Brioche - easy baking without fancy tools or kneading

It's been a while since I posted on this blog and I thought why not do something new!  This is my first time making bread and I never attempted it because I thought I need a big surface to knead the dough and that's just too much hassle.  This recipe is super easy, without the need for fancy dough mixer or kneading.  You just need a big bowl, a spatula and a loaf pan!

I didn't want to use too much butter in this brioche (bakeries often use a lot of butter for this and it's too greasy) but it has the right amount to make it taste really good!

For the dough:

1/3 cup lukewarm milk 

3 1/4 teaspoon yeast

1 2/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

2 3/4 oz butter (about 60 gram)

3 tablespoon sugar

For brushing:

1 tablespoon milk + 1 egg yolk 

Instructions:
1. Milk and Yeast - warm milk in a pan over low heat for 30 secs and add yeast (yeast doesn't need to dissolve completely)
2. Flour, Salt, Eggs, and the above Yeast mixture - combine and mix with a spatula in a medium size bowl
3. Butter and Sugar - mix in a separate medium size bowl until it becomes a creamy texture. (I used an electric hand mixer)
4. Incorporate the butter mixture into the above flour mixture with the spatula, a little at a time, cutting the butter into the dough and keep rolling the dough in the bowl with a folding motion for 8-10 mins, until the dough has an elastic and sticky texture.  The dough should not stick to the side of the bowl. (see Pic 1)
5. Let the dough stand for 2 hours in a warm place to rise.
6. The dough should inflate to 3x the size to original dough. (see Pic 2)  Cover the dough in the bowl with cling wrap and transfer to fridge for 8 hours (overnight).  The dough will deflate as soon as it's in the fridge (don't worry)!
7. Next day, grease loaf pan with butter to avoid sticking while baking.  Also, prepare the egg yolk and milk mixture for brushing.
8. Take dough out of fridge and divide it into 6 pieces. Place the 6 pieces side by side onto the loaf pan. (see Pic 3)
9. Brush the egg yolk mixture onto the surface of divided dough in the loaf pan.  Let the dough rise for 2 hours until it doubles in size in the pan. (see Pic 4)
10. Lightly brush the remaining egg yolk on the loaf and bake for 10 mins at 200C(400F) until dark golden brown. (see Pic 5)
11.  Reduce heat to 160C (330F) and bake for another 20 mins.
12.  Remove from oven and cool for 5 mins.  Run a knife around the edge until the loaf comes off the sides of pan.  Let the loaf sit on a rack to cool. (see Pic 6)

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Pic 4

Pic 5

Pic 6

Vegetable Lasagna with sweet potato and ricotta cheese

Sometimes I like to take a break from eating meat and go vegetarian for a meal or two. Tonight I've tried to make a vegetable lasagna and one of the key to this recipe is to make sure the juice from the vegetables is not running out into the pasta. This recipe is actually copied from Donna Hays cookbook. It uses sweet potatoes in this recipe and it is super healthy and not heavy at all! I had two big pieces tonight and I could eat another one!

This recipe has been proportioned to make a three layer lasagna for an A4 paper size baking tray. This serves 9 large pieces.

Ingredients:

10 sheets of lasagna pasta

4 tomatoes (sliced)

2 sweet potatoes (sliced)

2 carrots (sliced)

1 egg plant (sliced)

1 cup of mushrooms (sliced)

salt

black pepper

olive oil

Cheese filling:

fresh basil (coarsely chopped)

fresh parsley(coarsely chopped)

450g ricotta cheese (low fat)

2 cups of mozzarella cheese

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

Method:

• First put the sweet potatoes in tin foil, sprinkle on some salt and wrap it up before putting in the oven to bake for about 15 minutes on 200C. Sweet potatoes need more time to cook so it goes in the oven first.
• Lay all the sliced eggplant, mushroom, carrots, and tomato on a baking tray. Sprinkle generous amount of salt and pepper and olive oil, then cover the tray with a tin foil before placing the tray in the oven to bake for about 25 minutes. (salt is used here to draw out the moisture from the vegetables)
• While the vegetables are roasting in the oven, prepare the cheese filling. Combine egg, ricotta cheese, 1 cup of mozzarella, parsley, and basil with a spoon and set aside in the fridge.
• Next is to cook the lasagna sheets in salted boiling water (it's better to undercook the pasta as it will go in the oven for more cooking)

