May 21, 2012

No Knead Bread | Making Bread in Humid Hong Kong

bread making, ceramic pot, homemade bread, hong kong, humid weather, humidity, making bread, making bread in hong kong, no knead bread
By Published: 2012-05-21
Making your own bread is one of those things where the pursuit of it can easily become an obsession.  As for myself, I wouldn't admit that I'm obsessed with making bread but rather that the idea of making your own bread will obsess me at times.  

Months, even years, will pass, I will solemnly forswear the laborious and not usually very rewarding effort of making bread and then suddenly, boom, it will creep back into my mind, this idyllic vision of a happy house wrapped in the warm wondrous aroma of baking bread that I have made with my own hands.  And suddenly I am in the kitchen again, covered from head to toe in white flour with a happy grin on my face.  

I love making bread, it's really fun in a weird, self torturing way, it's just too bad that my bread usually comes out pretty inedible, actually sometimes as hard as a rock.  But hey, it's definitely useful as a weapon, that's for sure, especially if I've tried to make baguettes shapes.  'Don't make me angry!  You won't like me when I'm angry!'

My very latest round of experiments in bread making is with the famous No Knead Bread recipe in Jim Lahey's book which I finally got around to trying after hearing about it for the longest time.  What an interesting recipe!  No kneading at all, just a little yeast and a long long fermentation time.

May 18, 2012

Blueberry Ice Cream | No Machine Needed

blueberry, blueberry ice cream, homemade, fruit, ice cream, no machine, recipe
By Published: 2012-05-18
Now that the long hot summer is finally hitting Hong Kong hard, it is a perfect opportunity to make lots of ice cream!  What could be better on a hot day than a tasty, sugary, icily cool and smooth homemade ice cream?  Especially, if you ask me, if that ice cream is fruit based.  There's something about the sweet/sour nature of fruit that makes anything fruity to be so refreshing.  

Recently we have tried blueberry ice cream and really, really liked it.  It was easy to make, didn't need egg yolks and was super duper tasty and the most beautiful hue of violet that you have ever seen.  I really like food that looks really amazingly beautiful naturally.  It just looked too gorgeous to eat, really, but what the hey, we ate all of it in a day or so!