10-grain oatmeal with rye

 

Made a hearty breakfast oatmeal for both myself and the lil' fella. This is a ten-grain oatmeal with rye flakes. I shared about the nutritional benefits of rye a few posts back, and gonna repeat them here..

 

Rye is a cereal grain that looks like wheat. It is generally available in its whole  or as flour or flakes that look similar to old-fashioned oats. Because it is difficult to separate the germ and bran from the endosperm of rye, rye flour usually retains a large quantity of nutrients, in contrast to refined wheat flour. Rye has a handful of benefits that cannot be compared by those made with white flour or even wholemeal flour, here are some listed by whfoods.com:

 

• Promotes weight loss
• Prevents gallstones
• Substantially lowers type-2 diabetes risk
• Promotes gastrointestinal health
• Significant cardiovascular benefits with postmenopausal women

The list actually goes on.

 

This is a simple recipe yet it's very filling. It would keep you full for the whole morning due to its high fiber content.

 

Recipe serves two

• 3tbsp rolled oat, organic
• 2tbsp rye flakes, organic
• 1sachet 10-grain powder (about 3tbsp)
• 1glass (about 250g) warm water  

Instructions

 

1. Dissolves 10-grain powder in 1 glass of warm water.
2. In a small pot on a stove, heat up the 10-grain drink, stir in rolled oat and rye flakes.
3. Simmer for about 3-5min or until oatmeal becomes thick and creamy. 

Marble cake

Last night, I was blog-hopping for breakfast ideas with ipad on our bed. The lil' fella wasn't asleep and was still fooling around when I did that. He saw this pic of Wen's delight's butter cake on the ipad screen and shouted out 'mom mom!!' (which meant food).. so I asked him, do you want to have this for breakfast tomorrow?? He just continued saying 'mom mom'.. I guess that's his way of saying yes. So I decided on this recipe. According to Wen, this is one of her all time favorite, shouldn't go much wrong with this, plus this involves the yolk and white separation technique, it should yield a soft cake.

 

 

Recipe adapted from Cooking Crave via Wen's Delight.

 

Ingredients (I halved the original recipe, thus the very short looking marble cake :p)

 

120g butter, chopped

2tbsp brown sugar

pinch of salt

2 egg yolks

100g cake flour

1/2 tsp Baking powder

2 egg whites

1tbsp brown sugar

 

Optional for marble effect:

1/2 tbsp. cocoa powder

1.5 tbsp. hot water

 

*I have also reduced the amount of sugar from the original recipe

 

 

 

Instructions

 

1. Preheat oven at 170C. Line a loaf tin.
2. Cream butter, sugar, salt until light and fluffy.
3. Add in egg yolks, one at a time, and beat until fluffy.
4. Sift in flour and baking powder and mix well. Set aside.
5. Beat egg white and sugar till soft peak in another bowl.
6. Fold 1/3 of egg white meringue into yolk batter. Mix well and fold in the rest.
7. In a small bowl, combine cocoa powder and hot water until there is no cocoa powder lumps. Mix into 1-2tbsp egg yolk batter in another bowl.
8. Pour yellow batter into lined tin, followed by cocoa batter.  
9. Bake for 25-30min or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Rye bread with black sesame and dried apricot

Want to maintain your slender figure but you love bread? Try rye bread instead. Rye fiber is richly endowed with noncellulose polysaccharides, which have exceptionally high water-binding capacity and quickly give a feeling a fullness and satiety, making rye bread a real help for anyone trying to lose weight.

 

I've been baking with rye a lot lately. Rye is a cereal grain that looks like wheat. It is generally available in its whole  or as flour or flakes that look similar to old-fashioned oats. Because it is difficult to separate the germ and bran from the endosperm of rye, rye flour usually retains a large quantity of nutrients, in contrast to refined wheat flour. Rye has a handful of benefits that cannot be compared by those made with white flour or even wholemeal flour, here are some listed by whfoods.com:

 

• Promotes weight loss
• Prevents gallstones
• Substantially lowers type-2 diabetes risk
• Promotes gastrointestinal health
• Significant cardiovascular benefits with postmenopausal women

The list actually goes on.

