breakfast wraps

Instead of the usual weekday bread toast with peanut butter and jam, we start off our weekend with these simple breakfast tortilla wraps.

This delicious breakfast treat is so easy to throw together on a lazy Sunday morning...even if your are only half awake ;)



Breakfast Wraps
(serves 4)

Ingredients:

4 tortilla wraps (I used wholemeal wraps)
4 slices of breakfast ham
4 slices of cheddar cheese
some butter
some dried parsley flakes

Method:

* Cut tortilla wraps into halves.
* Cut breakfast ham and cheese slices diagonally.
* Place one piece of ham and one piece of cheese onto the wrap (as shown). Fold into half. Repeat with the rest of the wraps.
* Heat a frying pan on medium-low heat.
* For each folded wrap, spread some butter on the surface. Sprinkle with dried parsley flakes. Place buttered surface down on the hot frying pan. Spread the other side of the wrap with butter (facing up in the pan), sprinkle with dried parsley flakes. (You could also skip this step and simply put some butter in the pan and pan fry the wraps, but I find this method helps reduce fumes, due to the low smoke point of butter, to the minimal.)
* Flip over the wrap and cook till both sides are golden. Repeat the same for the rest of the wraps. Serve warm.

Recipe source: adapted from Good Morning! 每天都要吃早餐: 10分鐘就能上桌的小確幸早餐提案'

street food at home

During our last trip to South Korea, we had chance to sample the various street food such as hoddeok, tornado potato, waffles and toasted sandwiches. There is this particular street food, Gyeran Bbang, or egg bread, which I had wanted to try. It looks somewhat like a muffin topped with an egg. I first chanced upon it on a travel and food website while I was planning for the trip. I thought my elder son would like it since he loves eggs...in any form.

Ironically, even though we passed by street vendors selling gyeran bbang on a few occasions, we didn't get to try it! We were either too full after our dinners or we were too tired and cold...all we wanted to do was to get back to our warm and cosy hotel room!


In order to satisfy my cravings for Korean food, I have been looking up for recipes to replicate some of the Korean dishes at home. I first saw a gyeran bbang recipe over at Aeri's Kitchen, the egg breads look exactly like the ones we saw along the streets in Seoul. I have planned to follow the recipe but hesitated because I don't have that unusual oval-shaped muffin pan, in fact, I don't even own a normal muffin pan. I have thought of baking them in paper muffin cups, but when I stumbled upon another version (with the egg on top) from K Food Addict, it struck me that I could actually use my ramekins to bake these egg breads!



So, one fine Saturday morning, I got down to prepare these egg breads first thing in the morning. It was rather quick and easy, I took only 15 mins to get everything into the oven. Breakfast was ready in no time!



I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious the egg bread turned out. The eggs were not overcooked as we really prefer runny egg yolks. The 'bread' texture was on the dense side, not as fluffy as muffins, but instead reminds me of pancakes. I will certainly make these again since they are so tasty and yet easy to put together!


Korean Egg Bread (Gyeran Bbang)

Ingredients:
(makes 6)

for batter:
100g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
120ml (1/2 cup) fresh milk

for filling:
6 small eggs
1 bacon slice (chopped into small pieces)
some salt
dried parsley flakes (optional)
some ground pepper

some butter (for greasing)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degC.
2. Grease the inside of 6 ramekins (6 oz size ramekins) with butter, set aside. 
3. Place plain flour, baking powder, sugar an salt in a mixing bowl. Stir with a manual balloon whisk to combine.
4. Add in eggs and vanilla extract, stir with the whisk. The mixture will come together and turn dry and lumpy.
5. Add in the milk little by little, keep stirring with the whisk until the batter becomes smooth (no more lumps).
6. Pour batter into the prepared ramekins, fill each ramekin to about 1/3 full (Note: do not fill more than 1/3 full as it will overflow).
7. Crack a small egg into each ramekin. Top with chopped bacon, a sprinkle of salt and parsley flakes.
8. Bake for 10~15 mins until the eggs are set. (Note:  If you prefer runny yolks, check at around 10 to 12 mins, remove from oven when the egg whites start getting set, turning white. The eggs will continue to cook further even when removed from the oven. )
9. Serve warm with freshly ground black pepper.

Note: use small eggs to prevent overflow.

Recipe source: Kfoodaddict.com

weekend breakfast

I know, it is only mid-week, pardon me for blogging about a weekend breakfast (*^_^*)

For me to be able to post this before the end of the week is already quite an achievement. There are so many things I want need to do, but most of the time, I can't accomplish all that I have planned for the week. Well, I'll have to learn to be less ambitious and lower my expectations for myself.

We don't have the luxury of having a lazy breakfast on a weekend morning as we have to leave the house early. But, over the last weekend, I managed to prepare something extraordinary for my children (at least it was not the usual sandwich slices with nutella). This egg gratin or baked eggs in ramekins dish was almost like a light brunch. My elder child loves eggs...be it hard boiled, soft boiled, sunny side ups, omelette or scrambled, just give him eggs and he will be happy. This meal is prepared specially for him and I know his brother will enjoy it too ;)

I didn't manage to get a picture of the inside...but underneath the 'supposedly soft and runny' egg lies a bed of stir-fried garlic, mushrooms and ham. I over baked the eggs a little, on purpose actually, allowing the yolks to be almost fully cooked through, just to play safe. As a result, it didn't look anywhere close to the photo illustration in the cookbook, which shows a very fluffy, almost pop-out-of-the-page, soft-boiled egg texture. Mine turn out to be as flat as pancake, but the middle of the yolk was still soft albeit not too runny. One special thing to note is, the eggs are cooked over a hot-water bath. I googled and read from here that the purpose is to allow the eggs to set nicely.

