Sourdough Discard Pancakes

I have been trying out the sourdough breads and hence have been discarding a lot of my levain which seriously have been a source of pain for me to see what could have been food to go to waste.  However, having to make two things - both the bread and another recipe for the discard is a little too overwhelming for me and my schedule.  (Oh if you are wondering why I don't have a post on my levain bread yet, this is because I have yet to find one I am entirely satisfied.)

Yesterday I have been trying out another recipe which the bulk fermentation will take a day and proofing over night and today is no work day.  This allows me to trial a recipe for the discard.

Surfed the internet and found many interesting ideas for discards but I want to start with something familiar and quick and easy.  Found this recipe at a few websites and decided to try and yes, it is good!  So sharing it here.  My family had it with maple syrup and butter, though my girl kept complaining that she wished we had bought fruits (because we always have our pancakes with berries, bananas and kiwi).  But sorry I didn't stock any in my fridge today.

I have made amendments to the recipe so that it suits my habits of measuring and I only had about 150 g of discard from yesterday.  So this is how it goes :)

Sourdough Discard Pancakes

My first trial at pancakes made from levain discard

Ingredients

• 200 g all-purpose plain flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar (I use organic sugar at home)
• 1/4 (sea) salt
• 1Tbsp baking powder
• 200 ml of milk
• 3 eggs
• 150 g levain  (discard)
• 50 g melted (unsalted) butter 

Method:

1.  Sift all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs.  Add in the levain and mix well.  Let the mixture stand for 10 min.  (I usually use this time to start a little wash up because I don't like my sinks filled with dishes etc that stack high, that puts me off from washing.)
3.  Mix in the wet ingredients from 2 into the dry ingredients from 1.  I don't dump in everything.  I stir and mix in part by part.
4.  Finally incorporate in the melted butter into the pancake batter.
5.  Heat the pan or griddle and brush with a little oil
6.  Cook the pancakes in the pan.

Other Notes:

• I found a nice trick in cooking pancakes many years ago.  Don't flip the pancakes too often.  Use a ladle and scoop the appropriate batter and just pour in the batter into the pan.  Let the batter cook till small bubbles appear on the surface and the sides start to firm up, then you flip it over to cook the other side.  Don't push and press down on the pancake.  As the underside now cook, you can see the pancake puff up in the centre.  Then remove the pancake off the pan, when the underside slightly browns.

Sweet Rice Dumplings - 汤圆 (Tang Yuan)

It is winter solstice today for the Chinese.  It marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year in winter.  After this day the days in the year will start getting warmer and the new year is coming soon.  In Chinese tradition, it is a day where many families will eat tang yuan (sweet rice dumplings).  The eating of tang yuan symbolises putting on another year in age.  The shapes of the dumplings are round and served in a bowl and eaten with family in hopes of harmony and luck for family in the coming year and it is time for reunion.   In Singapore, we don't have winter, but we still make rice dumplings and carry on the tradition from our ancestors.

I recall when I was younger my mother would go the wet market early in the morning to buy back two bags of wet rice flour, one white and one red and then we would make the dumplings into small balls for her to cook. In occasional years, when she was in a good mood, she would then wrap each ball was a piece of gula melaka (coconut palm sugar).  She liked me to help as I had small hands and could make really small rice dumpling balls.  We used to say that you need to eat as many number of balls as your age. It was possible then, but not possible for me now.

In recent years, these rice dumplings are mass produced by factories all year round with very fanciful fillings like black sesame, peanut or red bean. I did like it when they were just started in the market.  But nowadays, I really missed the raditional ones, with no filling and just with simple sugared syrup - I guess this is a sure sign of getting old when you start missing your childhood food. This I only get to eat once a year when my mother-in-law will make for winter solstice.  But this year is special because my grandmother (in law) passed away and according to tradition

After my cancer, I try as far as possible to avoid food colouring, so this time I decided to "colour" my rice dumplings naturally.

Three Coloured Rice Dumplings (Tang Yuan) - 三色汤圆 

We will start with the orange dumplings first (because they require the most work), then the green ones and finally the white ones.
In terms of flour, I only had 1 packet (500g) of glutinous rice flour to make all three types of dumplings with excess.

My Three colours Tang Yuan (Rice Dumplings)

Orange Coloured (Sweet Potato) Tang Yuan 

1 piece of sweet potato  (skinned)  - These are also called sweet yams

Approx. 100g of glutinous rice flour ( I don't measure and I will tell you why later.)
1/2 tsp of corn starch

1/2 cup of water
a pinch of fine (sea) salt - you can use ordinary table salt

Method:

Step 1 :  Cut the sweet potatoes into small pieces. Place the sweet potatoes in a metal or ceramic plate and steam till soften (usually 15 - 20 min).  Test will a fork, the fork should easily pierce through the sweet potatoes when they are done.  I usually make irregular cuts as it creates more surface area and it take a shorter time to steam soft.

