Living with a lot less

After I broke my foot, I have been living my life in our living hall with just one small carry on bag so I could avoid the stairway. 

The experience reminded me of an  article I had read about living with a lot less which was very interesting. I think it is worth sharing.  

I mentioned to my husband many times that I wanted to live with a lot less since we were getting old. However, the experience with my broken foot, has really made me fully realize that we could.  Like the author of this article, I really do not want to be cluttered with excess belongings! I want to give away and sell all my possessions (except my Quay Lo). LOL!

Jokes aside, I knew I would be much happier to live more simply with less. I did not want to be a slave to things! I know this sounds very Buddhist, or at least minimalist, but it appeals to me deeply.

Then, something struck my mind; how could I really become completely free of possessions if I still wanted to bake and cook? I satisfied my concern by remembering that I could bake this healthy loaf of bread in a counter top microwave cum convection oven, and it turned out so beautiful! Who needs a big four burner oven? Not me. So I can still become the Zen chef after all. As long as I am sure not to toss out the mixer, or that large spoon, or that big porcelain bowl I use for resting dough, or the canisters with the ingredients all line up so trimly on my kitchen countertop, and I must have that......

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

 1/2 tsp baking powder

 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

 1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 jumbo egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

 1 cup granulated sugar

 1 1/2 vanilla extract

 1 cup grated zucchini

1/2 cup chopped hazel nut

Method:

Grease and flour one 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Those who hate, hurt the most

I was home alone for four days last week. My Quay Lo was on a business trip and my mum has gone to help her friend's daughter out. She went there to cook for her confinement and to look after her new born baby. When no one is in the house it will be the best time to make bread for there will be no distraction. Before I started to making my buns, I texted my Quay Lo and told him and this was what he replied me, "Got it Honey, no phone calls and sms:D"


When I was kneading the dough my eyes suddenly welled up with tears.  The thought of my late brother-in-law, Eric came to my mind. Eric was always there for me after his brother, my first late husband passed way 10 years before him. I am not sure why the making of the buns triggered the thought of Eric and the sadness in me. All I knew was I miss him very much. How I wish he is still here so that when my buns were baked, we could eat the buns together with local "kopi-o kow" (strong coffee) and “talk three talk four” (literally means talk about everything in the world) like we used to.  As buddies, we had gone through a lot together, good times and bad. There were times that we got very mad at each other but that had never been serious enough to break up our friendship (we were best of buddies for 27 years till the time he left us).  He may be gone but he will never be forgotten. There is always a special place in my heart for him. 

Have you ever ended any friendship before? Sad to say, I have. There were a few people whom I will never want to be friends with again. I did not like this a bit because I always believe in keeping friends and not loose them.  But then, how can you be friends with people who betrayed you after you have gone all out to help them? Being ungrateful is bad enough but betrayal? I can never get pass that.  I guess I am just human and not a saint. It is very hurtful when someone you regard as close friend betrays you. It was a big blow to me and I felt miserable to the extend of loosing sleep and weight. Fortunately, it did not take me very long to realise that those who hate, hurt the most and it is not worth hurting for people who bite the hand that feeds. I have forgiven them for the sake of my own happiness but I will not want to have anything to do with them. Yes I am a "Chicken", I do not want to give them a chance to hurt me again. LOL!

While writing this post, my buns were in the baking and the wonderful aroma of the buns wafted up my nostrils and makes me hungry.  I am very curious to see the outcome because this is the first time I am using the water roux dough method. The recipe I used for this sausage sweet soft buns is the one Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover used to make her cranberry cream cheese soft bun.  She adapted the recipe from the Magic Bread cookbook by Alex Goh and I adapted the recipe from her. What I like about this recipe is that there is no bread emulsifier used like the one I used before. Both recipes yielded delicious soft buns and the only difference is the buns from this recipe did not stay soft the next day as compared to the old recipe I used. Those buns stayed soft for the next two days. I guess that the use of emulsifier had to do something with that. Since emulsifier reacts with proteins to make a smooth easy-rising dough and acts on starch to make the buns softer, maybe it is also the reason that the buns stayed softer for a longer period. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Cocktail sausage sweet soft bun

Adapted from Magic Bread Cookbook by Alex Goh

Used by Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover

Gelatinised dough

Ingredient:

100g bread flour

70g hot boiling water

Method:

Place flour in a mixing bowl. Add hot boiling water and mix with wooden spoon to form a rough dough. Cover bowl with cling film and leave dough to cool in the fridge for at least 12 hours, and up to 48 hours.

