A Sticky Situation

This past week has been an extremely productive one for me on the home front because everyone in the house has been sick at one point or another.  It wasn’t a really serious illness–just the run of the mill head cold complete with sore throats, low fevers, and a little cough.  The strange thing about it was that each one of us only had one day when all of these symptoms overlapped and none of us had that day on the same day.  The eldest had his day on Wednesday.  The husband had his in Friday, I think.  The youngest had his on Saturday and I had mine on Sunday.

All this meant that I spent a lot of time at home.  In fact, there was a 72 hour stretch when I did not even step outside at all.  Instead, I’ve been making a lot of tea, cooking up a storm (the freezer is getting full again), and, of course, trying some new things with my sourdough starter, which I have been affectionately calling “the monster.”

Sunday morning (my sicky day)  found me, not at church, but in my kitchen making these.

Sourdough English muffins made from a recipe I found on the Wild Yeast Blog.  I doubled the recipe (as usual) and got 17 muffins out of it.  Though, I have to say, I fought for each of those muffins.  What do I mean by that, you say?

Well, I’ll tell you.  One thing about english muffin dough is that it is really soft.  You want that because it gives you those nice nooks and crannies everyone loves and expects in an english muffin.  But, the looseness of the dough makes it very hard to move around.  I had lined my baking sheets with parchment and dusted them with a mixture of grits/cornmeal and wheat germ.  I greased my muffin rings and portioned out the dough.  See?

However, when it came time to transfer those babies to the griddle to cook, they stuck to the paper like crazy.  I basically had to scoop that dough off the parchment with my bare hands, bursting all the little air bubbles that had formed during its rise.  I almost wept and just threw it all away, but when I saw that the first muffin rose respectably in its little ring, I was encouraged to persevere.

They are a little wrinkly and uneven, but they did have great flavor.  I loved the subtle crunch of the grits and when they were toasted, they were even more delicious.  It was hard with the sticking to get a consistent amount of dough per muffin, so some of them came out fairly thin and others were almost an inch thick.  The thicker ones were denser and more doughy in the middle.  They also had fewer holes, took longer to cook, and it was more difficult to tell when they were done.  Next time, I will probably try to use a smaller amount of dough per muffin.

We had them for our weekly Sunday brunch lunch and they were equally good with butter and honey (the way I like them) or in an egg and bacon sandwich (the way the oldest likes them).

I definitely want to make these again, but I have to find a solution to that stickiness problem.  I’d love to be able to keep the dough intact when I put them on the griddle.  Anyone have any ideas?

Steamy Magic

Do you Dim Sum?  We love Dim Sum food.  It’s like the Chinese version of tapas:  lots of little dishes to share and as much tea as you can drink to go with it.  Many dim sum dishes are steamed.  If you go to one of those restaurants that specialize in dim sum, you’ll see people pushing carts around with lots of little steamers in them.   There is always a huge sense of excitement as the cart draws near to your table.  What will it have in it?  Will my favorite dish be there?  Will the cart even make it to our table before everything is gone? (On a busy day, your best bet is to try to sit as close to the kitchen doors as possible so you get access to all the carts coming out.)

The most anticipated steamed dish in our family (and usually the first one to run out at the restaurants) are the steamed buns, especially if they have barbequed pork or red bean paste in them.  I have tried making steamed buns at home, but have not really come close to the texture of what you get at the restaurant.  Usually, mine are too fluffy or pasty.

But, this week, with the help of a secret weapon, I think I may have finally got it, or at least closer to it.

What is my secret weapon?  Well, wouldn’t you like to know? Maybe I should just say it’s an ancient Chinese secret?  Haha!

Actually, I am happy to tell you the secret because I was kind of skeptical when I tried it, and surprised when it turned out so well.  The secret to great Chinese Bao (buns) is sourdough.  Really!

I did not get this idea myself.  I have an old Wei-Chuan cookbook called Chinese Snacks that has two recipes for steamed buns.  One uses yeast and the other uses old dough as the base.  I made the recipe and substituted my sourdough starter for the old dough.  The dough was nice and soft.  I had no trouble at all working with it.  It was easy to stuff and puffed up nicely in the steamer.

before steaming

As a bonus, the dough was really easy to work with–probably because I used a lower protein flour and I think also the sourdough starter made the dough especially elastic and soft.  I made two different buns.  The rounded ones are the red bean buns and the ones with the wrinkled tops are barbequed pork or char siu bao.

after steaming

Now, we don’t have to trek for over an hour to get a good steamed bun.  Today I made 48 buns.  That ought to last us, oh maybe a week!  Luckily, I have a starter that always needs to be fed, so buns can always be made.  They make a great addition to our lunches.

