Pumpkin seed and parmesan bread stick

Parmesan Bread Stick

Like any hobby , commitment is the dividing line between enjoying a fun filled activity and one that thrives only on need and duty.

This is how I feel towards my starter dough - duty and the commitment to maintain a relationship. Sometimes it becomes a love-hate relationship - I loathe the tub of living yeast gaining a foothold in my life and in the tight real estate of my fridge. I fret relentlessly over when was the last time I fed it.

However, on its part, it has been dutiful, like a good servant, having  spawned loaves of sourdough, pretzels and even pizza bases.

Whenever I was tempted to stop our relationship, I remembered the effort and time spent  creating the creature to what it is today - a reliable animal that does its job just the way I like it. And it made peace by producing the most incredible aroma, even from the tiniest bread stick . At this point, all debts are forgotten.

My starter dough is nearing the end of its feeding spell. The telltale signs of  hooch calls for another feed of fresh bread flour and water. And with part of the refreshed starter, I threw in  parmesan and pumpkin seeds for good measure, unkink the pretzel and voila! Out comes 7 bread sticks, all ready for breakfast !

The base recipe is taken from my pretzel post, with  seeds and cheese added during the kneading process. The amount of  frills is up to you but experience has shown that this little bit of dough can hold only this much seeds and cheese.

Pretzel or bread stick, it is only a point of view. 

Wafuu vegetarian pasta with furikake confetti

This was another wafuu pasta dish. With linguine as the base, it was an ensemble of   soy bean based ingredients : soy veggie balls, fresh soy beans and wasabi nori furikake as garnish.

For a nice Japanese touch, I boiled the pasta in water laced with a tiny bit of bonito. finally, I tried to give it a  strong tasting base ,by adding sundried tomato to the  edamame mix. This is optional and on hind sight, may not be the best match with the rest of the condiments.

The dish ended up in  several shades of luscious green ( dark green nori, bright green soy beans and brownish green soy balls ) and textures ranged from crunchy ( from the soy beans ) to meaty ( for the soy balls ).

Given another chance, I would forgo the salty  sundried tomato and replaced it with small amounts of pickled Japanese daikon, for tartness and color.

For 2.

Main ingredients :

1/2 cup garlic, sliced

2 sundried tomato, cut to small pieces

 8 vegetarian soy balls, grilled

1 cup edamame soy beans

2 T olive oil

Garnish :

Furikake, wasabi and nori flavor

Pasta :

140g pastsa

Some bonito flakes

To prepare the pasta :

Bring a pot of water, plus 1 tablespoon of salt, to the boil. Just before cooking the pasta, add a pinch bonito flakes.

Cook pasta according to instructions, plus an extra minute. The pasta iss suitably Wafuu when  cooked slightly beyond al dente.

Meanwhile, in a pot, heat oil and saute garlic until the garlic pieces is almost brown but not burnt.

Add vegetarian balls  and fry until browned.

Add sundried tomato, soy beans and toss. Set aside.

Drain pasta, retaining 2 tablespoons of water. Transfer pasta into the pot with the cooked ingredients.

Toss well so that every strand of pasta is coated with garlic and the oil of sundried tomato.

To serve, garnish with furikake.

Wafuu vegetarian pasta with furikake confetti

Wafuu spinach with bonito

This is not the typical Japanese side dish, but how I  envisioned a side dish accompanying  a Wafuu seafood pasta would look like.

Here, I do away with the usual sesame/tahini paste used in Japanese vegetable sides.  Instead, I experimented with sea flakes, my latest fad. Perhaps I should have included the flakes in the earlier part of the cooking process , to even out the saltiness. On the other hand, the sporadic jolts from the seasoning awakens the senses, which gave a start-stop sensation, and made me much aware of what I was eating .

Spinach, portion for 3

1/2 onion, sliced

1 T oil

1 handful bonito flakes

Tiny pinch sea flakes

Pinch sesame seeds, toasted

Wash and cut spinach , about 3 inches long.

In a frying pan, heat oil. Saute onions until caramelized.

