My First Baguettes

I was looking around for a baguette pan since early this year and finally got a Patisse baguette pan on my recent trip to Göteborg. The shop, which is a wholesale kitchen equipment provider for restaurants is like a mini-heaven to me with nice nifty gadgets that I would like to owned but probably will not. Here's its website and they do web orders too.

I looked around next on the Internet for a recipe and found this one at Not Without Salt's blog. Nice recipe and the original one yields four, so I scaled it down to have just enough for my 3-baguettes-pan, and along with some tips I picked up from a show clip about making baguettes I saw by 曾國城 / Zeng Guo Cheng when he visited Italy I think, when I was back in Singapore last month. It turned up very well and I made french toast and Roti John over the past few days. I also picked up a cup measure and thus, this will make following American measurements a bit simpler ;)

Jag letade efter en baguette pan sedan början av detta år och äntligen fått ett på min senaste resa till Göteborg. Butiken, ligger på Kust Torget 5-6 och här är sin webbsida och de gör webbeställningar också:

Jag hittade den här recept på Not Without Salt's blogg. Jag skalas ner till just nog för min 3-baguetter-pan, och tillsammans med några tips jag såg från ett tv progam när jag var tillbaka i Singapore förra månaden. Det gick mycket bra och jag gjorde fransk toast och Roti John under de senaste dagarna.

Ingredients( 3 loaves)

5 cup all purpose flour or 550g
Slightly less than 1/2 tablespoon fine salt or slightly less than 1 tablespoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons instant dried yeast
1 and 3/4 cups warm water or 437.50 ml

Steps

1. One day before baking, mix all the ingredients together until it becomes a dough, but it should not be too sticky. Placed in an oiled bowl, cover and refrigerate it overnight.
2. On the day of baking, remove it from the fridge two hours before, and divide the dough on a well-floured surface into 3 parts.
3. Try to flatten each portion into a rectangular shape with your hands or with help of a rolling pin, it doesn't have to be too big.
4. The next step is to roll the rectangular shape dough tightly like how you will be a Swiss roll, stretching it along the way until it fits the length of the baguette pan.
5. Cover it with a piece of towel and let if poof for another 1.5 hours or until double in size.
6. Pre-heat the oven at 230 degrees celsius with the rack and a baking tray under the metal rack for at least 15 minutes. Boil some water meanwhile also as you will be pouring the water into the baking tray to provide the steam required for the crusty exterior of the baguette.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Before putting the bread into the oven, slash each loaf with a sharp knife, being careful not to flatten the loaves. Place the baguette pan into the oven, and add the water to the baking tray below and bake for 20 minutes or until the top turns golden brown. 
8. Rotate the loaves after 20 minutes to bake the underside till golden brown for about another 15-20 minutes. The internal temperature of the bread (i.e when you stick a thermometer in the middle of the loaf) should be about 93 degrees celsius when it's ready. 
9. Let it cool before cutting! Don't be like my husband who was quite eager to taste any freshly made bread, but he's cute that way too :). You can toast it the next day for the same crusty feelings.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Cold Noodles/ Liang Ban Mian or 凉拌面

As promised, this is the recipe for Liang Ban Mian (凉拌面). As mentioned in the previous post, you can have any toppings that you choose but this was the version that we were treated by Xinba and her boyfriend while we were in Göteborg. Really Good! And these are the list of ingredients you would need:

Ingredients (for one)
2 tablespoons of preserved mustard tubes, chopped
2 teaspoons of Chinese black vinegar
1.5 teaspoons of soy sauce
Sprinkle of salt and chicken stock powder
1 tablespoon of Lao Gan Ma (or chili oil) - varies accordingly to your taste
Dash of sesame seed oil
1 tablespoon suan la mian seasoning (sour & spicy noodles seasoning)
100g of dried noodles  (I used yang chun mian, they look like linguine, only white)

Steps

1. Place the noodles in a pot of water, bringing it to boil.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Once they are done, rinse quickly over cold water before placing it in a serving dish. Arrange all the ingredients over the noodles and finally pour over the toppings of Fried edamame with minced pork. Stir and mix well and enjoy it immediately!
   
