Japanese Swiss Rolls

I had bought a japanese baking book about swiss rolls and the author is able to make pretty and cute patterns onto the swiss roll to turn them to gift worthy swiss rolls.

I  have attempted many times and failed many times too, but finally, I have made one that is presentable and here it is:

The only thing I will need to change for next time, is to make the brown skin colour a lot lighter so that the eyes actually stand out more!

I shall be posting more about the swiss rolls that I have tried making.

Satsuma-imo.

Lemon Posset with Raspberries

We went to Stroud market on the weekend and ended buying this traditional english dessert. For those who don't know, a posset is normally curdled hot milk mix with spices, it was often curdled with ale or wine. The modern day posset is a cold dessert made from cream and lemons.

Yam and Coconut Milk Loaf

Not another milk loaf?! :P I told you I loved milk loaves, so here's another variation whether you like it or not!

The recipe asked for yam essence to be used, well, I can't buy yam essence over here, but I can get purple yam paste. So I thought, "close enough" and bought it, hoping I would get a loaf that looked like the picture. It was close, but not close enough....

Hokkaido Milk Loaf

Well traditionally this milk loaf is made with the gorgeous, yummy milk from cows in Hokkaido, Japan. Unfortunately, because we all live in the UK, we can't get Hokkaido Milk. So, my Hokkaido milk loaf, in fact, contains milk from British cows :O! Now having actually spent some time in a Hokkaido dairy farm in Japan, and having tasted freshly baked bread made from this milk, I can say that it is one of THE best loaves I have ever had! Needless to say, I am willing to try anything in order to recreate this great tasty bread. So my milk loaf contains, milk (shock), cream, bread flour, sugar, egg, salt and yeast. I also added in a special ingredient, more on this later. After hrs of kneading, proofing and kneading and....proofing again, here is my finished result:

Gai Mei Bao

Gai Mei Baos are a common item to see in chinese bakeries. Basically, they are bread buns filled with this sweet, coconut, butter filling.

So I decided to test out this one recipe I found in a book for Gai Mei Bao and once again, my bread making skills aren't up to par yet! Damn you bread, why don't you ever rise properly for me?!

Papaya, Tomato and Potato Soup

Healthy Papaya, Tomato and Potato soup!

Now why would you make this soup I hear you ask? Well let me list the health benefits of each ingredient.

More Japanese Breads!

After browsing more pictures from our travels, I came across some more lovely pictures of tasty bread treats from Japan. Enjoy.....

Date and Fig Rye Bread

Hello! This is Aubergine here. The blog has been up and running for over a week now and I think it's about time for my first post. And what else could it be about other than bread; which I love to eat and love to make.

I started to make my bread because I wanted more control and variety in what I was eating. Like any other child raised in the UK, I've been brought up on your average supermarket sliced loaf made using the Chorleywood Process. To sum it up in a nutshell this is a method where manufacturers can churn out loaves as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Yes, the end result is a fluffy loaf with week-long mold resistance, but with all the additives in it what can it be doing to our bodies? I admit there are still times when I'm short of time and still willingly buy these breads. I hope that with practice I can eventually be the bread-winner bread-provider of the family. So please stick with me through my successes and failures and let's help each other out to be better bread-makers!

So without further ado I introduce my first bread of the week: the date and fig rye loaf.

Japanese Breads

I've just been browsing through our pictures from when we were in Japan and I want to eat some more of these breads!

Ahhh soooo craving for some, I must learn these recipes! How are they so creative when shaping these breads?! How I miss our daily trips to the bakery as well in Japan. :(

Club Sandwich

People who have ever had afternoon tea or 'ha mg cha' will know that the club sandwich, known as 'gung si sah man ji' in chinese, is a regular on restaurant menus. A club sandwich basically consists of two layers of fillings sandwiched between three slices of bread, normally toasted. Bacon, lettuce and tomato are normally the main ingredients in this but you can put whatever you like in it.

Yoo Moo Frozen Yogurt

Since the weather is getting warmer over here, what's better than a nice ice-cream or, in this case, a healthy frozen yogurt, to cool off.

We chanced upon this whilst browsing the ice cream section in the supermarket. UK brand Yoo Moo frozen yogurt.

The one I chose was coolly named 'tropicoolmoo' how creative!! :P Anyway this contained mango and passion fruit sauce along with mango pieces.

Looks yummy right?! It wasn't too sweet and the fruit sauce had a nice tartness to it and was a great contrast to the yogurt. What's even better is that it's not as fattening as ice-cream! Until I whip out my ice-cream machine from it's box, this is a good substitute until then!

Satsuma-imo.

Easy-Peasy Pizza

Who doesn't love pizza? Today I managed to sucessfully make a pizza from scratch and it only took me about 20 mins to make the dough. Yep that's right, there is no need to leave this dough to rise and so yo don't need to prepare hours in advance.

Before we get to the dough, let me share a recipe for the tomato sauce, since all good pizzas need a good sauce.

First off you need to get some passata (basically pureed tomatoes), you can get this from the supermarket. Let me list the ingredients I used for the sauce below:

Welcome to three2tea!

Good Afternoon readers,

Welcome to our brand new blog  that us three siblings will be updating with our tried and tested recipes. Look forward to our successes as well as our failures!

We all enjoy baking bread, cakes and other sweet treats in our spare time as well as cooking savoury meals inspired by our chinese roots or from our love of asian cooking in general.

As well as posting about our own cooking, we'll be updating everyone about foods that we have eaten or would like to eat from our travels.

So who are these three2tea bloggers then??

Well you have me, 'Satsuma-imo' (sweet potato), the oldest of the three (unfortunately). My achievements include making the hottest curry ever (experiment gone wrong - we had sinus problems after eating this) and also making the sweetest cake ever (we ended up having major headaches 15 mins after eating it) other than that I'd say I was a pretty good cook! :P My main interests lie in cake-baking, although I am now branching out into making breads. I'm also currently trying to learn more dim-sum recipes so I hope you'll join me in my adventures.

Next we have the middle child, 'Nasu' (aubergine), who I say is the bread artisan of the family! Her speciality is making bread and she has provided us with some delicious loaves, as well as some not so good ones *ahem* She also has a keen interest in cake baking and they tend to be on the healthier side as well. Nasu loves all foods related to Japan and she makes a mean melon pan!

Last but not least we have 'Negi' (spring onion), who is not only the youngest but also the only boy in the family. I'd also say he was the most spoilt of us three! Negi like Nasu loves making bread and baking cakes, that's if we can prise him away from his computer. Although still a newbie to the cooking world, he is improving tremendously, I still remember him making the world's ugliest scones back in the day.

Enough of the introductions! I'm sure you are all bored by now, let's get this food blog rolling................

Satsuma-imo.