“Taco Carnitas”-ish タコ カルニタもどき

This all started when my wife found a package of mini-corn tortillas at Whole Foods (picture #3). Even without opening the package, we can smell the nice corn flavor. I did not make pulled pork but since I had a 1/2 lb of ground pork (left over after making gyoza,) I decided to make something similar to “Taco Caritas”. I made the spice mixture for the pork, salsa, and guacamole. Since we did not have lettuce, I also made shredded cabbage. Instead of sour cream, we used home made Greek yogurt (pictures #1 and #2). It was a bit messy to eat but it was quite good and we liked these corn tortillas.

On the top of guacamole is the Green yogurt (mixed with olive oil and seasoned with salt).

Ingredients (made 4 small taco):
Small corn tortillas (picture #3)
1/2 lb ground pork
Shredded cheese (we used cheddar)
Shredded cabbage (optional)

Taco seasoning (since we did not have chili power I did not use it)
I just mixed; ground cumin, ground coriander, smoked paprika, onion power, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and salt. 

Salsa: (I made this several hours before)
3 skinned Campari tomato, chopped roughly
3-4 sprigs of cilantro, leaves removed and chopped (I used frozen cilantro leaves I prepared previously. This works fairly well. Much better than dried cilantro.)
2 stalks of scallions, finely chopped
2 tsp olive oil,
2 tsp lemon juice (or rice vinegar)
Salt 

Guacamole: (I made this a few days ago)
1 ripe avocado, stone and skin removed and roughly mashed using a fork
2 tsp lemon juice
1 stalk scallion, finely chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and deveined, finely chopped
1tsp chopped cilantro leaves
1/4 tsp sriracha
Salt to taste

Greek Yogurt dip: (also I made this several days ago)
1/4 cup Greek yogurt (we used the home yogurt my wife makes, strained)
1 tbs olive oil
Salt to taste

Directions:
Warm the tortillas (wrapped in aluminum foil in preheated 350F oven for 10-15 minutes).

In a non-stick frying pan on medium flame, add the pork, spread thin and cook until one side is browned. Crumble the pork and add the taco seasonings and cook until the pork fat is rendered and the meat is  throughly cooked, set aside.

Assemble taco by placing the pork, cheese, salsa, guacamole, greek yogurt and cabbage on the tortillas.
Fold the tortillas and enjoy (messy, though).

For non-authentic taco, this was quite good and filling. For us, the mild heat was just right.

Pumpkin “Kabocha” salad カボチャのサラダ

We regularly get Japanese/Asian groceries from Weee. This time we got a Japanese “Kabocha” かぼちゃ squash. It was larger than usual. I made my usual simmered kabocha and pottage かぼちゃの煮物とポタージュ but some still remained. I thought about tempura but that was too much work for such a small piece. So I decided to make this “kabocha salad”. I did not follow any particular recipe but sort of combined two different recipes. This is curry flavored and turned out to be quite good highlighting the natural sweetness of the kabocha.

This is just a note for myself.

Ingredients:
Kabocha squash, seeds removed, skin shaved off (optional), cut into half inch cubes
Raisins

For the dressing
Greek yogurt
Mayonnaise
Curry powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Boil the kabocha in salted water for 5-7 minutes until cooked but not too mushy
Mix the ingredients for the dressing (about the same amount of mayo and yogurt, the amount of curry powder is to your liking)

For an impromptu salad, this was much better than I expected. The natural sweetness of the kabocha was complemented by the curry flavor. The mixture of the yogurt, mayo and kabocha made a nice creamy texture with some tartness. I will make this again.

P.S. Hawk joins us for Hanami 花見!
This year was a bit unusual for the cherry blossoms. The trees bloomed early and the blooms lasted for a long time. Since we have three trees with different bloom timing, we had a very long time to enjoy cherry blossoms or “Hanami”. One afternoon, a hawk joined us for Hanami! We looked out the window and there he was in all his magnificence sitting not ten feet from the window on the railing of the deck. We marveled at the image of such an awesome creature juxtaposed to the delicate loveliness of the cherry blossoms.

Cold cucumber soup and aspic addendum 冷製胡瓜スープと胡瓜ゼリー

 Because we got 4 large American cucumbers instead of the 4 mini cucumbers we ordered for our recent groceries delivery, we decided to use them to make cold cucumber soup and cucumber aspic. We served the aspic with dill sauce. Although both dishes were very good and we ate each one individually for several lunches, my wife came up with the idea of combining the two. She placed the aspic in a bowl, poured in some of the soup and topped it with the sauce.

