Purple loaf 紫米土司

 

I am addicted to creating marble effects lately, been doing it in chiffons and my bread loaves. This time I have done it with purple rice 紫米。 This purple rice loaf is quite commonly seen among the Chinese blogosphere. I love the color it renders, thus I made double portion of the dough (half white and half purple), halved it to be baked into a loaf, and the other half was made into two bread rolls. 

 

I have this really nice organic purple rice which I've always been adding into my red bean dessert. It helps to create creamy red bean soup dessert. According to its packaging, purple rice is very rare and thus have always been highly prized. When cooked, it has a wonderful fragrant. It is rich in calcium, iron, protein, vitamin B1, B2, B17 and 17 types of amino acids and other nutrients. These nutrients help to boost up blood circulation and replenish iron needs, especially for pregnant ladies and kids  (紫米因产量稀少，历代帝王，都把它视为贡品。 煮熟的紫米，香味极佳，含丰富的钙、铁、蛋白质、维他命B1, B2 及17 种氨基酸等人体所需的多种微量元素，有助促进血液循环，有助于改善孕妇、儿童缺铁性状况。) 。。。 Reading this, I think this will be my favorite loaf from now on :D

 

I have used my favorite soft and fluffy loaf recipe, but replaced the red bean with cooked purple rice. Purple rice cooks quite easily, it only took about 20-30min in a normal pan of boiling water. I have also added about 2tbsp of cooked purple rice into my breakfast oatmeal.

Cooked purple rice has this pretty glossy-look.

 

 

 

 

Marble bread loaf with purple sweet potato

 

Made this pretty marble bread loaf with half milk and half purple sweet potato puree. The basic recipe is the same as this. I replaced the 1-cup of black sesame milk drink with half cup of fresh milk (added to half of the dough) and half cup of purple sweet potato (added to the other half the dough).

 

After first knead in the breadmaker (the breadmaker kneaded one half, I manually kneaded the other half), both the dough went through a separate proof (one in breadmaker, the other in an enclosed oven, no heat on). Once the dough has doubled their original size, separately, I punched out the trapped air and roll into an oblong flat dish, layer both dough and roll, and let to go through the second proof and let bake in my breadmaker. This recipe yields very soft dough, so rolling was quite tacky, thus the marbling effects are not that that uniform, but still a beauty.

 

Creamy mushroom soup in a bun

He loves to play with containers. He would remove the lid of the containers, put some of his favorite toys in (ie balls, toys etc) and put the lid on, and then reverse the whole process and repeat again. It goes on until he gets bored and move on to another activity. So let's see if he'll does the same thing with this mushroom soup in a bun, which comes with a lid too.

 

This was his creamy mushroom sauce which I prepared for his pasta lunch. In the evening, I was supposed to let him have the same thing for dinner, but I was so busy baking chiffon cakes, yes I'm addicted to baking tang-mian chiffon off late, I didn't even have time to boil his pasta. Instead, I just cut off the top of the black sesame bun I made this morning, scooped out the flesh (bread), pour in heated soup into the bun and that was his dinner!

 

Recipe

• 1clove garlic
• 1/2 small onion, minced
• 4-6 fresh brown button mushroom
• 1/2 small potato
• 1-2 cups fresh milk (the amount varies, depend on whether you're making a sauce or soup)
• cracked black pepper

1. Steam or pan fry all ingredients till soft. Simmer with milk.
2. Blend till achieve creamy consistency.
3. Season with grated cheese (optional).

 

This was the cocoa-banana chiffon cake I was busy making that evening. For recipe, please refer here. Instead of orange juice, I replaced with half milk half banana puree. The brown color was achieved by dividing the batter into half, and added half with cocoa mix (1tbsp cocoa powde+1tbsp water).