Add  vegetables and stir fry on high heat. Sprinkle with 1 T of water.

When vegetables wilt,  turn off heat. Transfer to serving plate.

Sprinkle with sea flakes and sesame seeds.

Just before serving, garnish with bonito flakes.

Wafuu seafood pasta

Wafuu ( 和风 ) pasta is Italian pasta with a Japanese twist. After watching a CN Asia documentary show of a Japanese taxi driver tucking into this night time snack  with gusto in Tokyo, I had every intention to replicate his bliss at my dinner table at the soonest possible.

Just right at the precise moment, my  fridge was brimming over with all kinds of seafood.  The planets seemed  to have aligned and it was a sign that Wafuu seafood pasta was the order of the day.

If I were to do this dish all over again, I would use bonito instead of dill to accentuate the Japanese-ness of the dish.

Afterthought : As I was working on the pasta and seafood sauce concurrently, the tossing and turning of the seafood in the pan left quite a mess but made me feel like a real chef. It felt great  to be creating something so smacking good, which a visit to a restaurant would not replicate.

For 3.

2 cups salmon, bite sized

1 cup praws, shelled and devein

1 cup crabsticks,bite sized

1 onion, diced

2 T butter

2 T olive oil

240g linguine

1 cup fresh milk

1 T plain flour

Pinch of dill

Sea flakes

Garnish :

Salted nori strips

Method :

Cook the pasta in a pot of salted boiling water, according to instructions on the package.

In a big cup, mix milk with flour. Set aside.

On a separate frying pan, heat oil and butter until sizzling. Saute onions, until soft but not browned.

Add seafood, toss and cook thoroughly.

Add the milk solution to the seafood ( Use a sieve to remove floured bits ). Season with salt, sprinkle dill and toss thoroughly. Set aside.

Drain pasta, retaining 1/2 cup of cooked water with the pasta. Stir in seafood sauce and coat the pasta.

Serve with generous amount of salted nori strips.

Gravlax, cured salmon

Gravlax

Gravlax, pronouced as "Grov-lox', is the Scandinavian way of preserving fish with a mixture  of salt, sugar and dill weed.  It is not exactly the same as lox, which is cold smoked, cured fish. Gravlax requires minimal equipment to make, simply the basic pantry ingredients and a couple of days of waiting.

Ever since I heard about the existence of Snorre from ExtraVirginCook , I knew it would be the first step towards my gravlax experiment. So when hubby decided to take a day off to accompany bored me, we went to Snorre located at Jurong Fishery Port Road  for a date with the fishmonger, cold boxes and all.

The retail section was a smallish place, with limited fresh fishes but a eye-boggling array of all possible kinds of frozen seafood.

I was in seafood heaven !

I chose a smallish ( 4.2 kg ) farmed  Norwegian salmon for my gravlax project, with assurances that the air flown fish is absolutely fresh. The nice guy over the counter spent a careful 30 minutes or so, cutting up the fish and removing the pin bones, which I was extremely grateful for. Then, other than a quarter of the salmon that was left intact for my curing project, the remaining salmon was packed in 200g portions and vacuum packed.

One thing that struck me was the professionalism of the two counter staff, who did an excellent job meeting my demands and answering my questions. We ended our foray at Snore with a huge box of salmon  in sachets of vacuum packed dinner portions, ice packs, Maldon salt for curing and crispy rye bread , to go with the gravlax in 3 days' time.

The cured salmon was a huge success. The 3 of us consumed a quarter of a salmon in a meal ( Seriously ! ). My favorite part was the cured meat near the fish belly, which is much firmer and full of 'character'. Already, I have requests from the other two folks for cured trout and  halibut. Looks like another trip to Snorre is inevitable!

Drain off the brine and liquid before serving.

700g fresh  Norwegian salmon, skin on

1.5 cups Maldon sea flakes

1.5 cups fine sugar

2 handful dried dill

( The recommended fish-salt-sugar for this preparation is about 450g-30g-30g. I up the safety factor by using  150g of salt an sugar. One can never be too careful )

Remove pin bones of the salmon fillet.

