Smoked salmon, potato, cheese loaf and cheese bites スモークサーモン、ポテト、チーズローフ

We had some leftover cooked spinach, mashed potatoes and a small amount of smoked salmon so my wife came up with this. It is a combination of several recipes; "egg and smoked salmon in puff pastry", "spinach cheese loaf"and mashed potatoes with cream cheese and chives. The egg and smoked salmon recipe inspired the use of smoked salmon. The spinach cheese loaf was the basis for the center cheese and spinach layer. The mashed potato layer was a variation of gnocchi.

The layers are shown here from the bottom, the smoked salmon, cheeses mixture and mashed potato encased in puff pastry..

Since the cheese filling was too much for the loaf, my wife put the excess into small muffin tins with a small piece of smoked salmon on the  bottom to make little cheese bites (shown below).  They came out very nicely.

Without pastry shell and potato, these by themselves were quite a good small bite.

Ingredients:
1 frozen puff pastry sheet, thawed
1 cup mashed potato with cream cheese with chives
Smoked salmon, enough to cover 1/2 of the puff pastry (or whatever amount available)
6 oz. double Gloucester cheese grated (original recipe calls for Mozzarella, we did not have it).
block of feta cheese, crumbled (or to taste).
10 oz. ricotta cheese
One bag spinach (or whatever available) cooked without adding any liquid, excess moisture squeezed and finely chopped.
red pepper flakes (optional)
3 eggs (2 for cheese layer 1 for potato layer)

Directions:
On a piece of parchment paper roll out the puff pastry. Combine the cheeses and the spinach (#1). Stir in the 2 eggs (#2). Put the mashed potatoes in a bowl. Stir in the egg. Add enough flour so the spinach has the consistency of gnocchi i.e. has a firm consistency and is not runny.

Assembly: Lay the smoked salmon on 1/2 of the puff pastry. Spread the cheese and spinach layer on top (#4). Spread the potato layer on top of the cheese (#5). Fold the other half of puff pastry over the half with the cheese mixture. Seal the edges with some water and press with a fork. Dock the pastry with the tines of the fork (#6). Transfer the puff pastry on the parchment paper to a baking sheet. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

Directions for the cheese bites
Since there was too much cheese stuffing to go into the puff pastry my wife used it to make little cheese bites. She greased a tin for mini muffins. Put a small piece of salmon in the bottom of the cup and scooped in enough filling to fill the tin. She baked these with the puff pastry loaf at 425 for about 18 minutes. When they came out of the oven the cheese stuck to the side of the tin. She used a spatula to loosen the edges while the cheese was still hot. Luckily because of the salmon on the bottom the little bites just fell out when the tin was inverted and tapped gently on the counter top.

This was a very good variation on the "cheese-in-puff-pastry" theme. The salmon gave a salty smokiness. The ricotta spinach feta combo is always winning. The layer of gnocchi like potato on the top was a lovely surprise. The cream cheese chive flavor really came through and smooth texture of the potatoes was a nice contrast to the somewhat firmer texture of the cheese layer. The little cheese bites were also very good. Again the salmon added it characteristic salty smokiness, the cheese layer was very good but it was different from the cheese layer in the puff pastry loaf made with the same ingredients. The outside of the cheese had gotten toasted in the mini muffin tins so it was somewhat crunchy and the flavor of the toasted portion was somewhat deeper than the un-toasted portion. It made a very satisfying single mouthful. These would definitely be worth making in their own right.

Kuri-kinton Daifuku 栗きんとん大福

In the Sushi Taro Osechi, we always get two traditional New Year items "kuromame" or simmered black beans 黒豆 and "kurikinton" or mashed sweet potato with chestnuts 栗きんとん. Although these are traditional "auspicious" foods for New Year, they are a bit sweet and we usually eat them last as a dessert. This year I wanted to do something different. From the leftover "kuromame", we made "green tea cake with kuromame" 黒豆入り抹茶ケーキ as before. As something new, I made "daikufu" 大福餅 with "kurikinton" in the center for the first time.  Diafuku literally means "Big luck" or "good luck" and usually has sweet red beans or "anko" あんこ in the center. I thought because the "kurikinton" was yellow in color (representing gold or riches) and sweet (in the old days in Japan sugar was rare so anything sweet was revered), it was appropriate to substitute for the beans with good-luck "kurikinton". I also added cooked chestnuts (store bought). It turned out the kurikinton had a generous amount of chestnut pieces as well so the addition of the chestnuts was not really needed but made the end result more sumptuous. Although it was the very first time I tried to make daifuku it turned out OK. I followed the instructions from a recipe on line (in English with a video).