 

So now you know why I've insisted to add in rye flour to my baking lately.

 

Using the soft and fluffy recipe that I've always been baking bread with, it doesn't affect the texture to a great extent. It's still soft and I love seeing the little rye grains that appear on the bread. Looks very rustic and healthy indeed.

 

 

 



I have always baked my bread using an adapted and modified scalded dough method by Alex Goh which yield very soft and fluffy bread without adding any softener. It is easy and straight forward. You'll just need to scald 100g of bread flour with 70g of hot water, simply mix it with a spoon or folk, cover up, leave in chiller while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. When all the other ingredients are well combined and kneaded, add in the pre-prepared scalded flour and knead till evenly combined. The results are very worth the extra step taken. I have tried all sorts of method that claims to yield soft fluffy bread. This method, too, can produce bread with the same kind of fluffiness.

 

Here's the recipe for my rye bread with black sesame and dried apricot

 

First, prepare the scalded dough

• 100g rye flour
• 70g hot water

Combine both with a folk or spoon. There is no need to knead. Just combine and leave in a container in refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the ingredients (about 15-20min). You can prepare this ahead and keep in the fridge for up to 24hours.

 

The main dough

*The ingredients are listed in the order they are added into my breadmaker

 

• 40g (about 3tbsp) rice bran oil
• 250g water
• 2tbsp brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 3tbsp black sesame powder
• 300g high protein flour
• 100g all purpose flour
• 1tsp baker's yeast (instant active dry)

• 5 dried black apricots, chopped (added in after 25min of kneading time in the breadmaker)

1. I have kneaded the dough using the 'DOUGH' mode with my breadmaker.
2. When all the ingredients has combined together, I add the scalded dough in pieces.
3. After about 25min of kneading, I add in the chopped dried apricot.
4. The breadmaker would finish kneading and go through a proving phase (about an hour).
5. Once it finishes its DOUGH mode, remove the dough from the breadmaker and punch it to remove trapped air.
6. To make loaf, divide the dough into 3 equal portions, roll into swiss roll form and place in loaf pan. Let the dough proof for another 45min or until the dough doubles its original size. Alternatively, you may also make buns by dividing the dough into 5-6 equal portions. Similar, the bun dough needs to be proven for another 45min. **I have always done this second proof in an oven (without turning it on).
7. Brush top of loaf or buns with water and sprinkle with black and white sesame seeds.
8. Once the loaf or buns are ready to be baked, preheat the oven to 165deg C, bake for about 20min (for buns) or about 45min for loaf.

 

Seafood kimchi hotpot (kimchi jjigae)

Kimchi jjigae is a spicy Korean stew or hotpot dish made from either seafood or pork with kimchi, tofu and soybean and red hot pepper pastes (some food ingredients I lugged back from my recent trip to Seoul). I made this twice in a week. The first time, I made it using pork soup stock. The second time, which is for this recipe, I stewed it with prawns and scallops. Both yummy! It can be used as a soup base for steamboat or served with ramen. Even though it looks complicated, but it's actually super easy to prepare!

 

 

 

Ingredients:

• a pack of kimchi (about 200g) together with its juice
• about 5 cups of water or stock
• 2tbsp red hot pepper paste
• 2tbsp soybean paste
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 Chinese cabbage, cleaned and cut into chunks
• 1/2 medium size carrot, sliced
• 1 potato, sliced
• 3-5 soft white tofu
• seafood eg prawns / scallops / octopus *I use a little amount of these to prepare the soup base in order to sweeten up the soup. The rest are only added in near the end of cooking time to ensure that they don't overcook.

Instructions:

1. In a pot or larger pan, stir fry garlic and onion till fragrant with vegetable oil.
2. Stir in prawns and scallop, followed by kimchi, carrot, potato and Chinese cabbage. Cover up for about 2-5min.
3. Add in water or stock, with soybean paste and red hot pepper paste.
4. Stew for about 30min to an hour. Last 10min before serving, add in the tofu, followed by the seafood.

