Mini Fruit Galettes ミニフルーツガッレト

We had an excess of strawberries which were nonetheless pretty good. So how to use them? My wife happened to come across a recipe for “Mini fruit galettes” in the Washington Post. Although the original recipe involved making a crust from scratch, she had some pie dough in the freezer which was a bit old so she decided to take a short cut and use that instead. While this rendition was more than adequate and quite good for a small but not too sweet desert there is room for improvement. Since the dough was fairly old it was a bit dry and kept opening up. (As shown by the little pie on the left in the picture). Also, a bit more strawberry filling would have been helpful.

Ingredients:
Two Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts   
1/2 cup plain dried breadcrumbs (I used panko)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 cups strawberries (or tart pitted cherries and/or peeled, diced peaches as per the original recipe)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier, another orange-flavored liqueur (we used Triple Sec) or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons cold unsalted butter, each cut into equal pieces
1 large egg
1 tablespoon water
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
About 1/4 cup sparkling sugar or turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Directions:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Cut the dough into two inch round portions using a biscuit cutter. (A slightly larger size might work a bit better). Roll out the dough a bit thinner. Scatter 1 tablespoon of the dried bread crumbs across the center, leaving a margin all around. (In the upper left hand corner of the picture #1, a crust with the crumbs on it is just visible.) (These bread crumbs are extremely important. They soak up any excess juice and make a nice almost jelly like filling.)

Stir together the granulated sugar and cornstarch in a mixing bowl. Add the fruit, lemon juice and Grand Marnier (Triple Sec) or almond extract; stirring well to coat the fruit. Scoop out a scant spoon full and put in the center of the piece of dough. Working quickly, lift the outside of the dough edge and pull it up and slightly over the filling, leaving the fruit in the center exposed. (This proved more difficult than we expected. Although we moistened the edges of the dough, it kept opening with the filling spilling out. But with some effort we made it work).

Work around each galette, folding the dough over on itself and forming a series of pleats to make a snug package. Use the outside edge of your hands to cup the edges of the galette and gently press the dough into the fruit. Snuggle one small cube of butter into the center opening. Place the galette on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough rounds, filling and butter.

Freeze them, uncovered, for 30 to 45 minutes, until firm.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly beat the egg, water and salt in a small bowl. Brush the folded edges of each galette with the egg wash, then sprinkle them with the sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until deeply golden brown with bubbling filling.
Cool for a bit before serving.

The crispy buttery pie crust was a nice contrast and went well with the strawberry jellly-like filling. The egg wash with the sugar coating caramelized and made a sweet crunch to bite into. The bread crumbs in the center of the dough is a technique to keep in mind for other baked pie goods. Because they soaked up the excess juice the pie crust did not get soggy and remained nicely crispy. My wife said she will make this again with improvements; one of which is the use of dough that is not quite so dry (old).

White “Pineberry” and Red “Koyo” Strawberries 白いイチゴと昂揚イチゴ

We have noticed that some of the gourmet food sites are now carrying Japanese white strawberries which are extremely expensive. (For example, at one site, a tray of 8 strawberries was $135. At another, 400 gm were on sale for $98.99). This was certainly not the strawberry scene when I was growing up in Japan. For one thing edible white strawberries did not exist; if they were white they were not ready to eat because they were not ripe. Also peak strawberry season was in the summer. Now, the best strawberry season is in the winter.  (This is because all the strawberries are grown in high tech labor intensive green houses). Nonetheless even the red strawberries (ichigo イチゴ) we ate in Japan on our various trips, there were not the same “animal” they are here. They were extremely flavorful and very sweet. Not even the most sweet strawberries we’ve ever eaten here hold a candle to the ones we got on recent trips to Japan.* We are not as familiar with the white Japanese strawberries as we are with the red and therefore considered ordering the Japanese white strawberry but the price is astronomical and we decided even as good as we knew they would be it was not worth it.

