Summer Berries Sour Cream Tea Cake

It is so difficult to resists all the wonderful berries we get during summer. I tend to buy too much of it and they don’t keep well. I will eat them fresh but some of them will end up in my bakes. I like putting some berries in my cakes as it gives a nice flavor and add a splash of color to it. This cake is tender, moist and has tight but tender crumbs. It goes really well with a cup of tea or coffee and with the nice white, red and blue hues; I think it makes a great dessert for the coming 4th of July holiday.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick/113 gram butter – room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup low fat sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup red raspberries
1/2 cup black berries
1/2 cup blueberries
1 tbsp flour

Stir-fried Shishito Peppers with Beef

I was first introduced to these peppers by a friend when I was living in New York many years ago and I was hooked ever since. So…if you are not familiar with this pepper…let me introduce you to Japanese Shishito Pepper. These peppers are very mild in flavor,sweet and not hot but sometimes you might find a fiery one among the big batch. They were eaten whole, seeds and all. The classic way for cooking shishito peppers is to toss them in a bit of oil, drop them on a hot grill pan or cast-iron skillet, and cook until hot and blackened in spots. Then toss with a bit of salt. Another way is to fry them in tempura batter or just simply grill them. They were so good that you will gobble it up in no time. Today I do a quick stir-fry with some beef and they were delicious!!

Pandan Coconut Buns

I bought a few of Alex Goh baking books when I went back to Malaysia last year but have yet to bake anything from it. Finally, I tried out his sweet dough recipe to make these coconut buns. This method is new to me as it calls for the scalded flour to be chilled in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours before being used. I looked in the book but there were no explanation on the reason why the need of doing that. Maybe someone can enlighten me on this. The dough is easy to work with but as for the texture of the bread I still prefer the Water Roux/Tang Zhong method as I find them much softer than this method.

Ingredients:
Adapted from Alex Goh Magic Bread

Scalded Dough:

100g bread flour
80ml boiling water

Pour boiling hot water over flour and stir with chopsticks or spoon until combined. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

Open- Face Egg Sandwich

This is a simple egg sandwich that I like to prepare for our quick lunch. There’s really nothing better than a combination of runny egg yolk and lightly toasted whole-grain rustic bread. There isn’t much of a recipe here as you can experiment with any ingredients your taste bud prefers. Before I eat it I like to ‘poke’ the egg with fork and let the warm yolk run down the side before I sink my teeth into it. DE-LI-CIOUS!

Ingredients:

2 slices of toasted whole-grain bread
2 eggs
1 large tomato - sliced
Some lettuce
Half of avocado - sliced
Some mayo
Salt and pepper to taste