Very slow cooked beef short ribs

Almost 60 hours at 62C with nothing more than a few thin tabs of butter. Then finished with a blowtorch sear and a red wine glaze.

Tasty but not mind blowing. Was tender but still chewy at medium doneness. The "beefiness" wasn't quite there - just wondering if the choice of meat was a factor (cheap @ 18.90 per kg from giant). Wondering if I should repeat...

Lunch

With cheese, salted French butter and cucumber

Family dinner

My 12 year old nephew came to help.

I got him to do some kneading. Also the shorter of the bread is his shaping. He also helped with the veg.

I did curry chicken, a viet style salad, bread and chicken rice. There was also some crab, chicken wings brought over by my brother and wife.

I peeled the chicken skin off the frozen chicken thighs I bought and then extracted the fat from them (pressure cook with 0.5% by weight of baking soda in mason jars for 1.5 hours) to use in the rice dish.

For the curry, I took a supermarket spice mix. Then blended with a couple of tablespoons of oil, extra lemongrass, shallots, ginger and tomato puree (this last to reduce the harshness of the mix). Then I fried the mix in the pot (with a cinnamon stick) for about 7-8 mins before adding chicken and water. I also finely diced half a potato (to thicken the curry). The other potatoes were later cooked separately in the gravy without the chicken after I cooked the chicken (to ensure both are cooked just right). I used a pkt of coconut milk (200ml) to about 500ml of water and 250ml of chicken stock. Tastes quite nice I think. I can repeat this.

For the rice, I sauteed finely sliced shallots, ginger and garlic in my rendered chicken fat. Then stirred in dry rice and folded into the fat before adding water and pandan leaves.

The salad was so-so. I'll have to think about how to do it properly.

I think my bread is improving. In this version, at the last part of the kneading, I added in a sprinkle of yeast. I think the bread developed quite nicely. 

This one had about 4 tablespoons of chicken fat for 2 cups of rice. Also used chicken stock for the fluid.

This one tasted a bit harsh. I leavened it by grinding in fresh shallots, ginger, lemongrass, and tomato puree. The instructions for this said to mix with water and stir it in pot. I ignored it and fried the mix with a bit of oil till fragrant.

The crust had a nice crunch. Inside was tasty.

With the leftover dough, I folded in some butter and honey and baked a loaf. Not too bad either (though it didn't really go with the curry).

Confirmation attempt #4

Almost there. Same overnight treatment but no added salt. Proof 15 mins before putting into fridge. Warm up on countertop 30 mins before putting into oven. 10 mins steam and 20-25 dry heat.

Taste and texture pretty good. Crust could be thicker (maybe just bake a little longer).

Confirmation attempt #3

For this one, I attempted to let it proof overnight. One loaf I shaped after kneading and put it into the fridge (the smaller one). The other I let it proof on counter top for 20 mins and then put it into the fridge.

On both I added extra salt (which retards yeast growth). In the morning, I took it out, glazed them (the outside surface seemed a little dry from overnight in the fridge) and let it sit on the counter for 30 mins, and turned on the oven in the mean time.

Finally I baked it with 5 min steam (water on tray) and 25 min dry heat.

Result : texture and crust were good. A bit too salty (I'll try without the additional salt next round) esp with salted butter.

Steak dinner

I had some leftover bulk tenderloin I had bought from Giant. The last time, I complained it was rather relatively tasteless, so this time I brined it overnight in a 5% salt solution with balsamic vinegar and mirrin.

I then cooked it at 59.5C for 6 hours. Result was a perfectly tender steak - still chewy but short of breaking apart - you can almost cut it with a fork. Was tasty as well.

To accompany it,

1. A steak sauce made from creme fraiche, djion mustard, lots of cracked pepper tossed in over a smoked pork belly and onion fry. Added red wine, reduced and then sieved. Not bad.
2. Bread I baked earlier. A bit overproofed as I said, but still tasty and the crust was good.
3. Blanched french beans in sesame dressing.
4. A eggplant, tart green apple puree with a small bit of ginger, parts of it caramelized in my pressure cooker. Tastes nice by itself, but didn't go with the meal.

Confirmation attempt #2

The bread went a bit flat. According to the Internet I over proofed it. Prob did since I left it to prove while I took a nap. Must have proved for 2 hrs +. Before this, it was developing in the fridge for 2 days

Using up my remaining dough

Same filling as previous though slightly less wet and added sesame seeds. Baked it broad instead of batard style.

 

I also greased the tray with a little olive oil to prevent sticking though the tray I used is itself non stick.

Cranberry pine nut creme fraiche loaf

This was delicious. I'd want to try to repeat this. There was the nutty input from the pine nuts and a sweet tart savory cranberry (soaked in diluted brandy) with a creme fraiche/honey/butter mix folded in to make a very moist, almost cake like (but still slightly chewy) interior. The dough is 1/3 wholemeal and 2/3 bread flour. It's also my first time applying a glaze - seems to make a nice looking skin.

Only problem was composition. The bottom of the loaf tore a little. And some of the pine nuts weren't firmly embedded and came off.

For future, I'd make the dough a little drier to compensate for the wet ingredients, and do a better job of shaping and embedding the nuts. Not sure why the bread stuck though.

A schizophrenic curry

Wanted to create a mild curry with fish sauce as a component. I forgot I have next to no experience with curries, and almost as little with fish sauce based foods. I also lost my mind and decided I'd use yoghurt instead of coconut milk and pounded my own spice mix.

Gulp.

The result should have been a disaster. But it turned out pleasant tasting enough (I had to rescue a too salty dish by adding milk, so the end result is more like a spicy soup than a thick curry).

I guess I should start by the book and do a standard one first. 

Must have been watching too many episodes of "chopped"...

Confirmation attempt 1

This is confirmation attempt #1 for just a plain batard.

Looks : decent.

Taste : decent.

Crust : not too good. I may have used too much steam. The first batard I did had a really nice crust.