Friday 31 December 2021

Simple Sweet & Sour Prawns

I will be cooking this appetizing prawn dish for this coming Lunar New Year meal because of its simple steps to prepare, and its auspicious colour - red 💓 

In addition, the ingredients like frozen deshelled prawns, and simple condiments can be easily found in kitchen when fresh ingredients are usually difficult to procure during that period 😉


Serving: 2 to 3 persons

Ingredients
257g frozen deshelled prawns*
70g onion, julienned
5g garlic, chopped

Sauce
20g raw sugar
35g Dancing Chef Suki sauce
10g nasi lemak sweet sambal chilli
5g crispy prawn chilli
5g SSam Jang, Korean spicy bean paste/辣豆瓣酱
Juice from 2 green limes

Garnishing
5g garlic, chopped
2g coriander stems, chopped

* the 257g of frozen prawns left only 150g by weight after thawing. 100g were literally water 😓



Directions
1. Let the frozen deshelled prawns thawed before rinsing.

Add about 1/4 tsp low-sodium salt and 1/2 tsp raw sugar to the rinsed prawns. Let the prawns marinate for about 15 minutes.

2. While waiting for the prawns to marinate, mix all the ingredients, except the lime juice, under the Sauce, together in the a small bowl. Set aside.



3. Cut onion into julienne, and chop garlic into fine bits. Prepare the garnishing garlic and coriander stem into fine bits. Set aside. 
 
4. Get everything ready, time to start cooking 🍳

5. Heat about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a pot at medium heat. Stir fry julienned onion till softened and slightly brown. I cover the pot with a lid while the onion was cooking.
When the onion has softened, add in the chopped garlic and stir-fry till fragrant.

6. Before adding the marinated prawns to the pot, coat the prawns with about 1/4 tsp of potato starch.
Stir fry the prawns till they become pink.

7. Before adding the sauce from Step 2 to the pot, squeeze some lime juice from one green lime to the sauce.

Pour the sauce into the pot, and stir to coat all the prawns with the sauce.

8. When the sauce has thickened, add juice from one green lime to the content before transferring to a bowl.

9. Sprinkle the garnishing chopped garlic and coriander stem over the dish. Serve with warm rice 😋






Monday 27 December 2021

Brown Butter Coconut Cocoa Bun (Yudane)


We are used to eating palm sugar or gula meleka flavour coconut buns here in Singapore and Malaysia. For a change, I baked nine light cocoa flavour buns filled with brown butter flavoured sweet coconut. They were delicious as coconut was still the main drawing point of the buns.

As these coconut buns were baked closed to Christmas festive, so I decorated the buns with bread-flour-pine-tree patterns 🎄🌲



Brown Butter Coconut

Ingredients
250g fresh grated coconut
30g salted butter
50g raw sugar
40g dark brown sugar
15g hot water

5g glutinous rice flour
20g water


Directions
1. Melt butter in pot at medium-low heat. Swirl the pot occasionally to prevent the melted butter from burning at the base. Wait for the butter to turn foamy and darker in colour.

2. Add in the two types of sugar,

and 15g of hot water.

3. When the hot liquid content starts to bubble, stir in the grated coconut and mix well.

4. When the grated coconut turns soft, add in the glutinous rice flour pre-mixed with 20g of water. Stirring the content continuously. The brown butter coconut is ready when it becomes drier. 
You will collect about 340g of brown butter coconut in the end. Collect about 208g for baking the buns, and keep the remaining amount in the fridge.

Yield: 9 long buns
Raw dough weight: 485g
Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 180℃ for 10 minutes, bake at middle rack, at 180℃ for 10 minutes, lower to 170℃ for about 10 minutes.

Ingredients
200g bread flour
25g raw sugar
3g cocoa powder
1g instant dry yeast

50g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration*
29g yudane dough^

100g low-fat milk, cold +
15g whipping cream +
10g beaten egg
30g cold water to be added depending on dough condition

2g low sodium salt

20g unsalted butter, softened

* 50g natural yeast can be replaced by 25g each of bread flour and water + 1/8 tsp instant dry yeast. Let the mixture stands for about 1 hour or more till double in volume, before use. You can also keep the mixture in the fridge overnight and thaw it for 1 hour before use.

^ 29g yudane dough is prepared by combining 15g of bread flour with 15g of very hot or boiling water into a sticky dough. Wrap the yudane dough in cling wrap, and cool down before use. Use a silicone spatula to scrape out the sticky yudane dough from the cling wrap.

+ 100g low fat milk & 15g whipping cream can be replaced by 115g fresh milk.

Directions
1. Knead the dough following your preferred method. 
For my method, you can refer to my recipe Yudane Milk Bread. After kneading the dough to window pane stage, 



shape the dough into a ball,

and keep in a plastic bag pre-coated with a thin coat of oil. Squeeze out most of the air, tie a loose knot, and keep in a second plastic bag.
Place the bag of dough in a big mixing bowl, cover with a lid, and store the dough in the fridge overnight to undergo cold fermentation. I let the dough keep in the fridge for about 16 hours.

2. In the next day, invert the dough, and thaw the dough for about 1 hour in room temperature. Thaw the brown butter coconut filling at the same time.

3. Transfer the thawed dough to a floured work top, deflate, and divide into 9 portions.

Shape into 9 balls, cover with a tea cloth, and let them rest for 15 minutes.

4. Roll out a dough ball into a flat dough of about 1cm thick.
Flip over the dough, and scoop about 20~22g of filling onto center of the dough.

Wrap up the dough and pinch to seal the joining edges. Shape into a ball, and flatten the top a little.

5. Transfer the shaped dough to a non-stick baking tray.
Let the shaped dough proof in a closed oven for about 35~40 minutes.

6. Remove the tray of shaped dough from the oven. Start to preheat the oven to 180℃ for about 10 minutes.

Brush the shaped dough with beaten egg at the side without staining the top.

Dust some bread flour over the top. With the use of a coffee foam art stencil, you can create pattern over the bun. This step is optional. You can brush the entire bun with beaten egg.


7. Bake at middle rack, at 180℃ for 10 minutes, lower to 170℃ for about 10 minutes.

8. Remove the tray of hot buns from oven and rest over a cooling rack.


Let the buns cool down before enjoying 😋