Milk Bread

Milk bread reminds me of my home country: Portugal. I remember growing up eating this fluffy and slightly sweet bread with ham and cheese or butter and jam. Now that I live abroad, I decided to make my own milk bread buns. Besides the normal breakfast/snack use, I also tried them with chicken burgers (recipe here) and it was fantastic! Now that I saw how easy it is to make these buns myself, I will hardly buy burger buns again. It also works with hot dogs.

Ingredients (12 round buns):
500 g flour
50 g sugar
40 g butter
220 ml milk
20 g fresh yeast
1 egg
1 pinch of salt
1 egg yolk, beaten

1. Heat up the milk to lukewarm and dissolve the yeast in it. It's important that the milk is not to hot, to not deactivate the yeast.

2. In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar and butter pieces. Slowly add the milk and mix with your hand. Add the whole egg and a pinch of salt and mix well. Knead well until the mixture is homogeneous and it doesn't stick to your hands anymore. Add more flour if needed.

3. Make a ball with the dough, leave it in the bowl, cover with a clothe and let it prove for an hour.

4. Afterwards, make buns of about 80g each. Place the buns on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Let them prove for another hour. 15 minutes before time is up turn on the oven to heat to 180 ºC. Brush each bun's top with the egg yolk. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Note: You can increase the amount of sugar if you are looking for a more sweet bread. I prefer mine less sweet.

Inspired by the recipe found at Sweet Gula.

Healthy Baked Potatoes

It all started with a big piece of ham getting old in the fridge. After discussing a bit we got the idea of making baked potatoes. By mixing sweet and normal potatoes we got a more colorful and rich in taste filling. The filled sweet potato taste quite different itself from the other ones, but both versions were delicious. You can find out yourself which version you prefer and change the ratios if you like, or use only one kind. Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 4):
3 King Eduard + 1 sweet potatoes
1/2 red onion, chopped
150 g pork ham, cubed
Small bunch of spinach
3 tbsp quark
4 tbsp natural yoghurt
1/2 cup sweet corn
1/4 cup parmesan, grated
Fresh chives
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 220 ºC. Wash and prick with a fork the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Bake the potatoes in the oven for 45-60 minutes. They are ready when you can stick a fork to the middle of the potato.

2. In the meantime prepare the fillings. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a skillet and cook onion until soft. Add cubed ham and cook until it starts getting golden. Set aside and whip the skillet with paper. 

3. Return skillet to the stove. Add washed spinach still wet. Cook until wilted, 1-2 minutes. Cool down under running water. Squeeze excess of water and chop.

4. In a bowl mix quark, yoghurt, corn, spinach, and parmesan. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

5. When the potatoes are done cut out a lengthwise slice of about 1/4 of each potato. Remove a few spoons of the pulp of the potato, leaving a thick shell. Add the potato pulp to mixture prepared in 4. Check the seasoning.

6. Fill the baked potatoes with the filling. Top with the cubed ham and decorate with fresh chives. 

Note: For a vegetarian version simply remove the ham. 

Glen's Bourguignon Burger

When we were in New York City we visited Chelsea market. It's a great place for food lovers with shops and stalls where one can buy and eat a little bit of everything. Of course I had to buy their cookbook because everything looked delicious and I wanted to be able to try some of the recipes myself. Glen's Bourguignon Burger was the first one I tried and what a great start. The wine-soaked mushrooms are simply to die for. I'm serious... go and try them!

Ingredients (serves 4):
650 g minced meat
280g sliced mushrooms
2 tbsp shallots, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
120 ml of hearty red wine, such as Shiraz
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
4 burger buns, split
4 tbsp Dijon mustard
Bunch of rocket
4 large tomato slices
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper

1. Season the minced meat with 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper and mix it gently but thoroughly. Shape it into four patties.

2. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until they start to brown. Add shallots and onion and allow to cook until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and wipe out the skillet with paper.

3. Cook the patties on the same skillet without adding more oil. Don't move the patties until the underside is well browned, about 3 minutes. Flip the patties and cook the other side and browned with the center still soft to the touch (to get medium-rare). Transfer cooked patties to a plate and pour away the fat in the skillet.

4. Return mushrooms to the skillet. Add wine and thyme. Bring the mixture to a boil, scraping up the brown bits left in the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 2 minutes or until wine is reduced to a glaze. Adjust seasoning if needed.

5. Preheat the broiler/grill and grill the cut side of the burger buns until lightly toasted. Spread the bun with mustard and put a patty on top. Top with 1/4 of the mushroom mixture, a handful of rocket and a tomato slice. Add the bun top. Serve with fries.

*Adapted from Chelsea Market cookbook.

Yaki Soba

Continuing on our journey to learn more about asian cuisine we tried one of the most known Japanese dish: yaki soba. I got the recipe from a cookbook with recipes from one of my favourite asian restaurants, Wagamama. We love Wagamama tasty and healthy dishes, especially when sided by their super delicious juices. I'm not sure our yaki soba was as good, but it was close enough.

Ingredients (serves 2):

Yaki soba sauce
100 ml light soy sauce
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp dark soy sauce

Yaki soba
110g of egg noodles
2 tbsp yaki soba sauce 
1 small onion, cut into half moon slices
4 spring onions, cut into 2.5 cm length
Large handful of beansprouts
15 small cooked peeled prawns
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into stripes
1/2 red pepper, cut into cubes
1/2 green pepper, cut into cubes
2 eggs, beaten

To serve
Pickled ginger
Dried onion flakes
Sesame seeds

1. Put all the sauce ingredients into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

2. Cook the noodles in boiling water for 1 minute less than indicated in the package (2-3 minutes), until just tender. Drain and refresh with cold running water.

3. Put the onion, spring onion, beansprouts, prawns and yaki soba sauce in a large bowl. Mix in the cooked noodles.

4. Heat a wok over medium heat until completely hot and almost smoking (a really hot wok is essential!). Add vegetable oil. Add chicken and peppers, and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add noodles and vegetables mixture to the wok and stir fry for 3 minutes, until warmed through. Add the eggs and continue to stir fry for another minute or until the eggs are cooked through.

5. Serve with pickled ginger, dried onion flakes and sesame seeds.

Notes: The yaki soba sauce can be kept in the fridge for a few weeks. The original recipe calls for soba noodles. My sauce did not have dark soy sauce and it was also good.

*Adapted from Wagamama cookbook.