Yam Sweet Potato Bread

One day, I saw a posting from a childhood friend of mine. She is a good baker and a very good cake decorator. We live thousands of kilometer from each other. Thanks to social media, we can still communicate to each other. She posted yam sweet potato bread photos and also gave me the recipe.

I really loved to try that because I baked bread frequently lately for my family. We went to the Asian shop where I could find frozen grated yam. Unfortunately, I cannot find purple sweet potato here. So, I did this with orange colour sweet potato.

I modified the recipe and this time I did not use water-roux method. The result is a big hit with the boys. They love it so much. This time, the bread will not last one week (I usually freeze some portion for later consumption).

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
Bread ingredients:
100 gr steamed mashed sweet potato and purple yam (I used 50/50)
350 gr bread flour
2 eggs
30 gr sweet condensed milk
40 gr sugar
1/4 tsp salt
25 gr melted butter
2 tsp instant yeast
120 ml milk

Filling ingredients:
400 gr steamed mashed sweet potato and purple yam (I used 300/100)
35 gr melted butter
30 gr sugar
40 gr sweet condensed milk

1 egg, whisked

How to make
Filling:
Mixed all the ingredients until it is well mixed and set aside. Keep in the refrigerator until we are going to use it.

Bread:
1. Mix all ingredients, excepts butter and milk, and knead the dough.
2. Add the milk while kneading the dough.
3. Add butter.
4. Knead the dough until it is smooth and does not stick to the wall of the bowl or until it can be stretched to form a thin membrane. This dough may be a bit sticky compared to the normal bread dough because of the sweet potato content.
5. Shape the dough into a ball shape and put in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a cling film and place it in a warm place to proof the dough until it is at least twice as big as the initial ball shape dough.
6. Punch the dough and divide it into portions. I divided the dough into 50 grams portions because I made it for my children, easier for eating.
7. Roll the dough into a thin layer and fill it with one big table spoon of the filling. Cover the filling tightly. Do this for all portions.
8. Proof the bread again for around 30-60 minutes.
9. Preheat the oven 180 Celcius.
10. Brush the top of the bread with whisked egg and bake it for around 20-25 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Enjoy the bread.

The filling

Fresh from the oven

Pastel Goreng/Gebakken Pastei/Fried Puff

I loved this snack. We usually bought it at the market. It is available here in some Asian store, but I missed the original taste. I remembered that we had some glass noodle, and since my husband bought me tool to form the snack, I wanted to try to make this snack for the children and husband myself.

Of course, as usual, we would freeze some portion for later consumption.

Ingredients 
(for the skin) - 1 recipe *I make 2 recipes of this skin
250 gr all purpose flour
1 egg
40 gr margarine
60-100 ml water (don't use all immediately, but add it bit by bit)
1/2 tsp salt
oil

(for the filling)
2-3 carrot (cut into pieces)
50 gr green peas (in bottle or can)
200 gr chicken fillet (cut into small pieces)
150-200 gr glass noodle (soak it first in hot boiled water)
3-4 cloves garlic, pressed
3-4 cloves shallot, cut in small pieces
salt
pepper
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
oil

2-3 hard boiled eggs, cut into 6 pieces per egg.

Method:
For the skin:
1. Mix the flour, margarine and egg. Add water bit by bit while kneading the dough until the dough does not stick on your hand or on the wall of the bowl.
2. Set aside.

For the filling:
1. Heat the oil and stir fry the garlic and shallot until caramelized
2. Add the chicken fillet, until it is almost golden brown.
3. Add carrot and pea.
4. Add the glass noodle.
5. Add salt, pepper, sugar, soy sauce to taste. Adjust the taste.

How to combine:
1. Take a portion of the dough. Roll the dough until thin and place it in the pastei form.
2. Put 1 table spoon of the filling and a piece of egg and press the sides together to form a nice half circle shape.
3. Heat oil in a wok and fry the pastei until it is brown.

I am a bit dissapointed with the skin. Although the taste is quite OK, but the skin is not as crispy as the ones I used to buy at the snack shops or markets in my home country, Indonesia. I am considering another trial, however, since there are more projects coming these few months, I think I have to delay the next trial. Now, it is time to enjoy the pastei with chilli sauce.

