Briarpatch Herb Bread

This is one amazing bread! This amazing recipe is from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, and Mr Clayton originally got this recipe from a herbalists, Pearl Lloyd who grew more than 150 types of herbs in her private herb garden. This bread uses four types of herbs, oregano, chives, basil and parsley. According to the book, ideally the herbs should be fresh, but dried can  be substituted. I used fresh chives and fresh basil from my garden, and dried parsley and oregano.

It was one of those Sunday late morning, where the family went out for a late breakfast and naturally we skipped lunch. So I made this bread as a late afternoon tea time snack. The full recipe makes two loaves, but since I do not want to keep any leftovers as I am pretty sure that we cannot finish two loaves, I made half the recipe for one loaf. I used the stand mixer to mix the dough, and the dough was pretty sticky. Sprinkle some flour over the dough when shaping the bread and it is much easier to handle with dry clean hands. I made it sightly lighter by replacing some of the whole-wheat flour with white bread flour.

The bread is simply amazing. Smells incredible with the herbs and it has a soft texture, and very tasty. I sliced it about 40 minutes after I took it out from the oven, while it is still slightly warm and delicious!

This is not a very tall bread, and it did not look very impressive, but it is wonderfully soft and moist. Makes  a perfect sandwich bread. According to the book, this bread freezes well.

We had the bread with some slices of ham and cheese. I do not have any veggies in my fridge at that time, though with some cut slices of tomatoes, cucumber and lettuces would be lovely. Thumbs up from the family, everyone loves the bread. It was very good too spread with some salted butter, yum! I have no idea how this bread would fare on the second day, as we finished the whole loaf that very day! Definitely will be making this wonderful healthy bread again, for one of our "sandwich days"!

I'm sharing this with :

Bake Your Own Bread (BYOB) hosted by Girlichef
Recipe Box hosted by Bizzy Bakes
Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Here is the full recipe for two loaves, and my adjustments for one loaf is indicated at the bottom of the recipe :

Briarpatch Herb Bread
(adapted from Bernad Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads)
2 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour, approximately
1 package dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup nonfat dry milk
1-3/4 cups hot water (120degrees-130degrees)
1 egg
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley, or 1 tablespoon dried
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano, or 1/3 teaspoon dried
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1-1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives, or 1/2 tablespoon dried
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Baking pans :
2 medium (8-1/2"x4-1/2") loaf pans, greased or Teflon.

1. Measure 1-1/2 cups flour into a mixing or mixer bowl and stir in the yeast, sugar, and dry milk. Pour in the hot water. Blend into a thin batter. Break in the egg and add the parsley, oregano, nutmeg, chives and basil. Beat this mixture in a mixer for 2 minutes. Allow the mixture to ferment and become bubbly, about 15 minutes. There is no need to cover it for this short period.
2. Add cooking oil, salt, and 2 cups whole-wheat flour to the mixture and beat with a wooden spoon or with the mixer flat beater until the flour has been worked into the batter. Let stand for 3 minutes to allow the whole-wheat particles to fully absorb the moisture before adding more flour. Alternate between the white and whole-wheat when adding small portions of flour to form a rough shaggy ball of dough. Knead with the dough hook for 8 minutes.
3. Grease the mixing bowl, drop in the dough, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and leave at room temperature to rise until double in bulk, about 40 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 2 pieces and shape each into a ball. Press each ball into an oval roughly the length of a bread pan and fold in half lengthwise. Pinch the seam to seal, and place in the baking pan with the seam under. Cover the pans with wax paper and leave to rise until the dough reaches the height of the pan, about 35 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, 20 minutes before baking.
6. Place the pans in the oven and bake until golden brown with flecks of herbs over the crust, about 35 minutes. Turn one loaf from its pan and test for doneness by tapping the bottom with a forefinger. If it is hard and sounds hollow, the loaves are done. If not, return them to the oven for an additional 8 to 10 minutes. (If using a convection oven, reduce heat 50degrees).
7. Turn the loaves out onto a metal rack to cool before slicing. While still hot, brush the bread with the melted butter.

