Steamed Eel in Black Bean Sauce 鼓汁蒸鳗鱼

This steamed eel in black bean sauce was created in early February. 

The first encounter with this dish was when I was in Melbourne, use to order it from a Taiwanese Restaurant. Love the tender texture of this steamed eel! In Doha, eel is not cheap, it is selling at QR169 per kg, I bought mine around QR79. 

In MegaMart, we are able to get Amoy's brand Black Bean Sauce 鼓汁酱 with QR12.50 per bottle. The taste of this black bean sauce is not so authentic but I'm happy that I managed to get this sauce here. A lovely simple dish! 

Salmon Caviar, Avocado and Mango Roll

This finger food roll was created sometimes in early Jan, photos taken in the evening, the camera was without tripod. 

My family, especially my son loves smoke salmon and salmon caviar, most of the time in my fridge there will be a pack of smoke salmon because it comes in handy whenever I want to whip up a salad. That evening, I suddenly want some changes to the usual salad, I want something taste better than a vegetable salad, yet simple and easy to prepare. I created this salmon caviar, avocado and mango roll for my family, it was very delicious and this type of finger food I believe is a good party food too.  

I just love the intense taste of salmon caviar when it burst in my mouth! The combination of the salmon, salmon caviar, avocado, asparagus and sweet mango is just fantastic! 

Ichigo Daifuku / Strawberry Daifuku (いちご大福)

Making my Daifuku again, this time is with anko (sweet red bean paste) and strawberry stuffing.  After I had an experience with Masa's recipe, I love that soft, mochi texture that we can get from adding the sweet potato to the daifuku texture. This round I managed to get a pack of Katakuriko (potato starch) from MegaMart, so I decided to try on this Ichigo Daifuku I am going to make for this coming Asian Coffee Morning (ACM) as the theme for this month is Japanese Girls' Festival. 

This round I used Nami of Just One CookBook with a minor change on the flour quantity. I made 24 pieces which is four times of the original recipe. 80g of potato starch was added to the daifuku, the original recipe is without potato starch. The taste of the combination of sweet anko, soft mochi and the juicy strawberry is just the right match!!

Thanks Nami for her wonderful illustrations! My family and me love it and I think the ACM ladies love it too as they finished the whole tray. ^^

Super Soft Custard Bread 超软卡士達吐司

I wanted to bake this super soft custard bread for long. So many times after preparing the custard paste it end up sitting in the fridge as I don't have time to do it. Today, finally squeeze out the time to make the bread. 

I'm so glad I baked this as the bread texture is really soft and the good thing is the bread texture is dense and not light. When making the custard paste, I actually overcooked it but luckily the bread turned out ok. The bread dough is a bit wet, but it is able to knead until elastic film. 

This is a sweet bread, lovely sweet bread. A recipe from 孟老师的100道面包。 

A happy note here: I finally found the spot to take photos using natural lighting in the late evening in my kitchen!! ^^ Today mission completed, de-stress successfully! ^O^

Recipe from 孟老师的100道面包
Ingredients for custard paste:
1 egg yolk
10g fine sugar
15g bread flour or high protein flour
65g milk

Method:
1. Add all ingredients into a small saucepan, whisk well. Add the milk, heat up the pot with low heat, whisk the milk mixture until it turned into paste. Remove from heat, cool down, cover with wrapping cling, keep in fridge for 60 mins.

Ingredients for bread:
250g bread flour
30g fine sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4g dry instant yeast
15g milk powder
100g water
25g unsalted butter

Method:
1. Add all the bread ingredients (except butter and water) into the KitchenAid mixing bowl, add the custard paste prepared earlier. Set the KitchenAid to low speed (speed 2) let it spin for 1 min, gradually add water. Set the KitchenAid to medium speed (speed 4) let the dough knead into a smooth dough, when it is not sticky to the mixing bowl, is time to add the butter.
2. Set the KitchenAid to low speed (speed 2), let it spin for a while before set it to medium speed, the dough will be knead into elastic film like shown in the above photo.
3. Take out the dough and roll it into a ball, place in a container, cover and let it proof for 80 mins.
4. Punch out the air, divide the dough into 3 portions, roll them into balls, cover and let it rest for 15 mins.
5. Flatten and shape them into cylinder shape, place the dough into grease baking tin. Cover and let them proof for 60 mins. Egg wash the dough, place it in the pre-heat oven at 180C and bake for 30 mins. Remove the bread from baking tin immediately after baking. 