This is the cut surface. My wife thought the mochi skin could have been a bit thicker.

Ingredients: (I halved the amounts specified in the original recipe. It made 5 daifuku)
Kurikinton (came in the osechi box) (#2)
Additional cooked chestnuts (store bought in a jar*) (#1)
100gram Mochi-ko もちこ Japanese rice flour (or Shiratama-ko 白玉粉)
90 grams water
25 grams sugar
50 grams or as needed potato starch 片栗粉 for dusting

* I did make chestnuts cooked in syrup 栗の甘露煮 this past fall. They came from California but they were dry and chalky. I tasted them and decided to use the store bought instead).

Directions (near Verbatim quote from the "Just One Cook book" recipe for my own convenience, please look up the original recipe):
1. Combine mochiko and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk all together.

2. Add water and mix well until combined.
3. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap. Cook in a microwave on high heat (1100w) for 1 minute. Take it out and stir with wet rubber spatula. Cover again and cook for 1 minute. Stir again, cover, and cook for 30 seconds to finish cooking. The color of mochi should change from white to almost translucent.

4. Cover the work surface with parchment paper and dust it generously with potato starch. Then transfer the cooked mochi on top.

5. To prevent from sticking, sprinkle more potato starch on top of the mochi. Once it’s cools down a bit,  using a rolling pin roll the mochi into a thin layer. Apply potato starch on your hands and the rolling pin.

6. Transfer the mochi with parchment paper onto a large baking sheet. Refrigerate for 15 minutes until the mochi is set.

6.Take the mochi out of the refrigerator and cut out 2-3 inch circles with a cookie cutter (#3).

7. Dust off the excess potato starch with a pastry brush. Place plastic wrap on a plate and then the mochi wrapper on top. Then lay another layer of plastic wrap down. Repeat for all wrappers (#4). 

6. Place the chestnut and kurikinton in the middle (#5)
7. Pull up the edges  in the center and pinch it together (#6).

For my first try, the mochi skin came out quite soft and nice. The Daifuku had just the right amount of sweetness and combined texture of soft and crunchy. This is a good Daifuku variation.

Potato salad topped with squid "shiokara" イカの塩辛のせポテトサラダ

In one of the Izakaya blogs I follow, I saw a recipe to put squid "shiokara"イカの塩辛 ( or as my wife will say "squid and guts") on either mashed potatoes or potato salad. This recipe came to mind one evening after I came back from the Japanese grocery store with a package of shiokara (comes frozen in a plastic pouch) and one package containing 2 small boiled octopus legs. Since I already had potato salad in the fridge I decided to make a small dish of the potato salad topped it the shiokara as per the recipe. As another small dish, I sliced the octopus and served it on top of some daikon namasu 大根なます I had made for the new year. These two small items (shown in the picture below) were starter dishes for the evening meal.

The picture below shows the shiokara topped potato salad.  The idea here is that the salty and umami flavors of the shiokara will enhance the flavor of the potato.

The below is the octopus dish.  I just sliced the octopus leg thinly on the diagonal in a wavy pattern. I put the daikon namsu on the bottom of the small bowl and put the cut octopus on top.  I have been making a few Japanese sauces and storing them in the fridge in small squeeze bottles.  I squeezed some sumiso sauce that I made few days ago on top of the octopus. (Having these pre-made sauces ready in squeeze bottles is very convenient).

The potato salad shiokara combination is not bad but we both felt enjoying the potato salad and shiokara separately may be better. As my wife put it, "the purity of the shiokara flavor and the purity of the potato flavor are best experienced individually and in their own right." Thus sayeth a shiokara purist.

Japanese "Yakiyaki-san" smoke-less earthenware grill やきやきさん

In one of the Milk Street magazines, I saw an article about this Japanese smoke-less (or at least smoke reduced) grill which is made from the same type of "Iga" earthenware 伊賀焼 as "Kamado san" かまどさん rice cooker which we have and really like. We also found YouTube footage introducing this by chef Ming Tsai.  What makes this grill special is the way it is constructed; the lower "bowl" has a large groove around the periphery which is filled with water to form a kind-of moat. So during the grilling the oil runs down the grooves on the top plate into the water filled moat rather than onto hot metal or ceramic as it would on a traditional grill. As a result the run-off oil or grease doesn't get heated and start smoking. In addition, according to the manufacturer, the temperature of the earthenware disk does not go above 350C (on medium flame). This is unique to this product since other grills made of either metal or earthenware easily go over 350C and start smoking. Further they claim that the combination of the earthenware disk and its black glaze results in far-infrared heat which gives a "charcoal-fire" like effect or taste.

