Proofing Dough in the Oven


Date Published: July 12th, 2020 | Last Updated: July 12th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: how-to

I used to hate working with dough. No matter how hard I tried, when it came to the proofing stage where you leave your dough to rise or “double in size”, mine never did as it was supposed to no matter how closely I followed the recipe. Perhaps it was because I grew up in Canada where it was difficult to find a warm place for my dough to rise (central heating made sure we’re always at perfect room temperature) or maybe the humidity conditions were never right. Whatever the reason was, it was always disappointing to see the dough I spent half an hour hand kneading prior to still be a flat ball after even 2 or 3 hours of resting time.I avoided breads and pastries at all costs, until I stumbled upon this method of proofing dough. It’s so easy and fool-proof and best of all, it doesn’t matter what season or temperature your home is! All you need is some hot water and an oven.

Directions:

Get your dough ball and place it into a glass bowl. Put your bowl in the middle rack of the oven (make sure there’s enough room above your rack for the dough to rise).

Fill a flat baking dish halfway with boiling water and put it on the bottom rack of your oven. (The size of the tray doesn’t matter too much as long as it’s not too small since it’ll decrease the surface area).

Close the oven door and let the steam and heat from the hot water proof your dough for you. You do NOT need to turn your oven on at all during this process. That’s it! Easy, huh?

Leave your dough in the oven for the specified proofing time in your recipe. For proofing times more than an hour, I’d recommend refreshing the hot water in the pan after 1 hour.

Try not to open the oven while the dough is proofing because the warmth and steam will escape and will slow down your proofing process. If you must open your oven, do it quickly or just refresh the hot water after doing so.

Note: you do NOT need to cover your dough with a moist tea towel with this method. The tea towel usually prevents your dough from drying out when proofing your dough the traditional way. However, since we’re keeping the dough in a concealed oven with plenty of humidity, there’s no chance for it to dry out.

Ta-da! Beautifully risen aerated dough.

I haven’t made a recipe video for this but if you’d like me to make one, let me know in the comments! If you have any other comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Abby2 Comments

Spicy Asian Tuna Salad


Date Published: July 4th, 2020 | Last Updated: July 4th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: sides/salads, <15mins
Serves: 4 | Prep time: 10mins | Cook time: 5mins

Jump to recipe | Watch the video

Last weekend Toby’s dad took us deep sea tuna fishing with a fishing charter in Portland, Vic. My fishing experience is fairly limited but thankfully the charter set up all the rods for us, so all we had to do was wait until a tuna caught on and we take turns reeling them in. Luckily mine didn’t put up too much of a fight but Toby’s gave him a good workout. There was a limit of two tuna per person. We drove around for hours and caught some here and there, but alas we were two fish short of our max. We were on the boat for roughly 6 hours total. We took 4 fish home in total, ranging from 10-15kg (good thing Toby’s parents have a big freezer back on the farm). We youtube’d how to fillet a tuna and we filleted one tuna that night and have been eating it ever since. I’ve been scrambling to find some good tuna recipes and came upon some asian-inspired ones and played around with them. This recipe is the result of it! (I also used up some tuna in the salmon chowder recipe and subbed out the fish type – turned out delicious!)

This recipe has asian-inspired flavours. Some ingredients aren’t very traditionally asian (like the cranberries and raw carrots), but they have their role to play and I promise the overall flavour packs a punch! You end up with a mildly spicy, kinda sweet, crunchy, sesame tuna salad in the end. This recipe is easy and comes together quickly! You can watch the video below to guide you through the recipe.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

  • Dressing:
    • 4 Tbsp mayonnaise
    • 1 Tbsp sesame oil
    • 2 tsp light soy sauce
    • 2 Tbsp asian chilli paste or sambal (I like to use the Lao Gan Ma crispy chilli oil (drained), but any chilli paste should do – you may want to adjust the proportions if your chilli sauce is very spicy). You can even use sriracha.
    • 1 1/2 tsp honey
    • 1/2 Tbsp ginger, grated
  • 200g cooked or canned tuna, flaked and drained well
    • You can use canned tuna, but for my purposes I was trying to use up the tuna fillets from our fishing trip so I quickly cooked the tuna in the oven at 180˚C for 10mins and flaked it for this recipe.
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries
  • 3 Tbsp green onions, chopped (~2 stalks)
  • 1/3 cup carrots, chopped finely
  • 2 tsp sesame seeds
  • 1/2 tsp chilli powder
  • 2 Tbsp lemon juice

I was quite conservative with the spice level in this recipe – just spicy enough to leave your mouth with a slight tingle. You can choose to omit the chili powder altogether if you’re not into spicy or even double it if you’re a spice fiend. The spiciness of your chili paste will also determine how spicy your tuna salad is.