 

 

My 1st chiffon: orange chiffon cake (tang mian)

I haven't done blogging and proper food photograph with my DSLR for very long. So I consider myself a noob still. And I have only started to watermark my photos a few months back. It takes time, but seeing all the others doing it, I'm sure it's needed. If you're reading this and have your view on this, do share with me :)

 

Now this is what happened. I did a 咸鱼宝 (salted fish bun) as inspired by the drama 食为奴 by TVB, some time back, and as usual, I shared about it on my blog, here. I was quite pleased with it, cos that was one of the very few times my hubby complimented that he liked it. He usually tells me that my food are bland :p  

 

This is my signature shot, I call it my signature shot, cos all of my closed up cross-section photos are held by my left hand as I capture it with my right hand. I can't handle my DSLR with my left hand.

 

 

 

The photo was featured in a local Malaysian magazine by the name of 号ｘｘ报，but they have PSed to remove my watermark and no credits was given back to my blog or the photographer. I am not too bothered about it, cos I'm not selling any of my photos, but I'm writing about it, cos I have been educating people that whenever we follow or copy someone's recipe, we should always always always give credit back to the originator, because the originator did take the extra efforts in making the food and capturing those good photos. Ok, that's lesson of today, shared.

 

Now, back to my first chiffon cake. I have not taken up the courage of baking a chiffon cake, even though I bake chiffon cupcakes all the time, cos I failed it big big time when I first tried it some time back. But the chiffon trend is always in-the-air, it never seem to subside, and a few of them have done this version and have great reviews over it, naming a few, Sonia, Bernice and Victoria. They are among the few bloggerchefs whom I admire and follow quite closely. I have done my first chiffon using the famous tang mian method which is supposed to yield even softer chiffon. I'm a big chiffon fan, I love chiffon cos it is soft and fluffy, like cotton candy, and it's not so sweet, and I always wonder, what's softer than something which is already so soft. So now I know. Tang mian method does produce a softer and moister chiffon, you wont need to dip it in your coffee or milo when eating it cos it's not that dry or throat-choking (which can be, for some store-bought chiffons).

 

The skin is a little on the thick side. I'll try a lower baking temp. next.

Despite of that, this is still a very soft one. See how it flops!

 

Here's the recipe for this orange chiffon cake using the tang mian method (adapted from here)

• 6 egg white* original recipe uses 5, but I have used 6, cos my eggs were small 
• 60g superfine flour
• 55g freshly squeezed orange juice
• 50g corn oil (I used rice bran oil)
• 60g brown sugar
• 1tsp. grated orange zest (for extra fragrance)

• 6 egg yolk
• 15g brown sugar (I reduced this from 20g to 15g)

Baked using a 21cm chiffon tube pan

 

1. Bring orange juice, oil and 15g sugar to a boil, while continuously stirring, in a shallow pan.
2. Remove pan from the heat once the liquid starts to boil. Hold the pan handle and swirl the boiled liquid mix for 100 rounds (to chill the liquid).
3. Pour sifted flour into the liquid mix and immediately mix to ensure the flour gets in contact with the heated liquid, this is the 'tang mian dough'.
4. Separate egg white and yolk in two separate bowls. Once the tang mian dough has cooled down to a temperature that doesn't scald, pour it into the beaten egg yolk.
5. Mix with a plastic spatula and this becomes the egg yolk batter. Sit aside for use later (may keep in fridge for better results).
6. In another bowl, beat egg white till foamy, add in sugar in 3 separate batches until stiff peak forms.
7. Scoop out 1/3 of the egg white peak and add into the egg yolk batter. When combined evenly, add it back to the remaining egg white peak. Mix in the grated orange zest.
8. Pour the batter into the chiffon tube pan and bake in a preheated oven at 160deg C for 50min.
9. Invert cake to cool once out of the oven.

*I baked mine at 170deg C for 45min, at about 20min into baking, the top has already browned and I had to tent an aluminium foil over the top to avoid over-burning, by doing this, I think I may have created a vast temperature drop (while having the oven door opened) which had caused the shrinkage.

