Chinese Stir-fry

Russian Bread

I'm unsure whether this is the authentic way of making Russian Bread, but it is something that has been passed down from my mother, who had learnt it from hers. If I was to never mention it, I don't think anyone would have realised I was an eighth Russian. There's just no resemblance.

Having to live through consecutive days of hot weather, it is no better time than to make bread. With Chinese New Year around the corner, what best than to perfect my skills in bread making. Just last year did I post a recipe titled 'Traditional Russian Bread', however, for those who have tried it, may have realised that the measurements were not precise. This goes to having a bad memory and forgetting to take notes during the process.

Just today I tried incorporating two recipes together, hoping that it would solve my issues with this particular bread. And now, I would like to, very humbly of course, claim my success! I shall try over the next few days the same recipe again, just to prove that it was no fluke. We would definitely be having substantial amounts of bread around the house. I hope my dears are alright with it.

Steamed Chinese Buns (Man Tou)

Doesn't it feel great to be able to cook once again. After my return, we were off as a family to San Remo for a few weeks hence cooking wasn't as accessible. But that does not stop the passion juices from flowing for I have set out once again, and it looks to be a great year ahead.

Summer's a great time to make breads and buns, either steamed or over baked. Reason being, during the process of making the dough, we need to let the dough proof (or expand) before handling it. And only during summer, is proofing dough most effective.

Making Steamed Chinese Bun has always been a challenge for me, especially when I've experimented countless times. I've tried working with milk, cream etc, none of which has given me the best results. However, I was reading this site which used neither of the above mention. Instead, all they used was water. After so many setbacks, there really was nothing worth losing, hence I gave it a try. And to my amazement, it worked perfectly.

How do I know that? Well, after steaming to know whether your buns are good, when you remove the lid, the buns should retain their shape and not shrivel up into this brain like clump. Enough talk, here are the pictures.

Pancakes

Recipe

Ingredients: 1 cup Self Raising Flour- 1 1/2 cup Milk- 20g melted butter- 1 egg- A dash of Vanilla Extract

Method: Sift flour before mixing in all the wet ingredients. To cook, melted a knob of butter in cooking pan and then pour enough batter to make one pancake.

To serve, you can have pancakes with ice-cream, whipped cream, jam or even the classic maple syrup

This is my first post for 2010, since my last which happened in November. My dearest was craving something last night and what better to have than Pancakes served with ice-cream and whipped cream.

As I'm currently away from my own kitchen at home, I had to work with whatever things that were available. Thank goodness all turn out just fine, despite the pancakes being slightly thinner than liked. Topped with two scoops of coffee flavoured ice-cream and cream, this was one hearty and satisfying meal.

And as Julia Child would say it: 'Bon Appetit'