Being somewhat  of a "gadget" lover, the YouTube discussion convinced me I had to try this and I ordered one. After its arrival, it sat for some time but finally we had a chance to use it.  We were not sure how "smoke-less" this was so we tried it on the stove under the exhaust fan. I followed the instructions. First, I filled the moat to 80% with water and preheated it for 5 minutes on high flame and then turned the flame down to medium. I brushed the grill surface with olive oil and started cooking.

The picture below shows the end products. We grilled filet mignon, shiitake mushrooms, onions, small red potatoes and zucchini. (My wife added a pat of butter to the onion and zucchini when I wasn't looking). Since the meat was filet mignon and very tender I didn't want to overcook it so I did not leave it on the grill for long as a result, there were no char marks.

The meat was one medium sized filet mignon cut into 1/4 inch slices and seasoned with salt and pepper. I put a bit of olive oil on the gill sides of the Shiitake mushrooms and seasoned with salt. I sliced the the onion, and zucchini into1/8 inch thick pieces. I secured the sections of the onions with toothpicks and coated the vegetables with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I first microwaved the small red potatoes in a silicon container until they were cooked then I cut them in half and seasoned them with salt and pepper.

I started cooking with the vegetables since I figured they would take much longer than the meat to cook. At medium flame, char marks did not develop so I cranked up the heat to high flame and finally the food started cooking with char marks but still there was no discernible smoke .

The picture below shows the nice crust that started forming on the potatoes and onions. When the veggies were cooked I added the meat. The meat took only few a minutes to cook to medium rare but with this short cooking no char developed. The juices from the meat added to the flavor of the veggies.

Certainly this is a good way to grill without decernable smoke. It is possible to use this grill on the table with a portable gas burner but we are not sure if the heat would be high enough. Besides, we just got rid of our aged portable cassette because we were worried about how safe it was given how ancient it was.

The food tasted really good. Although we did not use any sauce, there was enough seasonings on the food. Both the veggies and meat were perfectly cooked. Washing the grill afterward was not too difficult but we have to make sure it is totally dry before using it again.

Japanese "Satsuma-imo" Sweet potato muffin version2

My wife likes to bake bread and she also likes Japanese "Satsuma-imo" 薩摩芋 sweet potato so she is always looking for ways to combine the two. She made "sweet potato" rolls using Japanese sweet potato roasted in the Weber grill and then mashed and seasoned with butter and soy sauce. She used the mashed Japanese sweet potato in the bread dough and also as a filling. In this variation she used the recipe for "refrigerator potato bread" but substituted mashed sweet potatoes for the white potato called for in the recipe. The result was this wonderful rolls/muffin. It has a very tender delicate texture and you can definitely taste the mild sweetness of the Japanese sweet potato. This muffin does not have a sweet potato filling because all mashed the sweet potato went into the dough.

Ingredients:
1 pkg. yeast
1/2 cup sugar (plus 1/2 tsp additional to proof the yeast)
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1 1/2 sticks ( 3/4 cup butter softened)
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup mashed Japanese "Satsuma-imo" sweet potatoes (make link to my potato recipe) run through a food mill to eliminate any chunks that may remain after the potatoes have been mashed #1.
4 cups bread flour (with more as needed)

Directions:
Day1:
1. Proof the yeast in the warm water and 1/2 tsp. sugar.  Warm the milk with the butter in it. Dissolve the sugar in the milk mixture.
2. Using a mixing paddle on the stand mixer add the warm milk butter mixture, eggs and mashed potatoes blend thoroughly. Add the proofed yeast and salt. Mix completely.
3. Switch to a dough hook and add the flour one cup at a time until the dough clings to the hook and is smooth and springy to the touch. Knead on speed 2 for 7 to 10 minutes.
4. Form into a ball and put into a bowl with a small amount of vegetable oil turning the dough to cover with a coat of the oil. Cover tightly and place in the refrigerator overnight (or as the recipe says up to 16 to 18 hours).

