Fresh blackerry yogurt

A bowl of plain yogurt, a teaspoon of sugar and fresh blackberries.  Thats all it needs.  Freshen up your day with this breakfast!

Berries Breakfast smoothie

Breakfast smoothie

Ingredients:

Berries: strawberries, raspberry and blue berries.(a handfull of each)

 1 scoop of whey protein

 1 glass of fresh milk

Blitz in blender for a minute. Ready for the morning! Rise and shine!

Have a nice day

Flat Bread

This flat bread is a 5 star for my daughter..  I wish I could acknowledge that Chinese Chef I saw on tv way back before my daughter was even conceived.  I remember his face but couldn't remember his name.  He used this flat bread  recipe  for a peking duck recipe he once showed in one of his shows. You bet I owe a thank you to that chef, so I might come back to put his name here for acknowledgment  if I catch him again.

Well, this is very simple easy to do flat bread.  Now, i can do it in less than 30 minutes. Fresh flat bread would be served on the table.

Normally I do it with eyes half closed, I meant i don't measure anymore, just estimate the amount but for the purpose of posting it here, I did measure this time. :-) and took a step by step photos for a guide.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 warm water

In a mixing bowl add flour and salt, make a well at the center and add olive oil and sesame oil.  Gradually add the warm water while mixing the mixture (use the tip of a wooden spoon, or tip of the fork to mix) until it forms small lumps, continue adding water whilst mixing until the flour gathers together and form bigger lumps.  Gather all the lumps to form a dough.  On a flat working surface, knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic.  Form into a log and cut into pieces.  Form each peace into a ball.  Flatten it with the palm of your hands and then flatten it further using a rolling pin until it becomes thin.  Make it as thin as possible.  Sprinkle some flour if needed so it wont stick to the surface or to the rolling pin.  Preheat a flat pan,  and place the flattened dough. Cook in high heat until the surface starts to rise like bubbles. Flip it over to cook the other side.  Use a flat turner to do this, and if you are tempted to flatten the bubbly surface, go ahead.   Once there are black spots visible, the bread is done!

Make a well in center and add olive oil and sesame oil

gradually add warm water while mixing, it will start to form small lumps 

flour starts to form larger lumps

After adding the water, gather the lumps around the and knead like a dough

Place the dough on a smooth and lightly floured surface

Form into a log

cut into pieces

form into small balls

flour the surface and the rolling pin

flatten it using the palm of the hands

Flatten the dough using a rolling pin

Cook it on a flat pan

It will rise like bubbles

Flip it over 

ready to eat..

The bread is good as it is, use it as wrap or stuff it with goodness inside.

Some of the variations below:

stuffing it with thin cheese

add ham 

wrap it like an envelope

in the pan it goes

waiting time won't be that long :-)

Croissant

I’ve been itching to make croissant since a very long time and I finally made a dip to commit myself to make it and eventually dedicated to succeed in making one which was quite a challenge for me. I didn’t make it perfect, but its edible so-to-speak, anyway, hubby and I were the only judge and we evaluated the result. It wasn’t flaky enough and the layers of dough are a little bit thick as it should be. It took time to cook that what was stated in the recipe, the recipe says 15-20 minutes at 190 degrees C to brown but it took 45 minutes to brown. My croissants didn’t fluff much.

I’m not giving up just yet, I’m going to make it again.

I’m trying to figure out where did I went wrong in the process and possible factors and concluded the ff:

a) The recipe didn’t say what particular kind of flour to use, I used Bread flour type “00” Maybe there is not enough gluten in the flour causing the dough not so elastic.

To correct: use flour with high gluten content.

b) The flattened butter was a little bit thick and there was not enough space to spread it thinly, so during the folding process, some of the butter got out of the dough folds at the sides.

To correct: Allow a space at least about 2 inch at the sides to seal the dough when the butter is folded in.

