Cream Pan filled roll

It’s a slightly complex recipe – not so much in the cooking but in the shaping of the dough into the required shape, but stick with it and you’ll be well rewarded.

You will need the following:

For the dough…..

• 200g all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 tbsp butter
• 4 tsp sugar

For the yeast…..

• 2 tsp active dry yeast
• 120 ml warm water
• pinch of sugar

For the cream…..

• 240ml full cream milk
• 60g sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

To make the cream:

1. Leaving the vanilla and small amount of egg wash to one side, gently heat and mix all the ingredients in a saucepan for several minutes until it starts to boil and thicken.
2. Take the mixture off the heat and finely strain the result into a bowl and slowly mix in the vanilla extract.
3. Cover the cream with cling film and let it cool.

To make the dough and yeast:

Part One

1. In a small container mix together the warm water, yeast and sugar until the yeast has dissolved and mixture thickens.
2. Whisk the egg and strain it to remove any lumps.
3. Now use an electric mixer to blend the dough ingredients, the whisked egg and the yeast mixture until it reaches a doughy consistency.
4. When you are able to knead it, spend at least 10 minutes doing so until it reaches an elastic consistency.
5. Form the dough into a large ball and place it in a bowl lined with butter.  Cover with cling film.
6. Leave for up to 1.5 hours or until the dough is around twice its original size.

Part Two

Bring the dough back on to a floured work surface and allow it to deflate.

Use a rolling pin to form a square of about 9 x 11 inches.

With the longer side of the square facing you, fold the top third (3 inches) down and then fold over again so you have a triple thickness length.

Cut this length into 8 equal chunks and for each one, do the following -

Create a ball and use a rolling pin to create a 5 inch circle.

Place 1/8 of the cream mixture into the centre of the dough and fold the disk in half, gently sealing the edges.  If you like, use an implement to indent the edge to give the finished product that ‘Cornish Pasty’ look.

When you have eight completed items, cover them with cling film again and allow them to rise until they have doubled in size as before.

Now use a small brush to coat the dough with the egg wash you saved from earlier and place them in a pre-heated oven at 400°F (200°C) for around 10 minutes or until they become brown.

Remove from the oven and allow them to cool.  That’s it!

Azuki Beans

Ingredients:

• 30 ounces of Azuki beans
• 4 fluid ounces (fl. oz.)/1/2 cup of water
• 8 ounces of suger
• 2 teaspoons of salt

Preparation Method:

1. To start with, empty the tin(s) of beans into a strainer to get rid of the water.
2. Now place the dried Azuki beans into a mixing bowl and add half the water (2 fl. oz.). Ideally using an electric mixer, mix the beans until there are no lumps remaining and you are left with a smooth paste.
3. Place the resulting substance into a saucepan and add the remaining water.  Using a low heat, bring the beans to the boil, stirring often to maintain the consistency.
4. As the first few bubbles appear, place a saucepan lid on the top but check the mixture every so often so you can remove the pieces of bean skin and any other impurities.
5. Now add the sugar and the salt, making sure to keep stirring the mixture until everything is mixed in .  Eventually it will become thicker and sticky so remove it from the heat and allow it to cool off.
6. One it has cooled down, it is now ready for use!  Make sure you keep it in the fridge when not in use; alternatively it can be frozen for use in the future.

Azuki Bean paste

Now it can be added to a wide range of Japanese desserts such as pancakes, ice cream and fruit.

So it’s probably fair to explain exactly what Zen is from a more prosaic level and then you can make your own decision as to whether it applies to what we write about.

The term Zen derives of course from Zen Buddhism, a branch of Mahayana Buddhism which can be dated all the way back to 7th century China.  The development of this school is credited to a South Indian prince or possibly a Persian who became a monk called Bodhidharma.  Making his way to China around the 7th century, he began to develop his own form of Mahayana Buddhism.  Records from the period are sketchy but Chán is understood to have been the early name for this new school; over the millennia it has morphed into the term Zen.

Bodhidharma scroll

The link between India, China and Central Asia is a fascinating one in this period.  When trading between the regions began as borders were crossed, the development of the Silk Road began; the vast network of routes that brought merchants and their goods from one region to another.  It was along these routes that Indian monks originally brought the message of Buddhism to the settlements and towns along the way – reaching as far as China in the decades before Bodhidharma made the journey.