Day2:
1. Next morning punch down the dough. (It will extremely cold and dense so "punch down" may not be the process that is actually possible. Just flatten the best you can) #2. Let rest for about 5 minutes (picture below) #3. Cut off pieces weighing 2 1/4 oz. #4. Form into rolls and place in a heavily greased baking dish several inches apart so they can rise #5. Cover and let rise until doubled. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes until they sound hollow when tapped #6.

These muffins were amazing. The slow rise overnight in the refrigerator resulted in a very fine texture. The flavor was very delicate but clearly tasted of the sweetness of the sweet potato. The combination of the delicate texture and flavor almost felt like we were actually eating fluffy cooked sweet potato rather than bread. So the substitution of sweet potato for regular potato in this recipe worked very well and the end result was equally as good but distinctly different...well worth the variation.

Chestnuts in syrup and sweet potato with green tea お茶請け

The North American chestnuts we got this year were not as good as usual. They were kind of dry and chalky. We made our usual chestnut rice  栗ご飯 using the fragmented ones and made "kanro-ni" 栗の甘露煮 or chestnuts simmered in syrup. Since I also made "sweet" Japanese sweet potato, we had both as a snack with green tea which is called "Ocha-uke" 御茶請け.

The tea was sold by Hibikian 響庵 and came from Uji 宇治 . With green tea, something sweet goes well. Although both the chestnut and sweet potato are not "sweet tea cake", they are sweet enough to be "ocha-uke".

As before I boiled the chestnuts after soaking them for a few hours in water. I removed the outer and inner skins while they were hot. I simmered the peeled chestnuts in a simple syrup (equal amounts of water and sugar) for 30 minutes and cooled in the syrup.

Once in a syrup, the chestnuts will last for a while in the refrigerator. As I said, this year's batch was not the best but still, the chestnuts brought an autumn taste.

Japanese "Satsuma-imo" simmered sweet potato さつま芋の甘煮

Since my wife is a big fan of Japanese "Satsuma-imo" sweet potato 薩摩芋, she got three when we were at our near-by Whole Foods.  We cooked them in our Weber grill when I did my our usual pork roast. My wife put "dibs" on two of them. She made mashed sweet potato with butter and soy sauce and we enjoyed it with the roasted pork. The leftover mashed sweet potato became sweet potato rolls. So, I got one potato to use to my heart's content. I made this simple sweetened simmered sweet potato (making sweet potato even sweeter appears to be common in Japan).

I garnished this dish with black sesame 黒胡麻. For some reason, black sesame is often used with sweet potato. I am just following the tradition.

The sweet potato we got was "organic" and had some (read: a lot of) dirt on them. Maybe a thick coating of mother earth is part of the "organic" appeal. My wife would not allow them anywhere near the refrigerator until I scrubbed them with a brush. (below).

Ingredients:
1 Japanese "Satsuma-imo" sweet potato, scrubbed clean, skin on, cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds and the larger round cut in to two or four.
Water just enough to cover (sweet potato in one layer)
1-2 tbs sugar
A pinch of salt
Black sesame seeds for garnish

Directions:
In a large frying pan (large enough to hold the sweet potato in one layer), add the potato and water to just cover.
Place the pan in medium-low flame.
Simmer for 10-15 minutes with a lid on until a bamboo skewer goes thorough easily.
Sprinkle on the sugar and keep simmering for 1-10 minutes, add a pinch of salt.
Remove the lid and turn up the flame and shake and cook until the liquid is almost all gone.
Sprinkle the black sesame and serve hot or at room temperature.

Japanese almost always add sugar to already sweet Japanese sweet potato. This recipe was no exception. It is a bit sweet as a side dish but it is good as a snack and also surprisingly goes well with a sake or even wine.

Salmon and avocado cubes and Yamahai sake 鮭とアボカドの角切と山廃純米酒

Most of the mid-West and Eastern U.S. are having very hot and humid summer days. One of these very hot weekends, I decided to go grocery shopping early in the day to avoid the mid-day heat. At our gourmet grocery store, which opened up just before I arrived, the sushi case had only a few items prepared. One of them was tuna and salmon sashimi. So I got a package intending to serve it for the evening. Both sashimi were rather thickly sliced. Since I happened to have Japanese nagaimo 長芋, I decided make "Yamakake" 山かけ from the tuna (left in the picture below)  and make  a variation of tuna and avocado cubes using salmon cubes (which would make it salmon and avocado cubes) (right in the picture below).

