Top 10 Tips in the Kitchen ~ Where Mahem & Magic Happens ~

Everyone needs a helping hand.  Superman is not complete without Lois Lane.  Green Lantern is powerless without his green ring......ok....that's as nerdy as I can get.  Let's just stick with what I know best shall we?  Leave the comic talks to the comic-con fans! (are they even called comic-con? I think I totally made that up. :D)  Everything I do in the kitchen is really self taught with a few exceptions.   So to make things easier for me in the kitchen, I've developed a few tricks to make it "kitchen friendly."  Let's check it out!

#10 - Re-Use Milk bags - frugal much? you may say.  But honestly, the quality of the actual milk bags (holding milk, not the packaging :D just to clarify!) surpass many of the sandwich ziplock baggies.  I'm a pretty active gal, running, bootcamping, yoga-ing, moderate weight lifting to tone so to support this active life-style, a cup or so of milk is much needed everyday.  So needless to say, I can go through bags of milk pretty quickly.  Which means, why should I throw away well made, thick quality bags that can easily be washed and used to pack other things?!!  think fruits to take to work for the day! cookies! bread! plus, you are doing your part in helping the environment. :) re-use.  = happy earth!

#9 - Breathable Garlic & Onion container - such basic ingredients are pretty high maintenance compared to your green onion stalks which can be thrown in the fridge.  if you store garlic and onion in a non-breathable container (plastic) you can be sure the roots will shoot out faster than you can use it.  If you store it in the fridge, you can be sure the flavour gets lost a bit once used.  The best way to store garlic & onion?  Place them in a breathable natural basket such as dried leave stalk basket and store on your counter, away from light & sun.  They will last 3-4 times longer.  Although, once you cut open an onion, I would store the un-used portion in the fridge:)

#8 - De-Clutter - go to Bed, Bath & Beyond, you will see walls and walls of quirky kitchen tools.  Single egg boiler, 20 different sorts of sieves, 12 different kind of thermometer, a funky tool to zest lemons....oh you get my drift!  Let's be honest, our kitchen does not need clutter.  Which means, all those extra quirky funky things, not needed!!! You don't need an egg separator! Stick to the basics.  Buy quality tools that will last.  Anthony Bourdain will tell you the greatest chef only really need one knife, a multi purpose,  great quality 7" knife.

#7 - Have clean towels & a roll of paper towel always on the ready - My ex, now friend's mom's kitchen was a disaster to work in mainly because she never had clean towels or paper towels in site.  Towels are needed to wipe your hands dry after multiple washes.  They are great to wipe up the counter, sink and stoves after each kitchen session.  Paper towels are needed for dirty, messy spills, like oil, tomato sauce, honey etc.  The are great for absorbing oil to coat any surface needed.  If you don't have the basic tools to keep your kitchen clean, you risk spreading unnecessary yuckies around the kitchen!  Which leads me to the next tip!

#6 - Clean-as-You-Mess! - this may be an overly obvious tip, that you are probably like, "seriously? Seriously?"  If you want to avoid the hideous pile of dishes towards the end of the kitchen session, the cruddy, dried up spills on the cupboards, counter and floor, well, Clean-as-You-Mess is a way you can be sure to avoid the monster in the sink.  When you make a spill, don't wait till later to clean, wipe the spill right away. (hence, why towels are handy)  You are waiting for the pan to heat up? Wash some dirty dishes!  Clean as you move along will really make cleaning of the kitchen a far easier task than you make out to be.

#5 - Steam Clean towel & microwave - one of the greatest tips I learnt from a friend was steam cleaning kitchen towels in the microwave.  Let's face it, dirty kitchen towels stink.  By throwing in the washing machine, it won't kill the build up of bacteria. But by steam cleaning them in the microwave, on high heat, you are essentially doing two things, cleaning the towel by killing the bacteria AND cleaning the microwave!!! Brilliant!  To steam clean your kitchen towel, simply SOAK the towel with water, throw in microwave on high for 1 1/2 minute.  Be careful!!!   It's hot so wear protection when handling the hot steamy towel! Rinse and allow to air dry.  That's it!!  To clean the microwave, there will be steam covering all surfaces (from the steamy towel) simply wipe down dry!  A two in one tip! :D

#4 - Keep your Fridge Clean - another obviously tip.  "Seriously?"  I know I know! But we all know how easy it is to forget a rotten veg. in the bottom of the fridge.  Leftover chinese food? forgotten for 2 weeks?  Gawd! Don't even open that container!! Set up a schedule.  Prior to buying fresh groceries, clean out the fridge!  Make sure everything in there is still good.  This way, you know what is in your fridge prior to grocery shopping. Plus it'll save you a few bucks just by knowing what you already have!  See a spill in the fridge? Wipe immediately!!

#3 - Don't Cover Counter Surfaces - Avoid cluttering your kitchen counter.  Have only the basic appliances that you use everyday out.  There is no need to put every single appliance on the counter for show and tell.  When you are prepping, cooking etc, you need counter space.  Depending on what you are cooking, you may need lots of it.  The more room you have, the less mistakes you make in the kitchen because everything can be laid out and not stacked on top of one another.

