no kneading (promise)

With all my baking stuff packed (and ready to move) and the void that is the absence of a mixer in my life, I had a sneaky suspicion that I would not be making bread anytime soon.  At least not for the next three weeks.

But you see, curiosity and information are dangerous things.  DANGEROUS.

During the classes last week, Chef taught us to make and use sponge and also demonstrated--more like prepared a no knead bread that looked like it was a prop from some artisan bakery photo shoot.  

Without a weighing scale I could not really practice my baking ratios.  I also had only one packet of active yeast--given to me by a good friend because she knew how hard not baking was for me!

So I googled and used a random recipe for no knead bread.  

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Oh, I had to bake my bread using a frying pan.  FRYING PAN.  

Remember?  Baking stuff inaccessible!

I split my dough into two so that I can experiment on the difference in outcomes.  
The first one I baked covered with aluminum foil (and cool frying pan) and the second on a pre-heated frying pan with no cover.

mentos inspired

The second rose much better, it had a rounder profile and had a smoother crust.  

As I finished the entire first loaf--it is clear that there were no complaints here.  The crust was so crispy and inside was soft.

I'm sure Mom is excited to visit to taste these breads.

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I have some left over yeast from the small packet, so I went ahead and made another batch using a different recipe.  We shall see how tomorrow's bread would turn out.

Basic Bread

One day, I was talking to my husband about wanting to learn things to enhance our daily life.  

The principle of doing and (hopefully not too much of) acquiring things that enhance day to day life is something we consciously consider when making purchasing decisions.  Obviously, this won't apply to grocery shopping or eating out or buying shoes, but rather relatively bigger expenses such as appliances, furniture and tuition.  

I had enrolled in a weeklong course of Bread Making in a Culinary School.  

Why bread?  It is a staple.  And I would not mind a life filled with freshly baked bread :)

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It is amazing how combining water and flour turn into something completely different.  The transformation of the flour is amazing.  Really.  

Having time to talk to the Chef really allows you to witness how much love, care and understanding go to making bread.  

I am so tempted to list down everything that I have learnt in class such as baking ratios, ideal temperatures, etc.  but I think the best lesson I took back is that... 

Each baker makes bread differently, you need to play and explore to discover YOUR bread. 

I think that is inspiring.

I think, I can say that the course was a life enhancing experience.

I think, I want to sign up for the advance bread classes to be offered next year.

Happy Sunday!

Chicken Roulade

Chicken is my cooking nemesis.

There was a time that I stirred clear of cooking chicken, well it was not too hard as I don't really like chicken.  In fact, it would be the last thing I order unless I am in a chicken place--obviously.

There was too many beef, pork and fish recipes that I wanted to try anyways.

If I really NEEDED to cook chicken, I'd boil it first.  Then I'd brown it in the oven or on a pan.  That was that.  No baked chicken. 

However, as with life there will come a point when you need to overcome your past failures.  It was funny how my meat thermometer decided to bail on me the first time I wanted to cook chicken without the pre-boil ceremony I had gotten accustomed to.

I picked (I was not going to make it easy) Chicken Roulade.  I have not done roulade anything, so this was exciting.

I also was not too ready--I did not have cooking twine.  I'm sorry to say that I used silk yarns to tie around the flattened, stuffed and rolled chicken breast!

The spices I had were my favorites, chives, butter, garlic, crispy chicken skin, rosemary and salt.  I kept it pretty simple.  Today, it was about cooking moist chicken that is brown outside.

just roll with me, roll with me.

I can't be happier with the end result.  I was surprised on how it came out.  Admittedly I was a little scared slicing through and you can see the hesitation I (and my knife blade) had slicing through.


Looking forward to cooking more chicken--though probably still not as much as other proteins :)

Molasses and Oatmeal Cookies

I had been cooking and baking like a madwoman, however I was not really taking photos and writing about my kitchen adventures.

I was also away for some time travelling where I went to bistro after bistro after bistro, drank coffee and wine (not together) everyday.  I had the loveliest time doing everything and nothing with my husband.

Surprisingly, I even cooked twice while on holiday.  With the holiday stretching relatively long, I missed the high I get out of meal preparation.  

Today, I baked cookies.  It is only my second time to make cookies but with my ever growing fondness for molasses, I decided to give it a go.

recipe here

I omitted the nuts and raisins, cut the sugar by half but using palm sugar, doubled the salt but using rock (sea) salt, cut the butter by one and half tablespoon and added two peanut butter morsels on top of each cookie--just to be cute.

FIRE!!!!!

bite me.

let's marvin gaye and get it on...

books and breaths

It is April and this is only my third post. 

Funny thing is that my writing mojo isn't amiss or anything, I just...didn't write.

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The past year I had been randomly reading yoga books--and these books aren't the kind you stay all night up for to get to the end.  These are those books you read one page of, then need a month to apply the theory so you can read the next. 

As yoga is a journey, I truly do not know how long it will take or how many times I'd need to read these lessons.