My source of the recipe is from video jug;The video looks very easy to do, all you need is patience. The text version of the recipe I just paste it below; for easy reference.

CROISSANTS

You will need:

· 500 g flour

· 15 g active dry yeast

· 90 g sugar

· 15 g salt

· 300 ml warm milk

· 340 g butter , room temperature

· 1 egg, beaten with 2 Tbsp water

· some extra flour

· 1 rolling pin

· 1 knife

· 1 baking tray lined with parchment

· 1 mixer with hook attachment

· 1 mixing bowl

· 1 tea towel

· 1 plastic bag

· 1 brush

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Step 2:

Begin the dough

Put the flour into the mixer. Add the salt, sugar, milk and yeast. Mix it on low for 8-10 minutes until it has a smooth elastic consistency. Dust the dough and a large bowl with flour. Remove the dough from the mixer and transfer it into a bowl. Cover it with the towel and let it rise until it doubles in size. This should roughly, take 1.5 to 2 hours.

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Step 3:

Prepare the butter

Put a sheet of cling film onto your working surface. Place the butter on top and cover it with a second sheet of cling film. Flatten it with your hands, roll it into a rectangle of about 20 X 25 cm with your rolling pin and place it into the fridge to chill.

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Step 4:

Roll out dough

After the dough has doubled in size, sprinkle it with a little bit of flour. Punch out the air with your knuckles and place it onto a floured work surface. Dust the dough with flour and roll it out into a large rectangle that is big enough to hold the sheet of chilled butter. Move the dough around in the flour. You may have to dust the table again, if you need to.

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Step 5:

Fold in butter

Unwrap the chilled butter and place it onto the upper part of dough. Fold the dough around the butter to enclose it completely. Lift the dough and sprinkle the table with flour. Turn the dough around and roll it into another long rectangle. Fold the dough into thirds, brushing off the excess flour as you go. This completes the first turn. Now wrap it in cling film and place it into the fridge for a minimum of 25 to 30 minutes.

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Step 6:

Turn the dough

At the end of the 30 minutes sprinkle your working surface with flour. Unwrap the dough and place it onto the work surface. Make sure that the dough has the seam vertically placed. Dust it with a sprinkling of flour and roll it out into another rectangle. Fold, brush and wrap, exactly as before. This now completes the second turn.

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Step 7:

Chill and turn again

Place it back into the fridge for another 30 minutes. Once removed, roll and fold for the third and final turn. Make sure that the dough is well wrapped before placing into the fridge once more to chill overnight.

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Step 8:

Shape the croissants

One chilled, cut the unwrapped dough into half, on a floured surface. Dust the dough with some flour and roll one half of the dough into a rectangle. Reflour the surface when necessary and continue to roll until the dough is roughly less than half a centimetre thick. Turn the rectangle around. Flour the surface and trim the edges of the dough neatly. Cut it into triangle shapes. Take the bottom of the triangle at its widest part and using your hands, tightly roll it up into a croissant shape. You can freeze the other half of the dough for use another time, or repeat the process and make more croissants.

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Step 9:

Allow to rise

Place the croissants onto a prelined baking tray. Cover them with a clean plastic bag and leave to double in size.

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Step 10:

Preheat the oven

Set the oven to 190ºC (375ºF/ gas mark 5).

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Step 11:

Wash and bake

Once the croissants have risen remove the plastic bag. Very gently brush them all over with the egg wash. Place them into the centre of the oven. Bake them for roughly 15 minutes. When they are a deep golden brown remove them from the oven.

Tuna Sandwich

Tuna Sandwich

Tuna sandwich could be very ordinary but a little effort on to make the tuna filling is worth every bite.