*digression alert. The most sweet strawberries we ever ate here came from a field in California near the condominium we were renting at the time. During harvest time they were being sold right out of field at a small fruit stand. They were ripe to perfection and warm having been kissed by the sun in the field. Nonetheless they were very acidic compared to the ones we have had in Japan.

The other day, however, when we went to Whole Foods, my wife found “white” strawberries called “Berry de blanc” and small red strawberries called “Oiishii” meaning “delicious” in Japanese which appears to suggest its Japanese connection (picture #1). The label also listed the red strawberry as “Koyo berry”. Although we were not sure what they were, they sure looked like the Japanese varieties we had just been looking at on the web so we bought them since they were not too expensive.

We first opened the white strawberries (picture #2). They were a good size, pale white with red seeds and looked exactly like the Japanese white strawberries.

The “Oishii” strawberries (picture #3)  were small but bright red and carefully packaged in a plastic case with an individual recess for each berry.

We also bought some green grapes called “Cotton candy” grapes (these were from Peru). We bought these one time before and liked them. So we had the two kinds of strawberries and the grapes (picture #4) as a desert for our lunch.

The white strawberry was sweet but not as sweet as the “Oishii” strawberry and it had a different (not-strawberry) flavor. Later we learned this variety of white strawberry is called “pineberry” because it has a slight pineapple flavor. We were not sure that we could recognize the different flavor as pineapple but it was definitely different. The “oishii” strawberry was very sweet and tasted like a strawberry. Both are much better than regular strawberries available in the supermarket. The cut surfaces (picture #5) are interesting; the white strawberry is white all the way through and the “Oiishii” strawberry is completely red. Many American strawberries are red on the surface but the center is pale/white (not fully ripe?).

The white strawberry (pineberry) we got is grown in Florida and “Oishii” strawberry is grown in New Jersey using Japanese vertical cultivation techniques. Do we buy these strawberries again? The answer is “probably”. It is a bit more expensive but not outrageous (like the ones from Japan) and taste better than regular strawberries.

Digression alert: We were curious about how these white strawberries were developed, how they could be ripe but still white. We also wanted to know what was the difference between Western and Japanese white strawberries? The strawberry genetics appear complicated and beyond me but the mechanisms for the strawberry that is ripe but still white is due to the genetics, i.e., the lack of a protein called “Fragaria allergen A1” which prevents the berries from producing “anthocyanin” which gives it the red color. There appear to be many white strawberry varieties including wild ones. The version of white strawberry we got is called “pineberry” which is a cross between North and South American strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa and Fragaria chiloensis) which was reportedly introduced to the U.K. market in 2020.

The Japanese white strawberries are apparently different (genetically and flavor-wise??). The first Japanese white strawberry varietal was reportedly registered in 2009. Since we have not had a chance to taste many different varieties of Japanese white strawberries (it appears they come up with new varieties often), we do not know how the flavors differ.

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.

Four Salad Lunch 4種類サラダランチ

I made 4 different salads (not all on the same day) and had the 4 salads for lunch with a cold asparagus soup. We also had a small piece of “Not no-knead bread made with dried fruit”. We feel good about the fact that all salads, soup and bread were home-made. In the center of the four salads, I served snap peas which were blanched and then soaked in Japanese salt broth.

The picture below shows Israeli couscous with artichoke hearts and garbanzo beans with a nice lemony and dill dressing.

The pic below shows a celery, mushroom, and navy bean salad with feta cheese. The mushrooms make the salad. They gave an almost meaty texture and flavor.

The next is a curry flavored sous vide chicken salad. Since we had a nice ripe Champagne mango, I added small cubes of mango which went very well with this salad.

I made this udon noodle salad since I had left-over cooked udon noodles.  The dressing is sesame-flavored. I do make several versions of the sesame dressing (for example, using Japanese “nerigoma” ねりごま sesame paste or peanut butter) but this time I used Tahini with dry roasted white sesame seeds which I ground in a Japanese “suribachi” すり鉢 mortar. Other seasonings included soy sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar.

This was a surprisingly filling lunch. Beans, udon noodles, and couscous all contribute to this and, at the same time, we enjoyed so many different flavors and textures. We just have to make sure we finish all these salads before they go bad.

