Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Ham and Cheese Elephant Rolls #BreadBakers

Children and adults alike will love these soft ham and cheese elephant rolls. They are cute AND tasty! I mean really. Look at their golden ears and currant eyes!

Food Lust People Love: Children and adults alike will love these soft ham and cheese elephant rolls. They are cute AND tasty! I mean really. Look at their golden ears and currant eyes!

I have no idea what I was browsing the internet for when I came across bread dough shaped like animals last year. There were hedgehogs, bunnies, puppy and kitty faces, even some starfish and so much more. 

That gave me this idea for a Bread Bakers theme and, bless their hearts, my bread baking friends were up for the challenge to start off the new year. Make sure you scroll down to the bottom to see the menagerie they’ve created! 

Many years ago, while we were living in Malaysia, we had several opportunities to visit an elephant sanctuary a short distance from our home. Whenever we had visitors to entertain, it became a highlight of their holiday. We’d put on our swimsuits topped with t-shirts and shorts, load up the car with fruit to share with the elephants and make our way through up the highway, then into the jungle. 

The sanctuary showed small groups of visitors a short introductory film where we learned about their work rescuing orphaned or threatened elephants and then came the exciting part, we got to feed and bathe them! 


(Hence the swimsuits – the latter part was a wet job! If you got really lucky, you got to ride one of the elephants down to the river for the bath. We all got lucky a few times over the years.)


Possibly due to this frequent early exposure, our younger daughter became a collector of elephant statues, big and small. I thought it would be fun to create some of those wonderful creatures and take photos of the elephant rolls with some of her collection. 

Ham and Cheese Elephant Rolls

This recipe is adapted from one I found originally on the Japanese site Cookpad. Fortunately they also have a sister site in the UK which has been translated into English - which still took me a while to work through. I got there in the end!

Ingredients
For the dough:
1/3 cup or 80ml milk 
2 teaspoons butter
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 cups or 156g bread flour
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 egg, separated into white and yolk

For the filling:
3 oz or 85g thick sliced ham (I used leftover spiral cut cooked ham.)
1 3/4 oz or 50g extra sharp cheddar or your favorite aged cheese

For the eyes:
6 raisins or currants

Method
Warm the milk and butter in the microwave or in a small pot on the stove until the butter is melted and the milk is lukewarm to the touch. 

In a mixing bowl, combine the milk with the yeast and sugar and set the mixture aside to prove. Within a few minutes, you should see bubbles forming which assure you that the yeast is indeed active. 


Sift the flour and salt into the bowl, add the egg white and mix well to make a soft dough. 


Knead until your dough is smooth and elastic. Set the bowl in a warm place for the first rise of about 45 minutes till it doubles in size. 


Meanwhile, slice your ham into rounded pieces about 1/4 in or 1/2cm thick and 2 x 2.5 in or 5 x 6.5cm. Cut your cheese into similar size slices and lay one piece of cheese on each slice of ham. I also trimmed the top corners of the cheese off to match the curve of the ham. 


Once your dough has risen sufficiently, cut it into six equal pieces. (My dough weighed about 284g so each piece was about 47g, if you are a user of a digital scale.)

Roll each piece into balls and then roll them into long ovals a little more than twice the length of your ham.

Place the ham and cheese on top of the oval, a little closer to the right to leave room for cutting the trunk. Fold the dough up over the ham and cheese, pressing any air out and sealing the edges all around. 


Use a sharp knife to cut a triangle on the left side to form the trunk and a small slit on the right side for the tail. According to Feng Shui, elephant trunks pointed up indicate a good mood, so I turned mine up! 


Roll the little triangle of dough into a ball then roll it out in a small oval to form the elephant’s ear. Lightly press the ear on to attach it. 


Continue the process until all six ham and cheese elephant rolls are done. Use the end of a chopstick to press an eyehole into each. 


Place them on your baking pan lined with a silicone liner or baking parchment and put them in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes. I’ve discovered that my microwave oven is large enough to hold my pan so I heat a small bowl of water to almost boiling, then pop the pan on top and close the microwave door. Game changer for those of us without proving drawers!


In a small bowl, soak the six currants for the eyes in a little hot water. Leave them to plump. 

Depending on how long your oven takes to preheat, start that process setting the oven to 350°F or 180°C sometime in the 30 minutes of rising time. 

When the little elephants have risen sufficiently, whisk your egg yolk with two tablespoons of water and brush them with the elephants with the mixture. 


Drain the currants and dry them off. Use the end of your chopstick to poke one into each eyehole. 

Food Lust People Love: Children and adults alike will love these soft ham and cheese elephant rolls. They are cute AND tasty! I mean really. Look at their golden ears and currant eyes!

Bake the elephants in your preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes or until they are puffed and golden. 

Food Lust People Love: Children and adults alike will love these soft ham and cheese elephant rolls. They are cute AND tasty! I mean really. Look at their golden ears and currant eyes!

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for as long as you can resist before eating.  