Since the tuna was yellowfin tuna キハダマグロ, I marinated it after I cut it into  small cubes in concentrated Japanese "men-tsuyu" noodle sauce 麺つゆ for several hours in the refrigerator to make it taste better.  I seasoned grated nagaimo or "tororo" とろろ with wasabi dissolved in soy sauce,  and placed the tuna on top after draining the excess marinade. I garnished it with strips of nori (I served more nori on the side). This is, of course, is a very common way to serve tuna and nagaimo and we both really like it. We added more nori as we enjoyed this dish.

Since I had limes, after I cut avocado into small cubes, I dressed the cubes with lime juice to prevent discoloration. Cubes of salmon were also marinated in Japanese concentrated noodle sauce in exactly same way as the tuna. I dressed them with finely chopped garlic, dark sesame oil and soy sauce and garnished it with chiffonade of perilla and finely chopped scallion. Since the salmon was much fattier than the tuna, it did not absorb the marinade as much but, over all, this dish really worked. Both the salmon and avocado had a similar oily texture.

As a third dish, I served  4 items on the small plate. Only one that is slightly new is the chicken tenderloin dressed in soy sauce, yuzu-kosho 柚子胡椒 and finely chopped edible chrysanthemum 春菊 (blanched, which I happened to have). The chicken tenderloin was removed from sous vide chicken breast. This was very good. The chrysanthemum gave a slightly bitter taste and went well with the moist tenderloin and yuzu-kosho flavor.

The remaining three items are "our usual suspects", Japanese dashi-maki omelet 青海苔入りだし巻きwith aonori, sugar snap blanched and soaked in salt-seasoned Japanese dashi broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし, and simmered taro 里芋の煮付け.

This evening, we tried a new sake (although we had it before in Japan). It is Tengumai but not "daiginjo". This is Yamahai Junmai 山廃純米天狗舞. The label has a formal name of this old way of making sake 山卸廃止酛仕込(やまおろしはいしもとしこみ). Compared to our new house sake Tengumai daiginjo 天狗舞大吟醸, this is a quite different sake. I think we had this for the first time when we visited Kanazawa 4 years ago. This sake is savory/rich and dry and has earthy/mushroomy background flavor. Some sake expert suggested that this sake should not be served refrigerator cold but at room temperature and suggested the taste will change as it warms up. I took this bottle out a few hours prior to tasting for that reason. It has a nice golden hue (as opposed to clear as in daiginjo). In general, we prefer clean, fruity and dry sake (daiginjo profile), but we liked this sake. It has much more characters and is not too yeasty like other jumai sake can be. We got this sake from a new sake-specialized internet merchant called "Tippsy sake". I will post more about this place in more details in the near future.

Fastnacht bread with sweet potato サツマイモ ”ファストナハト” ケーキ

My wife is a devotee of Japanese sweet potato "Satsuma-imo" サツマイモ. Whenever she sees it at our near-by Whole Foods, she will get some. The most common way we enjoy Japanese sweet potato is cooking it wrapped in aluminum foil on the Weber grill when we are cooking either chicken or pork roast (using indirect heat). She usually mashes the potato and adds soy sauce and butter. Then using the left-over mashed sweet potato, I make croquets (with ground pork, onion and shiitake mushroom) which is great (I have posted it). She has also used the mashed sweet potatoes to make gnocchi. This was a really good preparation because the sweetness combined with the saltiness of the soy sauce comes through very nicely. This time, my wife decided to make her "Fastnacht cake" using the mashed sweet potato. Her thinking was 'the recipe used regular mashed potatoes so how would it taste if I substituted the sweet potato?' She also modified the way she incorporated the " rivals*” and gave the bread a second rise which was not called for in the original recipe.

*According to the wikipedia definition of rivels, they are a type of spaetzle like small dumpling put in a soup. In the context of this fastnact cake, "rivels" are a sweet sugar crumb topping. (My wife did not make up this terminology. According to the ancient Pa Dutch cookbook she uses they specifically say "top with rivels" then give explicit instructions on another page under the heading of sugar topping. These include brown sugar topping, streusel topping and rivels. The main difference between them being the ratio of sugar, butter and flour).

