Chestnut buns 栗入り全粒小麦 バン

Since I have exhausted my collection of chestnut recipes over the past several years, my wife came to the rescue. She made chestnut buns. She ended up using her favorite whole wheat buttermilk bun recipe and added chestnuts from North American Chestnuts which I prepared.



We served this with my chestnuts in syrup and pats of butter.

 
The bread recipe came from Laurel's Kitchen: Bread Book.

Ingredients:
2tsp active dry yeast
1/2cup warm water
3/4cup very hot water
1/4 honey
1 1/4 buttermilk
5 1/2 whole wheat flour
2tsp salt
4tbs butter
1 to 2 cups chopped up chestnuts in fairly large chunks

Instructions:

Bloom the yeast in the 1/2 cup warm water. Mix the hot water, salt, honey and buttermilk. It should be just slightly warm. Put 4 cups of wheat flour into the bowl of the mixer. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour and continue mixing. Add additional flour until the dough reaches a soft but not sticky consistency. For rolls the dough should be fairly soft. Once the right consistency is reached, knead for 7 minutes. Then an additional 3 minutes first adding the butter a tablespoon at a time until incorporated then the chestnut pieces. If the mixer can't handle the chestnut pieces knead the last part by hand.



Form the dough into a ball and put into a bowl that has a little vegetable oil on the bottom to coat the ball so it doesn't dry out as it rises. Rise in a warm place until double. Deflate and let rise again. The second rising will take 1/2 the time. When it has doubled again deflate and form into individual buns. (To get buns of equal size I weigh the dough--3 1/8 ounces makes the size shown here). Put them in a heavily buttered baking dish. (The butter in the dish makes the crust nice and crunchy). Cook at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes (check them after 15 minutes).



Although this is a whole wheat bread, it is very soft and moist and, by far, our favorite whole wheat bun. The addition of chestnuts was very nice but in retrospect, we should have put in larger pieces and more of them. (Initially we were concerned that the chestnuts might end up fairly hard and in a large size would not have a pleasant mouth feel but it turns out they absorbed into the dough and were quite soft). Since preparing chestnuts is a lot of work, next time we may try making this recipe with prepared chestnuts in a jar (from Europe especially France).

Tsukune with renkon 蓮根つくね

This is a variation of Japanese chicken patty, tuskune つくね.  Generally tsukune in Japan contains chopped up "soft bone" (cartilage or "nankotsu"  軟骨).  My wife does not like this, since  it reminds of her childhood when ground meat always had some bone fragments mixed in.  Instead, I chop up lotus root ("renkon" 蓮根) to add some crunchy texture to tsukune. This time, instead of including chopped up lotus root in the patty, I used a slice of lotus root as a base and pressed tsukune on the top. The combination of ground meat and lotus root is rather common and I posted deep fried lotus root sandwich 蓮根のはさみ揚げ,  previously.  I got this idea from "Sakaba hourouki 酒場放浪記 on YouTube which we saw one evening. In one of the episodes, this dish was served to the always somewhat inebriated host.



To show how this is constructed, left is the patty side and right is lotus root side on the top, respectively. I took a shortcut and I cooked this in a frying pan. Instead of making "tare" sauce, I just made a quick pan sauce to coat the tsukune.



There are many variations on what can be included in tsukune.  The only consistent ingredient is ground chicken.  One of the reasons I had for making this dish was to use barbequed chicken left over from the previous weekend. So, I mixed finely chopped cooked breast meat with store-bought ground chicken breast. I am not sure about the amount as usual but both the cooked and ground chicken were about 1 lb each. The idea here is that the cooked chicken adds texture and the raw ground chicken binds the tsukune together.  You could add anything you like but this time, I added finely chopped scallion (5 stalks including green parts), grated garlic and ginger (about 1/2 tsp each but whatever amount you like), and 1 tbs of miso. Since the mixture was a bit stiff, I also added one whole egg beaten. I made 1/3 for this dish and 2/3 for usual tsukune. For the usual tsukune, I added coarsely chopped lotus root. I made 8 tsukune on lotus root as you can see below. I pressed the meat mixture so that some went into the holes of the lotus root.


With a small amount of vegetable oil (or dark sesame oil if you so prefer) on medium heat,

I cooked the meat side first for 1-2 minutes until the surface was nicely browned. I flipped them over and cooked for another 1-2 minutes. I then added mirin, sake and soy sauce (1tsp each) into the pan. I shook the pan, until a viscous sauce developed and flipped them over so that the sauce coated all surfaces.