Directions:

In a bowl, mix together the dressing ingredients: mayonnaise, sesame oil, light soy sauce, asian chilli oil, honey, ginger. Set aside.

In a bigger bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients: tuna, cranberries, green onion, carrots, sesame seeds, chili powder and lemon juice. Once combined, add in the dressing and mix until incorporated. Serve!

You can serve this as a snack or appetizer or side dish. My favourite way to serve this is in some lettuce leaves as wraps. The crisp and freshness of the lettuce cuts through the heaviness of the salad. You can also have it with crackers or spread in a tortilla to make a burrito or even between some bread to make an easy tuna salad with a punch. I also like to serve it with lemon wedges for extra zing!

Watch the Video Tutorial!

Summarized Recipe:

Spicy Asian Tuna Salad

Date Published: July 4th, 2020 | Last Updated: July 4th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: sides/salads, <15mins
Serves: 4 | Prep time: 10mins | Cook time: 5mins

Ingredients:

  • Dressing:
    • 4 Tbsp mayonnaise
    • 1 Tbsp sesame oil
    • 2 tsp light soy sauce
    • 2 Tbsp asian chilli oil (I like to use the Lao Gan Ma crispy chilli oil (drained), but any chilli oil/sauce should do – you may want to adjust the proportions if your chilli sauce is very spicy)
    • 1 1/2 tsp honey
    • 1/2 Tbsp ginger, grated
  • 1 1/2 cups (200g) cooked/canned tuna, flaked and drained
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries
  • 3 Tbsp green onions, chopped (~2 stalks)
  • 1/3 cup carrots, chopped finely
  • 2 tsp sesame seeds
  • 1/2 tsp chilli powder
  • 2 Tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

  1. In a bowl, mix together the dressing ingredients: mayonnaise, sesame oil, light soy sauce, asian chilli oil, honey, ginger. Set aside.
  2. In a bigger bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients: tuna, cranberries, green onion, carrots, sesame seeds, chili powder and lemon juice. Once combined, add in the dressing and mix until incorporated. Serve!

Notes:

  • You can serve this as a snack or appetizer or side dish.
  • My favourite way to serve this is in some lettuce leaves as wraps. You can also have it with crackers or spread in a tortilla to make a burrito or even between some bread to make an easy tuna salad with a punch.

Abby3 Comments

Easy Balsamic Vinaigrette


Date Published: July 4th, 2020 | Last Updated: July 4th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: sauces/dips
Serves: enough for 4 big salads | Prep time: 5mins | Cook time: 30 seconds

Jump to recipe | Watch the video

Since moving onto Toby’s parents’ family farm a couple months ago, we’ve been cooking nearly everyday. They have an amazing small greenhouse here that has been booming with lettuce. As a result, we’ve been making salads nearly everyday! I usually don’t make much salad as part of our normal meals because I find it hard to keep fresh for long enough in the fridge and I also find it hard to pack for lunch and dinners when you have to keep the dressing separate (but maybe that’s just an excuse). Now that we have so much time off, I actually quite enjoy experimenting with different salads and toppings.