This dish is not as time consuming to prepare even though it requires cooking over a stove. As long as you mentally run through the steps involved, this meal can be pulled together in less than 30 minutes, much less if you have extra pairs of hands, but I am too 'kind' to wake up my kids to ask them to help up on a weekend morning.

Both my kids enjoyed the meal, they find the mushrooms and ham fillings really tasty. Of course, I have learned not to over cook the eggs, I am sure a softer and fluffier texture will wake up every single sleepy cell in their bodies ;)



Baked Eggs in Ramekins

Ingredients:
(serves 2)

1/4 yellow onion coarsely chopped (I replaced with 2-3 cloves garlic, minced)
4 button mushrooms, coarsely sliced
2 slices of hams, diced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I replaced with one knob of butter)
2 eggs
some salt and freshly grounded black pepper
some butter for greasing

Method:

- Preheat oven to 180degC.
- Grease two ramekins with some butter and set aside.
- Heat the vegetable oil (or butter) in a frying pan, add in chopped onions and cook till the onions softened (or saute garlic till fragrant). Add in sliced mushrooms, diced ham and saute till mushroom is cooked. Season with some salt and pepper.
- Divide the cooked mushroom and ham mixture into the two prepared ramekins*. Crack one egg into each ramekin. Sprinkle some salt and freshly grounded pepper on top of the egg.
- Place the ramekins inside a baking pan or baking dish. Pour hot water into the baking pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekin. Carefully, carry baking pan to the oven, position it in the middle rack (note: the ramekins may slide when you carry it). Bake for 10~14 mins or until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny. Remove from oven immediately as the eggs will continue to set. Since every oven works differently, after 10mins of cooking, check every minute for doneness. Depending on how you want your eggs to be done, extend cooking time for another 1 to 2 mins as desired.   Serve immediately with toast or warm bread.

*size of my heart-shape ramekin: fills /2/3 cup (160ml) of water

Recipe Source: adapted from Cafe Brunch 星期天的料理时光

Our Weekend Breakfast

Our weekday breakfast foods are usually quick and simple...nothing beyond the usual bread with peanut butter, or the occasional slice of cake. Only during the weekends, I can afford the time to prepare something hot and delicious for my family.

I cooked this egg over toast over one of the past weekends. My elder boy likes sunny-side-ups. For a lousy cook like me, it is a challenge to cook it the way he likes his eggs done! That is, the yolk has to be slightly undercooked so that it will ooze out like golden lava when he pricks the 'sun' with a fork. Most of the time, the yolk already broke in the frying pan. If it is lucky enough to survive under my spatula, I would probably over cooked it (^^')

Nevertheless, no matter how it turned out, my child would still savor each morsel of his breakfast as though it was the most delicious food he has ever had. Am I asking too much if I were to blame my very forgiving children for my terrible cooking skills?!

My younger child, on the other hand, likes his eggs scrambled. The toast was a slice of homemade wholemeal bread I made using the tangzhong or water roux method.

Since I am watching my diet, I skipped the eggs and opted for some oven roasted cherry tomatoes to go with my toast. It is a simple dish to prepare with just a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. I used my small toaster as it heats up so fast that no preheating is required.

I will be updating my blog less regularly as the year draws to a close. I will be shutting down my kitchen by the end of next month as I am planning for a major make over, or rather, an overhaul of my entire house. I do hope I could still find time to do a little baking at my 'rented' kitchen.

In the mean time, I am calling all local home bakers, do let me know if you know of a good basic build-in oven to recommend. Yes, I am planning to get a bigger oven...50 litres compared to my current 20 litres is big! I really hope I am able to bake better cakes and bread with a better oven :)  

10 min breakfast

It is a fact that homemade bread doesn't keep well, it ages at a pretty fast rate. I will be lucky if the bread I made would stay soft for two days. In order to keep homemade bread fresh, I usually store them in an airtight container...almost right away when it feels cool to the touch. Homemade bread dries up quickly so it is best not to leave them out in the open for too long. For any left over bread that I need to keep for another day, I will even wrap it up with cling wrap before storing in the container.

Yet, there are times when the bread I made didn't turn out soft even on the day it was baked. So besides following the same storing method as above, I will usually toast the bread just before serving. This will make the bread taste so much better. If I were in a hurry, the quickest method is to place a slice of bread over my cup of hot coffee. The steam from the coffee will provide moisture and soften the bread right away.

If we have the luxury of a late breakfast, I would even make a 'grilled' sandwich.

This banana nutella sandwich is made with my two day old banana bread. It is something very quick and easy to prepare, everything can be done in less than 10mins. The most important thing is, it tastes really delicious. Besides nutella, I have also tried it with peanut butter, which is equally good. I 'grilled' the sandwich in my non-stick frying pan, there is no need to add oil or butter. Simply heat up the pan, and grill it. The only thing to note is, the toast browns within seconds, so do check the underside and keep a close watch. Flip the sandwich over with a spatula once it starts to brown. Press it down a little with the back of the spatula, and within the next few seconds, you are ready to serve it.

Do let me know if you have any tips on keeping homemade bread fresh :)