Cut sweet potatoes before they are steamed.

Step 2 :  Transfer the steamed sweet potatoes into a mixing bowl while hot and mash with a  fork.  Add in tablespoons by tablespoons of glutinous rice flour while mashing.  When it starts to take shape, you can add in 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch (so that the final balls can be more springy) and a small pinch of salt (to bring out the sweetness).  If the mixture is too dry, then you can add in small drizzle (use a teaspoon), if the mixture is too wet then add in more rice flour.

Mashing the steamed sweet potatoes and flour with a fork.

When the mixture has cooled sufficiently (but still warm to touch) to handle.  You can use your hand to combine everything into a dough which can be handled with hand and not tacky. 

Step 3 :  From this dough, form balls of about 1 cm in diameter.  You can make bigger ones, or smaller ones depending on your liking.  When I was younger I will make real small ones, but my mom would complain that I take forever.  Now I seek a balance.  I like small ones but want speed so 1 cm is about just nice.  Place them on a plate, spacing each ball apart.

Sweet potatoes tangyuan waiting to be cooked.

Now to make the matcha (green ones).  I'll only cook all of them when they are all ready.

Green Coloured (Matcha) Tang Yuan 

Approx. 3 Tbsp of glutinous rice flour + 1/2 tsp of corn starch + 1 pinch of salt
1/2 cup of boiling water
1/2 tsp of matcha (Japanese green tea) powder ( adjust up or down depending on how much matcha you like)

Additional glutinous rice flour to adjust texture

Additional hot water to adjust texture

Method:

Step 1 :  Make 1/2 cup of green tea by dissolving the matcha powder with the boiling water.

Step 2:  Place the mixture of flour into a mixing bowl.  Stir in the hot prepared green tea. Combine well.

Step 3:  If the mixture in 2 is too dry add in some more hot water (don't pour, slowly add in by tsp).  If the mixture in step 2 is too wet then slowly add in some more glutinous rice.  Add just till you can get a dough which combines together but not tacky.  Use your hands to do it when the mixture is not too hot.

Matcha dough waiting to make into balls next.

Step 4: Form small balls of the similar size as in the sweet potatoes rice dumplings and set aside.

Now to move on to the easiest one - the white dumpling balls.

White Coloured (Plain) Tang Yuan 

As you may have guessed there is no flavouring added to this one.  So like the  matcha tangyuan, we have:

Approx. 3 Tbsp of glutinous rice flour + 1/2 tsp of corn starch + 1 pinch of salt
1/2 cup of boiling water

Additional glutinous rice flour to adjust texture

Additional hot water to adjust texture

Repeat Step 2 to Step 4 to make the glutinous rice balls.

Next Step :  Cooking the raw Tang Yuan 

Boil one pot of hot water and prepare one big bowl of ice water.

When boiling, add in the balls one by one.

The balls will first sink to the bottom of the pot and when it is cooked, it will float to the top when it is cooked.

Use a slotted spoon to scoop up the cooked balls when they float up and immediately dunk into the bowl of iced water.

Cooking the glutinous rice balls.  The balls will first sink to the bottom and when cooked you can scoop them up with a slotted spoon.

The rice balls are then dunked in iced water.  They will then start to sink to the bottom.

The cooked balls will no longer stick together

The cooked tangyuan that has cooled down and ready to be added into the syrup base.

Last Step :  Making the Syrup Base

Medium Pot of Water

Brown Sugar to Taste

Pandanus leaves (washed, torn into strips and tied into the knot)

Cook everything in a pot till all the sugar has melted and the mixture has boiled.

Once ready, you can then off the flame and either add in the rice dumplings, or alternatively, I don't like my rice dumplings too gummy so I add the rice dumplings into serving bowl with water and pour in the syrup.

Boiling the brown sugar.  This looks dark as I am using the Okinawa brown sugar. 

The dumplings served with the syrup base.  You can definitely add in more syrup.

Other notes:

1.  There is a lot of flexibility in the making of dumplings.  You can use pumpkin, other types of colours of sweet potato, beetroot juice instead of water, flower tea in making the dumplings.

2.  For syrup base, there can be variations too.  You can cook sweet mung bean soup as base, substitute brown sugar for plain sugar, or use palm sugar (gula melaka) - which my mother in law uses etc.  The possibilities are endless.

3.  My mum used to wrap each dumpling with a small hard piece of gular melaka so that when we eat the sweetness will burst into the mouth.  You can try that too.

