Chicken Satay with Thai peanut sauce

Happy 4th of July and Happy two year anniversary to My Food Affair. I can't believe it's been two years since I first started this blog. In the last two years, I have definitely improved as a baker. I have gone out of my comfort zone in baking, thanks mostly to Daring bakers, and became a better baker because of it. Here's to another great year!!

To celebrate, I'm giving you this wonderful recipe for Chicken satay with Thai peanut sauce. Both recipes are from All recipes and I made changes to the recipe based on sweetiesmj's suggestions. I've made this recipe twice now, and both times it was great. It's so easy to make and the result is wonderful. The chicken is moist and full of flavor. The peanut sauce is so easy to make and tastes great!! I think it would go great with some soba noodles too. Here are the recipes.

Chicken Satay
from Allrecipe.com

1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp hot pepper sauce
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 tsp lime juice
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp yellow curry powder
1 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp chili oil
2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into strips (see note)
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 tbsp chopped unsalted peanuts
12 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 15 minutes
1 cup prepared Thai peanut sauce

1. In a medium bowl, stir together sesame oil, soy sauce, light brown sugar, hot pepper sauce, garlic, lime juice, coconut milk, ground coriander, salt, curry powder, fish sauce, and chili oil. Add the chicken breast strips, and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2. Preheat an indoor or outdoor grill for high heat. Thread the chicken strips onto skewers (see note). Discard marinade.

3. Grill chicken for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until no longer pink. Time will depend on how thick your strips are. Transfer to a serving plate, and garnish with cilantro and peanuts. Serve with peanut sauce for dipping.

Thai peanut sauce
adapted from All recipes.com
half of the original recipe

3/4 cups creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp water
1 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp hot sauce
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger root
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. In a bowl, mix the peanut butter, coconut milk, water, lime juice, soy sauce, hot sauce, ginger, and garlic. Mix in the cilantro just before serving.

Note:

• *The original recipe calls for 1 lb of chicken breast, I made 2 lbs and there was enough marinate for it.


• *Soak the skewers for at least 2 hours before threading the chicken on them. This is to prevent the skewers from burning when you're grilling the chicken.


• *The original recipe for the peanut sauce calls for an additional 1/2 tbsp of fish sauce and 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce. When I made the sauce the first time, I thought it was too salty, so I omitted those the second time around. It was much better without it.
  

Mung bean pastry

Growing up in Hong Kong, we ate a lot of different types of Chinese pastry. My favorite one is the one with a thousand year old egg in it (I know, you're grossing out). I couldn't find a recipe for that, so I decided to make this Mung bean pastry from Cafe of the East. Cafe of the East is a great blog!! Whenever I want to make an Asian desserts, I always search there first. It's no longer active, the new blog is Corner Cafe.

I have to warn you, this is a very time consuming recipe. I made the filling a few days ago, and didn't make the pastry dough until last night. The filling took me a long time to make. The hardest part was pressing the mung bean paste through the sieve. I must have been doing that for at least two hours!!

The dough itself was pretty straight forward. But it took a long time to create the combine the water dough and the oil dough. I guess you can call this procedure the Chinese laminated dough. =P

In the end, this labor of love was worth it. My parents raved about the pastry. It was very flaky and I was so happy to see all those layers. It actually reminds me of the lima bean manju from Maui. Next time, I will try the pastry dough with a red bean filling. Maybe one day, I will be able to make the thousand year old egg pastry, anyone have a recipe?

Mung Bean Pastry
from Cafe of the East
Makes 20.

Water Dough
100g bread flour, sifted
100g cake flour, sifted
70g lard (or shortening, or unsalted butter), softened
20g icing sugar
100ml water

Lard Dough
120g cake flour, sifted
60g lard (or shortening, or ghee), softened

Filling:
400g Mung Bean Paste (see recipe below)

To Finish:
1 egg, lightly beaten for eggwash
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, for sprinkling as topping

Water Dough:
1. Rub lard into the sifted flours, then add the remaining ingredients and mix to form a soft dough, you may need to adjust the amount of water depending on the water absorbency of the flour used. Knead until smooth. Wrap in cling film and set aside for 15 - 20 minutes before using.

