Sardine Puffs

I got a packet of puff pastry one weekend with the intention of making some yummy snacks. But got kind of lazy and didn't do much with it. Opened the packet last Friday to do the potpie and decided to use it for something simple like sardine puffs. Also since I have opened the packet, I didn't want to leave it in the fridge too long.

I tried this brand of puff pastry. It cost RM4:50 from Jusco.

Not too deft with shaping tarts and puffs so I had to make do with very simple designs. The first few sardine rolls were done with using only 1 piece of the puff pastry. Didn't turn out well at all as I must have put too much filling (greedy me) in to the puff that as they wear baking in the oven, the puffs all burst open..looked like they were yawning. Ate them up nevertheless...just so as to dispose off the evidence of "accident case" looking sardine puffs.

For the second batch, I decided to use 2 pieces of pastry to make one puff. They turned out rather flat this time. Could I have put in too little fillings this time?? Oh well, back to the drawing board for me. By the way, the pastry texture is so-so. Will try other brands later, that is when I am to lazy to experiment with making my own puff pastry :).


The Sardine filling is simply a tin of Sardines in Ketchup, 3 shallots sliced with some lime juice added to it and 1 red chillie chopped.

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Pot Pie - Chicken and Mushroom Soup

The weekend had been a rather slow one, recovering from sore eyes - Conjunctivitis. Attempted only the more exciting stuff on Sunday but on Friday, I decided on having something interesting besides bread with kaya and butter, which was what I have for lunch and dinner on Thursday, when I was first diagnosed with sore eyes.


Wanted to make just a clear chicken and mushroom soup but decided to put a little umph into the presentation. The chicken soup was a simple one which I threw in some chicken ribs, some chicken breast meat, 2 potatoes, 1/2 an onion, 4 fresh button mushrooms, diced, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil. Remove the chicken breast meat to be shredded. Put it back into the soup and put on slow heat for about an hour to bring out the goodness from the chicken. Add a little cornstarch to thicken up the soup.

Once the soup was ready, I just ladled up some into an oven safe mug, placed 2 slices of the puff pastries over the pot, put it in for about 15mins or when the pastry started to brown. Remove it from the oven and enjoyed it with some yummy egg & turkey ham toast ... and with the weather turning overcast outside, it felt like the middle of Autumn...

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Sultana Bread

After my two attempts with the Bread Machine, I was searching for the reason(s) as to why my bread turned out so coarse and basically hard. I had comments coming from friends (mainly my sifu bloggers *wink*) and some how, I still couldn't figure where I went wrong. Anyway, I went with babe to the bake ware shop downtown in Petaling Street during lunch time last week to buy some baking stuff and at the same time to get a little advice on this bread making thingy.

They gave me some bread recipes and told me that I should add either some Bread Softener or Bread Improver into my recipe (it is either one or the other, not both). So, I decided to listen to them and during the weekend, I looked through their list of recipes and decided to go for the Sultana Bread recipe as I still have a packet of sultanas in the cabinet.

I used the ingredients as listed but I adapted the sequence of putting in the ingredients to that Bread Machine. Whilst I was putting in the ingredients, I noticed that this recipe recommended cold water. In the previous 2 attempts, the recipe book that came with the Bread Machine only mentioned water, which I put in room temperature water. Every other ingredient seems similar, with the exception of the 2 tbsp of Bread Improver which I added to the batter.

I am glad to say that this time, my bread turned out to be more palatable than the first 2. The texture of this is definitely softer and as I selected medium crust, this loaf has a more appetizing appearance. I did this on Saturday evening, so I didn't have any left to bring to work for the test bunnies. Didn't want it to mold like the 1st one. So, next time lah.. my little test bunnies at work :)

The bake ware shop's recipe for the sultana bread is this...

Ingredients

280ml cold water
1 1/2 tsp Instant Dry Yeast
2 tbsp Margarine (I substituted this with Veg Oil)
400gm High Protein Flour (Bread Flour)
1/2 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Butter Milk Powder
1/4 tsp Bread Improver
100gm Sultana

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ABC Soup

Oh dear, it must be the time of the year again when the flu bugs starts biting. I was away for the weekend and yesterday for the Qing Beng and when I came back, I found that some of my friends (and blogger mates) are down with the coughs and the flu. Must blame it all on the weather. My mum too was having a very bad throat over the weekend, with fever too. This is a time when the best remedy is rest and lots of fluids, no fried foods and no spicy foods too. Soup is a very good source of nutrients and easy to take in too. Over the weekend, I managed to boil 2 types of soup. The fist one that I did was a very simple soup which my mum calls it the ABC soup. It is actually a chicken soup (broth) with carrots, tomatoes, onions and potatoes. She calls it the ABC soup as it is supposed to have vitamins A, B and C in this soup or actually she meant that this soup is as easy to cook as ABC... :D

Yup, this soup is exceptionally simple to make and it is actually considered a clear soup. Sometimes, you can also add peppercorns to it but not if you are having a sore throat.

Ingredients

3 pieces of chicken drumsticks (thigh)
2 potatoes
2 tomatoes
2 carrots
1 big onion
salt to taste

Method

1. Put 3000ml of water into a pot to boil
2. When the water is boiling, add in the chicken, onion and potatoes. Boil for 10 minutes in high heat.
3. Add in some slightly crushed pepper corns (optional)
4. Turn the heat down and add in the carrots and tomatoes.
5. Leave it to boil at this heat for about an hour.
6. Add some salt and a little pepper to taste before serving.

