Oats Bun

 

This recipe is adapted from Greg Wade. 

Ingredients (makes 9 buns)

Poolish: 45g bread flour, 45g water, a pinch of yeast (about 0.1g)

Oats Porridge: 35g old fashioned rolled oats, 105g water, a pinch of salt.

200g bread flour

60g fresh milk

20g water

25g honey

4g salt

1g instant yeast

Method

1. Make poolish: In a small bowl, combine flour, water and yeast using a fork. Mix until completely combined (no lumps of dry flour left), cover and leave it at room temperature to ferment until the mixture has ripened - look for these signs: bubbly on the surface, volume more than doubled. It will also pass the float test i.e. take a very small portion of poolish,  drop it into a cup/bowl of water and it should float). My poolish was ready in 4 hours (from 5.30pm to 9.30pm).

2. Cook oats porridge: Put the oats, water and salt in a small pot and cook over low heat for 2 mins until the porridge is thick. Stir the porridge to prevent scorching. Set aside to cool down.

3. Combine all ingredients, except butter and salt, in a stand mixer and knead at medium speed until it comes together in a smooth ball of dough.

4. Add butter and salt, and knead until dough is smooth and elastic. Do the window pane test (for gluten development). Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and form a smooth dough ball. 

5. Lightly grease the mixing bowl with olive oil and transfer the dough ball into it. Cover the bowl and let it proof at room temperature for 45mins or until double in size, whichever is earlier. 

6. Meanwhile, line your baking tin with parchment paper. 

7. After 1st proofing, punch down the dough and divide into small pieces. I divided the 566g dough into 9 pieces and shape them into balls to fit my baking pan. Rest the balls for 15 mins. After that, reshape into balls, cover and let it proof at room temperature for 1 hour or until double in size.

8. 15mins before end of 2nd proofing, preheat oven to 190 deg cel. Bake the buns for 25mins. Cool on wire rack.

Fried Cockle Omelete

Ingredients

fresh cockles

3 eggs

Method

1. Remove cockles from their shells. Refer to my post here.

2. Crack the eggs, add a bit of salt and use a fork to beat the eggs well. 

3. Heat up wok over high heat with 4 tablespoon of cooking oil. Pour the eggs into the wok and add the cockles. Tilt the wok slightly to allow the egg to coat the wok evenly. As soon as the sides begin to cook, flip the eggs over. 

4. Continue to cook the eggs until the omelete is set. Dish out and serve immediately.

Sugee Cookie

 

Easy to make, very fragrant and tasty!

Ingredients

55g ghee (chilled, not room temperature)

25g ground almond 25g (or ground roasted peanut)

15g semolina 15g

10g icing sugar 10g

65g plain flour (Prima Brand)

pinch of salt

Method

1. Put all ingredients in mixing bowl.

2. Use dough scrapper to mix, then use hand to bring dough together. Work quickly as the dough will be sticky once the ghee softens at room temperature.

3. Chill in fridge overnight or cover and rest for at least 30mins (if making on same day).

4. Shape into 6g balls each (around 30 pieces) and flatten the top slightly with the back of a round teaspoon (measuring teaspoon also works). Or roll flat to 1cm and use preferred cookie cutter to cut. Place on baking tray lined with parchment paper. Chill in fridge for 30mins if necessary.

5. [optional] Apply egg wash on the cookies and add a piece of sliced almond flake/peanut.

6. Bake at 150C for 30mins or 160C for 15 mins until golden brown, 2nd lowest rack.

7. Cool on baking tray completely before storing in airtight container.

Potato Milk Loaf

牛奶面包

Ingredients

300g bread flour

8g potato flakes

225g fresh milk (45g for rehydrating potato flakes)

10g milk powder

40g sugar

3g instant yeast

3g salt

30g butter

Egg for egg wash (optional)

Method: 

1. Rehydrate potato flakes with 45g of fresh milk.

2. In a stand mixer attached with a dough hook, combine all ingredients except for butter and salt. Knead until it comes together in a ball of dough.

3. Add butter and salt, and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Do window pane test (for gluten development).

4. Gently fold the dough into a ball, lightly oil the mixing bowl with olive oil and place the dough into the bowl with the seam side down. Cover with a plastic wrap and proof in a warm place for 40 minutes (first proofing) or until dough is double in size.