Lard Dough:
1. Rub lard into the cake flour and knead until the dough has approximately the
same pliability/malleability as the Water Dough.

To make Chinese Puff Pastry:
Divide the Water dough and the Lard Dough respectively into 20 equal portions. Take one portion of the Lard Dough piece and wrap it inside a Water Dough piece. Roll the combined dough piece out into a thin flat sheet using a rolling pin. With your hand, roll the thin sheet up, Swiss-roll styled, into a cigar shape. Turn the cigar 90° so that one of the round ends faces you. With the rolling pin, roll it out into a flat sheet again. Then roll it up Swiss-roll styled again. Roughly round the roll-up dough piece into a ball. Repeat with the rest of the dough pieces until you get 20 combined dough balls (see note).

To make Puffs:
1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Divide the filling into 20 equal portions, 20g each.

2. Roll out or press each dough ball into a round flat disc, with the outer edges slightly thinner than the center. Wrap one portion of the filling inside each portion of the flat dough. Seal up tightly by pressing the edges together to enclose the filling. Place the puff, seal side down on a baking sheet. Repeat with the rest until finished.

3. Glaze the puffs with eggwash. Sprinkle a little sesame seeds on top of each puff. Bake for about 18 - 20 minutes, or until light golden in color.

Mung Bean Paste(see note)
adapted from Cafe of the East
150g skinless, split mung beans
37g lard, or canola/corn oil
1/4 cup shallots (or 1 medium onion if shallots are unavailable), sliced
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil (optional)
1/8 teaspoon five-spice powder (optional)
80g white sugar (see note)
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Soak mung beans in enough water to cover for at least 2-4 hours. Drain.

2. Place the drained mung beans in a large plate that can fit into the steamer/wok, spread out the beans into an even layer. Rapidly boil water in a steamer/wok, steam the mung beans until soft, about 30 minutes.

3. Remove beans from steamer and press through a sieve to remove any hard particles, this process will also produce a very fine paste.

4. Melt lard (or oil) in a wok, add sliced shallots and cook over low heat until golden brown and aromatic, about 10-20 minutes. Drain and remove the golden brown shallots for other use. Return the flavored oil to the wok.

5. Add sesame oil and five-spice powder, cook over low heat briefly until aromatic. Add the sieved bean paste, sugar and salt. Turn heat up to medium/med-high and stir-fry until thick and the bean paste can stand in peaks. Cool.

Notes:

• *Go to Cafe of the East for step by step instruction on how to make the dough.
• *I made half the recipe for the mung bean paste, and it was just enough filling for the dough.
• *I lowered the amount of sugar, the original was 90g. I thought it was just the right amount of sweetness.
  

Bakewell Tarts-Daring bakers

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

I have never had a bakewell tart before and I'm not sure what it's supposed to taste like. As far as tarts go though, this is delicious. The shortcrust pastry is really tasty, like a shortbread cookie. I made little individual tarts with many different types of fillings. I made some with blueberry jelly, strawberry jam and also with some semi-sweet chocolate. My favorite was the blueberry jelly, the combination of the blueberry and almond go very well together. What a great challenge!! Hopefully one day I will make it to England to try a real bakewell tart. =P

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding
Inspirations and References: Allan Davidson, Tamasin Day Lewis, Anton Edelmann, Jane Grigson, Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

1. Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatized for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the center and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

3. Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

4. The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

Sweet shortcrust pastry

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

1. Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

2. Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

3. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Frangipane

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

1. Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in color and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow color.

Brown butter madeleine

Whenever I see madeleines, I think of the scene from My lovely Sam Soon when Sam Soon is telling Henry the story of a Madeleine. Henry doesn't speak Korean and Sam Soon's English is very limited. She's describing the story of madeleines..and in the end, she tells Henry, madeleine is a sexy cookie. It's a very cute scene.

