Batik Loaf

 

This is a very colourful bread that I made today. I called it Batik Loaf as it reminds me of a piece of Batik material I saw sometime back.

It’s Sunday today and I am back to preparing bread dough for my week’s supply. This time around, I made a few batches of Hokkaido Milk Bread dough. (for the recipe please click here). I made them in 4 different flavours. I added 40 gms of black sesame in one, 40 gms of cocoa powder in another and 2 tbsp of green tea powder in yet another while the plain one had 40 gms of Horlicks in it.

It’s been a while since I played with the dough….so I took 300gms from each batch of dough and to create this loaf.

   

The 4 dough after the 1st proving.

 

After the dough double in size, they were punched down and shaped into balls. Then I gave them a 10 minutes rest.

 

  

The dough are then rolled into a rectangular shape with thickness of 1/4 inch.

Cut them into 1 inch strips.

 

I simply twist and turn all the 4 colours and form a loaf. Then place it into a loaf pan for the 2nd proving (approximately 60 mins). Look quite messy and not very appealing.

 

I tried a different technique for the other loaf. Did some basket weaving with the dough. After the 1st layer, I made yet another layer before placing it into another loaf pan for 2nd proving. It was quite fun!! Felt like a small girl playing with her “play doh”.

 

See how much the dough had risen after 60 minutes.

 

Egg washed and sprinkle some sunflower seeds on top before placing them into the oven to bake.

 

And TADAA…..

this is what I get!

I had forgotten to snap a photo of the loaves before I sliced them.

They are so beautiful and flavourful.

You can eat it plain or spread some butter or nutella on it.

 

Each slice has it own unique design. How interesting!

I think I have created a designer bread… ha ha ha!!!!

Care & Cleaning of Linziclips

 

Now what do you do when you have got yourself those fabulous “must have” Linziclips?

 

It goes without saying that you will be wearing them often!!!

There are just so many ways to wear them.

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Now after wearing them for a while, you will find that they do get dirty and can be a little stinky (due to the perspiration). This happens to all hair accessories (and everything else) that we wear. In many cases, due to the material used for the hair accessories we will have no choice but to discard the after it gets too dirty. (No ones wants a stinky and dirty clip on their head!).

However, for Linziclips you do not have to worry about having to dispose it off for this reason. Due to the material used, Linziclips can be easily washed and clean to keep them hygienic and fresh all the time.

Here is what I do to keep them fresh and clean.

First… fill a bowl with water and add a drop of your favourite shampoo in it. Shampoo is used to remove the grease, dandruff or dust from the Linziclips.

Next, immerse all your Linziclips into the bowl of soapy water.

Soak them in it for a couple of minutes.

  Discard the soapy water and rinse the Linziclips with more water.

Then shake off the water from the Linziclips.

Once all excessive water is shaken off, gently wipe each Linziclip and leave them on a clean piece of towel / cloth to air dry.

The Linziclips will dry in a jiffy and would be smelling great and squeaky clean.

The process takes less than 10 minutes.It’s so easy to clean and care for those Linziclips that we LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nutella & Almond Twist Buns

 

A few days ago I came across a bun recipe that uses baking powder. I have never used baking powder in my bread making. So out of curiosity, I decide to try out this recipe.

With a jar of Nutella which I received from my sister-in-law last week, I thought it might be a good idea to make a Nutella & Almond Twist Bun with the recipe.

The dough turned out well and the bun were so soft and fluffy. Will definitely use this recipe again! 

 

Nutella & Almond Twist Bun

Ingredients:

250g bread flour

40g cake flour

5g instant dry yeast

50g caster sugar

1 large egg

8g milk powder (about 2 tsp)

50ml water

80ml fresh milk

1 tsp baking powder

30g unsalted butter, room tmp

Filling:

Nutella

Handful of Almond nibs

Method:

• Mix all ingredients (except butter)together to form a soft dough in a large mixing bowl,
• Knead the dough till in not sticky and add the butter. Continue to knead. To test if dough is ready, stretch a small piece using the finger tips of both your hands. If you can pull the dough to almost see through texture without breaking it, it’s probably done.
• Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let proof for at least 90 minutes or until it is doubled in size.
• Punch out the air from the risen dough and roll it out into a flat rectangle, about 1cm thick.
• Spread nutella and sprinkle almond nibs over 2/3 of the surface of the dough, leaving about 1cm at the border.