Korean ginseng chicken (samgeytang) 삼계탕

I just got back from Seoul last week. Unlike my first few trips of spending like crazy on Korean skin care and masks, this time, I only splurge on food!! I lugged back some fresh fat wild Korean ginseng and some hot pepper and soy bean pastes. I'm pretty pleased with myself this time. At least I make good use of these food ingredients, unlike the skin care and masks. In fact, I still have quite an amount of masks left from my trips to Seoul two years ago :p

 

I have gotten these pretty looking Korean ginseng from Lotte supermarket in Myeongdong. It cost me KRW40,000 (equivalent to about RM125) for 500g (which has about 15 ginseng roots). I felt that this is quite a good price, not as pricey as the dried Korean ginseng, and these days, there are risks involved when buying dried ginseng, we aren't sure the stuffs we are buying are genuine or not. 

 

In Korea, fresh ginseng are usually used to make samgeytang (which literally translates as ginseng chicken soup) by boiling a whole young chicken stuffed with glutinous rice. In Korea, samgeytang is widely believed to both cure and prevent physical ailments.  The proteins and nutrients from the whole chicken mixed with the beneficial properties of the ingredients combined in the dish makes it a revered culinary item in South Korea. Samgeytang is a favorite dish consumed in Summer cos food with high nutrient content is eaten to regain the loss of stamina in the summer heat.

 

I cooked this for a few friends at my place at dinner time. I was worried that it would keep me awake all night since it's supposed to boost stamina and uplift energy. But surprisingly, I slept well (went into snooze-land upon touching my pillow) and woke up with good glow on my skin. Must be the Korean ginseng chicken or was it just psychologically? Hahaa.. Feedback from all my friends who had this soup for dinner, they all slept superbly well. Amazing, huh?

 

 

Recipe

For the soup

• 1 whole chicken
• 3-4 fresh Korean ginseng
• 4 red dates
• handful of yuk zhuk 玉竹and wai shan (Chinese yam) 淮山
• bunch of spring onion
• Pinch of salt
• 10 cups of water

For the stuffing

• 3-5 fresh gingko
• 1/2 cup of glutinous rice (I used a combination of black and white glutinous rice), soaked in water for at least 1hr
• 3 red dates
• 2 fresh Korean ginseng 
• 2-3 fresh Chinese chestnuts

Instructions

1. Wash the chicken thoroughly.
2. Stuff the inside of chicken with soaked glutinous rice, 3-5 red dates, 1-2 ginseng, all the gingko. Use the red dates or ginseng to block the opening so that the glutinous rice doesn't oozes out while cooking. Do not attempt to over-stuff the chicken, cos glutinous rice would expand when cooked.
3. Place the rest of the ingredients at the bottom of your soup pot. Place stuffed chicken on top. Pour in 10cups of water.
4. Boil for at least 2-3 hours.

Mini mushroom quiche

 

 

Sigh.. the amount of fraud calls I get these days are horrendous!! While I was doing my work, I got a call from this number 03 2167 3833, not anyone on my phone contact list, but it was an automated voice message that says, This is AmBank Credit Card centre. We have detected a pending transaction of RM3000 (3thousand something) in your account. Please press 1 to confirm transaction. Press 2 to talk to our customer service or press 9 to repeat.” I didn't doubt it was a fraud call at first, cos our company do have an AmBank account, personally, I don't, so I pressed 2 to talk to a customer service. The moment the customer service person spoke, 'Ah Hahhh!!', I thought, 'Fraud!!' Guess why? He spoke with a Chinese-y accent which is very very rare for Ambank or any call centre. After a few minute, without wanting to waste my time on this fraud call, I just said, it's fine, thank you and hung up the phone. Without further delay, I went onto google and try to find any similar case like this, and of course, as expected, this is a fraud call.

 

Anyway, back to my quiche.. I made these baby quiches for my boy's breakfast. Don't they look lovely? They are quite easy to prepare.

