Vanilla Buttermilk Breakfast Bread a.k.a Pound Cakeバニラバターミルクパウンドケーキ

My wife was looking for a recipe to use the luscious Harrisburg Dairies buttermilk she just bought at Whole foods. This recipe was in her collection of buttermilk recipes and since she had never made it before, she glanced at the ingredients and thought it would make a nice breakfast bread.

Ingredients:
3 cups AP flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cup buttermilk

Directions:
Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Cream the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and continue creaming. Then add the eggs one at a time and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Finish by adding the vanilla.

Alternately, add the butter mixture and buttermilk to the flour and mix. Put into greased 8 X 4 loaf pan. (I used a 9 X 4 1/2 load pan and one 5 3/4 X 3 3/4 pan because she didn't have an 8 X 4. )
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes for the small loaf and 1 hour for the large loaf. Cool completely before trying to take it out of the pan

This came out very light and tender with a very delicate vanilla flavor. My wife served it for breakfast and it was very good but something kept tickling the back of my mind. Finally it came to me. It tasted like pound cake. I mentioned this to my wife. After a moment of thought, she went to her buttermilk recipe file and took off the paperclip that kept the top of the recipe page obscured. And there it was in black and white: "Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cake". It tasted like pound cake because it was pound cake...and a very good one too I might add. My wife had been so concentrating on the ingredients and directions, she didn't register exactly what she was making. That provided us a pretty good laugh. Also, I feel confident, that although it is not officially a breakfast bread, I will be able to "choke it down" for breakfast.

Deviled eggs Version 2 デビルドエッグ

We posted deviled eggs before but since my wife acquired a new deviled eggs plate (originally to display a collection of  Easter egg decorations), we had another attempt at making deviled eggs. I have to admit the colorful plate, makes things look much more festive than our old white plate did.

Since I made guacamole (the avocado I had was on the verge of turning to over ripened mush) and this plate had a center well for a dip, I served it as well. My wife made three different kinds of deviled eggs this time.

This is the classic one.

2 tbs of Greek yogurt
1 tbs mayonnaise
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp mustard
a sprinkle of onion salt to taste
stuffed olive for garnish

Lightly season all the egg whites with salt. Mix all the ingredients into the mashed egg yolk, then put mixture back into egg white

This is one with Sriracha hot sauce garnished with smoked paprika (not cayenne pepper).

2 tbs of Greek yogurt
1 tbs mayonnaise
1 tsp Sriracha (or to taste)
smoked paprika to garnish

Lightly season all the egg whites with salt. Mix all the ingredients into the mashed egg yolk, then put mixture back into egg white

This one is with guacamole garnished with a cilantro leaf.

2 tbs of Greek yogurt
1 tbs mayonnaise
2 tbs of guacamole
cilantro leaf for garnish

Lightly season all the egg whites with salt. Mix all the ingredients into the mashed egg yolk, then put mixture back into egg white

This plate may have been perfect for a party but we were not going to have one. Obviously it was too much to eat in one sitting so we came up with a way to cover and save the eggs in the refrigerator. My wife found out that we had a small stainless steel bowl which perfectly fit the center well . This covered the guacamole in an air tight way and gave the dish some height so that we could cover the entire plate with plastic wrap without toughing the deviled eggs.  So we enjoyed our deviled eggs two (halves) at a time for the next few days.

Although this is such an old fashioned appetizer, we learned it is making a comeback with some fancy twists. Ours were not fancy but we like them very much. Actually we liked the original and classic one with mayo, onion salt and Worcestershire sauce the best. The taste of deviled eggs evoked the nostalgia of humid summer days and family picnics (for my wife).

Anchovies in sweet vinegar イワシの南蛮

This is the second dish I made from the frozen "iwashi" イワシ anchovies. This is a standard "Nanban" 南蛮. The sweet vinegar cut the oiliness and fishiness of the anchovies and this is a very good dish.

Since I found Japanese "shishitou" 獅子唐芥子 at our near-by Whole foods, I added one, simply fried, as a garnish.

Ingredients:
Frozen (or fresh, if available) anchovy filets, thawed, three, cut into two making six pieces.
Potato starch for dredging
Peanuts or vegetable oil for deep frying
Celery (2 stalks), carrot (1 small), and sweet onion (1 small) cut into small strips (julienne)

For sweet vinegar marinade
Rice vinegar 1/2 cup
Japanese dashi 1/2 cup
Sugar 1/4 cup
Salt, a pinch
Light colored soy sauce, 1/2 tsp
Dried Japanese red pepper, 1 whole,

Directions:
Before starting to fry the fish, I prepared the vegetables and sweet vinegar.