I served hot with a sprinkling of powder “sansho”  山椒. Because I used only breast meat, it was a bit on the dry side especially when it was reheated later. But this is another good way to use up cooked chicken.

Japanese pumpkin potage with chestnut 栗入りカボチャのポタージュ

This is nothing really new. The other day, I got a Japanese pumpkin or kabocha カボチャ at the Japanese grocery store. As usual, I made simmered pumpkin or カボチャの煮物 (second picture below).  I also made chestnuts simmered in syrup 栗の甘露煮.  So, I just combined all three into one dish.



I prepared the kabocha as usual. I removed the skin and rounded off the sharp edges of each piece to prevent the edges from crumbling during the cooking process (called "nikuzure 煮崩れ). So, I used these scraps and the portion of kabocha which was too thin to be made into individual pieces to make the potage. I made the simmered pumpkin  exactly the same was as before seasoned with sugar, mirin, and soy sauce.



For the potage, I added finely diced onion sautéed in butter, small cubes of potato simmered in chicken broth (my usual Swanson no fat low sodium) with a few bay leaves for 20 minutes or until everything was cooked and soft. After removing the bay leaves, I pureed the pumpkin mixture using an immersion blender until all the solids were gone. (picture below).



I added cream, mixed, seasoned with salt and white pepper and warmed up before serving. Since I  made chestnuts simmered in syrup, I placed the simmered pumpkin and chestnut in the bowl and poured the potage and garnished with finely chopped parsley.



The potage was sweet and velvety. With the addition of the simmered pumpkin and chestnut, this is really the taste of autumn.

Jalapeno Cheddar roll ハロペニョチェダーロール

When I saw this recipe, I thought ‘This is something my wife would be delighted to make’. Not that she is into Jalapeno pepper or anything hot but the idea of rolling bread dough with cheese and pepper inside would appeal to her. The original recipe calls for pickled Jalapeno peppers but we used fresh ones after deveining and deseeding (i.e. not hot at all).



Even as the bread was baking the kitchen was filled with the wonderful smell of cheddar and Jalapeno. The cheddar cheese all melted and made a nice brown crust on the top  and bottom.



The below is our variation of the original recipe ).

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons sugar,
 2 teaspoons dry yeast, 285 grams bread flour divided into two parts; 95 grams for the yeast sponge and 190 grams for the bread. As is usually the case with bread dough additional flour in reserve in case the dough was too wet.
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
240 grams Cheddar cheese shredded (about 2 cups) (We used smoked Cheddar)
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, deseeded and deveined and finely chopped

Instructions:

1. Stir the sugar and salt into the milk and scald the milk stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Cool to about 105 degrees F (40 C), add the yeast to the mixture to proof it. Once the yeast becomes bubbly add the 95 grams flour. Cover and let this mixture rest in a warm place until it's doubled in size. This forms the sponge.
2) Add the remaining 190 grams of flour to the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the sponge and start mixing at a low speed. Add the eggs, one at a time until fully incorporated. Add the butter in pieces until fully incorporated. Add additional flour as needed until the dough is soft but not sticky. Kneed the dough for 7 to 10 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface, let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes then roll it out into an 18 x 18 inch square (45 cm x 45 cm).
3) Sprinkle evenly with the cheese, putting a little extra cheese towards the edge closest to you and then scatter the jalapenos evenly over the top. (#1 in the picture below)
4) Roll the dough up and then slice the roll into thirds and then slice each third into 3 wheels. (#2 and 3 in the picture below. We sliced the pieces a bit thinner, after we divided the roll into thirds we sliced each third into 4 equal rolls).
5) We arranged  them in a 8" x 8" greased pan lined with parchment paper. We covered the pan with saran wrap and let it rise in a warm place (we had a bit irregular diameters, #4 in the picture below). We  preheated the oven to 350 degrees F.
6)When the dough had risen to fill the pan, we placed it in the preheated oven and baked until golden brown (25-30 minutes).

Even though we deviated a bit from the original recipe we love this roll . The cheese we used gave it a very nice smoky cheddar flavor. The fresh jalapeno pepper taste was also very nice without heat. Interestingly the cheese melted into the bread adding moisture and out the top and bottom making a crunchy crust. This is a perfect roll for a snack.

Another otoshi threesome 又々お通し三種類

These are, again, an otoshi threesome I served one evening.

