Baked Curry Puffs..........

Healthy puffs ready to bite in.............

I had a busy August month and I had many things to share but could not find the time to post up here. Another lame reason is I am just plain lazy to blog as my time is spent more on my FB games. So now I get a break from my addiction to share something here. Today's food is Baked Curry Puffs which I made a month ago. Gosh! that is how long I have been away from here.

I used some atta flour or wholewheat flour that is use to make the Indian Capati for this pastry. With baking this Malaysian favorite snacks it saves me the time of splattering my nice kitchen from any oily vapour besides being a much healthy snack.

Ingredients for pastry:

150g atta flour

150g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

140g cold butter

Ice cold water to mix

Fillings:

200g lean meat (pork, chicken or beef)-diced

2-3 medium sized potato

1 tbsp oil

1 big onion- chopped

1 tbsp meat curry powder

1 tsp of chicken powder

salt to taste

Method:

The ready cook fillings........

Dice meat into desired cubes. Add salt and curry powder to season it for awhile. Boiled the diced potatoes in pot til tender. In a wok or pan, heat oil and sautee the chopped onions for a minute. Add in the meat and cook til browned and add in the boiled potatoes. Mix well and season to taste. Dish out filling onto plate and leave aside to cool.

To make the pastry, sieve flour and salt into a mixing bowl and rub in the cold butter gently until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Add enough ice cold water to form a firm dough. Wrap up dough with plastic sheets and leave to chill in fridge for about 30 mins before using.

Cut out pastry circles ready for wrapping with fillings.....

Roll out pastry thinly about the thickness of a 50 sen coin and stamp out with a cutter (I used the cover of my biscuit container) into circles of 9 cm in diameter. Place spoonful of fillings in the centre. Fold over, flute if you are skilful or just press down with a fork to seal the edges. I use the plastic curry puff maker bought in supermarket for easier handling as my arthritic fingers made it more diffficult for me to flute it.

Unbaked puffs ready to go into oven...........

Lastly brush puff with beaten egg for a golden glaze. Baked in a preheated oven of 200 degrees Celcius for 15 to 20 minutes or til golden brown.

Note: I had other versions of curry puffs over here and here.

I like to bake in double portions and when cooled I keep the puffs in airtight container or sealed plastic bags then kept in freezer for weeks to enjoy. When needed just take out to thaw and heat in microwave.

For those who wants to know how a curry puff mould looks like, refer to the above pic.

Put a cut pastry on top , add in fillings, fold over, press and pull out the unwanted ends.

My Focaccia Bread.......

Yesterday I baked a Focaccia bread kneading it in my Thermomix. It is an Italian oven baked flat bread which is so simple to make. All you need is some high gluten flour, yeast, salt, sugar, water and olive oil. I added some Parmesan cheese powder and finely chopped fresh herbs of rosemary and thyme to the dough. Focaccia dough takes up more water than a normal bread and so it is has more moisture and stickier. Here is a recipe to share.
I use gram here because my TM 21 can weigh all the ingredients plus the liqiud while I add in the ingredients one by one.

Ingredients:

500g high protein flour
100g/ml milk
250g/ml water
20g/ml olive oil
10g sugar
15g dried yeast/3 tsp
5g salt/ 1 tsp
50g Parmesan cheese powder
1 tbsp of freshly chopped mixed herbs(Rosemary, basil or parsley)

Method: Using Thermomix.

1. Put water, milk, dried yeast, and sugar into TM bowl. Set temperature @40 C, speed 2, for 10 seconds to warm the liquid. Next add in flour, salt, herbs, Parmesan cheese powder and olive oil. Set @ 20 seconds speed of 6 to mix the ingredients.

2.Then set timer to 2 1/2 minutes and press 'Knead' button to knead the dough.

3. Take dough out from bowl and place on a lightly oiled large bowl and leave covered with a damp cloth to rest for 45 minutes to an hour in a warm corner of your kitchen. ( I put the whole bowl in a clean plastic bag and tied up.)



4. Take the risen dough out of bowl and put on a lightly floured surface to prevent it from sticking it to the surface. Press both fingers on the dough to flatten it. Fold both ends together and flatten it again with hands. Do it few times to clear out the air.


5. Place dough in baking tray lined with non stick paper. Brush or drizzle olive oil on the flatten bread and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top.(I sprinkle some sesame seeds in addition to the cheese because I love the smell of sesame)

6. Bake the dough in a preheated oven of 220 degree Celcius for 40 - 45 minutes til golden brown.


For those who do not have a thermomix, omit method 1 and 2 and replace it with this method here:

1. Place water, milk, sugar and yeast in a bowl and rest for 5 minutes. Its better if the milk and water is lukewarm but not hot so that the yeast will proof better.

2. Put flour in a large bowl, make a well in the centre and slowly pour in the yeast mixture. Fold in the flour with hands to combined and knead into a soft smooth dough.

The baked focaccia bread is moist and soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.

Son R 's dinner of Focaccia bread with creamy mushroom soup, pork chops and salads.

The Most Awesome Porridge With My TM 21...

TM 21 short for Thermomix is actually the most wonderful machine that I ever had in my kitchen. It is a powerful blender which can cook, weigh, cut, chop, mix, mince, pulverize, grate, grind, mill, beat, whip, whisk, knead, emulsify. It can also steam, simmer, and stir fry. My TM 21 is an old model bought a decade ago and now there is a newer version known as TM 31 which was recently promoted in Malaysia and selling like hot cakes.

