10:10am, bright and sunny mid-week morning!!
In all honesty, this particular post was supposed to be written late last night after everyone's gone to bed. Somehow, as it always is with Murphy's Law, that did not happen.
O please don't be alarmed. It wasn't anything huge (i.e. whatever that went wrong). It's just that young lil Aidan refused to close his eyes and sleep. You see … he didn't nap at all during the day, so he napped a wee bit after dinner and remained quite awake for the rest of the night!
And the worse bit was … I drifted off to sleep instead!!
Moomy thought she could out-smart me …
muahahahaha I'm the smart one, Mommy!
Well, thanks, darling …
Anyhoo, yesterday we celebrated the letter R. R for the food that I planned to make for the day :D - Red bean buns and Risotto! :D
I was pretty excited because:
1. I have never made those Chinese-style steamed buns (or pau kacang merah, in Malay) before from scratch (usually in SG, I'd just buy it from the little food stalls, all steamed and ready to be eaten!).
2. I have been thinking of these red bean buns for quite some time now. There were days when it wasn't sunny here so the cooler weather made me want a hot cup of tea and the perfect snack to go with it was a red bean bun. Right, who am I kidding? 3 red bean buns!! Hehehehe :D
3. Risotto!! Again, I have never made risotto before because all the risottos I've seen made before my eyes (through the screen of the telly) were made with cheese, cream and something dairy-ish. Now, if you know me, you would know that I do not take cheese or cream or anything dairy-ish. (Well, apart from mozzie cheese on a pizza or ice-cream or butter hehehe) BUT!! I found a recipe on Google that didn't use any cheese in its risotto so I was very much tempted to try it out :D
So there you go! The following are my attempts are making these R-dishes! We'll start with the red bean buns :D
I had carefully read several recipes for these red bean buns and it all started with soaking the beans overnight. Its a nifty tip I had used before when cooking rice porridge (i.e. I soaked the rice overnight). Soaking the beans will help trim the cooking process (the next day) but it also helps the beans to cook more evenly and be completely tender all the way through.
Red beans, after being soaked overnight :-)
The dough for the buns required a water roux. I did not know this but apparently, the water roux is a baking process developed in Asia. The water roux helped make the bread extra soft, tender and fluffy.
Interesting, eh?
So here's how I made mine:
In a small saucepan over medium low heat, I stirred a 1/4 cup of flour into 125ml of water. Keep on stirring the mixture until the lumps disappear and the flour mixture thickened up. Once the mixture has thickened up, take it off the heat and let it cool down before you use the water roux.
The water roux, thickened up and cooling down :D
Since the roux needed to cool down a bit, I began to proof the yeast next:
Yeast mixture, bubbly and ready to go!
And then prepped the rest of the ingredients for my dough:
All the other ingredients for the dough :D
Basically, what went into the dough for these buns were:
4 1/3 cups of AP flour (the recipe called for pau flour, but I didn't have that so the usual flour it is!), 2 tbsp of Crisco (or margarine, if you don't have shortening), 220ml milk, 3 tbsp of sugar, 2 tsp of baking powder, 4 tbsp of the cooled water roux and the entire bowl of proofed yeast :D
I mixed it all together by hand and kneaded the mixture into a big ball. Its like making pizza dough, really so … once everything is non-sticky and has basically come together, you let the dough sit in a quiet place so the magic can do its thing :D
Now that the dough has to sit quietly for an hour or so, it was time to prep the filling!
I rinsed the beans which I had soaked overnight and then put them into a pot, covered it with water and brought the mixture up to a boil. Then I turned the heat down a bit to a gentle simmer, until the beans are tender.
Keep on stirring those beans every now and then, of course.
Once they are tender, I strained the beans and let them cool down for a bit before I plonked it in the blender. You can either blend your beans to a smooth puree but I didn't.
The blended beans went right back into the pot (I warmed some veg oil in the pot first), together with 1/2 cup of sugar, another 1/2 cup of light brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Of course, I had to adapt the recipe because I don't have/have not found any palm sugar or screwpine leaves (or daun pandan in Malay) here.