Basic sweet bread dough

Ingredients:

300g bread flour

100g plain flour

80g sugar

20g milk powder

1 tbsp instant yeast

½ tsp salt

175g cold water

1 cold grade A egg

60g cold butter, cubed

Other ingredients:

18 cocktail sausages (meat of your choice)

1 tbs sesame seeds

1 egg and 100ml water (for egg wash)

Method:

Combine flours, sugar, milk powder, yeast and salt together in a mixing bowl. Tear the gelatinized dough into pieces and add to the bowl along with the egg. Mix on low speed in with stand up electric mixer and add the water into the dough gradually. Mix until dough is well combined and leave the sides of bowl. Add in the cold butter cubes and mix on high speed until dough is smooth. Do the window test and if it does not tear, it is time to shape dough into a ball. Leave dough to proof for 40mins or until double in size. In the meantime, prepare egg wash and sesame seeds to be ready for use. When dough is double in size, punch it down and roll with a rolling pin to get rid of all air bubble. Roll doll up and then divide it into 18 pcs of 50gms per piece. Smooth each piece of dough with you hands in a clockwise circular motion into a small ball until you get 18 small balls of dough. Start from the first smoothed ball and roll the dough out into a thin strip and then use your rolling pin to roll it flat. Place a piece of sausage on the dough and roll it up and seal the end. Paint all the sausage roll with egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Bake in the preheated 160C or 320F oven at the lowest rack for 20  minutes.


Note: I find that 50gms of dough maybe a too much to wrap the small cocktail sausage. I suggest that you reduce it to 40gms per ball of dough.

Alamak! I am a Toad! I leap before I look

Last week, I submitted my Sweet Potato Donut  to Aspiring Bakers #8 – Bread Seduction (June 2011)  hosted by Jasmine from The Sweetylicious. Jasmine informed me that the ingredients must include bread flour and/or yeast.  The ingredients for my sweet potato donut had neither. Although Jasmine said she will accept my entry, I really do not feel comfortable breaking the rules so I made this monkey bread to replace the wrong entry. Same thing happened when I submitted my entry for the picnic game hosted by Louise. I fumbled again and didn't format my entry correctly.  Louise was so kind to say that it might be she who did not explain the rules clearly, but the truth is this Quay Po is very "Mong Cha Cha"" (blur, blur) and leap like a toad before she looks.

Monkey bread has many other names, like, sticky bread, pinch me cake, bubble loaf to name the ones I've read.  Wikipedia says that Monkey bread is usually served at breakfast in the U.S. (though my hubby does not recall that). Monkey bread is usually sweet but since I still have so many desserts in my fridge I decided to make a savory monkey bread.  My monkey bread was flavorful but a little dense. I served it with a salad and the combo made a perfect simple lunch. My son came to visit last Sunday and his Dad brought out the balance of the monkey bread which they ate like snacks while watching TV. We all agreed, the flavor is wonderful.

Cajun Monkey Bread

Adapted from Cajun Chef Ryan with modifications

Ingredients

2 ½ C high protein flour, divided into 2 C and 1/2 C

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Sea salt, fine grind

1 pkt Active dry yeast (1/4 ounce)

1 ¼ C Milk

2 tbs Olive oil

4 tbs Butter, melted, divided into 2 tbs each

1 Large Egg

¼ C Parmesan cheese, fresh grated

2 tbs Sesame seeds

4 cloves finely chopped Garlic

1 tbs ground paprika

Method:

In the mixing bowl, combine 2 cups flour, the sugar, salt and the yeast. Combine the milk with the olive oil and ½ of the butter in a sauce pan and bring to boil and butter is melted. Add the warm milk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. Add the egg and mix until smooth. Then mix in enough of the remaining flour to form soft but not too wet dough. Lightly flour the surface, turn out the dough, and knead until smooth and elastic for 5 – 6 minutes, adding more flour to keep the dough from sticking. Coat the with butter or cooking spray and leave in a bowl, covered loosely with a clean kitchen towel and keep in a warm area for 1-2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size. While the dough is rising, combine the parmesan cheese, sesame seeds, chopped garlic and paprika in a small bowl and reserve for later use. Once dough has doubled in size, punch it down and then cut into 30 small pieces and roll each into a ball shape. Coat the inside of a Bundt pan with butter or cooking spray and then gently roll each dough ball in the cheese mixture then add them into the pan in a layered fashion.  Let the dough stand for another 30 minutes. Before putting into the oven, drizzle the remaining melted butter on top of the dough and sprinkle any remaining cheese mixture. Bake in preheated oven at 350° F for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan and let it further cool on the wire rack.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #8 – Bread Seduction (June 2011)  hosted by Jasmine from The Sweetylicious