The result was an example of “the whole being greater than the sum of its parts”. The soup combined with the dill topping acted like a sauce which perfectly complemented the aspic. Cucumber was the predominant flavor but subtle differences in the flavors of the various ingredients that went into the soup versus the aspic added a pleasing complexity. In the future, we think this would be the preferred way to serve these two dishes so we decided to write this addendum to make that point. This cucumber combination also worked very well especially with the chicken curry we had with it for lunch. 

Cold cucumber soup 冷製胡瓜のスープ

Getting home delivery of groceries is very convenient but one problems that the quality of the fresh produce may be quite variable since we cannot inspect the product before buying. Broken eggs are not uncommon as well the the delivery of wrong items. We have also disable the automatic option for substitutions if the item we requested is not available. This is because the substitutions may not be always appropriate. For example, the substitution of shallots for jalapeno. Talking of wrong item being delivered, we recently received 4 giant American cucumbers instead of a package of 4 mini-cucumbers. (We like these because they are the closest in taste and texture to a Japanese cucumber). Although we do not like regular American cucumbers rather than throwing them out, we tried to use them. This is one of such attempt. We made cold cucumber soup with mint and buttermilk. We had it as a lunch with our usual potato salad and coleslaw. I also served skinned Campari tomato with broccoli and pecan, apricot bread. This was certainly all home-made vegetarian salad and soup lunch which was quite good and filling

Since I had few Japanese cucumbers (from our Japanese grocery store), I garnished the soup with several slices and chiffonade of mint leaves from our herb garden.

For both coleslaw and potato salad, we used home made Greek yogurt (from heirloom yogurt my wife makes regularly) which make it very creamy and also healthier (hopefully).

Since I made miso salad dressing several days ago (recipe from Washington Post, subject of another post), I dressed Campari tomato and blanched broccoli.

Although we jointly prepared the cucumber soup, I peeled, chopped and blended but my wife was in charge and ask her to take over for the recipe.

The recipe came from Southern Living on line.

Ingredients:
21 oz. cucumbers (in our case this was two big American cucumbers)
2 cups whole buttermilk
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (we used home-made)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (from our herb garden)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon, plus more for garnish (we did not have fresh, we used 1 tsp dried)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice plus 1 tsp. lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:
Peel, seed, and chop 2 of the cucumbers.
Process chopped cucumbers, buttermilk, yogurt, mint, tarragon, lemon zest and juice, and salt in a blender until very smooth, about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.
Chill 1 hour or overnight.
We served with slices of Japanese cucumber and chiffonade of fresh mint leaves.


This was a quite nice cold soup. I usually do not particularly fond of buttermilk but for this soup, the buttermilk really tasted great. The slices of Japanese cucumber added nice fresh cucumber taste. One thing that was kind-of odd was that the soup was effervescent. You can see the little bubbles in the pictures above and interestingly the bubbles didn’t go away after the soup had been in the fridge for some time. The bubbles added to texture giving the otherwise velvety smooth soup and somewhat grainy mouth feel. Nonetheless it was a very good cool refreshing soup.

Bangladeshi White Chicken Korma チキンコルマ

This is another of my wife's curry projects. (She has been making curries about once a week. We really like having them for lunch.) This recipe is based on a recipe in the cookbook  “Curry Easy” by Madhur Jaffrey which my wife got recently. This is a yogurt based white curry. 

 We added blanched green beans and skinned Campari tomato. I also garnished it with Japanese pickles called “Funkushin or Fukujin-zuke” 福神漬け to add some colors.

Ingredients:
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. Cardamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
4 bay leaves
3 onions roughly chopped
4 chicken thighs
3 Tbs. Grated ginger
6 garlic cloves peeled and lightly crushed
1 cup greek yogurt
1 tbs. Vinegar
1 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Put several Tbs. Peanut oil in a frying pan and bloom the spices cinnamon through bay leaves in the hot oil. Add the onions and sauté until they are translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant. Add the yogurt, vinegar and salt. Stir to make a creamy sauce. Put in the chicken and cover with the sauce. If more liquid is necessary add some chicken broth. Cook on simmer for about 1 hour or until the chicken is completely cooked.

This is a nice curry. It seems that the recipes in this cookbook are a bit simpler than the recipes in the other Madhur Jaffrey cookbooks we have. This one was very nice and a bit different from the usual that we have made which was good for a change. The sauce is creamy and the spices are flavorful and fairly gentle but slow heat will creep up on you. rice and Japanese Fukujinzuke pickles, this is a good curry.

Chicken spinach curry ほうれん草入りチキンカレー

This is another one of my wife’s curry projects. This is based on a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s  “Quick & Easy Indian Cooking” called Chicken in cilantro, spinach and mustard sauce. Since we did not have fresh cilantro, we omitted it and we added potato based on our belief that potato goes well with almost any curry. We replaced “hot green chili” with Jalapeño pepper. My wife made additional changes as well. This may not be the dish in the book but this tasted very good with a nice creamy sauce.

