otah and vegetable bun

Recently, I stir-fried some otah-otah with vegetables and used the ingredients as the filling for a sandwich for Da's and my dinner.

As I had additional ingredients leftover, I decided to bake some bread buns using the ingredients as the filling.

I am not an expert at baking bread. Sometimes, my bread turns out fine. Sometimes, it does not. This is even when I use the same recipe. I have often wondered whether this has anything to do with the freshness of the yeast that I am using. More likely than not, it is simply a case of "practice makes perfect". Just like what I went through since my teenage years with my experience with baking cakes, I believe that I just need to get the hang of baking perfectly fluffy bread every time.

This post essentially comprises 2 recipes:-

(a) the otah and vegetable filling

(b) the bread bun

The recipe for the bread bun provides for grated parmesan cheese to be sprinkled on top of the bread dough just before baking. Feel free to omit this step if you are not fond of grated parmesan cheese. Although I always keep a bottle of grated parmesan cheese in the refrigerator, I am personally not fond of grated parmesan cheese as I find it very salty. As such, my bottle of grated parmesan cheese is usually consumed by dinner guests who sprinkle the cheese over spaghetti, lasagne or pizza that I have cooked.

You can adapt the recipe to bake other types of bread buns. Have fun experimenting!

Ingredients (for the filling)

1 egg
1 piece otah-otah (thawed)
Worcestershire sauce
bacon bits
mixed herbs
1 tbsp chopped garlic
oil (for frying) - I use a mixture of sunflower and canola oil
2 sticks of celery (sliced)
4 dried Chinese mushrooms (sliced)
1 wedge of Laughing Cow cheese

Method (filling)

1. Beat the egg. Add the thawed otah-otah to the egg and stir well. Add Worcestershire sauce to taste. Sprinkle some bacon bits and mixed herbs. Mix well and set aside.

2. Heat a frying pan and stir-fry the chopped garlic with some oil.

3. Add the celery and mushrooms and stir-fry.

4. Add the egg/otah mixture to the frying pan and mix well.

5. Break a wedge of cheese into small pieces and add to the mixture. Continue to fry until the ingredients have softened and are cooked. Set aside and allow to cool down.

Ingredients (bread bun)

500g bread flour

15g fine sugar

10g salt

20g dry yeast

320g water

dash of dried rosemary leaves

dash of ground cinnamon

25g unsalted butter (softened)

2 eggs

grated parmesan cheese

Method (bread bun)

1. Mix the bread flour, sugar, salt, yeast, water, 1 egg, dried rosemary leaves and ground cinnamon with an electric mixer using the dough hook at low speed for 1o minutes.

2. Switch the electric mixer to high speed and continue mixing for 10 minutes until all the ingredients are well mixed. If the dough is sticky, add a little bread flour.

3. Add the butter into the mixture.

4. Continue mixing until the butter disappears into the mixture.

5. To test if the dough is ready, pinch a small portion and stretch it lightly. If it does not tear, it is ready. Otherwise, continue mixing until the dough is ready.

6. Cover the mixing bowl with a cling wrap and let it rest for 25 minutes at room temperature.

7. Divide the dough into small portions (see photograph below). Shape the portions into balls and roll out on a lightly floured board. Place a tablespoonful of ingredient in the middle of the flattened dough and shape into round balls.

8. Place the buns on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Make sure that the buns are placed far apart from each other so that they will not stick together. Let the rolls rest.

9. When the buns have doubled in size, beat 1 egg and brush onto the buns.

10. Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese on top of the buns. (Comment: I will omit this step if I am baking the buns for personal consumption. I am not fond of grated parmesan cheese as I find it very salty.)

11. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 180 degrees celsius for 15 minutes. Let the buns cool for 20 minutes before you serve the buns with a piping hot cup of coffee or tea.