Ingredients:
6 loaves of sandwich (toasted)
2 tomatoes (thinly sliced)
Lettuce

Tuna filling:
1 can tuna chunks
1 red pepper/capsicum (finely chopped)
1 white onion (finely chopped)
½ cucumber (finely chopped)
2 Tbsp. Mayonnaise
½ lemon (use the juice only)
Pepper

Procedure:
Drain the tuna and use a fork to crush the chucks roughly. Add finely chopped red pepper, onion and cucumber. Then squeeze the juice of ½ lemon (This refreshes the flavor of the tuna and removes the fishy smell). Add enough mayonnaise and mix with the tuna mixture. Season with freshly ground pepper.

Assemble the sandwich.

Omelet filled with tomatoes

Simple and easy for a weekend breakfast.

Ingredients:
2 pcs. Eggs
Salt and pepper

Filling:
2 large tomatoes
1 white onion
Cheese
Salt and pepper

Procedure:

Make the filling first by sautéing onions and tomatoes wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Grate cheese and set aside.

Preheat a shallow frying pan, beat eggs and season with salt and pepper. Oil the preheated pan and wipe with kitchen paper. Add half of the beaten eggs and swirl the pan around to spread the egg evenly. Add the sautéed tomatoes and onions in half side of the egg. Sprinkle cheese and fold the remaining half of the egg. Repeat procedure for the 2nd omelet.

The recipe yields 2 omelets. Serve with toasted bread.

Handy tips:
The pan should be hot enough before adding frying the egg; but not overly heated so that egg will not get burned.

The filling should be a little bit dry and wilted, not chunky, otherwise the eggs will easily break when folded.

Beat the eggs slightly, not fluffy. Fluffy eggs would turn out bubbly and will collapse after and beat eggs on the last minute before adding into the hot pan.

Bacon,mushroom and cheese on Toast

Breakfast Devine

Got this from Sophie Grigson’s show, but substituted some ingredients.

Ingredients :

3 Eggs

2 Tbsp. Butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 slices bacon (thinly sliced)

2 slices ham (thinly slized)

200 g mushrooms (thinly slized)

1 pc. white onion (thinly slized)

200 g. flamengo cheese (grated)

100 g. parmesan cheese (grated)

salt & pepper to taste

How to:

Preheat oven into 180 degrees C. Separate egg white from yolk and set aside.Heat olive oil and butter in a pan, add bacon & ham and fry just quickly until done. Remove from pan. With the same pan (with the remaining oil & butter used with frying the bacon, this really adds flavor) add mushrooms and continue frying, add onions and stir-fry until mushrooms turn golden brown at the sides. Add the cooked bacon & ham stir and remove from heat and set aside.Add the yolks into the cooked ingredients, season with salt & pepper and set aside.Beat egg whites with an electric beater until stiff. Slowly fold-in the yolk mixture into the stiffly beaten eggwhite. Return the whole mixture into the pan, continue cooking with low fire. Remove from fire and bake for 5 minutes or until cheese melts. Serve immediately with toasted bread.

Note: Make sure to use oven proof handle of your pan otherwise, transfer the whole mixture to an oven-proof dish before putting it in the oven.

Egg n Hotdog Roll Ups

Egg n Hotdog Roll Ups

Ingredients:

2 hotdogs
2 eggs
Grated parmesan cheese
1 T. olive oil

Procedure:

Heat a non-stick pan, spread oil and wipe off excess oil by wiping with a kitchen paper. Slightly beat eggs. Add half of the slightly beaten eggs; quickly swirl the pan to spread the mixture. Sprinkle evenly grated parmesan cheese. Place hotdogs in 1 edge and start rolling the egg. Cook the remaining egg the same way, and place the rolled up egg with hotdog in one edge and start rolling up. This will create a thicker layer of egg.

Slice the sausage-shaped egg and slice ½ inch thick. Serve with toasted bread. This makes a good breakfast.

Tip:
In beating the eggs, it has to be beaten slightly. Don’t wait for bubbles to form and it has to be beaten right before cooking. No need of adding salt coz the parmesan cheese is quite salty.

