Kabocha salad カボチャサラダ

Halloween season is coming and we got a Japanese “Kabocha” カボチャ pumpkin (or squash) to celebrate the season. I have posted quite a few kabocha dishes. The most traditional is simmered kabocha カボチャの煮物. Although I have posted  “kabocha salad” カボチャサラダ, this is a new version with more ingredients which I saw on YouTube. Besides cooked kabocha, it has bacon, onion, celery and walnuts. The dressing is mayo with soy sauce. As suggested I served with fresh cracked black pepper.  With bacon and walnut, this cannot be bad.

Ingredients:
1/2 small kabocha pumpkin, seeds removed, skin shaved off (optional)
3 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 small sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 celery stalk, de-string (or peel), cut across in thin slices
1/3 cup of walnuts, toasted and chopped 
2 tbs mayonnaise
1 tsp soy sauce
salt and black pepper

Directions:
Place the onion and celery in a bowl, add 2 pinches of salt and mix. Let it stand ofr 5-20 minutes and knead until more water comes out. Wash in cold running water and squeeze out any excess moisture and set aside
Cut the kabocha in small enough pieces to fit into a silicon microwave cooking container, add a small amount of water, place the lid and microwave until soft (4-5 minutes)
Mash the kabocha while it is hot
Add the bacon and walnuts
Add the mayo and soy sauce
Add the celery and onion and mix

Garnish with freshly cracked black pepper and serve

This is a good dish as a drinking snack. The kabocha provides a creamy base. The bacon adds enough saltiness without adding any salt.

Blue Cheese Walnut Cookies ブルーチーズと胡桃のクッキー

This is an additional installment in the continuing tale of “we are big fans of “savory” cookies which go well with wine.” My wife saw this recipe for “blue cheese walnut cookies” in the Washington Post website and decided she had to make it. We used Cambozola cheese which is a mild blue cheese; sort of a cross between blue (Gorgonzola) and Camembert cheeses. The cheese tastes better than it smells and while the cookies were baking in the oven, the entire house was filled with the smell of the cooking cheese which was not totally pleasant. In any case, the end result is worth it. The cookie is a bit crumbly with a mild cheesy and walnut flavor.

I ask my wife to take over.

Ingredients
3 1/2 ounces good-quality, mild blue cheese (we used Cambozola cheese)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (we used cayenne pepper)
1/3 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the flour, cornstarch, salt and pepper in a bowl and set aside.Combine the blue cheese and butter in the bowl of a food processor; pulse until thoroughly blended. We also added the walnuts to the mixture in the food processor and pulsed until they were cut up too. According to the instructions at this point we were to add the flour, cornstarch, salt and pepper into the cheese mixture and mix until a moist dough was formed. Since the food processor we were using was pretty small, we transferred the contents of the food processor to the bowl of dry ingredients to make the dough. Gather up the dough into a flat disk. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Use 2-inch cookie cutters to cut out shapes (We just cut the dough into 1 inch squares using a knife).

Transfer to the baking sheet, spacing the cookies 1 inch apart. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes until lightly golden on the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before serving or storing.

As I mentioned earlier blue cheese cooking in the oven is not a pleasant smell. We were a little afraid of what the cookie would taste like after smelling it cook. (Not only did it smell bad but the smell permeated the entire house). Luckily the cookie tastes much better than it smelled. Initially the cheese taste was s bit strong but over time it mellowed into a tangy flavor that went very well with the included walnuts and above all goes well with the red wine we were having.

Castanaccio Pugliese (Chestnut Flour Cake) カスタナチオ

We like pancakes for breakfast sometimes. One of the unusual ones we like to make is chestnut flour pancake”. Since we are now in the chestnut season, we decided to have the chestnut flour pancake for breakfast one weekend. We keep all exotic and whole grain flours including the chestnut flour in a small freezer in the basement. When my wife got it out, she realized its BUB (best used by) was in 2015. It smelled ok. We went ahead and made the pancakes which were very good but even by our standards this flour was a bit too far past its BUB. We decided it is the time to buy a new batch. We got a couple of bags of chestnut flour and my wife looked for some new recipes to use it. She came across this recipe for chestnut flour cake on-line. Actually, she made a chestnut flour cake with the same Italian name “Castagnaccio” previously. But that cake was quite different from this one. It was very savory and did not use any leavening agent, or sugar but did use fresh rosemary which provided good flavor. Overall, however, we were not crazy about it because it was rather dry and crumbly. The new recipe she found must be a variation of an Italian generic cake called castagnaccio. In any case, the major differences are this cake uses a leavening agent, sugar and coco powder. Instead of herbs such as rosemary this used a combination of nuts and candied fruit. It is much thicker as well. This version is more suitable for breakfast or dessert than the previous version which was more savory and as the original recipe suggested “should be washed down with red wine”. The common thing is that both cakes are quite crumbly. (We ended up eating both of them as crumbs with a spoon.)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chestnut flour
1/3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
2 tablespoons honey, plus more for serving
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup of Harry and David’s medley of candied fruit. (The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup dried cranberries, plumped in 1/4 cup warm water or wine - preferably Vin Santo).
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup roughly chopped toasted walnuts (As added measure we added chopped chestnuts)
Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Prepare a 9-inch cake pan (The original recipe suggested lightly greasing it with olive oil but we had trouble getting the cooked cake out of the pan. We suggest next time greasing the bottom of the pan and adding a layer of greased parchment paper.)
Toast the pine nuts and walnuts. In a large bowl, swift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, honey, eggs and milk. Slowly pour the liquids into the dry ingredients, whisking very well to avoid lumps. The batter should be smooth and a bit liquid. Add the nuts and dried fruit. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 35 minutes, or until the cake begins to puff slightly and the middle is set. Remove from the oven and cool completely before removing from pan.
Dust lightly with confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder and serve with some warm honey.