Ingredients:
3 bay leaves
6 cardamon pods
1 inch stick cinnamon
5 whole cloves
2 or 3 onions chopped
1 cup raisins
1 cup greek yogurt
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 inch piece of fresh ginger peeled and chopped
2 Jalapeno peppers, deveined, seeded and chopped finely
Package of fresh spinach
3 tablespoons of grainy mustard
4 chicken thighs
Generous handful of cilantro tops (optional)

chicken broth as needed if the sauce gets too thick or starts to scorch

Directions:
Gather together the spices and ingredients (#1 & #2). Combine the yogurt and mustard and set aside. Put the bay leaves through cloves in a pan with hot peanut oil. Fry until the bay leaves start to brown and the spices become fragrant. (Remove the cardamon pods and cloves. The bay leaves and cinnamon can stay because they are big enough not to be eaten by accident.) Add the raisins to the hot oil. (Frying the raisins really transforms them. They puff up and their flavor becomes more intense.) Add the onions and fry until they are soft and slightly brown. Add the jalapeno and ginger and fry a few minutes. Add the yogurt/mustard combination with the salt and cayenne pepper. Mix until the sauce is distributed. Nestle the chicken into the sauce, add the potatoes and makes sure they are all covered in the sauce. Lastly add the spinach (#3). Cover and simmer gently until the spinach has wilted into the sauce. (#4). Gently simmer for about 1 hour until the potatoes and chicken are cooked through. (If the sauce gets too thick or starts to scorch dilute it with some chicken broth.)

This is a really good curry. It was different from the previous curries. The raisins give it a deep fruity flavor which contrasts with and is offset by the vinegary sharpness of the mustard. It results in a really nice kind-of sweet and sour combo. The Yogurt makes the sauce very rich and creamy. The potatoes absorb the flavor of the spices and also add to the creaminess of the sauce. The spinach adds additional texture and a slight bitterness on the tongue. Another great choice for lunch or dinner. 

Home-made yogurt; the definitive "how-to" make thick and creamy.

This is a note mostly to ourselves to chronicle the steps we use to consistently make thick, creamy and flavorful homemade yogurt. My wife has been making yogurt from the starter she got from "culture for health" for some time. Initially, following the instructions that came with the starter, the first few batches were OK but they resulted in a thin watery yogurt that we could basically drink. The yogurt was made at room temperature which worked in the summer but not in the winter. The batch she made when it turned cold was a "failure". She ended up throwing it out. When a second cold weather batch also failed, somehow dawned on her that the yogurt wasn't forming because it wasn't warm enough. Instead of throwing it out she put it in the oven with the heat off but the light on and VIOLA Le Yogurt! She then went through a "trial-and-error" process for some time and finally nailed a fail-proof process that she has been using to make a wonderful thick, creamy, slightly sweet, slightly tangy yogurt that we really like. 

During this process we realized that we needed some equipment which would allow precise temperature and timing controls. My wife did all the work of trial-and-error while I provided scientific advice and explanation.

Equipment:
1. Slow cooker (one gallon capacity) (#1 picture below)
2. Proofing box with temperature control (We use Brod-and Taylor's, #8 picture below)
3. Temperature probe with high and low temperature  alarm (we use Thermoworks  ChefAlarm® Cooking Alarm Thermometer and Timer). (#2 picture below)

4. Mason jars with an airtight lids 32 oz (need 4 to accommodate 1 gallon of milk, #7 picture below)

Ingredients:

1 gallon whole pasteurized milk

1/4 cup heirloom yogurt

Method:

1. Heat 1 gallon of whole milk in a slow cooker on "high" (with the temperature probe inserted) to 180F (This takes a few hours. Starting at 6:30AM it will reach temp about 10:30 or 10:45AM).

2. Using the cooking alarm thermometer, the high temperature alarm will sound when the milk reaches 180F.

3. Turn the slow cooker to "low" and maintain the temperature for 30 minutes (temperature will keep climbing to near 185F).

4. Turn off the slow cooker.

5. Because a skin forms on the surface of the milk (#3), skim it off and strain the milk through a fine sieve or a sieve lined the with cheese cloth (#4) into a metal dutch oven (This catches any other pieces of milk skin that may have formed). Cover the dutch oven with plastic wrap and insert the temperature probe (#6).

6.  Let the milk cool to 98 -100F (This cooling can take hours and would mean the yogurt could not be finished in one day. It would have to stay overnight. My wife cannot wait that long so she puts the dutch oven in an ice water Bain Marie to hasten the cooling ( #5) If it goes into the Bain Marie at 10 :45 it will have reached the low temp about 12:00 noon. The low temperature cooking alarm thermometer will sound when the temperature cools to 100F, #6).