   
   
   
   

Fried Edamame/Young Soy Bean/Mou Dou with Minced Meat

It's been a while since I've posted but I'm back! Just refreshed from a trip in Göteborg where I spent a couple of days with an old Swedish class friend who will be flying back to China. We were treated to delicious home-cooked meal by her boyfriend (called shifu) and this was something I tried immediately when I got back. I normally eat the frozen edamame by boiling them for a couple of minutes and salting them after drying them like a healthy snack. However, I was informed the Chinese actually call them hairy beans (on account of the small hairs on the pea pods) and fry them like a dish. I really like the crunch of it and the fragrance the jalapeno brings to it. Add it to cold noodles (which I will post up later) makes it a really fulfilling dish!

Det var ett tag sedan jag postat men jag är tillbaka! Jag åkte till en kort resa i Göteborg några dager sedan med en gamla svenska klass kompis som kommer att flyga tillbaka till Kina. Vi var bjöds på utsökt hemlagad mat av sin pojkvän (som kallas Shifu) och detta var något jag försökte direkt när jag kom tillbaka. Jag äter normalt frysta Edamame genom att koka dem ett par minuter och saltning dem efter torkning dem, som ett hälsosamt mellanmål. Men jag var informerade i Kina, man faktiskt kallar dem hårig bönor (på grund av små hår på ärt baljor) och stek dem som en maträtt. Jag gillar verkligen kritan av den och doften av jalapeno leder till det. Lägga till det kalla nudlar (som jag kommer att lägga upp senare) gör det en riktigt uppfyller maträtt!

Ingredients

300g Edamame/ young soy beans/ mou dou, deshelled if you didn't get them as individuals beans already.

150-200g minced pork

1 garlic, minced

1 shallot, minced

2 jalapeno, de-seeded and sliced thinly

dash of pepper and soy sauce

Chicken stock powder to taste

Steps

1. Heat up a pan with about 2 tablespoon cooking oil until hot, then tip in the minced garlic and shallot, sweating it till you can smell the fragrance emitting. Add in the jalapeno and stir fry for about 30 seconds.
2. Next, add the minced meat and stir fry them until cooked. Add in a dash of soy sauce and pepper and mix it thoroughly.
3. Add in the soy beans and stir fry them, adding in about 3 tablespoon of water, and chicken stock powder to taste. When the soy bean is done (with a slight crunch), serve them hot as a dish, or as a topping for Chinese cold noodles.

Fried Prawn and Pork Patties

It's been about two weeks since I came back to Singapore, and very soon I will be returning to Europe again, but will be stopping by Belgium first. Quite exciting since it will be my first visit and also work-related so while I am sad at leaving my family soon, I also have something to look forward to.

My Dad likes to watch cooking shows and this was one of the dish he wanted to try but haven't got the chance yet. I didn't watch the episode and relied mainly on his description and some prior knowledge from when I made the Chinese meatballs, I experimented with it. If you have a better recipe, please share!

Ingredients

150g prawns, deviled, shelled

300g minced pork

Japanese breadcrumbs

1 egg

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoon ginger-soaking water

2 teaspoon chicken stock powder

1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine

Steps

1. Minced the prawn meat by chopping it with your knife, but do not render it to too small pieces.
2. Add the minced prawn to the minced pork in a large bowl, add in the seasoning and use a pair of chopsticks to stir and mix everything up in one single direction. You should see the mixture becoming stickier and binding itself as your stir.
3. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before you start frying. Use a shallow fry pan such as this one shown on FoodBuzz Daily Special and fill it up about halfway over medium heat.
4. Using your hand or a spoon, scoop 1 tablespoon of meat mixture and mould it round and dip it in a bowl of the beaten egg, then transfer it onto the plate of breadcrumbs. After coating it evenly, flatten it slightly with the palm of your hand and drop it carefully into the frying pan.
5. Once the bottom side of the patty has turned slightly golden in colour, flip it over and fry the other side. Be careful not to use too high heat otherwise the coating will be cooked before the meat mixture is cooked through.
6. Once it has been fried to a nice golden colour, drain it on kitchen paper and serve it hot with some chili sauce if preferred.

Johan's chili con carne

We had a party last Friday to celebrate Johan's 30th birthday plus his graduation. We had about 40 guests and there was a lot of food to be prepared. Johan chipped in with his chili con carne which has that spicy kick because of the addition of bird chili. Its easy but great for gatherings but what would be nice to have would be the "Never Burn" Pauli Sauce Pot as you need to cook off the liquid for it to become the thick stew that is the mark of good chili.

