World of Scones

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SconesI wasn’t familiar with scones until I came to Australia. I remember I tried them at my Pilates teacher’s house a few years back. It was a weekend private course at her house to become a Pilates instructor. She had a beautiful townhouse in Fremantle overlooking the ocean. Her husband was babysitting their grand-daughter during the day. She was so shy saying hi behind her grandpa’s legs and ran away from us. Then about 4pm-ish, we were a bit sluggish after hours of learning and overwhelmed by so much information in so little time. Wanting to have some sugar-kick! This little girl came into the room with a little basket of scones and, of course, jam and cream on the side. She told us she made them for us with a shy smile. How cute! We all sat around the fireplace (it was winter time!) and shared a little scone with her. It kind of looked and tasted like KFC biscuits when I tried it for the first time. Rich buttery taste and soft fluffy inside. It reminded me of the cornmeal bread I used to like when I was little. I’ve tried to bake scones at home several times since then. Sometimes it turns out to be okay, but other times it doesn’t rise, fail! I didn’t realise how hard making scones is. It definitely got harder since I need to make a gluten-free version now, too. My tips for making good scones are…

  • Firstly, use cold butter. Yes, butter. It is better to use butter in scones than coconut oil. As it melts into the dough in the oven, it creates beautiful layers.
  • Add a knob of cold butter into dry ingredients and cut into little pieces with your knife or fork. Then start massaging with your fingers until the dough comes together.
  • Don’t work your dough too much. Otherwise scones will not rise because kneading converts the protein in flour to gluten.
  • Gently fold the dough in half and in half again, a few times to get flaky and layered scones.
  • Don’t pat the edges of the scones after cutting them.
  • Bake them for a short time in high heat. I bake for 15-20 minutes in the 200 preheated oven and take them out to cool.
  • If you have any other tips, please share with me 🙂

Ingredients (make 8 little scones)

2 cups of gluten free flour blend
1 teaspoon of baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cold butter
1 egg
1/4 cup of milk*
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips for chocolate chip scones
1/2 cup of cooked pumpkin for pumpkin scones

*You might need more or less milk depending on what flour you use and how moist your pumpkin mixture is.

Posted in: Baking, Breakfast, My recipes, Snack

Pea Mash Crostini

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Pea mash crostiniPeas are super sweet with a bit of crunch and go well with other seasonal vegetables. Green peas tend to get underestimated I think because you use it in a boring way e.g. steak and three veggies (boiled peas, carrot and potatoes). However, they actually contain essential minerals and vitamins; high folate, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, vitamin B complex and vitamin K (good for your skin and bone health). Peas also offer healthy vegetarian protein, 9 grams per cup. Serve peas with a whole grain since they are not a complete protein, for example, pea mash crostini. I like using them in my salads, omelets, stir-fry, soup, dips, on and on. You can add them either fresh or frozen to anything you can imagine.

I made this dish for Sunday brunch. Toast two slices of rosemary bread, spread pea mash, put grilled Greek cheese and egg on top. Add parsley and e.v.o.o. Season with salt and pepper. A squeeze of lemon over this dish will really top it up. I like fresh spring flavour and bright green colour. Sweet peas, salty cheese, creamy egg and bitter parsley. Perfecto!

Posted in: Breakfast, Lunch, My recipes

Jat-Juk

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Pine nut porridge
You might not have heard of this soup before. So here I am writing about it.
Jat-juk is a Korean porridge made by boiling finely ground soaked rice and pine nuts in water. We have a variety of porridge as rice is a staple. This pine nut porridge is by far one of the best because it is creamy, rich, nutritious and easy digest. Pine nuts in this porridge add protein, magnesium, vitamin E and vitamin B2. My mum used to make me this when I was a baby since it is easy to swallow and plain flavour. When I was sick with flu or stomachache as well. Porridge is the best just like westerners have a chicken soup. It is great to add a sprinkle of good quality salt and toasted nuts on top as well.

Ingredients
1 cup soaked rice (preferably over night. if you decide to use brown rice, soak longer)
1/2 cup of soaked pine nuts
5-6 cups of water
salt to taste
toasted nuts for garnish

Wash the rice clean until the water is clear. Soak rice and pine nuts in a separate bowl. Grind soaked rice and nuts separately with a cup of water using a food processor or blender until you get a paste. Pour out the rice paste into the heavy pot and bring it to boil. You have to keep stirring for about 10 minutes or so making sure it doesn’t stick to the pot. Then pour the pine nut paste into the pot and simmer for another 20-30 minutes. It is done when you get a hot oatmeal consistency. Serve hot or cold with salt and toasted nuts on top. Enjoy x

Posted in: Breakfast, Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, Vegetarian