8. Meanwhile, preheat the proofing box to 99F (#9) while the milk is cooling.

9.When the milk cools to 100F and feels about body temperature when tested with a finger, inoculate the milk with 1/4 cup of the previous batch of home-made yogurt.

10. Divide the mixture into 4 mason jars (#7), close the lids, and place them in the 4 corners of the proofing box (the center position is hottest part and not good for the yogurt. No need for a water tray) (#10).

8. Incubate for about 9 hours. (If the jars go in the proofing box at Noon they can be removed at around 9:00 PM.

9. Take them out and let them cool to room temperature.

10. Refrigerate at least overnight before tasting.

Semi scientific explanation of how these steps work:
1. Reason for heating the milk: The main milk protein casein coagulates or makes a protein meshwork in the presence of lactic acid as the process of making yogurt. The heating process (steps #1 and 2 above) denatures another protein; a major whey protein called "lactoglobulin". Since thick yogurt needs the participation of the most protein available to make a thicker protein meshwork and, hence, a thicker yogurt, denaturing the lactoglobulin increases the protein available for this process. If not heated, the lactoglobulin remains dissolved and does not participate in making the protein meshwork.

2. Initially my wife covered the mason jars with cheese cloth fastened by a rubber band. We later learned that an air-tight lid (step #7 above) works even better. The bacteria in yogurt (lactobacilli and others) ferment anaerobically (i.e. without oxygen) to break down lactose and other milk sugars to lactic acid. So there is no need for oxygen to be present.

3. Incubation time and temperature (steps #7 and #8): Since biochemical or enzymatic reactions accelerate with increased temperature within the range (Michaelis-Menten kinetics), the higher the incubation temperature the faster the fermentation. Some recipes use higher temperature and shorter incubation time. The temperature and time may influence the consistency and flavors (such as tartness) of the resulting yogurt. We thought slower and longer (99F for at least 9 hours) produced the best yogurt.

4. Although low-temperature (step #10) will slow the fermentation, the yogurt appears to continue developing and produces firmer but creamer texture with overnight refrigeration. We also found that over time the yogurt continues to thicken and become creamier. 

We really like this homemade yogurt. It is very creamy and smooth in texture. The flavor while mild is still distinctive. It is slightly sweet with a mild tang. We eat this yogurt almost every morning with a little fresh fruit such as blueberries or strawberries and a little bit of sugar. We will probably won't go back to a commercial brand.

Cabbage curry salad (or rescued caramelized cabbage) カレー味のキャベツのサラダ

Making good on her threat to rescue the somewhat less than successful “skillet caramelized cabbage” my wife transformed it into curry flavored cabbage. Getting a cue from coleslaw, she added carrots and raisins. Then she further transformed it by turning it into a salad using mayo and strained (Greek) yogurt as a dressing. I think this dish may have been inspired by a recipe in her favorite Indian cookbook by Madhur Jaffrey’s called “Quick and Easy Indian Cooking”. Even so, I am certain, the recipe would not have called for the use of failed skillet caramelized cabbage. Nonetheless this was much better than the original.

Ingredients:
1/2 head of cabbage (about 1 1/2 lbs.) (I used the previously made caramelized cabbage)
3/4 tsp. Cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. Fennel seeds
1 tsp. Sesame seeds
1 cup raisins.
1 medium or large onion diced
2 to 3 carrots julienne
1 tsp. Salt
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tbs. Lemon juice (I used sushi vinegar)
1/2 tsp. Garam masala

Directions.
Put some oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. When the oil gets hot add the cumin, fennel and sesame seeds to bloom the spices. When the sesame seeds begin to pop quickly add the raisins. They will essentially fry puffing up and turning light brown. Then add the onions and sauté until they have browned a bit. Add the carrots and cook until they soften somewhat. Add the cabbage. Stir and cook until blended and the cabbage has become soft. Add the salt and cayenne. Then at the very end add the lemon juice (or sushi vinegar) and the garam masala.

This was a major improvement over the sorry caramelized cabbage dish. The spices had depth of flavor and some zing but were not too hot. The raisins gave it sweetness that contrasted well with the tangy note added by the vinegar. The garam masala gave it a bright spark at the end of the bite. I would almost go so far as to call it a coleslaw curry. It tasted great both hot or cold. Although this can be eaten hot or cold, we further morphed it to salad.

I served this dish with sweet potato croquet, French fries made from sweet potato. I think this was a small dish that went with a drink in the evening.

This was a lunch over the weekend. I served the cabbage curry dressed with the mayo greek yogurt combo. The plate included a curry flavored chicken salad, cantelope and grapes (chicken was leftover breast meat from the whole chicken we cooked on the Weber grill) and Angel biscuit.  Both salads were curry flavored but tasted quite different.