Baking with My Levain - A documentation of my experiments.

I have been experimenting with my levain: different proportion for hydration of the levain, different types of recipes.

So far I have tried recipes from Jayeon Bread, Carol Hu's Bread books, Ken Forkish's Book and Chad's Tartine Bread.  For each of the breads that I made, there were aspects that I liked and aspects that I didn't for each so in all I have yet to find the bread that I am looking for.

Decided to document my failures here, and to look at some possible solutions in the end.

A quick summary of the breads I made so far:

#1.  Jayeon's Cinnamon Bread :

• Bread was disappointing not well risen. - Not like the usual cinnamon 
• Too sour!
• Tze wei was brave and tried to eat one, I ate two.  He tried to be nice and said to keep the bread in the fridge so that he could have tea next few days - too wasteful to throw.  But I think it was a greater deterrent, he kept looking for excuses for the next few days to avoid tea time.  In the end, I also found an excuse to discard the bread away.

#2.  Carol Hu's Country Loaf :

• Followed the ingredients to the dot except that I kneaded the bulk fermented the dough using my bread maker.
•  I like the soft insides, crust was not crispy but perhaps because the recipe called for olive oil.
•  Liked the texture tremendously, dough was not gummy.  Didn't quite like the taste, was a little flat and too sour for my liking.

#3.  Carol Hu's Garlic Bread made with Natural Yeast (Levain)

• Again followed the recipe.  Fed levain : 100 g starter, 100 g water, 100 g flour
• Arghh.  This one I do not like the recipe entirely.
• The sourdough is really too sour....there was no sweetness and the garlic butter did not blend well with the bread.
• Texture of the bread was ok.
• Maybe sweet bread made from levains are not suitable.  Ok...this is something I need to look into later.  Before I finish this school holidays I must try and get the country loaf right!

#4.  Ken Forkish Double Fed Sweet Levain Bread

• Followed the recipe to the dot except I halved the recipe.
• During the final proof however the bread overflowed from my proofing basket. I push the sides in and put the basket in the metal mixbowl and wrapped with plastic wrap before popping it into the fridge.
• Final proofed dough was slack and did not fit well into the dutch oven.  Literally pushed in the sides.
• Argh....during the bake, Tze Wei offed the timer while baking and I was washing my plates and I didn't watch the time.  I didn't know when I started!  
• I liked the taste!  There was so much sweetness in a bread with no sugar! A slight tang but not overpowering.
• But the texture was disappointing, I had good holes, a nice crust but the crumb was gummy.  Was it because of the timing?  But when I lifted the cover of the dutch oven the crust was already hardening.
• There was no nice split (seam side up) and it did feel like a very dense loaf.

#5.  Chad's Basic Country Loaf :  Added walnuts and cranberries (presoaked with warm water)

• Levain : 100 g mature starter, 250 g flour, 200g water.  Set for 5 hours
• Halved the recipe
• The dough after proof (like in Ken Forkish loaf) was large and did not fit into dutch oven well, and pressed on the sides.
• Cranberries sourness was actually amplified by the sourdough.
• The tanines in the walnuts caused stains on my dough.
• The dough was obviously more sour that KF's double fed Sweet Levain, this could be the fact that I didn't just keep 1 tbsp of levain to make the final starter levain but worked with about 1 cup instead.  Less sweetness detected.
• Crumb is still a little tacky (like steamed huat kueh) so I guess it is not the baking time? 

#6.  Ken Forkish Double Fed Levain Bread Modified and Added Sesame seed

• 5 pm day before baking :  100g levain, fed 200 g unbleached bread flour, 50 g wholemeal flour and 200 g water.
• 9:30 pm the day before :  125 g levain from first feeding, 200g unbleached bread flour, 50 g whole meal flour and 200 g water.
• 8: 15 am :  3rd feeding.  Discard and left 100 g from 2nd feeding.  200 g unbleached flour, 200g water, 50 g wholemeal flour.
• 8: 30 am :  Autolyse flour and water. Separate container - 1/4 tsp active dry yeast to 1 tsp sugar and 1 tbsp maple syrup.
• 10:45 am :  Add 270 g levain to flour and water. Add yeast. Mix and rest.
• 11:30 am : 1st fold with 50 g black sesame seed
• 12:00 pm : 2nd fold
• 12:30 pm : 3rd fold
• 1 pm: 4th fold .  (Go for lunch)
• 3:15 pm :  Back from lunch, shape and rest.
• 3:45 pm :  proof in basket
• 5 pm:  Heat oven and placed dutch oven in
• 5:45 pm:  Bake covered.
• 6:15 :  Checked still wet in centre
• 6: 30 Uncover 
• 7: 45 pm :  Stopped at 7:45 pm
• Keep in oven for 5 min  then take out and cool propped up on rack and cooled over night.