Baked Cauliflower Cheese

A simple vegetable based dish, but still can be enjoyed with our children (toddlers).


Because of the time of harvesting of the certain vegetables and fruits this year, and at the same time the conflict and banning between EU and Russia, there are excess of some vegetables and fruits. That is why, I try to cook and introduce and prepare as much as I can vegetables and fruits on our table.


One of the vegetables that is sold cheaper than it usually is to avoid the waste, is cauliflower. Usually we cook it (in Indonesia) as clear soup. But, I have tried some oven based and cream soup recipes with that. One of the easy and quick (relative to Asian dishes) is cauliflower cheese oven.


I served it last week and we ate that with grill skin salmon - with homemade teriyaki sauce.


Here is the cauliflower dish. I took the recipe from this website and copy it here for my own note next time.


Ingredients
1 cauliflower
500 ml milk (or can be adjusted) - *we usually use full cream milk*
40-50 gr of butter
4 tbsp flour
150 gr grated cheese *I use jong belegen cheese*
salt and pepper to taste *I omit the salt part, that is why I used more cheese*
breadcrumb


Method
1. Cut the cauliflower florets
2. Boil the cauliflower florets - 1 boil is enough, since we will bake it in the oven
3. Drain the cauliflower and arrange it in the oven proof dish
4. In a pan, heat the butter, add milk and flour and stirr until the flour dissolved and the mixture becomes thicker. Turn off the heat
5. Add a part of the grated cheese and stirr
6. Pour the mixture onto the cauliflower, make sure it is at least 1/2 or 3/4 covered with the mixture
7. Cover the cauliflower with the rest of the grated cheese and followed it by the breadcrumb
8. Bake it for around 20 minutes, 180C or until the top is golden brown.


I did not take a picture when it is fresh from the oven.

Filled Bread with Water-Roux Method

I always love Asian type of bread. It is soft and most of the time we can find it filled with different kinds of fillings, either sweet or savoury. I also love European bread, which is usually tougher outside but also soft inside.

It is quite difficult to find a good Asian bread here. Only a couple of stores sell Asian bread. In our city, where we live now, we can buy it from Asian store (in the refrigerator area), or in one of the restaurant near the Saturday open market at Woenselsemarkt. However, the last few times we bought the breads, my husband complained critized the bread that it was a bit on the dry side than it should be. He said, that we should not buy it as often as before and suggested me to make them myself.

It is not that I do not want to fullfilled his wish, but this is quite a chore for me. Remembering that I am also working 4 days a week and use 1 day to accompany the childrens. The older one is only going to school until midday that mamadag and the younger one does not go to the daycare that day.

However, in order to fullfilled the whole family request and craving for the Asian type filled bread, and since we planned to go to the Efteling (a Dutch popular theme park) on the 2nd of August 2014, I planned to make the bread ahead.

I used one night after the children went to bed to make the water-roux dough and keep it in the refrigerator. The next night I made the bread dough and proved the dough in the refrigerator overnight. And the last night before we went to the Efteling, I finish the bread. The breads were ready just before midnight and two of them were gone in a second.

For the bread recipe, I have tried some versions of recipe. This one is using water-roux. My grandmother always said that it was "biang" method since it is made using "biang" (water-roux). Biang is Indonesian word, I think. My grandmother used to make the bread without the wonder of the modern technology such as my high power Kenwood machine. I guess, she was a super woman. I have tried to make bread without an electronic standing mixer and have to beat the dough on the kitchen table very hard for a very long time. Luckily, my husband gave me a nice birthday present two years ago, a nice shiny industrious kitchen machine from Kenwood.

The recipe is adapted from Christine's recipe. However, since I could not do the whole process in one go, I looked to the blog of Linda. She has an amazing blog and she gave me the idea to divide the work in a few days. So, I can now do the bread making process during the evenings after the children go to bed.