This balsamic vinaigrette is my go-to salad dressing. It’s super easy and comes together very quickly. The only real effort you need to put in is to mince a garlic clove (unless you’ve got a garlic crusher). The rest of the work is just to mix it all together which takes less than 30 seconds. The beauty of this recipe is that you probably have nearly all the ingredients at home already and you can tweak it to your liking depending on what kind of salad you’re making (ie. if you have sweeter ingredients in your salad like fruit, you can increase the amount of vinegar to offset the sweetness and vice versa if you have saltier or sour ingredients, you can increase the amount of honey). You can also make this dressing as fancy as you like by whisking in other ingredients (ie. crushed raspberries). My favourite variation is to mix in a tablespoon of softened goat cheese. 🙂

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! You can watch the video below to guide you through the recipe. If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • salt & pepper to taste

Remember, this is enough dressing for 4 big salads. If you’re making small side salads, I’d recommend halving the recipe.

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together all the ingredients together until combined. Done!

Drizzle over your favourite salad. You may not need the full amount depending on how big your salad is. Taste as you mix until it’s enough. As mentioned above, you can tweak any of the ingredients to suit the flavours of your salad to make it more sweet, sour or salty.

Watch the Video Tutorial!

Summarized Recipe:

Easy Balsamic Vinaigrette

Date Published: July 4th, 2020 | Last Updated: July 4th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: sauces/dips
Serves: 4 big salads | Prep time: 5mins | Cook time: 30 seconds

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. In a bowl, whisk together all the ingredients together until combined. Done!

Abby1 Comment

Creamy Salmon Chowder


Date Published: July 2nd, 2020 | Last Updated: July 2nd, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: soups
Serves: 6-8 | Prep time: 30mins | Cook time: 30mins

Jump to recipe | Watch the video

I LOVE chowders. The first chowder I ever had was a Boston Clam Chowder when I was kid and it blew me away. From then on I will always choose a chowder over any other kind of soup. It’s creamy, rich, hearty and warms you up on a cold day – what’s not to love? It’s comfort food at its best. If chowders weren’t so dense in calories, I’d definitely be having this every day.

I always thought chowders were difficult to make so I never attempted it. However, when Toby and I went salmon fishing (on a small fishing farm where you fish out of a small pool…) last year, I caught my first ever salmon! It just also happened to be the largest one in the pool, coming in at a whopping 3.5kg! We ended up with 1kg of fish fillet and I was scrambling to find new recipes to use up raw salmon (other than my go-to maple salmon recipe) before it went off since our freezer was too small. This recipe was the best thing that came out of the fishing experience (other than the excitement of catching a big fish)!

The great thing about this recipe is that you can actually use any meaty fish you like. In fact, we went tuna fishing with Toby’s dad earlier this week and we collectively caught 4 tuna, each averaging about 10-15kg! I made this soup for Toby’s parents yesterday to use up some of the tuna fillets and they’ve already requested it again for their dinner party tomorrow! The strong flavours of the soup does a great job masking the overly fishy taste of tuna.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do! This recipe is easy and cooks up relatively quickly compared to some soups. You can watch the video below to guide you through the recipe.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tbsps butter (or olive oil to reduce the calories)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 cups onion, chopped (roughly 1 large onion)
  • 2 cups celery, chopped (~4 stalks)
  • 2 cups carrots, diced (roughly 2 large carrots)
  • 2 cups potatoes, diced (~2 large potatoes)
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried dill
  • 450g of fresh salmon (or any fish), cut to 2.5cm chunks (you can used canned fish as well, drained)
  • 1 can (375ml) evaporated milk
  • 1 can (420g) creamed corn
  • 1 can (420g) corn kernels, drained
  • 200g cheddar cheese, shredded (~1 large handful)

It takes a little time to chop up all the veggies, but once that’s done, the cook goes by pretty quickly.

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the garlic, onion, celery and carrots for a few minutes then put a lid on the pot and steam the veggies until the carrots are soft enough to break with your spatula (~5-8mins). You can alternatively keep cooking the veggies without the lid if you like but it takes much longer for the vegetables to soften.

Once the carrots and celery are soft enough, add in potatoes, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and dill. Turn up to high heat and bring the soup to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and let the soup simmer with a lid on until the potatoes are soft enough to break with your spatula (~15-20mins).

Note: I used tuna in the video to try and use up our fillets

Once the potatoes are soft, add in the salmon, evaporated milk, and corn. Put the lid back on and bring the soup to a boil then turn the heat down and simmer until the salmon is cooked.

