mycookerygarden

Started pizza dough around 4pm. Rested till about 6pm. Pizza ready by 8pm. Used up some old Emmenthal cheese and Swiss ham in the freezer. Didn't open a can of tomato sauce, instead used the tubed Migros pomodoro paste. OK. Even spread a thin layer of mayonnaise first on the dough. Pathetic shaping skills but luckily, the crust was nice after baking. Raw salad of kale and cucumber with Yuzu soya sauce salad dressing. Kept veg easy with tasty pizza.

I made sio bak (roast pork belly) here in Singapore to see if I can get the crispy, crackling skin. I haven't tried this recipe yet, to be able to roast the pork immediately with a layer of salt on the skin. https://rasamalaysia.com/chinese-roast-pork/ Instead, I have prepared the pork belly by poking holes on the skin and then, marinating the meat part with salt, pepper and five spice powder. I also rubbed some salt on the skin and dried it with paper towels. Then, I wrapped the meat part in aluminium foil, leaving the skin exposed in the refrigerator overnight. Maybe, I shall try to insert a few garlic cloves into the meat as per the rasamalaysia recipe before baking and also have a tray of water at the bottom of the oven. Anyway, the first attempt was using Frozen, Thawed pork belly and only left in the fridge for about 6-7 hours. Some parts of the skin did not crisp so much. The meat was dark in color because I had marinated it with soya sauce. Uneven crackl...

There are quite a lot of recipes for roast pork with crispy skin. I used to think it was quite difficult to get the skin to be crispy but after several attempts at my sister's place, I think the basic steps can be repeated successfully. This recipe uses a salt layer on top of the skin for the first bake. https://rasamalaysia.com/chinese-roast-pork/ https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/roastporkwithcrackli_67344   https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/12/ultra-crispy-slow-roasted-pork-shoulder-recipe.html 1) Dry the pork. 2) If the pork piece is quite thick, then score the skin all over into thin strips, bringing the blade of the knife about halfway through the fat beneath the skin. 3) Rub seasoning (salt, soya sauce, pepper, oil, etc) onto the meat and also the skin. But dry the skin afterwards. Rub salt into the skin. 4) Leave the whole piece uncovered in the fridge for a few hours. Overnight will be better. 5) For baking, wait for the meat to return to room temper...

I wanted to make a savoury vegan bread. Many savoury bread recipes have cheese as an ingredient. Based on this recipe but omitted the cheese and replaced walnuts with almonds. Used olive oil. https://www.asdagoodliving.co.uk/food/recipes/tomato-asparagus-loaf About 500g bread flour 2 tsp instant 2 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar About 150g Thai asparagus - sautéed and chopped, kept a few shoots for decor Dried tomatoes - oven baked from 500g fresh tomatoes Chopped walnuts - used what was left in snack container - with skin/peel on - next time, should use nuts without peel 2 tbsp olive oil Water as needed Made dried tomatoes from Malaysian tomatoes - 500g reduces a lot. Supposed to be by 7 times. Takes a long time - at least 3 hours at 150° - 170° C. Need to turn as well. Oven dried tomatoes. Tasty. Not as good and professionally done as the store-bought ones but much cheaper. Had a lot of almonds! The initial mix. Added water as needed. Hmm could have ma...

I am recording this apple pie for its beauty. By my "low" standards. Usually, my dishes are not presented well or pretty. I decorated this crust with nice leaf petals this time, and they baked well. So, ta - dah! The pastry mixture is more biscuit like rather than short-crust pastry - only used 1 tbsp butter and some olive oil with an egg for about 1.5 - 2 cups of flour. So, this is the healthy part. The cubed apples (about 3 medium apples) was stewed for about 20 mins with quite a lot of cinnamon powder (2 tsp) and about 2 tbsp of sugar. So, altogether quite a "dry" crust apple pie - it will be more palatable for dessert lovers with a scoop of ice-cream. Baking in the oven at 180C. A little bit of leftover egg with water as egg wash - helped the browning. You can see this is a healthy crust by the crumbs from the knife cutting - it is a little dry because there was only about 1 tbsp butter and some olive oil used in the pastry, with an egg.

I had a block of Malagasy cheese that I found too "milky" - is it called "young, not matured cheese" ? I could not eat this cheese on its own. So, I looked around for a recipe to cook the cheese. Voila - spicy cheese crackers with lots of herbs sounds like it will disguise the milky taste. It did. Tea time Based on this recipe: https://www.browneyedbaker.com/spicy-southern-cheese-crackers/ 8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 2 cups) = I used about 200g of Malagasy cheese 0.5 cup (113 grams) salted butter, at room temperature = reduced a little 1 teaspoon kosher salt 0.5 teaspoon cayenne pepper = I used chili powder 0.25 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 0.125 teaspoon garlic powder = I must have used a lot more 1.5 cups (213 grams) all-purpose flour  I tasted the dough when it was out of the mixer and added quite a lot of pepper, garlic and even chili powder to get the spiciness to the right level. To each his own. This is actually a v...

A friend gave me an organic lemon. It looked bigger than usual and it had some spots, showing its naturalness! So, what to do with a nice lemon? I remembered Mary Berry's Lemon Drizzle Cake but her one or two recipes in the web had this 1:1:1 ratio of flour, sugar and butter. For the classic sponge cake, I think. But this other recipe seems better for my taste. http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/4830/polly-welby-s-famous-lemon-drizzle-cake.aspx 110g (4 oz) butter 170g (6 oz) self raising flour 4 tablespoons milk 170g (6 oz) caster sugar = I used 150g and it was sweet enough 2 eggs lemon zest and juice from 1 lemon 3 tablespoons icing sugar = for once, I had icing sugar in the fridge This cake turned out great. I love it because the lemon infused cake is so light to eat and the sourness and sweetness matches so well. Absolute delight with such simple ingredients.   Heavenly slice - the lemon juice hits the sweetness of the cake just right. All mixed up with lemon zest...

Made Pulp bread with yoghurt - juicing pulp comprising carrot and apple, about half a bowl - 3 tbsp yoghurt - 2 tsp instant yeast - 1 tsp salt - 2 cups of bread flour - water Started the dough at night so that it could have a slow rise in the refrigerator overnight. The texture and taste is usually better. And this bread has a lovely browning at the crust when pan fried with some olive oil. That is the time when you agree with the sandwich connoisseurs that "it is all about the bread" and the fillings, spreads are secondary. Sandwich with pate. The bread texture is even better after a few minutes on a hot pan with a bit of olive oil. Kneaded the dough at night. After first rise of 1 hour in room temperature. After first rise of 1.5 hour in room temperature. After overnight in the fridge. Shaping the loaf. Dust with semolina flour for the crust and cut the loaf. After 45 mins of rise. Baking at 230C for first 10-15 mins. ...