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White Bread - Bread Machine

I just posted in my other blog about my new toy, a Kenwood Bread Machine which I got a couple of months back but only finally got to "play" with 2 weeks ago. My first attempt, overly ambitious, was a wholemeal mix seeds bread. Turned out disastrous as I didn't have the right ingredients to start with and did not really read the instructions properly on how to use their recipes.

The 2nd try I did it reading the instructions booklet back to front and following their recipe almost to a T. When the bread was done, looked like bread and smells like bread. It is rather pale looking as I selected the light crust option. There are 2 more shades of crust I can select.


When I sliced it, it looked pretty alright to me.


But when I touched it, it looked kind of coarse to me. Mmm.. it didn't have the texture of Gardenia's bread. When I ate it, that is when I could really tell the difference. It did not have that smooth soft texture.


It was like those cheap brandless roti (bread) we use to buy from the kedai runcit (sundry shops). Easier to swallow down if you steam it first or dunk it into your coffee.

Tried to toast it and eat it with my special omelette with tomatoes and lettuce.


Geez, my bread reminded me of a loofah..that people scrub their bodies with :(


I wonder what went wrong... I have discussed this with babe and she is helping me figure this out.. but I would welcome any and all suggestion to help me improve my texture of the bread. I have reproduced the recipe (this is from the Bread Machine) here :-

White Bread (Bread Machine Recipe) - Loaf size 500g
Egg 1
Water 245ml
Unbleached White Bread Flour 350g
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 2 tsp
Vegetable Oil 2 tbsp
Easy blend dry yeast 1 tsp

Thank you.... :)

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Buttered Prawns

I love to eat prawns and you can virtually cook them in whatever way and I'll still eat them. I was at Mid Valley yesterday, mainly to settle my overdue Maxis handphone bill and also to try and get me some porky balls to make porky balls porridge...thanks to my fav Superheroes super bloggers. They always inspire me to search for better foods to eat :D.

I managed to get my pork balls but along the way, I also saw that they had very fresh white prawns at the supermarket and I decided, what the heck, I can always try do to a simple prawn dish to go with my porky balls porridge. So, decided to just get 12 of these babies back (haven't really decided what to do with them yet at this stage).

Got home, put the rice into the rice pot for my porridge and opened the fridge to find out what is in there. Saw a half used tin of evaporated milk and some curry leaves which were drying up. That gave me an idea. I'll just do my version of Prawns cooked in butter and milk.

The ingredients and method is very simple and it might not be really the full blown recipe for Butter Prawns that you would find elsewhere. For the more authentic Prawn recipes, you could try these sites :

Babe in the City - KL
Cooking Momster - My Kitchen

But if you wanted something simple like mine, then all you need are :-


Ingredients

12 medium/large prawns
2 tsp of cornflour
1 tbsp of oil
1 globs of butter (haha about 2 tsp)
1/3 tin of evaporated milk
2 sprigs of curry leaves
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 red chilli (chopped)
salt and sugar to taste

Method

1. Wash and drain prawns (I chopped off the front part of the prawns' heads as they are very sharp and dangerous).
2. Put in the cornflour onto the prawns and stir it abit.
3. Heat up the oil in the wok and stir in the prawns until they turn orange in color. Remove prawns from the wok and set aside.
4. Put in the butter into the wok and when hot, add the garlic.
5. When the garlic turns fragrant, add in the evaporated milk.
6. Stir until the liquid thickens, then add in the chilli and the curry leaves.
7. Add sugar and salt to taste.
8. Pour in the prawns and mix well.
9. Remove and serve with steamed hot rice (in my case, hot porky balls porridge)

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Pak Tong Ko

Thanks to Babe, I managed to successfully do a Pak Tong Ko (Chinese Sugar Sponge Cake). My first attempt was a total disaster and my brother could have been scarred far life now..haha.. coz he has always love to eat Pak Tong Ko .. until he met my first attempt at it. I shan't even mention where I got that other recipe form. I do believe that it could have been a wonderful recipe for Glue :)

My second attempt was retrieving the recipe off Babe's post and as she recommended, I put in the whole 150g of sugar. It turned out looking like Pak Tong Ko, smelling and evening tasting like Pak Tong Ko. As the recipe didn't really produce a lot of the Ko, I ate some and gave what little left to some neighbours. I can't wait to do it again this coming week to show my brother that I can make successful Pak Tong Ko .... if I followed a the right recipe :).

I have reproduced the recipe here which Babe posted. Credits must be given to Florence of Do What I Like for sharing with us her marvelous recipe.

Ingredients:
A) 170g sieved rice flour
130 - 150g castor sugar
360ml water
B) 3/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tbsp warm water

Method:
1. Mix (B) and leave aside for 10 minutes for use later
2. Mix (A) together well and cook over slow heat stirring all the time till a little thicken (this process should not be more than 5 minutes otherwise the mixture will have sago pearls forming). Sieve this mixture into a big mixing bowl and cooled it in a basin of water.
3. Mix (1) and (2) together and blend well. Cover the mixture with glad wrap and prove in a warm place for 1 - 2 hours. When the mixture show signs of bubbles all over the surface then it is ready for steaming.
4. Pour the ready batter into a 19.5cm x 19.5 cm greased pan and steam on high heat for 20 -25 minutes.
5. Cut into serving pieces when cool.

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