No Knead Rosemary Foccacia

I was at the Library and found this Sept - Oct 2008, Cook's Illustrated and it featured a "Better Foccacia". How better is it? i would have to bake one to find out. The best part in the process of making this Foccacia is - no need to knead. It has been quite awhile since Alexander made The No-knead Bread, and i ask if he would like to help make bread again. He was only 3 when he helped with The No Knead Bread and now that he is coming to be 6, has other more interesting activities than helping me in the kitchen. He does not need to help , i would be the happiest, if he will eat my cooking or baking. When i bake bread, Renee is my biggest fan, she can smell bread baking in the oven a mile away and would always ask when can she have a piece. She likes everything that is doughy, she is a carb person.


The recipe and how to make No Knead Foccacia is HERE

Renee's 9th Birthday Cake

Renee will be turning NINE on March 23rd and last saturday, she celebrated with a birthday party for her classmates. What a lovely day it was, the sun was shinning but unfornately the kids were not able to play outside as it was too windy. I hope the kids enjoyed the party and i am sure they did, dancing, doing the Limbo and whatever they could do with the stick. Can't imagine that a blow-up stick can provide such good entertainment. My proudest moment was when i saw the expressions on the children's faces when they saw the birthday cake, i think i have achieved my tasks, they recognized all the Pokeman characters on the cake.





The recipe and how to are HERE

Yellow Butter Cake

I have so often used potato starch as a thickener for sauces, soups, and stews but for adding it to my flour for baking, this is my first.

Potato starch is not potato flour. Potato flour is dehydrated potatoes ground into powder and is much heavier and denser. Potato starch is the result of an extraction process removing the starch only from the potato. Think of the white foam that floats to the top when you boil potatoes, that's potato starch. Potato starch has no gluten. It is used in recipes for those who are gluten intolerant.




The Yellow Butter Cake Recipe is HERE

 

Brioche Bread

Brioche is a light but rich French bread  made with a yeast dough enriched with eggs, milk, and butter. This recipe i am sharing is one which is made with oil and in a bread machine. 

The recipe for Brioche Bread is HERE

Chicken In A Jiffy For Hainanese Chicken Rice

In a Jiffy - i am branded with this statement so i must keep my up with my repertoire of cooking in a jiffy, i would like to share my way of cooking 'Chicken in a Jiffy For Hainanese Chicken Rice'. 

For step by step on how to microwave chicken and hainanese chicken rice, the recipe is HERE

Longevity Peach Bun for Birthday

Showing respect and esteem for the elderly is a tradition that remains today. Nowadays, when grandparents or parents reach the ages of 70, 80 or 90, their children and grandchildren organize ceremonies for longevity. Such celebrations, either large or small,  are occasions to show devotion and respect to grandparents and parents. Celebrations for longevity, manifest the family’s joy in having a relative who has been able to lead a long life.  The Chinese God of Longevity, known as Sau,  is a symbol of easy life, smooth living, and victory over the strife that life can sometimes cause. A gourd is attached to the end of his staff which is said to hold the elixir of life or immortality. Sau is usually depicted holding a peach, which is the divine fruit of the gods, allowing them to live forever, therefore making Sau Tou/Peach Buns is a must for longevity celebration.  Besides having a banquet of which long and thin noodles are served, everyone will be blessed with presents ,


a red envelope/lei si, -   Good blessings.


a longetivity rice bowl together with a pair of chopsticks  - wishing steady income in the future


and


a pair of wooden CLOGS -  wishing a successful career ~~ "po po ko sing" which means to rise to the top, step by step.



Read about the story of the Longevity Peach (bun) HERE

The recipe for Longevity Peach Bun is HERE

Homemade Strudel - Viennese Apple Strudel

According to Wiki - "traditional Austrian Strudel pastry is different from strudels served in other parts of the world that are often made from filo or puff pastry. The traditional Strudel pastry dough is very elastic. It is made from flour with a high gluten content, egg, water, and butter with no sugar added. The dough is worked vigorously, rested, and then rolled out and stretched by hand very thinly. Pertaining to anecdotes, purists say, it should be so thin that a newspaper can be read through it. A legend has it that the Austrian Emperor's perfectionist cook decreed that it should be possible to read a love letter through it. The thin dough is laid out on a tea towel, and the filling is spread on it. The dough with the filling on top is rolled up carefully with the help of the towel and baked in the oven."


The recipe and step by step on how to made the strudel from scratch is HERE