Food Lust People Love: Children and adults alike will love these soft ham and cheese elephant rolls. They are cute AND tasty! I mean really. Look at their golden ears and currant eyes!

Enjoy! 

Check out all of the other animal bread my Bread Bakers are sharing today!
BreadBakers
#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin these Ham and Cheese Elephant Rolls!

Food Lust People Love: Children and adults alike will love these soft ham and cheese elephant rolls. They are cute AND tasty! I mean really. Look at their golden ears and currant eyes!
 .


Monday, January 11, 2021

Sticky Jammy Hot Wings

Sticky jammy hot wings are sweet and savory and spicy, not to mention finger-licking good! And, even better for you, they are baked, not fried!

Food Lust People Love: Sticky jammy hot wings are sweet and savory and spicy, not to mention finger-licking good! And, even better for you, they are baked, not fried!

I absolutely love chicken wings. They are hands down my favorite part and possibly in my top five favorite things to cook and eat. For all the many years we lived in Dubai, I made my spicy sticky wings every single Friday when the weather was conducive to sailing. Sitting in the shallows of the bright blue Arabian Gulf, we ate wings to our hearts content, threw the bones farther out for the sea creatures and rinsed our sticky fingers in the salty sea. Idyllic. 

Now that we are back in the States, especially since we’ve been stuck home in a small family unit, we haven’t felt much like party wings. But I gotta tell ya, these wings helped lift my mood considerably. Something about the tangy, spicy, sweet glaze made me smile a little. Perhaps they’ll lift your spirits too. 

Sticky Jammy Hot Wings

I used homemade three-berry jam for these delicious wings but you can use your favorite fruit jam or even marmalade. If you warm the jam slightly, it is easier to mix into the glaze. This recipe is adapted from one on Love and Olive Oil.

Ingredients
2 1/2 lbs or 1142g chicken wings (weight without tips – about 12 wings)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
freshly ground black pepper

For the glaze:
1 garlic clove
1 hot red chili pepper
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons soy sauce (I used low sodium.)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup or 110g jam of your choice

Optional for garnish: chopped cilantro 

Method
If your wings are still in one piece, use a sharp knife to divide them into three pieces. Put the wing tips in a bag and freeze them to use later when making chicken stock. I happened to buy mine in Costco where they were already separated and someone else somewhere kept the tips. I hope they did something useful with them.  

Preheat oven to 425°F or 218°C. For easier clean up, you might want to line your pan with aluminum foil or a silicone liner.

In a large bowl, put the wing pieces in a single layer. Drizzle on the olive oil, then sprinkle on the sea salt and cayenne. Give them all few generous grinds of black pepper. 


Use a wooden spoon or spatula to toss the wings to distribute the seasonings and oil to all sides of the chicken. 


Bake the pieces for 40 minutes on the middle rack of your preheated oven, turning them over once halfway through cooking, until the wings are golden brown.


Meanwhile to prepare glaze, mince the garlic and chili pepper. 


Put them both in a small bowl with the rice vinegar and set aside for about 10 minutes. This helps mellow the sharpness of the garlic somewhat. Next add in the soy sauce, olive oil and the jam. If the jam is fairly stiff, warm the whole bowl in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds then stir well to combine. 


Pour any chicken grease out of the baking pan and discard. Put the wings in a clean bowl, again single file. Spoon the glaze on to distribute it evenly.


Use a spatula or wooden spoon to toss the wings to coat them with the glaze. 

Put the chicken back in the baking pan and spoon any glaze left in the bowl on top of the pieces. 

Food Lust People Love: Sticky jammy hot wings are sweet and savory and spicy, not to mention finger-licking good! And, even better for you, they are baked, not fried!

Turn your oven to broil. Return the pan to the oven, still on the middle rack. 

Broil the wings for about 5 minutes or until the glaze has started to bubble and caramelize. Do not walk away from the oven as they can burn really quickly if you aren’t watchful. 

Food Lust People Love: Sticky jammy hot wings are sweet and savory and spicy, not to mention finger-licking good! And, even better for you, they are baked, not fried!

Garnish with some chopped cilantro, if desired. 

Food Lust People Love: Sticky jammy hot wings are sweet and savory and spicy, not to mention finger-licking good! And, even better for you, they are baked, not fried!

Enjoy! 

Food Lust People Love: Sticky jammy hot wings are sweet and savory and spicy, not to mention finger-licking good! And, even better for you, they are baked, not fried!

This month my Baking Blogger friends are sharing recipes using jam and preserves. Check them all out below. Many thanks to our leader and host, Sue of Palatable Pastime
Baking Bloggers is a friendly group of food bloggers who vote on a shared theme and then post recipes to fit that theme one the second Monday of each month. If you are a food blogger interested in joining in, inquire at our Baking Bloggers Facebook group. We'd be honored if you would join us in our baking adventures.

Pin these Sticky Jammy Hot Wings!