I think my wife was indeed successful rescuing the cabbage from the original dish. 

Potato salad with tuna and pesto ペストとツナのポテトサラダ

We made pesto and froze it when we had a bumper crop of basil sometime ago. My wife found two small plastic containers in the freezer recently and tasked me to use it. I made two kinds of garlic mozzarella bread, one with original garlic scallion butter and another with the pesto. The one with pesto was quite good. That left me with the 2-3 tbs of pesto. From the depth of my memory I remembered a recipe for potato salad with tuna and pesto from the “Frugal Gourmet*" cookbook. I sort of remembered how this was made but I decided I needed to find the recipe. After going through a number of his cookbooks which we have in our collection, I found the recipe in "Frugal Gourmet cooks with wine". It was called "tuna and potato salad" which was introduced as an "American Italian" dish. In any case, I made this salad and finished up the pesto. It was definitely very distinctive and very good; quite different from my usual potato salad.

*When his show was popular on PBS in1980s, it was our routine to watch it on the weekend and we bought most of his cookbooks. Looking back, however, we think our cooking has advanced since then but at the time his recipes were quite inspirational. 

I made a few modifications as usual.  

Ingredients:

2 medium russet potatoes, boiled with skin on and then skin removed, cut (crumbed) into bite size chunks (original recipe calls for 6 small red potatoes).

One can of tuna in water, drained.

Blanched green beans, arbitrary amount (I prepared from fresh green beans, the original recipe calls for a 10 oz. package of frozen green beans, thawed, cooked and drained).

2 tbs pesto

3 tbs mayonnaise and 3 tbs Greek (strained) yogurt* (The original recipe calls for 1 cup mayo)

3 flat anchovies mashed (optional). I did not used them.

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tbs chopped parsley (I skipped this since I did not have fresh parsley)

* My wife prepared this from Dannon yogurt.

Directions:

I seasoned the potatoes with salt, pepper and sushi vinegar while they were hot and I them cool in a bowl (my addition)

Cut the green beans in half inch length and add to the potato.

Add the pesto and tuna.

Add the mayo and Greek yogurt and mix.

Taste and season it with salt and pepper if needed.

This is a good salad to have. We really liked it.

Stuffed mini waffle bowls

 After making mini-waffle bowls, my wife suggested several ideas for filling them. For desert, ice cream and fruit appear standard. She wanted something for breakfast. Since we usually eat a bowl of home-made yogurt, she suggested filling the waffle bowls with the yogurt and blueberries. This was good but kind of difficult to eat the waffle and yogurt together. If you just eat the fruit and yogurt and then eat the waffle bowl, the waffle tends to get a bit soggy. I tried to chomp on the waffle and yogurt together but it was a bit messy. Using a knife and folk, cutting a wedge sort of works. But in the end, I’d rather eat the yogurt and waffle separately.

The next morning, my wife suggested filling the waffle bowls with her favorite sweet Lebanon bologna and scrambled eggs. This sort of worked using a knife and folk to cut a wedge and then eating the waffle, sausage and egg together.

It seems the major role of these waffle bowls is in the presentation. They had a nice crisp cookie taste but its a little awkward eating bowl and contents together. Nonetheless, never daunted, I suggested stuffing the waffle bowl with ice cream then freezing the entire thing. I am not sure if my wife bought the idea. We have to see.

Homemade Ricotta cheese 自家製リッコタチーズ

For a while during covid we were not able to get plain yogurt. In the past, my wife made yogurt using Dannon yogurt as the seed but when it was not available, she bought some heirloom yogurt starter from Cultures for Health. Recently she has been into making yogurt from the heirloom starter as well as the Dannon yogurt which is now available. The home-made yogurt from the heirloom starter lactobacillus is now in its 16th generation.  With some effort (heating and maintaining the temperature of the milk for a specific time before seeding), the consistency of the heirloom yogurt has greatly improved and it tastes much better than commercial yogurt. It is very creamy, sweet with a slight tang. Meanwhile, we noticed that the  Dannon based home-made yogurt has a slight viscous (slimy) consistency which is different from the original store-bought Dannon and is not entirely pleasant. (When my wife made yogurt many years ago using Dannon the resulting yogurt did not have this consistency). When it is made into Greek (strained) yogurt, however, it is much creamer and nicer than Greek yogurt made from store bought Dannon.  The dip made from Home-made Dannon derived Greek yogurt is really nice. When making Greek yogurt, however, it produces a large amount of whey. My wife always thought it was a bit of a waste to throw it away and wanted to find a way to use it. Finally she found a recipe for homemade ricotta using the whey from yogurt and decided to make a small experimental batch. We were a bit amazed at how good this homemade ricotta is.