Caterpillar Sausage Bread 虫虫香肠卷

My last bread making was seven months ago, this time it took me longer than I expected to make my bread again. In the new kitchen... I can't find a proper spot to shoot my photos, the kitchen is facing direct West sun, the sunlight during the late afternoon is really unbearable for me. The oven temperature is lower than what I expected :( and the stove is electric hot plate instead of gas :( yes, we can't control the cooking time with electric hot plate because there is time for the plate to heat up and even you switch off the electric power, the hot plate still hot enough to burn the food! 

The soft bread varieties I can buy here is limited, I meant that kind of Asian soft bread (This make me missed Singapore and Melbourne) My son who used to soft bread doesn't like to eat the sliced bread selling at Carrefour or Geant, I really crack my head when come to packing his lunch. I'm not sure whether I got time to make bread for him as often as I want. 

So much rumbling, let talk about my caterpillar bread.

Today, I let my KitchenAid rolling again! It is such a relax feeling to go back into my routine. Last night when I flipped through the recipes book, I just fall in love with the cute caterpillar bread in the photo. I'm adapting the recipe from the Japanese Baker 松本洋一（我做的面包可以卖）I'm using the sponge dough method. 

Recipe adapted from 松本洋一（我做的面包可以卖) with changes

Ingredients for sponge starter (overnight):
150ml warm milk
240g bread flour
1 tsp instant dry yeast
a pinch of salt

Method:
1. Stir all ingredients into a container. Knead until the dough is smooth and no lump. Cover and leave it in a container place in fridge for overnight.

Ingredients for bread (make 9 pieces of 4 inches buns)
200g High protein flour or bread flour
150g overnight sponge dough
4g dry instant yeast
8g sugar
3g salt
10g milk powder
20g cheese powder (omitted)
128ml water (may not use all, it depends on the flour you use)
10g unsalted butter
9 beef sausages (4 inches) 

Method:
1. Place the bread flour, dry instant yeast, sugar, salt, milk powder, and 150g overnight sponge dough into the KitchenAid mixing bowl, with low speed (speed 2) mix for 1 min. Gradually pour in the water, keep 50ml water for later. Turn the mixer speed to medium (speed 6) and mix until the dough come together as rough dough, gradually add a bit more water, feel the dough with your fingers, it should be wet but not sticky to fingers. 

2. Add the soft butter, continue to mix until the dough is smooth and form elastic film, the wall of the mixing bowl will be cleaned of any sticky dough. Let the mixer spin for another 2 mins.

3. Roll the dough into a ball and place in grease tray for proofing. Spray the dough with a bit of water, cover and let it proof for 60 mins or until it double in size.

4. Punch down the dough, divided it into 9 portions, roll them into small dough balls, cover and let them rest for 10 mins.

5. Flatten the dough ball with rolling pin, roll it into 9x9cm square.  Cut 5 lines on the dough with 1.5cm apart, remember to leave 1cm at the edge close to you Not cut off. 

6. Place the sausage on the edge close to you, roll it up swiss roll style.

7. Place a piece of baking paper on a tray and arrange the sausage dough on the tray, let it proof for 30 mins or until it double in size.

8. Place the baking tray into preheat oven at 200C and bake for 12~15 mins. (The oven temperature may vary and the timing may be different)

This is my son and his first refreshment stall, my son and his friends prepared the stall banner, I just love how cute it looks! They sell ice lollies, chocolate bars, flavoured milk, corn snacks, juice and bubble gum! yes, they insisted to sell bubble gum and the kids were right, the bubble gum was so popular that it was the first to sold off. Kids know kids well huh :D 

My egg tarts were popular among the adult, a neighbour initially bought only two, after eating she bought another four. Anyway, this is an Asian snack, most people thought it was custard tart.   

We just spend an hour outside our house, it was a fun and good experience for the kids!