Conclusion:  Arggh....still tacky crumb!  This is really trialing my patience, not as sweet as the first Ken Forkish bread.  Because I did not do retarding overnight?  But sesame seed was great!  A little too much though can reduce

Lessons Learnt So Far :

1.  To reduce sourness:

• Use a young levain and feed frequently.
• Start with a lower amount mature levain.
• Smell your levain, if it has a vinegar smell before baking it is too hungry!  The dough that comes out will be too sour (unless that is your intention).
• Chad recommends only 1 Tbsp and that is really very little.  
• Oh the more you feed the less sour but you will wait a longer time
• 24-27 degrees celsius promotes yeast growth but my environment is perpetually around 30 degrees and humidity is high so resulting the promotion of lactic acid.  Therefore for first refresh, it may be advisable to let levain double then keep in fridge overnight.

 2.  Doing retardation in fridge:

• Seems to promote sweetness and complexity in flavours.
• Just tried one for bulk fermentation.
• But my fridge is around 4 degrees so it does slow down the dough significantly.  My want to wait for bulk fermentation for obvious increase in size.
• So after remove from fridge, must wait for 2 hours to warm up to room temperature.

3.  Addition of oil gives a softness.

4.  Not sure on this but I half suspect, my size of dough is too big for dutch oven and hence steam gets too trapped resulting in tacky dough.

Growing My Levain - Part Two: the Growth of the Levain

I have actually grown the levain for some time and it is now quite stable.
There are few ways to feed the levain and the books differ on this.
 Decided to document the journey here.  I used Ken Forkish's way of feeding the yeast, except I only feed 100g water and 125g flour each time cos I find it a great way and I feed on a 12 hour cycle because it is quite warm in Singapore. ( I perpetually get  30 degrees Celsius) in my kitchen and it is humid.  At night, it may drop to 27degrees Celsius but that is on a exceptional cold day.

Starting the levain and Growing the Sourdough Initially

Initial Feed  (1st Feed)

100 g yeast water
100 g bread flour
25 g wholemeal flour
1 glass container mine (1.9 L, believe me you will need the extra space)

Weigh the container and write down its mass in permanent marker on the glass.  It helps for subsequent  feedings.  My weighing machine sleeps quite quickly and I have short term memory, so the tare function doesn't help much.  I also put a calculator so I just keep adding and the numbers on the calculator reminds me of the mass I have to add the stuff to.

Pour in yeast water, add in bread flour and wholemeal flour.  Stir with a knife to combine.  I do get a think paste like texture after the flours are mixed in.

Leave it for 12 hours at room temperature.  You should see the levain doubling.  It did for mine.  Took a whiff after the 12 h...the acetone smell comes back again.  The mixture is now more liquid.

2nd Feed

100 g yeast water
100 g bread flour
25 g wholemeal flour

Discard all but 100 g of the initial starter from previous feeding.
Add in the yeast water and stir well, scraping the sides of the container so that the mixture is incorporated into the liquid.  I did stir quite vigourously to incorporate air.
Stir in the flours and scrap down and even out the surface of the paste and then rest at room temperature for 12 hours.

3rd and subsequent feeds

100 g water  (I used Evian as my starter was still growing)
100 g bread flour
25 g wholemeal flour

Discard all but 100 g of the initial starter from previous feeding.
Add in the water and stir well, scraping the sides of the container so that the mixture is incorporated into the liquid.  I did stir quite vigourously to incorporate air.
Stir in the flours and scrap down and even out the surface of the paste and then rest at room temperature till mixture doubles.

By the 3rd day mine started to double in about 2 hours.  After it doubles, I put it in the fridge.

Before the next feeding by an hour, I take it up to warm in up.
 The  growth of the levain was not so predictable the first few days, but for mine, by the 5th day it was very vigorous.  It would often double in 2 hours or less.

Once the growth is stable, you can start baking with it.

I could baked my first bread using Carol Hu's recipe eagerly after 5 days.  Baking is usually 2-4 hours after the feed.


Sorry, I didn't take any pictures this time because I was worried it failed again.  Haha...but it didn't.  Ok, I will document its growth in another post.  Told my hubby, he has a new baby....he says he would eat his own baby....my kids joked that they have a new sibling just that they can't decide if it is a he or she.

Ken Forkish Double Fed Sweet Levain

Ken Forkish's Double Fed Sweet Levain

-  A documentation of my trials with Ken Forkish Double Fed Sweet Levain Recipe.

-  The documentation will start with the latest first and work backwards and I will add on from there.

