Wednesday 3 August 2011

{Featured @ inSing.com} Happy Birthday Singapore - Part 2, "National Day Bento"

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This year 09 August 2011, Singapore will be celebrating her 46th Birthday together with all citizens of Singapore as well as spectators and National Day performers at the Marina Bay floating stage. But even if you can't get hold of any National Day Parade tickets, you can still join in the celebration with friends and family members to enjoy some special holiday buffet, shop around at flea market, viewing fireworks and etc to enjoy a fun-filled National Day. (more details HERE).

Here upon the request of my boy, I have made a National Day Bento for him which I used his favourite Chicken Rice to make a rice parcel that is wrapped using red and white egg sheets to resemble the National flag. The concept of this bento is made to represent the different races and food cultures in Singapore. Example:- Chicken Rice is a well-known Chinese cuisine whereas Putu Mayam is one of the old-times Indian breakfast treat. In this way, at least my boy get to know and try the different kinds of food eaten by the different races in Singapore. If you are interested you can also take a look at our National Day Icing Cookies done by WaiFong at this link HERE.

Lastly for more details and recipe of this National Day Bento, please refer to the article at inSing.com HERE.

Once again!!! We would like to wish everyone a Happy National Day and Happy Birthday Singapore!!!!


Monday 1 August 2011

Spooky Bento Featured @ inSing.com

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A few weeks back I was approached by Javan from inSing.com on whether I could do a bento base for their 7th Month, "Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival" theme. Upon reading his email I was actually stunned for a few minutes and I even "text" a few friends for their opinions and most of us feel this is quite a sensitive month and topic to handle.

So after much considerations and drafting we decided to settle with something more kid's friendly that resemble "Halloween" theme just for some fun and spooky chill on this Chinese 7th month. But before this, initially I have a few design such as using charcoal bread/squid ink pasta to form a black coffin or well with "pool" of tomato pasta sauce to create a bloody effect with accompany ghostly images or broken hands and etc. And Javan even suggest that whether I could do a "paper talisman" sort of design but I find it rather "Spooky" to use for bento especially in this Hungry Ghost Month.

For more details and recipe please refer to the article at inSing.com HERE.


Cheese And Mayo Bun

I have being following "Maameemoomoo, a 1/2 food blog" since 2010 because I was attracted to Sherie's mouthwatering dishes and bakes. I still remembered vividly it was her Grilled Saba Fish and Black Sticky Rice, 3 ways which makes me among one of her die-heart readers. And furthermore, she had again captured our hearts earlier this year with our all-time favourite "Orh Nee" that she fusion into a wonderful "Orh Nee Cheesecake " which was featured in The Straits Times.

Today I am so happy to invite Sherie to guest post one of her family's all-time favourite "Cheese And Mayo Bun" recipe for us. I am sure with this quick and easy recipe we can all enjoy learning baking homemade bread in no time. Although this recipe is made using bread machine to knead and proof the dough, but no worries you can still make this bread by reading the tips shared by Sherie HERE on "How to make bread without bread machine".


CHEESE AND MAYO BUN



Bread is a daily staple in my household.

These days, i don't do 3 loaves anymore. Apart from experimenting with multigrain breads, one of my weekly must-bake would be Cheese & Mayo Bun. Everyone loves it to bits and pieces. From baby to old man (u-know-who), from me to the helper, we simply cannot resist this irresistible bun, especially now with the water roux method... Darcy is so ditching his favourite bakery. Heee!

When i was approached by the talented Ellena of Cuisine Paradise to guest post for her, i knew she would request a post on bread from me. Grin. Why? Because Ellena loves bread and buns! According to the ever so creative lady, it seems that bread doesn't like her all that much. Hence, she has never quite succeeded in making them. But you know what? Methinks that isn't at all true, because if you know Ellena, you will know that it's rather difficult not to like this oh so sweet lady! *wink*


To be honest, i didn't just thought of the toppings for this bun myself. I made this purely because of Darcy who fancies certain bakery's cheese and mayo bun. If not for Darcy, i wouldn't have thought of marrying the cheese with mayonnaise myself due to its not-so-ideal-for-the-waistline-ingredients.

But whaddaya know.... we are all now addicted to it.

Screw the not-so-idea-for-the-waistline-ingredients! HAHA!

Ingredients: (makes 8 buns)
125ml milk
56g egg
50g caster sugar
5g salt
30g butter
120g tangzhong
350g bread flour
7g milk powder
6g instant yeast

For the topping
grated cheddar cheese
mayonnaise

Method:
1. Place all ingredients in the pan of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Select the Dough function of the bread machine and press start.

2. Once the machine beeps (after 1 and half hour + 1 proofing), remove dough and give a few light kneading on a lightly floured work surface. Press out the trapped air as your knead before proceeding to chaffing and letting the dough rest for 5mins.

3. Divide dough into 8 pieces.

4. From the 8 pieces, further divide each dough into 3 pieces. Then roll each pieces to 15 cm long rope.

5. Place the rope side by side and start plaiting.

6. Continue to plait until you reach the end. Place the ends together and tuck them neatly under the bottom of the plait. Repeat for the remaining 7 pieces.

7. Place the completed plaits onto baking sheet that has been floured. Let doughs proof for 45 minutes or until double in size.

8. Squeeze or spread ample mayonnaise on the each of the bread doughs before topping them generously with grated cheddar cheese.


9. Bake at the preheated oven at 175c for 10 minutes until the bread is browned. Remove immediately.

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Warning : Never bake this when you have little children or adults or .. wait, hmm.. actually, the word anyone would be more befitting *grin*, so yeah, never bake this when there's anyone around because the buns will fly off the cooling rack in a blink of an eye, unless that is your intention in the first place! :D


Once again, thanks Sherie for her wonderful post. And I think after this I shall not have any excuse on not trying to start my bread baking session :p Cross fingers and hope I could bake something decent from her recipe. For more bread recipes on Sherie's blog, you can refer to the list HERE.


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