Grape-puree Muffin ブドウのピューレのマフィン

We like grapes and often have them for dessert. Our favorites are “Holiday grapes” and “Cotton Candy grapes”. But they are not always available. For example, “Holiday grapes” are only available October to mid-December (hence the name, “holiday” grape). Cotten Candy grapes grown in California are available mid July through September. Cotton Candy grapes grown in Mexico are available April and May. In general we are not fans of generic red and green grapes so whenever we see “special” grapes with the word “sweetness” in the varietal name we try them out. That is what happened recently.

Our usual favorites were not available but we found some green grapes with a fancy name alluding to “sweetness” at Whole Foods and went for them. We were hoping they would be a potential replacements for our aforementioned two favorite grapes. Unfortunately, they turned out to be just tough skin and seeds. What little interior meat they had, although only a small proportion of the whole grape, was indeed quite sweet. But in general, by our standards, these were not good eating grapes.

Not to be deterred, my wife remembered her recent experience making strawberry muffins using a fresh strawberry syrup reduction. She thought, ‘why not try the same thing with these grapes?’ Making them into a grape syrup reduction would eliminate the tough skin and numerous seeds because they would be strained out when the cooked grapes were sieved. Wouldn’t that highlight and accentuate what sweetness the grapes had in their interior meat?’ So that is what she did. Turned out it worked.

Ingredients:
Grape muffin:
1 1/2 cups (180g) cake flour
1 cup (198g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon tabler / salt
6 tablespoons (85g) butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 large egg white
3 tablespoons (43g) water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup grape reduction

Grape reduction:
Package of sweet eating grapes, cooked, pureed, strained, then reduced

Directions:
For the grape reduction:
Put the grapes in a saucepan. Gently heat them on simmer until the skins open releasing juice and interior meat. (These grapes took a very long time to open; the skins were really thick and tough). After the grapes open and exude liquid puree and strain them. (We used a motor boat blender). Return the puree to the pan a continue simmering on low heat until the liquid reduces and turns darker and slightly thicker. (This further concentrates the flavor.)

For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with baking cups. In a cuisine art blender fitted with a blade combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and mix at low speed until the mixture looks sandy. (Similar to making biscuit dough). Beat in the egg, the extra egg white, water, and vanilla, then mix until no dry spots of flour remain. The mixture will be thick. Add 1/2 cup of the grape reduction. Continue to mix on low speed until the batter is smooth. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins.

Bake the cupcakes for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove the cupcakes from the oven, and as soon as you can handle them, remove them from the pan and transfer them to a rack to cool.

This was a great muffin. It had a very refined texture and elegant flavor that was somewhat mysterious. Unlike the strawberry muffins which announced their strawberry-ness very assertively these muffins had a lovely fresh flavor that indicated they were made with fresh fruit but the actual fruit’s identity was not announced flavor-wise although it had a very light natural but rich sweetness. It did not particularly taste grape-like but these were, without a doubt, one of the best muffin we ever made. This distinctive flavor may be unique to the type of grape we used. Unfortunately neither of us payed particular attention to the grapes name so we may not be able to reproduce it again. Nonetheless, we wanted this post for our record.

Norwegian Lefse Flatbread ノルウェイのレフシイ フラットブレッド

Whenever we do barbecue/roast in the Weber grill, we cook potatoes and parsnips with the meat. When we roasted pork last time, we ended up with good amount of mashed potato-parsnip. Although making croquets from the left-over potatoes is the usual way to handle this, we had excess frozen croquets in the freezer.  So, my wife looked for a recipe on the internet  to use up the potatoes. She came up with this “Norwegian Lefse Flatbread”. We had these as “lefse” roll-ups with smoked salmon and cream cheese as a lunch. I happened to make cucumber and onion salad earlier which made a perfect side (picture #1).

We made just three (picture #3). The texture is more potato than bread. Not much flavor from the mashed potato/parsnips came through. This is certainly an interesting dish and the recipe is extremely simple (involving only potatoes and flour) but having tried it once we probably won’t repeat it.

Ingredients:
1 cup Mashed Potatoes (about 8.5 ounces/240 grams fresh potatoes)
1 cup all-purpose flour (Plain Flour + extra for dusting (about ½ cup))

Directions:
Place the flour and potato mash onto the work surface. Start bringing the ingredients together to form a sticky dough. Roll this into a sausage and cut into several pieces about 2 inches long. Form each piece into a round shape. Cook on medium to high heat in a dry frying pan for about 2 minutes (1 minute per side) or until done. Best served right away while still warm.

Walnut Cheddar Loaf くるみとチェダーチーズのローフ

This is another one of my wife’s baking projects. She saw this recipe on the Washington Post web site. She was intrigued by the use of pulverized walnuts in the dough like a type of nut flour combined with the grated cheese. She wanted to see how that would taste. This is definitely a unique bread (in a good way) (#1). It is fairly dense in texture but has a nice rich nutty flavor for the pulverized walnuts with a hint of the cheese flavor. We had this as a part of the breakfast lightly toasted.

