Chili Crisp Cottage Cheese Flatbread カッテージチーズフラットブッレドと食べるラー油

My wife is always looking for new baking projects. She came across a flatbread recipe using cottage cheese. In addition, this recipe included “chili crisp*”. We are usually not interested in “very spicy” food. In our household, we keep “Tabasco” and “Sriracha” and use them sparingly or as part of a marinade. We used to have a Japanese version of chili infused oil or ra-yu ラー油 but since we used it rarely, it oxidized by the next time we wanted to use it. Since my wife asked for “chili crisp” for this recipe, I looked into it. The Chinese version appeared to be too spicy for us and we do not particularly like tongue numbing Sichuan pepper which many Chinese brands may include. So I settled for a Japanese mild version of chili crisp from ‘Momoya 桃屋**”.

*Spicy chili infused oil “辣油” is a traditional condiment in Chinese cuisine. In Japan, it is known as “ra-yu ラー油”.  Chili crisp or chili crunch  is a variation chili oil in which bits of chili, garlic and other solids are included. This became very popular during the  COVID time (2020 on) in the U.S. and many brands (including some U.S. brands) became readily available. In Japan, this was known as “eating ra-yu  or 食べるラー油”.

**Japanese condiment maker “Momoya 桃屋” started selling a Japanese version of chili crips which was dubbed as “Looks spicy but not too spicy ra-yu 辛そうで辛くない 少し辛いラー油” in 2009 which was a big hit in Japan.

So my wife started making the bread but at the last moment her friend called and I was left to do the final preparation; making the dough balls, let them rest. Preheating the cast iron skillet. Pressing and stretching the dough balls in to 7 - 8 inch disks without making holes and cooking them in the cast iron skillet. The picture #1 is the result. I included the Japanese chili crisp in the picture (on the side).

This is how we enjoyed it (picture #2). Just dip the bread in the chili crisp. (We subsequently found that spreading the chili crisp directly on the bread works very well too.) The bread and chili crisps were wonderful. The fried garlic adds a nice crunch and the oil is flavorful but not hot; just a bit of buzz which suits us just fine. The bread on its own also has nice flavors.

Ingredients
3/4 cup (170g) cottage cheese, whole milk preferred
1/2 cup (114g) water, warm
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons table salt
1 cup (14g) cilantro, leaves and tender stems*
2 1/4 cups (270g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1 tablespoon (22g) chili crisp, plus more for brushing
vegetable oil, for brushing or greasing

*Or substitute with dill, parsley, or a mix

Directions:
To make the dough: In a food processor, process the cottage cheese, water, yeast, sugar, and salt until smooth, 20 to 30 seconds. Add the cilantro, flour, and 1 tablespoon (22g) chili crisp, in that order, and process in about 8 to 10 second-long pulses, until the dough comes together and starts to gather around the blade.

Scrape the dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until increased in volume by about 1 1/2 times, 30 to 45 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead it gently, sprinkling with additional flour as necessary, until it's smooth, springy, and less sticky, 30 to 60 seconds. (The dough was extremely, wet and sticky and required the addition of a fair amount of flour to make it workable.) 

Divide the dough into 4 pieces (about 150g each) and shape each into a tight ball. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until puffy and relaxed, 15 to 30 minutes.

Toward the end of the rise time, preheat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Working with one dough ball at a time, stretch or roll into a 7" to 8" round. Brush the top with vegetable oil, then place, oil-side down, in the skillet. Cook until brown underneath and bubbled on top, 1 to 2 minutes. Brush the other side with oil then flip the dough and cook until brown on the second side, 1 to 2 minutes.

While one flatbread is cooking, shape the next.
For an extra spicy finish, brush the warm flatbreads with chili crisp before serving.

