up with a surplus amount of gravy using the thermal cooker to cook. Don't discard the extra gravy, save it up to cook another delicious dish another day :)

Appliances:
1.5L thermal cooker

Ingredients 
300~350g pork belly, cut in thick strip of about 3cm 
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed with skin on
1 corner of star aniseed
1 thick slice of ginger
2 hard boiled eggs

1 tbsp raw sugar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp dark thick soya sauce 
Dash of five-spice powder
Salt to taste 



Directions
1. Cut pork belly into two big chunks. Pour boiling water into the bowl and allow it to stand for about 15 minutes before you drain away the water. Cover and set aside.




2. Heat up about 2 tsp of olive oil in a pot at medium high heat. Pour in the raw sugar to melt.


3. When the molten sugar turns dark brown, add in the ginger and garlic, followed by onion. Stir-fry till fragrant.




3. Lower the heat and pour in the oyster sauce and ark soy sauce.


4. Coat the two chunks of pork belly with the stir-fried ingredients and sprinkle some five-spice powder over.




5. Tranfer all the ingredients to the inner pot of the thermal cooker. Add water to submerge all the ingredients.




6. Place the hard boiled eggs in.


7. Partially cover with the lid and bring to a boil. After the ingredients start to boil, bring the heat down and allow them to simmer for 10 minutes.





8. After the simmer over the stove, cover the inner pot and transfer to the exterior pot. Let it stands for about 1 hour.




9. After 1 hour, transfer the inner pot to the stove ,to heat at low temperature, to almost boiling. Add salt and sugar to taste.


Finally, stir in the starch water to thicken the gravy slightly.




10. Return the inner pot to the exterior pot, and allow it to simmer for another 1 hour or more, or till serving.


11. Slice the braised pork belly and serve with warm rice and sweet vinegar chili sauce. Enjoy :P


Bonus dish
For the leftover gravy, you can keep in the fridge till needed. It's best to consume within 3 days.

1. Braised shiitake mushrooms 
Simmer the gravy with softened shiitake mushroom and pan-fried 豆干 using the thermal cooker for another delicious dish ><






2. Noodle in braised sauce

1. Blanch cooked noodle and bean sprouts with boiling water. Heat up seafood tofu cake together with the leftover braised sauce.

2. Pour the braised sauce and seafood tofu cakes into the bowl of noodle. 
Garnish with spring onion, Chinese coriander and cut chilli. Enjoy warm :)