Line cellophane to  a glass dish, big enough to accommodate the salmon.

Sprinkle  1 handful of dill on the base of the lined dish.

Mix salt and sugar well.

Coat all sides of the salmon with the salt-sugar mix.

Line half of the remaining salt-sugar on the pan evenly.

Place the salmon, skin side down.

Sprinkle the remaining salt-sugar mix on the flesh side of the salmon, covering the fish thoroughly.

Sprinkle another handful of dill over the salmon, now covered with salt-sugar.

Wrap tightly with cling wrap.

Put weights on the wrapped fish.

Chill for 3 days.

I left the liquid produced from the curing alone and drained it off just before preparing it for consumption.

To eat, wash off salt-sugar-dill. Pat dry and serve with crackers or bread. I saved 2 livers of cured salmon for a seafood pasta dish, which was also heavenly!

Yummy !

Dal Makhani

For the best part of my childhood, I grew up beside an Indian family and became 'foster child number 6'. My 5 Indian playmates'  'amma' and 'appa' became mine as well. I was the strange  but privileged duckling who would duck  into their home, as if an extension of mine.  The 4  parents communicated in Malay while I picked up English and a mean game of badminton  from the older Indian kids, even before stepping into kindergarten.

Even when both families moved away and eventually settled a couple of blocks away in a new satellite town, the kids kept in touch until more exciting friends drew us apart.

The 8 years living next to them made me ethnically colour blind and opened me to a realm beyond my Teochew speaking world.  What remains now in my memory were the leaves that hung over their doorway, Deepavali goodies  and  the aroma of Indian spices.

I would not have exchanged it for anything.

Now, about Indian bean curry.

Makhani means butter in Indian and the soul of this dish. Hubby is normally cool to vegetarian dishes but the inclusion of butter, ghee in this case, should be reason enough to perk him up.

This little project calls for a  raid  of my pantry, which yielded almost a bit of everything. I opted for hulled  urad dal, which I mistook for barley, preferring it over the black , crinkly unshelled version. Urad dal, by the way, is a major ingredient of thosai, which I had together with this dish.

As a free spirit, I cooked the plethora of ingredients in no specific order , other than the rule than the powered spices should be fried last  , to prevent the powder spices from  burning.

A side note : I am a cardamon person and the amount used is 4, instead of 2. Tweak it downwards if you think it is too  overpowering. Cardamon, by the way, aids digestion and prevents the awful things the beans would do to your gut.

The dish should have appeared a delicious red, but since tomato puree is lacking, I made do with cherry tomatoes. Though not as thick as I would like, the slight tang from the tomato was a nice compensation.

Now, all that is left to do is to visit an Indian restaurant and try out their version of Dal Makhani to see how far I have deviated.  Or maybe, trawl Facebook and look up the 5 now-not-so-little Indian friends and invite myself over , for old times sake.

 Inspired by http://extravirginchef.blogspot.com/2011/09/dal-makhani-lentils-stewed-with-butter.html

3 handfuls of  channa dal

1 handful urad dal, hulled

1 T ghee

1 bayleaf

1 onion , diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 sliver ginger, grated

2 cinnamon sticks

1 pinch cumin

2 cloves

4 cardamon, smashed

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1 pinch salt

Soak dal overnight. 1 hour before cooking the dish, microwave the dal, with enough water covering the beans, 20 minutes. Beans should be tender. Drain and set aside.

In a pressure pot, heat ghee. On medium heat, add garlic, onions, ginger. When onion is caramelized, next stir in tomatoes,  dried spices and garam masala  and fry until fragrant. Add in beans and stir fry.

Add 1 cup of water and cook the dal curry, 20 minutes, under pressure.

Remove pressure pot cover, and cook until the curry is no longer watery. Season with salt.

Serve warm. Tastes best with thosai.

Ondeh Ondeh, sweet potato poppers

Off green ondeh ondeh because the sweet potato was orange to start with.

' Ondeh ondeh : A Malaysian  snack, similar to a sweet potato popper, encased with palm sugar. It looks like a green fur ball dusted with grated coconut and is terribly addictive.'