Original Recipe : (1/2 of what the Book gave with slight modifications)

 

First Levain Feeding  

Mature Active Levain  25 g

White Flour 100g

Whole Wheat Flour  25 g

Water 100g

Second Levain Feeding  (after 3-4 hours)

Levain  from 1st feed 125 g

White Flour 200g

Whole Wheat Flour  100 g

Water 200 g

Final Dough

White Flour 330 g

Whole Wheat Flour 20 g

Water 270 g

Fine sea salt 10 g

Instant dried yeast 1g

Levain  270 g

1. Feed Levain (1st feeding).  
2. Feed Levain 2nd time. after 3 hours from first feed.
3. Autolyse.  After 3 hours from 2nd feed. Mix the flour and water.  Rest for 20 to 30 min.
4. Mix final dough. Sprinkle salt and yeast over dough.  Weigh levain in container with a little bit of water (for easy removal) and transfer the levain to the dough.  Mix by hand alternating with folding and pincer till dough is well integrated.
5. Fold.  Dough needs four folds 1/2 hour apart.  
6. Divide.   Original recipe calls for a divide.  But I am using only half of mine recipe and so while just flour and fold into a boule and let it rest for 30 min.
7. Shape.  Dust proofing baskets with flour.  Shape each piece into a tight ball and place each seam side down in its proofing basket.
8. Proof.    Place each basket in a nonperforated plastic bag and refrigerate overnight. The next morning 12 to 14 hours after the loaves went into the refrigerator, they should be ready to bake, straight from the refrigerator.  They don't need to come to room temperature.
9. Preheat.  At least 45 min prior to baking, put a rack in the middle of the oven and put the Dutch ovens on the rack with lids on.  Preheat oven to 425 degree Celsius.
10. Bake.  Invert the proofed loaf onto lightly floured countertop, seam side up.  Cover and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for 20- 25 minutes.  Check after 15 minutes incase oven runs hot.
11. Remove the dutch oven and carefully tilt it to turn the loaf out.  Cool on a rack and let it rest at least for 20 minutes before slicing.

Experiment 1 : 17 Dec 2014 

Followed the recipe quite closely in terms of steps.  Didn't record the time nor the temperature (because I haven't got my digital thermometer probe yet...waiting for boxing day sale).

1. Followed through from step 1 - 3.
2. Step 4.   I only have active dry yeast so I added them to dough after I soaked them in water and a tsp of sugar afater 10 min.
3. I only did 3 folds because I needed to go out from dinner.  Came back in about 4 hour after the 3rd fold as I went to have dinner  I hope it wasn't too long.  But by the time I came back I half suspected the dough was a little too over bulk fermented.  Placing my finger in dough, the dough didn't bounce bad.  This is bad.  Starting to smell sour too. 
4. Shaped the dough and put in the proofing basket anyway.
5. Placed the proofing basket in the refrigerator to proof it overnight.  Placed it in at 9:30 pm.
6. Checked the dough at 11:00 pm.  Ah!!! the loaf has proofed beyond the basket and has no where to go dripping at the edges.
7. Pushed the dough back in again....placed the proofing basket into a larger container then back into the fridge.
8. Baked my bread in the dutch oven which was heating in the oven for 45 min in the morining 8 hours after I did the  proof.  While washing up, TW off my timer! by mistake.  I didn't really keep track of the time arggh.....so I baked for another 20 min.
9. Uncovered dutch oven and baked for another 20 min, the outer surface as a  little burnt so I quickly removed the bread.
10. Cooled on rack for 20 min, and I cut it opened

The bread was gummy inside but sweet...okay, I could see bubbles but definitely what I described like gummy ....what in Singapore we would label as kueh....

I should try this again.....I like the taste, sweet with a little tang but not the texture.  What is wrong? 

Possible Problems:

1.  Could it be because TW off the timer and I underbaked when I was covered?  
2. Could it be the proofing basket was too small?
3.  Could it be too much water?
4. Could it be the fact that dough was overproofed?
5. Oven could only set at 220 degrees Celsius as it was limited by the knob.  I need to change the knob.

Another reason to go shopping for a new and larger proofing basket and knob.

Ken Forkish Double Fed Sweet levain #1 - Looks good on the outside.

Ken Forkish Double Fed Sweet Levain #1 - Cut open, with holes.  Don't really see oven spring.  Crumb is holely but gummy like nyonya kueh.  Though still edible.

Growing Levain - Part 1 Growing the Yeast Water

I have been playing around with sourdough lately this school holiday.  I have been wanting to make sourdough bread for some time but I thought that it was something that could only be done in places where it was cooler e.g. America. But when I saw my friend posting her starter on Facebook, I decided to give it a try.