• Fold 1/3 of the dough towards the surface with nutella.

• Fold the other 1/3 to form a rectangular shape.

• Using the rolling pin, roll the dough slightly to flatten it.
• With a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 8 equal strips.

• Slit the strip into half and twist the ends together.

• Place the twisted bun on greased paper or bread paper cups if desired.(I used 2 cupcake paper cups).

 

• Proof the buns for another 40 minutes or till the bun double in size.

 

• Bake in the preheated oven of 180C for 10 to 12 minutes till golden brown.

 

• Remove and let cool on rack.

Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!

Family Bazaar @ HerbaLine

I received a phone call from HerbaLine last Friday inviting me to participate in their Family Bazaar this weekend. It was kind of last minute as the Bazaar is on Sunday morning. Nonetheless, I agreed to participate based on the followings :

• I have not scheduled any bazaar sales for September
• the venue of this Family Bazaar is within the vicinity of my neighbourhood. So… very convenient.
• It’s only for Sunday and from 9am till noon.
• I have never done a Bazaar sales near my neighbourhood before. (it’s time to let my neighbours know of Bitsofpink’s existence!)
• it’s FREE…… The organizer’s are not charging us for the space.

This is my first time participating in a street Bazaar. So I was a little anxious. To make things worse, I woke up this morning to the sound of rain hitting on my window panes. Gosh! I looked out of my windows and was greeted with grey skies and raindrops. It’s 2 hours before I am due to be at the site to set up the booth and it is pouring outside! The rain did not stop (though it did finally subside around 10am) when I arrived at HerbaLine. There were puddles of water everywhere especially at my booth. The organizers braved the rain and put up canopies for everyone. The atmosphere was friendly and everyone did their best to get their booth ready.

With the help from Dear Hubby, I managed to set up my booth within 15mins and was ready for business!

.

The Booth

My hand crafted handbags The Linziclips

The Sereni & Shentel Headbands The Linziclips Banner

The crowd was pretty commendable despite the rain and the fact that it’s Sunday. I had expected most people would rather snuggle up in bed since it is such a wonderful weather to SLEEP. Looks like Kota Kemuning folks are early risers. Anyway, business was good and I was kept on my feet for the whole 4 hours.

It was a great experience and made lots of new friends.

Thanks to HerbaLine for this opportunity.

Pumpkin Porridge (Pumpkin Congee)

 

Sometimes I am amazed at what one could whipped up with some leftovers. We had some relatives over for a Potluck Party last weekend. I roasted 2 chicken for the occasion and had some leftovers that I could use for the week. Not wanting to cook something extravagant, I decided to cook us a pot of hearty delicious porridge for dinner on Tuesday.

Found a section of pumpkin in my fridge and thought it might be a good idea to cook pumpkin porridge. My version of cooking porridge is very simple, Whenever, I cook porridge, I like to throw in as many things as I can find (edible ones, of course) from my fridge and pantry. It’s always a nice concoction carrots, onions and meat.  It is by itself a one dish meal…so no need to cook any side dishes!!!