Evidence of Buddhist art and other religious relics have been discovered at ancient sites in many places along the Silk Road, most notably in sites which border the western edge of the Taklamakan desert in western China.

So when you eat a ‘Zen’ labelled meal or ‘Zen’ denoted drink, ponder the origins of the term and why we describe it as such.

Starting at the beginning though, Bingyi Yang was a Chinese national who fled the Chinese Civil War in 1948 and made his way to Taiwan, along with many others.  He found work at the HengTaiFung cooking oils store and was soon in charge of the accounting side of the business.  Unfortunately by the time the now married Yang was 31, the cooking oils store was out of business.

DinTaiFung

Consequently Yang and his wife (Penmai Lai) decided to start their own oils business and named it DinTaiFung.  The name was a contraction of the name of the cooking oils store and the oils wholesaler (DinMei Oils).  They soon managed to obtain a shop front on Xinyi Road and this remains their main restaurant site to this day.  When the cooking oils business began to slow down with the introduction of tinned salad oil in the early 1980s, Yang and his wife knew they would have to diversify.

Steamed dumplings were the answer and half of the shop on Xinyi Road was given over to

Steamed Pork Dumplings

producing these delicacies.  The high quality of the produce soon meant that without any advertising, Yang and Lei were immensely popular and word of mouth brought many customers to their shop.  This was the beginning of an Asia wide brand which is still going from strength to strength today.  The Xinyi Road restaurant still has the original characters in place on the shop front.

It wasn’t until 1996 that expansion began outside Taiwan with the Shinjuku Restaurant in

Drunken Chicken

Tokyo although by this time the New York Times had named them as one of the world’s top ten gourmet restaurants.  Three more opened in Japan within the next few years – Yokohama, Kumamoto and Nagoya before their appeal extended to Los Angeles in the United States in 2000.

We don’t need to list every single restaurant here but suffice to say there are dozens in Asia plus the six or so branches in the United States and three in Australia.  Us Europeans will have to wait a bit longer to sample the delights of DinTaiFung.

So what’s the food like then?  It’s Asian cuisine but absolutely top quality, gourmet

Eight Treasure Glutinous Rice

cuisine.  The dumplings are still immensely popular and there are nine different varieties; the steamed pork dumplings are a personal favourite.  There’s a wide variety of rice and noodle dishes, we particularly like the braised beef noodle soup and the fired rice with eggs and shrimp.  For an unusual ‘special’, you can’t go too far wrong with the ‘drunken chicken’.

Ready for a dessert?  It’s strictly Asian here and although some of the dishes may not look like desserts from a Western perspective, all of them are well worth a try.  On our last visit to the Bangkok branch at Central World we had a go at the superb ‘ eight treasure glutinous rice’.  This is an entire brand with the Zen seal of approval

San Antonio was the destination of choice for the first tourists in the 1970s and in 1978 three gentlemen from the Canary Islands arrived and immediately saw the potential for the spot on the rocks on the West side of the island.  Not much expense was spared in the decoration of the new venue and the idea was to fit the space and the music to complement the location and the sunset.

This was no shack on the beach and after building began in 1979, it took almost two years to complete the development; the Cafe del Mar finally opened it’s doors on 20th June 1980.  It was an almost immediate success, drawing tourists and locals from all over the island to the evening sunset ‘events’ and this necessitated the need for some music to complement the environment.

Cafe del Mar

By necessity the music was ambient, a nightly combination of blues, jazz and classical music which soon attracted famous musicians prepared to join the party.  As time progressed, the late 1980s saw the transformation of Ibiza into a dance music destination and the Cafe del Mar followed suit, inviting guest DJs and using it’s own residents to spin the vinyl and provide the chilled out accompaniment to the evening’s sunsets.

For many years, the cafe sold it’s own session tapes almost from the DJ booth (I have a 1994 version myself).  When CD production became easier towards the end of the 1990s, the cafe began to sell it’s mixes as a separate income stream and dozes of volumes have now been mixed and released.  It could even be argued that the term ‘Balearic ambient’ originated from this famous location.

For fans of the Zen culture, the Cafe del Mar should be everyone’s bucket list.

One of Zen China’s big draws is it’s location; situated on London’s famous South Bank it is seconds away from the London Eye to the East and the London Sea Life Aquarium to the left.  This provides it with a view over the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament and Big ben across the water.