Decided to do an internet search on natural yeast and went to the National library to borrow books on natural yeast bread. I found out that this kind of bread making is not only prevalent in Europe but also in Japan and Taiwan (in this case, in recent years) and is very much gaining popularity around the world again due to its health benefits, in particular, the lactic acid in the sourdough and bulk fermentation process breaks the phytic acid in the grains and wheat and allows the nutrients from the these grains to be better absorbed by the body.

After doing all my readings and watching the videos, I decided to take a plunge do the sourdough levain in two stages:

Stage 1 :  Grow my Yeast Water

Stage 2 :  Grow the Starter

Stage 1 Growing Yeast Water

It seemed all so easy from the readings.  

(1) Need some fruits with yeast

(2) Water and sugar (optional)

(3) Sterilized clean bottle.

However, I did fail twice before I could get my yeast water to produce the starter.  Read my 2 failed attempts below and finally my final success.

Attempt #1  (Failed attempt)

My first failed attempt at raisin yeast water.

1st Day : Added fruits to water and sterilized clean bottles.

I first tried with organic raisins (without oil!  I did read the label) and organic apples.  But only with filtered tap water (using a Brita filter).  

3rd Day :

There were some bubbles on the third day for my apple yeast water but none for my raisin.  Don't know why because many books said that it was easier to get yeast water (and the bubbles) from raisin.  Went to check my raisin package again - yes, it does says organic and there is no line, no passage of any oil anywhere on the package.

I decided to transfer some apple yeast water on my raisin. 

 4th Day:

Finally saw some bubbles in the raisin yeast water!  Was it because of the apple yeast water or raisin yeast water?  Not sure.  This is bad, I am a physicist ..... changing two variables at one time (time and adding of water from apple) does not allow me to find out which is the cause of the bubbles.....too impatient.  Hm....but I did start to see some white bits floating on the apple and raisin.

5th Day:

Saw more bubbles....in both bottles, very, very happy!  Decided to take some out to make the starter.

Did a starter for both raisin water and apple water.  50g starter water, 50 g flour, 1/2 tsp of sugar to get it going. It did double after 12 hours.  

6th Day:

I fed it some more now 100 g flour and 100 g water.  It continued to double after 12 hours.  I didn't understand why I must discard, seeing that there my bottle was not filled I decided that I shall not discard.

7th Day:

I thought the starter was stable, some books and website did say you can make a starter dough immediately after having the bubbles.  So I did and tried to bake with it.  Made the dough in the morning.  However, even after 6 hours of wait, the dough did not rise at all.  Was so disappointed.  Threw away both the starter water for both the raisin and apple, the (what I thought was) levain and dough of the bread.  Ending my journey for my first experience of yeast water making.

Attempt #2 (Failed attempt - or an attempt which could have succeeded but I would never have known)

My second attempt at yeast water with apple.

I was convinced that I couldn't fail, if others have done it before I should be able to do it.  I went back to the books and searched the internet, reading article after article.

"Maybe it was the water?"  Many people find success with mineral bottled water.  Maybe our water is too chlorinated.

To spur me on, Tze Wei decided to get me a bottle of Evian water.

This time I decided to change the water to Evian water and decided to have sufficient fruit to ensure there is sufficient sugar to feed the yeast.

So the second attempt goes like this:

300 g cut apples
200 g Evian Water
1 tbsp of organic sugar.

Day 2 -3 :   I got bubbles from day 2-3 and it did look promising.

Day 4:  The water still smells good and bubbles are still there.

Day 5 :  HORRORS!  The bubbles disappeared!  No more?!!! Why??? Why??? The water got cloudy.....no signs of life :<  By evening I still saw no bubbles :<  upset, upset.  Am I wasting my money and time?  Urgghhhh maybe I should give up.  Threw away this bottle of yeast water.

Alas, the end of experiment 2.


Attempt #3 (Final Success- or an attempt which could have succeeded but I would never have known)

I didn't quite dare to try after my first 2 failed attempts.  Was angry and frustrated because it is not very cheap and easy to get organic fruits in Singapore and the stuff don't come cheap.  I was actually wondering if it was all worth the effort then.

Again, my sweet, sweet husband nudged me on again.

"There is still the Evian water left?  Don't waste it.  Don't you always encourage your students not to give up and keep trying.  At least do one more experiment and use up the water."

He even drove me down to the nearest Finest NTUC to hunt for organic grapes.  His theory- maybe the apples were irradiated before imported in, let's look for fruits with obvious yeast on the skin.

So we went down to the supermarket and lo and behold, there were organic grapes (we don't always have them).  Choose a small box with the most cloudy skinned grapes and went back to start my 3rd experiment.