kitchen flavour's notes :
for half a recipe, I made the following adjustments -

• use in total, 2 cups bread flour and 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• reduce salt slightly to 3/4 teaspoon
• the rest of the ingredients, use only half of the amount from the original full recipe

Kam Heong Sotong (Squids In Fragrant Curry Sauce)

Kam Heong Sotong is truly a Malaysian favourite. "Kam Heong", is a Cantonese word when translated directly, means "Golden Fragrance". Just as it's name, this dish smells really good. It is usually served in Chinese restaurants, and can be cooked with various seafood and even chicken meat. The other popular seafood that is usually cooked this way is our local clams, which we called "lalah" and also delicious with fresh crabs.  

We would sometimes order this dish when we eat out at Chinese restaurants, either clams or sotong (squid).  Whenever this hot piping dish is served at the table, the fragrant smell will make your saliva glands starts working immediately!

You could cook this at home, but be prepared to buy more squids, as once they are cooked, they sort of "shrink"! And cook lots of rice, you would want a second helping! What you need is lots of fresh curry leaves, it brings a wonderful fragrance to this dish and a fair amount of dried prawns.

My Curry Leaf Plant. Curry Leaf is easily obtainable from any wet market or supermarkets in Malaysia, and very cheap too, but then, having your own plant is definitely more convenient. I grew this plant in a pot,  it is not a very big plant, but it provides me with the most vibrant green healthy fragrant leaves.

The spiciness of this dish depends on the amount of bird's eye chillies used, and for an even spicier taste, a pinch of chilli powder may be added in as well. If you prefer less spicy, use 2 or 3 bird's eye chillies. Here, I have used only 2 since my kids are eating this as well, and I have chopped it to large chunks so that it is easier to remove when serving to the kids. For extra spicier kick, chop the chillies finely so that the heat from the chillies gets distributed throughout. If a drier dish is preferred, do not add any water during cooking, but my family is a "gravy-loving family", we love gravies to eat with our rice, so I have added in about 3 tablespoons of water just for a little gravy, not too much though, as this is a fairly dry dish. Dried prawns is a must for this dish, otherwise it would not be the same, the dried prawns are soaked to soften first, then chopped to small pieces and fry till fragrant and crispy. 

The squids are sliced to rings and marinated with some corn flour,  to keep them soft and tender during cooking, as squids tend to turn rubbery and tough if cooked too long. The squids are stir-fried for a minute to briefly pre-cook them, remove and added in to the curry sauce later for a quick stir. 

Really fragrant from the curry leaves, dried prawns and curry powder. We just love the thick saucy gravy, with bits of garlic, shallots, dried prawns all coated with the delicious fragrant sauce that is a little spicy and salty with a tinge of sweetness. I could eat my bowl of rice with just this one dish alone! 

I'm sharing this with :

Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Kam Heong Sotong (Squids In Fragrant Curry Sauce)
800gm squid
2 tsp cornflour
4 garlic cloves (chopped finely)
8 shallots (chopped finely)
2 heaped tablespoons dried prawns (soaked till soften, drain and chopped to small pieces)
2 heaped tablespoons fish curry powder
6 stalks fresh curry leaves (remove stalks)
6-8 bird's eye chillies (chopped)
2 lemongrass, (2" from the bottom white section, slice lengthwise to half, and sliced to thin strips)
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp sugar, or to taste
few drops of black soy sauce
cooking oil

1. Clean squid, cut to rings, marinate with 2 tsp cornflour and set aside. This is to tenderize the squid so that they will be tender and nice during cooking.
2. Heat about  1 tablespoon cooking oil in a wok or saucepan. When oil is hot, add in squids and stir-fry for about 1 minute. Scoop to a plate, keep aside.
3. In a clean wok or saucepan, heat about 3-4 tablespoons cooking oil. Add the chopped garlic and shallots, saute for about 3-4 minutes until fragrant and light brown. Add in chopped dried prawns and fry till dried prawns are fragrant, light brown and crispy. Add in the curry leaves, bird's eye chillies and lemongrass. Stir fry for another minute or two until the curry leaves releases its fragrance. Add in the curry powder, stir for a few seconds to combine and add in the squids, plus whatever juices has accumulated on the plate.
4. Add a few drops of black soy sauce, sugar and salt to taste.
5. If a little gravy is preferred, add in about 2-3 tablespoons water. Stir for a minute or two. Scoop out to a serving plate and serve hot. Enjoy!