• Remove the roasted sweet potatoes and the rest of the vegetables from the oven. Line the lasagna baking tray with cooked lasagna pasta sheets, then spoon half of the roasted vegetables on the sheet, then top with half of the ricotta cheese fillings. Repeat another layer. Last layer should be lasagna pasta and then top with the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella.
• Cover the lasagna tray with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes at 200C. Remove the tin foil and turn the oven to high grill for about 5 minutes so that the cheese will burn a little.

Butter Cake （牛油蛋糕）- (forget Sara Lee!!)

Upon a friend's request, I found a butter cake recipe from someone's blog but I made some small changes to the recipe and experimented it tonight! To my surprise, it worked! It's actually really easy to make, so don't ever buy those frozen Sara Lee cakes again! This one tastes 100x better and has a cake crust that Sara Lee can't do!

Ingredients:

4 eggs

200g butter (2 sticks) at room temperature

2 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup white sugar

4 tbsp milk

pinch of salt

Method:

• Separate egg yolks and egg whites in separate bowls. Beat egg whites until soft peaks are formed and set aside.
• Beat butter, egg yolks and sugar in a separate bowl with electric mixer until creamy and add vanilla extract and pinch of salt.
• While beating the egg batter, slowly add flour and milk until all the flour has been added (the batter will be quite dense and heavy).
• Add the egg whites last and slowly beat into the egg batter (do not mix too long though)
• Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake at 160C for 1 hour or until the middle of cake is thoroughly cooked (test it by sticking a knife or skewer to the middle of cake)

Moist Carrot Bread

I'm always hungry after workout from my yoga classes and I need something healthy and quick to boost my energy and fill my stomach. I love carrot cake but it's so hard to find a coffee shop that makes good carrot cake without the sugar and the fat. If you like carrot cake and want to be health conscious, you must try the below recipe which I came up and they came out really delicious! I'm not a fan of cream cheese frosting so I'm not going to put it on my recipe.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

2.5 cups of grated carrots

Zest of one lemon

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup apple sauce

1/2 cup buttermilk or homo milk

1/2 stick butter (room temperature)

2 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

• Mix eggs, butter, sugar, apple sauce, lemon zest, grated carrots.
• Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg into the wet mixture
• Mix by hand until you cannot see any white flour and mix in buttermilk and continue mixing until the mixture is similar to cake batter consistency (not too runny)
• Add in the walnuts last and pour the batter into a baking tray or loaf pan. Bake for 30-40 mins at 180C.

Mom's best dumpling 餃子 (northern style)

Seriously, no one can beat my mom's dumplings! They are so good and the pictures are proofs! I can eat at least 15 of them each time and I'm never tired of them! They are super healthy and filling, consisting of minced pork, wax beans, ginger, cilandro and a dried salty vegetable (津菜) made from the root of choy sum.

First, finely dice the ginger, cilandro stems, and the beans. Then mix them into the minced pork (1 pound) with an egg and add 1/2 tsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Beat the mixture with chopsticks until it becomes sticky and binded together. For the dumpling wraps, my mom buys them fresh from the wet market and if you want to keep them in the fridge for a few days, make sure you have some dry paper towel and keep them in a zip lock bag to prevent drying.

Now, here's the fun part!! I love doing this with my mom as we always compete on who has the best looking dumplings! The pictures below are simple illustrations on how to wrap dumplings properly (takes some practicing but don't worry if you can't make them look the same as they will still taste good)!! Place the wrap on your palm, wet the edge with water, put a small portion of the meat mixture in the middle then fold the edge over to touch in the middle, but do not press all the edges. Put your finger in between the edge and press the excess over and repeat this like below.