Food Lust People Love: Sticky jammy hot wings are sweet and savory and spicy, not to mention finger-licking good! And, even better for you, they are baked, not fried!
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Sunday, January 10, 2021

Cheesy Eggplant Pork Roast Rolls

These cheesy eggplant pork roast rolls are filled with pork, eggplant and mozzarella, baked in a fresh tomato sauce, then topped with more cheese.

Food Lust People Love: These cheesy eggplant pork roast rolls are filled with pork, eggplant and mozzarella, baked in a fresh garlicky tomato sauce, then topped with more cheese.

When you are just two people in a household, leftovers are a fact of life. This recipe is one I cooked quite a while back when it was just my husband and I alone in our empty nest. First we enjoyed a pork roast that I prepared with my sous vide precision cooker. It was fabulous but clearly too big for two. 

That’s when I had this idea. What if I rolled slices of pork with slices of eggplant and stuffed them with cheese? I couldn’t wait to try it and I was not disappointed. The rolls are tender and flavorful, especially cooked in a fresh garlicky tomato sauce.  

Cheesy Eggplant Pork Roast Rolls

I call these pork roast rolls because, as mentioned above, I used leftover pork roast from this sous vide recipe, but you can also substitute roast pork or beef from your nearby delicatessen or deli counter at the grocery store. I think they’d also be tasty with ham. 

Ingredients
For the rolls:
15 thin slices from the middle of two large eggplants
1 cup or 85g chopped eggplant
15 thin slices pork roast (about 1 1/2 lbs or 700g) 
1 cup or 135g roast pork, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped 
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne
3 1/2 oz or 100g mozzarella cheese, finely grated
8-10 leaves fresh basil, chiffonade (rolled and cut into thin strips)

For the fresh tomato sauce:
1 3/4 cups or 500g canned crushed tomatoes (+ 1/3 cup or water)
1 large clove garlic, chopped into slivers
8-10 leaves fresh basil, chiffonade (rolled and cut into thin strips)
1/2 teaspoon sugar

For the topping:
3 1/2 oz or 100g mozzarella, finely grated
1 3/4 oz or 50g Parmesan, finely grated
1/2 cup or 40g fresh bread crumbs
fresh ground black pepper

Note: You will have plenty of sliced eggplant leftover since only the best and biggest middle slices are suitable for this dish. Store them in an airtight container for another recipe. I’d like to suggest my mashup (in the musical sense) of pizza and Arabic flatbread: Manousah or my easy eggplant parmigiana

Method
Combine all of the ingredients for the fresh tomato sauce together in a mixing bowl.


Thinly slice your eggplant on a mandolin. 


When you get to the bottom of the eggplant, where it’s too hard to continue slicing, remove the peel with a sharp knife and chop the flesh into small cubes. As mentioned in the ingredients, you’ll need 1 cup or about 85g of chopped eggplant. Some of the narrower slices can also be used for this. 


In a saucepan with the olive oil, sauté the onions and garlic until they soften. Add in the chopped eggplant and chopped pork. 


Cook the mixture for about 10 minutes or until the eggplant has softened. Sprinkle on the cayenne. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Once it’s cooled, add in the basil and mozzarella and stir to combine.


Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and spoon in enough fresh tomato sauce to cover the bottom of your casserole dish.

Choose the best and biggest 15 slices of eggplant. 

Put one slice of pork roast on top of one slice of eggplant. Add about 2 tablespoons of the filling. 


Roll the eggplant and pork roast up, tucking the filling in as you go. Lay the roll end side down in the casserole dish. 


Continue stacking, filling and rolling until all of your eggplant pork roast rolls are assembled, adding them to the casserole dish as you go. 

Spoon the rest of the fresh tomato sauce over the top of the rolls. 


Cover the casserole with foil. Bake in your preheated oven for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, put your topping ingredients together in a small bowl and grind in some black pepper. Mix well. 

Remove the casserole from the oven. Sprinkle the topping on evenly and return the casserole to the oven, uncovered, for an additional 15 minutes or until the topping is golden and bubbling. 


Garnish the casserole with extra basil leaves.

Food Lust People Love: These cheesy eggplant pork roast rolls are filled with pork, eggplant and mozzarella, baked in a fresh garlicky tomato sauce, then topped with more cheese.

Serve with a Parmesan wedge and grater on the side, in case anyone wants to add more.  

Food Lust People Love: These cheesy eggplant pork roast rolls are filled with pork, eggplant and mozzarella, baked in a fresh garlicky tomato sauce, then topped with more cheese.

Enjoy! 

Today’s Sunday FunDay theme celebrates dairy so you’ll find lots of wonderful sweet and savory recipes below. Many thanks to our host Rebekah of Making Miracles
We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.


Pin these Cheesy Eggplant Pork Roast Rolls!

Food Lust People Love: These cheesy eggplant pork roast rolls are filled with pork, eggplant and mozzarella, baked in a fresh garlicky tomato sauce, then topped with more cheese.

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