5. After first proofing, transfer the dough to benchtop. Divide into 2 or 3 equal portions and shape/roll into a ball. Cover and rest 15 minutes. Then, shape each dough ball (watch this video). Place the shaped dough in the baking tin, cover and proof for 45 minutes-1 hour until dough reaches the top of the tin.

6. 15 minutes before the end of second proofing, pre-heat oven to 180°C.

7. Bake for 30 minutes and remove the tin from oven. Bang the tin on counter top before tipping the bread loaf onto the wire rack to cool down. Slice the bread when it has completely cooled down.

How to cook tamban fish

When we go fishing at kelongs, we may catch tamban fishes (rainbow sardines) which we would use as fishing baits. If we catch a lot of tamban fishes, we would bring home. 

Tamban fishes are very small but they have a lot of bones! The best way to cook them is to fry them until they are crispy and eat the whole fish from head to tail. 😅

1. Clean the tamban fish (remove scale and gut) and tap dry.

2. Steam the fish for 10 minutes.

3. After steaming, set the fish aside to cool. Then tap dry with kitchen towel.

4. Deep fry the fish till crispy. 

Enjoy!

Celery salt

  

Celery salt is a key ingredient in American Southern-Style fried chicken. It is easy to make and more fragrant than store bought ones.

1. Pick the leaves from each celery stalk.

2. Wash them and use kitchen towel to dab dry.

3. Place in a single layer on a baking dish and dehydrate them in the oven (fan mode) at 70 degree celcius. Turn the leaves a few times for even dehydration.

4. Once the leaves are crispy but not brown, remove from oven and set aside to cool. Weigh the dried leaves to determine the quantity of salt using this proportion: 1 part leaves, 2 parts salt.

5. For small amount of leaves, crush them with your fingers. For bigger batch, tansfer the dried leaves to a blender and grind the leaves until they are fine. Mix in the salt. 

6. Store celery salt in an air tight container.

How to cook brussel sprouts

Brussel sprouts are rich in vitamin C and K, antioxidants and fibre. It takes only 10 mins to cook them to reap these nutrients.

1. Rinse brussel sprouts and slice  them into halves.

2. Heat up wok or frying pan over medium heat and add some butter or cooking oil.

3. Add the brussel sprouts and some salt. Toss the brussel sprouts to coat them evenly with butter/oil.

4. Turn them with the core facing down onto the pan to brown. Leave the brussel sprouts undisturbed for a few minutes until they are cooked through (i.e. the tip of a sharp knife can be inserted easily).

Cantonese Congee / Porridge

粵式粥

Unlike Teochew or Hokkien congee/ porridge which are grainy, Cantonese congee is thick and smooth. Cooking a good pot of Cantonese congee takes time but most of it is passive i.e. waiting for the rice to fluff up using residual heat.

Ingredients (2 servings, each in a 7 inch diameter bowl - refer to above fish porridge picture)

100g Thai rice

1.4 litres water

1. Rinse rice and put in a deep pot with water. Bring to boil over medium fire, then lower fire and simmer for 15mins. Then turn off heat. Porridge texture at this stage is as per this picture:

2. Cover the pot with lid and let the porridge fluff up further residual heat for 30 mins. Cover the pot with a towel to trap heat within if you are not using a ceramic/clay pot.

3. After 30mins, porridge texture will look like this:

4. Use a ballon whisk and whisk the porridge rapidly to break down the grains. This is the porridge texture after whisking for 5mins - the longer you whisk, the smoother the porridge. 

If porridge is too thick for your liking, add a bit of water and whisk to incorporate. 

5. To make sliced fish porridge, cook the porridge with fish or chicken stock. After step 4, season the porridge with salt and bring the porridge to a gentle boil over medium fire. Add in fish slices, one by one (do not add the fish slices at one go as they will clump up), use a ladle to gently stir in the fish slices, then turn off the fire. 

6. To make pork meatball porridge, prepare the pork meatballs (click here for recipe) and boil them in a pot of water (about the same amount for cooking porridge). Then use this water (pork broth) to cook the porridge. Once step 4 is completed, season the porridge with salt and add the pork meatballs into the porridge. Here's a picture of pork meatball cum dried oyster porridge: 

Note: Dried oysters added for more unami flavour. Just rehydrate them and replace some of the stock with the soaking liquid. 

Pork Meatball

猪肉丸

These bouncy and juicy pork meatballs can be added to soups or congee.