One of the times I made  cold simmered vegetables which we like to have on hand in the summer, I  included renkon  レンコン or lotus root and kon-nyaku コンニャク or devil's tongue. Both were too much to use in the vegetable dish so I made a small dish of kinpira of renkon and konnyaku.  The konnyaku was par boiled and I cut it into small long strips. The renkon was just sliced thinly. I put a small amount of vegetable oil with a splash of dark toasted sesame oil in a frying pan on medium heat and added flakes of dried red pepper. Then I added the renkon and konyaku and sautéed them until the oil coated the surface. I then braised by adding mirin and soy sauce. I braised it until only a small amount of liquid remained in the pan. I added white roasted sesame seeds and cut the fire. This is a variation of kinpira but the contrast of texture between renkon (firm and crunchy) and the konnyaku (soft but elastic) was perfect.

Since I had pork loin barbecued in my Weber grill (trussed, seasoned with salt, black pepper and finely chopped fresh rosemary and hot smoked/barbecued to the internal temperature of 145F) and also my potato salad, I made rolls. This combination cannot go wrong.

Since I prepared (boiled) harcoverts over the weekend, I just dressed it with sesame paste/mayo dressing (Mayonnaise, white sesame paste, and soy sauce) to complete my threesome.

These were good starters for the evening.

All Matsutake lunch 松茸尽くしの昼食

Since it was Matsutake 松茸 season, we ordered fresh matsutake from Oregon Mushroom as usual. They offer grade #1 and grade#2/#3 with grade#1 being the better matsutake with unopened caps. This year, they had some problem harvesting grade#1 matsutake and there was some delay before we received it. Around the same time, we received Northern American chestnuts from Gilolami farms. So, we have two major ingredients for our annual autumnal feast. I have posted all the chestnut and matsutake recipes I can think of previously.  In any case, on one weekend, we had this all matsutake lunch consisting of matsutake rice 松茸ご飯, chawanmushi 松茸茶碗蒸しand clear soup 松茸のお吸物.

I made the Matsutake rice the night before using the Kamado-san donabe rice cooker.


I heated the rice for lunch just microwaving it and topping it with thin slices of fresh matsutake. I garnished with green part of scallion. The fresh matsutake slices added a wonderful subtle aroma to this dish.



I also made matsutake chawanmushi and clear soup for this lunch. For both, I used a filet of sole which was first salted and sprinkled with sake, cut into bite sized pieces and gently poached (I turned off the heat after I added the sole) in dashi broth for few minutes (as usual, I made it with a dashi pack containing dried bonito flakes and kelp).

In the chawanmush, I only included thinly sliced matsutake and small pieces of poached dover sole filet. I garnished with snow peas (added to the chawanmush at the last 5 minutes of steaming) and garnished with yuzu skin (from frozen packed) and scallion.



I made clear soup from the same prepared broth seasoned with light colored soys sauce or usukuchi shouyu 薄口醤油, a splash of mirin and salt. I added silken tofu from Japan, matsutake slices. I also added yuzu skin and snow pea.



This was a rather luxurious lunch. The sole filet was very mild in flavor and had a melt-in-your-mouth consistency which was very nice.  The chawamushi was lava hot initially but the silky consistency and subtle matsutake aroma were sublime. We succumbed to having our house sake daiginjou "MU" 大吟醸　無--but just one glass.

Pork belly crisp 豚バラの唐揚げ

This is by far one of the most deadly dishes I’ve ever made. After using thinly sliced pork belly for grilled pork belly wrapped fig and asparagus, I made a quick stir-fried dish with pork belly, cabbage, zucchini slices  (I did not take any pictures). From the  remaining pork belly, I made this dish which is essentially pork belly kara-age 豚バラの唐揚げ.

Since the thinly sliced pork belly was not as thin as it would be in Japan as "bara-niku" バラ肉 , I first further thinned the meat using a meat pounder. I cut the pieces into 2-3 inch strips and marinated them in mirin, sake and soy sauce mixture (1:1:2 ratio) for at least several hours (I marinated it overnight). After removing the excess marinade by blotting with paper towel,  I dredged them in potato starch or "katakuriko" 片栗粉 (see below).

Since they are very thin pieces of meat, they fry up quickly. I deep fried them turning once in 350F vegetable oil for 1 minute on each side.

I drained the excess oil on a cooling rack.

I tasted a small piece to make sure it was done properly and it was. Very crispy. I served this on the bed of water cress (I removed all thick stems from the cress) and a wedge of lemon.

It is like crispy bacon but it is probably a bit deadlier and has a nice lightness despite high fat content. Excellent starter snack for red wine.