Fruitcake フルーツケーキ

My wife likes to have special baked goods for the Xmas season. After several attempts, we gave up on making panettone and now buy it. For stollen bread, she made  it a few times but now we also buy it. This year we got two different brands of panettone from Amazon and a large stollen from Williams-Sonoma.  We also used to buy fruitcake (Claxton Fruit Cake) in the past. We were not planning on including fruitcake in this year’s line-up but I came across a recipe for fruitcake on the WashingtonPost website. Supposedly this one goes well with cheese. So I mentioned it to my wife and she went into action. (Note from Wifey: We had bought various candied fruit from Harry and David. While munching on them as a snack I thought, ‘These would be perfect for a fruitcake. So when I was presented with the fruitcake recipe, it was ‘all-systems-go”.) As usual, she made some modifications due to availability nuts and dried fruit. I helped her by cutting up the dried fruit. It was remarkably good and indeed went well with cheese (and a glass of red wine). 

Ingredients (shown in the picture below)
2 cups (180 grams) walnuts halves
1 cup (140 grams) dried mission figs, chopped into ½-inch pieces
1 cup (140 grams) dried fruit medley from Harry and David cut into 1/2 inch pieces (Original recipe called for dried dates.)
1 cup (140 grams) combination candied pineapple and mangos from Harry and David cut into 1/2 inch pieces. (Original recipe called for dried cherries)
½ cup (170 grams) honey, (I used buckwheat honey which is very strong in flavor and dark in color)
½ cup (118 grams) brandy
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground mace (may substitute with ground allspice)
1 cup (220 grams) packed light or dark brown sugar
1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon fine salt
1 stick (4 ounces/113 grams) unsalted butter
2 large eggs.

Directions:

Toast the walnut then roughly chop and place in a small bowl. In a medium bowl, toss together the figs, dates and dried fruit until combined. Whisk together the honey, brandy, lemon juice and lemon zest until combined, and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, nutmeg and mace. In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt to combine then set aside.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Heat slowly to let the water in the butter boil off without exploding and then cook until the solids turn brown, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the spices (this will help bloom the flavor of the spices and suffuse them into the fruitcake). Carefully, add the honey mixture — the contents of the pot may bubble up — and stir to combine. Add the dried figs and stir to coat. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool.

Once the mixture has cooled, stir in the eggs, one at a time, and mix thoroughly to incorporate. Stir in the dry ingredients until no trace of flour remains, then fold in the remaining dried fruit and walnuts. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan then line it with a piece of parchment paper long enough to have a generous overhang on each of the long sides. (Word of advice; be sure the parchment paper covers the entire bottom of the loaf pan because the cake really sticks to any exposed surface.) Grease the parchment as well. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top with an offset spatula or spoon, if needed. (Next picture below) Bake for 1 hour 35 minutes in a 300 degree oven or until the fruitcake has just begun to pull away from the edges of the pan. Transfer the fruitcake to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for about 20 minutes. Use the parchment sling to lift the fruitcake from the pan, and let cool completely before serving. (Second picture below.)

This is a really surprisingly great fruit cake. Probably the best we ever tasted. (Yes I know the baseline for fruit cake is very low, but this one stands up to any baseline for pastry.) It is very moist. The brandy, browned butter and honey really work well together to create a very complex pleasing taste. The dried fruit is slightly firm and adds another taste dimension. It also goes extremely well with a slice of cheddar cheese. The gentle sweetness of the fruit cake juxtaposed to the rich saltiness is the cheese is very nice. Next time we’ll make the fruitcake in several smaller loaf pans. The smaller pieces are just the right size for a fruitcake cheese appetizer and that combination goes very well with red wine. 

Pickled grapes with Japanese style curry ブドウのピクルス添え日本風カレー

In order to use up some cooked pork tenderloin before it went bad I decided to make a Japanese style curry but I did not have any commercial Japanese style curry roux. So I "winged it" and made my own curry roux. In addition I also didn't have the usual Japanese curry condiments, so continuing the "winged-it" theme I made "pickled" grapes and served them on the side.

