Sunday, March 21, 2021

Traditional Irish soda bread 伝統的アイルランドソーダブレッド

 Just a few days before St. Patrick’s day, I happened to see  a  “real Irish soda bread” recipe on the “Serious Eats” website. I showed my wife the recipe and in passing mentioned that St. Patrick’s day was coming up. Next thing I knew she has found 2 other Irish soda bread recipes and for 3 days in a row when I came home a new loaf was cooling on the rack. What a treat!  This is the first loaf she made. It was baked in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven like “no-knead bread” and produced a nice brown crust and center was moist.


She cut the traditional cross on the top but the dough was very wet and just filled in. Nonetheless you can still a light impression of the cross.


The below recipe is from “Serious eats


Ingredients
15 ounces all-purpose flour (3 cups; 425g)
1 3/4 teaspoons (7g) kosher salt; for table salt, use the same weight or half as much by volume
1 1/8 teaspoons (6g) baking soda
18 ounces low-fat cultured buttermilk (2 1/4 cups; 510g), well shaken

Directions
1.Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 450°F (230°C) at least 15 minutes in advance. Roughly cover the bottom of a deep 10-inch cast iron or enameled Dutch oven with a sheet of parchment paper; no need to trim.
2.Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk a full minute to combine. Stir in buttermilk with a flexible spatula until dough is fully moistened and no pockets of flour remain. For extra-fluffy results, stop folding as soon as dough comes together. For extra-chewy results, fold dough about 20 seconds more. Scrape sticky dough into prepared Dutch oven and smooth with a spatula into a rough boule-like shape. Score deeply into quarters with a sharp knife or razor, cleaning the blade between each slice.
3.Cover and bake until well risen and golden, 45 minutes. Remove lid and continue baking until chestnut brown, with an internal temperature of 210°F (99°C), 12 to 15 minutes longer. Invert onto a wire rack, discard parchment, turn right side up, and cool until crumb has set, about 30 minutes. Cut thick slices to accompany hearty soups and stews, or slice thinly for sandwiches. (This will be easier if bread is allowed to cool 2 hours more.) Store up to 24 hours in an airtight container and toast to freshen bread before serving.

The bread had a nice crunchy crust and the interior was moist with a nice crumb. The buttermilk gave it a subtle tang. The flavor was a bit salty. We had this with a lamb stew I made. (What else would you have for St. Patrick’s day?) This was the perfect bread to accompany the stew. 


Our plum tree was in full bloom and our backyard was filled with the nice sweet smell of plum blossom. This is the plum tree we got many many years ago. We wanted the type of plum that produced the fruit used to make Japanese salted plum and umeshu.  After some search, we finally found one at an Oregon nursery. It arrived as a twig in a small envelope but it miraculously grew into a good sized tree and provided lots of plum fruit over the years. We used the fruit to make “umeshu” plum wine. Then, a few years ago all the plum trees in the area got a fungal disease. Our poor tree was no exception. We thought it was a “goner” especially after we had to transplant it during a landscaping project. Although the tree is much smaller than it was at its peak, it appears that this plum tree is surviving. Spring is almost here.

Monday, March 15, 2021

Condensed milk bread V2 コンデンスミルクパン version2

 This is yet another version of my wife’s exploration of Japanese milk bread. This version is made with both condensed milk and cake flour so you would expect it to be very soft and fluffy...It wasn’t.



Ingredients:
3.5 cups cake flour
1 Tbs. instant yeast
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup whole milk at room temperature
3/4 cup condensed milk
1 egg
2 oz. butter

Egg wash
1 medium egg
1 Tbs. whole milk

Condensed milk glaze (I didn’t use)
3 Tbs. condensed milk
1 Tbs. butter.

Directions
Place the ingredients in a stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix until dough forms. Knead for 7 to 10 minutes. Form a ball. Put in a bowl. Coat with oil. Cover and put into proofing box until it doubles in size.
Deflate the dough and form into a cylinder that will fit in the load pan. Use a sharp knife and cut the cylinder into pieces of equal thickness. Place the pieces seam side down in the lightly greased loaf pan (shown in the picture below).  Cover and let rise in the proofing box until double in size. Lightly brush the top of the loaf with the egg wash mixture. Cook in a 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown.



This bread came out hard and dry. The specified amount of cake flour did not result in a dough. The mixture was more like a batter. My wife had to add much more cake flour for it to take shape. We’re not sure what went wrong but this was a disappointment and will not be a regular on our baking schedule.