The rivels are a crucial part of the cake. They are nice and crunchy and sweet. The problem is many of them fall off when they are put on the top and you end up picking up the crumbs eating them separately from the cake. She wanted the rivels to be a part of the cake. So, she decided to put a layer of rivels in the center. (pictured below). With this innovation, the rivels still come off the top and you still end up picking up crumbs (which apparently is just an inevitable part of enjoying this cake) but in addition there is now a guaranteed layer of lovely sweetness in each bite from the layer in the center of the cake.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup HOT mashed sweet potato (please note the recipe specifies HOT)
1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water if blooming the yeast
4 cups of AP flour to start, adding more as needed to make velvety dough.

Ingredients and directions for rivels (Crumb topping)
Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour and 4 tbs. butter softened until the ingredients are completely combined and look like fine crumbs.

Directions:
Put the hot mashed potatoes into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using a mixing paddle beat in the butter, then the egg and a mixture of sugar, salt and nutmeg. Beat until fluffy. Bloom the yeast in warm water.
Beat the yeast into the potato mixture. Switch to a dough hook and alternately add the flour and milk beating well after each addition. If necessary add more flour to make a soft dough. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth and satiny. Put into a greased bowl. Grease the top of the dough, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled.

Punch down the dough. Since the recipe makes two cakes split the dough into quarters so the rivals can be put into the middle of the cake. Then put 1/4 of the dough in the bottom of the pan, sprinkle on 1/4 of the rivels and top it with another quarter of dough (#1). Do this for both cakes. Brush the tops with melted butter and cover both with the remaining rivels (#2).  Let the cakes rise in a warm place for about 30 to 40 minutes while the oven preheats. Cook in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.  The third picture shows the cake as it came out of the oven. And #4 shows the cake sliced. 

Both the use of the Japanese sweet potato, adding rivels to the center of the cakes and giving the cakes a second rise worked out well.  These were the the best fastnacht cakes ever—or at least the best my wife ever made. The sweet potato is completely substitutable for regular potatoes. The texture, however, was much better than the original recipe. It was much fluffier, more tender and slightly sweeter. The rivels in the center amalgamated into the  texture of the cake. But they also provided a moist layer of sweetness that was very pleasant. This may be the primary way my wife makes this cake in the future. 

Potato and salmon salad filled rolls ポテトとサーモンサラダ入りのパン

Since my wife had just made sweet potato bread stuffed with a mixture of Japanese sweet potato puree and ricotta cheese (which was excellent BTW) I mentioned in passing that stuffed breads (for example breads filled with curry sauce "kare-pan"カレーパン, sweet red beans "An-pan" あんぱん, custard cream "Kuri-mu-pan" クリームパン and so on) were very popular in Japan.  I even sent her the link to a recipe for potato salad filled rolls. The recipe was in Japanese but it included pictures and I verbally translated how the bread was made. To my surprise she took to the project of "stuffed bread" like a piranha.

I regularly make potato salad and salmon salad over the weekend because they are good staples to have; the potato salad as a side for any main dish or by itself as a snack. The salmon salad is great on crackers or bread as canapés or sandwiches.  I came home one day and the kitchen was filled with the nice smell of baking bread. My wife had noted that I made more potato salad than we could reasonably eat before it went bad so she put together potato salad stuffed bread as per the Japanese recipe. Then noting a similar surplus of salmon salad decided to "go for broke" and put together salmon salad stuffed bread. Based on my description of the Japanese recipe she took her favorite white bread dough as the base. The main element she learned from the recipe was to cut the top of the rolls to form a vent for the steam from the filling to escape. This would prevent the development of a large void in the bread covering the filling .

 In the picture below, the left front is the salmon salad filled and the right back is the potato salad filled rolls.

Here are the cut surfaces. The left two are the salmon salad and right two are potato salad. Probably, she could have put more fillings but this is her first try and never having made this kind of bread was not the least bit sure it would turn out.

The picture below shows the salmon and potato salad filled rolls just after they came out of the oven.

Both rolls were really great. It was amazing that the flavor of the salads remained fresh and permeated the bread. The salmon salad filled roll had the assertive salmon and dill flavor of the salad which we thought would be good for lunch or even breakfast. The potato salad filled one was a bit more subdued but this starch-on-starch approach really works. Now my wife has ideas about other fillings she could use. Did I mention that, in Japan, filled breads even made of "pasta" (such as spaghetti  or fried Japanese noodles) are very popular. The possibilities are limitless. I "tremble in fear" at the thought of what kind of filling my wife will come up next...but I will be first in line to try whatever she makes.

