Dried Crunchy Bread Strips

Seriously I didn't even know what this is called. But it's dried, it's hard & crunchy and it's made of bread cutting into strips. Therefore, this name is born.

My mom used to make this snack for me and my siblings when we were young and we always enjoyed eating this crispy sweet treat. Thus when I came over to the States, I just have to make it. I remembered my sister and I were trying to make this bread while in the college dorm but we failed miserably because the bread remain soft in the middle. At that time, I had no idea what went wrong and we never make it again (At that time, I was neither a cook nor a baker, merely a 20 year old college girl).

While I was watching Paula Deen on the Food Network this evening making her dressing for All-Stars Thanksgiving dinner, she mentioned she used days old bread to make her own dried bread for the dressing and baked the bread at low temperature to dry the bread. Ding...ding...ding...it's just clicked. I have some bread sitting in the fridge so why not experiment with it right? Ta...da...



The butter & sugar ones.



With Milo added.



When cooled, packed away in a plastic container.



Ingredients:

1. Days old breads or breads you keep in the freezer. (I used 100% whole wheat bread, thus the brown color)
2. Unsalted butter.
3. Sugar.
4. Milo. (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 250'F.

2. Spread the bread generously with butter and sprinkled it with sugar. Cut the bread into three strips and arranged on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. You can also sprinkled Milo on top for extra flavor (good for little kiddo).

3. Baked for 1 hour, removed and cooled on wire rack. When cooled, stored in a container.

Verdict: Hard, crunchy with a tint of sweetness, simply delicious! The ones with Milo, even better for a chocolate lover like me! :) Oh yeah, the more the merrier, can definitely spread more Milo than the ones I made.

Do try this, because it is super easy to make and what a yummy afternoon snack, good with a cup of hot coffee too. And what a better way to get rid and recycle the old bread, right? ;)

Chilli Oil

Malaysian just love their food spicy and what's best to spice up your food but some chilli oil. :) I made my own chilli oil because it's super duper easy. All you need is 3 ingredients and a clean glass bottle.

Ingredients:

1 cup Canola oil
1/4 cup Crushed red pepper flakes
2 Tbp. Cayenne pepper powder (to turn up the heat)

Method:

In a small saucepan, turned the heat to medium and heat up the oil. When heated, (dropped a little of the crushed red pepper, if it sizzle, it's heated) add the crushed red pepper flakes and cayenne powder, turned off the heat and stirred around. Moved to cool and leave it overnight. The next day, strained the chilli oil in a glass bottle.



As for the remaining strained chilli, you can reserved it for cooking or throw away. I used this to cook my Kung Pao Chicken, fried rice, fried noodle, etc or as a dip. To use as a dip, add some soy sauce and sesame oil to it.

Note:
My secret to delicious ground meat spaghetti, drizzle some chilli oil on your serving and fold to mix. Instant lift to the spaghetti and simply yummy!

Cheese Wontan or Crab Rangoon

Cheese Wontan which is also called Crab Rangoon is another Americanize food in the Chinese restaurants here. When I first came here, it was a surprised taste to me and not quite sure what it was. But over the years, it has become one of my favorite appertizers. It almost included in every lunch & dinner special menus these days. Got to love this little snack!

Well, since I bought some cream cheese the other day and got some wrappers in the freezer, why not try my hands on making this delectable snack right? So, here my afternoon experiment and verdict.


The Twin Dragon wrappers that I used and recommended.



Cheese filling that I came out with.



Before deep-frying. I can't seem to wrap it nicely in this shape. Hehe...


After deep-frying.


Cut open for a peek inside.






Cream Cheese Filling: (yield 18 wontans)

4 oz Philadephia cream cheese, soften.
3 pieces of imitation crabmeats, finely chopped.
1 tsp. dried chives.
2 tsp. sugar.
A sprinkle of salt.
A dash of garlic powder (optional).

Mixed all in a bowl.

Verdict: Taste pretty good. But I could do without the garlic powder and will substitute the dried chives for freshly chopped scallions. I didn't have the scallions and thus the dried chives was used. Will definitely make it again.

Guess what it is?

Look what I found in the market the other day! It must have been the first time I saw this or I have never paid attention at all. It looked so fresh and pretty that I just got to buy it and try. And it's called Broccoflower. The mixed of broccoli and cauliflower, brillient!



This was what I cooked for dinner. Just some easy stir-fry with imitation crabmeats and carrot. The verdict, it tasted just like cauliflower. I like it! Not sure whether the benefit of both veggies will be combined in one though, if yes, excellent! (or lagi bagus! in Malay)



Do give it a try if you see it in your local supermarket. :o)

Pork Wontan

Featuring one of my home cook dishes. Who wouldn't love deep-fry food? Deep-fry wontan is very common these days and it comes with all kind of fillings or you can simply create your own with what you have in your refrigerator and pantry. Any filling will be good as long as you seasoned it well. Furthermore, it's very easy to make.





Ingredients

~ Twin Dragon Brand wontan wrappers
~ Oil for deep-frying

(A)
~ Ground Pork
~ Chopped water chestnuts
~ Chopped scallions

Seasoning for (A):
~ Salt, a little sugar, garlic powder and sesame oil.

