Huaiyang Pastries 1 : Spiral Curry Puff

What're u eating? 在吃什么?

吃不饱的  想当SQ空姐.

Dozens boxes of Huaiyang pastries mainly with sweet fillings such as red bean paste I had devoured since the birth of a sweet tooth, however the culinary aspect of the pastry remained a mystery to me till I read Shoonyin Home Cooking. The reads educated me on the pastry's versatility and the dominance of the Huaiyang cuisine (四大菜系) in China culinary heritage. Soon the excitement send me to enroll in a scurry at the Prima Baking School where professional bakers (one excluded) are trained to prepare dim sum delicacies with this pastry. Two insanely popular snacks in Singapore: spiral curry puffs and siew baos shine through the local gastronomic sphere with the Huaiyang pastry encasing everyone's favourites - potato chicken curry, tomato lime sardines. Or prepare a sweet filling of kaya flavoured with salted yolks...a new sweet discovery.

tummy warming curry

Huaiyang pastry build on one similar fundamental with the western puff pastry; both pastries use the technique of fat lamination. From the pockets of air between the pastry sheets arise the layers of flakes in a hot oven. 

Chinese bakers took a step further to laminate the divided dough individually and through this laborious method creates more ways of rolling the smaller doughs and shaping them differently. And also through using different flours and fat proportions in both the water and oil doughs, a spectacular spread of bings饼 and baos包 are delicatedly crafted in different provinces of China: lao por bing老婆餅, tau sar piah, siew bao, char siew soh, tai yang bing 太陽餅, beh teh soh, phong piah, radish puff, mooncakes and the list goes on and on....a dynasty 朝代 that stills exists.  

Many home-bakers have a nagging interest in this pastry - often cumbersome being the main reason. But what they're ignorant of is that this technique brings a magical diversification of the final piece. 

oil dough in water dough

Shoon Yin  had penned down the dough preparation in details . It would be a waste of time and boring for me uploading similar information. While at my training stinct, some important do's and don'ts were highlighted and would be useful for those who are passionate over this pastry. A primary importance is not to wrap the water and oil doughs tightly, allows some gaps for the flakies to rise during baking. Another area to note down is allow the dough to rest at least 15 mins after lamination and the swiss rolling. Cover the doughs with plastic sheet to prevent dryness on the surface. I even rolled them in my lightly oiled palms before placing them under the plastic sheet. Lastly, pinch off the excess dough after closing up the edges otherwise the base of the bing is thick and not fine craftmanship.   

Use fork to combine flours and shortening   till crumbs-like. Add in the water to form soft dough. Do same for the oil dough except no water to be added.

In this curry puff recipe , I prefer not using any cake flour in the oil dough and use some bread flour in the water dough. I like the flakes to be sturdy and distinct. The fat proportion to flour that I'm recommending for this spiral dough is 30% and 50% for the water and oil dough respectively. 

Allows water and oil doughs to rest at least 1/2  hour.

Divide each dough into 4/6 portions and rolled them into balls.

Place oil dough in centre of water dough and seal loosely. Cover them and rest for 15 mins.

Roll the rested doughs into long rectangle and roll up like a swiss roll twice. Let the rolled up dough rest again 15 mins before the second roll. Rest another 15 mins after second roll in cool area or fridge. It's hard to roll into shape when the fat is melting, may even lose the flakes.

Rest another 15 mins covered before cutting it into two pieces.

close embrace

manipulation by sinister

Come discover me

Final stage is to get them  deepfry in hot oil. To get nice flakes, scoop them up after 30 seconds in the hot oil and cool for another 30 seconds. Repeat this dunking process three times . Continue the frying over low fire till light golden. Increase the fire just before lifting them from the oil. Drain them well.

Ingredients List:

Water dough :

50g bread flour

50g  top flour

1/8 tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

30g  shortening

45g water

Oil dough:

60g top flour

30g shortening

Quick Potato Chicken filling:

150g diced boiled potato

75g diced chicken breast

30g rough chopped onions

2 sprigs curry leaves shredded

50g instant chicken curry paste

3 tablespoons coconut milk

1 tsp soya sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt

Filling Directions:

• Stir fry the onion and curry leaves till fragant.
• Add in the curry paste and fry for 1 min.
• Then add in the chicken pieces, soya sauce, salt and sugar. 
• Cook for about 3 mins.
• Pour in the coconut milk and cook till lightly dry
• Cool thoroughly for use.

Food Quote:  一毛不拔鐵公鶏：”You can’t get a feather from iron cock.” Somebody very stingy and never give; or miser

Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste. PaulaCookingFingers

Workshop available @ Palate Sensations Singapore 
- tel 65 64789746

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Coconut Cream Corn Butter Cake

好吃快快吃

Another delicious recipe for new-hands in cake making and using ingredients close to home. Coconut cream and cream corn are inexpensive and the two of them just hit off like a hurricrane.

