There are a few chefs which I like to watch on the cable - Anna Olson, Laura Caulder and Chuck on Asian Food Channel, Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri and Alton Brown on Food Network Asia. I would try to catch their recipe as they demonstrate, otherwise, I'll have to go to the website to search for it subsequently.
I managed to catch "Chuck's Day Off" on one of the Wednesday evening last year. I copied the recipe and tried it. Actually I didn't refer to his website before I did the pizza. Only to realised that I had missed out 1/2 cups of flour. No wonder my dough was so wet!! Nevertheless, the pizza turns out very nice. The crust was really crispy and if you like pan pizza, the bread is really soft.
Here is the recipe for his pizza base.
Recipe for Smoked Salmon Pizza, adapted from Chuck Hughes.
Makes 2 (12") large pizzas
Ingredients:
Pizza Dough Recipe
1 tbsp Olive oil (15g)
3/4 tbsp Instant yeast (12.5g)
1 tbsp Sugar (15g)
1 tbsp Salt (15g)
2 cups warm water (500ml)
4 1/2 cups Plain flour (1.125kg)
Toppings: (for one pizza)
125g Smoked Salmons
Onions
Ground Black Pepper
Wild Rockets
2 tbsp Mayonnaise
1 tbsp Honey
Method:
- In a bowl combine all the ingredients except the flour. Let stand until the mixture starts to foam, for about 15 minutes.
- Add the flour and knead until smooth, 5 minutes. Roll the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (or overnight).
- Take the dough from the fridge and split in 2. Knead and roll each dough ball to the desired shape and thickness, on a floured surface.
- Bake the dough at 200C for about 23 mins.
- Remove from the oven, let it cool slightly.
- Mix the mayonnaise with honey and spread it generously over the pizza top.
- Arrange the smoked salmons on the pizza, topped with onions, wild rockets and sprinkle some ground black pepper.
I made this pizza twice. The second time was more successful.
Last week was a hectic week for me. It was all about planning, preparing and baking for my three children's party on Sunday. There were so much preparation and baking to be done. We also ordered food from various places. These were the food we had for the birthday party.
Fried Bee Hoon (B)
Fried Chicken Wings (B)
Fish Balls (B)
Fried Fish Ball Wanton (B)
Siew Mai (B)
Curry Vegetables
Mini Double Chocolate Cupcakes (from The Batter Baker)
Mini Cream Puffs
Mini Salmon Pies
Oreo Cheesecake
Lemongrass drink & Soft drinks
Those in (B) were store-bought, while the rest were prepared by myself, except the curry vegetables which my helper cooked it.
These were my baking schedule:
Day zero (0) minus (-) 4 : Baked 24 Double Chocolate Cookies (for goodie bag)
Day 0 - 3 : Baked 2 10" Oreo Cheesecakes
Day 0 - 2 : Baked 110 Mini Choux Pastries
Day 0 - 1 : Baked 132 Mini Double Chocolate Cupcakes in the morning. Then prepared 90 Mini Cream Puffs in the afternoon.
Day 0 : Baked 50 Salmon Pies and decorated Oreo Cheesecakes.
Unfortunately for me, the Salmon Pies weren't too well received by the children. But the adults loved it though. I personally love the salmon pies. There was a lot of preparation and work that went into this pie. I baked the salmon fillets in silicon paper to retain the moisture of the fish. Then I flaked them into the aluminium cups and added the rest of the ingredients. Topped them up with buttered mashed potatoes and shredded mozarella cheese. Bake it and serve. There were so much food leftover after the party!
Recipe for Salmon Pies
(Makes 50 small pies)
Baked Salmon
700g Salmon Fillet, skinless, cut into 3 pieces
1 Lemon zest
3 Lemon slices
Some salt and ground black pepper
Method:
1. Marinate the salmon fillets with lemon juice from the lemon slices, zest, salt and pepper.
2. Place each of them on silicon baking paper, and place one slice of lemon on each salmon. Wrapped up like a parcel.
3. Place them on a baking tray, bake at 200C for 23mins.
Mashed Potatoes
1kg Russet Potatoes, washed and peeled
100g Butter
Method:
1. Cut the potatoes into smaller pieces.
2. Placed it in a pot of water and boil until soft.
3. Mashed it and mix well with butter. Leave aside.
White Sauce
500g Whole milk
80g Butter
50g Plain flour
Some salt & ground pepper to taste
Method:
