Chance Tomato Gugelhupf

I named this savory Gugelhupf after my dear friend, Nancy whose nickname is 'Chance'. This nickname is only known among our classmates from The Convent. Being taught to speak in english, we would all chance or dance but nancy somehow adopted the american slang and it was 'Chance", so that's why we nicknamed her so. Nancy has the same passion as i do, we both love to bake and our conversion would be always about baking something. I have told her that i wanted to make 'gugelhupf' but have not been able to bake one cos i do not have the proper mould. The day, i took her to Denver downtown, it was so hot that we can't remain outdoors anymore, by chance , we landed in TJMAX and what did we see? A blue silicone gugelhupf mould staring at us. Since my birthday was around the corner, 'Chance' gave me the most wanted present and so i have to bake a gugelhupf as soon as we got home. Thank you, dear 'Chance' for making this possible and hope that you had a safe and comfortable journey home to Malaysia.

Ingredients:

(for a 23 cm / 9 inch bundt pan)

3 large eggs + enough water to make 1 cup

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

3 cups bread flour

1 tsp instant yeast

1 stick/4 ozs soft butter

1/4 cup pine nuts

1 bunch parsley

4 spring onions

25 cherry tomatoes

a dash of pepper

Method:

Roast pine nuts without any oil until fragrant.

Wash and chop parsley.

Wash and dice spring onions.

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Put the ingredients for the bread in the bread machine according to the order listed, starting with the liquids and ending with the yeast on top of the flour.

Choose the dough function and when dough has formed, add in the butter.

At the first beep, add in the pine nuts, parsley and spring onions. Continue dough function until it is over. The dough should have been doubled.

Butter the bundt pan.

Wash and dry the tomatoes.

Roll the dough into a log shape.

Cut off 25 slices of dough.

Press down each slice, put one tomato on each slice, add some pepper.

Wrap each tomato into the slice of dough, forming little balls.

Put balls into pan.

Let rise until dough has doubled its volume.

Bake on bottom rail of the oven for 50 to 60 minutes.

Let cake rest for 10 minutes, then flip over onto a wire rack.

Serves

Fan Tuan

i have not heard about this breakfast delight until my friend, Claire asked me about it. I looked up in the net and found what it is and it looked easy to prepare. I had all the ingredients to make them and i even made the Yau Char Kway. It is a really heavy breakfast, one of these rice rolls will fill you until dinner, you can skip lunch.

Ingredients:

2 cups glutinous rice - washed and soaked

1 cup Pork Floss

1/2 cup sichuan vegetable(char choy)

1 tsp chopped garlic

1/2 tsp sugar

8 pieces Yau Char Kway

1 tsp Salt

1 tbsp oil

Method:

Put glutinous rice and salt in a rice cooker and add in water just enough to cover the rice.

Cook rice until cooked.

Heat oil and add in chopped garlic. Saute until garlic is fragrant, then add in the sichuan vegetable. Add in sugar to taste. Remove and set aside to cool.

To assemble:

Place a huge scoop of cooked rice on a cling wrap with a sushi mat at the bottom, then to top rice with a tbsp sichuan vegetable, 2 tbsp of pork floss and a piece of yau char kway.

Roll the rice over to cover the fillings and wrap tight with the cling wrap.

The roll is ready to eat

Serves

Cornish Pasties

Making the shortcrust pastry for these pasties bring back fond memories. This is the first pastry that i learned to make when i was in school and i have always treasured the moments of these cookery classes, where we learned the technics of making goodies to eat and the beginning of a long culinary journey for me. My girlfriend, Nancy, who is visiting me at the moment, has been through thick and thin with me in the Convent, inspired me to make these as a remembrance of our friendship which started in 1952, the first day we attended Stantard One in The Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus, Seremban. We were classmates until we left school in 1962. Nancy is only one of the classmates who are all very dear to me. Christina, Alice, Florie, Lee Lan, Sang Meng, Nyong Nga,Cheng Mei, Maqgie, Joan and many more, if you all happen to read this, i missed you all.

My filling for these pasties is the leftover from the Corned Beef, Onion and Potatoes.

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups lard, chilled (3/4 lb) cut into ¼ inch cubes

8-10 tablespoons ice water

1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)

FILLING:

Corned Beef, Onions and Potatoes

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

To make pastry

Using the food processor, pulse together flour and salt, then add in the fat to make a coarse meal. Add 8 tablesppons ice water all at once. If dough crumbles, add more water. Refrigerate to rest one hour before rolling out.

Roll dough to a circle ¼ inch thick and cut into 6 inch rounds. Re-roll and scraps and cut into additional circles.

Put ¼ cup of the mixture into the center of a rolled out pastry.

Moisten pasty edges, fold in half, and crimp to seal. Place on a lined baking sheet and brush lightly with egg wash.

Make 2 slits in each pasty to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 400 degrees F 15 minutes, reduce heat and continue at 350 degrees F until golden.

Serve hot or cold.

Serves