Method

Marinate (A) with seasoning for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator. Then, wrapped it in wontan wrapper and deep-fry until golden brown. Serve with Thai sweet chillies sauce.

Lazy Chicken Rice

Featuring one of my home cook dishes. Why I called it lazy chicken rice is because this dish is very easy to make. Another one of my easy shortcut version. Of course you can serve it with fresh slices of cucumber and a bowl of clear chicken soup.

Ingredients for the Chicken Rice:

~Rice
~Chopped garlic
~Chopped ginger
~Chopped shallot
~Canned Swanson chicken broth

Sauce for the cooked rice:
Soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and chopped scallion.

Main Ingredient:
Chicken breasts, cut and marinate in soy sauce, dark soy sauce, garlic powder and cornstarch.

Method:

1. Wash the rice & drain. Heat up the wok with a little oil, add in the chopped ingredients and stir-fry until fragrant. Add in the rice and stir well to mix til dry up. Transfer to the rice cooker and add in the canned chicken broth, give it a little stir. Cook as normal.

2. Heat soy sauce and sugar in microwave safe bowl for about 30 minutes. Stir until sugar dissolved. Add in some sesame oil and chopped scallion. This sauce is to be pour on top of the cooked chicken rice before serving.

3. Heat up wok with a little oil and stir-fry the marinated chicken pieces until cooked.

4. To serve: Place a ball of chicken rice in the center of the plate, top with chicken pieces and then pour the sauce on top of the chicken. Garnish with cilantro on top and slices of cucumber on the side. Serve with garlic-ginger chillies sauce.


Click for Garlic-Ginger Chillies Sauce recipe:


Garlic-Ginger Chillies Sauce
=====================
(A)
~10-12 fresh red jelepeno peppers (or any long fresh red chillies that you can get), cut in half.
~1 garlic bulb, peeled & break into separate cloves.
~1 2-inches piece of ginger, peeled and cut into smaller pieces.

2/3 cup of distilled white vinegar (diluted)
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbp. sugar

Method:
1. Use a food processor and process (A) until fine.
2. Heat vinegar in microwave for 1 minute or until hot. Add in salt & sugar and stir until sugar dissolved.
3. Pour the chillies mixture into the vinegar and stir to mix well.
4. Then, pour into a clean glass jar and keep refrigerated.
Note: Great dip for steamboat too.

Sweet Bread (Pai-Pau)

I used Jerseymom's recipe from KC. What prompted me to try this bread was the great reviews given by those who had tried it and posted their pictures. It looked really soft and easy to make.

I encountered minor problem in the beginning because I forgot to add an additional milk to replace the water used for her yeast. I was using instant yeast and it doesn't require that step. Thus, my dough was not wet enough so I just improvised by adding more melted butter and oil to make it pliable. *I only remembered about the liquid after I done kneading the dough* One more obstacle I encountered was it was a cold day and my dough just won't proof or double in size. I tried the warm water in the microwave trick, managed to proof a little, and that's about it. So, I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.




Was I glad that it turned out alright after all. Got to taste one when it was still warm from the oven and it sure soft to the bite. I brushed the top with maple syrup and it added to the sweet taste of the bread. A yummy sweet bread indeed and a recipe to keep. Thanks Jerseymom! :o)

The real challenge comes tomorrow since this is the first time I made bread without any bread improver, hope that it will still remain soft.

Verdict: It harden the next day but a quick pop in the Microwave solved the problem (10 seconds for one).



(Recipe courtesy of Giselle/Jerseymom)
Ingredients

(A)
2.5 tsps dry yeast 375g High gluten/bread flour* (may use more or less)
105g sugar 1 egg... room temp.
1 egg yolk... room temp
2 Tbps butter, melted
1/2 cup whole milk, UHT or fresh ... room temp.
1-2 drop(s) yellow food colour

(B)
egg wash: 1 egg, lightly beaten syrup (to brush on the bread right after baked, but I haven't tried this)

Steps (the following proving time is for reference only, my kitchen is quite cool)

1. Disolve dry yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water, wait 5 - 10 mins.
2. Mix the yeast liquid with the rest of (A), knead until smooth and elastic. The dough supposes to be wet but not sticky.
3. Let the dough sit in a geased large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. 1st proving for about 45 mins.
4. Punch the dough to release some air, knead a few times, put back in the bowl, covered, for 2nd proving, 45 mins or double the volumn.
5. Divide the dough into small balls (45g), roll smooth, cover and let them relax for 20 mins.
6. Flatten and roll each ball into a (roughly) rectangle (0.5cm-thick). Start from the long side, roll it up as swissroll.
7. Place the rolls in a gease tray (mine is 18 x 28 cm... if yours *slightly* smaller should be better), leaving about 0.5 cm gap between each roll (too jammed or too far part will affect the appearence after baking). Cover, and rest the dough for 45mins or until almost double the size.
8. Preheat the oven to 180C, brush the egg wash on top, bake for 20 - 25 mins. Brush syrup when it just comes right out from the oven.

* Note to US members: highly recommend the flour imported from Asian (buy it from asian supermarket) which I found the result is far much better than that of US flour.