Once cooked, turn the heat off and mix through the shredded cheese until melted. (If you’re using canned fish, then just mix until heated through and add the cheese. Serve when the cheese has melted.)

Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve!

You can serve this as a side dish or a main soup with some toasted bread or crackers. I love curling up on the couch on a cold day and hugging a bowl of this creamy soup while binge watching something… then unknowingly end up eating 3 bowls because it’s JUST. THAT. GOOD!

Watch the Video Tutorial!

Summarized Recipe:

Creamy Salmon Chowder

Date Published: July 2nd, 2020 | Last Updated: July 2nd, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: soups
Serves: 6-8 | Prep time: 30mins | Cook time: 30mins

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tbsps butter (or olive oil to reduce the calories)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 cups onion, chopped (roughly 1 large onion)
  • 2 cups celery, chopped (~4 stalks)
  • 2 cups carrots, diced (roughly 2 large carrots)
  • 2 cups potatoes, diced (~2 large potatoes)
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried dill
  • 450g of fresh salmon (or any fish), cut to 2.5cm chunks (you can used canned fish as well, drained)
  • 1 can (375ml) evaporated milk
  • 1 can (420g) creamed corn
  • 1 can (420g) corn kernels, drained
  • 200g cheddar cheese, shredded (~1 large handful)

Directions:

  1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the garlic, onion, celery and carrots. Put a lid on the pot and steam the veggies until the carrots are soft enough to break with your spatula (~5-8mins).
  2. Stir in potatoes, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and dill. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are soft enough to break with your spatula (~15-20mins).
  3. Stir in the salmon, evaporated milk, and corn. Put on the lid and bring the soup to a boil then turn the heat down and simmer until the salmon is cooked. Once cooked, turn the heat off and mix through the cheese until melted. (If you’re using canned salmon, then just mix until heated through then serve.)
  4. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve!

AbbyLeave a comment

Char Kway Teow (Stir-fried flat noodles)


Date Published: July 1st, 2020 | Last Updated: July 1st, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: mains, Asian
Serves: 4-5 | Prep time: 15mins | Cook time: 10mins

Jump to recipe | Watch the video

WOOHOO!! The inaugural post of Polyphagic Abby! Welcome welcome. I’m so excited to share my favourite recipes with you!

I won’t muddle this recipe post by going into the hows and whys of starting up this food blog project in this post but if you’re interested, you can read about it here.

I’m new to the video blogging and food photography game, so don’t mind the occasional questionable camera work. We’re still working out the kinks. We’ve ordered a tripod that’s coming in the mail but I was too excited to start this blog to wait! I also got too excited taking videos of recipes that I forgot to take photos of the process as well, so don’t mind the video screenshots as part of the post for the first few recipes. heh heh.

My partner Toby rigging up the camera for my first recipe video hahaha. This is why the start of the video is a little shaky. Only 1 more week until our tripod arrives!

Toby and I have been religiously watching Masterchef 2020 lately. We’ve never watched a show so intently together before. Our favourite contestant Sarah Tiong was recently eliminated. I’ve always loved watching her put together amazing flavourful Asian dishes on the show and to my luck, she has just released a cookbook! I’ve been wanting to cook closer to my Asian roots lately and her cookbook was the perfect gateway. It’s full of amazing recipes. I absolutely recommend getting her cookbook “Sweet, Savoury, Spicy“. This char kway teow recipe was actually adapted from one of hers.

Char kway teow is a popular Malaysian/Singaporean dish. It’s a dish made from flat rice noodles (banh pho) and sautéed in Chinese sausage (lap cheong) and prawns. You can substitute the protein with anything you like and add in any extra veggies you like. This recipe is easy and cooks up quickly! You can watch the video below to guide you through the recipe.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

  • 1 packet (1kg) of cooked flat rice noodles (banh pho) – (375g uncooked packet = ~1kg cooked)
  • 1/3 cup (90ml) of any neutral tasting oil (you can substitute with pork lard for extra flavour)
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 large red shallots, finely chopped (can substitute with 1 red onion instead)
  • 2 medium red chilis, thinly sliced (optional)
  • 130g (~4 medium) lap cheong sausages, thinly sliced
  • 15 large fresh shrimp/prawns, shelled and deveined
  • 4 Tbsps (60ml) light soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsps (30ml) dark soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp (16ml) oyster sauce
  • 1 Tbsp (16ml) fish sauce
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups (200g) fresh bean sprouts
  • 2 large spring onions, cut into 2.5cm lengths

Directions:

I’d recommend having all of your ingredients prepped and ready within arm’s reach before starting this recipe. This recipe is quick and you’ll need everything one after another to ensure things don’t become overcooked since you’ll be cooking on high heat for the majority of the cook!

Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions. Different brands may differ. I bought the XL banh pho/rice stick with the three-headed elephant brand which instructed to cook the noodles in boiling water for 6-8 minutes then drain. Whatever the instructions may be, it should be fairly similar. Always taste the noodles before straining incase you need to keep them in a little longer. There’s nothing worse than tough noodles! Drain the noodles and set aside. You can add a little oil to the noodles to keep them from clumping together and easier to work with later or run them under cold water to stop them from cooking. Be gentle with the noodles so they don’t break apart.

In a large wok or skillet over high heat, add the oil (or lard) until the oil starts to smoke. Then add the garlic, shallots, chili and sausage. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds.

Add the prawns/shrimp to the pan and stir-fry for 1 minute. Shrimp cook very quickly. Don’t worry about cooking your shrimp all the way through at this stage. We just want to mix all the ingredients together. The shrimp will finish cooking once you reach the end of the recipe.

Add in the rice noodles to the pan and mix with the other ingredients while gently breaking up the noodles. Take your time making sure the noodles are mixed thoroughly and clump free without breaking them.

Once mixed, add in: light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and black pepper (you can combine these ingredients into a bowl first and then toss it all into the wok at once for ease). Stir-fry until combined.

Make a well in the centre of the pan and add the egg. Scramble it quickly until the egg is a little lumpy (~20 seconds), then mix it together with everything in the pan to continue cooking the egg.

Notice the little clumps of cooked egg in the centre? If you like to have more visually obvious eggs in your char kway teow, you can scramble the eggs further by leaving it in the well longer before mixing it in with the rest of the ingredients.

Add bean sprouts and green onion and mix for another 2mins. Turn off the heat and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Yum!!!

Watch the Char Kway Teow Video Tutorial

Summarized Recipe:

Char Kway Teow (Stir fried flat noodles)

Date Published: June 27th, 2020 | Last Updated: June 27th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: mains, asian
Serves: 4 – 5 | Prep time: 15mins | Cook time: 10mins

Ingredients:

  • 1 packet of cooked flat rice noodles (banh pho) – (375g uncooked packet = ~1kg cooked)
  • 1/3 cup (90ml) of any neutral tasting oil (can substitute with pork lard for extra flavour)
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 large red shallots, finely chopped (can substitute with 1 red onion instead)
  • 2 medium red serrano chilis, thinly sliced (optional)
  • 130g (~4 medium) lap cheong sausages, thinly sliced
  • 15 large fresh shrimp/prawns, shelled and deveined
  • 4 Tbsps (60ml) light soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsps (30ml) dark soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp (16ml) oyster sauce
  • 1 Tbsp (16ml) fish sauce
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups (200g) fresh bean sprouts
  • 2 large spring onions, cut into 2.5cm lengths

Directions:

  1. Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions. Drain and set aside. You can add a little oil to the noodles to keep them from clumping together.
  2. In a large wok or skillet over high heat, add the oil (or lard) until the oil starts to smoke. Then add the garlic, shallots, chili and sausage. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds.
  3. Add the prawns/shrimp to the pan and stir-fry for 1 minute.
  4. Add in the rice noodles to the pan and mix with the other ingredients while gently breaking up the noodles.
  5. Once mixed, add in: light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and black pepper. Stir-fry until combined.
  6. Make a well in the centre of the pan and add the egg. Scramble it quickly until the egg is a little lumpy (~20 seconds), then mix it together with everything in the pan to continue cooking the egg.
  7. Add bean sprouts and green onion and mix for another 2mins. Turn off the heat and serve immediately. Enjoy!

AbbyLeave a comment