 The butter creaming method is one the basic being taught at Home Economic class.  Once this method is fully understood, you can bake any buttercakes. Importantly, bring out the butter hours ahead of baking time so that it would be very soft ready for use. I put it in the mixing bowl before bedtime and start baking the next morning.

At this stage , do not put in sugar yet. Beat the very soft butter for a minute to lighten it further. 

After a minute of beating, then pour in the sugar and continue the beating for another minute.

To prevent butter curdling when eggs are added, I put in 2 tbsps of flour to strenghten the mixure.

Light beat the eggs in a bowl.

Do not pour in the eggs in one go. While the cake mixer is running, pour in about 2 tbsp at one time.

The flavouring extracts can be added to the eggs or into the batter at this stage. Continue the beating for another 7 mins at medium speed.

Once the butter and eggs are nicely beaten, pour in 3/4 cup cream corn and blend all well.

Next, sieve all the dry ingredients in all bowl.

Also, prepare 3/4 cup coconut cream .

You are now ready to blend all by hand with the folding strokes.

Fold in one third of the flour and coconut at one go.

Pour into a lined baking tin and smoothen the top.

Preheat oven at 200 degrees 15 mins. Bake the cake at 200 degrees for 5 mins and then 180 degrees for about 25 mins till golden.

Ingredients List:

• 300g top flour
• 175g white sugar
• 250 salted butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 butter essence
• 1/4 tsp corn essence (optional)
• 3/4 cup cream corn
• 2/3 cup coconut cream
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

food quote:  緣木求魚: "Climb up a tree in search of fish" -- Do the impossible.

Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

cakes

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Hot Cross Buns

大家吃的开开心心

Bunny Buns

Hope you've enjoyed baking some bread with  straight method in the past weeks. You probably understand some of the limitations I've pointed out in the last post Butterscotch Brioche, or you may even discover some others on your own along the way. Once you've experienced handling a batch of straight method dough from the mixing stage, kneading, proofing, shaping and finally baking them, you'd be more agreeable to learn incorporating an amount of dough starter and see for yourselves how softer breads are made. 

sticky decadent buns

Asians love their breads soft, but not everyone shares the same taste, still many prefer softer bread than the western ones.  I opt for a chewy semi-firm softness for sausage buns. Hence, bakers experimented with different techniques to create the right textural softness for each kind of buns. The sponge starter method is one the basics and easier to apprehend than the others: hot water dough starter, cold water dough starter, water roux starter or a combination . An overnight yeast fermentation promises you a robust flavour and a stronger army of yeast cells to stretch the gluten. Asian bread bakers do not totally use bread flour, often mix with plain flour or cake flour to achieve their desired softness.

overnight sponge

10 mins rest time

Ingredients List

Overnight sponge starter:

100g bread flour

1 tsp instant yeast

100g tap water

a pinch sugar

Main dough:

250g top flour

2 tsp instant yeast

50g castor sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 egg   55g size

50g coconut cream

60g chilled salted butter

1 cup liqueur-soaked dry fruits

Flour mixture for Cross:

Mix 50g flour with 4 tbsp water and pour into a disposable piping bag.

Glaze:

1/2 cup pancake syrup mixed with 1/4 cup orange juice plus a tablespoon rum.

Directions

• Prepare the dough starter first. Dissolve the yeast in the water and sugar. Add in the bread flour to form a sticky dough. Cover with cling wrap and leave on the table counter overnight 8 hours.
• Final dough: Place flour, sugar, salt, yeast in mixing bowl. 
• Place egg and coconut cream with the overnight sponge starter and give a stir to loosen the sides.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture.
• Mix slowly to form a shaggy dough.
• Throw in the chilled butter cubed.
• Set cake mixer with dough hook at lowest speed 
• Mix all till a slight rough dough is formed. Rest the dough for 5 mins.
• Set speed at Medium and knead the dough for 8 mins.
• Knead another 8 mins at High speed.
• Mix in the dried fruits by hand.
• Cover dough with cling wrap and proof till double, best slight more.
• Punch out the air after proofing (degas) and knead by hand till dough is smooth.
• Divide dough into 16 proportions and let them rest 10 mins.
• Knead each ball till smooth and placed on lined baking tray.
• Proof the small buns till double,  covered with greased plastic sheet.
• Brush with beaten egg.
• Pipe the cross on each bun with flour mixture.
• Bake in preheat oven 200 degrees for 5 mins, follow by 180 degrees for 10 mins or till golden color.
• Brush the top of hot buns with lots of orange syrup. Put the buns back to hot oven for 3 mins. Brush again with glaze.