#2 - Don't Overstock on perishables  I know, I know, we all can get carried away when you see butter on sale.  $1.99!! Let's buy 20!!!  Unless you know for sure you will be using the butter right away, I suggest you only buy what you need.  Things go on sale for a reason.  Number one, expiry date of product is probably just around the corner.  Number two, in order to make room for new stock, retailers must sell out old stock.  So whether it's butter, ketchup, condense milk, food have expiry dates.  Buy what you need to ensure you are using the "freshest" products.  This includes can goods! Ever ate a can of corn pass the expiry date?  Well, the kernels tasted like foul metal.  No good :P= yuck :

#1 - Baking Soda - is literally my best friend in the kitchen.  It's great for absorbing unwanted odours.  Great for putting out sudden fire.  Great to use as a cleaning abrasion tool to wash pots and pans and heavily oiled dishes.  In any desired container you may have, preferably glass, simply pour baking soda and leave by your sink.  This will do 3 things; absorb odour.  add a bit of this magic powder to your soaped sponge to clean any heavy duty dishes and should you have any sudden fire flare ups, simply grab the container and pour over top of flame.  Never use water to put out a flame! Baking soda is the way to go. :)

Bonus tip:  Avoid using plastic wrap/bags to keep your fruits, veggies & herbs.  They need to breathe.  Plastic will simply make your perishables sweat and the water build up will rot your goods faster than you can eat them.  So line your fruit and veggie drawer in the fridge with paper bags.  After groceries, simply take out your veggies out of the plastic bag and wrap in newspaper or paper towel prior to fridging.   This method will give you an few extra days to enjoy fresh produce!

A happy kitchen = happy cooking :)

What are your tips?!

Sesame Bao :)

fist pump in the air!!!! ok fine, half way pump in the air. :D Originally, this sesame bao (sesame bun) was suppose to be "bor lor bao" - pineapple bun, hong kong style.  What happened? Well the proofing of the dough took sooo long that my friend and I ended up baking up the "pineapple pastry" portion and made them as cookies instead. :D :D  When the dough FINALLY did proofed, I had no choice but to simply bake the bao as it is.

What makes this bao so different than any other bread recipe?  The "tangzhong method."  This method is magic and is what makes your bread taste light, soft & fluffy even after a few days.  Homemade amateur bread, while great and all, usually goes stale very quickly.  That's what happened to my first and second loft I made years ago.   So I when I came across this method, I knew I had to give it a try.  I did today and I am totally in love with this.  Best part is, to make this paste, it was ridiculously easy.  Nothing to be afraid of at all!!

To make this bao the first time, I stumbled upon "Pig Pig's Corner" http://www.pigpigscorner.com/2011/01/pineapple-bun-bo-luo-bao-by-christines.html

I can totally vouch for the recipe on the site.  But do allow for a longer proofing time of the dough than stated in the recipe. The end result was well worth the effort.  ;))  Light and fluffy just like a typical bao you get at chinese bakeries!!!  I can't wait to make other versions of this......char siu bao, egg custard bao....

Just to tease you, here's how my bao turned out!!!  There's only four left. :P shhhhhh!

Now that you have some idea of how this bao will look like after it comes out of the oven, let's start!

First, let's start by making the "tangzhong paste"  In a small pot, add 1/3 cup of bread flour, 1/2 cup milk, & 1/2 cup water.  Over low heat, using a spatula, stir in the flour into the liquid until there are no clumps.  Continue to stir.  and stir and stir.  Liquid will eventually thicken up so keep stirring!  You will know you are done when lines form on the paste with the spatula.  It will look like a smooth paste.  Quickly turn off the heat and transfer onto a bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap right on top of paste and set aside until ready for use.  By the way, this method is used to make the sweet steamed white buns that we asians love sooo much. :) You can guarantee there will be a post on such bao too!!

Time to make the dough! I halved the ingredients based from Pig Pig's recipe.

Ingredients - yields 6 buns
175g bread flour
35g caster sugar (super fine sugar but NOT icing sugar :D _
2g salt
28g whisked egg
5g milk powder
3g instant dry yeast
60g tangzhong paste
63ml milk
15g butter at room temperature

#1.  Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, bread flour, milk powder, salt, yeast, sugar.
#2.  Milk
#3.  Tangzhoug paste
#4.  Whisked egg
#5.  Butter -soften

In a separate bowl, combine milk, tangzhoug paste and egg and roughly whisk together.  In the dry ingredient bowl, make a well in the middle and pour wet ingredients in.  Next, make sure your counter and hands are clean and dry.  It's going to get sticky from here on out!  using your hands, combine wet and dry ingredients together.  Add in the butter into the dough and knead together.  excuse the blurry pic! but as you can see, the dough is super sticky!

Continue to knead and knead.  for 10 - 15 mins at least!

Next, dust flour onto the counter, and begin to slam the dough onto the counter. Pick it up and slam again.  Repeat. hand knead, Slam, knead slam until dough becomes smooth and no longer sticky.

Your reward will come soon... ;) Once your dough is ready, place dough in a clean, greased bowl and cover with cloth or cling wrap and place in contained space, microwave or oven.  Allow dough to rise double its original size.  This may take a couple of hours.  To test if the dough has risen enough, cover your index finger with flour, stick finger in middle of dough.  if the dough does not disappear, presto!!  If the hole shrinks, allow to proof until ready.

Deflate the risen dough and divide into 6 - 7 buns.  Set aside on pan and over with cling wrap and allow to rest in the oven (not on) for 15 - 30 mins.  Next, deflate each bun, round into a nice ball and replace back onto pan.  Cover again and allow dough to proof again for another 1hr.  Once the dough has risen again, take out of oven.  Preheat the oven to 360 F.

Brush each dough with egg wash and sprinkle on sesame seeds.  Bake for 20mins.  Oh boy! yumyumum!!!  each the first one with garlic spread or buter.  You'll enjoy it.  Trust me!

see?/!! soooo excited!!!

Knowing what a success this bao turned out to be, there will be plenty of possibilities in the future ;D  Enjoy!!