Red Bean Paste

I bought a pack of red bean quite some time ago but only this time I have mood to made something with red bean. I might use it for red bean pao or red bean bun or just spread on a piece of bread for breakfast. Well, I normally cook quite a lot as it could store very well in the fridge for 2 to 3 days or 3 weeks in the freezer. Of course I could easily get it from supermarket or bakery shop, but today I really have the mood to do it myself. I roughly washed 300g of red bean then cooked with 600ml of water at high heat with the lid on. It tooks about 10 minutes until the water bubbles up then I added 250ml of water (I've just added drinking water which is not hot or cold). I put the lit on again and cooked for another 5 minutes until it bubbles up again. I roughly washed it through a drainer again then put back to the pan and cook with 800ml of water until the red bean swelling but not breaking. Then roughly wash through a drainer again. This time I cooked with 850ml of water with Pandan Leaves at medium heat for 40 to 60 minutes with lid on. In between, I added some water (just drinking water) 2 to 3 times to prevent drying out and make sure the water cover up least 2 to 3cm from the top of red bean. Then I check whether it's soft enough by using a spatula to scraped a few bean before drained it and took away the pandan leave. I let it cook about 30 minutes before blend it in a food processor until it became a paste.

I cooked the bean paste with 150g of sugar with low medium heat and keep stirring with wooden spoon until I could draw a "1" in the pan. I divided it 8 or 9 portion by a big spoon to let it completely cool.After it completely cool down I made it into 18 little balls about 40g each and store some in the fridge and some in the freezer. I think I shall use it for a red bean pao soon.

Granola

I am very particular with breakfast with no rushing and relaxing conversation with the family to start a new day. Cereal, oat porridge, bread, pancake, milk or coffee are in our daily menu. I don't wish to rush in the morning for preparing breakfast so normally will prepare everything in advance. I usually attached each measuring cups with the container of cereal, oat, my premix pancake, crepes, milk just to fix the portion when cooking so that I don't need to do measurement in the morning. Nowadays, there are more options as I've been doing some research of healthy bread recipes. Lately, I found a cereal recipe named Granola. You could get a package from supermarket actually. But this time, I really like to do it myself because I can add in different or more ingredients to this recipe and then put into a container just in case I feel bored with bread or craving at anytime. I made a big jar for mum as a mother's day gift. We have the same craving habit, so I guess this could really help her.
This recipe from one of my idol chef Ellie Krieger, she is a celebrity nutritionist. You won't feel guilty when using her recipe but of course portion is also very important.

I used 3 cups rolled oats, 1/2 cups chopped walnut, 1/2 cups chopped almond and 1/2 cups chopped pecans and 1/2 cups raisin. You could add more oats or other nuts or seeds like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds or dried cranberries etc. I found walnut and almond is quite good in omega-3 fatty acid so I followed her recipe. I mixed these ingredients with 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, you can add more if you like and 1/4 tsp salt which is quite optional. After mixing all the dried ingredients, add 1/2 cup pure maple syrup and mix until everything is coated. Bake in the oven 30 minutes at 160'C or until golden brown. Serving size should be 1/2 cups perserving. It could be served with milk or yogurt or even desserts.

The naughty of me would always grasp some whenever I pass by the kitchen.

Curry Bun

I learned this curry bun in Sam's workshop. He called this "no-time dough method". I guess that is because the dough only need one proofing time. I changed the bun fillings by adding some chicken cubes rather than just only potato cubes so that it won't be too boring for me. Of course you could change your curry recipe instead of using the original recipe as I found the taste quite boring. Somehow, I found sambal chili with onion or chili sardines are quite tasty too!
This recipe could make 10 buns, however, I reduce it to half as there are only two of us.

(Original recipe from Sam)
Ingredients for the bun:
300g Bread Flour
10g Milk powder
2 tsp Bread improver
20g Sugar
1 tsp Salt
6g Yeast
1 Egg
120g Water
20g Butter
Some lime leaves and slices chilli for decoration

Method for the bun:
1. Place all the ingredients in the dough mixer except butter. Knead till the side of the bowl is clean.
2. Add in butter and knead till well developed.
3. Remove the dough and divide into 10 x 50g pieces. Roll the dough out and wrap 50g of curry potato filling. Shape and place the dough in a baking cup on a baking pan.
4. Proof the bread till double in bulk, approximately 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 200'C. Brush the surface lightly with egg glaze.
6. Bake at 200'C for 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown. Brush with oil when baked to give a
glossy finish. Decorate wtih lime leaf and sliced chili.

Curry potato filling:
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 medium yellow onion - cut cubes
3 medium potatoes - steam or boiled, peeled & cut cubes
1 tbsp curry powder or more
1 tsp salt

Method for curry potato filling:
1, Heat up frying pan. Add in olive oil and onions. Stir fry till fragrant.
2. Add in potatoes cubes, curry powder and salt (to taste). Stir fry till evenly mixed.
3. Cool the filling before use. Divide the filling into 50g portions.