Pressure Cooker Whole Chicken Collagen Soup

 Ingredients: 

1 whole chicken -- approx 1.2 kg 

Water to cover chicken 

Place chicken in pot. Cover with water plus about 2cm. 

Pressure cook for 60 minutes. 

Release pressure. Mash roughly with potato masher. 

Pressure cook for another 30 minutes.  

Release pressure. Mash with potato masher again. 

Strain once through metal sieve. 

Strain once more with muslin cloth. 

Bring to a boil for 2 minutes. 

Let cool and store. 

Smoothie Making Instructions for Husbear

Ingredients: 

25g oatmeal
100g milk kefir

35g greens
120g fruit

4 ice cubes

Thing I do to help dry my pasta nests

Now, I know I'm no Pasta Grannie, but I wrote this for my dear friend Janice. 

1. Use a lower hydration dough.
2. Let the sheets dry a bit before cutting 
3. Rest on unfinished wood. This works better than metal racks actually. 
4. Keep the noodles short-ish: this keeps it from clumping too much. 
5. Dust with rice flour -- I honestly do this much less now that I've gotten the hang of working with a drier dough. 

Malt and Cocoa Nib Cookies

Adapted from World Peace Cookies and Malted Chocolate Chip-Pecan Cookies, due to the lack of cocoa powder in my house, can you believe it?


300g butter
300g sugar
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

350g all-purpose flour
100g malted milk powder -- I used Horlicks
2 tsp baking powder

100g cocoa nibs -- lightly toasted to bring out the fragrance

Cream butter and sugar and salt until light.

Add flour, malted milk powder and baking powder.

Stir in cocoa nibs.

Portion with a cookie scoop -- I used a 2 tsp one. Chill for an hour.

Preheat oven to 180C. Use a cup or similar item to flatten the domes a little before baking.

Quick Sourdough bread

Ingredients 

500g ripe 100% sourdough
200g all-purpose flour
200g bread flour
20g salt
10g psyllium husk
120g water

30g water

Mix the sourdough, flours, salt, psyllium husk and water.

Basinage with remaining 30g.

Fold every 30 minutes 4 times.

Divide into bannetons, and proof for an hour.

Bake at 220C with steam.

Herman Waffles

Adapted from an old waffle machine recipe that my family has been using for the longest time. This recipe is for a normal, thick waffle iron. 

6 eggs 
450g wheat flour 
600g Herman starter 
15g salt 

100g butter 

200g cream 

Whisk the eggs, flour, Herman and salt altogether. 

Whisk in the butter. 

Whisk in the cream. 

Let rise for 1 hour, and cook on waffle iron. 

Notes 

The reason for using so much Herman is to allow you to mix and use the waffle batter quickly.

Broccoli Sauce

This recipe is adapted from the inimitable Smitten Kitchen. The version below has been through multiple iterations, but the thing I always disliked having to cook the broccoli by steaming or par-boiling it first, because there is a perceptible loss of flavor. 

By chopping up the broccoli first, and using a wider, casserole pan, there is enough liquid to cook the broccoli straight in the pan. I used my Magimix cubing accessory, as I needed it to blend the resulting sauce anyway. 

Ingredients


100g butter
1 white onion -- chopped
2 garlic cloves -- peeled and smashed
500g broccoli -- about 2 small heads*
250g cream
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 bay leaf

Prepare broccoli by washing and removing the stem. Cube the head as best as you can, to about 5mm.

Use a wide pan. Melt butter. Saute onion and garlic until translucent. Add broccoli and salt, and when the pan is hot again, pour in the cream.

If necessary, add just enough water to almost cover the vegetables. If you need to use more than 150ml, transfer to a wider pan.

Add more salt, black pepper, chilli flakes and bay leaf.

Simmer until the broccoli is almost fully cooked.

Remove from heat. Blend until smooth.

Serve over pasta with lots and lots of parmesan, and chilli flakes if desired.

Notes: 

This makes a lot of sauce. I would say enough for about 600-800g of dry, long pasta, like linguine.

It freezes very well, and I make it in large quantities for my lunches at home.

When serving over pasta, I cook the pasta, reserving some pasta water. Then I reheat the sauce, stir in the pasta water, and toss the noodles in.

To make broccoli soup: Make a very loose roux-based cream soup, and take it off heat. Warm up the broccoli sauce, then stir in the soup. Start with a little soup first, but once the sauce is loosened up, just pour in the soup. A ratio of about 100g sauce to 200g milk is ideal.

Lumpenbrot

I have been informed by my live-in German that this is a inappropriate name for the bread because it means rags, and the actual name, Wurzelbrot, is far more appropriate. And yet. 