Although we learned that authentic ricotta (re-cooked) is made using only whey, the ones commercially available in the U.S. apparently are mostly made from milk. The recipe my wife found uses a combination of whey and whole milk.

Ingriedients: This is the original recipe. The recipe my wife used for the small experimental batch follows.
2 gallons fresh whey (use within a few hours of straining)
1 gallon milk (optional)
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

salt to taste

What my wife used for her small experimental amount
1 cup whey
1 cup milk (optional)
1/8 cup vinegar (she used rice vinegar)
salt to taste.

Directions

Mix the whey and milk and put in a slow cooker. Heat on low until the combination reaches 195 F. (About 2 to 3 hours). Remove from heat add vinegar and stir. The curd will form and float to the top. (When the milk reached 195 F and we took off the lid and it looked like this (picture below). Apparently, the curd had already started to form)

Drain the curd through a butter cheese cloth (picture below). One hour draining for soft ricotta. Six or more hours for firmer ricotta. Remove from the cloth, put it into a small bowl and salt to taste.

Although my wife made only a small amount, it was really good. It was creamy with a soft texture. The vinegar gave it a slight tang while it also maintained a slightly yogurt flavor and the salt really brought everything together. My wife is inspired...Watch out. 

Homemade yogurt 自家製ヨーグルト

We do not like low-fat or non-fat yogurt. We go for the full fat version. Our favorite is Seven Stars Farm Yogurt from Pennsylvania. The only place we can get this is at Whole Foods. Even before Covid-19, we had periods when even regular plain Dannon yogurt was not available at our grocery store. This occurred at the start of Covid-19. In the face of this shortage, my wife decided to start making her own yogurt again. This is something she did many years ago as a means of milk inventory control. She used a recipe given to her by a Palestinian friend whose family used it to make yogurt in the middle-east. Unlike other recipes which require pedantic small jars heated for a long time in a yogurt heating appliance, this recipe can make large quantities of yogurt overnight in "one sitting". This recipe uses commercial Dannon yogurt as the seed. We remembered it as a success but my wife has not made it for sometime. Nonetheless, she found the old recipe and made a batch.

According to this recipe you can use any quantity of milk with any fat content. If using low fat milk, however, add 1 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk (NFDM) for every 1/2 gallon of low fat milk. (This boosts the volume of milk solids in the milk making the resulting yogurt thicker). Bring the milk to a boil. Add the NFDM and allow the milk to cool in a bowl until it reaches 110 to 115 degrees at which point add 4 oz. of Dannon plain yogurt. (The same amount is used regardless of the quantity of milk). Wrap the seeded bowl of milk in several towels to keep it warm overnight. The next morning you have yogurt.

My wife used to heat up the milk in a dutch oven but this was the most tedious part of making yogurt since you have to continuously keep stirring it to keep it from boiling over and to prevent scorching on the bottom. She read somewhere that a slow cooker could be used to heat up the milk. So, we took our slow cooker, which we have not used for ages, out of storage. She heated the milk in the cooker set on low for three hours then turned it off. She took about a cup of the hot milk and using an immersion blender added the NFDM whipping it until all the NFDM dissolved. She then added the whipped portion to the rest of the milk and stirred it until everything was incorporated. (She did this because she found from experience sometimes the NFDM does not dissolve completely and forms an unpleasant layer in the yogurt on the bottom of the bowl). She let the milk cool for two hours until it was about 110 to 115 degrees before inoculating with the seed yogurt. She put the slow cooker bowl with the lid on into an ice chest to keep it warm overnight. The final product is shown below.

As you can see the consistency of this yogurt is quite different from the original Dannon. It is, nonetheless, quite firm and creamy. A major difference as shown by the yogurt dripping off the spoon is that it is very elastic. When the bowl is gently shaken it jiggles almost like jello. My wife made some Greek yogurt from this batch. The resulting Greek yogurt is very creamy and a dip we made using the Greek yogurt was much better than one with just strained Dannon. I also made some salmon salad and potato salad using this yogurt and it was much better and creamier than when I use the regular Greek yogurt.

My wife also learned that she was not alone in this yogurt making endeavor. While people were stuck at home during Covid-19, they were making yogurt in addition to baking bread. She read an article in the Washington Post about yogurt starters from "Culture for Health" and ordered some. The heirloom yogurt starter she got contained 4 different kinds. She used the "Viili" starter first which is described as "A Finnish yogurt variety, very mild and creamy, with a fairly thick consistency. It’s a versatile favorite that’s perfect on its own or in any yogurt recipe." According to the recipe, this starter does not require a heated environment. Following the instructions she used one cup of cold 4% milk and dissolved the starter in a glass jar, covered it with several layers of cheese cloth fastened by rubber band around the opening.