Date Cinnamon Bagels

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Bagels2
I was not a fan of bagels until I went to New York. Daniel and I went to America in May last year for two weeks to have our second honey moon and catch up with one of my besties who moved to NY a couple of years ago. I wasn’t that impressed for the first few days maybe because I didn’t find it that exotic. I am from Seoul originally, a big capital city in South Korea. So going to a big busy city like NY does not really attract me, but Europe does. I made a daily schedule where to visit and where to eat, etc. One of the things to try on my list was NY bagels at different places e.g. Ess-a bagels, Murray bagels, H&H Midtown bagels. We walked so much to try to find those bagel places that everyone said nice on the internet. It was okay. Well that didn’t live up to my expectations though and geez rude staff really put me off. Then we were on the way to World’s Trade Centre memorial. We got off the train and started walking just out of the subway station. It started pouring out of blue. We had to get in somewhere to avoid rain, which was “Zucker’s bagels and smoked fish”. Thanks to the rain! I had the best bagel in town, which was a pumpernickel bagel with walnut& cinnamon cream cheese. Fluffy and chewy dark pumpernickel.. generous thick layer of cream cheese inside.. coffee was nice, too. Such a good find 🙂 We were going to go back there though didn’t get a chance. I’ve never been able to find a nice bagel like Zucker’s ever since then. Oh well I will just have to make myself there again to NY.

Daniel and I went to this cafe called “Antz in ya pants” near our place on the weekend. We go there almost every weekend to have coffee. Daniel orders their bagels now and then. It looks dense, dry, boring, a paper thin layer of cream cheese…what can I say? So I decided to make some for him this morning and it turned out to be amazing. The cream can be made with cream charger aka nang or nangs shop. I will have to try GF version next time so I can have some too. I’m going to serve this with whipped cream cheese with maple syrup and cinnamon powder. Sounds delicious!

BagelsIngredients

For the starter
100g flour
a teaspoon of dried yeast
a cup of warm water

Dough
200g flour + extra for kneading
a teaspoon of dried yeast
a teaspoon of brown sugar
a pinch of salt
2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
5 chopped dates
1 teaspoon of coconut oil
water

Mix the starter ingredients in a bowl and leave it covered for an hour. Then you will see all bubbles on the surface – yeast is doing their job! Add the dough ingredients into the starter and mix all together. Knead the dough until smooth. Cover up and allow the dough to double in size in a warm place (on the kitchen bench for me) for a couple of hours. Then punch the dough down gently and divide the dough into three pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and then a circle (the bagel shape). Place the bagels on a baking paper, cover up and let it rise again in a warm place. When it’s ready to be baked, put the bagels for a minute each side in a large pan of boiling water with a teaspoon of salt and brown sugar. Pat-dry and place the bagels in a baking pan and bake in the preheated oven (200) for 20-30minutes until they are golden brown.
Bagel3

Posted in: Baking, Breakfast, My recipes, Snack, Vegetarian

GF Loaf On The Go

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Breakfast loaf

It was about 9 years ago when I moved to Perth by myself. I never lived overseas before and didn’t know what to expect. I was living in a share house with a couple of other people. Having to share a kitchen, fridge, and every other things out of my own room was very uncomfortable. But I had to deal with that for a couple of years as the tuition fee was ridiculously expensive as an international Uni student (about 3-4 times more than local students). I didn’t care much about what I ate back then, so I had a bit of weird addiction to one food, which I ate every day every single meal until I got bored of it. I used to live on breakfast cereal, Crunchy nut, at some point. Although it was so sugary and had absolutely no nutrition, it was quick and convenient to just fill up my stomach. After that, weet-bix, breakfast bars, frozen peas, etc. This bad eating habit continued after I finished Uni and got a job just because I was too busy to eat my lunch or dinner at work. I was working long hours without proper breaks and just had to shovel down something quick between patients. Thinking back now I deeply regret and feel sorry for not caring my health for years. I cannot blame anyone but me >.< So no excuses everyone and make this loaf!!!!

Great thing about making this awesome breakfast loaf is healthy, easy and has everything you need. So if you are going out somewhere, busy at work, traveling, getting on the plane, etc, take this loaf in your bag as a snack or even simple meal. You can be creative and put other ingredients that you like. To make one loaf (about 4-5 servings) I used 150g grated green apple, 1 knob of grated ginger, 1 tea spoon of cinnamon powder, 2 table spoons of maple syrup, 1 table spoon of coconut oil, 100g eggs, 1 tea spoon of baking powder, 75g coconut flour, 30g of LSA, 25g maca powder, 25g mequisite powder and a pinch of Himalayan salt. Simply combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl, transfer to a loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven (180) for 45 minutes or until it’s all cooked. I put these ingredients because I just love a combination of apple, cinnamon and ginger. But you can make your own recipes using different flavour combinations such as banana and chocolate, coconut and blueberries, cranberries and pecans, dates and apricot, strawberry and rhubarb, etc.

Posted in: Baking, Breakfast, Gluten Free, My recipes, Snack, Vegetarian