Chicken Curry Bread

I had to share this! There’s this chicken curry bread that hails from the town of Kampar in Perak, Malaysia (a town which is quite well known for its food). It is a massive loaf of bread baked with a chicken curry centre; at the table, it’s opened up with great ceremony. Tasty as they are, banish thoughts of those miniature chicken curry buns you get at Hong Kong style bakeries  - the Malaysian style curry inside this behemoth is wrapped in paper first to retain all the gravy in the middle. I’ve never tried the original but the thought of it stuck in my head for so long that I had to recreate it at home.

For the bread, I used a recipe for a Basic Sweet Bread Dough from a book called Magic Bread by Alex Goh (though be prepared if you’re going to use it – it requires starting with a scalded dough that needs resting overnight). The recipe at that link gave me enough bread to create the massive wrap for my curry as well as a bit extra to form 6 buns.

I filled it with my usual chicken curry recipe (which I wasn’t entirely happy with this time…I was trying to reduce the amount of coconut milk in it so no sharing this time!) but any curry recipe will do. I used lots of greaseproof paper to wrap the curry (about 3 chicken legs, 2 thighs, some potato chunks and plenty of curry gravy) but in hindsight, some aluminium foil would have performed better to contain all that curry.

The bread dough was flattened to cover my entire baking sheet, the curry parcel was carefully placed in the middle and the dough sheet wrapped around it. A few pinches here and there to seal and it was left to rise before getting a shiny egg yolk glaze and a baking in the oven for about 25 minutes.

It is certainly an impressive thing to bring to the table! Slice up the top layer of bread…

…and unwrap the paper wrapped curry inside.

We tore into the bread like savages, dipping into the curry, grabbing chicken legs, getting curry everywhere. The bread recipe is brilliant – it produces a tender, sweet crumb not unlike that you find at Hong Kong style bakeries (I’ll be using the recipe again for another go at hot dog buns) which perfectly complements the spicy, creamy, coconutty curry. We stuffed ourselves silly.

Next steps for this? Improvement in a couple of areas. My curry recipe needs tweaking. I need to ensure that the layer of bread on top of the package doesn’t get too thin. I should also place it on the lower rack of my oven though this varies from oven to oven. But really, it’s all just another excuse to make this insane creation again!

 

Parker House Rolls

There’s a bakery on Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver (that’s the one in British Columbia in Canada) that my family used to frequent: Monarch Bakery sold all manner of European-Canadian goodies – cakes, pastries, savouries. I remember flaky, buttery sausage rolls, tender crusted meat pies, vanilla slices, butter tarts, walnut and cherry slices, big chocolate cakes covered in chocolate sprinkles. I only discovered that eccles cakes were filled with lots of currants when I got to the UK – Monarch’s delicious variant was the raspberry eccle, a thin chewy circular puff pastry sandwiching raspberry jam and a scattering of currants. In addition to a selection of these, my mother would buy a bagful of either soft Parker House Rolls or flaky butterbuns for the week.

The overwhelming memory of the bakery was the amount of butter they used. Everything was dripping in it and, of course, this made everything ridiculously good. If you’re around in North Vancouver, I believe they’re still there; if not, perhaps these Parker House Rolls will take you there.

I had no inkling of the history of these soft buttery buns; as a kid, I thought that my bakery had perhaps invented them and stuck a fancy name on them. It was only recently that I learned of its Boston origins, created at the Parker House Hotel. They’ve got a unique shape with a ‘lip’ or fold created either by pressing a dowel or chopstick into the bun or by cutting out rounds and folding them over; I used the latter method, also favoured by Monarch Bakery. These soft, buttery buns were perfect for mopping up the baked beans in my last post and in case there’s not enough butter in them for you, they’re awfully nice with an extra bit on them too.

Parker House Rolls
adapted from the hotel’s original recipe.
makes 12-15.

about 450g plain flour (you might need more or less depending on how damp your dough is)
50g sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp dry yeast
115g unsalted butter (divided into 2 parts)
1 egg

In a small bowl, place 1 tbsp of sugar (from the 50g), the yeast and 1/2 cup warm water from the tap. Stir to dissolve and set aside until the mixture is frothy (about 10-15 minutes).

In a large bowl, cut 1 cup of flour, salt, rest of the sugar and one part of the butter together. Pour in the yeast mixture and add an additional 1/2 cup of hot tap water and stir very well to combine. Add the egg and stir again very well to combine (you can also use a mixer – at this point, the dough is still very wet). Stir in about another cup and a bit of flour to make a soft dough.

Turn the dough onto a well floured board and start kneading and working in the rest of the flour if needed (I needed it). Knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough is very elastic. Oil the original large bowl. Form the dough into a ball and place in the bowl, turning so that the dough is coated in oil all over. Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled (about 1.5 hours).