Boil the dumplings in a pot of hot water until the dumplings pop up to the surface, and then you can serve them with chicken broth or dip them in vinegar, soy sauce and chili sauce! If you have left overs, reheat them in a frying pan to make pot stickers! They are soooooo good!

Lemon Orange & Cranberry Muffins

Muffins are the most simple and delicious baked goods that anyone can make! The key to making muffins is to separate the wet and dry ingredients first. Always add the dry to wet and not to overmix.

Dry ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour (or self-raising flour)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup of dried cranberries
pinch of salt

Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1/4 stick of butter (room temperature)
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (olive oil or almond oil can be substitutes)
1 tablespoon of Lemon zest
3 tablespoons of orange marmalade (i.e. orange jam)
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk (or whole milk)

Method:
1) Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl.
2) Mix the wet ingredients with a hand mixer in a second bowl.
3) Add the dry ingredients into the wet bowl by hand in a folding motion until the consistency of the batter is somewhat like thick porridge. (If the batter is too runny, add more flour to make it thicker).

4) Pour batter into muffin tray. Garnish top of muffins with a thin slice of lemon.

5) Preheat oven to 190C and bake muffins for 20mins until top is brown.

My Mom's Secret Shanghainese Vegetable Rice 上海菜飯

My Mom is Shanghainese and she's been cooking since she was 12, but she never writes her recipes down so I thought it's time for me to take notes on my family recipes which I hope will be passed on for generations!

I don't normally eat white rice on its own unless it's fried and has lots of soy sauce to go with it. I think Shanghainese Vegetable Rice is healthy, full of flavour, and with a little bit of Chinese Chili Sauce, I can easily eat two bowls! Some people prefer to use the chinese ham 金華火腿, my family is very health conscious so we use bacon/pancetta (see picture 1) instead, which is just as good!

This is easy and quick to make, the cooking time is just as long as a rice cooker takes to cook the rice. But the timing and the steps are the key to this recipe. First, the water in the rice must be less than what regular rice cooker needs. Second, the Pak Choy must not be overcooked (see picture 2) and third, it's important that vegetable and ham is not mixed into the rice too early, otherwise the rice will not be cooked thoroughly or the vegetable will be too overcooked/soggy (see picture 3).

1) 2)3)

Sweet Potato and Ginger Muffins

After making banana chocolate muffins recently, I wanted to try different ingredients for muffins, and not the typical chocolate chip or blueberry. I always like to use what I have at home, rather than going out to the grocery store and add things in my kitchen that will only be used once. So, this time I found some Japanese sweet potatos (mom just bought them from Sogo) which she originally wanted to make Sweet Potato with Ginger Soup 蕃薯糖水. Apparently this is Mr. Li Ka Shing's favourite chinese dessert every night! (If you really want to know :P)

I actually found a lot of muffin recipes with sweet potatos and I picked one that was healthy (no butter in the recipe), easy to make and used the same baking concept as my other muffin recipes. I thought sweet potato may be too starchy for muffins, but I was quite pleasantly surprised by the result! I added a bit of nut and oat cereal to add a crunchy texture, but I think chopped almonds or pecans will be better (unfortunately I didn't have any at home). For ginger, I used crystallized ginger extracted from a sweet ginger tea in sugar syrup (see pictures) that you can normally find in a chinese grocery store. I don't think raw ginger would work in this recipe.

My mom (my QC) gave me the thumbs-up for these muffins! They have a very similar taste to a baked sweet potato, soft, not too sweet, and the ginger is a good compliment that is refreshing to the palette.

A Taste of the French Countryside - Chicken Provençale

I think French and the Chinese have one thing in common - we both love food! My idea of a good vacation in France is to stay in a small village, eat different cheeses and drink lots of local wine! Since I've been dreaming about France lately, I thought why not have a taste of the french countryside at home by making Chicken Provençale for dinner!

