Happy Birthday, Singapore!

Source of graphic: https://www.ndp.gov.sg/

 

Fried Black beans with Tau Kwa and green chili

I tried to re-make this dish based on my memory, one of the favourite dish in my family. I understand that my grandma taught my mum to cook this.

As this is my first time to try, I did not capture the exact portions for each ingredient, might improvise later.

Overall ingredients
Ikan bilis - about 2 tbsp
Black beans - 1 tbsp
Sliced garlic and shallots - about 5 cloves each
4 pieces of small size tau kwa
1 packet of green chili (get from Sheng Siong)

Method
1. Pre-fried the Tau kwa, set aside for later use.
2. Wash the ikan bilis, tap try with paper towel and fry after tau kwa. Set aside for later use. 
3. Put 1 tbsp of oil in wok and add in sliced garlic, fried till slight brown. Remove from wok.
4. Add another 1 tbsp of oil, add in the black beans and fry a while, add in shallots and fry till soft.
5. Add the garlic and ikan bilis to step 4 and continue to fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Add in green chili and fry for another 2 to 3 minutes
7. Add in tau kwa and fry for another 2 to 3 minutes.
8. Add in 1 tbsp of light and dark soya sauce each, add in some msg and fish sauce.
9. Add in about 100ml water (for simmering), simmer (cover with lid) for 5 minutes.
10. At this point of time, can do the tasting and you can add 1 tsp of sugar and 1 tsp of curry powder to enhance the flavour.
11. Check the texture of green chili, if it has not changed color, add more water and simmer for another 5 minutes.

The end result is that the tau kwa and green chili should have absorbed all the flavours from black beans and ikan bilis.

Then the dish would look like this.. you can see there is some sauce underneath.

Apple Bun

Apple Bun

I have baked apple bun and so far I like this texture the best as compared to my last 2 bakes in previous weeks.

Again, I got the recipe from the same book 《妙手烘焙》and made some slight amendments. Think this book is a godsend, so far the selected bread recipes are working. So may be one of these days I will try out its cake recipes.

Dough
Bread flour 140g
Cake or Top flour 30g
Egg 30g
Water 70g
Yeast 3g
Milk powder 1 tbsp
Sugar 15g
Butter 20g

Use the same method as mentioned in my earlier posts.

Apple Filling
Green or red apple - diced 300g
brown sugar 60g (it taste better compared to castor sugar)
Water 30g
Butter 10g
Rum 1 tbsp (I use Cointreau)

1. Add all ingredients into a pot and cook for 20 to 30 minutes until the apple is soft and the juice become concentrated.
2. Add alcohol (Rum etc) into step 1.
3. Cool it for about 30 minutes and ready for use. 

So again, this will become my breakfast for the next 3 days, keep in fridge and toast for 10 minutes at 120c.

Potatoes with herb and tuna bun

Potatoes with herbs and tuna bun

Continue with my weekly baking bread activities, I have chosen a recipe which contains mash potato to see how is the texture of the bread. It turned out to be softer than normal and it is comparable to tang zhong method.

I love the mixed herbs taste and added it into the bun and the filling itself. The recipe is again from the same book which I got it from my last week recipe: 妙手烘焙 》 火腿香葱卷. I didn't use the ham filling, instead I try out the mixed herbs with fried potatoes cubes and tuna with chopped big onion.

Using the straight dough and hand knead method.

Here is the recipe:

Dough
Bread flour 150g
Top flour 20g (I added it in and not found in original recipe)
mash potato 30g
Sugar 20g
Milk powder 1tbsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Yeast 3g
Egg 30g
Water 50g
Butter 20g
Mixed herbs 1/2 tsp

Steps
1. Mix bread flour and top flour together and take half portion out.

2. Add salt to the other half portion.

3. Add the rest to step 1 except butter. Mix well and add in step 2. At this stage, the dough looked very dry and I am tempted to add in more water, but luckily I didn't do that.

4. Place the dough and start to hand knead and in butter. I had hand kneaded for 15 minutes and the dough was quite sticky but form a round ball and let it rest.

5. Covered the dough and rest for 50 minutes. 

6. The dough size was doubled and it was easier to manage. Divide the dough into 6 portions (using agarism)😅😅😅

7. Put in the fillings and rest for another 30 minutes.

8. Pre-heat the oven for 10 minutes at 170C. Baked for 15 minutes and ready for you to enjoy! 🥰🥰

Fillings
1 small can of tuna
half of one big onion
2 potatoes (medium size) cut into cubes
Mixed herbs - dash

 

  

Buns for Breakfast

Buns

Due to the implementation of circuit breaker and with the increased number of confirmed cases, plus the hot weather, I am baking buns for breakfast for the next few days to reduce my trips outside.

Thinking of doing this once a week, will see how..

Here is the recipe extracted from the book 妙手烘焙 - 奶油卷。

I am using the hand knead method, good that this is a small portion and do not need machine.

Here is the recipe:

Bread flour 160g

Cake flour 40g (or any low protein flour)

Yeast 3g

Sugar 30g

Milk power 1 tbsp

Fresh milk 50g

Water 50g (the original recipe call for 100g of fresh milk, I don't want to be so milky)

Egg 30g

Salt 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Mix Bread flour and cake flour together in a big bowl. Pour 1/4 portion of it into another bowl and mix with salt.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the big bowl and mix well.

3. Then add 1/4 portion of the flour mixture (with the salt) into step 2. This will be a sticky dough.

4. Hand knead for about 15 minutes till it become a shiny dough with window pane.

5. Rest for 50 minutes to 1 hour. (For hot weather, 50 minutes or less should be ok)

6. Divide into 6 portions. Rest for 30 minutes

7. Rest for 30 minutes.

8. Preheat the oven at 170C for 10 minutes

9. Brush egg wash on top of the dough and bake for 17 to 20 minutes at 170C.

Da lah!! Freshly baked buns are ready for consumption!!.