1. Put all the ingredients into a saucepan to cook.
2. Stir until the mixture has thicken, then remove from heat.
Salmon Pie
Baked salmon
2 big Portebello Mushrooms, chopped into small cubes
2 stalks Celery, chopped into small cubes
1 packet of fresh Dill
250g Shredded Mozzarella cheese
White sauce
Mashed potatoes
Method:
1. Flake the salmon into each aluminium cups. Place some dill on top of the salmon. Then add celery and mushrooms.
2. Add mozzarella cheese. Then add one tablespoon of white sauce into the cup.
3. Top up with mashed potatoes and add some cheese.
4. Repeat the process for the rest of the cups.
5. Bake in the oven at 190C for 25mins, or until top is browned.
6. Best if served immediately.
I'll share the Oreo Cheesecake recipe in my next post. Watch for it.
I wanted to try something new in cooking salmon. And I like those with sauces on it. So I googled for "Caramel Salmon" and found some recipes for it. I requested my helper to cook it. It tasted really good. My elder son, who is a big fan of fried salmon, gave it a 98%, citing that the 2% was because it was too salty. He simply love this! Therefore, I share this recipe, hopefully you can also agree with me after you have tried it.
Recipe for Caramel Salmon, reference from http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/576793
Ingredients:
5 Big pieces of fried cooked salmon
3 tbsp Fish sauce (can cut down to 1 tbsp as the taste was relatively strong and some people might not like it)
115g Brown sugar
3 tbsp Dark soya sauce
1 tbsp Fresh lime juice
Some fresh black pepper
Method:
1. Heat up the wok. Add some oil.
2. Stir in the fish sauce, brown sugar and dark soya sauce.
3. Add in the fried salmon to the pan and cook until the sauce is dark and syrupy. Sprinkle with black pepper, then stir in the lime juice.
4. Serve with rice. Yummy!
When the helper goes on her off. When the kids are confined at home. Who will prepare dinner and take care of the kids? No prize for the correct answer.
Actually we had the intention to bring the kids out on Sunday. Unfortunately, my youngest boy contracted the HFMD from his elder sister. Twins are really connected. They seemed to share the goods and bads, ups and downs and thick and thin together. I remembered there was once, when my boy got a blue-black just below his left eye, his sister got some pus on her right eye-lid. Both were due to take their portrait pictures for their school EZ link card. And their "blacken" eyes were captured. What a coincidence it was! Somehow, I always feel that they are very connected in a very special way.
Ok, back to my baking spree. Like I mention to Bee Bee, my children don't usually eat what I bake. Mainly because what I bake is what I like to eat. So instead, I chose to baking something which I think they will like - Chocolate Twist Bread from Honey Bee Sweets blog. I am very sure they love chocolates.
I wasn't sure if I had over beaten the bread dough, it didn't grow too much. Therefore, I ended up to have very small proofed dough. I wasn't able to roll out that long like what Bee Bee did. So I decided to cut it smaller and bake them in a muffin tray. I also added melted compound chocolate to the cocoa mixture to make it more chocky. Overall, I really like the taste of the chocolate twisted buns! I would probably try making it again.
After lunch, I had some time to rest and plan for my dinner. Initially I wanted to take a short nap and to make my youngest boy sleep. However, my other two children were just too noisy. In the end, I only get 40 winks (10 mins power nap). Then I was up again, preparing for dinner.
My hubby and I went to "grab" cheap whole salmons in a hypermart on Saturday morning. It was selling at $9.90/kg! We love salmons. We have the patience to queue up to take advantage of the cheap deal (for salmons only). You won't believe how much we bought. I think nobody will buy as much as us. We bought two big salmons - 4.5kg and 3.5kg. That will feed us for...3-4 weeks though. We will finish all the parts- heads, bones and the skin. I like it when my helper fries them till crispy. My eldest son usually goes for the skin...he'll eat up the skin and leave the salmon "naked". Sometimes, both of us will fight for the skin! Hahaha...
Anyway, with abundance salmon in stock the fridge, I decided to bake them for dinner. Overall, it wasn't as tasty and good as I hope, but the family members did dare not complaint. They'd better not, otherwise, no mum-made dinner for them next time. *so petty*
I made baked butter rice to go with the baked salmon with vegetables. In a baking tray, I layered portebello mushrooms, carrots, broccolis and salmons on top of one another before I topped up with cheese. Actually, the cheese that I used wasn't that suitable. It didn't melt right and wasn't mean for baking. I shall not stinge on mozzarella cheese in future. Each of them get a "set meal" of the below, where the kids have a smaller portion of the salmons.
