Lazy Recipe: Sardine Pasta Bake

One might ask, "What's with all these recipes?" Well, you see, this blog is a record of stuff I do, so it's either recipes or my thesis-writing. No one wants to hear me whinge about my thesis-writing.

Anyway, it was an hour from lunch so I raided my kitchen for ingredients and put something together semi-randomly. I do this fairly often, but this particular dish was of a surprisingly legitimate quality.

Sardine Pasta Bake
Loosely adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients

100 g fusilli pasta
1 can Ayam Brand Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Green Peppercorns
1/2 cup plain Greek-style yoghurt
1 tbs tomato sauce
1/2 tbs dried thyme or oregano
Pinch salt
1-2 tbs shredded mozzarella cheese
1-2 tsp panko bread crumbs
Dash cayenne pepper
1/2 tbs butter

Preheat oven to 220°C. Alternatively, use a toaster oven (no preheating required).

Cook fusilli pasta in boiling, salted water until it just turns al dente. Drain and set aside.

Empty sardine can into a small bowl (do not drain). Use 1 tbs of the olive oil to grease the bottom and sides of a 750 ml capacity oven-proof dish. Split the sardines lengthwise in half and remove the vertebral bones. Arrange the fish evenly on the base of the oven-proof dish. Scatter the peppercorns over the fish. Place the drained pasta on top.

Mix yoghurt and tomato sauce until combined. Stir in the thyme and salt. Pour the sauce evenly over the pasta. Spread another 1 tbs of the olive oil from the can on top.

Sprinkle shredded mozzarella to cover the surface of the sauce evenly. Top with panko bread crumbs and cayenne pepper. Place butter in a chilled metal spoon. Working quickly, use your fingers to press the butter into flakes. Scatter the butter flakes evenly on top of the dish.

Bake in the preheated oven or toaster oven for 5-10 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Serve immediately.

Recipe: Italian Bread

The other day, my mother wanted some Italian-style bread for making garlic bread. The problem was, the bakeries near us either didn't carry the right kind of bread, or had it pre-sliced crosswise (the recipe required the bread to be cut lengthwise). And therefore...

Italian Bread (makes 1 loaf)
Adapted from this recipe at The Fresh Loaf

Ingredients
Starter

1/4 cup skim milk, scalded
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup bread flour
1/3 tsp active dry yeast, or 1/4 tsp instant yeast

Dough
Pre-prepared starter
2 1/2 cups (scooped) bread flour, plus extra
1/2 cup skim milk, scalded
1/3 cup water
1/2 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tbs salt
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast, or 1 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tbs olive oil

To prepare the starter, scald the milk in a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl and allow it to cool to body temperature (about 37°C - test by dropping a little onto the back of your hand). Stir in yeast and allow to reactivate for 5 minutes. Mix in water and bread flour. Cover with cling wrap and incubate in at room temperature (25-28°C) for 4-16 hours.

Prepare the dough. Scald milk and allow to cool, as before. Dissolve the brown sugar in the milk. Stir in yeast and leave for 5 minutes to reactivate. In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, all the starter, water, olive oil, salt and 1 cup of the flour. Mix thoroughly using a wooden spoon or your hands.

Knead in more flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough is only slightly sticky, and comes off the bowl when lifted up. Grease a bowl well with olive oil; shape the dough into a ball and place it in the greased bowl. Lightly grease a piece of cling-wrap with olive oil and place it, greased side down, over the dough and the bowl. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature until doubled in size (1-2 hours). Punch down the dough and knead for 1 minute. Allow to rise at room temperature for another 30-60 minutes.

Punch down the dough again and shape into a ball. Return the dough to the greased bowl, cover with greased cling-wrap and allow to relax for 10-20 minutes.

Shape dough into a boule or bâtard shape. Cover loosely with greased cling-wrap and allow to rise until doubled in size (30-60 minutes). Do not over-rise.

Place baking stone in oven, and preheat to 240°C. Right before placing the bread in the oven, brush or spray  the dough lightly with water. Use a sharp knife or razor to slash the bread. Lightly sprinkle some flour onto the baking stone before placing the bread on top.

Bake bread at 240°C for 1 minute. Without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 220°C and bake for another 20 minutes. Rotate the loaf around and bake for a further 20-30 minutes, until the loaf is evenly browned and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Remove and cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Notes

To scald milk, place milk in a microwave-safe bowl or mug. Place a wooden chopstick such that it breaks the surface of the milk; this is to prevent the milk from over-boiling. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes until the milk starts to boil. Stop the microwave immediately and allow the milk to cool.

For instructions on shaping loaves, this is a great site with pictures, and this video demonstrates how to shape and slash a bâtard.

If you haven't got a baking stone, use an upside-down cast-iron skillet or heavy baking pan.

I actually use a microwave oven with a convection setting for baking bread. Since it has a rotating turntable and uses hot air to maintain the internal temperature, the bread comes out evenly browned and perfectly baked.

Recipe: Gâteau au Yaourt (French Yoghurt Cake)

This cake is simple to make, so ridiculously simple. With only one and a half hours of preparation and baking time, it's almost faster to make this cake at home than to go out to the bakery. It's also very light, with an airy texture akin to a chiffon cake.

Gâteau au Yaourt
Adapted from this recipe and various other sources

Ingredients

1 cup Greek-style yoghurt
2 large eggs
160 g caster sugar
80 ml canola or other flavourless vegetable oil
3/4 tbs dark brown sugar
1 tbs pineapple juice, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/8 tsp almond or rum essence
250 g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/16 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180°C. If using a metal cake pan, line it with parchment paper; for a silicone cake pan, dust the pan lightly with flour.

In a large mixing bowl, gradually mix the caster sugar into the yoghurt until homogeneous. Gently stir in the eggs and oil.

In a small bowl, dissolve the dark brown sugar in pineapple juice. Stir in vanilla and almond essences. Incorporate into the yoghurt mixture.

Separately, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the wet mixture; fold gently until just combined. Do not over-mix.

Carefully pour the batter into the cake pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Allow the cake to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

49!

Happy birthday Singapore! Only one more to the big 50!

This year's National Day Parade was great, fantastic performances all around. Last year I was stuck in a hotel room in Canberra without an Internet connection and missed the parade. I'd forgotten how stirring it is, watching the sheer energy of both the spectators and performers. For a short period of time, you truly feel connected with the rest of the country.

Brief digression here. I'd always felt something of an outsider. I'm not from one of the four main races of Singapore. My parents were both immigrants. Yet I don't belong to my supposed motherland either - I wasn't born there, I can barely construct a sentence my mother tongue, I don't identify with the typical attitudes of that nation. Perhaps that I why I cling so fiercely to the idea of being Singaporean. It is what I know, better than anything else. I speak fluent Singlish. I know most of the community songs. I can explain in excruciating detail what Total Defence is - I have the gold badge to prove it. I've spent most of my life here, and during the short periods of time I was elsewhere, I wasn't convinced that those were better places to live. Sure, perhaps I didn't quite fit as Singaporean in the beginning, but I am one now. And my hypothetical future children won't have problems fitting in. They'll be citizens of this country, through and through.

So, here's to Singapore. For a bit of nostalgia, the video below shows some images which would be familiar to my five year old self, and to anyone else who grew up here during the nineties.