When the dough has risen, punch it down and turn it out again onto the board (lightly floured) and knead to punch out the air and make a smooth ball. Cover with the bowl and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Melt the second part of the butter and set aside. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Roll the dough to 1cm thickness and cut circles out (about 5-6cm in diameter). Brush both sides of each circle with the melted butter (or just dip them), fold it in half and place on the lined baking sheet. Brush all the buns with the remaining melted butter. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise again for about 40 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 200 Celsius.

Bake for about 15 minutes until browned on top.

 

A Celebration Bread Class with Virtuous Bread

Jane Mason started Virtuous Bread last year to get everyone to start baking and eating good bread and in the process, also bring about social change. As I understand it, there’s the commercial side with bread baking classes and her Bread Angels, people she teaches to start their own bread businesses, and there’s the charitable side where she gets involved with prisons, schools and shelters with baking classes. She’s got a blog, a newsletter and recipes on her site too; it all makes for an interesting read and one can believe that bread can bring people together. I had received an invitation to attend a class from Emmeline Westin who is currently helping with PR for Virtuous Bread and I chose to attend one last Saturday to learn about baking Celebration Breads – in particular, brioche and hot cross buns.

Jane has a fantastic flat in Hammersmith and an absolutely magnificent kitchen from which to teach. The small size of the class (only four students that day), the fact that Jane teaches from her own home, and Jane’s own warmth and friendliness gave a cozy feeling to the lesson and made for a wonderful day. Jane started by plying us all with coffee and then explaining the idea of celebration breads (breads made with richer ingredients) and how making them differed from baking regular white or brown breads.

It wasn’t all talking and listening to the class (though Jane is a fount of knowledge when it comes to baking and I learned so much that day) – it was hands on too. We first learned to shape brioche using a batch of dough that Jane had prepared earlier as this dough needs to rise for quite a while. You can see a traditional loaf shaped as an S shape and one made of small rolls that would bake into a pull-apart loaf.

We did learn how to make brioche dough but got to take that with us raw to bake in our own homes; the brioche dough has to rise for much longer than the bun dough and there wasn’t enough time during the class. As there were four of us in the class, we were split into two groups, one to make brioche and the other to make hot cross buns; I was assigned the brioche. Both doughs started with pre-doughs to activate the yeast before all the rich ingredients are added. (Totally unrelated but those stainless steel bowls are fantastic. And so light too!)

When the yeast had activated, which you could tell by the mixture bubbling ever so slightly, we added the butter, eggs, and more flour (and spice in the case of the hot cross buns), mixed it all together, and then started kneading.

That’s me (well, my hand) below… kneading! It was surprising how wet the dough is even with all the butter and egg and working it was certainly challenging; amazingly, it did all come together to a smooth dough. Jane was on hand to give us all a hand if we tired – about 15 minutes of hand kneading were required for the celebration doughs.

While all this was happening, the brioche loaves were rising and then were ready for baking. After about 30 minutes in a hot oven, they came out looking and smelling absolutely fantastic, all buttery and sweet.

We were sent to the dining room where, surprise!, we found a table set for lunch. Jane had prepared a beautiful and delicious quiche with leek, endive and ground elder and served it with a couple of salads. And, of course, we had the freshly baked brioche to go with it; it was indeed buttery and fantastic but could have been a bit lighter had it had a bit longer to rise during its second rising.

The bun dough was ready by the time we had finished lunch and so soaked raisins were added and it was on to learning to shape buns. Jane showed us how to roll the dough portions lightly against the table to shape each bun.

Hot cross buns aren’t hot cross buns without their crosses! We all had a go at piping them on. The poor piping bag broke halfway through and so some got thin crosses while others got fat ones.

After another rising, the buns were popped into the oven. About 25 minutes later, hot cross buns! They were light and fantastic and I surprised myself my liking the flavour of cloves in them. We had them unglazed, being easier for transport, but were given instruction on how to glaze them at home.

And that was the end of the class – we took away the recipes, the leftover baked brioche, our portions of brioche dough for baking at home, and quite a few hot cross buns, and, of course, our newfound knowledge of baking rich breads. As I mentioned previously, Jane is very warm and friendly and a great teacher and the timings of the class were excellent with lunch in between the baking activities to give us a rest and the bread a rise.

It’s a little late now for hot cross buns but details of Jane’s other classes (including one on basic bread baking and another on sourdoughs) can be found on her Virtuous Bread website. If they’re anything like this class, they’ll definitely be fun.

Thank you very much again, Emmeline, for the invitation and to Jane too for having me along!

All my photos from the class can be found in this Flickr photoset.