For the filling of the breads, that we brought to the park, I bought 1 can of red bean paste (ready to use type - in a can) that is also used to fill other type of Asian snack and dessert. I also used sausages and banana-and-cheese filling. You can choose to use other fillings of your liking or your own creation.


Filled Asian Bread with – Tangzhong (water-roux) method
Makes around 16 breads
Ingredients

For the tangzhong (water roux) - Note: my grandmother called it "biang" in Indonesians

• 25 g bread flour
• 125 ml milk

For the bread dough

• 125 ml milk
• 6 gram instant yeast *I usually used all 7 gram yeast from an instant yeast package
• 50 g sugar
• 350 g bread flour*
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 or 2 eggs, depends on the size (around 56 gram), beaten
• 1 tablespoon dried milk powder - optional *I usually never add this
• all of the tangzhong (water roux) or around 120 g
• 30 g melted butter, cooled

To brush

• 1 egg, beaten

Method
1. Prepare the tangzhong (water-roux), in advanced. Mix the bread flour and milk in a pan, until it is well mixed.
2. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat. Stir it constantly with a whisk or spatula until it becomes thicker. When you see lines behind the whisk or spatula trail, remove it from the heat.
3. Place the tangzhong in a small bowl and cover it with cling film (plastic wrap). The plastic wrap should stick directly onto the roux to prevent it from drying. Let it cool for a few hours or put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to make the dough.

4. To make the dough, combine all dough ingredient (note: this can be done because the yeast used here is instant yeast) except the butter in the stand mixer bowl. Add the tangzhong/water-roux into the bowl. Using the hook attachment, knead the ingredients until you get a dough form and the gluten begins to develop.

5. Knead in the butter until it the dough is smooth and does not stick to the wall of the bowl and to your hand. To double check if the gluten has developed enough, you can stretch the dough. If the dough can be stretched easily to form a thin membrane, and you can light through the membrane, then the dough is ready.

6. Shape the dought into a ball shape and lightly oil the dough (I usually forget to oil it and it still works good for me). Put it back into the bowl, cover with cling film (plastic wrap) and place it in the refrigerator to proof until the next day or until it's doubled in size. As an alternative, proof it in a warm environment (the best is 28 degree Celcius) for 1 hour, or until it's doubled in size.

7. The next day (it was around 24 hours in my case, but sometimes 12 hours is also enough), take the dough out from the refrigerator and let it rest for 30 minutes (skip this step if you’ve done a warm prove instead of the refrigerator prove). Punch down the dough and roll into a long shape. Cut into 16 equal size pieces (around 43-47 grams per piece).

8. Roll the dough into a thin layer and fill in the dough with filling.
9. Cover the filling with the dough and pinch the edges and press it to make sure that the filling will not leak out.

10. Carefully pinch up the edges and press together, ensuring the filling is well sealed.
11. Place the pressed side down onto the baking trays lined with baking paper. Cover them with damp tea towel and let them rest for around 1 hour for last proving. (I sometimes use cling wrap to cover them and keep them in a warm cabinet. At least that method works for me).

12. Preheat oven to 180°C.
13. Brush the top of the bread with beaten egg and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. I usually bake two trays with upper and below heat sources and exchange the positions of the trays halfway the baking time.

My husband and children love these little breads. The red bean paste filling is not the favorite of the children, however. But they love the banana-cheese and BBQ pork (char siu) fillings. Next time I will post the BBQ pork filling bread.

The trip to the Efteling was fun. We loved it and we even stayed there until almost 10PM. It was summer anyway and the children spent a couple hours nap time on the bycicle cart that we brought along. We ate the breads for our lunch and snack, but we decided to try the pasta bought in one of the restaurants in the park. Patrick (our oldest) could even finish 1 plate of pasta (he even hijacked mine). However, Timothy spent more nap time and woke up for a sausage bread (but this one was bought in the park). But, after that he was very excited to take pictures with the fairies.

With this success, I am determine to make my own bread more often for the children lunch.