1st Day :

200 g organic grapes  (halved)
300 g water (Evian)
1 tsp of organic sugar
1 sterilised glass jar.

This time I used a double folded cheese cloth to cover my bottle, and just lightly twist in the cap. Read somewhere that the yeast needs to breathe!  So I should not have been sealing up my bottles cos I would have deprived all my yeast of the oxygen if there were any.  Instead of giving it a swirl, I was advised to keep give it a vigorous shake, which I did.

2nd - 4th Day:  Small bubbles emerged on the 3rd day, just as before but I didn't dare to get my hopes up too hig.

5th Day:   By the 5th day however, the bubbles disappeared again.  I was disappointed, but decided to just keep feeding.  Didn't quite like the smell, the apple yeast water was definitely better smelling.  The only difference was I decided to not throw this time.  Some books say keep for 7 days and I decided to do so.   Gave it a shake in the morning and another time at night.

6th Day:   No bubbles still.  But did not want to give up and persevere I shall.  Isn't this what I always tell my kids and students to do? Anyway no harm and no mould is growing, so why don't I just continue.

7th Day:  Finally!  I wokeup this morning and there were big bubbles, really big ones, and I could see effervescent, like soda pop.  The earlier acetone smell was gone and it was definitely like alcohol sweetness.  Putting my ears at the opening of the bottle I could definitely hear the bubbles popping.  Fizz Fizz....SUCCESS Finally.

Next Page will be growing the Levain for use!

Top View of the Bubbly  Grape Yeast Water

Side view of the Bubble Grape Yeast Water

Shinya Shokudo : Canned Maguro Rice (Tuna Rice) - Season 2 Episode 15

Shinya Shokudo : Canned Maguro Rice (Tuna Rice) - Season 2 Episode 15

深夜食堂 2 （第15 话） - 鲔鱼 （金枪鱼）美奶滋盖饭

Maguro Rice - Inspired by the series Shinya Shokudo

When you become a mummy, the food that you cook tend to revolve around what is good for the kids and what the kids will tend to eat and it is really difficult to try new recipes when they are picky eaters.  My girl does not like sweet stuff and rejects cakes and biscuits.  My boy tends to be suspicious of new food and would like to stick to the traditional stuff.  Once in a while, you must really starve them to introduce new food.  Used to be able try new stuff during lunch and that too stopped as I now make packed lunch for my husband when I am free and that means catering to his taste as well.

Anyway I watched the Japanese series "Shinya Shokudo" last school holiday and have been meaning to try out new recipes and I finally got a chance since I was on medical leave yesterday and that meant I would stay at home and try something simple.  I did butter rice in the morning, and finally managed to try out the canned maguro don.  It is really simple and nice and taste like a modified and improved version of  the traditional tuna mayo filling that I make for my sandwiches, except, this time the filling is topped on rice. I served mine with miso soup and I really liked it.

The recipe below makes actually 3 servings....so you can make and use the left over for sandwiches later.  I refrigerated mine in an airtight container and it will be my lunch today as well.  By the way, the recipe is quite versatile, adjust according to taste.  If you like more of a spiced up version, a little more wasabi would be good.  Potentially, these could be for my kids so I reduced the wasabi.

Recipe : Canned Maguro Rice (Tuna Rice)

 Servings: 2-3 

Ingredients:

 

•  1 can of tuna -  I used tuna chunks in water so that I can salt according to taste.  You can use brined tuna or tuna in oil.

•  2 tbsp of mayonnaise

• 1/2 tsp wasabi  ( You can add more if you like a little more spice.  We can't get fresh wasabi in Singapore, but if you could I think it would taste better.)

• 1/2 tsp of miso

• 1 small yellow onion

• Salt to taste.

• 1 sprig of spring onion ( also known as scallions) - You may use chives but it makes it more English I guess.

• Cooked japanese white rice (warm)

 

Method:

1. Shred the spring onion parallel to its fibres and soak in chilled water.  It will cause the spring onion to curl up and makes it pretty for garnish.  

(In the original TV series, I think seaweed was used, but I am having my rice with wakame miso soup so I decided to substitute with spring onion.  For the Japanese, I think it is important that their food looks good - served with the correct utensils, having the right colour and I do agree it whets the appetite.)

 

2.  Dice the onions finely and set aside.

3.  Drain the canned tuna and place in a mixing bowl. Add in the mayonnaise and wasabi and mix well with a fork. 

4. Add in the chopped onion and mix well as well.  Taste and add salt if necessary. 

5. Scoop warm japanese cooked rice in a bowl.  Place some mixed maguro (tuna) and top with the prepared spring onion.

You may serve with miso soup to complete the meal.