 

Roti John

Roti John – and how did this weird fusiony name come about? Well, the story goes that somewhere in Malaysia, a roti (bread) man put this together for some generic Western tourist (from what I read, all Caucasian men were just called John!) and hence the name roti john came about. Or it is, as Wikipedia suggests, because the baguette was a western bread rather than the more usual Indian and Chinese breads available?

Either way, it’s still a spiced meaty omelette cooked into a baguette. Some recipes have you cook the omelette separately and then sandwich it into the cut and toasted long bun but I prefer mine cooked in, just to stick to the more traditional preparation. I learned the hard way that a traditional French baguette isn’t the way to go with this – it’s too thick and makes the bread to egg/meat ratio too high and judging from studies on Flickr photos, I’m pretty sure it’s a soft long white bun that’s used in Malaysia and Singapore.

Here I’ve used minced beef and a curry powder that turned out to be quite hot and so left out the chopped chili. As with most recipes though, this is very adaptable so feel free to change the meat or leave it out completely, to add some chopped garlic and/or chopped spring onion, etc, etc. I served mine with a sweet-ish chili sauce which is a very common condiment (so is mayonnaise) and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, which make for a refreshing counterpart. I think roti john is normally a breakfast item in Malaysia and Singapore but I reckon it’s just as good for lunch, dinner or even a snack as it’s fast, easy and hey, it even multiplies quite nicely for a crowd.

Roti John
serves 2.

1 small onion, quartered and finely sliced (or chopped)
125g minced beef
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 small chili, fined chopped (optional)
3 large eggs
salt
4 long, thin buns (mine were called ranch rolls)
butter

Heat a frying pan over medium heat and heat the oil. Toss in the onion and fry for about a minute before adding the minced beef. Brown the meat and add the chili (if using) and the tablespoon of curry powder. Continue cooking for a couple more minutes and then set this meat mixture aside in a bowl to cool. Wipe out the frying pan.

Split the buns lengthwise and toast them on both sides in the frying pan.

When the meat mixture has cooled a bit, crack in the eggs, add salt to taste and mix it all together. Return the pan to the heat (if it was taken off) and toss in a small pat of butter to melt. Spread the button around the pan. Spoon the egg and meat mixture on the inside surfaces on the buns and slap them down quickly onto the pan. Cook until the egg has set and has browned nicely. Repeat until all the buns and all the egg and meat mixture is used up. Serve the roti john hot – you can either keep them as open faced sandwiches or press the two halves together.

 

Pa amb Tomàquet Sandwiches for a Picnic

Wasn’t the weekend glorious? Sun in the sky, light breeze to keep things cool – it was perfect for a picnic. The first of the year! We’re getting pretty good at packing picnics now; I remember a poor one we had years ago when we first started going out and we didn’t have napkins or plastic cups or anything to even sit on. We have two mats/blankets, even a few throw pillows, all manner of plastic cutlery and cups, napkins, …. and camera, of course!

To keep things simple this time, I packed some cookies I’d baked the night before (recipe in the next blog post!), some strawberries, a few individual yogurts, and some sandwiches. We based these sandwiches on some we bought in Barcelona this past trip – we were going for a day hike and that morning, we stopped into the local bakery and picked up a few plain-looking sandwiches: they were small baguettes, one with ham, one with chorizo, and one with some other preserved sausage. They didn’t look particularly exciting but when we unwrapped them, we found that the bread was rubbed with tomato and olive oil which lubricated everything nicely and made that sandwich utterly fantastic. (Well, I was surprised while Blai and his brother were not. Apparently, it’s the usual thing over in Catalunya to make sandwiches from pa amb tomàquet, that very Catalan combination of bread with tomato).

This is again one of those no-recipe, more-of-a-description posts. To make these sandwiches, use a small baguette per person; we used those half baked ones that you get at the supermarket and baked them that morning and allowed them to cool before preparing the sandwiches. Slice them in half horizontally lengthwise. Take a couple of very juicy tomatoes, slice them in half along their equators and then rub the cut sides into the cut sides of the bread. Really squeeze those tomatoes and get all the juice and seeds and flesh that squishes out onto the bread. The bread shouldn’t be soaking wet but there should be enough that the cut side is stained red. Sprinkle with salt if desired (I usually leave this step out) and then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (never skip this step!). If necessary, press the two halves together to prevent the oil from leaking everywhere! You now have pa amb tomàquet! It’s lovely eaten by itself or topped with some ham (open-faced) or with some cured sausage on the side but we’re here to make sandwiches!

Now choose your filling – we had some thinly sliced honey roast ham and sliced cheese. Don’t be too generous with these fillings! You want a nice balance between them and your pa amb tomàquet. A few slices will do. Wrap up your sandwich (we just used plastic wrap) and it will be good for when you’re ready to eat it! I’m not usually a fan of sandwiches but I am a sucker for these!