Refrigerator Potato Bread/muffin 冷蔵庫ポテトパン/マフィン

This is the second potato bread we made. This time my wife did everything herself from the beginning to the end. So, her arm is definitely improving as well as she is determined to accomplish what she wants to do. This is called "refrigerator" bread since it rises over night in the refrigerator. The recipe also came from "Beard on Bread" cookbook. Again, it is a nice rustic bread with integrity and perfect for toasting with butter for breakfast.

Ingredients:
1 pkg. yeast
1/2 cup sugar (plus 1/2 tsp additional to proof the yeast)
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1 1/2 sticks ( 3/4 cup butter softened)
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup mashed potatoes (make link to my potato recipe) run through a food mill to eliminate any        chunks that may remain after the potatoes have been mashed.
4 cups bread flour (with more as needed)

Directions:
Day1:
1. Proof the yeast in the warm water and 1/2 tsp. sugar.  Warm the milk with the butter in it. Dissolve the sugar in the milk mixture.
2. Using a mixing paddle on the stand mixer add the warm milk butter mixture, eggs and mashed potatoes blend thoroughly. Add the proofed yeast and salt. Mix completely.
3. Switch to a dough hook and add the flour one cup at a time until the dough clings to the hook and is smooth and springy to the touch. Knead on speed 2 for 7 to 10 minutes.
4. Form into a ball and put into a bowl with a small amount of vegetable oil turning the dough to cover with a coat of the oil. Cover tightly and place in the refrigerator overnight (or as the recipe says up to 16 to 18 hours).

Day2:
1. Next morning punch down the dough. (It will extremely cold and dense). Let rest for about 5 minutes (picture below).

2. Knead vigorously until it becomes soft and pliable (about 6 minutes).
3. Shape into 2 loaves of equal size and place into 2 heavily greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk  (the recipe says this could take up to 4 hours. This bread rose in 2 hours).  Make shallow slashes using a bread lame (see picture below).

4. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes until browned and sounds hollow when tapped.
5. Remove from the pans immediately when they come out of the oven. (When I removed the loaves they seemed a bit soft on the underside so I put the loafs back in the oven outside the pans directly on the oven rack for about 5 minutes. This made the crust nice and crunchy).

This bread has a very pleasing dense but fine texture. It has a slightly sweet taste and the taste of the cream cheese and chives used in the mashed potatoes came through adding a pleasant dimension.

We are glad that my wife is up to baking again. I am certainly benefitting from having good breads to enjoy.

Addendum (1-22-22): This bread can also be made into muffins as shown in the next picture. These muffins were weighed at 76 grams and produced a total of 23 muffins. They were cooked in a 400 degree over for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden. When turned out of the pan the underside was very soft and white so I turned them upside down on a cookie sheet and cooked them for another 5 to ten minutes until they formed a light brown crust. 

Potato bread with caraway seeds ジャガイモ入りパン

I am stepping up to bake more than I used to; filling in the gaps left by my wife during recovery from her injury. This is one such baking projects. I did the "grunt" work under her supervision. Since we had leftover mashed potatoes from a barbecue (when we do a chicken or pork roast in our Weber grill, we often also roast potatoes) she wanted to use them to make this rustic bread (supposedly of Hungarian origin). This is also from the "Beard on Bread" cookbook. Since the original recipe asked for 8 cups of flour, we halved the recipe to make a smaller loaf as seen below. The recipe involves a starter (this starter only fermented for 30 minutes). It produced a very good rustic bread. Instead of just mashed potatoes, we used the mashed potatoes my wife makes with cream cheese (with onion and chive) which we had with the barbecued pork. We are not sure how much difference the cream cheese makes to the bread.

The black specks are caraway seeds. We are not sure if this is needed. The bread itself has nice flavors.

I slashed and sprayed with water to make "rustic" look and a good crust.

The "slashes" were supposedly to be "deep" so instead of a bread "lame", I used a kitchen knife which appeared not to cut as cleanly as it should have.

