Sandwiches stuffed with vegetables, spicy ham and melted cheese 

These sandwiches can be made with any simple bread recipe. Below is the recipe I used.

Prepare the ingredients you want to put inside the sandwiches such as fried eggplant, mushrooms, ham, red pepper, cheese, etc.and let cool if you have cooked them.

Bread recipe:
Bread flour 200 grams
Salt 3 grams
Instant dry yeast 3 grams
Water 130 grams
Butter 15 grams

1. In a bowl, sift together the flour and salt together. Add the yeast then mix in the water.

2. Use a bench scraper to mix and coat the flour. Put on a flat surface and knead for about 10  minutes. Dough should be soft but not sticky. Let rest under a bowl for about 10 minutes.

3. Lightly warm the butter in hands and then put on top of the dough and use a bench scraper to incorporate the butter. Knead again so that the bread is soft & supple. If tough, add a teaspoon of water or so and knead again. Put in a bowl and cover with wrap. Let rise in warm place for 60 minutes.

4. Divide the dough into 80 gram pieces. Roll each piece into a nice ball. Place on the kneading board and cover with plastic and let rise for 20 minutes (bench time).

5. Flatten each ball to remove the air then roll out flat and put some of the vegetable ingredients on one side of the bread and top with cheese and then fold over the other side of the bread and seal. Brush with egg.

6. Cover with plastic and place in a warm place. Should rise again for about 45 minutes.

7. Heat oven to 210 degrees Celsius. Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes until browned.

A little wine and salad to accompany the sandwich

This finished product with prep materials

Too long since the last post. Apologies. Life and work has been too busy:)

I have discovered Popovers! I tried making these a couple of years ago and must have had a bad recipe and they did not turn out well at all. This last week had to make popovers for a demonstration on a TV program and this time around they were much improved.

There are just a couple important points which ensure a successful batch of popovers everytime which I will share.

The recipe only has 4 ingredients so can't get much simpler than that.


Recipe:
(from Martha Stewart)

Have all of the ingredients at room temperature before combining! You can put the milk in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up if necessary.

Prepare the baking cups. Metal is preferred to paper. Ligthly butter and flour the inside of each cup.

3 eggs
220 grams (1 1/2 cups) milk
180 grams (1 1/2 cups) flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. In a bowl, sift together the flour and salt.
2. In another bowl, mix together the eggs and milk. Mix together with a whisk for 2 - 3 minutes until everthing is well combined.
3. Mix the flour/salt mixture into the milk mixture in portions using a whisk. Stir for 2 - 3 minutes until everthing is well combined. Do not over mix.
4. Heat the oven to 210 degrees Celsius and place the cups into the oven for about 6 minutes so that they are hot! The butter will become a little browned.
5. After heating the cups, pour the mixture into the cups about 1/3 full and return to the oven. Bake at 210 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes then reduce to 170 degrees Celsius for another 20 minutes to bake further. Do not open the oven while baking since the air will be released.
6. When finished baking, immediately remove from the baking cups and poke with a toothpick to release the air.

Marmalade goes very well with the Popovers

Baking together with new friend from NHK