After 24 hours, it was still basically a glass of milk. The instructions said it could ferment for up to 48 hours. By then it had congealed a bit but was still basically a drink of milk rather than yogurt. She moved it to the refrigerator. The instructions recommended refrigerating it for at least 6 hours before tasting. The picture below shows the batch after a few days in the refrigerator. It firmed up a bit and had some curd. It also had a nice tangy/acidic yogurt flavor without any "off" taste. But it was way too runny.

Somewhat disappointed she fired off an e-mail to the company explaining the situation and asking for advice. They responded very quickly saying that the dried starter may take some time to fully "wake-up" to its full potential. As long as the first batch still smelled good they recommended starting a new batch using the ratio of one tbs from the 1st batch to 1 cup of cold milk. They recommended making 1 to 2 cups with that ratio (no more no less). Then they suggested she make successive batches with the most recent batch as starter until the desired consistency is attained. My wife used 2 cups of 4% milk with 2 tbs of the first batch for the second batch. After 48 hours it congealed significantly more than the 1st batch. The picture below is after 1 day in the refrigerator. It coagulated a bit more with a creamy consistency.

She then used 3 tbs from the second batch with 3 cups of milk for the 3rd batch. It was yet more solid (below picture). In addition it firmed up in 24 rather than 48 hours. We thought this consistency was not bad. She then used 4 tbs of batch 3 with 4 cups milk for batch 4. As shown below, after 24 hours this is just the right consistency and has developed a more pronounced tangy yogurt flavor. Success!

Well, now we have no shortage of yogurt. We have two options for making it and both are very good; one for low fat milk that results in yogurt that tastes like full fat and one for "high-octane" i.e. 4 % fat milk. It's a good thing we like yogurt and eat a lot of it. As long as milk is available we will no longer ever be without yogurt.

Chicken tulip drummets with Gorgonzola dip 手羽元チューリップとゴルゴンゾーラディップ

I have not made "Teba-gyoza" 手羽餃子 for some time but recently when I did a barbecue pork roast in the Weber grill, I also made teba gyoza.  I had to remove the drummets to make the teba gyouza, so, I used them to make these tulip of drummets.  Just as a minor variation, I marinated the tulips in "Shoyu ko-ji" 醤油麹 overnight before baking.  I did not make my own Shoyu koji but I used a store-bought package.

As before, I coated the tulips with yellow cornmeal and baked them in our toaster oven on convection mode at 450F for 15 minutes.

My wife made Gorgonzola dip for this, which worked very well.

For the Gorgonzola dip

Ingredients
1 cup blue cheese (gorgonzola) crumbles (about 4.5 oz)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
3 tbsp buttermilk (or however much is needed to get the desired consistency)
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Directions:
Just mix and refrigerate before serving.

I served the chicken tulips with carrot and celery sticks. Deep frying may be better but high temp baking made it rather crispy on the outside. The dip went very well.  (We decided that if it was made with a looser consistency it would also make a nice dressing for salads). We are not sure that the "Shoyu koji" marinade made a big difference but the meat was reasonably tender.

Pistachio nut bread ピスタチオのパン

This is another of my wife's baking projects. This is unusual since half of the flour is actually ground pistachio nuts and Greek yogurt is used as a part of the wet ingredients. It has a very nice unique taste and we love it as a breakfast bread.

You can see small pistachio nuts on the cut surface of the bread.

When finished baking some fissures appeared on the surface but the texture was quite tender and delicate.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
4 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp. orange flavoring
1/2 cup orange juice
2 2/3 cup pistachios roasted
2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cardamon
1 tsp salt
8 eggs
1 cup greek yogurt (my wife strained the regular yogurt).
1/2 cup olive oil
4 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
Roast the pistachios. Don't skip this step the flavor and texture of roasted pistachios is different from un-roasted. Grease and flour 2 bread loaf pans. Cut some parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pans and grease it on both sides. (This will make it easier to get the bread out of the pan).

In a food processor combine the sugar and orange zest. Process until the sugar is damp and fragrant Put aside in a bowl (#1). Add the pistachios to the food processor and pulse until coarse. Add the flour, baking powder, cardamon and salt and process with the nuts until finely ground (#2). Whisk the eggs, yogurt, oil, orange juice, orange flavor and vanilla into the sugar mixture previously set aside. (#3).  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Fold until blended. Put into the previously prepared bread pans (#4). Cook in a 325 degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes until a skewer comes out with moist crumbs. Cool in pan for about 15 minutes before removing. Let cool completely before cutting into pieces.

This bread has a nice orangey overtone from orange zests, juice bolstered by the flavoring. My wife reduced the cardamon so that this was not too overwhelming. The texture is extremely rich and moist. The flavor is very complex. The pistachio nuts added some nuttiness but we could not pinpoint that this is the taste of pistachios. Nonetheless, this is very flavorful bread with nice texture.