Ingredients:

500g minced pork

1 teaspoon salt

Half tsp soy sauce

Half tsp sugar

Dashes white pepper

Half egg (about 26g)

Half tsp water

Shredded dried codfish (optional)

Method:

1. Put all ingredients in a stand mixer and use mixer with k paddle attachment to mix until the mixture is pasty.

2. Use hand to shape the balls, then poach them in water until the meatballs are just cooked.

3.  The water can be used to cook pork porridge.

Naan

Naan is a type of flat bread, traditionally baked in a blazing hot clay tandoor oven with charcoal or wood fire. Recipe below is adapted from recipetineats and woodstone corp. The naans turned out really nice and fluffy!

Ingredients (makes 6 pieces of nann, palm sized)

4g instant yeast

125ml water (warm)

15g sugar

30g milk (room temperature)

27g egg (about half egg, lightly whisked)

1.5g salt

180g bread flour

90g plain flour

1 teaspoon sour cream (optional, reduce milk or water by 20ml)

30g or 2 tbsp ghee (alternative: unsalted butter, melted)

1. Bloom the yeast. Mix the instant yeast with water and sugar in a small bowl, cover with cling wrap and set aside for 10min until foamy. This step is supposed to make the naan fluffier and softer.

2. Sieve flour into mixing bowl, mix in salt. Add yeast mixture, milk, egg and ghee. Use scrapper to mix. Once flour mostly incorporated, use your hands to bring together to form a ball. No kneading is required.

3. Cover mixing bowl and proof in warm place until double in size, around 1 hour.

4. Punch down dough, transfer to lightly floured surface and divide into 6 equal pieces. Shape into balls, cover and rest for 15mins until it increases in size by about 50%

5. Transfer the dough ball to a lightly floured bench top. Flatten each ball (using fingers or rolling pin) to 3-4mm. Too thick: no bubbles, too thin; crispy but not fluffy enough.

6. Heat up the cast iron skillet or tawa until it smokes. Place nann dough into the skillet (no cooking oil is required) and cook under medium-high heat until air pockets start to form and the underside is nicely browned, around 1-1.5mins. Do not lift the naan while it is cooking. Use spatula or a pair of tongs to flip and cook the other side for 1 min with a little charring on the air pockets. Note: The faster the naan cooks, the fluffier it will be. Brush naan with ghee/butter. Serve hot immediately or cover the naan with towel to prevent drying as well as to keep warm.

Notes: 

1. To make naan ahead, there are two methods:

a. Once dough has doubled in size in step 3, do not punch down, put the bowl in the fridge overnight. Remove the bowl from fridge and let it come to room temperature before cooking. Proceed to step 4 below.

b. At step 2, divide the dough into balls and transfer to a lightly oiled box/container. Cover the dough and rest for up to 24 hours.

2. For better flavour, change preparation steps by combining steps 3 and 4 using woodstone corp's method i.e. after step 2, divide dough into balls, lightly oil, cover and rest for 2-3 hours.

3. To simulate cooking nann in a clay tandoor oven (the traditional way), change the way of cooking: Heat up cast iron pan, dab some water on the shaped dough (to help the dough adhere to the pan), put the dough (the side with water) on the pan, cook until bubbles has formed, flip the pan over so that the dough burns directly on the surface. Roughly 2 minutes to cook - 1 minute on each side. Refer to pictures below:

Ciabatta

 

Ciabatta is a Italian bread with  rustic texture on the crust (crispy when it's just out of the oven or toasted) and soft, airy on the inside. It can be eaten on its own, dipped in olive oil or hummus, or made into sandwich.

Recipe credit to Brian Lagerstrom. Watch his video here.

Ingredients (makes 2 very big loaves) 

A: Biga (Italian starter for making bread)

175g water, 1/4 tsp instant yeast, 225g bread flour. 

B. Dough

180g warm water, total 395g

250g bread flour, total 475g

40g warm water

5g yeast

10g salt

all of the biga

Method:

1. Prepare biga by mixing all biga ingredients until there is no dry flour. 

2. Cover the container and let the biga rest at room temperature for 1 hour l, then transfer to the fridge and rest for 6 to 24 hours. I rested my biga at room temperature (around 27 degree celcius) until it has risen to triple its volume, around 5.5 hours.

after mixing

after 5.5hours

3. Mix 180g water and bread flour in stand mixer at low speed (Spar mixer  speed 1). Once combined and there are no dry flour, cover the mixing bowl with a towel for 30 minutes. This process is called autolyse which will give more elasticity and extensibility to dough.

