First Successful Rustic Sourdough

This is my first successful sourdough bread. It is not a 100% sourdough bread though as it contains 2g of commercial yeast.

Personally, I don't quite like the taste (maybe I didn't put enough of salt in it) coz it is quite bland. The skin of the bread it crusty though and the inside is quite fluffy and soft.

Ingredients:

• 227g levain (the one that is fed and has bubbled up and spongy
• 340g lukewarm water (I used half hot and half cold as it is winter here)
• 7g or 2 tsp of instant yeast
• 14g sugar
• 2.5tsp salt
• 600g all purpose flour

Steps:

1. Place all ingredients in the mixing bowl and knead it to form a smooth dough.
2. Allow the dough to rise in a lightly greased covered bowl until it's doubled in size. It took mine bout 1hr and 5mins.
3. Gently divide the dough in half. It is ok if it deflates.
4. Gently shape the dough into two oval loaves or long loaves and place them on greased parchment lined baking sheet.
5. Cover and let it rise until very puffy, roughly bout an hour. 
6. At the end of the second proofing, preheat the oven to 210c.
7. Spray the loaves with water then make two deep diagonal slashes in each with either a serrated or very sharp knife.
8. Then bake the bread for 25-30mins, depending on your oven until it is deep golden brown.
9. Remove and cool on rack.

Sourdough Starter

I remember bout a year or more back, I had attempted to make sourdough but failed terribly. This time, not sure what got into me, I decided to retry again.

The starter took bout 6days (winter now) to be ready.

So, what I did was stir 113g of flour with 113g water (warm). Cover it loosely. This time, I used all plastic, plastic container and plastic spoon (I think it makes a difference. Do not use metal).

Place it by the windowsill in the afternoon and in the evening, put it near any warm source.
Next day, add another 113g flour with 113g warm water, continue for 5day.

By the 5th day, I took out 113g of the bubbly starter to add in 113g of water and 113g of flour in a separate container and place near to a warm source.

By the next morning, the levain has doubled and looks really fluffy and spongey. This is ready to be used.

According to many websites, the bubbly starter is ready  to be used when it can float on the water. I was so happy when mine manages to float.

Keropok Lekor aka as Malay Fish Fingers

This is oil fried version

This is air fried version

This is how it looks like before slicing to fry

What happens when you are in the land that you don't get what you crave for easily or almost not available, you try making it yourself. Keropok lekor is one of my favourite snack from the night market back home. This is actually my second attempt of making this snack. The first was a failure maybe due to the type of fish used. I used basa fillet the first time and it tasted more just like normal fish cake and lack of that spongy feel for the thick type and not crispy for the thin type.

This time, I used barramundi and it works nicely. Maybe it is due to the "kaoness" of the fish. It is the stickiness effect that the fish achieve after being mashed.

Here is the recipe for this yummy snack:

Ingredients:

• 450-470g of fish fillet (I used barramundi, you can use tuna or even ready made fish paste
• 1 1/4 cups of tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup of plain flour
• few pieces of ice cubes
• a pinch of salt
• 10g butter
• 1cup plain flour for dusting
• 1 pot of salted water for boiling
• oil to fry

Steps:

1. Place the 6 ingredients in the food processor. Mix till it is even.
2. Dust the working top with plain flour and scoop the mixture out to shape.
3. Divide the mixture into 6 parts and dust it generously with the plain flour.
4. Shape it into long tube of roughly 12cm with diameter of 2.5cm. Place them aside.
5. Boil the salted water. Once boil, place in a few pieces of the fish tubes and let it boil for bout 4-5mins. It is ready once the tube floats in the water.
6. Remove the fish tubes and let it dry and cool down.
7. Once it is cool and dry, slice it to the thickness of your preference and fry.
8. If you using the air fryer, it takes about 8-10mins at 200c. Time varies with the thickness you cut the cracker.