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Of Food and perhaps a little about me
Archive for Bread
December 31, 2007 at 6:26 pm · Filed under Bread, Recipes: Baking
“Bagel, bagel, yum yum bagel, yum yum pumpernickel, pumpernickel bread! I have a bagel and it’s delicious. Would you like a bite?” I came to know of this song from the popular kid’s show, Barney. Although I have no kids, but I am quite familiar with the songs in the show, singing along and dancing around with my nieces.
Mini bagels is what I made some time back. My first try handling dough and yeast. These bagels are really small, only 5cm in diameter. I made them plain as I forgot to buy seasame seeds for the toppings. The first time I saw these cute little bagels at Evan’s blog, I thought they were donuts. Haha..
Bagels are know to be hard, dense and chewy. It is a popular choice of bread in the US. You can add various types of toppings such as poppy seeds, seasame seeds, onions, cheese, garlic, etc. When making bagels, you need to bathe them in boiling water. Depending on how hard or soft you want your bagels to be, the time they spent bathing in the water is varied. Want them harder, longer in the boiling water. Prefer them softer, reduce the water bath duration.
As the bagels I made are really small, they were very chewy even though I followed the recipe. The next time I make them, I will either reduce the time further, or make bigger bagels! Plain bagels are so versatile, eat them with cream cheese, cheese, or the blt way. I had mine with ham, cucumber and tomatoes for breakfast. 3 of them and I’m stuffed!
I am somewhat satisfied with my first experience handling dough although there were some hiccups during the process. My dough didn’t seemed to doubled in size and I kept peeping. Haha.. I realized that I should make them during the day where temperature is higher and warm, as the dough needs to be in a warm area to be able to rise nicely. But it’s nice to have fresh homemade bagels for breakfast the next day.
This is the last day of year. I hope 2007 was a good one for you. Let’s look forward to 2008 together! See you soon and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
November 1, 2007 at 12:07 am · Filed under Bread, Recipes: Quick & Easy
Focaccia (foe-ca-cha) is an italian flat bread, traditionally baked in a wood-fired oven. Focaccia dough is similar to pizza dough and can be used as a pizza base as well. A simple focaccia bread is brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt before baking. There are many toppings you can add to make it more flavourful with ingredients like tomatoes, herbs, cheese, olives or garlic. You can use the bread as a side, eat it with your soup or use them as a sandwich.
A few years ago, Gardenia’s focaccia bread caught my eye in the supermarket. I could smell the nice olive oil and herbs aroma, so I bought a pack to try it out. It’s so good that I can even eat it on it’s own. All you need to do is to toast it lightly and spread some butter or olive oil on it. Yummy!
Since we were still in our ‘lazy weekend’ mood, we bought some focaccia bread, cheddar cheese, tuna and butterhead lettuce. We took a can of potato leek soup to go with our sandwich meal. This is a very easy, fuss-free sandwich. I mixed in some lemon juice and olive oil with the tuna (water drained) flakes. Sliced some cheddar cheese, prepared the butterhead lettuce and tomatoes. Sandwiched all the ingredients nicely on the toasted focaccia bread, and viola! We ate them with the potato leek soup, which was thick and nice.
I’ve yet to try baking focaccia but I am so tempted after seeing Camemberu baked her cheese focaccia. There are a few recipes sitting in my computer folder. I might try baking it soon, or maybe not. Hehe…
Stay tuned for a yummy soup recipe that will go very well with a sandwich meal or even on it’s own.
October 30, 2007 at 6:00 pm · Filed under Bread, Recipes: Quick & Easy
Lazy brunch. How do you define lazy meals? It used to be instant noodles or packet lunch, and it’s always the same old stuffs, like chicken rice, laksa, fishball noodles, etc. Lazy meals to me would probably mean cooking with minimum fuss. There are days when you get sick of rice or noodles. That’s where you find other alternatives to get those carbohydrates you crave for.
During my usual grocery shopping, we saw packs of pita bread at the hams section and thought that we could make some really simple stuffed pita for brunch the next day. We grabbed a pack along with some bacons, fresh button mushrooms, bell peppers and green coral lettuce.
To prepare the stuffing for the pita bread, I just sautéed the bell peppers, mushroom and bacon with some olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. I also prepared some green salad with the green coral lettuce and tomatoes to go with the stuffed pita bread. I toasted the pita bread before stuffing in the ingredients. You can stuff whatever you like, really. If you prefer not to cook at all, just open a can of tuna with mayonnaise to eat with the bread. It will be lovely to just roast some vegetables like bell peppers, aubergine to go with my bread. Healthy and all full of goodness.
As you can see, I made a silly mistake of cutting the bread at the top instead of halving it. Thus, the stuffing made an ugly slit on my pita bread. Haha… To get more crunch, I stuffed in some of my salad as well.
For readers who have been following my blog for some time, you might have noticed that I like adding bell peppers to my pasta or roasting them. Bingo to those who have guessed correctly. It’s partly because of my hamsters. I’ve sometimes run out of ideas on what to feed them. At times, they can get so fussy over the fresh food I give them. So I have to get creative. B complains that he gets the leftovers instead. Oh well…
Bell peppers have a crunchy texture, ranging from green, red to yellow. Yes, they resemble the traffic light colors when packed together. Although termed as the peppers family, bell peppers are not hot at all. In fact, they are also called sweet peppers. They are a good source of vitamin C, vitamin A, beta carotene and folic acid. Yellow and red bell pepper have more time to mature, thus they are sweeter compared to the green bell peppers, providing more vitamin A and C and are full of cancer-fighting carotenoids. I learnt this only when I start researching on bell peppers. Green, yellow and red peppers are the same, being the green ones are the least mature. When the green peppers get matured, they become yellow, and then to red, being the most matured ones.
Preparing Bell Peppers
To prepare the bell peppers, wash and scrub them well. Cut them lengthwise and remove the seeds from the inner cavity (including the white spongy parts). Cut them in any way you like, diced, juliennes or chunks.
How to select and store them
Choose peppers that are vivid in colours and without any bruises, taut skin and firm to the touch. Their stems should look fresh and green. You can store them in your vegetable compartment in the refrigerator for up to a week.
You can try adding chopped bell peppers to your appetizers or salads. Other than the beneficial nutrients, simply stir-fry them with chicken or pork to liven up your dish with their beautiful colours. You can even purée roasted peppers to make a soup.
Share with me what are your favourite lazy meals. I would love to hear them!
