Kampar Curry Chicken Bread

Kampar curry chicken bread is a kind of bread..big loaf of bread stuffed with probably half a chicken inside. It is the invention from Kampar, another town located in the state of Perak. I remember that it was such a hit among the locals and tourists  when it was first introduced and people would queiung up to try this delicacy.
It looks quite an ordinary bread besides its gigantic size but when you cut the bread open, you will find these delicious curry chicken wrapped in parchment paper or aluminium foil inside the bread. Unlike the normal curry chicken buns, the filling has to be wrapped with paper or foil otherwise the curry gravy would leak out from the dough and i dont think we can actually shape the dough without wrapping the chicken first. You can use your favourite bread recipe to make this, put the wrapped curry chicken in after the first proof of your dough when you want to shape the bread. After putting the chicken inside, you can then shape your loaf and wait for 2nd proof and then send to bake. You can also use your favourite curry chicken recipe to make this, i had used mixed chilli and curry paste to cook mine this time. By the way, the bread recipe that i used here is quite a good recipe, straight dough method, nice bread, you can use this recipe for your other bread or buns fillings.

For the bread
Ingredients A
450gm bread flour
25gms milk powder
15gms instant yeast
60gms sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Ingredient B
1 large egg, beaten mixed with 130ml cold milk + 130ml cold water

40gms butter

Method:
1.Add  all ingredients A into a mixing bowl of a machine and use a fork to stir till well mixed. Using a dough hook, add in ingredients B slowly and beat roughly for about 5 minutes until it forms a moist firm ball.
2.Add in butter and beat for around 5-10 minutes until the dough looks smooth. Remove dough into slighly floured table and mould into a big ball and let it proof for about 35-45 minutes.
3.After proof, lightly knead the dough again and let rest for another 10 minutes.
4.Roll out the dough into a big round or rectangle depending on the shape you want, put the wrapped chicken at the center and seal the dough by bringing the edges together and pinch and seal them tightly. Transfer this to your baking tray and let it rise for another 40-45 minutes.
5.You can apply egg wash (optional) and bake it a preheated oven at 170C for 25-30minutes ( different oven varies)

Curry chicken recipe
half a chicken, cut into pieces, cleaned and marinate with a little salt
mixed chilli and curry boh 40gms
2 pips garlic
6 shallots

300-400ml  water

150-250ml coconut  milk,  depending 

salt and sugar to taste

1. Pound the garlic and shallots , pour some oil into wok and saute them in wok till aromatic . Add in the chilli and curry boh/paste and saute them on low fire for around 10 minutes or less. Put in  the chicken and stir them on medium heat for several minutes.

2. Pour in water and let boil for a minute, add in the coconut milk depending how creamy you like and cover the wok and let it cook for about 10minutes. Add sugar and salt to taste. Dish up and let cool. Wrap them in aluminium foil tightly.

I am submitting this to the Aspiring Bakers Challenge # 8 - Bread Seduction ( June 2011) hosted by Jasmine from The Sweetylicious  Also at the same time, i'm sharing this in the Muhibbah Malaysian Monday Event hosted by 3 hungry tummies.

Ginger Milk Curd (姜撞奶）

this is like magic! When i first saw this in  Maureen from TasteHongKong blog, i read with amazement as to how the milk can set on its own. Maybe some of you had done this before and i had to do this 4 or 5 times to see the magic happening. It is the ginger juice that is acting as the coagulant and must be old ginger cos it contains the starch to help to set the milk. First we need to grate the ginger to obtain the ginger juice, then boil the milk till it reaches 80C ( a thermometer would be very useful here) , then pour the milk into the ginger juice in the bowl and let it set. It should take just several minutes to set the curd but in all trials, i just let it sit there for about 20 minutes without moving the bowl.