I found some beautiful free range chicken drumsticks on sale at PnS tonight and found some leftover ham and green pepper in the fridge. I looked up a few recipes online and found a recipe from Eating Well. I think this is a very healthy, low carb, low fat dish. The rich tomato sauce could go with rice or bread. I added my own little twist to this recipe though. In my recipe, it's important to use fresh basil and fresh parsley, adding flavour and depth to the sauce. I also added a bit of dried hot chili pepper. I think diced tomatoes from cans are absolutely awesome! I love them more than fresh tomatoes because they have more texture and also saves me a lot of the hassle to take the seeds out.

I've taken some photos while preparing this dish. There seems to be a lot of ingredients but I just had to spend 15 mins chopping up the onions, green pepper, ham, garlic, olive, fresh basil and parsley. The beauty of this dish, I only need one large skillet or deep frying pan (I HATE washing up)! The sauce is perfect with baguette, pasta, potato or brown rice - my family has been eating brown rice and I think it's so much healthier and it tastes better as well. We couldn't finish all the sauce and drumsticks at dinner, so I left them over night in the fridge, which will make the drumsticks even more flavourful. I can't wait to finish the rest tomorrow!

My Ramen Obsession

I think Ramen is one of those foods that I will never get tired of eating. As you can tell from my Ramen picture collection, I have a Ramen obsession!!!


In my opinion, it's such good comfort food, not only does it fill your stomach quickly, I feel warm and fussy afterwards and I especially crave for it in the winter time! I've tried many different kinds of Ramen in the past, in different parts of Japan - Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Sapporo. Sapporo is known for its rich Miso soup, topped with seafood i.e scallops. Tokyo style is with the Shoyu (soy sauce) or Shiyo (salt) soup whereas Fukuoka is known for its rich creamy Tonkotsu (pork bone) soup.


It's so hard to decide which one I like best, I guess it depends on my mood that day. I usually choose Miso when I feel tired and want something to wakeup my taste bud a bit. Shiyo and Shoyu are a bit lighter in taste, so I usually choose those in summer time, when I don't want to feel too full. Tonkotsu is the best for winter time I think. It's got pork fat and its creamy soup base is absorbed into the noodles so I feel especially warm and satisfied after just one bowl!

#1 Party Pleaser Tiramisu

Did you know Tiramisu means “pick me up” and it's a recent addition to Italian cuisine.


Tiramisu is my favourite dessert and it's also my #1 Party Pleaser at potluck parties! I usually make them the night before the party as flavour improves overnight. It is SUPER easy to make, only takes half an hour to prepare, and you don't even need an oven or stove. I remember one time I even made Tiramisu in the office!!! (I was working the night shift and we had nothing to do, boss wasn't around either..hehe)

My recipe here is a bit light and airy and not too sweet. Usually I use Ladyfingers as the cake base, but I made some Lemon Angel Food Cake yesterday, unfortunately they turned out too dry and hard. I thought rather than wasting them, I could use it for Tiramisu! It was a brilliant idea as the cake was perfect for Tiramisu and it was absolutely delicious. You could use sponge cake as well, otherwise Lady fingers will do the same trick.

I won't put up my failed recipe for my Lemon Angel Food Cake, but you should definitely try my #1 Party Pleaser Tiramisu.
Recipe serves 6-8 people.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
3 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
250 g mascarpone cheese (1 small tub)
1 pack Ladyfingers or spongy cake (like my lemon angel food cake)
1 cup Strong black coffee (room temperature)
5 tbsp Kahlua liqueur
1 tbsp Cocoa powder


Instructions:
1) Separate egg yolks and egg white in two separate bowls.

2) Beat egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed (2 mins) until it expanded to a white shiny foam (note: bowl should be dry and cool)

3) Mix the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla in a separate bowl with an electric mixer until they are creamy. Add in the mascarpone cheese and continue mixing until it's a light yellow thick and creamy mixture. (see picture)

4) Fold the egg white mixture into the yellow mixture, but do not overmix. It's ok to have some white foam in the yellow mixture because it's the egg white that makes the Tiramisu light and airy. (see picture)

5) Line the sponge fingers in the bottom of a glass serving bowl (martini glass works well too) and pour in the dark coffee until fingers are completely soaked. They should absorb just enough liquid to flavour them without going soggy or falling apart. Then add a few tablespoons of Kahlua liqueur on the fingers (you can add more depending on your taste). Pour the yellow mascapone mixture on the first layer of soaked fingers.

