Easy Burger Bun

This is the first time I made my own burger bun following the recipe from King Arthur, you can find the detail recipe here. I must say it is really easy to follow as there is a section of tips from their baker plus many other notes. It has been declared by many bakers that it is The Best burger bun. Which I must admit that it is really very easy to follow and the result is good. Not only the crust is soft, the crumb is moist and lightly sweet.

Proofed waiting to go in to the oven

Ingredients:

• 3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Method;

1. Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients to make a soft, smooth dough.
2. Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours, or until it's nearly doubled in bulk.
3. Punch down the dough to degaz, and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball, sprinkle some sesame seeds and let rise for about an hour, until noticeably puffy.
4. Brush the buns with about half of the melted butter.
5. Bake the buns in a preheated 375°F oven for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden. Remove them from the oven, and brush with the remaining melted butter. This will give the buns a satiny, buttery crust. 
6. Cool the buns on a rack.

You can see from the picture below that some of the sesame seeds had fallen out. This is the mistake I did by not putting the sesame seeds first before I brush on the melted butter. Otherwise, they really taste great.

Have a try.. homemade burger is anytime better then those bough from fast food outlets..

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Just out of oven

Le Miget or Migé

Le Miget au Lait

Today, we have a very hot summer day just like another summer day should be but since we have had enough of those wet, cold days since May.. it is actually very very hot for a change. Plus, we spent the day at the beach feeding ourselves crazy with ice creams, when came home for dinner, we were not that hungry anymore thus Miget was proposed.

Le Miget or migé  is a traditional drink/summer soup of this region - Pay de la Loire. This is a dish even a five-year-old can prepare,  very refreshing for any hot summer nights where one feels more thirsty then hungry.

There are two variation of Miget. Miget au Vin (with wine) or Miget au lait (with Milk) for kids.

Here's what and how:
(for 4 servings)

1. For Miget au Vin, You will need some old bread (only the crumb, cut in cubes), 1 bottle of any low alcohol red wine (about 8%), 5 or 6 cubes of sugar and a glass of cold water. If you want a Miget au Lait, just replace wine with milk.
2. Place bread cubes in a salad bowl together with 5 or 6 cubes of sugar, slowly pour in the wine then the cold water.
3. Chill it in the fridge for about 30minutes and serve.

This soup is normally sweet (but not too sweet) but my MIL prefer it to be savoury, so she replace sugar with salt in her Miget au lait. Me? I had Miget au lait..verdict? not bad at all.. very refreshing and with all the bread cubes in there it can actually be a light meal.. No butter, oil and pot/pans to wash up.. yeyyy!!

Personally, I have been told that the French doesn't put ice cubes in their wine but today, FH was the one who prepared introduce me to this soup and he had the Miget au Vin, cold water was mixed in. I gave him that Tst tst tst disapprove look and there we had a good conversation of wine as soup and wine as wine to drink..

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Roast Lamb Shoulder

Roast Lamb Shoulder 

Today for lunch we had roasted lamb shoulder with garlic, rosemary and thyme. We don't have lamb very often as some family member doesn't like the strong odour..but this is the smell that we the lamb lovers long for. Ahh.. plus the smell of rosemary, thyme and of course garlic. Plenty of garlic gloves, a glass or two of Bordeaux and some sourdough bread to soak up the juice.


In Asia or I should say Malaysia, we normally have lamb or mutton in curry which is so tender and tasty with all the spices and the hours to slowly simmer in low heat. Since, I'm in France and being married to a Frenchman, does change my eating habit or it's the weather? I long for some roast. That's why i did this simple yet tasty dish.

Roasted Lamb Shoulder and vegetables

Here's what you need and how:

1         Lamb shoulder
some   Rosemary spring
some   Thyme
Sea salt and pepper for seasoning
Olive Oil
Lots of garlic cloves

For the vegetables:

1           Courgette (cut in wedge)
2           Medium onions (wedged)
1           Red pepper
200g     Noirmoutire new potatoes (you can use any new potatoes)



How? easy!! Just rub a good amount of sea salt and pepper all over the lamb, using a knife make a few slash all over the lamb and insert garlic gloves in these holes then sprinkle a good amount of rosemary and thyme and sit it on top of a bed of vegetables..red peppers, courgette and potatoes or whatever your choice is.

Add a little water (a table spoon or 2 is more then enough, as the vegetables will gives out water) so the meat would stay moist and arose some olive oil all over the dish. Cover with aluminium foil before you pop it in a full blast oven. Bake for an hour (mine lamb was 1.3kg) covered with foil and extra 10minutes each side under grill without foil to give it a good tan.

Remove from the oven, cover it with the foil and let it rest for 15mins while you prepare the gravy. For the gravy, pour out the stock and scrub out all the caramelized bit into a bowl. In a sauce pan, heat a table spoon of lamb fat (which float on top of your stock) , mix in a table spoon of flour then pour in the stock and simmer til thicken to make gravy.

Crisp, tender yet moist..

Put the dish in the middle of the table, slice in front of everyone and enjoy!!


Simple, no fuss balanced diet...
Quelle bonheur!!


I’m linking this post to.. 

1. Cook like a Star organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids. 

2. Recipe Box organised by  BizzyBakes 



Potato Bread



Potato bread

 What to do with extra mashed potatoes?? well, I used it to make gnocchi and potato bread. You can find the recipe for Gnocchi over here. It was a great way to use up extra mashed potatoes other then just potato leek soup. Also, a great way to have an adrenaline rush by making Gnocchi by hand, from scratch and trying to get lunch ready before 12.30pm. Packets of flour, water bottle, spoons, wooden spoons, folk, scale.. you can imagine the kitchen which was more like a crime scene then a place to relax.

I have friends who join gym to exercise and to destress. But for me, kitchen is my gym. for I hand-knead all my breads..unless I bake a "No-knead' bread. Kitchen is where I destress and times to times where I want to have some adrenaline rush.. I run a few projects at the same time.. Just to work out my cardiac muscles :)
OK enough of the blah blah blah.. back to this wonderful potato bread.

This is what you need and how:

1 cup                  Mashed potatoes
4 cups                 Flour (about)
2 cups                 Warm water ( or the water that you boiled your potatoes)
10g                      Salt
11g                      Yeast

1. In a mixing bowl, mix together salt and flour, make a well in the middle.
2. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and stir into the flour. Mix well and then add in the mashed potatoes. 
3. Mix in enough flour to make a dough that can be kneaded by hand. It is normal that the dough is stickier then a normal bread dough.
4. Turn dough out onto floured board and knead it until smooth and elastic. It's sticky but you will be rewarded with beautiful loaf.
5. Place dough in a greased bowl and let rest for about 1 or 2 hours or until it double in size.
6. Turn out dough cut and preshape, rest for 20min. 
7. Then shape into a loaf. I have one loaf in bread pan and the other.. a boule but it quickly lost it's shape. So a bread pan is highly recommended.
8. Bake at 200C with stream for 25 to 30 mins or until bread sounds hollow when the top is tapped on.
9. Remove from loaf pans and let cool.

The kitchen smelled roast potatoes.. and the loaf stay soft.

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