Orange Chiffon Cake

Clearing my pantry #1 : from the freezer, egg whites. I have a few dozen egg whites "hibernating" in my freezer and I'm in the midst of using them slowly, very slowly! There are a number of recipes that I have tried and there are more recipes that I've bookmarked to try, in order to finish up the egg whites. Want to join me in clearing up your own pantry or freezer? Come on, I'm sure you are as guilty as me, tons of forgotten bits and pieces that are just waiting to be used up, before the big scary date is here, the EXPIRY DATE!! Haha! Am I making you feeling guilty yet? Ha!

Made this lovely chiffon cake, which uses an additional 3 egg whites besides the 6 eggs as listed in the recipe. The recipe calls for the cake to be baked in a 10" tube pan, I divided the batter to 3 individual smaller pans instead, two of 7" pans and one of 6" pan, all with feet. I cannot imagine pouring all the batter into one pan of 10", which I'm sure could not hold all of the batter, as it is a lot!  I originally intended to make two cakes of 7" pans, but find that there are so much of batter that I needed to use the smaller pan of 6" to hold the extra batter.

Two cakes of 7" size and a smaller one of 6" size.

This is one delicious, soft, moist and very orangy fragrant cake!

Use a serrated knife to slice the cake with a sawing motion, so as not to squash it's airy texture.

I really love this cake! Ate two slices, and stop myself from taking the third slice! Love the softness, airy texture and it is so moist and very tasty. The only changes I made to the recipe was to reduce the sugar to half, and trust me, you would not miss out on the other half, the sweetness is just right. And it is so fragrant with orange, since this cake uses 2/3 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, and the orange zest along with some lemon zest. 

One of the best chiffon cake I've eaten! So good! Double thumbs up from the family!

I'm sharing this with :
Recipe Box hosted by Bizzy Bakes
Freedom Friday hosted by My Turn
Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen's Country Cottage


Orange Chiffon Cake
(adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle)
makes one 10-inch cake
2-1/2 cups (250gm) sifted cake clour
1-3/4 cups (350gm) granulated sugar, divided (I use 180gm)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
2/3 cup (160ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup (120ml) safflower or other neutral vegetable oil
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon Fiori di Sicillia or 1 teaspoon orange oil or vanilla extract
3 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
confectioners' sugar for dusting

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325F.
2. Sift together the cake flour, 1-1/4 cups of the sugar, the baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk until well blended, and set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks, orange juice, vegetable oil, citrus zest and Fiori di Sicilia or orange oil or vanilla extract at medium speed until blended, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture one-quarter at a time, mixing just until blended.
4. In a clean mixer bowl, using whisk attachment, beat the 9 egg whites and the cream of tartar at medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Increase the speed to high and beat until the whites are stiff but not dry. Using a rubber spatula, briskly fold about one-quarter of the whites into the cake batter. Gently fold in the remaining whites. Scrape the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan with a removable bottom and smooth the top.
5. Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Invert the pan and place the center tube on a bottle (if the pan has "feet",it can be inverted directly onto a work surface). Let stand upside down until completely cooled, about 1-1/2 hours.
6. To unmold the cake, slide a thin-bladed knife around the side of the cake, making sure to press the knife against the side of the pan to avoid marring the surface of the cake. Repeat with the center tube. Lift the tube up to remove the cake from the pan, and slide the knife under the cake to detach it from the pan bottom. Invert the cake onto a serving plate. Dust the top lightly with confectioners'sugar.
7. Slice the cake using an angel food cake divider or a serrated knife (use a sawing motion) to avoid compressing its airy texture.

Store at room temperature, under a cake keeper or covered with foil, for up to 5 days. Or freeze, well wrapped, for up to 2 weeks.