Weiling and Shireen came over today but we had no idea what we were gonna do. Shireen suggested we cook something, bake something then go for coffee at Starbucks. Umm so I suggested looking up some food blogs for cooking ideas. We went to The Passionate Cook to check it out! And we found nice fillo pastry recipe and a banana muffin recipe. However, the mall here doesn't sell fillo pastry, so I replaced it with spring roll sheets! Haha, and it turned out fine too. We also modified the muffin batter by adding in oats which added an earthy flavour, nice. To complete the dinner, we have pizza made with a focaccia dough, topped with canned tomato puree, herbs and lots of morzarella. Fragrant, gooey, tender bread.. by far the best recipe for bread i rely on ..ooow so yummy.. Droolz!! Here's the recipes:
Baked seafood and chinese parsley parcels
With a dollop of sambal chilli Recipe (serve as entree for 5-6):
1 packet small spring roll sheets
2 dozen shrimps, peeled and halved
1/2 cup fresh scallops, halved
1/2 cup spring onions, chopped
1/4 cup chinese parsely, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 tsp fish sauce
salt and black pepper to season
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp paprika
juice of 1 lime
Peanut oil or melted butter for brushing
Preheat oven to 200 deg C. In a bowl, combine shrimps, scallops, greens, garlic, chilli and seasonings well. Now comes the messy part. In a baking tray, brush one sheet of spring roll skin with oil then place another sheet on top. This is to prevent the nice juices from seeping through during baking. Also, moisten any sides of the skin you see is too dry. Actually, I'm not sure if an egg would do a better job than oil. So I need to experiment on this. Place one corner pointing towards you, put a good tablespoon of filling in the middle, fold the corner pointing towards you 1/3 way upwards. Bring in the left and right corners, try your best to tuck in the last corner into the seam. Just before baking. brush tops with a bit of oil. Bake for 15 min or till golden brown.
Margarita Pizza
Recipe (Serves 5-6):
7g instant dried yeast
1 cup warm milk
1,1/2 tsp sugar
2,1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tin Ayam brand tomato puree
Herbs of your choice, like basil, oregano, mixed
salt and pepper to season
1 block good Morzarella cheese, sliced
Mix yeast and sugar in warm milk in a big bowl, stir in 1/2 cup flour. Leave to proof for 30 mins. Add oil and salt then mix in 1/2 cup of flour at a time. Knead on a board till the dough is smooth and elastic and it shouldn't stick to your fingers. Add a little more flour if it does. Oil the bowl and leave it to rise for at least an hour. You don't need a rolling pin! Punch down the dough, knead a few times and flatten it slightly with ur palms. Place in a greased baking tray and stretch it to form a 1 cm thick bread. Cover and leave to rise for another 30 mins. Meanwhile, slice the morzarella with a cheese slicer, I'm too lazy to grate it. Lay a thin layer of cheese on the dough, spread the tomato puree on top and sprinkle with salt, pepper and herbs. Layer remaining cheese on top and dump it in the oven for 30 mins. Use a fork to tap the dough, if it produces a hollow sound it's done! Take it out of the oven when the cheese is slightly browned on top and gooey inside. Enjoy!
Banana and oats muffin with sundried prunes
Recipe (makes 9 muffins):
70 g butter, soften
90 g brown sugar
2 eggs
50 g wheatmeal
140 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1,1/2 tsp salt
1,1/2 large bananas, mashed with a fork
1/2 cup Quaker rolled-oats
120 g Sunsweet sundried prunes, chopped
Cream the butter and sugar, beat in eggs, one at a time. Then mix in flour, work with milk if it's too sticky. Add in salt, meshed bananas, oats and prunes. The batter should have the texture like thick congee. Brush 9 muffin tins with oil, Fill them 3/4 full and bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 25 mins. Increase to 200 deg C for another few mins to brown the muffins. Be wary of the time cos you don't wanna burnt muffins! And don't burn your tongue! ;D
