Daddy’s pies

Chicken pie isn’t a typical father’s day gift. These were for H’s Daddy who has a fantastically sweet tooth. Unfortunately, after a baking spree involving chocolate, fruit, nuts and fantastic ideas. I realized that there wasn’t plain flour in the house. All I had was self raising which can be used instead. Usually you can omit the raising agent in the recipe as self raising flour has baking powder and baking soda in it. But I don’t know in what proportion. I didn’t want to risk a disaster,so thought I would play safe. So after a week long sabbatical from making anything at all, this is what I managed to dig out of the freezer.. Anyway I know Daddy loves these too.

Creamy chicken and mozarella pies

Ingredients

325 g 1 pack store bought puff pastry

3 boneless chicken breasts cut into cubes

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

3 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

100g grated mozarella

Method

Saute onions till brown, add garlic. Add chicken and sour cream, simmer for 1o mins. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cut block of pastry into 12 pieces. Roll out to 2 mm thick. Fill with mozarella and chicken filling. Bake in preheated oven at 220C for 15 mins or till golden brown.

A pocketful of pita

                                                                    

             

                                                                   

Weekends are the only times I can tackle serious baking. Still in a bready mood, I was inspired to make bread that I knew H would enjoy. These are reminiscent of Lebanese bread that he loves with hummus. I was also fascinated by the concept of cooking bread in the highest possible temperature that resulted in airy pockets within. Think naan cooked in a tandoor or pizza baked in a stone oven. Well, this was done in my conventional oven at the highest possible temperature it can go. This recipe uses a sponge method which is mixing and proving a dough called a sponge first and later mixing it into the main dough. This makes a bread of superior softness for example burger buns or sandwich loaves. As compared to a bread without a sponge base like the foccaccia in the previous post or ciabatta or a simple French loaf. These have a more chewy texture and tend to be crustier. The dough was simple enough to make. The overall temperature of any bread dough should be about 27C. To make this in tropical Singapore, the water has to be at about 5C. I use it straight from the fridge. Prove in an airtight container as yeast is an anaerobic organism. The tricky part was the baking. Firstly, I didn’t have 12 baking pans so I could not roll out all and prove the pieces at the same time. Had to do it in 2 batches. Secondly I couldn’t bake 2 at a time because I think the heat wasn’t enough to make the both of them rise so I ended up with a flat bread and a risen one. Therefore I had to bake them one at a time and preheating the oven in between to make sure the 250C oven was maintained. Also, some of the pieces didn’t puff up I guess due to the inconsistencies of the proving time while I was mucking around baking. But they were all still good, the ones that didn’t puff up just needed some help with a knife to split it. We had it for dinner stuffed with kofta (minced meat shaped like sausages) and a red pepper salad. The bread kept so well, it was equally good the next day stuffed with cheddar and button mushrooms sautéed in garlic for a light Sunday lunch. I have plans to make a huge batch and freeze them for handy lunch boxes.Well, that’ll be for another weekend. 

Pita bread 

Sponge

350 g bread flour

4 g Instant dry yeast

210 ml cold water 

Dough

150 g Bread flour

1 tbsp milk powder

½ tablespoon bread improver

5 g instant dry yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

100 ml water

2 tablespoons softened butter 

Method

Mix ingredients for sponge 3 mins on low speed. Leave to rise in an airtight container for 4-5 hours. When the sponge in ready, prepare the dough. Place dry ingredients in mixer. Add water and mix on low speed. Cut sponge into pieces and add to mixture. Increase to medium speed and mix for 2 mins. Add butter and mix for another 5-7 mins until dough is fully developed. Round up and divide dough into 12 balls. Pin out dough into pieces 3 mm thick. Leave to rise for 30 mins until dough doubles. Bake in preheated oven for 250C for 5-6 mins until golden brown.  

Mini Macaroons anyone?

Macaroons are the rage these days. Check out this post. Somehow everyone is raving about these almond and egg white confections with a crisp eggshell crust and chewy interior comprising of a chocolate/nut/cream based filling. Its like a high class oreo. Only they’re in rainbow colours, come in a multitude of sizes and are a delightful pairing of complementary flavours. I was in Central Mall for the first time today and came across a wonderful pastry shop Gobi. I bought these 6 pastries for $12.80 and they came in a beautiful box. Had trouble transporting it home though, the pastries sort of melted and smeared onto the box. A quick shot and into the fridge it went to restore its formal glory. I ate one macaroon though. The green one turned out to be mint. It was interesting. There was a grittiness that came from the almonds in the biscuit part. And I think because of the size of it (its about the size of my tooth), I couldn’t make out the flavour of the filling. My guess was that it was a mint cream. But I could be wrong. My tastebuds are not developed enough to sort out details of minute morsels. Each cake is about 4 cm2 in size. The neon toothpick is to spear the tiny things. Anyway the box was for H’s grandma who just went for a cataract op. The other 5 desserts were an opera, mud cake, strawberry something, cherry filled choc cake and an apricot choc cake. I can’t tell you how it tasted but I licked some of the chocolate that smeared on the box during transport and it was pretty good. A little chocolate will cheer any girl up, even at 84. Get well soon nenek!

