Purple Sweet Potato Sesame Oat Loaf & Za-jiang Mian (炸酱台湾意面)

Even though it was Deepavli holiday yesterday, I still did not get much of a chance to rest. Let me elaborate. Since my girls were home with me yesterday, I decided give them a treat and cook up a batch of Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes for our breakfast. It has been awhile since I made these, so my girls enjoyed it very much. :) After breakfast, I immediately got to work on tomorrow's breakfast! Haha..talk about efficiency! This time I decided to twist my old recipe and come up with a new one; Purple Sweet Potato Oat loaf with Black Sesame.

Sounds complicated but not so. I simply used the original purple sweet potato milk loaf recipe and added oats to it. If you have tried baking my Oat loaf before, you should know what I mean by that. I will post the recipe for this bread minus the steps as it is very much the same as the original purple sweet potato milk loaf.

Ingredients for Purple Sweet Potato Oat Loaf:
37g instant oats
75ml fresh milk
- Cooked in pot until lumpy and let cool before adding in together with the dough ingredients
380g bread flour
220g purple sweet potato, peeled, sliced, steamed and mashed
45g caster sugar
1 large egg (AA)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant active yeast
100ml fresh whipping cream
100ml fresh milk (more or less depending on the moisture left in the mashed potato)

60g unsalted butter, room temperature

5 to 6 tbsp black sesame paste/spread

This time instead of adding raisins to the loaf, I added black Sesame paste which I bought from my recent Taiwan trip. I actually could not find this black sesame paste in Malaysia, so it was really great that I got it in my last vacation. ;D

This is paste is creamy and has a nutty taste and slight sweetness to it....almost like peanut butter...but "toastier"....yummy! Interested...try finding it in those international grocers...good luck! But again, any spread of your choice would still be a good compliment to this yummy loaf, no problem at all.

Did not slice the loaf to show you the black spirals in it...sorry! Was in super rush last night to finish up other stuff...which I will show you in a minute. Furthermore, I kind of under baked my loaf a little...so you can see there's not much toasty sides. So the slices were not that nicely cut. Good thing it was still super soft and delicious. ;)

The other challenge I took up yesterday was to make Za-jiang Mian (炸酱台湾意面). Yeah, sounds crazy right! Have been craving for a bowl of that noodle since I came back from Taipei. And to think that I actually hunt for a good Taiwanese cookbook while I was there so that I can try to replicate the dish at home when I return, haha! And you guessed it, making it was definitely harder then I thought!!The noodles turned out slightly tougher then expected. Perhaps I over kneaded it? Or have I added too much cornflour while trying to separate the noodles. Maybe I did not slice the noodles thin enough. :-P Anyway, in the recipe book, the name for the noodle is called 台湾意面.

Ingredients for台湾意面 (noodle dough):
350g high protein flour
100g low protein flour
50g cornflour
100g beaten egg
7.5g salt
225ml cold water

Method:

• Dissolove the salt in the cold water. Add beaten egg to water, and set aside.
• Sift all flours into a big mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and add the liquid mixture.
• Mix everything together till it forms a soft dough.
• Keep kneading till it is smooth and not sticky. Let rest for 20 minutes covered.
• Roll out dough into 2 to 3 mm thick and 30 cm long. Sprinkle some cornflour on the dough to prevent sticking.
• Fold the dough into a letter form and slice using kitchen knife into thin strips.

Ingredients for Za-jiang Mian (炸酱台湾意面) - for 4 to 5ppl
600g above台湾意面
200g blenched bean sprouts (I omited)
1 Japanese cucumber, peeled and sliced thinly
400g minced pork
50g dried shrimp, soaked and minced
8 to 10 shallots, sliced and deep fried till golden brown

Seasoning:
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp chicken seasoning
1 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp ground white pepper

Method:

• In the work, using the2 tbsp of the oil used for frying the shallots and cook the minced dried shrimps till fragrant.
• Add minced pork and cooked till almost done. Add five spice powder, pepper, light and dark soy and stir well. Add 2 small cup of water and cover to cook at low fire for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, set a pot of water to boil and cook the noodles till it just float up. Drain and dish into bowls. Place some sliced Japanese cucumber on the side.
  
• Uncover, add salt, sugar and chicken powder seasoning. Stir well and add the fried shallots in, remove from fire. Spoon some meat sauce over the noodles and serve while hot.

The meat sauce turned out to be very good! I just wished I have done a better job with the noodles! :-P But it was still yummy overall, a satisfactory dinner for the family. :D But I am still thinking of restaurants serving up those delicious handmade noodles...so good! I wonder where did I go wrong?! Will work on this recipe again and hopefully I can come up with spome new tricks to make the noodles more delicious. Perhaps the next time I should just stand at those glass window display @ the Chinese restaurants where the chefs make the noodles in front of everyone and watch the expert at work, hahaha! ;) Until next time my friend...have a good one!