**I did add a tbsp. cocoa powder into 2tbsp of final batter and created some marble-prints, but the amount was too little to be notable. Will try more next.  

 

Personal note: I should try it out at 160degC next.


UPDATED 4/4/2014

I did this chiffon again the very same day in the evening. It worked out by
*baking it at 155deg C for 40min
*egg white was beaten to the very stiff peak (beaten for about 4min)

I added about 2tbsp chopped cranberries to this recipe.

 

 

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal at this post. 

 

 

 

 

 

Fried beehoon with pumpkin and fish

I never would have done this if I haven't come across it here. I never know I can fry beehoon with pumpkin, haha. I'm not that creative with Chinese dishes. So, I'm constantly checking out what Chinese dishes I can make for my lil' fella. It's great now that the lil' fella is eating more adult-like food, cos I can make them for him and the rest of the family too. For this fried beehoon, I prepared a portion for his packed-lunch at the nanny's, and then I further seasoned it with more seasoning for our likings. Hahaa... he's still taking his food sans salt (ie lightly seasoned).

 

 

 

This is my son's bento box this morning (at 17th mo). I am not a bento mom. I don't do it. I don't like too much mandling of his food (man-handling). And I've always packed his food in his thermal jar so that it's still warm-ish when he eats it at lunch time (don't think it's possible to do a pretty shot when the food is packed in thermal jar). Even for this, I had to remove it from the red container and place it back in his thermal. I don't feel good letting him eats his beehoon cold. The white blob on the right is a soft soy mantou I made the night before, and the cupcake is a super healthy egg-free banana cupcake I made the same morning.

 

Recipe for fried beehoon with pumpkin and fish

• 200g red beetroot vermicelli, soaked for at least 3-4hrs in water
• half an onion, thinly sliced
• 80g pumpkin, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 bunch of spring onion, sectioned
• 1 fish fillet, sliced and marinated with liquid amino, toasted sesame oil, white pepper powder
• 1 ham, sliced

Seasoning, adjust according to own preference

• Liquid amino
• Miso paste
• White pepper powder

1. Heat up 2tbsp oil in a heated wok.
2. Fry garlic and sliced onion till fragrant. Stir in pumpkin, fry for 1-2min.
3. Add in soaked vermicelli. Continue to stir, pour in required amount of water to soften the vermicelli.
4. Season accordingly. Just before dishing up, stir in sectioned spring onion.
5. In another wok, heat up 1-2tbsp oil. Cook sliced fish fillet, add in sliced ham. Add to the cooked vermicelli.

 

 

Eggless steamed banana cupcake

昨天是我发现新大陆的日子。 Yesterday I made a real ecstatic discovery! I was soooo overjoyed I was shouting when I saw my soft and springy steamed cupcakes. I have always known that egg can be replaced by ground flaxseed, but I have never wanted to try it, cos flaxseed when ground has a fishy taste which I don't think I want in my banana cupcake. A couple of days ago, a mommy from the FB group Healthy Food For My Baby was sharing on a cupcake she made using chia seeds, and no egg was used! I was quite surprised, that would mean chia seeds, too, can replace egg, just like flaxseeds, and it totally make sense!! I have made chia seeds pudding without using any agar-agar or gelatin powder, knowing the gelling ability of chia seeds, they would be able to act as egg in cupcakes. Having this in mind, I rushed home from work after fetching the lil' fella and started trying it out using my favorite steamed cupcakes recipe. It works!! Actually, the texture is even more springier and fluffier than the recipe with egg. I have yet to understand why. But I'll find out more. But again, this is a really superb discovery. This means those babies (under one) or kids with egg allergy too can enjoy soft and fluffy cupcakes. To benefit those with dairy intolerance, I have also tried the same recipe out without milk, the milk was replaced by fresh orange juice, which I believe can be replaced by other sweet juice (like apple, carrot or pear juice).

