Mac Baren Original

One of the main ingredients for our bread is the vegetable shortening. I was so delighted to learn how they had improved our bread; they were soft and fluffy. Quite a few loaves later I replaced it with extra virgin olive oil and again later with pure virgin oil.

The switch was driven from reading various articles on the ill effects of trans fatty acids. Shortening, toast spread are just examples of our daily consumption that contain trans fatty acids. Despite having a significantly devastating potential, these chemicals have yet to receive the proper shrug that they deserve. Studies are emerging everywhere associating the prolonged consumption of trans fatty acids with cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes. Yet major local manufacturers of vegetable spread are content with highlighting only the good story of their products. What good is Omega-3 if it has been eliminated from the finished product?

To start small, we have reconstituted our bread ingredients and tried a different brand of toast spread which claims it has virtually no trans fatty acids. The bread comes out OK, except for the peculiar taste that extra virgin olive oil has - no more after we changed to pure olive oil. The spread on the other hand, has yet to gain popularity over the household name: the taste perhaps, dear?

Well, for someone who already has 8 years truncated from his life expectancy, of course everything else matters...!

Pillion Rider

My wife brought home a surprise at lunch time, nasi tumpang! It was my childhood favorite; the mere smell knocked me into a reminiscent daze...

Sometimes my mom would visit the morning market to replenish our fresh food supply and she would bring me and my kid brother along. On returning we would stop by a house-cum-food stall which carried a breakfast variety. I would never fail to ask for nasi tumpang, amidst all on menu.

It's really a simple dish: a cone-shaped nasi himpit wrapped together with gulai udang and some serunding ikan inside a banana leaf. I guess when rice congee is wrapped while it's steaming hot, it sort of cooks the banana leaf, imparting the leaf flavour into the rice, just like the trick with nasi lemak. The gulai udang has characteristics resembling those of gulai ikan tongkol for nasi dagang.

I haven't laid my eyes on it for ages, not even during our occasional trips home. Perhaps it's not a favorite among today food makers.

So it was really a nice surprise, although this one was a little different, it had more of everything riding inside: udang, ayam, ikan, telur dadar and serunding daging, a high-budget version maybe. Thanks Auntida for sharing your air-freighted special order.

Now my memory cells are waking up their childhood neighbors. Guess I'm gonna be in this stupor for a while!

That's how I roll!

I think rolling does not quite fit our culture. Our kitchens don't normally support spill-free or clutter-free dining tables thus rolling would be rather inconsistent. We just need a regular kitchen bowl. I use a 12" diameter plastic bowl.

If you have access to high protein wheat flour then the recipe will be a simple one:

1. 3 cups flour
2. 1 cup water
3. 1 tsp instant yeast (Mauripan, Nona etc)
4. 2 tsp sugar
5. 1 tsp salt

• In a bowl, dissolve sugar in water just before adding in the yeast. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until the surface turns frothy (notice the smell of yeast in action). Add the salt.
  
• Add in flour while stirring the mixture into a stiff batter (about 1.5 cups) . Beat until strands of gluten are visible (about 20-30 quick strokes).
  
• Add the rest of the flour gradually while working the dough with your hand. Once the dough has reached its right consistency (not too sticky), knead (press down and forward then roll back) the dough 100 times (or 5 to 10 minutes) then leave it covered in the bowl. Use a damp cloth or a plastic bag for the purpose.
  
• After 1.5 hours of proofing (dough has doubled its size), punch down to flatten the dough and shape it into a small loaf and place it in a greased baking pan. Cover the pan for 30 to 45 minutes or until the dough has risen twice its original size.
• About 20 minutes into the second proofing, preheat oven to 180 C (356 F). Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Make 3 parallel slits just before baking to avoid cracking crust, using a sharp knife.

Our daily loaf:

1. 2 1/2 cups multi-purpose wheat flour (Cap Sauh, Tesco Choice etc)
2. 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3. 2 tbsp nine grain mixture
   
4. 1 cup water
5. 1 tsp instant yeast
6. 1/2 tsp bread improver
   
7. 2 tsp sugar
8. 1/2 tsp salt
9. 1 tsp vegetable shortening
10. 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Same method as above ie all ingredients added before flours. I find kneading longer (150 to 200 times) and finishing with a somewhat sticky dough will make my bread softer or fluffier.
All ingredients can be found in Tesco stores except for the whole wheat and the multi grain.

Happy rolling!

Good Stuff

The bread didn't turn out that good last night. This morning I tried another loaf, choosing a more modest approach to a healthy bread: instead of using 3 cups whole wheat I used only 1 and made up the rest with high protein flour, other ingredients unchanged. The result was inspiring so I made 2 more loaves; one loaf we made for the person who "introduced" us with the store.

Sometimes I can't believe I'm actually baking bread for our daily consumption. I mean I do love bread especially that Hi-5 Wholemeal and I would try to make some myself from time to time but I never liked my bread, it lacked everything.

Then, it changed when my working status changed. Now I have plenty of time to look up stuff in the net, recipes among other things. My bread has jumped quite a milestone in improvement, thanks to free information (and education). We haven't had bread from stores for some time now and I think we are hardly missing it...

whole wheat flour

Today we paid a visit to that JC Food store in Sungai Ara and I finally got my prized whole wheat. And it was just next door to Hope Children Hospital which we used to frequent some time back, when its existence probably never meant this much.
So tonight I'm making my first whole wheat bread: it's aromatically baking in the oven right now. I hope my neighbors won't get upset!

Baking Bread

I guess it doesn't take much to bake bread; if you own a bread machine, it'd just be like cooking rice using an electric rice cooker. Of course, if you want to make life difficult, you can always try and cook Nasi Beriani Gam Johor the authentic way - some might find the resulting dish is worth all the tedious work.
Quite similarly, some might find the process of making bread is itself fascinating hence they prefer hands on. The sweet aroma of fermenting sugar, the satiny feel of worked dough, the rise, can easily turn into your latest addiction. And who can resist the smell of a bread baking in the oven...
My association with bread making began soon after I hung up my uniform. I've always fancied breads but never really had the motivation to go beyond buying them. Now I got the time and my 4 bakery regulars and that kind of sets me perpetual.

What

So, what do bloggers blog in their blogs...?