origamicrane

I think the mantou of your childhood were probably a mix of your child tastebuds, nostalgia and more sugar and lard in them But know when you eat some foods for the very first time and you are blown away and on subsequent meals you're not nearly as blown away, even though it is identical. I think its just a matter of your familiarity with the taste and higher expectations.

thank you :) just made some lap cheoung rolls :) wicked !! they look the part are taste really good !! no chemcial taste either. maybe i should make the rolls thinner but taste wise they are wicked!!! so final recipe was: 1t yeast 1t sugar 5T warm water mix and sit for 10 minutes 1 3/4 cups flour ( i used 00 just because i had some) 1T sugar 1T lard (shortening or oil) 3/4t baking powder 1t salt place into a food processor and blitz for a minute then while the processor is on pour in the yeast and water mix and then the warm milk until it forms a dough. Knead dough for 10 minutes and then let rise for 2 hours. punch down, divide into 16 pieces. shape let rest for 15 minute and then steam for 15 minutes. made 8 mantou and 8 with some chinese wax sausages in as a filling lap cheoung rolls yum by the way the one on the far right is an uncooked one.

or there's the naked turtle in east sheen, richmond if you like waiters singing for your dinner

notting hill / portobello road market is quite enjoyable try osteria basilico for a lovely italian, elecrtic brasserie for a chilled out place they all ages will appreciate. dim sum in chinatown always a good call.

hmmm if you want more of the same there's rainforest cafe planet hollywood hard rock cafe or for a little better food may be belgo.

posted this on the pastry and baking forum and been told that the baking powder will stop the mantou from shrinking and going wrinkly when it starts to cool down

how much baking power and yeast do you use? 1:1 ratio? or like my recipe 3:1? as my mantou did taste a little chemical.

the fried egg was my irish friends choice :) and very good they were too. a proper English brekkie has to be a fry up right? fried eggs all the way

hmm.. good point. I think that i'm about to post this the baking forum as a lot of therecipes i seen for steamed bread ask for some baking powder.?? transparent you know anything about this?

I used this recipe 1/2 tsp Active dry yeast and 5 Tbsp warm water 1 tsp sugar 1 Tbsp Plus 1 tsp Lard 1 3/4 cup Bleached flour 2 tsp Sugar 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder 5 Tbsp Milk, lukewarm 1 tsp Vegetable oil well i steamed about 8 mantou the texture was a little bit chewy as think i didn't knead it long enough. but there was a ever so slight chemical taste think it was the baking powder not sure but i'm going to reduce the baking power and increase the yeast in my next batch. I had about 2 mantou worth of dough left so i just flattened a piece and put it in to the fryer it puffed up like a flying saucer and browned really nicely and when I tasted it was quite nice and the fried steamed mantou seem to burn quite quickly in the fryer so was a little confused if you were just meant to fry the dough well cooking is all experimenting really any advice on my mantou recipe ?

well after a little debating we settle for electric in notting hill. Full electric breakfast consisted of toast, 2 thick juicy sausages, 2 bacon, 2 eggs (of your choice, we had fried), baked bean, 2 slices black pudding, 2 grilled mushrooms and 2 grilled tomatoes. The brekkie was very good but i thought a little expensive at £10 but it definately won't disappoint will try to get to some fo teh other places recommended above over the next few weekends

hey i did some experimenting with tehdough. for fried mantou are you meant to steam the bun first then deep fry it? or just deep fry the raw dough?? as i did both and deep frying the raw dough on its own as thin pancakes gave a really nice tast and texture like a thin and crispypizza base but nicer going tomake another batch tonight with a little more sugar and yeast and a longer rising period

mix up salt and sugar again just preparing for a birthday party and making beef and chicken satay. Have about a pound of both meats and made the marinade but i mixed up the salt and sugar pots arrghghhh!!!! luckily the meat has only been marinating for about an hour but i've just spent the last 2 hour washing and draining the meat under cold water to see if if any of the meat is recoverable

just made my first patch on mantou. hmm... 2 things the recipe i used turn out a very bland mantou i know mantou is bland but this is really bland. i think there too much baking powder as their is a slightly chemical taste. second the mantou when steamed are yellowish and not the bright white that you get in restaurants i used plain flour guess i better go and locate some bleached stuff. but all in all they look ok and smell ok too. will fry up one later and post photos. stay tuned

Hey, I would turn on the burners with one knee - that's how we roll in the restaurant!!! How about "Hack Jew Ngow Pah"? The black pepper steak on a hot pan? That's got great visual appeal and is not cliched. Westerners will be able to relate to that as well. ← actually i really like black pepper steak but think they decided on curry crab. oh! it just that they think turning the cooker on with the knee is like this really big skill!! Actually virtually all the staff I have had through my takeaway through the years have never really used their knee except to turn the fire down.

Oh, that's great! When will it air? What channel? We would like to be there to cheer you on! <inc "clapclap.wma"> I would love to see how to cook chili crabs. ← thanks for the support only doing it for a laugh so should be fun It will be on UK ITV channel but it probably won't be on until the autumn. They are going to be filming 15 episodes with other contestants taking part. I will record the show when its on and put it online

It's excellent, and good value, but you can't book and there can sometimes be quite a wait. ← even on a saturday morning? ← Particularly on a Saturday morning! It's where Clerkenwell's yuppie population brings its children for breakfast, and the place gets packed. 12pm or 2pm is okay, but any time between is asking for trouble. ← thats ok plan to get there for 10am thanks for the tip

It's excellent, and good value, but you can't book and there can sometimes be quite a wait. ← even on a saturday morning?

I really want to avoid the cliches too!!! originally they asked me if i knew how to make chow mein and sweet and sour chicken!!!! but they decided to have it at a chinese cooking school and i know they going to make a fuss about turning the cookers on with the knee and the difference between light and dark soya sauce oh well its just for western viewer i guess.

yeah decided on chilli crab its fast and automatically looks exotic to the western eye and tasty too the competition not actually to next month but going to be practising the recipe and my wok technique over the next few weekend i will post some photos afterwards. Will also try making the deep friend mantou too. Its actually for a tv show it me versus and italian tv chef. Basically its a vehicle for the tv chef to promote himself i think. But as its just me versus him should be a laugh. But its not really a fair competition as i doubt the tv chef would have used a wok burner and i get to choose the dish. I tell him 24 hours before hand and he goes off and tries to find a recipe. should be fun

anyone had the english breakfast at the Electirc Brasserie or Smiths of Smithfield?

thats where i'm in luck as i got a chinese restuarant with all the right equipment :) heheh

hmm.... chow sing chi - god of cookery - sick sun film i thought was a little poor but i wanted to try the food they cooked in the competition at the start , apart from the plastic sugar heart sign. ( if you never seen the film you have no idea what i am talking about!! )

yeah plan to just make a small patch for personal consumption so didn't want to lose too much of the batch experiementing. But the ones I had in singapore where about the size of a large plun and golden rea,lly nice and didn't feel oily to the touch so had a suspicion they might have been glazed and baked. but will give it a try and see

not so good... looks like oriental city shopping centre fallen through. Tv people have decided to shoot it at a Westminster Kingsway College Cooking School. It actually held the Chinese masterchef cooking competition last year so at least I don't have to worry about the kitchen equipment. But it looks like the producer is really just driving the show down the path to a purely chinese cooking competition, which unfortunately is of little interest to me mainly cause chinese take away cooking is like burgers and chips to me. oh well as i said before if it turns into a farce I will treat it as one. I'm actually just waiting for the producer to turn round and say "can you make chow mein?" or "sweet and sour chicken"