Here is how it’s done

Pumpkin Porridge

Ingredients
(Serves 4-5)

- 1 carrot – diced

- A small piece of pumpkin, skin removed & cut to small cubes (about 200g without skin)
- 200g leftover roasted chicken - diced (you can also use bacon  to better flavour
- 3 dried shitake mushrooms  -soaked and cut to cubes (but not too thin)
- 1 tbsp chopped garlic
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 1/4 cup of rice, washed
-  2 dried oyster – chopped (or 5-10 dried scallops)
- 10 red dates
- 2 litres of water
- 50g butter
- 1 tbsp wolfberries
- 1 to 2 tsp of light soy sauce (adjust according to your liking)
- 30g salted fish, cut to small bits

Method

1. Heat butter in wok. Saute garlic, onions and salted fish till fragrant.
2. Add pumpkin, carrot,mushrooms and stir fry for a short while.
3. Add uncooked rice and fry till the onions are clear.
4. Transfer the stuff from the wok, wolfberries, red dates and the previously cooked meat, to a pot, add water, and bring to a boil.
5. Frequently stir the pot  to prevent the rice from sticking to the base.
6. Simmer on a low heat for about 20-30 minutes (or longer if you want congee*), while leaving lid partially covered (if you cover fully, the water will spill over).
7. Season with light soy sauce.
8. Garnish & serve.

Since I use a thermal pot,… instead of simmering for 20-30 mins, I just transfer the whole pot into the thermal. The porridge will be perfectly cooked within an hour. Economical and environmentally friendly ( Conserve gas)

My porridge is a bright orange due to the carrots and pumpkin.

Yummilious!!! 

Mee Siam (Spicy Rice Vermicelli)

 

Did I ever tell you that Dear Hubby can cook?

Well, he is not to shabby in this department (just that he does not do it often). One of his signature dish would be the Mee Siam.

So, whenever the family yearns for Mee Siam, DH would be the one to dish it out.

However, this time around. I have decided to cook the Mee Siam. I have steered myself away from DH’s version which uses dried shrimps and belachan. I googled and found this version from Rasa Malaysia.

Mee Siam or “Siamese noodles” is basically spicy fried rice vermicelli with various toppings such as shrimp, chicken, fried firm tofu, and shredded omelet. This is a simple one dish meal and is popular in Malaysia and Singapore. There are 2 different version though The Singaporeans have theirs wet while the Malaysians version is dry. The one I made is Malaysian dry Mee Siam

 

    

MEE SIAM RECIPE (SPICY RICE VERMICELLI)

INGREDIENTS:

12 oz (340gm) vermicelli (I used 500gm)
12 oz (340gm) bean sprouts (I used 500gm)
12 shrimps (shelled and deveined) (I used 25)
4 oz chicken (cut into thin strips) (I omitted this)
3 pieces fried bean curd/firm tofu (cut into pieces)
3 stalks Chinese chives (chopped into 1-inch length)
1 teaspoon sugar (I omitted this)
Salt to taste
Soy sauce or fish sauce to taste
3 tablespoons oil

SPICE PASTE:

4 red chilies
5 shallots
5 garlic
2 tablespoons taucheo (fermented yellow bean sauce)

GARNISH:

2 eggs (lightly beaten, seasoned with a pinch of salt)
2 stalks scallions (chopped into 1/2-inch length)
2 limes (cut into wedges) (I used calamansi)
1 red chili (thinly sliced)

METHOD:

Soak the vermicelli in warm water for about 30 minutes or until they turn soft. Drain and set aside. Using a food processor, grind the spice paste and set aside. Heat up a wok with some oil and make the beaten eggs into an omelet. Fold and slice the omelet thinly. Set aside.

Heat up the wok and add 3 tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is heated. fry the spice paste until aromatic and the oil separates. Add shrimps and chicken, stir-frying until half done, then add the fried tofu pieces.

Add the vermicelli and keep stirring until the the spice paste has spread evenly. Add sugar and salt to taste, follow by bean sprouts and chives. Continue to stir-fry until the vegetables are cooked. Taste and adjust the seasoning by adding more salt or sugar to taste. If the noodles taste bland, add a little soy sauce / fish sauce to taste.

Transfer the Mee Siam onto a big serving bowl and garnish with the omelet strips, chopped scallions, chili and lime wedges. Serve immediately.

Verdict :  Yummy…. the family loved it. Now we have 2 versions for Mee Siam. (Mom’s or Dad’s!)