Potato Doughnut

This is a late post. A couple of weeks ago, we had extra potatoes. I wanted to make snacks for the children. I like doughnut but to be honest, I have not found the delicious ones here. (I really miss Asia with the shops, food chains and malls, especially the traditional food shops in this situation). Since we cannot just buy any good snack easily somewhere here with reasonable price, I decided to make a batch of potato doughnuts.

Ingredients
500 gr all purpose flour
200 gr potato (mashed)
11 gr yeast
50 gr milk powder
100 gr sugar
4 egg yolks
100 ml (cold) water
75 gr butter
a pinch of salt

Decoration
Butter
Grated (cheddar) cheese
Chocolate sprinkle

Method
1. Steam or boil the potato. Mash the potato and put aside until it cools down
2. Mixed the flour, potato, milk powder, sugar, yeast together.
3. Add the egg yolks one by one, while kneading the flour mixture (low speed or using hand).
4. Add the water (I use 100 ml cold milk instead because milk powder is uncommon here) and keep kneading the dough until it is almost smooth.
5. Half way kneading the dough, add the butter and salt. Knead the dough until it does not stick to the side of the bowl and not stick to your hand. It should be smooth.
6. Make it as a ball and leave it in the bowl, covered with cling film for at least 15 minutes or more.
7. Devide into portions of 50 grams and roll it with hands into a ball shape and flat it a bit on the baking paper lined surface. Or you can make other shapes also.
8. Let it rest for at least 30 minutes
9. Make a hole to form a donut shape if you like.
10. Deep fry the donut or fry it in a wok filled in with oil until both sides golden brown
11. Let it cool on the kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil.
12. Decorate the surface with a little butter and grated cheese or chocolate sprinkle.

The children and my husband love this potato doughnut. Let me know whether you like it also, if you try to make it.

Enjoy!

Tuna Puff Pastry

Since I lived in Singapore, I was (almost) addicted to Curry Puff. This puff does not have pastry skin and is usually filled in with curry flavor potato. This food is one of the comfort foods or snack. It is easy to find. One of the easiest shop chain to find is Old Chang Kee. You can find the shops almost in every city centres.

I was lucky, being almost non-tourist, I could taste also the local favorites. They used to be an independent shop (not chain shops) and one of my favorites is the crispy curry puff. Now they sell it also in Orchard road area.

Anyway, this food is not easy to find here. Actually, I could not find any comfort snack shops here in the Netherlands which offer good value snacks which is easy to your pocket but also delicious and easy to find between and after working hours. I also wants to introduce Asian taste to my children. In this effort, I am not going to make apple pastry, a common snack to be found here in the Netherlands. Instead I am making tuna puff pastry.

I am also not going to make the Singapore type puff, because I would like to do something easier and faster considering my daily routine. So, here comes the tuna puff for the children. I looked for some recipes and adjust it to my taste.

Pastry skin - ready to use type - is easy to find in the neigbourhood supermarket. Canned tuna is also easy to find. So, I am using ready to use pastry skin. We usually find it in the freezer area of the supermarket.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 can of tuna in oil (around 180 grams)
1 or 2 small or medium carrot - shredded *the amount of the carrot depends on the tuna you use. It should be tuna:  :  carrot around 1 tuna : 1.5 carrot.
2 tbsp mayonaise
a pinch of salt
black pepper
1 egg

1 box of pastry skin - thawed

The method
1. Mixed the shredded carrot and tuna. Mashed the tuna using fork.
2. Add the mayonaise, salt and pepper. Mix well.
3. Prepare the pastry skin, if it is big, cut in half or to your a triangle or a smaller square.
4. Fill the pastry skin with the tuna mix, and fold the pastry skin to form a triangle and flatten the edges.
5. Use fork to push the edges of the pastry skin to make a pattern.
6. Put a layer of baking paper on the oven tray and arrange the tuna triangles on the baking paper.
7. Whisk the egg and use the egg to glaze the tuna pastry.
8. Bake the pastry in the prehated oven (200 Celcius) for around 18-20 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Because of my asian taste, I love to eat this with a piece of chilli pepper. But it is also nice without any chilli.

Enjoy!