The pickled grapes have a sweet-sour taste with cardamon flavor which really made the whole thing special.

To make the dish a bit more decadent, I topped the curry with a sunny side up fried egg (using pasteurized egg).

Pickled fruit (This is from Milkstreet magazine).


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups rice vinegar (unseasoned)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tbs kosher salt
6 wide strips of lime zest plus 1 1/2 tsp lime juice
4 wide strips of lemon zest plus 1/4 cup of lemon juice
3 white cardamon pods

Directions:
I did not have any lime so I did not use it. Put everything in a pan and heat to boil and dissolve the sugar and salt. Cool it to room temperature.  I only added grapes but  the original recipe also suggested the following fruits could also be pickled; apple, melon, pineapple, plum, and strawberry. Leave the mixture at room temperature  for 48 hours then refrigerate.

Japanese curry (my short cut method, makes about 4 small servings)


Ingredients:
Cooked pork, cubed (whatever amount you have, this is leftover control).
1 medium onion, small dice
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 small piece of ginger root, peeled and finely minced
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into bite-sized cubes (or more traditionally potato)
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into cubes
10 green beans (I happened to have blanched green beans), cut into 1 inch segments
1/4 cup of AP flour
2-3 tbs olive oil
2 tsp Garam Masara
Salt to taste
2-3 tsp Japanese curry powder (I used S&B)
2 cups chicken stock (or more depending on the thickness of the curry)

Directions:
In a pot on medium flame, add the olive oil, onion, garlic and ginger and sauté until fragrant and onion slightly caramelizes (5-7 minutes). Add the flour and sauté until the bottom of the pan develops a brown crust, add the curry powder and keep sautéing for several more minutes. Add the chicken broth and using a silicon or wooden spatula, mix well trying to dislodge the brown crust on the bottom until, the sauce thickens. Add the pork, carrot, parsnip and simmer (This is usually cooked in a broth, before adding the curry roux, I am taking a shortcut). Simmer for 30 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Just 4-5 minutes before serving, add the garam masala, season with salt and pepper and add the green beans.

To make it more luscious, I topped this with a sunny side up fried egg with runny yolk (using pasteurized eggs). For a quick shortcut curry for leftover control, this was pretty good. The pickled grapes also added, a sweet and sour tang with a subtle but lovely cardamon flavor which really made the pickles something special.

Persimmon, smoked oyster shira-ae 薫製牡蠣と柿の白和え

Actually, this was inspired by a dish we had at Sushi Taro Omakase and then by a variation that was in the 2020 osechi box and was called "kaki kaki kunsei" (Smoked oyster and persimmon). In Japanese, persimmon is "Kaki" with flat intonation and oyster is "Kaki" with an accent on "ki", so this was a sort of play on words. The quality of the smoked oysters and persimmon are important. The oysters used by Sushi Taro were smoked in-house and were wonderful. The persimmon was perfection. The osechi version of this dish (picture below) had a light olive oil-based dressing and was also extremely good. In the case of the dish I made, the importance of the quality of ingredients was driven home in spades. Both the oysters and the persimmon were not really great but the basic recipe is good so after several iterations we finally came up with a dish that was not bad.

We found a package of "kaki" persimmon 柿 from California at Whole Foods. It looked like "Shibu-gaki" 渋柿 meaning "puckering persimmon". But these must have been treated. There are multiple ways this could have been done. For example it could have been treated with carbon dioxide since this was apparently commercially done. (The "at-home" treatment to reduce the puckering effect is usually to wait until the persimmon is completely ripe and becomes somewhat gelatinous). The advertisement on the package stated "you can eat it as it is" and showed a cherub of a boy eating it like an apple.

Since the persimmon we bought were supposedly ready to eat, we tried it. It was still hard. Although it was not puckering, the "persimmon" flavor was not as pronounced as we would have liked. As the first iteration of trying this persimmon,  I made "shira-ae" 白和え a very common small dish which I blogged previously.