Sweet Potato muffin with Dates and Cranberries サツマイモマフィン

This is another of my wife’s baking projects. The original recipe appeared in Washington Post as “Sweet potato bread with dates and cranberries” but she converted it to muffins. One of the reasons she made this is that we got some Japanese sweet potatoes a week ago and she wanted to use them before they went bad. This recipe was a bit unusual in that the dates were pulverized with oil, eggs, and milk and become a part of the wet ingredients.  The original recipe also calls for fresh cranberries but we didn’t have any so we used dried cranberries (craisins). Since craisins have added sugar and dates are quite sweet, we were afraid the muffin would be too sweet but it was just pleasantly sweet. The texture appeared dense but was very tender. Overall, this is a good unique muffin/bread. We enjoyed it for our breakfast. I ask my wife to continue.

Ingredients
1/2 cup (120 milliliters) neutral oil, (We used Crisco)
1 1/2 cups (190 grams) pitted dates
1 cup mashed, roasted sweet potatoes (We used Japanese sweet potatoes)
1/3 cup (80 milliliters) milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (65 grams) whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup (65 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (60 grams) almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup (95 grams) fresh whole cranberries (We used craisins)
1/2 cup (60 grams) chopped raw pecans

Directions:
Prepare 2 sweet potatoes by piercing the skin, then putting them into a silicone cooking container with a little water. Cover and cook in the microwave until tender (about 4-5 minutes). Remove the skin. Mash them and then run them through a ricer to get rid of any remaining lumps. 

Place the dates in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the sweet potato puree, oil and milk and pulse until smooth. (Small bits of the dates will remain.) Add the eggs and vanilla, and pulse to combine. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

In another large bowl, whisk together the whole-wheat, AP, and almond flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the sweet potato mixture, and stir just until evenly incorporated. Stir in the cranberries and pecans; the batter will be very thick.

Transfer the batter to the prepared muffin tins. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes then remove from the pan.

Scallops and Shrimp with Yuzu Galic Butter Sauce ホタテとエビのソテー柚子ガーリックバーターソース

This is another inventory control dish. This time, frozen scallops and shell-on shrimp from “Great Alaska Seafood”. We had this as an ending “shime” dish for the evening. Since I had 4 scallops and 2 shrimp, vacuumed packed into two separate packages I could quickly thaw them by soaking the packages in ice water. Frozen items thaw much quicker using this method than leaving them in the refrigerator to thaw since water has much better heat transfer than air. Just before cooking, I patted them dry with paper towels and seasoned them with salt and pepper. I also decided to cook the shrimp with the shell on.

This is not a recipe per se but just for our record. Since I had some “ao-yuzu 青柚子” (from the Suzuki Farm) left, I used the zest and juice to make a Yuzu garlic butter sauce.  To mop up the sauce, we served several slices of mini-baguette I baked. The cucumber salad was dressed with strained home-made yogurt (Greek yogurt) seasoned with salt and olive oil. I also added finely chopped dill.

To sear and brown the scallops, I used a stainless steel frying pan with peanut oil (high smoking point) on medium high flame. I waited until the surface of the oil shimmered and I made sure the surface of the scallops was dry. I seasoned them with a generous amount of salt and pepper. I placed them in the pan for 1 minute until browned. Then turned them over and added the shrimp and cooked 1 more minute. I took out the scallops and set them aside (at this stage they were undercooked). I turned the shrimp over and cooked 30 more seconds then took them out. I added some butter (1-2 tbs) to the pan and when it melted added the finely chopped garlic and cooked for 30 seconds. I added a splash of white wine, scraped off the brown bits and stirred. I added the scallops and shrimp back into the pan and cooked for 30-40 seconds. Then I added the yuzu juice and zest and served.

As a quick impromptu dish, this was quite good. It is unfortunate I could not undercook the scallops since they were not sashimi quality but they were still quite ok.

Lemon Sponge Pudding/Pie レモンスポンジプッデング

This is another one of my wife’s PA Dutch baking projects. This is based on a recipe in Marsh Adams “PA Dutch cookbook”. My wife made this as a pudding by cooking it in a ramekin. But it can be cooked in a pie crust making it a pie. (The original recipe made it as a pie.) In both cases as can be seen in the following pictures, the top is a nice sponge cake with a lemon custard on the bottom. This is not too sweet and nice light dessert. Here she comes.