Steamed (pork) Buns

Steamed (pork) bun is one of my favorite. It is difficult to find the delicious one abroad, or to be exact the one that tastes familiar to my tongue and remind me to home. This type of buns is not only sold at Asian shops but also at supermarkets. BUT, the taste is  not the same.

In our home country, there are also a lot of varieties, from texture, taste, and filling. Of course different quality. During my stay in the two countries: Indonesia and Singapore, I have experienced tasting different steamed buns. This is easy food and comforting food for me. It is easy to get also. When I spent my years as a student at NUS (National University of Singapore), I frequently made a trip from my lab to the nearest canteen downstairs for a piece of hot steamed bun or a glass of juice (without sugar).

Here, it is also easy to find steamed buns, but none of them, according to my very picky taste buds is as delicious as the ones back home. And since my children (and husband) love to eat, I am tempted to try making it. The first trial, a couple of weeks ago, is not very successfull. The texture of the buns was not good soft enough and the dough did not rise as much as I would like to see (I compared it to the dough that I usually prepare for sweet bread). The filling was minced pork, prepared with soy sauce, salt, sugar, pepper and some oyster sauce with cabbage. So, I tried it once again with some modification after I compared some recipes. This time with char siu filling.

The original recipe is taken from Christine's recipe. And here is my modification.

Steamed (pork) bun

Prepared 10 pieces of square baking paper around 6 x 6 cm.

Ingredients (for the buns)
200-220 grams flour (I used buns flour, you can find it in Asian store. If you use multi purpose flour, the result may be yellowish)
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp instant dry yeast (check the packaging for the correct amount. The original recipe asks for 1/2 tsp but I checked the yeast I bought and I need around 3-4 grams for the flour I used)
80 - 110 ml water
90 - 100 ml warm milk (not more than 40Celcius because the heat can kill the yeast) *note: you can also use water instead of milk
a pinch of salt

For the fillings (cheating method)
150 gr pork meat (cut into small cubes, I used shoulder part for this)
1/3 - 1/2 bottle of char siu seasoning (I used the 1-step seasoning)
1/2 onion cut into small pieces
2-3 tsp water
1-2 tsp corn flour

How to (buns)
1. Mixed the warm milk, yeast and 1/2 tsp sugar. Let it rest until the buble rise, around 30 minutes.
2. Add 200 grams flour, vegetable oil, salt, and 80ml of the water to the yeast mixture. Knead the dough. If you see that the dough is quickly dry, you can add the rest of the water. The important thing is the dough should be kneaded into a smooth dough and does not stick to your hand or the wall of your mixer bowl.
3. Let the dough rest in the bowl, and cover the bowl either with wet clean cloth/napkin or with cling film. Let it rest around 1 hour until it rises at least twice the initial volume.
4. Remove the cling film and punch the dough in the middle.
5. Cut the dough into portions, around 35-40 grams or to your liking.
6. Shape each portion into a ball shape and with rolling pin, roll the dough. The edges should be thinner than the middle part. Fill the rolled dough with the filling and pinch the sides thightly to hold the filling. Put it on top of a piece of baking paper.
7. Prepare steamer and when it starts to boil, put the buns in the steamer and steam the buns for around 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let rest for about 10 minutes before serving them.

How to (fillings - cheating method)
1. Cut the por meat and the onion.
2. Marinate the pork and onion with 1/3 - 1/2 bottle of the char siu seasoning for 30 minutes - 1 hour (while waiting for the dough to rise)
3. Heat the wok and cooked the marinated pork (without oil).
4. Mix the corn flour and water and add the mixture to the wok.
5. Cook until it is thickening.

I could not wrap my buns in pretty way. So, the results are not pretty enough. The first batch of the buns is not successfull enough because when I immediately open the steamer after 15 minutes the buns became smaller altough they have risen quite big. I am not sure whether it is because the skin is too thin, or because I immediately open the steamer. I did open the steamer without letting the buns rest in the steamer because I only have 1 steamer.

But, I noticed that the second and third batches are better in terms of texture and size. I am not sure also if this is the effect of letting the buns rest (while waiting for their turn to occupy the steamer) or because I did not open the steamer immediately, but turn off the fire for a couple of minutes before transferring the buns to the plate.

