All Entries Tagged With: "Bread"

Red Bean Bun

Julie also made some Red Bean Bun which is great for snacking. I know it looks so much like hamburgers (a full meal even) but it is actually light despite the size. This is actually a simplified version of those Japanese Red Bean Pancake (Dorayaki). Julie used store bought bun to substitute the pancake.

However, the red bean paste, Julie made her own. She preferred a coarser texture red bean paste than those smooth one from the store. She did not show us how to do this though as it takes time to make it.

To assemble this, just warm up the bun using the oven or microwave and fill the bun the red bean paste.

The Red Bean Bun makes an excellent snack. It is best eaten warm.

Ha ha … this is not much of a recipe huh? I hope to get Julie to show me how she makes her red bean paste someday.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Soft Pretzel

Nanzaro’s class had a Halloween party on Halloween Day. I volunteered to help his class in making Soft Pretzels for the party. I went to the school early in the morning at 9 am. Nanzaro’s teacher, Ms T divided the class into small groups of 5 to 6 people and assigned the first 2 groups for the first session of making the Soft Pretzels.

It was fun working with the kids especially on Halloween Day because a lot of them were in costumes. Here is a pair dressed up like Siamese twins where their clothes are joined together.

Here is one injured patient working on the dough.

Ingredients

• 1 package of yeast
• 1.5 cups warm water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 cups flour, more for kneading
• 1 egg, beaten
• coarse salt for sprinkling, optional

This is a really fun project for the kids. They get to work on the dough and form the dough into any shape imaginable. This brings out the creativity in the kids.

Instructions

• Measure the warm water into a large mixing bowl
• Sprinkle in the yeast and sugar and stir until it looks cloudy.
• Add the salt and flour and mix with a wooden spoon.
• Bring the dough together with your hand and knead the dough on a floured surface until it’s soft.
• Divide the dough into small portions and give one to each kid.
• Let the kid roll and twist the dough into letters, numerals, snakes and anything they like.
• Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• Lay the shaped dough on the cookie sheets.
• Brush with beaten eggs and sprinkle with coarse salt if desired.
• Bake in a preheated 425F oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

Kneading the dough.

Shaping the dough.

Tasting the dough.

Brushing the dough with beaten egg.

The end result is some yummy and amazing looking bread.

More bread.

Ms T working with another group who peel and cut vegetables for the chicken noodle soup, made from scratch.

At lunch time, the class shared a meal of chicken noodle soup, soft bread (pretzel) and …

… some pumpkin and lemon meringue tarts which some of the kids made the day before.

Ms T and class grade 7, thank you for having me to share such a great experience with you all.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Pork Floss Sub

I made this Pork Floss Sub for picnic during one of the hot summer day. Polly, Chin-Chin and I brought our kids to the water park at No. 5 Rd and Cambie. The water park was very busy as a lot of families were out there to enjoy the sun.

Ingredients

• Sub
• Pork Floss
• Eggs
• Butter

Popularity: 12% [?]

San Francisco Vacation: Boudin Sourdough

So, while in Fishermans Wharf, we also made it a point to visit the Boudin Sourdough bakery. Suanne and I had visited this bakery … oh … perhaps 15 years ago. We simply have to come back here and try their bread again.

When we were in Boudin, we also made a side trip to their Museum and Bakery Tour. Frankly, it was not worth the money we had to pay to get into the tour. I would have wished that we get really close to the bakery but we just watched from an upstairs gallery. So, save your money.

One thing that we learned though in that tour … that there are so many food that were invented in San Francisco. Here it is … Martini, Cioppino, Popsicles, Chop Suey, Irish Coffee, Fortune Cookie, Mai Tai, and Crab Louis.

The Boudin Sourdough Bakery is popular and busy … and perhaps a bit too chaotic for me. You order and pay from one end of the counter. You have to give them your name and when your order is ready, they’ll yell your name and you go pick it up. There were so many people milling around the area waiting to pick up their order and the place is so noisy.

Sourdough bread was the main bread consumed in California during the Gold Rush days. So, it is pretty much part of the culture of the SF.

What is unique about sourdough is that its sourness and tanginess combines very well with seafood and soup such as chilli and chowders. We first ordered one to try but ended up getting another two more because they taste so good.