Anyway..back to the food. This is a recipe I found from 101 cookbooks. I have only made madeleines twice..the last time I used a recipe from Cook's Illustrated. This recipe definitely has more flavor because of the brown butter, but the Cook's Illustrated recipe is much lighter in texture. I think overall, I like this recipe better, but I would love to be able to combine the two. For now, here's the recipe.

Brown butter madeleine
from 101 Cookbooks
Makes makes 2 -3 dozen regular madeleines

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (6 ounces)
2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter (for greasing pan)
3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
a pinch fine-grain sea salt
2/3 cups sugar
zest of one large lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
powdered sugar
a bit of extra flour for dusting baking pan

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Melt the 1 1/2 sticks of butter in a small pot over medium heat until it's brown and gives off a deliciously nutty aroma, roughly 7-10 minutes (see note). Strain (using a paper towel over a mesh strainer) - you want to leave the solids behind. Cool the butter to room temperature. By doing the butter first you can complete the rest of the steps while it is cooling.

3. While the melted butter is cooling, use the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to grease the madeleine molds - get in there and make sure you get in all the ridges. Dust with flour and invert the pan tapping out any excess flour. Lanha uses "cooking spray" with flour to simplify this part (see note).

4. Put the eggs with the salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Whip on high speed until thick - you are looking for the eggs to roughly double or triple in volume - approximately 3 minutes. Continuing to mix on high speed, slowly add the sugar in a steady stream. Whip for 2 minutes or until mixture is thick and ribbony. Now with a spatula fold in the lemon zest and vanilla (just until mixed).

5. Sprinkle the flour on top of the egg batter, and gently fold in. Now fold in the butter mixture. Only stirring enough to bring everything together.

6. Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each mold 2/3 -3/4 full. I use a small cup filled with batter to keep things clean and manageable, it is easier than using a spoon (see note).

7. Bake the madeleines for 12 - 14 minutes (7-10 minutes for smaller cookies), or until the edges of the madeleines are golden brown. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Cool on racks and dust with powdered sugar.

Notes:

• *The original recipe says you need to brown the butter for about 20 minutes. It only took me 7 minutes to obtain a caramel color and the bits were already starting to burn.
  
• *Make sure you grease your pan liberally into all the crevices of the madeleine pan.
• *I attempted to use a measuring cup to fill the pan in the beginning, but because the batter is so thick, I had a hard time not overfilling it. I ended up using a spoon, it was much easier for me.
  

Pumpernickel bread

I love the pumpernickel bread from Cheesecake Factory. I have been trying to find a recipe for this bread because it seems silly just to go to Cheesecake Factory to eat their bread. Finally..I found this from Recipe Circus. The recipe says to just put everything in a bread maker. I don't have a bread maker, so I followed the steps for a Simple Pumpernickel bread from The knead for bread (a wonderful wonderful bread blog, btw)

The results? Eh...the texture is there, but it's missing the sweetness that I like in Cheesecake Factory's. It almost has a bitter taste to it. When I first looked at the recipe, I was shocked that no sugar was added to the bread. But I figured I would try the recipe as is. Next time I will definitely add some sugar to it. Here's the recipe.

Cheesecake Factory's Pumpernickel bread
adapted from Recipe circus

1 1/2 cups warm milk
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons molasses
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup rye flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Combine the warm milk and the yeast. Allow to stand for five minutes.

2. Mix the bread flour, rye flour, cornmeal, salt, and cocoa powder together.

3. Add the vegetable oil and molasses to the milk.

4. Slowly add the liquid to the flour mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon until a rough dough is formed.

5. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic. Allow the dough to proof in a oiled bowl for one hour or until dough is doubled in volume.

6. Cut the dough in four equal pieces. Form the dough balls into a loaves.

7. Allow to proof for another 30 to 45 minutes.

8. Place a baking stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

8. Bake the loaves for 15 to 20 minutes or until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool completely before cutting.