Melody's Reading Corner: Weekend Cooking

Showing posts with label Weekend Cooking. Show all posts

Melody

I'd had a wonderful time making the milk loaf with the bread machine the last time, so this past Saturday I decided to make another - Mango and Banana Bread. Doesn't this sound yummy? And what I love about the bread machine cookbook is the step-by-step instructions and the introductions of all the necessary ingredients as well. This book definitely suits well for a novice like me, but of course it also includes other recipes which I find very ~~challenging~~ interesting so perhaps one day I'd be able to reach to that stage, ha. (Please note all rights remain with the original copyright holder, Jennie Shapter. The photos of the bread are all mine, though.)

Ingredients (Medium Loaf)

60ml orange and mango juice
200ml buttermilk
1 large banana, peeled and mashed
45ml clear honey
4 1/2 cups unbleached white bread flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp easy bake dried yeast

1) Pour the fruit juice and buttermilk into the bread machine pan. Add the mashed banana to the bread pan, with the honey.

2) Sprinkle over the flour, ensuring that it covers the liquid. Place the salt and butter in separate corners of the bread pan. Make a shallow indent in the centre of the flour and add the yeast.

3) Set the machine to sweet/basic, light crust. Size: 750g. Press start.

Note: The original recipe includes adding chopped dried mangoes, which I didn't. If you wish, add in 1/3 cup of it to the automatic dispenser before pressing 'Start'. If adding it manually, add when the machine beeps during the kneading cycle.

Personally, I'd prefer this bread more to milk loaf due to its sweeter flavour (my two young daughters said it was not sweet enough, though. I suppose most children tend to have a sweet tooth so their opinions of the sweet level may different from us.)

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Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. For more information, see the welcome post.

Labels: General, Miscellaneous, Weekend Cooking 8 comments |

Weekend Cooking: Milk Loaf

Melody

Last weekend I mentioned about a bread machine cookbook I bought and how I wanted to 'resurrect' it after 'hypernating' in our storeroom for about two years. So yesterday, I've decided to make milk loaf based on that cookbook recipe and I've to say I'd fun preparing the ingredients and measuring them. My two daughters looked on with fascination, as if I was going to perform a magic show. Anyway, here's the recipe (all rights remain with the original copyright holder, Jennie Shapter. The photos of the bread are all mine, though):

Medium loaf

230ml (1 cup) milk

100ml (7 tbsp) water

4 1/2 cups unbleached white bread flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp granulated sugar

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp easy bake dried yeast

1) Pour the milk (make sure it's at room temperature) and water into the bread machine pan.

2) Put the bread flour in and make sure it covers the water. Add in salt, sugar and butter in separate corners of the bread pan. Make a dent in the centre of the flour (not right at the bottom that you can see the liquid) and add in the yeast.

3) Set to basic bread setting, medium crust, size 750g. Press Start.

And there you go. The milk loaf I made may not win a prize for best presentation, but it tasted good and the texture was soft (I recommend to consume it as soon as possible as the texture would not be as soft the following day, since we didn't use preservatives.) Next time I may try out something a little more challenging.

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Labels: General, Miscellaneous, Weekend Cooking 8 comments |

Weekend Cooking: (150 Recipes for Your Bread Machine by Jennie Shapter)

Melody

ISBN-13: 9781780193403
Publisher: Anness Publishing Ltd
Publication Date: 7 January 2015
Format: Paperback, 256 pgs
Source: Purchased

Speaking of kitchen gadgets, the majority of us would usually think that it's always the women who buy them, right? Well, I did most of the decisions when it comes to buying our kitchen gadgets (the Hubs just need to pay the costs, ha!), so can you imagine how surprised I was when he carried a box from the office one day (last year, or is it the previous year?) and informed me that he bought a bread machine (his colleague bought it for him actually. He claimed it was cheaper back in his home town.)

Well, I love breads and pastries but making them is entirely a different matter. My husband said as long as we follow the instructions and the manual given, it shouldn't be a problem. I told him then that maybe he can give it a go first. So we bought all the ingredients and I watched him putting things together like a chef supervising her student (if only!). Anyway, it looks easy since we only need to put all the ingredients in and let the machine do its job. I remember the sweet aroma of the bread that filled the house then and I was mesmerised. Alas, our interest lasted for a few months (since we made the same bread most of the time and the recipes in the manual is limited) and we are back to buying breads.

The other day when I was browsing at a book store, I came across this cookbook about bread machine recipes. I bought the book and told my husband it's about time we should 'resurrect' the bread machine. As I flipped through that cookbook, I was not only captured by the pictures but also the introductions of the various types of ingredients and step-by-step methods serve to be useful and informative especially for novice like me. What's more, they also included topics such as "Getting down to basics", "How to use your bread machine", "Baking, cooling and storing", "Glazes and Toppings", "Getting the best from your machine", "Troubleshooting" (Oh yes!), etc. And oh, it also has a complete nutritional analysis of every recipe too!

While I haven't tried making any breads from this cookbook (first I need to get that bread machine from our storeroom), I thought I'd highlight this book to you and make a list of some of the categories they have in here:

• Basic breads

• Specialty grains

• Flatbreads and pizzas

• Sourdoughs and starter dough breads

• Savoury breads

• Vegetable breads

• Rolls, buns and pastries

• Sweet breads and yeast cakes

• Teabreads and cakes

Linking this to:

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. For more information, see the welcome post.

Labels: General, Miscellaneous, Weekend Cooking 10 comments |

Weekend Cooking: Fried Rice

Melody

Fried rice is one of the easiest dishes to prepare. All you just need is steamed rice and other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables and meat (optional if you are a vegetarian) and you have your dish. Plus, minimal time is required so it is a convenient dish for anyone who is in a hurry but still want home-cooked food.

Once your steamed rice is cooked, set it aside to cool. My mother would tell me that leftover rice is the best but I tend to finish what everything I have so that I can have fresh food every time. And while you are waiting for the rice to cool, you can prepare the side ingredients. First, make scrambled eggs (2 or 3 eggs would do) and shred them to pieces. Next, stir fry the mixed vegetables - peas, carrots and corns in a wok using little cooking oil (as these are frozen items make sure they are thawed first.) You can then pour in the steamed rice and stir fry with the mixed vegetables for a few minutes. Add in the shredded eggs and stir fry again, then add a dash of salt to taste. You are now ready to serve. Simple, isn't it? There are various recipes out there and basically what ingredients to put are up to you but what I have shared is the most commonly used. And yes, you can add in some pineapple cubes so it looks like pineapple rice.

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Labels: General, Miscellaneous, Weekend Cooking 11 comments |

Weekend Cooking: Satay

Melody

Satay is considered one of the popular eateries in Singapore. Originated from Indonesia, satay is basically a dish of grilled marinated meat (chicken, beef or mutton) served with spicy peanut sauce. This dish is usually accompanied with cucumber cubes, ketupat (rice cakes) and some onion slices. Before I became vegetarian, my favourite used to be mutton satay. Mutton tends to have a stronger flavour but with the marinated spices, it covers up the 'mutton-y' smell or flavour (plus there's the peanut sauce, too.)

Anyway, finding vegetarian satay is a challenge (well, some vegetarian food stalls do have them but not all) so I was thrilled to find packets of frozen vegetarian satay in a supermarket. And, it comes with a sauce dip too. While I don't have a griller, I found frying is another great alternative, too. (Just make sure the oil doesn't cover those sticks. And yes, they taste equally yummy!)