Cornish Pasties & Sausage Rolls

I love making pies...meat pies, gourmet pies, pasties, sausage rolls, etc.  When I first learnt how to make cornish pasties, I felt as though I was making currypuffs..haha!  From what I have read, cornish pasties orginally comes from Cornwell, UK. Furthermore, the word pasty is actually from a French word paste which means pie. Why did the cornish pasties have the side-crimped, one wonders? From what I have heard and read, the side-crimps were created so that the miners will be able to eat their food (pasties) by holding on to the side crimps and eating it safely without touching the food or the mouth. As you know, the hands and fingers of the miners in the good old days are pretty dirty and have traces of arsenic. This is indeed a good way to prevent food poisoning :) Interesting indeed...

Sausages rolls originated from the UK too, it seems. Its a savoury pastry and it was commonly sold as a take-away food as its easy to hold and eat. Do you know that there's a National Sausage Roll Day too which is on 10 Oct? On this day, a town called Sausage Roll in Queensland, will prepare a giant sausage to celebrate this national day with a giant pinic where everyone is wellcome to join in.

Here's a photo of my cornish pasties and sausage rolls.

One word.....yummylicious!!!

Focaccia ....how do you pronounce it?

Focaccia...this is a delicious Italian bread which is topped with herbs and other ingredients (its more like...whatever one love to put on top of the bread thingy).  I often finds it hard to pronounce this delicious flat bread.  One of my Italian friends said that her Mom taught her the Italian pronounciation and to me it sounds like "fore - car - cha".

One thing I know about this flat bread...it loves olive oil and can never have enough of it.  I love dotting these babies before I prove it.  Some people will prove it in the prover and other will let it prove just on the kitchen  bench. Olive oil is the moisturiser of this bread and it sucks it all in...amazing!!!

Focaccia is commonly use as a sandwich bread over here. However, its delicious on its own too.  Here's 2 photo of  my focaccia.

 

 Before it goes into the oven...

Just come out of the oven...

I just love the smell of these babies baking in the oven....yummylicious!!!

Apple and Coffee Scrolls

Apple and coffee scrolls....some will call it apple and coffee rolls, apple and coffee buns or even apple and coffee swirls.  Whatever name its known as, this is a sweet yeast-leavened dough which has custard spread on it. If you want to make coffee scrolls, you just have to sprinkle some coffee paste on top of the custard and then you start rolling it like how you would a swiss roll.  And if you want to make apple scrolls, you just have to sprinkle some cooked cubed apples on top of the custard and then you roll it.  Once you have rolled it and cut into individual portions, it has to be proved till it double in size. Then, you will bake it in a hot oven at 220 degrees C for 10- 15 mins.  Once its baked, you will then bunwash it with sugar syrup.  Lastly, you will glaze it with white fondant (apple scrolls) or coffee fondant (coffee scrolls) before serving it to your guests and customers.  Here's some photos of my scrolls.

Before being placed into the prover box.

After it comes out from the oven and bunwashed with sugar syrup.

This is a delicious breakfast item indeed...yummy!!!

Katsutera Cake

Katsutera cake is a very popular cake in Japan and it has been a very popular cake on the "must bake" list for a lot of bakers.  I have read stories on how Katsutera cake came about in Japan. Some mentioned that its from the Portuguese who ventured to Japan in the 16th century. Katsutera cake is a sponge cake made from bread flour, sugar, honey and eggs.

This cake has been in my "must bake" listt for ages and finally I managed to make it one fine day.  It does not look as fantastic as those I have seen in Japan but I am happy to say that the taste is pretty alike.  My hubby and my 2 kiddos loved it too. To me, that's the most important thing... :)

Here's a photo of my humble katsutera cake.

Now that I know how to bake this delicious cake, I will bake it again and again and again.

Hokkien Mee

When Malaysians and Singaporeans talk about "hokkien mee", they are actually talking about different kinds of noodles. In Singapore, when someone mentions "hokkien mee", is actually hokkien noddles cooked in prawn stock. However, when a Malaysian mentions "hokkien mee", its fried noodles in dark sauce. In this household, we love both types of "hokkien mee".

We were yearning for some local food from our childhood days and my hubby decided that we should whip-up some Singapore style "Hokkien Mee".  We made our prawn stock with prawns and pork bones. We even made "chee yau char" (deep fried pork lard). Here's our humble "hokkien mee"...it was gone before we could even count to 10....haha!!!

Hokkien Mee is really sedap with freshly cut red chilli with soy sauce.  Some people prefers sambal belacan.  No matter what, its just delicious!!!

Tarts, Tarts and More Tarts...

Tarts, tartlets....this is one dessert which one can easily made.  Its much easier these days when one can buy pre-baked tarts or tartlets shells from the supermarts. In my workplace, we make our own lemon curd tarts, chocolate tarts and custard tarts.

The tart shells are mostly made from shortcrust pastry and its blind baked.  Next, comes the fillings. For us, we made our own lemon curd filling, delicious rich chocolate filling and creamy yummylicious custard filling. Lastly, we can decorate the top layer with lemon  (for the lemon curd tarts), chocolate (for the chocolate tarts) and sprinkle nutmeg or cinnamon powder (for the custard tarts).

Here's some photos of my tarts...

Lemon Curd Tarts

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Chocolate Tarts

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Custard Tarts

Tarts or tartlets are plain delicious..

Japanese Curry

I just love curry especially peranakan style. However, ever since my group of buddies have been patronizing a Japanese restaurant quite regularly, I have fallen in love with their Japanese curry rice. This got me thinking as I am paying about $10 for my lunch and I also found out that the pre-mixes have lots of palm oil, MSG and such.  So, what about making it from scratch? Then I can control what ingredients to use. We did some reading online and in the library plus bookstores and here's what we came out with.  Here's a photo of our homemade Japanese Curry Chicken with Rice!  Verdict - Yummy!!!

Oishii!!!