As you can see from the picture, i didnt get a firm curd. My first 3 trials had totally failed to set, the 4th and 5th time was almost the same ..at least it sets to a soft curd with the addition of slightly more ginger juice. I used Dutch Lady UHT full cream milk for all my trials. It's nice to eat but a little hot due to the ginger juice. If you are curious and keen to try, you can always start of with half the recipe below which i did after the 2nd attempt. Half the recipe will make one normal rice bowl. After i done all these, i realised that Wendy and a few other friends had also experimented this. You can try with various brands of milk if you like.You can also take a look here. So simple and yet so diificult..!

Recipe( from TasteHongKong )
250ml fresh milk
2 tsps sugar to taste
4 tsps ginger juice ( from old ginger)

Method:
1. Wash, peel and grate ginger and juice by pressing it thru a fine strainer until you get required amount of ginger juice.
2.Stir well the ginger juice and divide among 2 bowls.
3.Heat milk with sugar over the lowest flame in a small pot. Swirl to dissolve sugar. As you feel heat from the milk, place the kitchen thermometer into the milk. As the temperature reaches 80C, remove from heat.
4.Right befor ethe milk is removed from heat, give theginger juice a good stir. Immediately pour milk form about 10cm above to fill no more than 70% of the bowl or the milk will easily spill out.
5.After the milk is added to the ginger juice, do not move or shake the bowl. Wait for 5 minutes, the mixture will be curded. Serve immediately.
( in my last 2 attempts, i boiled the milk till it reaches 90C, remove from heat and let it cool down to 80C before pouring into the bowl.)

Thanks to Maureen  for introducing this nice, little miracle dessert to me. I didnt get the chance to try that when i was in Hong Kong but very glad to be able to do this at home even though it doesnt look as good as the real one!

Bake Along # 3 - Butterscotch and Hazelnut Pudding

If only the pudding could be a little more saucey, then it would be absolutely yummy! Now the picture i'm showing here doesnt look like all like the one featured in the magazine. The magazine one looks far more tempting and pretty and super saucey. But i was not disappointed with the pudding, it tasted not bad but just a little puzzled.. the butterscotch sauce could have been more .maybe i cooked the sauce a little more thicker..i dont know.. The taste of  pudding by itself is not plain, you can get to taste the hazlenut here but just a pity that i had to dig all the way down to the bottom of the ramekin for the butterscotch sauce when i was eating this. Now i shall see my 2 bake along friends, Joyce and Zoe who baked the same pudding. I'm excited to see how did their pudding turn out.

Recipe ( from Donna Hay Magazine apr/may2011 issue )
Ingredients: ( this is halve of the original recipe, makes around 4 ramekins)

Basic Pudding Mixture
75gm butter
58gm brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
113gm all purpose flour
25gm ground hazelnut
1tsp baking powder
125ml milk

Butterscotch sauce
85gm brown sugar
30gm butter
125ml single/pouring cream

Method:
1.Preheat oven to 170C. To make the butterscotch sauce, place the butter, sugar and cream in a saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high and bring to boil, stirring occasionally 5-7 minutes until thickened. Pour into ramekins or 1.75 liter baking dish and refrigerate.
2.To make hazelnut pudding mixture, place butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour , ground hazelnut, baking powder and milk in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat till well combined. Divide the mixture between the ramekins or pour into baking dish.
3.Place the pudding in water bath. Cover the tray with 2 sheets of aluminium foil and bake for 45-50 minutes or until puddings are springy to the touch. If using baking dish, pls adjust baking time to 1hr 5 min-1hr 10mins. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Fried eggplant with chicken floss

 I was in the hair salon a month ago when i saw this featured in a local chinese magazine. I've seen it  somewhere, cant remember which  blog that says certain restaurants do serve this dish. This is a very simple dish to prepare but this isnt the actual recipe. I didnt copy the recipe down from that magazine, it was kind of troublesome too to copy the recipe while the hair stylist was doing my hair. After all it's 2 or 3 ingredients,  i thought i can remember.. so this is more or less of that recipe.