Ingredients:
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell if making a pie, otherwise several small ramekins

4 eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
6 tbs. AP flour (or 1/4 cup plus 2 tbs.)
1/2 stick butter melted
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk
2 lemon rinds
2 lemon lemon juice 

Ingredients ( X1/2)

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell if making a pie, otherwise several small ramekins

2 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
3 tbs. AP flour 
1/4 stick butter melted
1/4 tsp salt
1 cups milk
1 lemon rinds
1 lemon juice

Directions for pudding:
Preheat oven to 400°.  Beat egg yolks until smooth. Beat the egg whites until stiff. In a large bowl combine the sugar, flour, melted butter, egg yolks and grated rinds. Then add the lemon juice, salt and milk and blend. Fold in the egg whites, then pour into the ramekins. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes then reduce temperature to 350 for an additional 15 minutes. Let cool completely before eating.

Directions for pie:
Preheat oven to 425 F. Use a deep dish pie plate and set out the pie crust in it. (If making the 1/2 recipe use a regular pie pan.) Beat egg yolks until smooth. Beat the egg whites until stiff. In a large bowl combine the sugar, flour, melted butter, egg yolks and grated rinds. Then add the lemon juice, salt and milk and blend. Fold in the egg whites, then pour into the pie shell. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes then reduce to 350 for an additional 20 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting

This is a lovely light dessert. The contrast in texture between the chiffon topping and the lemon custard underneath is quite nice. This is a classic.

Wood-ear Mushroom in Sesame Sauce キクラゲの胡麻和え

This is another dish I made to finish up the fresh wood ear mushrooms I got from Weee. Although we prepared the mushrooms by boiling and washing them before storing them in the fridge, I repeated the process for this dish since they were getting old. I got the idea for this dish from a recipe I saw on line.  I prepared the sesame sauce the way I usually make it using freshly re-roasted sesame seeds rather than following the recipe. The re-roasting adds a fresher sesame flavor. I also added golden thread egg or “kinshiran 金糸卵” mostly for color. This turned out to be quite a good dish. The wood ear mushrooms gave a nice crunch in contrast to the softer vegetables.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup blanched and washed wood-ear mushrooms, cut into thin strips (I used whatever was left which was about 1/2 cup)
2 small carrots, peeled, cut into thick match sticks about1 inch long then boiled in salted water for a few minutes and cooled
7-8 green beans (I had ones already streamed for 3 minutes and cooled), cut into the. same size as the carrots. 
golden thread egg for garnish (optional)

Dressing:
1 tbs white sesame seeds, dry roast using either small dry frying pan or a special sesame roasting pan
1 tbs white sesame paste
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1-2 tsp rice vinegar

Directions:
Add the roasted sesame seeds in a Japanese mortar and pestle or “suri-bachi 摺鉢”  and grind them until some oil comes out.
Add the sesame paste, sugar and soy sauce and mix using the pestle or “suri-kogi すりこぎ” . Taste and add more soy sauce if needed. Add the rice vinegar.
If the consistency is too thick and the seasoning is strong enough, add warm water to make the consistency appropriate for dressing.
Dress the vegetables and mushrooms and garnish with the egg threads.

This is a nice dish. It can go as a small side dish for a Japanese meal or a drinking snack. It can also go with red wine especially if you do not make the dressing too vinegary.

Nutmeat Pate 木の実のパテ

This is a very interesting pâté recipe from “Frog Commissary Cookbook” my wife found. This is a pâté made of white beans and nuts. The color is a bit drab but it almost tastes like a meat pate (#1). After a few days, the flavor and texture got better. This is a perfect appetizer for vegetarian friends but the omnivore will also enjoy it. I will ask my wife to take over.