 

 

 

 

Here's the recipe, adapted from here.

 

1/2 cup (75g) all purpose flour* (or self raising flour)

1 tsp. baking powder (if you're using self raising flour, just add 1/2 tsp baking powder)

1 egg (replaced by 1tbsp chia seeds soaked in 4tbsp water, for at least 10min)

2 Tbsp. milk or cream  (replaced by 3tbsp fresh orange juice)

2 Tbsp. sugar (I used 1tbsp dark muscovado sugar)

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)

1 medium banana

 

You will also need

4 cupcake liners

4 ramekins / ceramic bowl or I used silicone cupcake liner and had paper liner inside it

 

*This recipe yielded 4 cupcakes.  

 

Instructions:

1. Sieve flour and baking powder.
2. In a blender, blend together chia seeds gel (after soaked in water), banana, fresh orange juice and oil until creamy.
3. Combine the blended liquid mix with the sifted flour and baking powder.
4. Place about 2tbsp of batter into paper cupcake liner and place in a silicone cupcake holder.
5. Place water in a wok and set up a steaming rack. Bring water to boil. Steam the cupcakes for 9-10min.

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal at this post. 

 

 

 

Oat mantou with dried fig

I haven't made mantou for a very long time, cos I've been busy baking bread lately. I've been doing some blog-hopping and I've seen some really good looking mantou from Bernice's place, so I decided to make some for breakfast. This oat mantou is a good one. I made it in the evening and it was soft and fluffy when out of the steamer. The next morning, it is still soft. But I still heated them up by steaming them for about 5min, cos I like my mantou warm. This mantou feels soooo breakfast-y, cos it has soaked oat and dried fruits in it. I have chosen to add chopped dried figs in mine. The mantou itself isn't sweet, but every bite will have bits of chopped figs in it, which gives the sweetness, so it's okay.

 

Dried figs are one of those dried fruits with very high calcium content. The other dried fruits with rich calcium content are dried apricot and dried prunes. So if you haven't been using them in your bakes or cooking, try them.

 

 

This mantou is soft and fluffy, and remains soft even till next morning.

 

Here's the recipe, adapted from Bernice's kitchen.

 

Ingredients A

• 50g rolled oat, organic
• 150g hot boiling water

Ingredients B

• 15 rice bran oil
• oatmeal (Ingredients A)
• 80ml water
• 50g chopped dried figs
• 15g dark muscovado sugar (I've used this to replace normal sugar, to give it an iron boost)
• 300g all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp active instant dry yeast

*Listed according to the order the ingredients are added into breadmaker

 

• 15g all purpose flour, added in during second knead, after first proof

Instructions

1. Add boiling water to oatmeal. Cover and let sit for 15min. After 15min, stir and let chill for later use.
2. Combine all ingredients and knead until the dough is smooth and no more sticky. (I've used my Donlim breadmaker to knead this for about 7min*).
3. Cover with cling film and proof for 1.5-2hr or until the dough doubles its original size. (I proved mine in the breadmaker without any temperature on, it took me about 1.5hr).
4. Punch out trapped air. Add in 15g flour. Knead until the dough is smooth, about 2min in my breadmaker.
5. Using a rolling pin, roll to a flat disk, roll up. With the seam side down, slice the rolled-up dough to equal portion (Bernice has used thread to slice her dough, I couldn't find thread at home, but I'll definitely try it in future). Place on baking paper/ steam paper (I used banana leaves) and proof for 40min until dough becomes fluffy.
6. In slow boiling water, steam for about 10min (depending on size of mantou). After 10min, move the lid to allow a small opening to let the steam goes off.
7. Turn off the heat. Let sit for 5min before finally removing the lid. (These steps taken are to ensure that the skin doesn't goes wrinkly).
   
   If you've checked out my photo, you would have known I didn't do these steps, that's why my mantou turned out wrinkly :p