Ingredients:
300gm eggplant/brinjals( cut into strips)
4 spoonful cornflour+ pinch of salt and pepper
chicken floss/pork floss

Seasoning
1/2 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt

Method:
1.Toss the brinjal all over cornflour and deep fry them until the brinjals turn slightly brown and crispy.
2. Remove them from wok and set aside. Saute garlic and return the brinjals to wok and add in sugar and
salt. Just give a quick toss orherwise the brinjals will turn soft. Dish up and lastly put on the chicken or pork floss.

Will be submitting this to Muhibbah Malaysian Monday event hosted by 3 hungry tummies.

Palm Sugar Char Siew

One of the simplest method to make your own char siew. Now what attracted me is that it uses palm sugar or gula melaka to make this char siew. What surprises me then is the outcome of this char siew actually taste better than what i was expecting, well of course this is not the best char siew i've ever tasted but to call this homemade, i'm truly truly pleased. The taste of the palm sugar in this char siew is not heavy and i think some of us cant even tell that it uses palm sugar in here. I used to use the ready made char siew sauce and maltose for my previous home made char siew and to me, i like this palm sugar version even more. You dont need to bake this in the oven, you will just need half an hour cooking time in the stove and you will get this aromatic tasty homemade char siew.

Ingredients: ( from Yum Yum lastest issue)
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp chopped garlic
350gms pork belly

Seasoning:
2 tbsp light soya sauce
25gm gula melaka/palm sugar
250ml water

Method:
1. Heat up oil and saute chopped garlic until aromatic. Add pork belly and stir well.
2. Add seasoning and bring to boil. Lower the heat and cook until very thick. ( This process will take around 1/2 hour , make sure the gravy is really thick, i cooked till the gravy is left with probably 3 tbsps in the wok). Remove from heat and leave to cool. Cut into pieces and serve.

I'm also sharing this with Muhibbah Malaysian Monday event hosted by 3 hungry tummies

Chocolate Chip Walnut Meringue Bread

The original name of this is actually Chocolate Chip Pecan Meringue Coffee Cake but sometimes the name can be quite confusing  because most Asians and myself  would call this a bread. I read that a coffee cake doesnt necessarily contains coffee but intended to be served with coffee, hope my understanding is correct. This is something a little unsual than the normal bread or buns that i used to bake that the filling is made up of beaten egg whites or meringue. During baking, the meringue will melt onto the bread and gives a little sweetness and together with the rest of the fillings ie chocolate chips, sugar,cinnamon and walnuts, it is really good ..a good coffee cake!Though you find meringue and the sugar here and there, the bread is not that sweet as you may be expecting, it's not neccesary to reduce the amout of sugar if you were to make this.

It was a really hot day when i making this and while it's on the 2nd proof, the sugar actually melt and flow out of the dough even though i've covered it with a piece of cloth.. I put near my kitchen window but i never expected that the sugar can actually melt, so you can imagine how hot the weather is. I've wiped off the syrup at the sides of the bread as much as i could, there's still slightly burnt at the sides and the bottom but probably you cant see those because i''ve scraped them away.

Recipe ( taken from here, this is halve of the original recipe )
For the dough
300gm bread flour
25gm sugar
a little less than 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/8 tsp instant yeast
90ml milk
40ml water
58gm butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tbsp sugar
1/8tsp ground cinnamon
75gm chocolate chips

For meringue:
2 egg whites
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
50gm sugar

egg wash to glaze the cake and icing sugar to dust the cake ( optional )

Method:
1. In a large bowl, combine 115gm of the flour, sugar, salt and yeast.
2. In a saucepan, melt the mlk, water and butter over medium heat until butter is just melted.
3.With a mixer on low speed, gradually add in the warm liquid to the flour and yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg and 75gm flour and beat for 2 minutes. Beat in the remaining flour to make a dough and continu ebeating till smooth dough is formed. This may take several minutes.
4.Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl and proof till double its volume.
5.In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon powder.
6.Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue. Beat the egg whites with salt on low speed, then increase speed and beat until foamy. Add in the vanilla and gradually add in the sugar and beat till stiff peaks form.
7.Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Punch down the dough and on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 20"x10' rectangle. ( mine was about 15"x10" ) and spread meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2 inch from the edges. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the meringue folowed by the chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.
8. Roll up the dough from the long side. ( i've wrongly rolled from the shorter side) . Pinch the seam closed. Carefully transfer the log to the baking sheet, seam side down.Bring the sides of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring. Using scissors, make cuts along the outside edge at 1 inch interval. Cover the dough and let it rise for 2nd proof for about 30-45 minutes.
9. Preheat oven to 180C. Brush the top of the dough with egg wash before baking and bake in a preheated oven for 25-30minutes until risen and golden brown.