My older model TM 21, cooking the porridge....

Few days ago my eldest son was having a bad flu so I cook this very smooth and nutritious chicken porridge for him in just 13 minutes. All I need to do is put all ingredients like washed rice cubed onions, chicken pieces, potatoes, carrots and water into the machine, adjust timer, temperature and speed. Viola! porridge is ready to be served.....

To tell you sincerely, the porridge turns out so smooth, soft and flavorful that it can even beat those in any famous restaurant. It cooks while stirring rice and blending the chicken meat and at a desired temperaure of 100 degree Celcius all at the same time. So easy peasy. It will be most useful for those with elderly or babies who need to have soft diet like this as it can grind and cook anything to smooth paste in seconds at the push of a button.

I cook some chicken mushroom soup and knead my dough for sausage rolls in my Thermomix yesterday which is also called Bimby overseas. It only takes less than a minute to made a smooth dough.

For more info of this wonder kitchen appliance from Vorwerk, Germany here are some links to share...

Superkitchen Machine Blog

Note: Would love to create more recipes and share with anyone with this super machine. Recently I have join the team of Advisors with the company that import and distribute Thermomix 31. Anyone can contact me here for more info or have any recipes to share.

Aromatic Pandan Chicken.....

Pandan chicken

Yesterday I cook this yummy chicken dish using lots of screwpine leaves or known as Pandan in Malay. The unique taste and aroma of these screwpine leaves used to wrap round the seasoned chicken pieces which is then deepfry in hot oil to bring out a flavorful dish which nobody could resist. Pandan leaves can be easily grown if you live in the tropics and have a small garden and it doesn't need lots of care. I brought some over from my garden in my hometown house during the weekend. Here is a recipe to share.

Blended shallots, garlic, ginger and lemon grass....

Chicken with blended ingredients and sauces......

Ingredients:

3 Chicken thighs-deboned and diced into 6x3-cm pieces
3 shallots-peeled
2 slices ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 stalk lemon grass
2 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp chilli powder
100 ml coconut cream or santan

15-20 pieces pandan leaves-washed

Wrapped chicken ready for deep-frying.......

Method:

1. Rinse chicken meat and pat dry with kitchen towel.
2. Blend shallots, garlic, ginger and lemon grass in a processor with a little water. 3.Then mix it with the rest of the ingredients(except the pandan leaves) into the chicken.
4. Mix well and leave to marinade for 3 to 4 hours in fridge.
5. Wrap up each piece of chicken neatly with a pandan leave and secure with a wooden toothpick.
6. Heat oil in wok or deepfryer and deep-fry for 6 to 8 minutes til chicken is cook through.
7. Drain and serve it with hot rice.

Guinness Stout Spare Ribs....

Yesterday I tried my hands on this dish which uses the famous Irish beer for cooking my spareribs. It turns out well and tasted just as good as those eaten outside and if not the best. Maybe next time I will give it some variations like adding jams or maltose instead of honey to add to the flavor of the bitter sweet stout. Here is how I cook it......

1. Wash 600gm of spare ribs and drained. Dap dry with kitchen towel.

2. Marinate the ribs with 1 tsp ginger juice, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp light soya sauce, 3 tbsp Guinness Stout, 1 tbsp plain flour and 1 tbsp cornflour. Keep aside in fridge to season for 2 to 3 hours covered.

3. Deep fry the marinated ribs in hot oil for about 2 minutes. Remove and drain.

4. Heat 1/2 tbsp oil in a clean wok. Pour in sauce mixture A which consist of 1 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp freshly squeeze lemon juice, and 9 tbsp Guinness Stout. Bring it to boil.

5. Return ribs to wok and mix well. Pour in 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for about 40 minutes til the ribs are tender and make sure the gravy is not too dry. Lastly thicken the sauce with cornflour mixture by mixing 2 tsp of cornflour with 1 tbsp water. Dish up and it is ready to be eaten with hot rice.

Spicy Nestum Butter Prawns....

Actually I already had a recipe of this savory dish in my blog here. My boys love to eat anything cook with butter and what more if it is fried and fragrant. As it is not a very healthy dish for those with high cholesterol I would try to lessen the amount of butter and omit the egg yolk in this variation. This time I peel the prawn shells before cooking to make it easy to pop into the mouth without dirtying the fingers and also convenient for little children to eat. Omit the chillis or split it into halves and take out the seed like I do for small children. Here is a healthier recipe to share......

Ingredients:

600 g medium prawns- peeled and leave the tail part on.

2 sprig curry leaves-take out the stems

5 chilli padis - chopped

5 cloves garlic- chopped

2 tbsp of evaporated milk

1 tbsp of butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp of salt

Marinade: for Prawns

1 egg- slightly beaten

1/2 tsp salt

a dash of pepper

1 tsp cornflour

Method:

Marinade the prawns with egg, salt, pepper and cornflour. Keep aside in fridge for about 30 minutes. Deep fried the prawns in hot oil til just cook or change color. Drain and keep aside.

Then in a clean wok or pan, heat olive oil and butter under medium heat as butter will get easily burnt on high heat. When butter melts, add in the garlic, chopped chillis, curry leaves to fry for a minute or two til fragrant. Next, add in the fried prawns and mix well for another minute. Add milk to it while stirring.

Before dishing out, add in the Nestum ( made sure it is original and not the packet mix which is too sweet for this dish) and stirfry for a minute sprinkling some salt for flavor. For those who love Nestum you can add more to bind with the buttery prawns to make a drier crispy texture.