Quirky Oats Treats

I am not particularly an oats lover but i will eat it on a regular basis for my heart's sake.  Unfortunately it's not the case for my boys. I have to resort to sneaking it into their diets. Hence, I am always delighted to discover recipes with oats where i least expected it. Along the way, i have learned to sneak in some oats here and there too, especially in places where they would least suspect its presence :)

Cucur Udang (Prawn fritters) is one savoury snack that is well loved locally.    We eat them on its own with some chilli sauce or it is added as a condiment into a salad (known as rojak locally) drenched with peanut sauce. Sinfully delicious food!  So, to lessen the 'sins', i added oats into the batter :)  In case you are wondering if my boys detected oats in them, the answer is No :)  It tasted as delicious and as crispy if not better!  Mission Accomplished!

Recipe-Cucur Udang

Ingredients

Part A

• 20 medium size prawns, shelled, cut into smaller pieces
• 1 onion
• 100g bean sprouts
• 50g  Chinese chives
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 tsp rice vinegar

Part B

• 1 cup plain flour, remove 2 tsbp and replace with rice flour
• 1/2 cup instant oats
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp chicken stock granules

Part C

• Water

Steps

1. Put all ingredients from Part A in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add in ingredients from Part B
3. Mix well and ensure ingredients coated with flour. 
4. Pour in water a little at a time, stop when mixture becomes a thick batter. 
5. Heat enough oil for frying in a wok/frying pan.  Place a ladle in the oil to heat it up.  Remove the ladle and allow excess oil to drip off.
6. Spoon enough batter to fill the ladle.  Gently lower batter into oil.  After 2 or 3 minutes, a crust will form at the bottom of the ladle, gently push the batter out of the ladle with the tip of a small knife.  Continue frying until it turns golden brown.
7. Drain fritters on paper towels.
8. Serve hot with some chilli sauce.  

Note: 
Typically you will see a prawn on top of the fritters but i prefer to cut them into smaller pieces and mix them into the batter.  If you would like to have a whole prawn on top, at Step 6, press a prawn on top of the fritters before lowering it into the oil.   Here, i only did this for 3 fritters for the sake of taking pictures.    It's your choice :)

One more quirky oats treat...

This was originally a decent loaf of bread that i turned quirky by adding a triangular piece of Toblerone chocolate.   I came across the original recipe at Victoria's of Victoria Bakes, do hop over to her place for some awfully cute bakes.  We like the loaf made according to the original recipe.  One day while picking up some butter to make the loaf, the bar of Toblerone call out to me...why not i thought..since my son had quite a few bars lying around in the fridge. And like they say the rest is history! 

I have made this Toblerone loaf a couple of times already. The result was quite good, apart from making it a little chocolaty, its makes the loaf softer and creamier too.  My son was thrilled to know that the bread had Toblerone in it.  This time around, i lessen some flour and added some oats.  Of course the oats bit was kept a secret from the boy!  

It was good enough eaten with a slice of cheddar cheese :)

Note: 

1. My variations in blue.
2. Skip to Step 3 if using breadmaker.
3. This recipe is a perfect fit for a 450g loaf pan/Pullman tin, just wait until it proofs up to fill the entire tin.

Recipe

Source: Victoria Bakes

Ingredients

• 250g bread flour (220g bread flour, 30g instant oats) 
• 38g sugar (30g if Toblerone is added)
• 25g piece of Toblerone chocolate (I used Crunchy Almond)
• 2g salt
• 4g yeast 
• 135g buttermilk (1 tbsp lemon juice top then top up to 135ml milk and left aside for 5 minutes)
• 30g butter
• 30g egg (lightly beaten) (I used 1 small free range egg)

Steps

1. Mix all dry ingredients and add milk and egg. Knead till you get soft  and pliable dough.
2. Add in softened butter and knead till dough is soft, elastic but not sticky.
3. Place all ingredients in the bread pan of the breadmaker (according to the recommended sequence stated in the instruction manual of the breadmaker).  Select Dough function.  
4. Proof till dough until twice the original size. 
5. Punch dough down, and divide into 3 equal portions (if using 450g loaf pan) (I used it whole)
6. Rest dough for 10mins. Roll into a rectangular shape with one side not longer than length of pan/tin that will be used for baking.  Roll up dough like a swiss roll from the shorter side.
7. Turn dough 90 degrees.  Roll it into a rectangular shape again as in step 6.  Roll up dough like a swiss roll again.  Seal seams and place in pan.
8. Repeat the process for the other 2 dough if dough was divided into 3 portions.
9. Proof dough till it is 80-90% filling up the pan
10. Bake bread on lower rack of oven at 180 degrees C for 40mins

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen from My little favourite DIY, hosted by Vivian of Vivian Pang's Kitchen.

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