Feeling nostalgic about bun

Thirty years ago in my hometown of Perak, we used to stay next door to a local bakery. Back then we as kid always saw those bakers kneading relentlessly on huge heavy dough every morning. One thing that always lingered deeply in my memory was the aroma of freshly baked bread. What a pleasant way to wake up every single morning. Of course my favorite loaf during those days was long loaf spread with sugary butter cream(additional cream pleaaaaaase) ...it cost 5cents for a cream loaf back then. Those were the bygone days.......
Back to present, all the nostalgic events of yesteryear has a deep implication especially on the food department(I mean FOOD department with capitals). So I decided to knead a sweet bread dough. Making bread is no easy task if one has no breadmaker. I hand knead it relentlessly like the traditional baker. Food made with effort always taste better in my humble opinion :-) [even if it's only 99.999% perfect]. And the reward sweet & fresh aroma of freshly baked bread lingering.......nostalgic....priceless.
So what to make of the filling? Easy, quick and yet tasty. I decided to have a go at making mini frankfurter roll (or well known sausage roll). This recipes good for making twelve, 3 inches long mini roll.

The sweet bread dough
Ingredients

• 150gm of white bread flour
• 150gm of plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 125ml fresh milk
• 50gm butter
• 40-60gm sugar (I used 40gm)
  
• 5gm fast action dried yeast
• 1 egg

Filling
Ingredients

• 4 six inches long frankfurter (cut into 3 sections, that makes 12)
• 1 egg for glazing the bread
• some sesame seed for decorating
  

1. Put the dried ingredient (flour, salt, sugar, yeast) into a mixing bowl.
2. Add in butter, egg and milk. Knead them. At this time you feel that it is sticky to your finger, no worry.
3. Prepare a flat surface like a chopping board, dust the surface with plain flour. Dust your finger with some flour as well so that it will be easier to knead the sticky dough.
   
4. Pour the mixture onto the work surface and continue to knead. Knead for 20-25mins when it feels elastic and smooth. Put it back to the mixing bowl cover with a piece of damp towel/cloth. (I leave it in the oven until the next morning, when it should have risen 3 times its original size)
5. Dust the work surface again and knead for 5mins once it has risen 3 times its original size.
   
6. Cut to portion of 50gm each and roll each into a strip of 2 inches wide x 4 inches long x 0.25inches thick.
   
7. Place a sausage at the end and roll it to the other end. Continue to do for the rest. Brush the roll with egg and drop some sesame seed onto the surface.
8. Prepare a baking tray and lay it with aluminium foil. Turn on oven to 190C and baked for 15mins.

Hurry hurry here comes my curry

It reads 13C as on my car thermostat at 6pm. All I could ever hope for at this moment is a bowl of spicy piping hot curry. Be it Thai green or red, Malaysian and even Indian curry I would be thrilled. Somehow I was not in a hurry to choose any particular curry. On any given day I can have Thai green curry for lunch and dinner and yet wanting more the next day.
Here I am given the choice to make myself a nice curry....Thai,Malaysian, Indian or rather the disputed British creation of Tikka Masala. So what have I got in my fridge? I have a cup of single cream, yogurt, pepper bell, chillies, onion and tandoori chicken breast meat. So by the looks of it, I have no other choice but to cook myself the sweet spicy Tikka Masala dish. Hope it is as good to cure my craving of Thai green curry. I could hear my hungry stomach rumbling " hurry, hurry all I need is curry" .... or am I hallucinating?..... you decide...

Recipes

Ingredients

• 300g ready made tandoori chicken breast(readily available in supermarket)
• 1 medium red onion, peeled and sliced
• ½ red pepper, deseeded and sliced
• ½ green pepper, deseeded and sliced
• 2 red chillies, deseeded and sliced (increase if more spicy required)
• a handful of fresh corriander chopped
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• a pinch of ground cinnamon
• a pinch of ground coriander
• a pinch of turmeric
• 1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes
• 100ml plain yoghurt
• 100ml double cream

Heat a pan, pour in vegetable oil, on a medium heat, fry the onion, peppers and spices in a large saucepan. Cook gently for 10 minutes then add the tin of tomatoes and the yoghurt. Add the chicken pieces and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked. Just before serving, stir through the cream and yougurt chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with briyani rice, poppadum and pickles.

The journey

It's been exactly 2years and 2 months since I left Singapore to UK soil. During the whole time I've been procrastinating about setting up my own blog to share with family and friends far and near. Having given the excuses like ''I am a Busy Bee'', ''Do I have time to maintain my blog?'', ''Will I have the so called overly ardent blog fans?'' and all the "how to" and "what to" follows etc etc. But one has to start somewhere, so here I am...............with the name of Apron's Delight.
A little background how Apron's Delight came about. Be patient, because I can be quite long winded if I wanted to.
When I actually set foot on British soil, it was with a feeling of excitement, here a new life ensue. Having made the decision to come here for good I hope, it would be defeated not to assimilate, observe, learn and be at ease with all the new culture has to offer. As once a wise man says : "you can at best come to grip with the problem and co-exist with them and when comfortable enough eventually, to feel you belong''. This does not mean one should trade away one's cultural heritage for another but rather a fusion of both cultures.
So food is one of them. Generally I love to eat and like to try my hand at new recipes. Baking has never been one of my cooking credentials, as it requires combination of good cooker and good skill. The horrid of baking failures like cake doesn't rise, cake over rise, hole in a middle, too dry, under cooked, etc etc sent me thousand miles away to hide and never want to put my hand into baking attempt. So one has to start small and start simple.It all begin with me baking some English summer fruits muffins to host afternoon tea to a friend (of course with hint of Englishness). The muffins turned out well, or rather "perfectly well" as my friend puts it(you get what I mean, golden brown and slightly crispy on the outside and moist in the inside). Each of us had our fill of 4 muffins each. One can't go unnoticed with the nice English rose apron I am wearing.....guess it boost my confidence or rather some kind of miracle bestow upon me that after all I can bake. An instant success and I now do bake once in awhile like pastries, breads and cakes. And conversation about setting up an tea place eventually , will named it Apron's Delight[noted only if I retired from my engineering job]. I owed my friend this piece of intelligent property , calling this site Apron's Delight. As I continue with my journey, I hope you all enjoy my recipes, my down to earth photography and once in awhile if I'm not Busy Bee with other commitments, I try my best to upkeep it. So stay tuned. Positive or even harsh critics are welcome. As one said, if all smooth sailing one will stop to grow.