Ingredients: Makes 3 small loaves. 

One can of white navy beans whizzed until smooth in a food processor 

2 cups walnuts (½ pound), lightly toasted and finely ground
2 cups pecans (½ pound), light toasted and finely ground
1 cup grated Gruyère cheese (¼ pound)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
⅓ cup minced scallion
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon dried thyme (I used fresh from our garden)
½ teaspoon crumbled dried rosemary (I used fresh from our garden)
1¾ teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoon pepper
⅓ cup heavy cream
1½ teaspoons minced garlic
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tablespoon brandy  
1 ounce dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted in warm water, drained and minced

(These are other herbs called for in the recipe but I didn’t use)

⅓ cup minced parsley 
½ teaspoon dried marjoram 

Directions:
Toast the walnuts and pecans. Grind them separately in a food processor and set aside. Grind the white beans in a food processor to form a “bean paste”. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix well (#2) Preheat the oven to 350°. Fill the three small silicon bread pans with the pâté mixture and cover it tightly with tin foil (#4). Set in a larger baking pan filled with hot water half way up the sides of the baking pans.

Bake in the toaster oven for 1 hour. Let cool 10 minutes and then invert the baking pan onto a serving plate and unmold the pâte. The pâté can be served either hot or cold (#4).

As stated before this pâté tastes remarkably like it was made with meat. It is very savory and makes a nice appetizer with a glass of red wine. 

Simmered “Ni-Yakko” tofu 煮やっこ

Japanese dishes made with cubes of warm tofu can have quite a few variations. Those considered basic/traditional are called “Yu-dofu 湯豆腐”. “Yu” means hot water and “dofu” means tofu. In its basic form, cubes of tofu are warmed in a pot.  The pot contains a kelp broth with no other seasoning aside from the flavor of the kelp.  Submerged in the center of the pot is a special small metal cup with dipping sauce (soy sauce based) in it. This way both the tofu and the dipping sauce both get warmed. You dip the warm tofu in the warm dipping sauce before eating. This dish is usually served at the table and eaten “family style”. Then there is another category of warm tofu called “ni-yakko 煮やっこ*”. “Ni” means simmered and “yakko” means cube of tofu. In contrast to “yu-dofu” the broth for this dish is seasoned. Once you use seasoned broth, the possibility for variation widens; you could add other vegetables, eggs etc. “Niku-doufu 肉豆腐” is another variation. “Niku” means meat and “doufu” is the tofu. In this dish thinly sliced beef is simmered with tofu in soy sauce based broth but the main item is tofu and the beef is considered just part of the seasoning. In any case, I made a variation of “ni-yakko” since we had extra silken tofu. I added thinly sliced fresh wood ear mushrooms and blanched daikon green since I happened to have them. For good measure, I added beaten eggs which is called “tamako-toji 卵とじ (picture below).

*I previously pontificated about why cubes of tofu is called “yakko”.

There is no recipe per se. The simplest form of “ni-yakko” is cubes of tofu simmered in seasoned broth usually soy sauce based. The quality of the tofu is very important in this kind of dish. The silken tofu I got is called “House” brand and is made in the U.S, by a Japanese company. Compared to other “silken tofu”, this is much better. In any case, this is how I made this dish.

Ingredients:
1 package of tofu (good quality, I used silken tofu)
Seasoned both, enough to cover the ingredients (I made Japanese broth with a “dashi pack” and seasoned with 4x concentrated Japanese noodle sauce)
Wood ear mushrooms, cut into thin strips (optional)
Blanched Daikon green, cut into small pieces (optional)
2 beaten eggs

Directions:
Cut the tofu in to bite size cubes
Add tofu in a small pot so that the tofu smugly fits
Add the seasoned broth and simmer for a few minutes or until the tofu is warmed up
Add the mushrooms and daikon green
Add the eggs and gently mix and cook until just set

This is a very gentle comforting dish. Again, the quality of the tofu is the key to its success.