Saturday, March 30, 2013

Multi Grain Rice Salad

To balance all those sinfully rich desserts and daily Milo/coffee drinks I indulge in, I try to make balanced wholesome meals at home sometimes. Much as I try to buy enough for 3x cooking a week, we usually end up cooking barely once or at best, twice. Today I discovered an even faster way of whipping up a meal than my usual cut/marinade/oven-grill. It's probably used by many ladies all the time already but somehow only occur to my little-used culinary mind.. and that is to cook rice in the rice cooker and steam the vegetables at the same time!

Everything will put together in only 15min of prep and 30 minutes of cooking (by the rice cooker). It was delicious and entirely wholesome! Multi-grained rice cooked to plumpness, steamed broccoli and carrots for the vegetable portion, chickpeas and tuna in olive oil for protein, avocado for healthy fat and coriander/chilli padi for that additional oomph to the overall flavor of the dish.

Hub and I loved the one-bowl dish and he has declared this as his preferred grain over quinoa. It's so easy to eat that we probably over-ate the necessary portions and it kept us full over the next 5 hours! It's so easy, so healthy, so packed with nutrients, I urge everyone to try this:

Ingredients: (serves 2 hungry adults)
3/4 cup Multi-grain rice (you can substitute with brown rice or quinoa)
Cut Broccoli and sliced carrots (or any veg of your choice)
4 garlic cloves
Pinch of Sea salt
Half can of garbanzo beans, washed and drained
1/2 can of Tuna flakes in olive oil
1 avocado, sliced
Handful of coriander
2 chilli padi

Dressing:
6 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
Juice from half a lemon
2 finely chopped garlic cloves
1 finely cut chilli padi
Sea salt and pepper
Mix everything together, stir to emulsify and place in fridge to cool

Method:
1. Soak rice for 15 minutes, wash and place in rice cooker
2. Add 1.5 cups of water, one tablespoon olive oil, pinch of sea salt and garlic cloves. Start the "cook" process.
3. 10 minutes later, add the broccoli and carrots to the steaming basket and place into the rice cooker.
4. 10 minutes later, add the chickpeas to the steaming basket.
5. Once rice is cooked, toss vegetables, tuna and dressing together. Add avocado, coriander and chilli padi to serve.

Goodness in a plate!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

PB Chocolate Brownie

This is a confused bake! It has a very moist almost-molten inner like a lava cake. It has a crisp top like a brownie bake. It's chockful of very very dark chocolate yet has divine hints of peanut butter. In short, this is utterly, decadently delicious!

Not really knowing what to call it, I'm going to somewhat follow the owner of the recipe. This is a really easy bake - major steps only involve melting the chocolate/butter, stirring/beating a few ingredients together and into the oven it goes. It only needs 12 minutes to achieve this lava quality. Be very mindful of the time needed, since overbaking will completely cook the inside and it will really just be a normal brownie. I would suggest to test 1 in the oven first before baking an entire batch.


Ingredients:
85g unsalted butter
400g dark chocolate (I used Nestle Swiss Dark chocolate)
100 peanut butter (I used Skippy Chunky peanut better)
3 eggs at room temp
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoon instant coffee powder (I used Nestle coffee granules)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method (Adapted from here)
Oven 180C, oil 2 6" trays or 18 small cupcake liners

1. Over a simmering pot of water, melt the chocolate, butter and peanut butter in a metal bowl.
2. Once melted and smooth, let the mixture cool.
3. Beat eggs, sugar, coffee and vanilla extract. until light in colour
4. Add the chocolate mixture and mix thoroughly
5. Add flour, baking power and salt into the above mixture and stir in until just combined.
6. Divide into cake liners/ trays and bake for 12 minutes for cupcakes, 25 min for whole cakes (6")

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Tangzhong Cinnamon Rolls

 

It's been a busy month! With e end of CNY, work seemed to pick up full-speed and it's been endless weeks of work after-work. Note to self: need to eat less sinful, more healthy, sleep early, wake up later, meet my family more, spend quality time with the hubby, do 2x yoga a week, run more frequently. What a list.. last one - bake n blog more!

Banana / Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls
 
Tangzhong recipe:
25g bread flour
125ml water

Mix all ingredients in a metal pot and stir until there are no lumps. Cook over med heat until mixture becomes very thick, and lines start to appear when mixture is stirred. (Alternatively, test the temperature, you will get Tangzhong at 65C). Remove from heat and cool to room temperature before using.

Bread recipe:
1 large egg
125ml milk
All of above Tangzhong (should have 120g)
350g bread flour
50g sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon instant yeast
30g plain yoghurt
 
Cinnamon Filling:
1 tablespoon cinnamon powder (adjust to preference)
30g brown sugar
3 over-ripe bananas, sliced
1/4 cup cranberries, soaked 30 minutes in milk (I soaked it in the milk needed for the bread ingredients above listed)

Dough knead (in a breadmaker):1. Combine all wet ingredients in breadmaker's loaf pan
2. Place flour, sugar and salt into the wet mixture and stir the dry ingredients lightly. Add the yeast, ensure that it does not come into contact with the salt.
3. Choose dough program
4. Machine will start to knead the mixture. When gluten starts to form, around 5 minutes onwards, add the yoghurt.
5. At the end of program, turn dough onto a floured surface. Flatten gently and divide into 2 portions. Form into balls and let it relax for 15 minutes.
6. Roll each ball into a thin rectangle. Mix the cinnamon powder and sugar together, sprinkle generously across the dough.
7. Place sliced banana or sprinkle cranberries across the dough
8. Roll the long side up and seal tightly, placing the roll on the sealed side down.
9. Cut into slices and place opened side up on baking tray.
10. Let rise for 30 minutes, until doubled in size.
11. Bake for 20 minutes at 190C, until top is golden brown.
See how fat they've bloomed! It was pretty light and the banana ones went down especially well with the family!
 
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BYOB at Roxana's  Home Baking