Anyway, husband and children are happy with the results of the second trial. 10 buns for us are not enough for stocks, though. Although there are only 2 adults and 2 toddlers of (almost) 2 and 4 years old, my children enjoy eating. So, next project is better filling and better buns, and probably the sweet versions (red bean it is).

Tempe (and Tahu) Bacem

Tempe and tahu (tofu) are good soul food for me. They are delicious and also healthy. Tempe and tahu are made from fermented soy bean. They are popular food in Indonesia and can be cooked in many ways.

Tempe and tahu bacem are basically boiled in spices until they are dry (no more liquid but not burned) and then fried. We usually eat them together with Gudeg, another favorite Indonesian dish for me.

A couple of weeks ago, I made tempe bacem for the family in my effort to introduce more non-meat food to the children. It was a hit with the children. Both Patrick and Timothy could not stop eating them.

Today, I am making it again, but without the tahu because I only have two blocks of tempe. My husband has bought 1 litre of coconut water last week because he silently wanted me to make the dish again.

So, here is the recipe taken from Sajian Sedap website.

Ingredients:
250 gram tempe, cut 4x6 cm or to your liking, but do not cut it in cubes.
1 block of tofu, cut similar to tempe
3 daun salam (similar to bay leave, you can find mostly in Asian store)
2 cm galangal or lengkuas (I used 1-2 tsp powder)
500 ml coconut water (I used 300 ml coconut water and the rest I used water)
1 1/2 tbs palm sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
5 cloves shallot
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp coriander seed
oil for frying

Method:

1. Boil everthing (except the oil) until it is dried.
2. Fry the tempe and tahu in hot oil until both sides are brown. Put aside on the kitchen towel to wipe the excess oil.
3. Serve with warm rice and sambal (chilli served in special way).

This dish is very delicious with Gudeg (a dish made from young jackfruit). I will post the recipe when I have time. I have not made gudeg for a long time now.

Cannot wait to see the children enjoying the tempe bacem tomorrow. You may ask, tomorrow? Why? Because I usually cook and do household chores at night after the children are sleeping because my husband and I are working parents.

But for now, enjoy the picture! I hope you like the dish and want to try to make the dish for your family.

Potato Cake

Everybody was sick these last two weeks. In the beginning, it was only Timothy. As usual, kids going to the day care at their early age will be prone to virus and bacteria. And they get sick easily and also the whole house is usually infected.

So the first week, we took turn to stay at home with him. After that, Patrick was sick also. So, there was a day when the kids stayed at home with me. Since Timothy and Patrick had almost no appetite, and we still had a lot of potatos, I decided to ask Patrick to make potato cake together. It was quite interesting for him to help me with the measuring. However, he got bored quickly and I ended up finishing the cake myself.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
5 eggs
180 gr sugar
1/2 tsp vanille
135 gr all-purpose flour
500 gr potato (boil the potato, drain the water and mash the potato)
2 tbsp margarine (melted)
100 gr grated cheese (I used more than 100 gram, around 175 gram in total)
25 gr raisin
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Method
1. Mix te eggs, sugar, and vanille until the mixture is smooth.
2. Add the flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Mix well the mixture.
3. Add a part of the egg-flour mixture and mix that into the mashed potato to get a good consistency of the potato mixture.
4. Add the potato mixture back to the egg-flour mixture and  mix it well.
5. Add 3/4 of the grated cheese and all the raisin.
6. Pour the mixture to the bread pan and put in the pre-heated oven at 180 degree Celcius for 45 minute.

This potato cake is easy to make and you do not need any expensive tool to make. That is why, I do not afraid to let Patrick involved in making this cake. As long as you mix it well, the cake will turn out good. Not like making Lapis Surabaya cake or Japanese Cheesecake. Those cakes need to be made with care.

We love to eat the cake warm. I let Patrick brought it to school as a snack. Timothy can finish a big portion, although he will do his ritual first: picking the raisins before eating the rest of the cake.

Enjoy the cake!