Notes:

For mayonnaise, I tend to like to go for the Japanese mayonnaise and the brand by Ajinomoto....it's more for the ingredients....I tend to read the ingredients in detail and the one I get contains eggs, vinegar, salt and sugar - I see less weird chemical names that I don't recognise.

I also think that the rice will taste good if it has a sprinkling of toasted sesame...it gives it a more complex texture and it ups the calcium content at the same time. :)

 

Shinya Shokudo - Butter Rice (深夜食堂 - 牛油拌饭）Season 1 - Episode 5

Shinya Shokudo - Butter Rice 

深夜食堂 - 牛油拌饭 ( Season 1 - Episode 5)

(Butter Rice - Picture Taken from the film Shinya Shokudo)

I was introduced to the Japanese series of Shinya Shokudo by my sister-in-law when I went over to visit her in Australia last December break and took the whole time to finish both season 1 and season 2.  Really liked some of the tips that they gave at the back of each show.

One of the recipes that I have been wanting to try is butter rice.  I really love butter and I do like Japanese rice.  Didn't have a chance to try it as my husband thinks that my love for butter is crazy....(hm....however he doesn't really understand....different recipes call for different styles and texture of butter).

Had a chance to try it today as I am on medical leave and I cooked a pot to Japanese rice for lunch, my rice cooker can take only at least one cup of rice, that leaves me with enough cooked rice for two meals.  Anyway, really really liked it!  I ate it all up and forgot to take photos so will have to use the image clipped from the series.  Next time, I will take it with miso soup and I think it can be my simple breakfast for some days.

Anyway for the rest of the rice, I am going to try to make the tuna rice in the afternoon.

Butter Rice (Recipe)

1 serving of steamed rice (warm from the rice cooker)

1 small knob of cold butter ( salted or unsalted)

A few drips of light soya sauce (Shoyu)

1.  Ladle the warm steam rice, preferably straight from the rice cooker, into a small bowl.

2.  Place a small knob of butter (about 1 tsp - a pinky finger size) onto the rice.

3.  Let the rice warm the butter for about 30 s, use the chopstick to wrap the butter round the rice a little. (Do not microwave !!!).  The butter will melt a little into a creamy texture.  If you microwave, it will turn into oil and separate into the milk solids and oil instead and the taste will be different.

4.  Drip a few drips of shoyu on it.  Stir the butter, rice and shoyu together and serve.

Notes:

• Soya Sauce.  I prefer to use Japanese soya sauce that has been traditionally brewed not Chinese soya sauce.  If you look at the ingredients and compare you will know why. Let us also look at the manufacturing traditional soy sauce and the chemical soya sauce.  (You can skip this part, if you are not interested in the Sciences.)

• Generally,  Japanese soy sauce is made from wheat, soy beans and salt and goes through two fermentation phases of a few months.  During the first fermentation phase, the Aspergillus mold produces enzymes that will break down wheat starch into sugars, wheat and soy proteins into amino acids and seed oils into fatty acids. Salt brine, yeasts and lactic bacteria is added before the second fermentation phase and in the second phase, the bacterial and enzymes work together and react with each other to produce sugars and ammino acids forming roasty-smelling pyrazines, acids and alcohols which combine together to form fruity esters.  The raw sauce then goes through high-temperature pasteurisation which further encourages browing reactions between amino acids and sugars.  (McGee, 2004) What results is a naturally brewed soya sauce which nutrients have been broken down properly for absorption by the body that is also concentrated, mouth-filling and full of unami.

• In contrast, most of the Chinese soya sauce I find the supermarkets seemed to be the industrially produced chemical soy sauce containing sodium benzoate which I read somewhere is carcinogenic.  (Ok, I am not sure about it, but the sodium benzoate makes me uncomfortable)   According McGee (2004), these soy sauce are produced by using concentrated hydrochloric acid to break down defatted soy meal. The caustic mixture is then neutralised with sodium carbonate, and flavoured and coloured with corn syrup, caramel, water and salt.  This results in a flat taste compared with the traditionally brewed soya sauce.  

• Somehow, I do not feel comfortable taking in so much chemicals for the industrially produced soy sauce so I always make sure I get those traditionally brewed, organically grown soy beans and I make sure I read the label.

• Butter.  Somehow different brands of butter produce different taste.  For me, I personally stick to Lurpark butter, the flavour carries a lot more depth and is less salty.  The aroma in baking is great too. On the down side, the price is usually about more than 20% more than the other butter.  So when there is sale I tend to stock up.  I usually keep in the fridge, but I read somewhere recently they can be kept in a freezer for a longer period.