I was a proud Copy Cat

When I saw the focaccia that Alan of travellingfoodies made last Sunday , I have been dreaming about it for a few nights. You see, she is not only an eloquent writer but also a very artistic photographer.  Any simple food that goes through his camera will come out as 5 stars cuisine. Don’t just listen to me, hop over to her blog and see for yourself.  Oh remember to read her notes on personal reflection at the end of each recipe.  Those notes are informative and educational. I learn a lot from them. One of the many things I like about food bloggers are their willingness to share whatever knowledge they have about cooking, baking and other lessons they learned with no monetary benefits in mind.  They are not the "No Money, No Talk" type. 

So, here I am, The Copycat!  I adapted Alan's focaccia recipe and made it with some modification yesterday. When it was in the oven, my whole house was filled with the aroma of rosemary.  I could smell the fragrance from my office (my office is in my home) and heard my stomach growling. I went in to look at the bread several times as though the more I looked, the quicker it would baked. Finally, the moment I anxiously waited had arrived. "DING!", it was the oven bell!  I dropped whatever I was doing in the office and rushed to get the bread out. GORGEOUS! Grinning from ear to ear, I came back to the office to tell my Quay Lo that I was extremely happy with the look and the taste of my focaccia. I want to say a BIG thank you to Alan for sharing this recipe and for the effort in writing easy to follow instructions that even this simple minded Quay Po can follow. Aren't you proud of me?

We had focaccia sandwiches for dinner last evening.  Quay Lo and I loved the bread so much and we both agreed that we will make this again for company. This bread is so easy to make, it looks inviting and taste wonderful. Honestly, you can just eat as is, without anything else to compliment it..  Whoa!!  It was DIVINE! 

Rosemary olive focaccia 
Largely adapted from travellingfoodies with modification.

Ingredients:

Before baking

The final product

Ingredients:

300g bread flour

1/2 tsp dry yeast

20g caster sugar

1/4 tsp salt

50ml olive oil

200 ml warm water

2 tbs chopped fresh rosemary
1 sprig rosemary, leaves only

2 sprigs rosemary (to infuse in olive oil)
3-4 cloves of garlic with skin

15 pitted black olives, cut into rings

4-5 slices of sundried tomatoes in olive oil, thinly jullienned

1 roasted capsicum, cut into thin slices

Method:

In a glass of 50ml warm water, stir in yeast and sugar and set aside for 30 mins. Place two sprigs of rosemary and garlic clove with skin into the olive oil on medium heat till fragrant and set aside. When the oil is cool, remove the rosemary and dish out the garlic, removed the skin and minced them and set aside. In a mixing bowl, place bread flour, salt and mix roughly. Add yeast mixture, 2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary and garlic rosemary infused olive oil and 150 ml warm water. Use the hook attachment on low speed, mix the ingredients until a sticky dough is formed. Turn the speed to medium and  knead the dough with a mixer until it is less sticky. Turn to slightly higher speed to knead that dough till they no longer sticks to the sides of the mixing bowl and comes off in one smooth lump. Pull a small piece of dough and stretch it and if you can stretch the dough till very thin and does not break easily, you can now form the dough into a ball and cover with cling wrap. Leave it in a warm area and let it rise for 1 hour, about double its original size. Apply some flour on the surface to roll out the dough to get rid of air.  Sprinkle, sun-dried tomatoes, half of the olive rings, minced roasted garlic and roasted capsicum. into dough and knead them in. Place the dough onto a 8 in x 8 in square baking pan and flatten it outwards by pressing with your fingertips to fill up the pan. Cover again with cling film and leave to prove for another 30 mins. Dip an index finger into olive oil and make dimples about 1 inches apart all around the dough. Brush the top generously with olive oil and arrange the remaining olive rings  Sprinkle rosemary leaves on the surface. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170C for 20-25 min until the surface becomes golden brown. Leave on rack to cool. Apply your creativity on how to serve the bread or just eat them as it is.