It’s actually situated inside the County Hall building on the Riverside and you’ll need to follow the instructions on their website to fid your way up the stairs to the first floor restaurant.  Once there you can begin to peruse the extensive menu; Zen China has it’s specialities which are Beijing hand-made dumplings, Beijing authentic roasted duck and Fresh Lobsters but also on offer is a great variety of Chinese and Asian cuisine.

Fish at Zen China

To start with the soup menu includes six or seven varieties of which we enjoyed the Hot and Sour with Duck and Shrimp.  The Zen China seafood platter was our choice of starter but there at least ten individual dishes to choose from.  For the main courses there is an impressive array of dishes featuring duck, various types of seafood, beef, lamb, chicken and, for the vegetarians, tofu.

The decor is perhaps slightly more traditional than some of our previous restaurant reviews but visitors won’t be disappointed by the interior.  Check out the picture below for an interior view:

Zen China Interior

For the location the prices are very reasonable; the most expensive dish comes in at less then £20 and during the week cheaper deals are available.  If you’re planning a visit to London or work in the area, give Zen China a try.

The ingredients shown are based on one person but are easy to double up if you’re cooking for the whole family.

Serves 1.  Takes less than thirty minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to 1 hour cooking time.

Ingredients

For the miso soup

• 5cm piece of kombu seaweed
• 1½ teaspoon of dashi powder
• 2½cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 tablespoon of white miso paste
• pinch of caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons of sweetened sake or rice wine
• 75 grams of tofu, cubed into 1cm pieces

For the stir-fried greens

• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
• 4 shittake mushrooms, sliced
• 2 heads of bok choi, sliced in quarters
• 75 grams of kale, shredded
• 1 small courgette, sliced
• 50 grams of sugar snap peas
• 2 tablespoons of Japanese soy sauce
• 40 grams of enoki mushrooms, broken into pieces
• 4 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon of shichimi pepper
• 1 teaspoon of seasame seeds
• 1 x 150 gram packet of udon noodles

Preparation Method

1.  For the miso soup, place a saucepan of water over a medium heat and add the kombu seaweed.  Add the dashi powder, stir and leave to simmer for a few minutes.

2. Add the grated ginger, white miso paste, sugar and sweet sake. Taste and adjust the amount of sugar or sake if necessary. Keep warm.

3. For the stir-fried greens, heat a wok with a little vegetable oil until shimmering.  Add the sliced garlic and fry gently for 10 seconds. Tip in the sliced mushrooms, bok choi, kale, courgette and sugar snap peas.

4. Keep stirring the contents of the wok and cook for two minutes or so, then add the soy sauce, enoki mushrooms and most of the spring onions.  Fry the vegetables until slightly softened, then add all the schicimi pepper and sesame seeds.

5. Bring a large saucepan, filled with water, to the boil.  Drop the udon noodles into the boiling water and cook for a few minutes, or until heated through, and then drain.

6. To finish the soup, add the tofu cubes to the soup mixture at this stage.

7. To serve, lay the udon noodles in the bottom of a bowl, place the stir-fried greens on top and then ladle over the miso soup. Garnish with the reserved spring onion and a pinch of  shichimi pepper and sesame seeds.

Miso is still very widely used in Japan, both in traditional and modern cooking, and has been gaining world-wide interest. There is a very wide variety of miso available which can be daunting for the novice buyer, but many supermarkets and most specialist shops will stock a basic selection. Here are the most common types:

Light-yellow miso or “Shinshu” miso

This is the most common type of miso and is relatively mild in flavour. It’s very versatile and can be used in all types of dishes.

Red miso or “Aka” miso

This variety actually ranges in colour from red to dark brown and has a strong, salty flavour. As with the light-yellow miso, it is very versatile and suited to all types of dishes, such as soups, dressings, dips and in cooked dishes.

Sweet white miso or “Shiro” miso

This is a sweeter variety and lighter in taste, colour and texture. It’s fermented for a much shorter time (two to eight weeks) compared to other miso types, which are typically fermented for three years or more.  It is more suited for use in salad dressings, spreads and marinades.  Light-yellow or red miso should not be substituted in recipes that call for sweet white miso.