Steamed Bun (Bao) Dough

4 ounces 100% hydration liquid sourdough starter

6 ounces water

10 ounces unbleached all purpose flour

Mix above ingredients and let stand for 8 hours or overnight.  It should double in size and become very bubbly.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, stir to combine:

6 ounces water

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons shortening

15 ounces Bleached, All Purpose, Self Rising Flour (yes, you read that right)

When you have a rough dough in the bowl, mix in the starter and knead with the dough hook of your machine for 5 minutes.  The dough should be smooth and soft, but not sticky.  Try not to add any extra flour.  I found that with dry hands, the dough was only slightly sticky and I had no trouble filling the buns with my bare hands.

Cut 24 3 inch square pieces of parchment.

Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces–about 2 ounces per piece.   Flatten each piece and place about a tablespoon of your filling of choice in the center.  Gather the dough together at the top and pinch to seal.  Or, you can make plain buns by just rounding the dough into little balls.  You can place them seam side down on a piece of parchment for a rounded look or seam side up for a rougher look.  Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for 45-60 minutes.  Place in your steamer tray at least 1 inch apart and steam for 10 minutes for plain and 12 minutes for filled.

Reason #645 for Crafting

This week, working on this

kept me sane and more patient during some frustrating school sessions.   Having something to do with my hands helps me to wait and listen–this is something I think we (especially the boys) are all thankful for this week!

How does crafting keep you sane?

A Little Payoff

You would think that after forcing myself being forced to work on my UFOs for awhile, that I would have a whole parade of finished objects to show you by now, and I really had hopes of blasting through some of them, but knitting is not to be rushed.  I had a lot more work than I reckoned when I picked up some of these projects.

Take this one for instance:

This is a blanket I started way back in May.  At the point of this picture, I was a little past the one-third point.

With the larger needles and a several James Bond movies later, I finally got to the end.  It was a nailbiter at the end because I wasn’t sure I would have enough blue to finish the border.

I had four balls of yellow for the center and two each of blue and white to complete each section of the blanket.  Basically, I started at the corner with the yellow, increased until I had finished two balls, and then decreased back down to a point.  This made the square, around which I picked up the white stitches.  After I did three repeats of the white lace pattern, I knew I would not have enough to do another, so I began the blue border.  However, before I got to the halfway point of the border, my first ball of yarn ran out.  It was close to the corner, so I just pressed on, knit a little snugger, and hoped it would work out.

Things do not always work out so well, but this time it did.  I had about 2 or 3 yards of blue yarn left!  After blocking, the lace pattern really pops out.  My oldest has been petting the blanket longingly, but I have told him it is not for him.  The yarn is really soft–perfect for the baby I have in mind.  You can get more details on my Ravelry project page.

Now, I’m onto the next unfinished object, but I am afraid this one is not going as well.   I am really trying hard to resist the urge to start some new knitting projects, but I am afraid my resistance is beginning to crumble.

A Day Late and Lots of Dishes Short

Happy Lunar New Year/ Chinese New Year!  Happy Year of the Dragon!

Usually, at this time of year I am very busy making lots of special treats for Chinese New Year and for a party that we usually have to celebrate this holiday.  I must have used up all my energy in December for Christmas, though, because I just have not been able to get up the gumption to get prepared for Chinese New Year.

In fact, yesterday, we almost had no Chinese food at all!  A Chinese New Year’s dinner often includes many, many dishes:  noodles, steamed fish, some kind of pork, dumplings, spring rolls, turnip cakes, etc.  Well, we did not have all that, but I did manage to make a little treat for us to have.

Red Bean New Year’s Rice Cake

Sweet red beans are really popular in Chinese desserts and snacks.  Actually, a lot of different Asian countries use it in their traditional desserts.  Japanese mochi often contains red bean paste and there’s a Korean pancake thing that has red beans in it.   The bean paste is really easy to make once you get the red beans–and much cheaper than paying $5 a can for it like I saw at the Asian store the other day.

You take a pound of red beans, soak them for several hours or overnight.  Then, simmer them in 8 cups of water and 12 ounces of sugar until they are all soft and most of the water is gone. Watch them closely at the end to make sure they don’t burn.  I had to add extra water because I did not soak the beans as long as I should have (there I go being impatient again) and they were still hard after the water was all gone.  Then, you mix in a couple tablespoons of your fat of choice.  Most people use lard.  I have used vegetable oil in the past and I considered using butter, but I decided to go with the duck fat I had in the fridge.  It definitely gave it a different flavor–it tastes a little more savory, but still good.

Half of the red beans went into the rice mixture to make the cakes.  I’ll show you what I plan to do with the other half later this week.  The cake couldn’t be easier to mix up.  Twenty ounces of hot water is mixed with 14 ounces of dark brown sugar.  Then, you whisk in 24 ounces of glutinous rice flour (did I mention this treat is gluten free?).  The red bean paste is the last to be mixed in and then you put it into the pans (that have been lined with plastic wrap and sprayed with oil) for steaming.  I used two 8 inch cake pans because that’s what fits into my steamer.  The steaming is the longest part–2 hours!

Once the cake is done, you can slice it and eat it while it is still a little warm.  OR, wait until it is cool to slice it and fry it in a little oil, which is our favorite way of eating it.  The frying makes the outside a little crispy and the inside stays warm and gooey.  Yum!