For the next iteration I served the persimmon with canned smoked oysters as my attempt to emulate what we had at Sushi Taro. Unfortunately, the canned smoked oysters which came from China and were bought at our local grocery store (shown as the bottom can in the picture below) were, as far as we were concerned, not suitable for human consumption. The oysters were fragmented, almost black in color and tasted terrible. They completely ruined the dish.

For the third iteration I used smoked canned oysters in olive oil from Whole Foods (shown as the top can in the picture above). (We didn't look to see where they came from). These were infinitely better than the previous batch. They were plump, whole and had a nice smokey flavor. This dish is shown below.

The strong smokey taste of the oysters and the sweetness of the persimmon' with the gentle sesame punctuated flavored dressing of tofu worked well.

This was one of three small starter dishes I served one evening with cold sake.

Of the other two dishes, the left most is fried salmon in sweet vinegar 鮭の南蛮漬け. I garnished it with sushi vinegar dressed cucumber キュウリの酢の物.

The center dish is my usual mackerel simmered in miso サバの味噌煮.

Ingredients:
One persimmon peeled and cut into bite sized pieces (below left).
One can of smoked oysters in olive oil.

For the Shira-ae dressing 白和え (below right)
1/4 silken tofu, wrapped in paper towel and weighted down to remove extra moisture.
1 tsp miso (or to taste)
1/4 tsp roasted sesame seeds, ground in a Japanese suri-bachi すり鉢 mortar.
1/4 tsp of light colored soy sauce

Directions:
Add all the shira-ae ingredients to a Japanese suribachi mortar and grind them until smooth (above right). Taste and if need adjust the seasoning.
Dress the persimmon pieces and top with the oysters. (I blotted off any excess oil and cut the oysters into two pieces.

Compared to the first try with oysters, this second try was much better. (As good as it was it did not hold a candle to the Sushi Taro version).  I do not think this type of persimmon is particularly good for this dish. I prefer another kind of non-puckering persimmon called  "ama-gaki"甘柿. It has a better texture, is sweeter, and has a stronger distinctive persimmon flavor. In any case, the contrast of the flavor of the persimmon with tofu dressing and smokey oyster flavors worked well enough.

Sous Vide chicken salad with mango for lunch マンゴー入り低温調理鶏胸肉サラダ

I regularly make sous vide chicken breast. Using skin-on and bone-in split breast, sous vide at 140F for 4 hours produces really good moist chicken. Most of the time, I ice it down in the cooking pouch and use it for chicken salad or just for sandwiches. If you do not open the pouch and keep it in the meat drawer, it will last for at least 2 weeks. I did not describe the chicken salad recipe accurately in the previous post. I add some fruit to this curry flavored chicken salad. The original recipe calls for grapes and cantaloupe which makes a wonderful salad. I did not have grapes or cantaloupe this time but had champagne mango, I added to this to the salad and it went extremely well. This was a weekend lunch.

We served my potato salad (Instead of Yukon gold, I am using Russet potato recently) and cheesy muffin with prosciutto and chives.

I added thinly sliced cucumber, salted with the moisture squeezed out and lightly dressed with sushi vinegar before mixing it into the potato salad.

I removed the skin and deboned the sous vide chicken breast (I also removed the tenderloin for another dish) then cut it into bite sized cubes. The dressing is the same as before; mixture of mayo, Greek yogurt, mango chutney, curry powder, and lemon juice. Since the dressing included mango chutney, I thought adding mango to the salad may work. So, I added champagne (yellow) mango cut into small cubes.

This worked well. The dressing is sweet and sour with curry flavor (although not hot despite a large amount of curry powder used due to the Greek yogurt and mayo) which is echoed in the taste of mango (more sweet than sour). This was a really good satisfying lunch.

Nectarine bundt cake ネクタリンバントケーキ

We received a gift for New Year which was a one-year-membership to Harry's & David monthly fruit club.  Although some of it is a bit hit-or-miss, most of the fruit was excellent.  This month was Dulcevida nectarines. A card with the recipe for nectarine pound cake came with the fruit. (It specified the use of a bundt cake pan, so it could be classified as a bundt cake). In any case, my wife made this cake one day using the last three nectarines.