We found it was difficult to remove the cake from the pan. A portion of it stuck to the pan and crumbled. (See the picture below). (Next time, we will use buttered parchment paper on the bottom of the pan). Even the portion that came out in one piece was difficult to cut into wedges since it kept crumbling. The only good thing was that even the crumbs tasted good.

Although eaten in crumbs this cake was very good. The chestnut flour added a nuttiness to the overall chocolate flavor. The pine nuts, walnuts and dried fruit added little bursts of flavor and texture. The dried fruit was particularly nice because it added a burst of sweetness. Interestingly, over time the chestnuts we added became rock hard and we had to be careful to remove them from every mouthful. We liked this cake better than the previous version my wife made. It would just be nice if it did not disintegrate into crumbs.

Spiced apple with nuts インド風のリンゴのデザート

Among apples we like Fuji apples the best. So when we see them we tend to get them. Some of them stay in our refrigerator for quite sometime. Although apples last for long time, we decided it was time to make room for the new crop apples which should appear in the stores soon. So we used the apples from last year, that were somewhat past their prime to make this spiced cooked apple with nuts.

This comes from an Indian cookbook but my wife reduced the butter and sweetness. She also tamed down the spices a bit to our taste. Since we happened to have a Ricotta and cream mixture, we topped this with it.

Ingredients:
6 apples (we used Fuji apple), peeled, cored and cut into small wedges (see below).
1/4 cup butter, unsalted enough to lightly saute the apples
1/3 cup honey or to taste
1/8 tsp. Cinnamon,
1/4 tsp. ground cardamon,
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
Roasted blanched almond slivers
Walnuts, toasted, skin removed and chopped

Directions:

On low heat gently saute the apples in the butter. (The more butter you add to more sauce you'll have.  The apples will start to exude juice. Cook slowly until they start to soften and become partially translucent. Then add the spices stirring until the apples are coated. Finally add the nuts. Remove from heat. (The apples will keep cooking as they cool so keep that in mind if you would like an apple with a little bit of crunch in the center.)

This is a nice desert. Not too sweet but pleasently sweet with mild spices. The apple still maintains some crunch. My wife overdid it with the two kinds of nuts. Next time she can reduce or even eliminate the nuts.

P.S. We have had long days of rain and clouds. One afternoon, this totally wet red tail hawk landed in our cherry tree. Although this was a rather small hawk, it looked fierce. It specializes in squirrels.

Pork and barbecued pork walnut loaf ウォールナット入り豚肉のローフ

This is a variation of "Matsukaze-yaki" 松風焼きchicken loaf which also serves as leftover control. I am always looking for ways to use up the leftover barbecued meat we make almost every weekend. I found that chopping up the BBQed pork is a good way to use the leftover pork. This pork loaf was made using both raw ground pork (hand chopped from the trimmings of pork tenderloins) and hot smoked BBQed pork. I also added roasted walnuts for additional texture and flavor. I served this as a drinking snack with spicy tofu and broccoli with melted cheese and my figgy cranberry sauce.

This is quite good. The smokey flavor from the BBQed pork really added to the taste.

I made this without following any recipe and did not measure anything but the below measures are my best guess.

Ingredients:
Ground pork (hand chopped from the trimmings of pork tenderloins) about 150grams.
Hot smoked pork (left over) chopped finely about 150gram
Walnuts, toasted , skin removed by rubbing in a kitchen towel (my wife has dedicated kitchen towels for this) and chopped coarsely (amount arbitrary)
Miso 2 tbs
Soy sauce 1tsp
Mirin 1 tbs
Panko bread crumbs, 2-3 tbs
Eggs, 2 medium, beaten

Directions:
Mix the above ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Prepare the shallow baking pan, coated with olive oil and parchment paper placed on the bottom.
Place the meat mixture and spread to half inch thick.
Bake in 350F oven (I used my toaster oven on convection mode) for 30 minutes (below)
Wait until it is cool enough to handle and remove from the pan by tipping on a cutting board (because of the parchment paper), the loaf will come out easily.
Cut the loaf into small rectangles.

Combining cooked, smoked pork with raw ground pork is a good idea. It added an infusion of smokey flavor to the very tender texture provided by the raw pork. This version made with all pork, miso and walnuts created quite a different flavor profile from the chicken and pine nuts of the original "Matsu-kaze-yaki".