Even now when I see the trail of books at home mostly partially read, it doesn't discourage me.  It in fact, reminds me that there are many aspects of yoga, thus the book pile.

What I do know is that after years of hearing (not truly listening) the teacher in class, I finally am able to get it into my head, heart and mind how important breath is.

Breathe.  Don't forget to breathe.

This is as common as traffic lights in highways as it is in yoga classes.

I find that I am always reminded. 

Create space. 

Send your breath to where there is tightness.

Strong breaths.

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I truly do not like 'measuring' how far I have gone in terms of my yoga journey.

But I can say that my awareness and mindfulness of breath had helped me dramatically.  The change may be one millimeter visually, but inside--within me, I feel the shift.
 
Alignments suddenly happen and I began to feel new "muscles" or areas that perhaps were not being energised before.

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There are still days when I seem unable to do any poses.  And this is something I need to accept and respect.

Perhaps, these are the days I ought to focus on just breathing.  Nothing else.

FIGHT CLUBish Project: Rendering Lard

So what did you do over the weekend?

Well... I tried two new restos. Watched a musical.  Went to a yoga class.

BUT, I feel the highlight of my weekend was, rendering LARD.

Yes.  LARD.  LARD.

Pork fat.  Solid at room temperature.

What people typically associate heart attacks with. 

While there is reasonable material on lard versus vegetable oil--at how it leads to debunking the common  belief that the latter is better, I am not about to write about health and nutrition.  There is much literature out there, if you want to read more.

The drivers for me to do this mini project are:

(1) Curiosity :)
(2) Enhanced food flavour 
(3) Experience using 'new' ingredients
(4) Healthier Option (can't hurt)

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I like learning how to do things "from scratch". 

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I got the idea when my cousin in law posted about my cousin's much improved health screening reports after making a switch in fats used on their food.  I was so happy for him that he was getting in better shape.

There were photos of the 'before' and 'after' screening results, as well as images of lard and the process that my cousin in law took to render it.

I KNEW, I HAD TO TRY IT.

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While I am grateful that both my husband and myself were congratulated by the doctor after our annual exams, I thought that making small changes here and there won't hurt.

AND I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to try this whole lard thing :)

I did some reading on how to do this 'the right way', as in no rushing and keeping the temperature low.




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It is not an easy road to two jars of lard, but what I got should last us a couple of months. 

My steps would like be MUCH different from those you can find online.  


Step 1: Cut the fat, the smaller the better, but don't obsess.  

It doesn't need to be perfect.  Keep them reasonable small.  If you miss some, there won't be any catastrophic repercussions.  

Step 2: Place fat in your favorite pumpkin shaped Dutch Oven set on low heat.

You can add some water, if you like.  I did, a little.  It will all evaporate anyways.

the first rule of Fight Club is... err..

Step 3: Wait (and wait).  Read the book your best friend gave you for Christmas in the meantime.

It took me four hours to get to the state where I was comfortable to saying it was done. 

This should be based on the colour of the crackling (heaven's gift).  

Step 4: "Harvest" into the jamming jars you bought even if you don't plan to make jam (remembering how 3 jars of grape jam sat there forever), and don't really like jam.

I ended up going back and fourth steps 3 and 4.  I didn't want to risk 'burning' everything if I fell asleep! 
 
You are supposed to strain the oil / fat though a cheese cloth on top of a well, strainer.  

I had neither a strainer nor cheese cloth.  I just poured the oil into my jars.

No biggie.  Not the end of the world.

Step 5: Watch the oil cool into a solid state :)

This was my favorite part!  

Snow White
can't be happier with the end result.

Step 6: Collect the crackling and store.

Don't let anything go to waste!  I got the "remains" of my pork fat, pressed then down and cut them into strips.  These will go to my stir fry bee hon, I think.  Or my porridge.

the 'healthiest' chicharon option

Is it worth it?  I'd say the whole experience and the excellent turn out made it worth the effort.  

Who knows?  Maybe it will be a staple in my kitchen.

Pancit: For Long Life

Happy new year!

Coming back from our holiday, our ref is close to empty of fresh ingredients.  We were quite successful clearing our stash before flying out.  

This meant alternative ingredients, which is always a lot of fun.

Since it was the 31st, I thought I'd surprise my husband by cooking a Filipino dish I have never cooked before.  PANCIT.

There are a lot of variations to this dish.  In Singapore they use the beehoon as the carbs component of a dish then you get to pick the viand such as egg, luncheon meat, stir fried string beans... a wide assortment, really.

In the Philippines, all the ingredients are already mixed into the noodles, think fried rice.

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Equipped with hazy cooking instructions from my sister, brown rice vermicelli, carrots, onion, garlic and chinese sausage, I started cooking.  

I added the sliced lettuce in place of cabbage, I thought it worked bringing some freshness to the dish.  Like I said, I didn't have the 'correct' ingredients... 

calamansi please

This sat in front of my husband for late lunch.  He takes one bite, smiles, looks at me and says "Thank you, it is so good... like real pancit".