Fish Paté Sandwich Mini Towers

Sandwich Mini Towers

Ingredients:
Sandwich
100 g. Light cream cheese
1 can Fish Pâté
1 T. Chili sauce

Preparation:

Remove crusts of the sandwich. Mix chili sauce with cream cheese. Spread cream cheese mixture in one side and fish pâté on the other side of the sandwich. Put them together to assemble towers. Cut sandwich into quarts.

Crab Sandwich with sesame seeds

Crab Sandwich with sesame seeds

I am a big fan of Ainsley Harriot and saw him doing this in one of his TV shows. He used shrimp, but I don’t have fresh shrimps. So I settled with crab meat in sticks!

Ingredients:
Sliced sandwich bread
Crabmeat sticks
1 egg white
Dried sesame seeds
1 Tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon butter
Salt and pepper

Preparation:
Slice the crabmeat sticks finely and place in a food processor or blender. Add egg white, salt & pepper and blitz until fine. Spread the mixture into sliced sandwiches. Run with the back of the spoon to flatten the mixture. Sprinkle sesame seeds and press with the back of the spoon.

Heat oil and butter in a pan and place the bread with crab mixture facing down. Cook for 2 minutes and turn to toast the other side. Don’t be tempted to add oil to avoid greasy sandwich.

Mortadella and egg sandwich

Ingredients:
Sliced bread
Slices of Mortadella
2 slightly beaten eggs
Salt & pepper
Mozzarella cheese

Procedure:

Slice off the sides of the bread and toast in a preheated pan 2 minutes each side. Remove from pan and set aside. Add 2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil to the pan and wipe off with a kitchen paper. Spread the egg evenly by swirling the pan and cook quickly in a low fire. Remove from pan and set aside. Assemble the sandwich in layers alternately with mortadella, cheese and egg. Cut diagonally and serve.

Cheese Kubuz (Flat bread cheese sandwich)

Cheese Kubuz

This is my usual breakfast way back when I was in Abu Dhabi, I can have this almost everyday in the office not because it is my favorite but because it’s the quickest I could have. I am not having breakfast at home for some reasons, okay I admit I am lazy on mornings, so I’m having it in the office. Sadique, the office boy, knows what to buy for me from a nearby bakery. It’s “cheese kubuz” Little did I know that I am gaining weight because of cheese, but I wasn’t that conscious of its fat content. Anyway it is very tasty. Now I’m missing it and making it at home.

I often make flat breads and store them in a tightly sealed plastic in the fridge. I also use the same flat bread for making shawarma. So when laziness kicks in, either hubby or me just grab some and put cheese, pop it in the oven for 5 minutes, sprinkle with salt on top, then that makes a breakfast with a mug of coffee, (without sugar for me please).

Kubuz, Arabic bread, or Chinese pan cakes, whatever they call it, for me it is simply “flat bread” Normally, its dough is made of flour,water,salt and yeast. The dough rests for about an hour so it takes at least 1 hour and half to make it. But I’m fun of shortcuts especially when I’m quite hungry and can’t wait that long. I don’t see much difference with what I’m making at home with the one that from the bakery. Since I don’t rise the dough, I don’t use yeast. I use flour, salt, and warm water. Simply 3 ingredients. I use warm water to develop more gluten from the flour rapidly than that of room temperature.

How to make flat bread? or Kubuz (arabic bread)

To make flat bread:
1 cup flour (sifted)
1 tsp. salt
¼ cup warm water

Mix salt and flour in a mixing bowl. Add 1 Tablespoon water at a time while mixing until it forms rough dough. Add water if it’s too dry, this depends of the strength of the flour you are using, add more water if necessary. Knead the dough in a floured flat surface for about 3 minutes or until dough becomes smooth and elastic. Form dough into sausage shape and cut 1 inch thick. Form each into a small ball and flatten with a rolling pin.

Eggy Wacky on Congee

Eggy Wacky on Congee

My lasang pinoy entry. I know its kind'a wacky. Need a story and a recipe? It's here.