Ever since a sweet potato was found lurking in the fridge, the idea of making ondeh ondeh gripped me. For an entire week, I assembled my stash of pandan leaves,  gula melaka and  glutinous rice while valiantly warding off the urge to make a couple of tiny edible balls that requires so much work.

But after acquiescing  to my inner voice, out popped 12 lovely  ondeh ondeh, and better still, without the  heavy chewiness  of store bought ondehs.

Now, I only have two lingering questions :

Should it be an 'ondeh ondeh' or a 'ondeh ondeh'? If one such snack is 'ondeh ondeh' , will two be 'ondeh ondeh ondeh' or 'ondehs' ? Beats me!

Here's what I did to make 12 ondeh ondeh balls.

Adapted from <http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2010/01/ondeh-ondeh-with-sweet-potatoes.html> .

Ingredients

250 g  sweet potato , steamed and mashed

1 Tbsp pandan juice extracted from ground up pandan leaves / 1 t pandan paste

75g glutinous rice flour

75 g Gula Melaka (palm sugar), 12 small cubes

75 g Grated Coconut

1 T water ( as needed )

A pinch of salt

Method

Microwave the potato, covered, for about 10-15 minutes, depending on size. When a skewer is able to pierce through the tuber, it is ready. Cool well.

Skin potato and  mash the potatoes in a potato riser.

Combine the sweet potato with glutinous rice flour  and pandan extract. Use water sparingly, if needed. Knead  to form a soft dough. The texture should be like playdoh. Rest the dough for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the grated coconut with a pinch of salt and microwave for about 1 minute. Let cool completely.

Bring a pot of water to boil. Make balls of  dough ( 12 portions in all )  and flatten centre with a finger .

Encase the balls  with palm sugar and roll to form a smooth ball.

Cook the ondeh ondeh in the boiling water. Ondeh  is ready when it floats  to  the surface. Let it bob in the boiling water for half a minute.

Remove balls with a slotted spoon. Shake off excess water.

 Roll the ondeh ondeh on the plate of  grated coconut and serve immediately.

Because of the coconut, it is preferable that you consume the ondeh ondeh on the same day.

Granola clusters

This granola clusters was cause for my victory dance.

At long last, I was able to bake my first ever  batch of granola clusters without burning a single crumb. After many flops, misses and bin feedings, this was the most decent batch of granola clusters I have ever made !

'Decent' is a misnomer, because this addictive snack is so light and airy, we ran into the peril of over eating without even realizing it. In fact, the temptation to eat the next day's breakfast was overpowering.

The secret lies  in using the floury texture of steel cut instant oat to bind and form the much sought after light and airy granola clusters. No oil, no syrup, just plain old molasses, water and a tinge of unsalted butter. All that was needed were some stirring skills and lots of self control not to snack on the work-in-progress-granola-clusters  in between baking/stirring.

If there was one huge plus  in spending  time making  this snack instead of buying  over priced branded granola clusters, this was  it ; the waft reminiscent of spiced  cookies lingering from kitchen to living room for hours.

So if you would excuse me, I need to run. There's this urgent trip to the store for some ice cream to make good my granola clusters.

Dry mix :

150g instant oats, steel cut

1 cup assorted nuts ( walnut, almond, pumpkin seeds . I used raw cashew, which was a bit low on the crunch factor  )

1/4 teasp cinnamon, ground

1/4 teasp nutmeg, ground

Wet mix :

70g unrefined molasses

40g unsalted butter

27-30 g water

1/4 teasp vanilla extract

Pinch pink salt

Optional dried fruits : only to be added after baking

In a big bowl, combine and  toss the ingredients for dry mix. Set aside.

In a microwaveable bowl, mix molasses, butter and water. Microwave on high for about 1 minute, until mixture is bubbly and butter melted. Stir in salt and vanilla.

Pour liquid over the bowl of dry mixture. Stir well until every morsel of mix gets moistened.

Rest for 10 minutes. This helps form clusters.

Prepare a non stick baking tray. Preheat oven to 150C.

Transfer uncooked granola to tray. Stir to form an even layer on the tray.

