Baguette

One day my son wanted me to buy some baguette from the supermarket.  I was thinking why not I learn to bake it myself.  I never like this bread because it is too hard for me.  Since my son like this bread, I will try to bake it.

The next thing I do is to on my laptop to hunt for easiest recipe I can get.  I went through a few different recipes and finally I settled with a recipe that shown in u-tube with instructions.  No knead baguette.

The ingredients,

1/4 tsp. yeast,
1 1/2 cups water,
1 3/4 tsp. salt,
4 cups all purpose flour.

In a bowl, put in the yeast and water.  Mix well by using a wooden spoon.  Add in salt and lastly the flour.  Keep on stirring and mixing until the ingredients no longer stick to the side of the bowl and form a dough.



 cover the dough with plastic and then a kitchen tower.  Let rise for 9 to 10 hours or until  double in turn off oven.

 

 

 

I mixed the dough at 6.30am .  The dough rose to double at 3pm.

 

 

 

 

Remove the dough from the bowl onto floured surface.  It might be a bit sticky.  Have some flour on your hands before handling the dough.  Meanwhile  prepare the baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle some flour on it.

divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Roll and stretch out from the centre into shapes.



Put onto floured baking sheet and cover with another floured plastic for 1 to 11/2 hour or until double.

Preheat oven to 280 degree C, put a bowl of water on the lower rack to create steam while baking.
Use scissor to cut slits of 1/2 inches deep at 45 degree angle 2 inches apart on each loaf.  Spray water on the loaf and put into the heated oven to bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Spray water for the first 5th and 10 minutes of baking.  Turn the baking sheet 180 degree at the 10th minjutes and continue baking for the next 10 minutes or until golden brown.

 

My first time bake baguette .  Very crispy on the crest and soft inside. M y son was very happy to see my success too.  He enjoyed the bread very much with home made garlic spread,

Soy sauce Fresh Water Prawns

We have been eating fresh water prawns in Tanjung Taulang (town of fresh water prawn) for many years. My husband and me love fresh water prawns a lot because of the texture, the juicylicious and rich taste in the head,and the crunchiness of the flesh can come close to those of the lobsters.  The most popular style of cooking here is fried prawns in soy sauce. Today I manage to buy 8medium size fresh water prawns from the fish monger.  though they are not swimming alive but still very fresh.

I washed and trimmed the long whiskers and legs, halved all of them diagonally and drained.  Sprinkle a pinch  of salt and dash of corn flour over the prawns.

 

This is a delicious yet simple recipe.

6 to 8 medium size fresh water prawns,
2 tbs. oil,
2  tbs.  good taste soy sauce,
2 tbs. chopped garlic,
1/2 tsp. sugar,
1 tbs. cooking wine/ shaoxing wine,
some chopped spring onion(garnishing)

Heat up wok with the oil, saute the chopped garlic until light brown. Add in the prawns, let fry for a while, about 1 minute.  Turn up the other sides of the prawns.  Fry for about another minute.  Add in soy sauce, sugar and the wine.  Have a few quick stir and try to use the wok turner press down each of the prawns.

 

 

Fry the first sides of the prawns.

 

turn the other side of the prawns

Garnish with chopped spring onions and chili.

You can try this recipe with regular prawns.