making the dough and the pizza

so, you have made the pizza paste, what do you do with it? actually, it can be used as a pasta for spaghetti. but, when i cook spaghetti, i rather get the pasta that comes in a bottle....from the supermarket.

okay, i will now go on to write about making the dough and then the pizza. most people use plain flour but i prefer to use bread flour for the dough. nowadays, i use the instant dry yeast - the granules that come in a small packet. in the past, i would buy a block from cold storage supermarket and cut it to the right size.

while most people leave the smooth, shiny and elastic dough to rise for about two hours - until it is double its original size - i let mine rise for about eight hours or more. i leave it in a glass bowl and cover the top with a layer of clear polyethylene. this acts as a seal and prevents it from coming into contact with the outside air.

my one lot will give me between 24 and 30 pizzas, depending on the thickness of the crust. if i make the crust thinner, then i get more.

the first layer on the crust is finely chopped garlic soaked in olive oil. next comes the paste and then the rest of the ingredients which include cut big onion slices, pepperoni, ham, bacon, sausage, button mushroom and olive. the toppings will be mozarella cheese followed by grated pamesan cheese.

popiah party

ivy and ida,

auntie helen and uncle victor samuel joined us for a popiah lunch/party today. in spite of our bad experience with hup kiat at havelock food centre, your mother still went there to buy the plain popiah skin from the stall as she was on her way for a medical appointment at singapore general hospital.

for the main filling, we used shredded strips of turnip, carrot and french bean. the shredded stuff was first sauteed, before being transferred into a slow-cooker and stewed for many hours. the rest of the filling included bean sprouts, thinly sliced chinese sausages, prawns, groundnuts and lettuce. we spread sweet sauce and ground chilli on the skin, to form the base.

your mother bought one kati (less than a kilogram; 0.625kg) of plain popiah skin for $10.60 from the stall. another place we go to for popiah skin is kway guan huat at 95 joo chiat road. yet another place where we sometimes go to get the skin is at jalan satu, near to the kallang old airport food centre.

to make our own popiah, we first spread the sweet sauce and chilli paste to form the base. next, we layer it with lettuce before putting the filling, followed by the rest of the ingredients - prawns, sausages, bean sprouts and the groundnuts bits.

we start by folding the two sides and then the side nearer to you. roll it and tuck the rest in neatly into a tight and compact wrap.

anyway, there is more than one way to wrap a popiah. the important thing is not to squeeze too much into it otherwise the skin may burst. some people place the lettuce leaf right at the base and the spread the chilli and sweet sauce on the leaf. the rest of the ingredients then follow.

deepavali - time for murukku making

it is time to make murukku because deepavali is just round the corner. no, i do not celebrate deepavali but my hindu friends do. yes, some of my indian friends have made the unusual request of asking me to make some murukku for them so that they can offer 'chinese made murukku' to their visitors.

i learnt to make murukku from the mother of my indian friend but they do not celebrate deepavali because they are catholics.

the ingredients and the equipment are quite basic. i use the metal murukku maker which comes with a number of templates to give you a choice of shape and thickness of the strands of murukku. you can actually use the murukku flour by itself, without the need to add anything else. however, i normally add butter and sesame seeds to the ready-made flour.

in preparing the dough, the most important ingredient is the water. if you add too much water, the dough will turn out gluey and sticky and the murukku will break into small strands even before it hits the hot oil.

very often while watching me cook the murukku, some of my colleagues and friends will request to have a go at it. that is when they discover that handling the murukku maker requires a bit of practice. i know two indian ladies who gave up after their failed attempts at making a decent looking murukku.

i have a preference for the lingam brand of flour. alternatively, i will made do with the baba's brand.

instructions for making murukku can be found here.