4. Add 40g warm water, 5g instant yeast, 10g salt, all of the biga, and mix at low speed for 3 minutes.  Once everything comes together, increase speed  (Spar mixer, speed 2) and mix for 6 to 7 minutes until the dough comes clean from sides of the mixing bowl and there is flapping sound. The dough is shiny and does not tear when you pull it (gluten has developed enough). Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, lightly oiled with olive oil, cover with a towel and rest for 30 minutes. 

5. Wet/oil hand and perform stretch and fold : pull dough, stretch as far as possible and fold it back over itself. Turn the bowl 90degrees and repeat the stretching and folding. Repeat this 2 more times. After 4 folds, grab corner of dough to roll the bottom of dough to the top. Then perform a coil fold. Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 30 minutes.

6. Spray water on bench top. Flip the dough to the benchtop and stretch the dough to a big and thin rectangular shape (12" x 18").  Gently transfer dough back into mixing bowl. Cover and proof for 60 minutes (dough will rise about 30%).

Fold the length side of the dough onto itself (1/3), then fold the other side to cover the dough. 

After that, gently fold the dough over itself like a swiss roll. 

Gently transfer dough back into mixing bowl. Cover and proof for 60 minutes (dough will rise about 30%).

The dough will be soft and jiggly as shown in this video.

7. Dust the benchtop with flour (to prevent dough from sticking to the benchtop). Dust the dough with flour too. Use the dough scrapper to make sure the dough is well released from the bowl. Flip the dough to the benchtop. Dust the dough with flour again and gently pat it and shape into a square. Be careful not to push air out of the dough. 

8. Dust a piece of baking paper with flour. Divide the dough into two (or smaller pieces to suit your preference) and gently transfer each piece to the baking paper. Cover the dough with a towel and proof (on wooden slab if possible) for 30 minutes. Use poke test to check for readiness. Transfer the dough to the baking tray once proofing is completed.

9. Preheat oven to 260 degree celcius. Put cast iron pan on the bottom of the oven. Use a baking stone if you have one.

10. Place the tray into the oven (2nd rack from bottom). Pour 1 cup of boiling water into the cast iron pan which will create a lot of steam. Trap the steam by covering the baking tray with a big roasting pan. Turn down the oven heat to 240 degree celcius and bake for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, remove the roasting pan and bake for an additional 13 to 20 minutes until the crust is dark brown. 

11. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

How to open live cockles

鸟蛤

Live cockles (also known as 'see-hum') are hard to find in wet markets nowadays. We get our cockle fix from Tanglin Halt wet market and Jurong West wet market.

Watch this video on how I remove live cockles from their shells and retain their precious red haemoglobin liquid (rich in iron). 

Method:

1. Soak the cockles in lightly salted water (just enough to cover the cockles) for half an hour.

2. Drain the cockles and discard the water.

3. Use a knife (with pointed tip) to pry open the shell.

4. Once opened, remove the cockle excrement from one end of the shell.

5. Use a small spoon or the same knife to scrape the cockle from its shell.

6. Keep the cockles chilled in the fridge and consume within 3 days. We cook omelette and kway teow with the cockles. 

Sweet Wheat Porridge (Mak Zhuk)

麦粥糖水

This dessert is called "mak chuk" (Cantonese for "麦粥"), wheat porridge (   in Chinese) or bubur terigu in Malay. We like to buy whole wheat kernel but these are rarely sold in Singapore or Malaysia now. In one of our trips to Taiwan Taichung, we found it in a shop selling all sorts of grains and bought some back. What you can get in Singapore/Malaysia now are milled wheat grains (wheat bran removed).

Ingredients:

250g wheat grain

1 litre water

Rock sugar

60 sago pearls (optional)

A few pandan leaves (optional)

Method:

1. Soak wheat grain overnight.

2. Drain and discard the soaking liquid. 

3. Put soaked wheat grain and water in a deep pot and bring water to a boil. Then lower heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the grains expand soften. Add in sago pearls (if using) and stir to prevent them from sticking together and to the bottom of the pot. Once they turn translucent, they are ready. Add in pandan leaves (if using) at this stage (my late mother in law taught me) so that the pandan essence will not be boiled away during cooking.

4. Add in rock sugar to taste.

5. Serve by drizzling coconut milk (or even whipped cream) into the porridge. Enjoy!

Note: for thicker wheat porridge, you could add some rolled oats and cook together with the wheat grains in step 3.