I placed the ingredients for sweet vinegar in a sauce pan and heated it until the sugar melted. I let it simmer for 5 minutes and then let it cool to room temperature.
I added the julienned of vegetables.
I removed the whole Japanese hot pepper and sliced it into small rings removing the seeds for the garnish. (I did this in the morning and kept it in the refrigerator until I was ready to deep fry the fish).

I dried the fillets and dredged them in potato starch and deep fried them for 3 -4 minutes turning once in 350F oil,  drained it on a paper towel (see below).

While the fish was hot, I placed it in the sweet vinegar and covered the fish with the vegetables (see below). You can enjoy immediately or keep it in the refrigerator for later.

For this type of strong flavored fish, "nanban" is a good preparation. We enjoyed this with cold sake.

"Shisamo" smelt al ajillo ししゃものハーブオイル煮込み

Inventory control of my Japanese food stash in our freezer is not easy. Often I come across frozen fish items which need to be quickly consumed. I found a package of frozen "shishamo" シシャモ smelt the other day and I do not have a clue when I bought it but it still looked good.  I could have cooked them the usual way in the toaster oven or in a frying pan but I decided to slow-cook it in an herb olive oil a la "Gambas al ajillo" which I saw on the web.

This dish is more than just enjoying the fish but also soaking up the herb oil with a piece of baguette.

As usual I made some modification, the first of which was to make garlic chips. I removed them from the pan after they became brown and crispy and before cooking the fish. If I had left them in to cook with the fish they would have become bitter.  I added them back in after the fish was cooked.

Ingredients:
"Shishamo" Japanese smelt, frozen, one package (this had 10 small fish), not thawed
Olive oil, about 200ml
Fresh thyme, several sprigs
Garlic, two cloves, peeled and thinly sliced

Directions:
In a non-stick frying pan, I added the olive oil in low flame and the garlic until the garlic was golden and crispy but not bitter. I removed it from the oil (above).
In the remaining oil, I added the thyme and the fish (below) and cooked it on low flame for 10-15 minutes.

Mid-way through, I carefully turned the fish over (skin is very delicate and easily breakable).

I garnished with the thyme sprigs and served it with slices of baguette I had made. Although I used quite a few thyme springs, the thyme flavor was rather muted but the fish were very good (these had roe). The only problem was that this was an appetizer and the flavored oil with the baguette was so good that if we were not careful, and exercised a degree of restraint, this would have been dinner. The restraint was worthwhile though because they tasted even better the next day.

Spinach cheese loaf ほうれん草とチーズのローフ

This is another one of my wife's baking projects. She likes basically anything made with pie dough; mini pies and cheese pockets you name it. She was inspired to make this spinach cheese loaf after reading a recipe in one of the "freebee" promotion cooking magazine we received. She made substantial changes to the recipe and "inspired by" rather than "followed" recipe is appropriate. We had this as a light lunch on the weekend. I made a quick cucumber and tomato salad with our home-made ranch dressing from our favorite "high "octane buttermilk. Since we also made deviled eggs, these are on the plate as well. It was sunny but rather hot day and cold crisp white wine or sparkling wine could have been good but we restrained ourselves.

I also served very sweet ripe mission figs.

You can see the spinach stuffing with bacon bits and bottom and top layers of smoked mozzarella cheese.  She used store-bought pie crust which came out nice and flaky.

This was how it looked before slicing. She made a few cuts on the top crust as vents to let the steam escape.

Ingredients:
One packaged pre-made pie crust thawed
Spinach, two bags, cooked without adding any liquid, excess moisture squeezed and finely chopped.
2 strips of bacon cooked until crispy, oil drained and crumbled.
Two onions diced and carmelized
Feta cheese, half block, crumbled or to taste.
Red pepper flakes to taste
One Egg, beaten.
Smoked mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced, enough to cover the bottom and top of the baking dish.
1 tsp of melted butter.

Directions:
Line the bottom of a small pyrex cooking dish with parchment paper (this makes removal of the loaf much easier).
Roll out one sheet of the store-bought (Pillsbury) pie crust. Put it over the parchment on the bottom dish allowing the excess to hang over the sides (#1).
Line the dough with a layer of smoked mozzarella (#2).
Mix the cooked, chopped spinach, rendered bacon, caramelized onions, feta cheese, beaten egg and red pepper flakes together (#3).
Pour mixture over crust in dish (#4). Cover with another layer of smoked mozzarella. Fold the excess dough hanging over the side of the dish on top the the spinach mixture (#5). Cut vent holes in the top crust and brush with melted butter.
Cook in a 425 oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned (#6). Let it cool completely before attempting to slice.

When she put the loaf in the oven, she was a bit distraught because it looked like the moisture was seeping out to the bottom crust, She thought the bottom crust wouldn't get crispy/flaky. But it turned out to be an optical illusion and everything came out just fine.  This was very nice "all-in-one" lunch. You get you starch, vegetables, and protein all in, in one slice.