2017 Easter Buns

some spelt flour and mashed potato added to the dough, with a filling of dark chocolate/ nutella doused with tequila and grand marnier

Bible Quote:  John 6 :35  Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

asian bread

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粽子 Galore 1 : Steam Bak Chang - cooked within an hour

必须要吃

The month of May, Baking Kakis' obsession with snack foods snowballed horrendously beyond Singapore shorelines thousands of kilometres to a country in North Asia -Taiwan. It is actually an innate craving when the stores start to display abundunt Bak Chang's ingredients in our presence. The celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival falls in the early month of June. Kaki Yu , in one of her late night goggling, sniffed out an interesting bak chang recipe at blogger Guai Shu Shu which uses calrose rice mixed with glutinous rice. Bells ring merrily for those with weaker digestive system. I, in particular most eager to taste it. What's more drawing to the recipe is the cooking hour of the dumplings requires an hour compared to traditional arduous boiling of three hours. 

The very next day after reading the post, we headed to market and packed up the shopping bag: dried bamboo leaves, dried shrimps, dried shitake mushrooms, japanese fresh chestnuts, dried peanuts, salted eggs and the two kinds of pearlescent-grainy-white rice. All these ingredients has to be prepared a day ahead as most needed soaking or boiling. Somewhat, don't know why; the dried peanuts sold here take an hour and half cooking time plus hours of soaking time to soften unlike Mr Guai's, so is the calrose rice from Australia requires soaking time prior to cooking.  Whichever and whatever reasons, we carried back the best quality we could possibly scoured at the stores.

The night before the assembly of the dumplings, 3-hours-soaked dried peanuts and fresh chestnuts were boiled for an hour, drained and kept in the fridge. The freshly-cracked golden orange salted egg yolks were chilled too. **Bamboo leaves were rinsed first, then dipped in boiling water to remove a strong chemical smell that caused a slight burn to my left eye when I tore open the plastic bag . They were then soaked in fresh water overnight, that went for the mushrooms as well.

 

The next morning, we soaked the glutinous rice for four hours and an hour for the calrose rice (as per instruction on the bag). Seasoning of the pork slices was prepared while the rice were soaking.  We chose the "aeroplane" cut of piggy as it gives a fatty springy bite. The cubed yam were fried first and simmered in half cup water till dry. Since we do not enjoy the luxury of having a rice-cooker with a capacity of more than three cups grains, we cooked the yam and peanuts separately and mixed to the partial cooked rice. Anyway, we skipped use of rice cooker totally, confined the cooking to the stove area...cleaning management.

Once the yam were done, the chopped garlic, shallots, thick-sliced mushrooms and rinsed dried shrimps were fried till a aromatic smell filled the kitchen. Then the thicked-sliced seasoned pork were tossed in and fried for five minutes before braised in three cups light chicken stock for 20 mins. Season to taste with soya sauces, sake, white pepper, five-spice powder, salt and sugar. Put them aside and keep the remaining broth for cooking of the rice.

With the use of the same wok (one item less to wash), we fried the soaked drained rice for two minutes and pour in three cups water and a cup pork broth. Season to taste with light soya sauce , white pepper , salt and let all cooked covered over very low fire. Once the liquid being soaked by rice, we mixed in the yam and peanuts. They were scooped to a big bowl to be wrapped.

The grand moment we waited for - wrapping and tying the dumplings. Kakis Qi came to our aid and hastened the wrapping efforts to an hour and the dumplings went to the steamer immediately for an hour.  The gong struck..lunch is ready !!!

more rice pls !

 

dainty knots

alas!

Baking Kakis@Work

labor of love

an hour steaming over high fire

Besides the garlic sauce recommended, I also enjoy eating the dumplings with sambal belachan, chee cheong fun sesame sauce and goyza sauce with wasabi.

a humble lunch

Recipe @ Guai Shu Shu
you'll get 30 small-medium dumplings

Serving Sauce:

1 bottle sweet sesame sauce    - choose premium brands
5 shallots   - finely chop
2 cloves garlic    - fine chop
1 tablespoon cooking wine
1 tbsp light soya sauce
3/4 cup water
1/2 tbsp potato starch

• Fry garlic shallots till light brown.
• Pour in wine and soya sauce
• Stir water with starch and blend with the rest in pot.
• Once thicken, off fire.

Workshop @ Palate Sensations Singapore - 65 64789746

fun quote:  人心齐，泰山移 rén xīn qí, tài shān yí - When people work with one mind, they can even remove Mount Taishan.

Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

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