Bake granola for  at 150C for 13 minutes.

Remove tray from oven. Stir granola gently , taking care not to break up clusters.

Bake again for  5 minutes. The finished product should be golden brown.

Cool thoroughly. At this point, add dried fruits if any.

To keep granola clusters crispy, store breakfast portions in small zipper bags.

Use it as toppings for ice cream, yogurt or milk.

Proportions adapted from http://www.travelerslunchbox.com/journal/2007/6/9/the-lip-ladys-secret-granola.html

Soft pretzels with sourdough starter

Pretzels in a knotty situation

The ritual of feeding my starter dough is starting to become a challenge. Not that it is difficult to coax the yeast to come back to life. Rather,  I have exhausted my repertoire of sourdough and another feeding would mean another loaf of predictable sourdough bread.

With no better choice, I decided to venture into uncharted territories. Instead of sourdough, I decided pretzels will be a nice challenge. In my previous life, I remember eating pretzels that are tasteless and hard. It is an issue since my teeth has sort of become quite brittle after years of abuse guzzling diet coke.

With these constraints, I set out to make a soft, breakfast sized pretzel. Making bread with sourdough starter always yields a soft pliable dough, a pleasure to shape. I erred on the generous side, adding copious amount of malt syrup, since the glooey stuff refuses to be accurately proportioned anyway. The result? A delicious ,mellow sweet pretzel that is soft to the bite. Coupled with the pink salt crystals on the surface, the pretzel becomes both sweet and savory at the same time - an awesome sensation.

If there is anything to blame, it would be that my rope is too short. The pretzel became a knotty bun and its traditional shape rather indistinguishable.

From my memory, this is the second time I am eating pretzel. And what an amazing snack, a rope bread without the usual commitment for sandwich filling.  It was good on its own and any condiments would be like taking sand to the beach !

Adapted from www.kingarthurflour.com 

Makes 7 mini pretzels.

Pretzel ingredients :

85 g lukewarm water

114g starter, fed for a day

180g bread flour

20g  milk powder

10g malt( I used about 2 T )

1/2 T canola oil

1/4 t pink salt

1 t instant yeast

Melted butter for glazing

Pink salt for sprinkling

Feeding the starter :

30g starter dough, room temperature

60g lukewarm water

90g bread flour

Day 1 : The night before, take out the starter from the fridge and bring it to room temperature overnight.

Day 2 : The next day, feed starter by adding  one part starter, 2 parts lukewarm water, 3 parts bread flour. Stir until strands of gluten forms. Leave it overnight on worktop, covered to ferment.

Day 3 : starter turns bubbly. You will use 114 g of the fed starter.

Day 3 : pretzel day.

Combine starter,malt, oil  and water until starter is broken up.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, yeast, salt and milk powder. Add this into starter mixture.

Knead dough until dough is smooth and glossy. I use a bread machine (mixer with dough hook is fine ) for this job. 

Let dough rest for 45 minutes. Dough will not appear very much increased in bulk.

Preheat oven to 180 C.

With floured hands, transfer dough on worktop.

Divide into 7 portions.

Roll each dough into a thin rope, about 18 inches.

On a non stick pan, shape the ropes into pretzels.

Mist spray with water.

Sprinkle pink salt or salt flakes on the pretzels. Do not leave it to ferment.

Bake for 19 minutes immediately.

Brush with melted butter.

Pumpkin pie

If there was one thing that I like about making this pie, it was that I only have one equipment to wash. The nifty machine blitzes everything to the consistency needed without nary a sweat.

The pumpkin filling was prepared in the same gadget. I decided to give the whisk a miss , since the molasses have clumped , which only the processor could fix. Besides, pulsing it reduces the amount of air in the pumpkin custard, since firm compact  filling was what I was trying to achieve.

I felt  like a workman,rather than a baker, working on the machine , fixing the blades and stuff. There's something masculine about assembling this pie. It is a strange sensation, unlike most baking sessions.

If only it could make pasta noodles too.

