First off, I like to do things with noodles and my bread machine. I thought for some reason making a loaf in the shape of a fish would be a good idea. I get these ideas out of nowhere – call it a divine vision if you want, but I wouldn’t go that far. But it hit me and so I figured I ought to go for it.
I visited the local thrift store where I expected to easily find a metal fish shaped mold. Well, that wasn’t the case. However, there’s a Facebook group for my area that you can ask for things on that people may have they don’t want anymore. So I did and lo and behold, I was lucky enough to find someone who had one! Big thanks to D.R. for her kind donation of a fish shaped mold!
So, how did I do this? Well, in addition to the mold, I got a lot of help from my wife Kit! We had to go to the thrift store where we found a platter. I’ve also never just used the bread machine to make dough that would be baked separately – and that was a big win here. Anyways, let’s see here…
Amazing Fish Shaped Laksa Bread
Watch and be amazed!
Ingredients for bread dough
- Water
- Flour
- Black sesame seeds
- Oil
- Sugar
- Salt
- Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp
Ingredients for filling
- 5 stalks green onion sliced thin
- 3 fishball and 3 large shrimp chopped
- sachet from Prima Taste Laksa La Mian (wholegrain or regular)
- cooked noodles from aforementioned pack
- Method
- Make your dough in the bread machine as you would normally but add a ton of black sesame seeds and a big glop of the chili crisp before kneading operation
- Grease and flour your fish mold
- Add in a layer of dough, and a layer of the mixture plus some noodles, then dough on top
- Bake at 350 for 40 minutes
- Garnish with Romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, mint, lemon slices, and sesame seed
Finished (click to enlarge). The loaf definitely rose and split apart in the center. This was the first time trying anything like this, so that’s fine. I also found that the mixture of fish ball, shrimp, onion and sachets after chilled tastes like a seafood salad, and when combined with a little cold noodles was excellent – something I might do a separate video on later. But yeah this was about the best bread I’ve made thus far – everything worked together and I think the key was the temperature of the oven and speed of cooking – in the bread machine it doesn’t get as hot and takes twice as long. I think the oven is the way to go. Give it a try!
A shot of the stuffed bread and the filling.
A side shot of the loaf.