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.

Japanese "Kabocha" pumpkin salad カボチャサラダ

I occasionally see Japanese pumpkin which is a type of winter squash in our regualr grocery store and when I see it I buy it. This time, I made pumpkin salad with the squash I brought home. I read the recipe somewhere but I could not find it again when it came time to make the salad so I made it from memory.  It came out quite good and its easy to prepare especially since I used the microwave to cook the squash. Since I had a "Kabocha"-shaped "hashi-oki" 箸置きor chopstick pillow that we bought in Kyoto last year, I used it in this picture to complete the Kabocha theme.

I added cottage cheese on top (I remember this was a part of the recipe I read). I added freshly ground black pepper.

Ingredients :
Kabocha pumpkin, half, innards removed and skin shaved off but leaving some (or you could just leave the skin), cut into a bite sized pieces, microwaved in a silicon container for 3-4 minutes or until a bamboo skewer went through easily.
Salt and pepper for seasoning while it is cooling.

For dressing:
Mayonnaise 2tbs
Greek yogurt 2tbs (my wife makes it by straining regular yogurt).
Cottage cheese 2-4 tbs
Soy sauce to taste (optional and our addition)

Directions:
When the pumpkin cooled to room temperature I dressed it with the mayo and greek yogurt (see below). Taste and add salt or soy sauce to taste. I served it with topping of the cottage cheese and freshly grated black pepper (my addition).

This is a really good salad. The natural sweetness of the pumpkin really comes through. We found out it is actually rather filling--a small serving goes a long way for us. Since I microwaved it, it was really easy to make.

Pumpkin salad かぼちゃサラダ

Since we enjoyed some nice pumpkin dishes while we were in Japan this time, when my wife found a Japanese kabocha pumpkin (or squash) at Whole Foods store, we had to get one. I made my ususal simmered pumpkin and potage but still half of the pumpkin was left. So, I made this pumpkin salad from the quarter of the pumpkin.

One evening, I served this as a part of the opening appetizers. From left to right, pumpkin salad, asparagus and Campari tomato with roasted sesame vinegar dressing and mackerel simmered in miso  with green beans.

The asparagus was boiled and the Campari tomatoes were skinned. The dressing is the same one I used for figs.

This is my usual and favorite miso simmered mackerel. I added boiled green beans for color.

Ingredients:
1/4 Japanese "Kabocha" squash, guts removed, cut into 1/2 inch slices.
1/4 cup raisins.
2 tbs Mayonnaise
2tbs Greek yogurt (my wife strained plain yogurt)
Salt
Cream and soy sauce (optional)

Directions:
I placed the kabocha slices in a lidded silicon container and microwaved for about 4-5 minutes or until cooked. While it was hot, I removed the skin and mashed the kabocha, added the raisins, mayonnaise and greek yogurt and mixed.

This was nicely sweet (without any sugar) from the kabocha itself and from the raisons. My wife liked to add a bit of soy sauce and cream to this which I agree. It was a nice small dish which can be used as a side or as an appetizer.

Pumpkin Yogurt パンプキンヨーグルト

Since Halloween is approaching, it is "pumpkin" season and my wife is into pumpkin dishes. Digression alert: apparently pumpkin flavor has become extremely popular. It is appearing in everything from coffee to dog food (really?).  Not be left behind by any trend, my wife was inspired to make this dish. She prepared canned pumpkin puree with pumpkin spices and mixed into plain yogurt. She decided to add finely chopped Japanese apple pear.  Here the addition of Japanese apple pear really worked well. I should have done a better presentation for the picture but this is how we take yogurt to work every day for breakfast; in small plastic containers. From my perspective, while it is very unique, it was also very seasonal and surprisingly good .

One of the secrets my wife uses for her pumpkin recipes is to heat up the puree with the spices mixed in. This gets rid of the "canned" taste in the puree, evaporates some of the water content, concentrates the pumpkin flavor and blooms the spices.

Ingredients:
One 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 cup sugar
Japanese pear finely diced
1 1/2, 32 oz. containers of plane yogurt (we use Dannon) (come to think of it we eat a lot of yogurt)

Directions:
Put the puree and spices in a sauce pan. Cook on medium heat stirring constantly for about 5 minutes or until the puree thickens, pulls away from the sides and the spices become nicely fragrant. Let cool.

Add the yogurt and sugar. Mix well add the diced apple pear.

This pumpkin yogurt gets better with time as all the flavors meld together. The asian pear exudes sweet juice that adds nicely to the pumpkin flavor.  It also adds a pleasant crunch. This is quite a unique yogurt and the addition of juicy crispy Japanese pear really worked.