6) Continue with alternating layers of sponge fingers, coffee, liqueur and mascarpone, finishing with a top layer of mascarpone.

7) Sift the cocoa over the top layer. Chill in the freezer the night before and defrost in refrigerator 2 hours before serving.

Tuna Fish Casserole

Last summer when I visited my friend in Toronto, I suggested that I can make a quick lunch for her as she was pregnant at the time. So I looked up on Epicurious and found a super easy recipe for a casserole dish. It has a white sauce, crispy on the top with cheese and breadcrumbs. This recipe can be used with any leftover vegetables, meat or fish. This is great for parties as you can reheat in microwave and the topping will still be crispy!

Recipe makes 6-8 servings:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped
10 white mushrooms (sliced)

1/4 cup Sherry or white wine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 tbsp unsalted butter (1/4 of a stick)
2 1/2 cups whole milk
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 can tuna in olive oil, drained
4 cups of pasta (Fusilli or Penne or Egg noodle)
1 1/2 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from 3 slices firm white sandwich bread)
1 cup coarsely grated Cheddar (1 cup)

Instructions:

1) Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 190C/375°F. Use olive oil to grease the bottom of a baking dish.
2) Cook onion in olive oil with a pinch of salt in a skillet over low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and light brown. Increase heat to moderately high and add mushrooms, then sauté (5 mins) until the liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated.

3) Add wine and boil, stirring occasionally, until evaporated. Remove from heat.
4) Melt 1/4 stick butter in a non-stick saucepan over low heat and slowly whisk in flour, until flour and butter becomes dough-like.

5) Add milk while whisking and simmer sauce on low heat, whisking occasionally. Whisk until it looks like a creamy white sauce. Add a little water if the sauce is too thick. Should yield about 1 cup of white sauce.

6) Stir in mushroom mixture, lemon juice, and salt. Flake tuna into sauce and stir gently. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
7) Cook pasta in a pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain pasta in a colander and return to pot. Add sauce and stir gently to combine. Transfer mixture to baking dish, spreading evenly.
8) Toss together bread crumbs and cheese in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and toss again, then sprinkle evenly over casserole. Bake until topping is crisp and sauce is bubbling, 20 to 30 minutes.

Basil Oil

I recently discovered a neighbourhood flower shop which sells herb plants. They have rosemary, thai sweet basil, parsley and basil plants. I picked out a Basil plant for under HK$20. Although there's only enough basil leaves for one salad, I want to see if I can grow them at my flat. The flower shop owner says to keep the leaves growing, pick the ones at the bottom and leave the top leaves to absorb light.

I picked a few basil leaves from my plant today to make tuna fish cucumber mayo sandwich. They were so good! I blanch the leaves in hot water for 10 secs, sliced them into strips and put into my tuna fish sandwich. Too bad the plant is only so small. Now I have to wait for the leaves to grow back before I can use fresh basil again for my next sandwich. :(

Next time, I'm going to use the basil leaves to make Basil Oil with the following recipe:

Blanch 1 1/2 cup basil in medium saucepan of boiling water 10 seconds. Drain. Rinse under cold water. Pat basil dry with paper towels. Transfer to blender. Add 3/4 cup olive oil; puree until smooth. Transfer to small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before using.)

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is the best muffin recipe I've used so far! My mom tried it and she approved! I realized the trick to making muffins is to separate dry and wet ingredients and NOT to overmix them. These muffins are not too sweet and not too heavy (I only used half a stick of butter), and they are very moist and spongy, almost banana bread-like. You could replace chocolate chip and raisins with fresh blueberries or cranberries.