Ingredients (this serves at least 10 people or more)
1kg of minced meat (can be beef only or beef and pork)
2 cans of baked beans
2 cans of kidney beans
1 can of corn
3 cans of crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoon of tomato puree
1 tablespoon of cumin powder
3 bird chili, minced
1 large onion, minced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Steps

1. Heat up about 3 tablespoon of cooking oil in a large deep pan and sweat the onion and garlic till soften before adding in the minced meat.
2. Fry the minced meat with the onion and garlic mixture till the meat is slightly brown, then season with salt, pepper and cumin. Mix well.
3. Add in the beans, crushed tomatoes, tomato puree and bird chili and mix well altogether, turning the heat down to low to let it simmer for about 1.5h to 2 hours or until the sauce has reduced and thickened. During the last half and hour, add in the corn and season accordingly.
4. Chili should be served hot, with a sliced of bread or over fries or a hot dog or just as it is. For extras, you can freeze them and they heat up well in the microwave too.

Mango Pudding

I'm back in Singapore again! This time for only three weeks and one of the things I had was Mango Sago with Pomelo at one of the famous dessert store along Liang Seah Street at Bugis, but I didn't like it very much because it uses small ice cubes to chill the dessert. It's disturbing to the whole experience of a smooth, cold dessert when you have to crunch down the ice cubes or spit it out of your mouth.

I very much prefer this version of mango dessert - mango pudding. I especially love those you can drench with evaporated milk but this recipe provides that already with the use of condensed milk. As I've told some of my friends, I don't usually cook when I'm back in Singapore since I will be pampered by my Dad, so this was one I did a few months back, when a friend, Dayny had some visitors from Philippines and graciously gave me some famous Filipino mangoes. They were sweet and succulent, perfect for this dessert!

Min favoritfrukt är mango och jag gillar allt som har med mango att göra. Det var den första efterrätt som jag åt när jag kom hem till Singapore för tre dagar sen. Det var inte samma som detta receptet utan den har isbitar. Jag gjorde den här för några månader sen, när min kompis Dayny gav mig Filippinska mangos som hennes kompis har tagit med när de besökte henne i Lund.

Makes about 4 large wine glass portion

Ingredients:

125ml cold water

2 and 1/4 teaspoon powdered gelatin or equivalent amount of gelatin blade (about 6-8 pieces)

125ml whipping cream

125ml condensed milk

30g sugar

2-3 mangoes, peeled and pureed, reserve some dices of mangoes as toppings

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Steps

1. In a bowl with the cold water, add in the powdered gelatin or if you are using gelatin blades, prepare them by soaking in cold water.
2. Prepare the mango by blending it in a mixer till it is smooth.
3. In a small pan, heat the cream and sugar together till it comes to a fast boil, remove from heat and add in the gelatin mixture or gelatin blades. Mix till the gelatin dissolves. 
4. Add the condensed milk, mango puree, lemon juice and salt into the mixture.
5. Pour into your serving containers, topped with diced mangoes and chill in the fridge.

Avocado Cheesecake

I know it may sound strange to some of you - avocado in cheesecake? However it works for me because this recipe incorporates the creamy texture of avocado with the cream cheese by binding it with some lemon. The best thing I love about this is the combination of colours, green and cream :). This is yet another recipe from Alex Goh's cheesecake 'bible'.

Beautiful swirls of whipped with avocado cheese mixture, isn't it lovely?

För recept i svenska, klickar här

Ingredients
Prepare a thin vanilla sponge cake layer like what I did in Strawberry Cheesecake, but you can halve the recipe instead.

For the cheese topping:
250g cream cheese - room temperature
60g sugar
100g avocado, scooped out and chopped roughly before puree(would be useful if you had a Chop N Scoop board to do this in)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon gelatine powder
40g water
100g yogurt (natural or vanilla flavoured)
200g whipping cream

Steps

1. Cream the cream cheese and sugar until light.
2. 
   
   Puree the avocado in a blender until smooth and add it to the cream cheese mixture and blend it well.
   
   
3. Mix the gelatine powder with water and place it over a double boiler and stir till it dissolves. Add it to the cream cheese avocado mixture until well combined. If you don't have a double boiler, just place a metal bowl with the gelatine mixture over a pot of boiling water.
4. Add in the yogurt next and mix it well until you get this:
   
   
5. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until soft peak and fold the cream into the previous mixture until well combined.
   
   
6. In the cake mould which you should have the vanilla cake layer at the bottom, pour over the cheese filling. Smooth the surface and refrigerate for 4 hours or until set.
7. Unmould the cake and decorate with slices of avocado or pipe whipped cream on it.