200g 100% hydration sourdough -- fed in the last 4 hours and active

300g plain flour
300g bread flour
14g salt
390g water

Mix everything together.

Put into container. Fold every 30-40 minutes 4 times.

Cold ferment for 24-48 hours in the fridge.

Dust countertop with lots and lots of flour. Turn dough out, and pat roughly into a 25 by 30cm rectangle. Dust flour on top to prevent sticking.

Cut into 3 rectangles.

Bake at 250C for 8-12 minutes, until golden brown.

Hefe-Muerbeteig

Adapted from Hefe Und Mehr to use Herman, with measurements reflecting a suitable size for my food processor

Yeast Dough
130g Herman starter 
90g milk 
2 eggs 
266g all-purpose flour 
114g bread flour
lemon peel 
1/4 tsp salt 
20g sugar 
50g butter 

Shortcrust Pastry
160g all-purpose flour 
70g butter 
40g sugar 

Mix all ingredients for yeast dough except sugar and butter in food processor. Rest for 20 minutes. 

Process with all of the sugar. It is ready when you cannot feel the sugar grains in the dough. 

Process with all of the butter. Rest for 1-2 hours. 

Blend all shortcrust pastry ingredients together, either by hand or in the food processor. 

Before proceeding to the next step, the yeast dough should smell yeasty and puffed up about 30-50%. The shortcrust pastry should be cold to touch, otherwise, chill it for about 30 minutes. 

Knead both doughs together until they are homogeneous. At this point, you may divide into your desired portion sizes. Let rise again before rolling out, adding toppings and baking. 

Bake at 180C.

Notes: 

I just rub the shortcrust pastry ingredients together by hand until sandy and fine. If it comes together, great, but it works just even if that does not happen.

This makes 4 portions that are just right size for a 9-inch/22.5cm pan, with the sides coming up just a bit, which works really well for containing moisture from the baked fruit. You can also just roll it out and just use it flat, but I would not recommend it for a wet or fruit topping. 

I typically will chill the dough overnight in my homemade bread retard box and use the next day, but in my experience, with this large amount of Herman, it should be ready to go into the oven about 2 hours after dividing into portion sizes.

May's New and Improved Gratin Instructions

This recipe is the result of several of several experiments that are still on-going. I will update this as I go along. 

Ingredients
Potatoes, sliced thinly -- weighed after peeling and slicing
salt

Place sliced potatoes in a pot. Cover with water, add salt, and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, and drain potatoes right away, reserving the water.

Make white sauce as per your normal recipe, starting with the milk and then following up with the reserved potato water. 

Make gratin as per usual.

Notes: 

I used water only this time, as it was an experiment. If you usually make a 100% milk white sauce, you can use the milk portion of the recipe to cook the potatoes.

There will be starch in the water, and it will thicken up more than you think. Of course, the starchier the potato that you use, the thicker it will get. So you may want to reduce the amount of flour you use in the sauce.

Most recipes that have you boil the potatoes have you cook them for much longer, until the potatoes are almost cooked through. Even worse, they may have you cook them whole and then slice or cut them. I find that doing it that way makes it difficult to get the potatoes into the pan easily. The potatoes may be slightly sticky to handle this way, but they are almost as solid as raw.

This method also allows you to preserve more flavor, as the potato water goes back into the sauce.

It is important to drain the potatoes right away, especially if they were sliced thinly. Once the slices are cooked through, they are a pain to position in the gratin pan, and letting them sit in the water is potentially enough to cook them all the way.

I also find that there is much less slumping when cooking a gratin this way, so if you do not want a short gratin, this is an excellent way to do it.

Flaky Lard Dough

This pastry is very similar to my pie dough. Mainly, I have adjusted the water and flour proportions to reflect that the same weight of lard as butter has much less water. 

Ingredients: 
400g all-purpose flour 
250g lard 
3/4 cup ice water 
1tsp salt 

Cut up lard into a dozen pieces or so, and stick in the freezer. 

Put lard, flour and salt into food processor and pulse until pea-sized. Check that the pieces of lard can be squished with your fingers easily. If not, wait 5 minutes. 

Add water, and processor until the dough comes together in one large blob. 

Hand knead for about 1 minute, and cut into the sizes that you need. Knead each piece into a smooth ball without cracks, wrap and chill for at least half an hour. 

Notes: 

The lard dough comes together more nicely than the butter version does. I recommend this one over the butter pastry, as it is easier to control. 

This recipe is just nice to cover top and bottom crust on a quarter-sheet pan. 

I did not add sugar, but you can add up to 50g, depending on your requirements. I would add it in with the flour in the first step. 