Ingredients: (makes one 8-inch loaf)
6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, cut into chunks, softened, plus more for the pan
1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (63 grams) whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon fine salt
4 ounces (113 grams) grated sharp cheddar cheese 
1/2 cup (60 grams) chopped walnuts 
2 large eggs
1 cup (240 milliliters) well-shaken whole or low-fat buttermilk

Directions:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-by-4-inch loaf pan. In a food processor, combine the flours, sugar, mustard, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and pulse 4 to 5 times to blend. Add the butter and process for 15 seconds to form a crumbly mixture.
Add the cheese and nuts to the food processor. Pulse until incorporated.

In a liquid measuring cup lightly beat together the eggs and buttermilk until combined, then pour into the food processor. Process until a thick batter comes together.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and use an offset spatula or a moistened flexible spatula to smooth out the top. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let rest for 15 minutes.

This is a very satisfying and filling bread. One piece goes a long way. (You are eating a lot of nuts although you might not notice it because they form part of the flour.) It toasts up nicely and makes a very nice bread for breakfast.

Rice Krispies Pancake ライスクリスピーパンケーキ

This is the continuation of the rice Krispies saga; my wife’s effort to put a dent in the huge box of Krispies we bought to make rice Krispies treats. (Which, by-the-way are still not forthcoming).  She found this recipe on the  Canadian rice Krispies web site. Initially we thought it was a-sort-of “Dutch Baby Pancake” variation but the edge did not rise and it had a texture more like a dense regular pancake. She served it topped with fresh strawberry sauce which worked well (#1). Nonetheless we do not see the point of using rice Krispies like this except to empty the gigantic box of Krispies recently bought. We prefer the Dutch baby we usually make.

Ingredients: (#2)
375 mL (1 1/2 cups) Rice Krispies Cereal
15 mL (1 tbsp) butter
3 eggs
250 ml (1 cup) milk
125 ml (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
1 ml (1/4 tsp) salt
5 ml (1 tsp) sugar

Sauce:
Fresh strawberries hulled and sliced then whirred into puree using an immersion blender. (No sugar added) 

Directions:
Heat oven to 425°F. In a blender, combine cereal, eggs, milk, flour and salt. Blend until smooth. Melt the butter in the iron skillet. Pour the cereal mixture into the skillet. Put the skillet in the oven and bake about 15 minutes or until golden brown and puffed. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

This was not a bad pancake. There was a residual sweetness and taste of the Krispies which was pleasant. The fresh strawberry sauce really brought the pancake to life. By-the-way no rice Krispies treats have materialized. Still waiting…patiently.

Shrimp and Scallop Rice Krispies Bites エビとホタテのライスクリスピーボール

Some time ago, my wife got a great big box of rice Krispies cereal (and mini marshmallows). Her reason was that, as a kid, she used to like “rice Krispies treats”. Recently, she purchased some from the grocery store but thought they were not as good as she remembered. So, she wanted to make some herself from scratch thinking they should be better than the ones she just bought. (I could enjoy some homemade rice Krispie treats too, since I was “deprived” of the experience as a kid; they were not part of my Japanese childhood).

We were not sure how much rice Krispies would be needed to make the treats so we got the “big” box…it was gigantic. Over some time, no Krispie treats were forthcoming.  I started teasing her about the huge box of Krispies in the pantry and would she need all of that for the treats? In response she went to the rice Krispies website  and found a few recipes she wanted to try and thought would reduce the volume of Krispies we had. This is one of those recipes. Of course there were a few modifications. The original recipe called for shrimp and crabmeat but we did not have crabmeat. We did, however, have frozen bay scallops which we had used to make salmon pate. So we substituted the scallops for the crab.  I made a sauce with Greek yogurt, mayonnaise yuzu juice (from the bottle) and Japanese not-so spicy spicy chili oil with garlic bits. The final dish is shown in (#1). It was quite a nice savory bite with a little crunch on the crust courtesy of the rice Krispies.

On the cut surface, you can see some scallop but the shrimp became a binder and disappeared (#2).

Ingredients:
For the fish bite:
30 mL (2 tbsp) grated Parmesan cheese
175 g (6 oz) bay scallops, thawed, finely chopped
125 g (4 oz) cleaned raw shrimp, finely chopped
 500 ML (2 cups) rice Krispies cereal crushed
2 egg whites, or 1 egg
50 ml (1/4 cup) finely chopped celery
30 ml (2 tbsp) low-fat mayonnaise
2 ml (1/2 tsp) dijon mustard
1 ml (1/4 tsp) cayenne

For the sauce
3 tbsp greek yogurt 
3 tbsp mayonnaise
30 ml (2 tbsp) Dijon mustard
yuzu juice to taste
Japanese  chili crunch oil (“taberu-ra-yu” 食べるラー油”)

Directions
In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup of the crushed cereal and Parmesan cheese and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the scallops, shrimp, remaining cereal, eggs, celery, mayonnaise, mustard and cayenne until thoroughly mixed. Scoop out part of the mixture using the second to smallest ice cream scoop and form into balls. Roll balls in the crushed cereal mixture. Place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake at 350°F about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve with sauce. 

Sauce: In small bowl, mix together mayonnaise, greek yogurt, mustard, yuzu juice and Japanese chili crunch oil.

The sauce really sets this fish bite apart from ordinary. The Krispies bite itself was really good. But my comment was “why do you need to use rice Krispies?” We could have made this using panko bread crumbs. Nonetheless this is certainly a nice appetizer. Also, after all this, the rice Krispies treats are still not forthcoming. Still waiting…patiently.