Friday, March 12, 2021

Condensed milk bread コンデンスミルクパン

 My wife has been on a “roll” of making Japanese milk bread. She found many recipe variations on the internet and is trying a number of them. The picture below is one. The directions for making the bread that results in the irregular crust shown in the picture below seemed improbable.  But it worked. The crust has a nice crunch and the bread itself is slightly sweet.  An almost custard like filling forms in the grooves created by the irregular crust. 



Ingredients:
for the dough
200 g of bread flour
20 g of sugar
3 g salt
3 g active yeast
30 g sweetened condensed milk
130 g warm milk
20 g butter

for the condensed milk filling
20 g sweetened condensed milk
20 g butter

Ingredients ( X 2)
for the dough
400 g of bread flour
40 g of sugar
6 g salt
6 g active yeast
60 g sweetened condensed milk
260 g warm milk
40 g butter

for the condensed milk filling
40 g sweetened condensed milk
40 g butter


Ingredients X3
for the dough
600 g of bread flour
60 g of sugar
9 g salt
9 g active yeast
90 g sweetened condensed milk
390 g warm milk
60 g butter

for the condensed milk filling
60 g sweetened condensed milk
60 g butter


Directions
Add the ingredients to a stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix until a dough forms then continue kneading on low speed for 7 to 10 minutes. It is ok if some of the dough sticks to the bottom of the bowl as it is being kneaded. Turn dough out onto a board and do final hand kneading. Form into a ball. Coat with vegetable oil and put into a bowl. Cover and put into the proofing box until it doubles in size. While the dough is rising mix together the filling. by mixing the butter and condensed milk to form a smooth paste.

Once the dough is finished rising roll out into a rectangle. Evenly spread the filling over the dough (#1).
Cut the sheet into 4 even pieces (#2). Then, stack them on top of each other. Divide into 8 even pieces. Arrange each piece in a loaf pan (#3). Cover and put back into the proofing box until it doubles in size (#4). Bake in a 300 degree oven for about 35 minutes or until golden brown.


The part where the dough pieces are arranged in the loaf pan as shown in #3 is the part that seemed improbable. The pieces slipped around and barely filled the loaf pan. It seems impossible that this would result in a loaf...but it did! During the second rise the pieces melded together and when they cooked they formed a loaf with lovely crunchy irregular crust. The filling became custard like in the crevices formed by the crust. The flavor was slightly sweet and the interior texture was very soft. This was an amazing loaf.

Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Almost no-knead whole wheat bread

I am experimenting with "almost" no-knead bread  variations. This time, I made a whole wheat version and increased the hydration level to exactly 70%. As shown below it came out nicely. 

Some of the holes were a bit too large but it had a nice overall texture, crust and flavor. I am posting this just as notes for my record.


Ingredients:(everything except salt and yeast were weighed)
425gram of AP and whole wheat flour (1 cup wheat flour and I added about 3 cups of AP flour to reach the total weight of 425grams).
300 grams of liquids (Total liquid amount is most important),
80grams (6tbs) of beer (again I used Samuel Adams Boston brown ale)
13grams (1tbs) of rice vinegar
207grams of water (I just added water to the total liquid amount of 300grams)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp instant yeast

Hydration ratio = 70%

Direction:
Mix the ingredients in a bowl with a spatula until all the flour is incorporated (towards the end, I used my hands to incorporate all the flour. Again it looked too dry). Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap.
Place the bowl in the proofing box at 85F (with a water tray), this time, I let it rise overnight for about 12 hours.
Next morning, the dough was more than doubled and well-hydrated. Using a floured plastic dough scraper, I placed the dough on a well floured board and quickly kneaded it 15-20 times then made a boule shaped dough ball.
I placed the dough ball on a piece of parchment paper (sized to hold the whole thing) with the seam side of the dough boule down. I then placed it in a bowl or skillet in which the dough ball snugly fit.
The bowl uncovered went into the proofing box for 1 and half hours.
Preheat the oven with a cast iron Dutch oven in at least 30 minutes before the secondrise is finished.
Slash the top of the dough ball using a lame.
Lift the dough by the parchment paper and place it in the hot Dutch oven. Put the lid on and bake for 30minutes.
Remove the lid and bake another 10 minutes.
Again,hydration ratio of 70% makes a wet but very manageable dough and using the parchment paper is easier and safer than the original floured towel method.

Monday, March 1, 2021

Smothered pork スマザードポーク

Again we ended up with a bone-in cut of pork. This time, it appeared to be a "butt roast" instead of "shoulder roast" judging from the bone structure. In any case, I did more home butchering by removing the bones. I made one larger and one smaller roast (the large roast went for barbecue in our Weber grill and the small one for "nibuta" 煮豚 simmered pork). The prepared remaining smaller portions of meat around the bones were destined for a type of stew. I again tasked my wife to make something with the stew pork meat. She came up with this "smothered pork" dish based on a recipe from her favorite Indian cookbook by Madhur Jaffrey "Quick and Easy Indian Cooking". (She made alterations to the recipe based on various ingredients she had on hand). This was a lunch one weekend. We used frozen rice and added  snow peas and skinned Campari tomatoes. We defrosted the rice then microwaved the rice and smothered pork and vegetables in a bowl.