I find that the bread gets hard on later part of the day and even harder on the 2nd day. one thing, i think i might also overbaked the bread a little.

I will be submitting this to the Aspiring Bakers Challenge #9 - Bread Seduction ( June 2011) hosted by Jasmine of Sweetylicious . Also there's is a giveaway happening at Nasi Lemak Lover's blog. Closing date is June21st, 2011, you can check the details on her blog.

Bake Along #2 - Gateau Breton

hi, first of all, i would like to say thank you for all of your holiday wishes to me. I had a fun and enjoyable trip to Hong Kong last week , just wished that the holidays could be a little longer. So much eating and so much walking..i think i havent been walking that much for the last 10 years! I appreciate each and everyone of you who came by and dropped a comment here.
This is the second bake in the bake along with Joyce from kitchen flavours and i'm also very glad that Zoe from bake for happy kids is also joining us for the fun. We have decided to pick something from the book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes that is Gateau Breton. If not for this bake along, i really dont know when will i start to make something out of this thick book! Gateau Breton is a French type of butter cake and Rose's version has added some ground almonds for extra flavour. She described it crisp like a pastry around the outside edge, but has a soft , dense and moist interior and something in between a shortbread and a pound cake. Yeah, though the taste is very much similiar to a kind of butter cake but the texture is different, almost like a shortbread and it is nice. Do check out Joyce's and Zoe's blogs of the same Gateau Breton today or tomorrow.

Recipe ( using a 9" round pan)
Ingredients:
blanced sliced almonds 42gms
superfine sugar 150gms
salt 1/4 tsp
semicold unsalted butter ( preferably high fat) ,250gms
egg yolks 74gms
kirsh, dark rum or water 15gms
vanilla extract 1 1/4 tsp
all purpose flour 250gms
1 whole egg, lightly beaten

Method:
1.Line and flour a 9 inch baking pan and preheat oven to 325F/160C 20minutes before baking.

2.Spread the almonds evenly on a bking sheet and bake for abt 7 minutes. Cool completely. In a food processor, process the almonds with 1/4cup of sugar and salt until fairly fine but not powder fine.
3.In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the remaining sugar and the butter on medium speed for abt 1 minutes until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, beating for 20seconds after each addition.
4.Add the almond mixture, kirsh and vanilla and mixon low speed until all the dry ingredients are moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat for abt 20 seconds until evenly incorporated.
5.Add the flour in 4 parts, beating on lowest speed for abt 15seconds and using a spatula, finish mixing any flour that may remain , reaching to the bottom of the bowl.
6.Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface evenly.
7.With the beaten egg, brush the top of the cake well, using a little less than 1 tablespoon. Use thge times of a fork to make a crosshatch of three long lines in two directions. ( if the batter has softened, refrigerate or freeze it briefly to make it more firm) The fork lines will prevent the batter for puffing up unevenly and after baking will leave a bare tracing.
8. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until deep golden brown and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. It should just begin to come away from the sides of the pan.
9. Let the cake cool in a wire rack for 10minutes before reinverting onto a serving plate. Cool completely.


Some notes from Rose: 
Butter that is 80% fat contains abt 2 tbsps more water than 86% which will result in a slightly moisture crumb. If you prefer a moister crumb and ou want to use the higher 86% butter, you can add 2 tbsp water to the batter when adding the almonds. If using 84%, you can add 4 tsp water. I used a 83% fat butter but i didnt add in additional water , it was still good.