Images Flatbreads

Flatbreads

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's flatbread recipe is amazing. I discovered it while exploring several cooking websites. Click here to view the recipe on Mean Mother Cooker's blog.

I not a big fan of breadmaking. It's because I'm too impatient to see the results. Waiting for dough to rise is akin to waiting for a snail to cross the finish line. But I love standing next to the oven just to watch food evolve. I enjoy watching cupcakes puff up and chicken sizzling to a nice brown. This, I can handle.

No yeast flatbreads is the answer to my dilemma. And Hugh's flatbread is fabulously quick and easy to do. Almost failproof! Just four basic ingredients and half an hour of our time. I tried the recipe out the other day. It was done in a flash. Nothing like soft, warm bread to dip in curry or thick stew whenever I fancy. It's as good as the naan bread I used to buy from local Indian-Muslim restaurants.

I have this recipe stuck on my refrigerator now but I hope to memorise it one day.

My flatbread adventure, in photos:

Flour, Olive Oil, Salt and Warm Water ~ Knead, knead, knead, wait!

Roll and divide into 8

Roll flat, heat pan and voila! Done in minutes.

Flatbread...I am torn

You are so good ~ Flatbreads

Images Vegemite Beef and Broccoli Sandwich

And then there are days I just don't know what I'm doing in the kitchen really. I'll be going, "Gosh, I'm hungry. I need sustenance." (a word I picked from up from Thor).

I should have just reached out for quick bread and jam, but when one is moved by the belly, one ends up complicating things with oo-I-should-add-this and oo-I should-add-that.

And then I take a step back and whoaa..what IS this!

..That's precisely how I landed myself with this beef and broccoli sandwich.

The Mega Broccoli and Beef Sandwich

This is the recipe, in the simplest form, because it wasn't something I planned with pen and paper.

I stir-fried onions and beef slices, and cooked it with a dollop of vegemite. Then, I felt guilty about it all being meat with no greens, so I boiled some broccoli florets to make it a balanced meal.

.....BUT broccoli on its own felt like a weird combination. I decided to fry it in egg, seasoned with a wee bit of salt and pepper.

Then, I toasted two slices of sandwich bread, spread the beef on it, followed by the broccoli and voila! Lunch finally gets served. I look at the time and slap my forehead.

Vegemite Beef

Broccoli fried in egg

Vegemite Beef and Broccoli Sandwich

Images Egg and Mushrooms on Toast

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I'm no peanut butter and jam girl so making breakfast always requires a little more effort. You wouldn't want to be me if you're always rushing off for work early mornings.

Of course, there's always wonton noodles at that hawker stall round the corner or roti canai from my favourite mamak to save the day. How typically Asian of me!

My ideal b-r-e-a-k-f-a-s-t would be this:

A Toast to Captivating Breakfast

How I did it, roughly...

Ingredients:
- 1 piece of bread
- 1 medium red onion (sliced)
- 4 fresh white button mushrooms (sliced)
- 1 small egg
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp dark sweet soy sauce
- Pinch of table salt and pepper
- Bacon bits (optional)
- Cooking oil

How-to:
1. Heat oil in cooking pan. Add onions and mushrooms. Add oyster sauce and sweet soy sauce (and a little water if too dry). Do a quick stir-fry, making sure all the ingredients are coated with sauce. Remove from pan and leave to cool.

2. Lightly toast bread in a toaster. Then, place it on a baking tray. Arrange cooked onions and mushroom in a circle on the toasted bread making a small wall, leaving space in the middle for the egg. Crack egg onto the middle of the toast.

3. Bake this in a pre-heated oven for about 10 minutes at 180C or less (I would watch the oven).

4. To serve, sprinkle salt and pepper on egg. I added bacon bits because I felt like having some.