“Hatcho” miso

This is probably the highest regarded and therefore the most expensive miso as it is only made from soya beans and a special type of koji.

“Mugi” miso

This is made from barley and soya beans. and is good in soups and stews.

Brown rice miso or “Genmai” miso

As the name suggests it is made from brown rice and soya beans, and has a rich, earthy, and slightly nutty flavour.

Miso is a part of many Japanese-style meals. It most commonly appears as the main ingredient of miso soup, which is eaten daily by much of the Japanese population and is considered a fundamental unit of Japanese cuisine.

Miso is also used in many other types of soup and souplike dishes, and in our next post we will share with you a delicious recipe for Miso soup with Udon noodles.

There are other versions of this soup made with seafood (tom kha thale), mushrooms (tom kha het), pork (tom kha mu) and tofu (tom kha taohu) but today we are going to share with you a recipe for the chicken version which is ideal for chilly Autumn nights and is a great way of using up leftover chicken or turkey.

It is also so easy to prepare and is on the table in less than thirty minutes.

Serves 2.  Takes less than fifteen minutes to prepare and ten minutes cooking time.

Ingredients

• 50 grams of flat rice noodles
• 1 x 400ml tin of half-fat coconut milk
• 300ml of chicken stock
• a small chunk of root ginger, shredded
• 1 stalk of lemongrass (woody outer leaves discarded), chopped
• 1 red chilli, shredded
• 200 grams of cooked turkey or chicken breast, shredded or sliced
• 50 grams of mange tout, shredded
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
• handful of coriander leaves

Preparation Method

1. First, cook the noodles following the instructions on the packet. Drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.

2. Next, bring the coconut milk and stock to a simmer in a pan, add the ginger, lemongrass and half the chilli and simmer for 3 minutes.

3. Add the cooked chicken or turkey and mange tout and simmer for a further 2 minutes. Mix in the lime, sugar and fish sauce.

4. Divide the drained noodles between 2 bowls, ladle over the soup, then finish with the rest of the chilli and the coriander.

Serves 2.  Takes less than thirty minutes to prepare and ten to thirty minutes cooking time.

Ingredients

For the dumplings

• 25 grams of pork mince
• 8 medium shell-on raw prawns, peeled, de-veined, shells reserved, meat finely chopped
• 1 egg, separated and the white lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon of seasame oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 8 wonton pastry wrappers

For the Thai soup

• reserved prawn shells (see above)
• 2 stalks of lemongrass, bruised
• 10 lime leaves, roughly torn
• 1 centimetre piece of galangal, sliced
• juice of 3 limes
• Thai fish sauce, to taste
• 1 head of bok choi, chopped
• 100 grams of oyster mushrooms, sliced
• 3 to 4 chillies, to taste

To garnish

• 3-4 spring onions, finely sliced
• bunch of enoki mushrooms
• small handful of snow pea shoots
• drizzle of Asian chilli oil

Preparation Method

1. For the dumplings, mix together the pork, chopped prawn meat, egg white and sesame oil with a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Transfer to the fridge to chill and firm up.

2. For the soup, bring a pint of water to the boil.  Meanwhile, tip the prawn shells into a large saucepan and fry over a high heat for 2-3 minutes until they turn pink. Pour the boiling water over the prawn shells and add the lemongrass, lime leaves and galangal and bring back to the boil for 1-2 minutes.

3. Strain the contents of the pan into a clean pan and season, to taste, with fish sauce and lime juice. Keep warm.

4. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and blanch the bok choi for 30 seconds, or until softened. Drain.

5. To assemble the dumplings, lay a wonton wrapper on a board then take a spoonful of the filling and place it in the middle of the wrapper. Brush the egg yolk around the edge of the wrapper, place another wonton wrapper on top and gently press to seal the edges. Repeat with the remaining wonton wrappers and filling.

6. Cook the dumplings in a pan of boiling water for 2-3 minutes, or until they float to the surface, then drain and transfer into the soup. Add the oyster mushrooms and simmer for 30 seconds.

7. To serve, spoon the oyster mushrooms into the middle of soup plates. Place the blanched bok choi next to the mushrooms. Ladle the soup into the bowls and place the wontons on top of the mushrooms. Garnish with spring onions, enoki mushrooms, snow pea shoots and a drizzle of chilli oil and serve immediately.