  

Fried bananas

There’s something about these fried bananas that’s so addictive. I think its that the bananas are always perfectly ripe, which is nearly an impossibility for fried bananas as they tend to soak up oil when ripe. So most people sell under ripe white bananas that taste starchy. But somehow these are not oil soaked, they have the best crispy crust that reveal the sweetest softest flesh. I can’t figure out how they do it. Still experimenting, I’m getting lots of ideas from different people. I’ll post it when I figure it out. I think it has something to do with a mixture of corn flour, rice flour and plain flour. The proportions are still in the works. These are really good with a cup of milk tea, they’re always sold piping hot and they taste extra good when brought a five minute walk away toChangi
Beach to be enjoyed while watching the planes land.  

Sinar Murni Food Stall

#01-39 Changi Village Hawker centre

A green milkshake

I couldn’t resist buying these huge avocadoes from Indonesia at the Geylang market. Indonesian avocados defer from the expensive Sri Lankan or Australian ones found in supermarkets. These are huge with smooth green skin, not wrinkled purplish brown skin like the others. The flesh is thick and perfect when pulped and whizzed into a milkshake. This drink is a little hard to find retailing. And its harder to find the real McCoy. Fruit stalls tend to sell this drink with commercially available avocado pulp and that doesn’t taste good at all, trust me. Anyway, this sure satisfied H’s avocado shake craving. Though temporarily I think.. He doesn’t like it with palm sugar though, I stir through 2 teaspoons of condensed milk instead.

Avocado milkshake

Makes 5 servings  

Ingredients

7 avocados, pulped 

400 ml fresh milk

100 ml Palm sugar syrup

Ice shavings

Method

Blend avocadoes with milk. Pour about 2 tablespoons palm sugar syrup into a tall glass. Pour avocado blend and top with lots of ice. Serve with long spoon.

My grandmother’s healing macaroni

Some people eat chicken soup when they’re ill. Some swear by essence of chicken of a certain brand, which really just causes hypertension with its salt content. Some people eat congee with condiments. I eat my grandmother’s healing macaroni. Since I was small, whenever I was sick, Grandma would fry up some macaroni and bring it over. The key to the macaroni is the brand she uses. She uses a brand that is only found in 1 shop in Teck Whye. I’ve tried looking for it else where but with no success. Unlike thick starchy macaroni made else where with ugly ridges, these are thin, smooth and shell like. Almost like the thinnest home made pasta. With the simple meat stir fried with tomatoes, onion and chilli, it really makes a sick grandchild well again.

My grandmother’s macaroni

Serves 2  Ingredients

300 g minced beef

3 medium onions

10 stalks dried chillies soaked in boiling water and drained

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoon tomato paste

Salt to taste

300 g of macaroni, boiled till al dente

2 tablespoon ghee (sadly this recipe just can’t do without it, so enjoy the coronary clogging goodness)

3 tablespoon corn oil

Garnish

Sliced boiled egg

Crisp fried shallots

Chinese flat leafed parsley

Method

Grind soaked chillis, onion and parlic in food processor to a paste. Heat oil and ghee in wok. Fry paste till crisp and fragrant over small flame, about 12-15 mins. Add tomato puree. Add macaroni and toss to combine. Serve hot with garnish.

 

Almonds!

This is one of my favourite pastries. Its from a patissierie called Canele which has recently opened at Paragon. I go to the Robertson Walk branch as its quiet and near the river! I love the crunch of the almond nibs on top and the sweet almond paste in between the flaky pastry. And what a fantastic shape. There are no cherries in it though as what the picture wrongly suggests. Its just what was in the picnic basket courtesy of my aunt Z. They were delicious. My favourite cake in the shop is the “Matcha”, it’s a green tea mousse cake with an almond biscuit base and a layer of chestnut cream and green tea sponge hidden in between. The grassy taste of the green tea with the creaminess of the chestnuts really work. I’m dreaming of green tea and chestnut combinations now. L please email me the pictures from your mobile!