 

For the pastry

• 200g plain flour
• 100g butter, chop into little cubes or grated
• 1/4tsp baking powder
• 1 beaten egg
• pinch of salt

1. Combine flour and butter until the mixture resembles texture of bread crumb.
2. Add in baking powder, salt and beaten egg. Combine into a dough.
3. Divide the dough to about 4-5 portions. Grease the ramekin dishes.
4. Roll the dough to thin round disk and lay in the individual ramekin dish. Keep in fridge for later use.

For the filling

• 2 clove garlic
• 1 large onion, minced
• 4-6 medium size brown mushrooms, fresh, sliced  
• 1/2 cup fresh milk
• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar
• 2 eggs, beaten

1. In a heated pan, stir fry the garlic and onion with a little oil until the onion turns translucent (about 3-4min). Stir in sliced mushrooms and cook till soft.
2. In bowl, combine fresh milk with beaten eggs.
3. Divide the garlic and mushroom mix in the ramekin dish lined with pastry. Top up with the egg-milk mix until about 80% full. Top with generous amount of grated Cheddar.
4. Preheat the oven to about 175degC. Bake the quiche for about 20-25min until the centre is no more wobbly.

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze from Awayofmind Bakery House at this post.

Moist chocolate cake (steamed)

 

 

 

 

Arghhh... I've been MIA from my blog for sooo long. And I don't know what I've been occupied with. Geee.. But I've been steaming cakes lately, a lot. This recipe alone, I have done at last three times before I finally decided to blog about it. This is a great recipe, the cake or cupcake (I've decided to steam them in cupcake liner after my first one in a loaf tin, cos it takes shorter time in cupcake liner) turns out to be very very moist, just like the moist chocolate cakes sold in café out there. It's very easy to prepare, the ingredients are quite basic, and you don't even need an electric mixer to mix in all the ingredients.

 

I'm not sure who's the owner of this recipe. I have seen this recipe being shared a lot everywhere. The ones I have is posted by a mom in FB group Healthy Food For My Baby. Before looking clearly, the long list of ingredients kinda put me off, but after going through it properly, I realized it's actually very simple. It also has a recipe for a fudge topping, if you're making this as a birthday cake or gift as friend, but for me, I bake this as tea time or breakkie, so there's no need for the topping. It already taste perfect without the topping.

 

Ingredients:

*one full recipe makes one cake in an 8-inch round cake pan or 12 cupcakes

• 180g butter
• 150g brown sugar (this is a reduced amount, its original sugar content is 200g)
• 200g fresh milk (original ingredient is evaporated milk)
• 2 eggs, beaten with fork
• 100g plain flour or cake flour, either is fine
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1tsp baking powder (I omitted the baking soda in the ori recipe and topped up the b.powder)

 

Choc fudge topping (optional)

• 200g condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2tbsp veg oil
• 20g cocoa powder, sifted
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Combine sugar, milk and butter in a bowl over another pan of boiling water. Stir until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted. Remove from heat.
2. Add beaten eggs into the butter-milk mixture and stir to mix evenly.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder into another mixing bowl, then pour in the egg batter and combine until evenly mixed (cake batter is runny).
4. Prep up the steamer and heat up the water till boiling.
5. Line and grease a round cake pan (I didn't have a round cake pan, I baked mine in a loaf tin). Pour the batter into the greased pan and cover the top of pan loosely with aluminum foil.
6. Steam over medium heat for 45min (or 15min in cupcake liner).
7. Cool the cake in pan before inverting out to serve.

To make the choc fudge topping:

1. Combine the sieved cocoa powder, condensed milk and oil in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until thicken.
2. Add in salt and vanilla essence.
3. Cool the choc fudge topping slightly before spreading on the cake. Refrigerate before serving.

Note:

• I have also added some chopped toasted almond and walnuts topping right before steaming.
• If you have extra that can't be finished, you can keep them in the fridge and steam them for another 2-5min before serving, they are as good as fresh.

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze from Awayofmind Bakery House at this post.