It does not puff as much as the all-butter pastry, which is a lifesaver if, like me, you always forget to prick.  

Pie Dough

350g all-purpose flour
250g butter
1/2 cup ice water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar -- optional

Cut up the butter into about 12 pieces. Stick in the freezer for an hour or so.

Dump half the flour and the sugar and salt into the food processor. Scatter the butter chunks and the rest of the flour in.

Pulse until the butter pieces are pea-sized. Make sure there are no more very large chunks of butter that are frozen solid. If there are, wait 5 minutes, and pulse again.

Pour the water, and pulse again. The dough should feel cold to touch (even in tropical Singapore) and moist, almost wet, but still very crumbly. Turn out onto your work surface.

Hand knead the dough for about 2 minutes. It is ready when you are able to form a fairly smooth ball of dough, with very minimal cracks.

Roll into a square or round block, depending on your intended use, and chill for at least half an hour before you roll it out.

Make sure to prick the pie dough before baking, as it will puff up otherwise.


Notes: 

You can use frozen butter from the freezer just fine. It is just much harder to hack up.

Do use European-style high-fat butter. I personally don't use any other kind for baking.

If you are making something savory, I would increase the salt a little.

I do really mean ice water. I put a cup with some ice cubes and water into the freezer while I weigh the flour and things.

This dough has a relatively high flour and water to butter ratio. It makes it easier to roll.

You do have to knead the dough. Too light a hand will make a dough that is difficult to roll, does not transfer to a pie tin well, and may break in the oven.

For a more buttery pastry, reduce the flour by 50g.

Gluten-Free Banana Oat Muffins

4 egg yolks
1 egg white
2 bananas -- mashed or pureed
60g beet syrup
vanilla extract
100g oat flour

3 egg whites

Whisk egg yolks and white together, then add bananas, beet syrup and vanilla extract. Mix well.

Whisk egg whites until hard peaks.

Whisk oat flour into banana mixture, then fold in egg whites.

Spoon into muffin tins, and bake at 180C for 18 minutes.

Notes: 

To be gluten-free, all ingredients need to be gluten-free.

I was not sure if my salt was gluten-free, so I did not add any. But it would probably be improved by about 1/2tsp.

Do not whisk the oat flour into the banana mixture too early, as it will thicken and become difficult to fold.

To achieve a fluffier texture, skip the beet syrup. Use about 60g gluten-free sugar to beat the egg whites to hard peaks.

For a more cake-like, and less sticky texture, add 3/4 tsp of baking powder.

Chocolate Banana Muffins with Herman

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Cocoa Banana Bread, which is already an excellent recipe. I just happened to have an excess of Herman poolish and egg whites on hand.

Herman poolish 
5g Herman starter
180g milk
90g flour
45g sugar

170g egg whites
Vanilla extract
240g all-purpose flour
90g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 bananas -- mashed or pureed
100g white sugar
100g raw sugar
114g butter


Make Herman poolish the night before.

On the day of baking, whisk the egg whites, poolish and vanilla extract together.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Cream butter and sugar.

Beat in the remaining ingredients by alternating wet and dry. Start with half of the egg white mixture, then flour, then the egg white mixture again, and so forth, finishing with the flour.

Bake at 170C.

Makes 24 muffins.

Notes: 

The Herman Poolish has only half the sugar of the normal Herman starter, mainly because I would like to reduce the amount of sugar.

I adapted the mixing method from Rose Levy-Beranbaum's Two-Step method.

This version is much fluffier and lighter than the original.

Bienenstich

Adapted from Luisa Weiss's Classic German Baking 

Yeast Base: 

90g Herman Starter 

180g all-purpose flour 

1 egg 

1/8 tsp salt 

30g sugar 

50g butter

Topping:

150g butter
100g sugar
70g honey
45g cream
1/2 tsp salt
230g sliced almonds

Blitz Herman, flour, 1 egg and salt in food processor to develop gluten. Rest for 15 minutes.

Blitz with sugar. Check that the sugar crystals can no longer be felt with your fingers.

Blitz in the butter.

Tuck into ball and let rise in the fridge.

Remove about 3-4 hours before baking. When pliable, roll out it out to approximately 23cm by 33cm, and let rise again.

When the yeast base is fully risen, make topping by lightly caramelising all ingredients except for almonds. While still hot, pour over almonds and mix.

Spread over yeast base.

Bake at 230C.

Notes: 

The base came out a little dry. I will add more milk next time. I think between the cold rise and also Herman, it requires a little more moisture.

This recipe is too small for my Magimix.