Ingredients
for starter:
1 package of dry yeast
1/2 cup of warm water with a pinch of sugar
3 tbs of flour

Additional 3/4 cup of warm water
1/2 cup  mashed potatoes (We used leftover mashed potatoes. My wife mixed in chive-and-onion cream cheese, 3/4 container for 2 large cooked russet potatoes).
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp caraway seeds
2-3 cups of bread flour

Times 2 

for starter:
2 packages of dry yeast
1 cup of warm water with a pinch of sugar
6 tbs of flour

Additional 1 1/2 cup of warm water (or warm milk) 
1 cup  mashed potatoes (Or a mixture of mashed regular and sweet potatoes)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
4  cups of bread flour

Directions
1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the sugar and let it proof until bubbly.
2. In a bowl, mixed the the yeast mixture and flour. Cover with plastic wrap and then towels and let it stand for 30 minutes until the starter bubbles up (starter).
3. In a stand mixer, add the starter, water, mashed potatoes, salt and mix well using a paddle. Switch to the dough hook, add the flour one cup at a time at low speed until the dough forms and cleans the side of the bowl (in the end, we estimate we added about 2 and half cups of flour). Let the mixer knead the dough for 7 to 10 minutes.
4. Place the dough on the floured board and hand knead for a few minutes to make a tight ball.
5. In a large bowl, add a small amount of olive oil, place the dough, turn over to coat all sides and cover with a plastic wrap and then with towels and let it rise until the volume doubles (about 1 hour).
6. Punch it down and fold a few times to make a free formed round loaf.
7. Coat the wooden pizza paddle with corm meal and place the formed dough on it. Slide the dough back and forth to make sure the dough moves easily.
8. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap and then a towel and let it rise for 30-40 minutes.
9. Remove the towels and plastic wrap. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep cross on the surface of the dough.
10. Using a sprayer, spray water on the surface of the dough and slide it on the baking stone.
11. Bake at 400 F for 30-25 minutes (or until done depending on the size of the loaf).

This is a really good rustic bread. It has a nice firm consistency with crust and good flavor. We are not sure we really need Caraway seeds.

The bread is great toasted.We just ate as is with butter but this could make a good sandwich. It was a success with this modified recipe.

Oven fried baby red potato オーブンフライドレッドポテト

This was a rare occasion for us to enjoy steaks. I got some that were labeled "tenderloin steak" from our regular grocery store. It had some marbling and could represent Chateaubriand (head of tenderloin) but certainly was not a regular filet mignon. It was not too expensive and (unexpectedly) excellent. When it comes to beef steak, my wife is strictly a  "meat-and-potato Gal". Since we had baby red potatoes*, she remembered often making crispy oven fried red potatoes in the past. I also  added sautéed green beans and red wine sauce.

*red potato: In the U.S. these red potatoes are called  Norland Red potato and are sold as "baby red potatoes". It has a dark red skin and white flesh. Flesh is not too starchy or waxy.

The cut surface of the potato became really crispy and inside was soft and creamy. My wife removed the skin before eating and I ate everything. (I thought the skin added to the flavor). (When cooked like this the skin comes off very easily.)

Although we have posted quite a few variations of oven fried potatoes, somehow this one escaped our attention. This is by far the easiest but the result is excellent.

Ingredients:
Baby red potatoes, cleaned and eyes removed if needed, cut in half
Kosher salt
Olive oil

Directions:
Preheat the oven at 375F.
Put olive oil in a small flat dish and dip the cut surface of the potato into the olive oil to coat.
Arrange the potatoes after dipping the cut surface in olive oil on a cookie sheet with the cut surface up (#1 picture below).
Season the cut surface with Kosher salt
and turn them over so the cut surface is on the pan(#2 and #3).
Bake it for 30 minutes (#4)

This potato was very satisfying. Nice crunchy exterior and soft creamy interior with a slightly sweet taste. As compared to other oven-fried potatoes, this is the simplest and very good. The steaks were cooked as usual; brought  to room temperature, seasoned with salt and pepper. Seared with melted butter 2-3 minutes on each side (for medium rare, I did not finish them in the oven this time).

For the red wine sauce, I simply blotted the excess oil from the pan the steak was cooked in. I poured in some red wine (I happened to have an open bottle of Tempranillo) and a small amount of balsamic vinegar. I mixed and removed the "fond" with a silicon spatula and reduced the wine mixture until it just coated the bottom of  the pan and finished it with pats of cold butter.

We decided to open a good wine for this occasion and had Caymus Special selection 2010. We bought this some years ago (it was much less expensive when we bought it than current market prices). We stored it for a number of years in our wine refrigerator. I decanted it carefully and served with the steak. The wine was excellent. There is no sign of excess oxidation. It still has lots of dark fruits, chocolate  and vanilla with silky tannin. Ultimate California cab!  So this was a quite a potato-and-meat feast with a good wine.