We cut a wedge to taste.

I added fresh blueberry and mint sprig just for a photo shoot.

This is a quite good cake. Nice fresh nectarine taste.

Ingredients:
For fruit
2-3 nectarines (she used 3), peeled, pitted, and cut into slices.
2 tbsp, AP flour
2 tbsp light brown sugar (my wife used white sugar with molasses)

For cake batter
3/4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 1/2 cup of AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz lemon yogurt (my wife used plain yogurt with the addition of lemon extract)(lemon zest would also work)
1 egg
1 egg white

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a 10 inch Bundt pan and dust with flour (My wife only had an 8 inch bundt pan, so she made additional cakes using some mini Bundt pans she had).
Blend 2 tbsp flour and brown sugar together, add nectarines and toss until well coated. Place the mixture in the bottom of the pan. In a bowl mix the the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a mixer, cream the butter and white sugar. Add the egg and egg white and blend until mixed. Add the vanilla, yogurt and lemon flavoring (or lemon zest) beat for 3 minutes at medium speed. Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture and mix until combined. Distribute the batter over the nectarines (the recipe said pour the batter over the fruit. Don't know what they were using but pouring was not an option. The batter came out very thick and stiff and had to be dolloped into the bundt pan.) Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean.  Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto a wire rack and cool completely before serving.

The cake is not too sweet and is very moist. The nectarines are nicely sweet and refreshing. This is a good cake. We can eat this even for breakfast.

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.

Sous vide chicken breast salad 低温調理の鶏胸肉のサラダ

I have not cooked chicken breast with sous vide for some time. One weekend, I decided to try it again and consulted "the food lab" website. This time, I used bone-in skin-on split chicken breast as recommended. Both halves were cooked identically in sous vide after I seasoned them with salt and pepper. Both were cooked at 140F for 4 hours (actually close to 4 and one half hours). One of the chicken breast haves was browned using a frying pan and olive oil on the skin side after it was taken out of the sous vide cooking pouch, slightly cooled and the surface patted dry. After browning, the bone was removed and the meat sliced. We enjoyed this as lunch but did not take any pictures. The meat was very succulent and juicy and somehow better than the last time I tried this cooking method. The other half was immediately soaked in ice water (ice cubes and water) still in the bag. After 30 minutes, it was then stored in the cold meat bin of our refrigerator. The next day, I made the cold chicken meat into salad. I flavored it with curry powder and served with cantaloupe on a bed of home grown arugula. I also added thinly sliced American mini cucumber just before serving (I added the cucumber just before serving because then the salad itself would last longer than if I include the cucumber into the salad just after it was made).

I cut the chicken into good sized cubes.

Ingredients:
One half split chicken breast, bone-in and skin-on.

for the dressing:
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1 small sweet (I used Vidalia) onion, finely diced
1/2 cup Greek (strained) yogurt (my wife made this by straining regular Danon yogurt)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Juice of one lemon
1/2 tsp curry powder (I used Japanese S&B grand or any curry powder) or as much as you like
1 tsp mango chutney (We used Major Gray's)
1 small sweet (Vaidalia) onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalk, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Season the chicken with salt and pepper, vacuum pack, and cook sous vide at 140F for 4 hours.
Immediately soak the package in ice water for 30 minutes (and keep in the refrigerator if used later, picture below).

Take out from the pouch and remove the skin and bone and cut into cubes (see below).

Mix the ingredients for the dressing together and add the chicken cubes. Toss until the cubes are covered with the dressing. Taste and season with salt and pepper and if needed more curry powder.

I do not know if using bone-in split breast instead of bone-off breast makes a difference but this time the chicken breast came out much better than before. It is most succulent breast meat ever. My dressing with curry flavor is always good. We really like it. Since we use yogurt and mayo in the dressing, the heat from curry powder is very muted.