I sliced it, then allowed my guests to split the pieces at will, and I served it with pastry cream. 

Pastry Cream

Adapted from Brave Tart

Ingredients: 

950ml milk

4 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
250g sugar
75g cornflour
1/2tsp salt

Whisk everything but the milk until smooth in a large bowl.

Heat milk until it starts to foam. Turn off heat.

Temper hot milk into the egg mixture.

Pour resulting egg and milk mixture through a fine sieve back into the milk pan.

Cook, stirring constantly, until custard bubbles sluggishly.

Notes: 

Vanilla extract: should be added to milk before heating for maximal flavor.

I recommend tempering as much as 50% of the hot milk into the eggs. This will allow you to get the mixture through the sieve much more quickly.

Eggs: Sometimes I just use 5 eggs instead of 4 whole + 3 yolks. This is usually when I already have way too much excess egg white in the freezer.

Herman Starter

Proportions for refreshing:

60g milk
30g sugar
30g flour

Starter is 25% sugar, 25% flour and 50% milk by weight.

Notes

I have found that Herman is sensitive to overheating. Basically, not more than 28C, which basically means, if you live somewhere hot, you should probably move it out of your kitchen when you are baking the whole day.

If you are in a hurry to ripen Herman for use, giving it a stir every 2 hours seems to help. You should especially consider stirring if Herman has separated.

Soya Sauce Pork

200g pork belly
400g pork shoulder/pork cheek
Half a stick of cinnamon
4 cloves -- like the spice, see below for the garlic
6 cloves of garlic
100ml of best quality Thai or Chinese light soy
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
1/2 tbsp sugar
500ml chicken or pork broth

Cut all meat into 2 inch cubes. Pork cheeks naturally come in the right size.

Bring a pot of water to boil with a spoonful each of salt and rice wine. Put the meat in, and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain. Throw away the water.

Put all the ingredients into a pot. The liquid should at least cover the meat. Cover with foil. Put in oven (no fan) at 130C for 4-6 hours, or even overnight.

Serve with rice.

Notes:

You can skip the pork belly, but I would encourage you to use a cut with a good amount of fat and collagen to break down. It gives the sauce an unctuousness that is out of this world good. If you want to freeze portions, I would definitely encourage you to keep the fat because I find it freezes better that way.

There is a version of this with chicken, but I have never made it. I’m not sure that beef would have the right flavor either.

After the meat is done cooking, you can add potatoes (scrub, skin off, and cut into big chunks) and hard boiled eggs (after shelling of course). My mother often adds tofu puffs too.

You can use less liquid. But I often pour off some of the sauce and freeze. I use it in stir fries in place of soy sauce and chicken stock, other stews (it’s like my secret mother sauce) and it’s also really good if you cook some meat balls or mince in it and serve with rice.

You can also use water instead. This will work best if you pack the meat in really tightly into a small pot and cover it really tightly, so the meat makes it’s ‘own’ broth as you stew.

The best soy sauce I can get to easily is Thai, and is called Healthy Boy.

Do not skip the bit of 1/4 tsp of salt. I have done that and you do actually notice the lack. 

Pressure Cooker Rice Porridge

Ingredients: 
100g rice
1.3 liters water + stock
Spoonful of oil -- not necessary
Salt
Soy sauce

Throw everything in the electric pressure cooker and cook at high pressure for 20 minutes.

Release pressure and open the pot. Stir, then put it back in the pressure cooker for another 10 minutes. At this point, you may also add meat or meatballs.

Notes: 
I've found that leaving it in the pressure cooker for 30 minutes straight causes the rice to clump at the bottom. I'm afraid of burning the porridge, plus the texture seems more silky if I give it a stir part way through.

Pork scotch fillet does wonderful things sitting 10-15 minutes in the pressure cooker.

Spicy Fried Minced Pork with Sichuan Chilli Oil

Ingredients: 

Ingredients A:
300g minced pork -- a little fat is good, otherwise it will be dry
1 tbsp water -- or stock if you have it
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

2tbsp oil
1 inch ginger -- finely chopped
1 spring onion -- finely chopped

2 tbsp Sichuan Chilli Oil -- with goop / sediment

Put the minced pork in a bowl. Add the remaining items from Ingredients A one at a time, stirring in between.

Heat the oil in a wok. Add the ginger, and stir fry until the fragrance is released. Add the spring onion, and do the same.

Add the minced pork with a large pinch of salt. Break it up into little clumps as it browns.

Serve over hot rice.

Notes: 

I did not have any, but I'd recommend adding some cooking wine -- mirin, sake, Shaoxing -- to the minced pork as part of Ingredients A.