Pie verdict :

This pie needs some commitment , with the time consuming chilling and waiting. Still the results were able to please, as the spices were aromatic without being to heady. The crust is a little on the savory side, but if I should do again, I'd add some icing sugar for zing.

Adapted from joyofbaking.com

Makes a 11 inch pie.

Pie base , pate sucre :

260g plain flour

3/4 t salt

1 1/2 t fine sugar

170g cold butter, small cubes

3 T ice water

Almond digestive padding :

40g almond meal

30g digestive biscuits

Pumpkin filling :

3 eggs

2 cups fresh pumpkin puree

120 ml whipped cream

110g molasse, Unrefined

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

Method :

Microwave a small pumpkin, skin and all, 20 minutes. Poke a couple of holes before cooking.

Pumpkin is cooked when it yelds when poked with a skewer .

Cool thoroughly. It make takes as long as 30 minutes.

Make the pie crust :

Butter pie pan and chill untilready for use.

In a food processor, pulseflour, salt, sugar, 30 seconds.

Add cold butter, pulse until flour resembles crumbs, 30 seconds.

Add about 3 tablespoons very cold water while pulsing flour. Stop immediately when the dough forms a ball.

Remove ball from processor and transfer to a plastic bag.

Chill for 30 minutes.

Meanhwile, make the waterproof pie padding :

Pulse digestive biscuits until fine crumbs form. Add almond meal.

Pulse to mix.

Set aside.

On a floured surface, roll out the chilled dough.

Transfer dough to pie pan, with the help of a rolling pin.

Trim excess edge and tuck edges neatly.

Scatter  digestives padding on the pie.

Chill again.

Preheat oven to 190C,with baking rack.

Scope out pumpkin flesh,  2 cups. Transfer to the processor.

Add egg, cream, salt, spices and molasses.

Pulse until pumpkin puree is smooth.

Pour onto chilled pie.

Bake at 190C for about 45 minutes.

Cool pie on a cookie rack. Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

Brown rice almond cookies

Who would have guessed that brown rice cookies can be so nice ?

How should home made cookies look ? This baker, for one, has created the most authentic  home baked artisan looking cookie.

Like a true artisan, no two cookies are alike.

That bad, huh?

Were you  ever suspicious of so-called uniform looking homemade or handmade cookies? Either they were made by a master baker or someone with cookie moulds for hands.

I can't handle cutting out cookies with my one and only star shaped cookie cutter, since some of the crushed almonds are half the size of the cutter itself! Plan B was to knead  the dough into a tube and cut out the cookies with a knife.  I used my bamboo table mat like a sushi roll, to apply even pressure along the entire tube. 

Doing that made me feel like a pro already..

I Love plan Bs. They make me feel prepared for any eventualities.

Seriously, brown rice and almond meal are low carb, low GI,  diabetic friendly ingredients that make such  affliction more bearable. Here's a toast to seriously yummy cookies as  'Teacher's Day' present for my viola teacher who is sensitive to food sugars.

I just hope she thinks the authentic shaped cookies are cute.

Method :

14b0g butter, softened

120g icing sugar

1 big egg

100g almond meal or finely ground almond

250g flour

50g brown rice powder

1/4 t pink salt

1/2 t vanilla extract

1 t baking powder

1/2 cup toasted almond, crushed ( optional )

Makes about 40 thick cookies.

Method :

Sift rice powder, flour, baking powder, almond meal, salt in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream butter and icing sugar, 10 minutes.

Add egg and whisk, 5 minutes.

Add vanilla extract and whisk until combined.

In 4 separate batches, stir in dry sifted ingredients until well mixed, with a spatula. I used 2 pairs of chopsticks for this job.

If adding crushed almonds, do it now. Be aware, though,   that the almonds will make a rather difficult job of cutting out the cookies.

Using your hands, lightly knead the cookie dough to a long tubular shape. Wrap up with parchment. Chill for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180 C.

Cut cookies, 1 cm thick, with a cheese knife. Lay them on a non stick baking tray.

Bake for 18 minutes at 180C, until cookies are on the verge of turning brown.

Cool on cookie rack completely before keeping in airtight jars.