Boudin’s famous Clam Chowder is simply the best of the best. Almost every one got this world-famous, classic, freshly baked item.

Some people don’t get it! We saw people coming here, bought a bread bowl, finished off the chowder and then they THREW AWAY the bowl! The bread bowl is what it is all about … not the clam chowder … duh!

You know what they told us? That you can never get sourdough bread as good as those you get in SF anywhere else in the world. They say that it is the air, the SF fog and the lacto-something bacteria combined to give it the distinct sourness. Do you believe it?

You know, what I plan to do? Am gonna go on a mini quest to find Vancouver’s answer to SF’s sourdough bread. Where do I start … any suggestion? Granville Island?

I have not found anything equivalent in Vancouver that come close to the French Baquettes that I fell in love with in Paris. I got a loaf here in SF … no, it was terrible. When in Boudin, it’s only the Sourdough Bread that matters.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Paratha

Paratha (sometimes also spelt as prata) is another type of Indian bread. This one is flakier than the roti. Flakiness in bread is achieved by folding layers of rolled dough with butter in between the layers.

The flakiness in Paratha is also achieve through the same technique except that Ghee is used. Ghee is an important ingredient used in Indian Cuisines. Also known as clarified butter, Ghee is made by simmering butter until water is removed.

Sujre demonstrated two ways of making Paratha. Paratha is made from the same dough as Roti.

First method

Roll out a dough on a floured surface.  Rub some ghee on the dough.

Sprinkle with some flour.

Make a slit to the centre and roll up in a cone shape.

This is how it should resembled.

Press down the cone from the wider end.

This will create multiple layers when it’s roll out flat again.

Second method

Start off with rolling out the dough, rub with some ghee and sprinkle with some flour.

Roll dough up from one end into a cylinder shape (or like cigar).

From one end, make a spiral from the cylinder.This spiral will be flattened again before frying.

The frying of the Paratha is slightly different from the Roti. You will have to rub some ghee on the Paratha during the frying process and not after the frying. For those who are watching your weight, Roti will be a better choice of bread.

Sujre, thank you so much for sharing the Indian cuisine with us. We look forward to more East Indian recipes.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Roti (Indian Flat Bread)

Sujre made roti to go with the Indian Chicken Curry she made. The word Roti is a generic word for “bread” in India and South East Asia. The roti “bread” is not like what we are used to know … this roti is flat and shaped rounded.

Sujre prepared the dough on the morning before she came to the cooking class. So we did not get to see how she made the dough. However, she told us that she used the Golden Temple Whole Wheat Flour (known as Duram Atta). Duram Atta is a finely stone-ground, whole-wheat flour that uses the entire brown wheat kernel. This low gluten flour kneads easier and cooks quickly. Besides this roti, Atta is also used to make other roti variants such as paratha, chapati and puri breads.

The dough is made up by adding only water, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of oil to the flour. The dough is set aside for 30 minutes to rest before it is used to make the roti. After resting, break the dough and roll them into golf ball sized portions.

On a floured surface, Sujre rolled the dough out very thinly, like 1-2 mm thick. She used an Indian rolling pin which is smaller and has narrower ends. She moved the rolling pin in circular motion while rolling which creates a perfect rounded shape. She made it look so simple.

Well, we did try our hands rolling it, but many of us ended up with really odd shapes. We did have fun trying to do it nevertheless. It is not easy.

Before putting the roti in the frying pan, Sujre flipped the roti from one hand to another several times. This is to remove excess flour from the dough. The excess flour will get burnt in the frying pan if not shaken off. I remember seeing this being done before on TV but never knew why they did it … now I know.

The roti is dry fried in a pan, i.e. without any oil. The pan needs to be smoking hot. You need to watch this closely lest you end up burning the roti. Sujre flipped the roti over once the edges look dried.

If the dough is rolled out properly without too much pressure, the roti will puff up very nicely. This is when everyone looks at the curry and the roti and … drools!

The roti is flipped until both sides are nicely browned, but, not burnt.

To serve, remove the roti to a plate and lightly brush with margarine or butter on one side. This roti is usually eaten by dipping it in curry gravy.

This is a very healthy bread as there is not much of oil on it. I will blog on another type of bread called paratha wihich is more flaky and flavourful because it uses ghee to create the layers in the bread.

Popularity: 12% [?]