Accidental Salt-Free Pandesal

Tonight i reached a milestone in my baking life. I made pandesal from scratch. Without a bread machine. I would have pat myself on the back if remembered to put salt on it (facepalm!!!!).

Making the dough wasn't the hardest part. It's the waiting game that irks me. Total waiting time for the dough to rise? 2 hours!

And of course baking time requires another 30-40 minutes.

and a minute or two for it to cool

Voila! Serve it with a laughing cow. (I deserve it, I know)

Reposting the recipe from this site. It turned out great even without the salt hehehe.

Ingredients

• 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
• ¼ cup warm water
• 1 cup lukewarm milk << i used low fat evaporated milk
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature
• ½ cup sugar << i used brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt  << please do not forget this!!
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 ½ cups all purpose flour or more as necessary << i used bread flour
• Breadcrumbs << i used pulverised panko bread crumbs

Instructions

1. Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup warm water in a big bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes, and then stir well.
2. In a bowl, combine milk, butter, eggs, sugar and salt.
3. Add milk mixture and 2 cups flour into the yeast mixture. Beat with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until smooth. Gradually stir in remaining flour, adding more if necessary.
4. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface. Knead dough, adding flour as necessary, until dough is smooth, elastic and no longer sticky (around 10 minutes).
5. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour or until double in size.
6. Transfer dough to a lightly floured board. Divide dough into 24 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, roll in breadcrumbs and place in a baking pan lined with wax paper.
7. Cover with a cloth and let rise for at least one hour or until almost double in size.
8. Bake in 225 degree F oven for 20 minutes and then increase the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for another 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
9. Serve and enjoy!

Quick and Easy Tuna Pasta

With our crazy schedule this past few weeks, I can no longer afford to cook food that takes an hour or more to prepare. Rudel was also in no mood to wash the dishes. But after living on Kopitiam food for two straight weeks i couldn't take it anymore. I'm cooking!

And since we have no time to go to the grocery either i ransacked our pantry and found 1) chili corned tuna, 2) a can of chopped tomatoes and linguine. Hmmm... Tuna Pasta it is!

Side story: I've been on a hunt for canned tomatoes that isn't too sour. I've tried popular brands like Del Monte, Hunts, Heinz but all failed my taste test. Then i finally tried Cirio which i found in Fair Price Plus, Tampines. I've  never heard of this brand before but it said on the label that it was from Italy so it's worth a try i figured. 

It was indeed. It wasn't too sour and has a hint of natural sweetness of the tomatoes. Bingo!



I sautéed about a tsp. of garlic in a tsp of olive oil until lightly brown then added the tuna.  Finally, add the tomatoes then stir. Add about 1/4 cup of hot water (i reused the water from the pasta) and a some salt and pepper. Simmer for about 5 minutes and you're done. Easy peasy


Here's how it turned out. And oh I got to use some fresh basil from my mini garden (kilig!).