Sweet Peanut soup & deep-fried bread

Flicking through old recipe collection has its merits, it made me want to bake something.. And since I've been missing my home country's roadside food stalls' offerings, I was quite determined to do something about it. Have you ever tasted a bowl of sweet, warming peanut soup? We call it "kacang kuah" in Indonesia. It's a milky coloured concoction of boiled peanuts with pandan, ginger & sugar. We usually have it as a teatime snack and it's particularly nice eaten on a rainy day.. warming to the stomach!!

It's usually accompanied with yu tiao (chinese doughnut/ fritters), but I kinda like the combination of that sweet peanut soup with the soft & crispy deep-fried bread (or known as roti goreng) better. So off I went to hunt some ingredients to make this tantalizing combo.. 

Sweet Peanut soup (kacang kuah) - serves approx 8-10 people

500 g raw peanuts without skin, soaked in water overnight

3L water

approx 300g raw sugar

1 tsp salt

3 pandan leaves, washed & knotted

5 cm fresh ginger

Strain the peanuts & pour in water into a deep pan (I used pressure cooker, so it cooks even faster! :) )
Add pandan leaves & ginger. Boil with medium heat for approx 2.5 hours, less or more depending on your preference. Normally the peanuts are very soft & almost melt instantly in your mouth as you eat it, so look out for this consistency.
Add sugar & salt as it boils, again, taste & adjust the sugar to your preference. 

kacang kuah

 Deep-fried bread (Roti goreng)

base mixture (A):
2 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
5 tbsp warm water
mix this mixture thoroughly & set aside in a warm place until it doubles in size (about 15 minutes in a slightly warm oven)

dough mixture:
2 small potatoes, boiled, peeled & mashed.
3 1/2 cups bread flour (high-protein flour)
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup warm milk
1/4 cup powdered milk
1 1/2 tsp salt
90 g butter/ margarine, slightly melted
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1. Mix flour, mashed potatoes, sugar, powdered milk, salt, baking powder, eggs & butter. Stirring with a wooden spoon, add in base mixture (A), blend in the warm milk gradually.
2. Blend this mixture thoroughly until it doesn't stick in the bowl anymore. Turn it out onto a floured work bench & knead until soft & pliable (hand-kneading took me around 20 minutes)
3. Put this dough back into the bowl & cover the bowl with a moist, clean tea towel; set aside approx 1 hour in a warm place.

The rested dough (after an hour)

1. Knead the rested dough & cut into 35 grams portions for the deep-fried bread. (I ended up using half the dough for deep-fried bread, and the remaining half for mini baked bread) 
2. Round up the 35g dough portions, cover & set aside for another 1/2 hour. 
3. Prepare a small bowl of water and a small bowl filled with good-quality breadcrumbs for coating the bread.
4. heat up a bowl of oil in a frying pan on a medium heat, and as it heats up, plunge the dough into water first, then roll it onto the breadcrumbs.
5. Deep-fry the bread dough until golden brown & cooked in the inside (tone down the heat a little, it could get overcooked quite easily)
6. Note: 1/2 of this bread dough makes approx. 18 deep fried bread/ roti goreng. 

the resultant Roti goreng

Well, what did I do with the remaining half of the dough? I cut them into 30 gram portions, round them up & fill them with various fillings like sausages, cheese, pork floss, chocolate & cheese & ham & cheese, then bake them. It works the same way as the fried bread, only this time, they are baked in 200C oven (don't forget to pre-heat first as you shape the bread) for about 18 minutes or until golden brown.

moulded & filled bread - these ones have sausages in them

After portioning the dough into 30g rounds, I rolled them flat & filled them with sausages, etc. then rolled them up with the seam tightly pinched at the bottom.

For the glaze, you can use egg wash, water, sesame seed, poppy seed, melted butter, granulated sugar, or milk (the options are endless, really...) I just brushed milk on all of them. (The choice of glaze will determine how the top of your bread will look & lends a taste to it; milk gives it a soft, matte finish)

baked goodies

The smell of baked bread permeated the whole house. Best eaten warm, just out of the oven, the potatoes in the dough makes the bread cottony soft to eat, yum! 

They keep well in a tight-lidded container without refrigeration for 1-2 days, though I'd heat them in microwave/ bake them in the oven for a couple of minutes before I eat them. Ah, but don't you rather eat them fresh out of the oven? ^_^

Smoking hot.. this one has ham & cheese in it