Sighs. Daun pandan! Them screwpine leaves are very fragrant and used in Asian dishes like Nasi Lemak and ondeh-ondeh (these are small glutinous rice balls coated with freshly steamed grated coconut. These rice balls are filled with a squelch of liquid palm sugar. When you bite into them, you get a burst of sweet brown sugar in your mouth! YUM!!) *drools* When used in cooking the red bean filling, the leaves will leave a vanilla-like fragrant to the paste … o yum!
Screwpine leaves, or Daun Pandan in Malay
Gula Melaka gives Asian desserts a beautiful color, taste and aroma. To me, this natural sweetener would have given the red bean filling a beautiful color and creamier taste …
Palm sugar, or Gula Melaka in Malay
But when you're overseas and certain ingredients are just a tad too tricky to find, one just have to adapt or improvise with what we have on hand. And it (somehow) worked :D
Back to the filling, I kept on stirring the mixture until it becomes thicker, more paste-like. To this, I added the corn flour mixture (2 tbsp of corn flour + water) - this helped to thicken up the mixture further. Keep on stirring the mixture; you'll know its ready when the mixture becomes heavier to stir.
Then I took it off the heat and poured it into a bowl to let it cool down :D
The filling: red bean paste
Omy!! I got pretty excited at this stage because I knew I could eat it soon … I mean, dough's ready. Filling's ready … and all I've got to do is put them together, and steamed those buns up, right?
Cue the buzzer: I was wrong!
Because after I rolled the dough into these lil balls ...
Like so ...
… they had to sit for about 5 minutes before I could flatten them up, stuff the paste inside and shape them into rounded buns like these …
Again, like so ...
… and at this juncture, they had to sit still for at least another bloody hour!! ARGH!!
Naturally, I was not happy but hey, good things come to those who wait, right? So … wait, I must!
And before long, the steaming session was upon them buns …
Yeah, the lid had to wear a towel on its head! LOL!
And then …
I did it!! :D:D:D
My first steamed Red Bean Buns! :D
The product of my labor :D
The bun was soft, and the filling was generous and not too sweet! I gobbled up at least 4 in the first half-hour muahahahaha I felt pretty happy with the buns and even darling hubby enjoyed it too (after dinner).
It was 5:00pm then, and time to start on dinner - Risotto!! The next R for yesterday :D
I have always wanted to try (tasting and making) risottos but because its usually made with cheese, I don't. But then I found a recipe for a risotto where cheese is not used at all. The writer claimed that all the creaminess from her risotto came from the rice itself so … I was pretty intrigued. I had to try and make it myself!
So … I prepped and sautéed white and brown mushrooms, blanched some asparagus spears and set these aside.
Then I started to work on the arborio rice:
First, I put a small pot of chicken stock on the hob to keep warm. In a separate pot, I heated up some olive oil and then added some diced onions to it. I cooked it till the onions are soft (don't let it get brown) and then I added a cup of arborio rice. Stir it together and let it get a wee bit toasted (not brown) and to that, I added a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Stir again for another minute or so, and then I added half a cup of stock into the mixture.
The rice will cook and absorb the liquid so keep on stirring. From here on, it was a slow process of stirring the mixture and adding on more stock to the rice, 1/2 cup at a time. Stirring the mixture will help to release the starch and make the risotto creamy. It also prevents the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Once the rice has absorbed the stock, add more stock to the pot and stir.
I learnt yesterday that making risotto takes time. About 20-25 minutes, really but boy, it felt like forever. Maybe that's why the contestants on Chopped did not fare well whenever they try to make risotto in a 30-min window.
After all the stirring and adding of stock, I checked the rice - it has to be al dente, like spaghetti. Slightly firm, but not crunchy.
All that's left was to fold in the sautéed mushrooms and blanched asparagus spears, and a tablespoon of butter. Season it with salt and pepper and …
Our dinner of Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto!
Ta daaaaa!! :D I certainly was pretty generous with the mushrooms hehehe the risotto was delish!! I was pretty pleased with it. I loved it! Even my darling hubby said it was good. A small bowl was enough because of the rice and the mushrooms and asparagus.
I will defo cook this again :D But yesterday, our sufficiency was certainly suffonsified :D
And there you go … yesterday's Letter of the Day: R!! :D
Now we're pretty much caught up with today! :D It's Wednesday and that means one thing: the dashing Harvey and smart Mike are back in a brand new season of Suits!
Cue the music!
Have a good day, y'all :D and stay safe.
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