I also added pickled  Japanese “rakkyo” ラッキョウ small cocktail onion and Fukushinzuke 福神漬け.


This is really good. Lots of spices but no cayenne pepper but it had slow pleasant heat probably coming from fresh ginger. I will ask my wife to take over.


Ingredients:
About 1lb pork shoulder, cut into bit-size chunks
2 Tbs. catsup (or how every much you may want for taste). (This was a substitute for 2 Tbs. tomato paste)
2 onions roughly chopped
1 inch long piece of ginger finely chopped
3 garlic cloves finely chopped
1/2 tsp. turmeric
4 tsp. garam masala
2 tsp. cumin
3/4 tsp salt
4 compari tomatoes peeled

Directions:
For the pork:
The last time I made curry with this type of pork it was extremely tough. I ended up removing the pork from the curry and simmering it for 2 hours covered in chicken stock until it became very tender. I then added it back into the curry. This time I did the same thing but cooked the stew pork in the chicken stock before I made the curry sauce.

For the curry sauce:
Caramelize the catsup by stirring it in a frying pan until it turns brown in color. Add some peanut oil and the onions. Cook the onions until wilted. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant then add the ginger. Add the remaining spices and "bloom" them until they become fragrant. Then add the pork as well as the chicken stock in which it was simmered. Finally add the fresh tomatoes. Cover and cook for about 30 minutes to let all the flavors meld.

This was a very good curry. Plenty of flavor but just a pleasant mild heat that must have come from the ginger. The caramelized catsup added a slight hint of barbeque that was a nice addition. The pork was very tender and had absorbed the complex flavors from the curry sauce.

Saturday, February 27, 2021

One spoonful appetizers and more

These are appetizers I served one evening. Not particularly new but we had "uni" sea urchin from Maruhide 丸秀 a day before, so my one spoonful appetizers a.k.a baby food for adults got a topping of ikura with chopped perilla (for cauliflower purée) and uni with broccoli florets (for broccoli purée).


I also added three small appetizers  which I served in small lidded bowls we got from Nishiki market in Kyoto 京都錦市場. We had Dassai 45 獺祭45with this.


This is salmon "Nanban" 鮭の南蛮漬け (fried salmon marinated in sweet vinegar with carrot and celery).


This is salmon Russian marinade 鮭のロシア漬け topped with vinegar cucumber slices.


For veggies, I served blanched sugar snap soaked in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし and skinned Campari tomato.


Uni from Maruhide (both regular and in salt water) is really good. My one spoonful appetizer definitely got "kicked up a notch" with the addition of uni.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Seafood nabe on a snowy day 雪降りの夕の海鮮鍋

As the weather got colder our thoughts turned to having Japanese hot pot or nabe 鍋 for dinner. This week we had some snow and our backyard was transformed to a winter wonderland; perfect time for nabe. So we decided to have one using whatever ingredients we had on hand.


We used to cook nabes on a portable gas cooker with a butene fuel canister but both the cooker and the canisters became so old we started worrying about how safe they were. Fortunately after we used up the canisters several years ago. We switched to a table top induction cooker (or Japanese will say IH or induction heater).  Making Sukiyaki すき焼き on this type of cooker works well because a sukiyaki nabe pot is usually made of cast iron but other earthenware or pottery pots or nabes won’t work. Then, we discovered an induction-cooker-compatible nabe pot. (It has a magnetic metal disk embedded in the bottom). With it,  we can do a nabe at the table without having to use a gas canister fuel source. 

I checked our freezer and refridgerator and decided we could do a sea food nabe or “kaisen-nabe” 海鮮鍋. We defrosted, scallops, cod, pacific oyster (this is the second time we used frozen Pacific oyster which worked well as a fry) and shrimp. We also had fresh shiitake and  nappa cabbage but not other green leafy vegetables. In any case, we set up our nabe feast.


I started the broth by soaking kelp in the nabe pot in cold water for several hours.  In the evening, I put the pot with the kelp in it on the induction cooker. Once the water came to a boil, I removed the kelp. I then added the shrimp shells and once the color of the shells changed I continued simmering for a few minutes, I the removed the shrimp shells.  I seasoned the broth with white dashi “Shiro-dashi” 白だしand light colored soy sauce making a very gentle broth. I started cooking the hard part of the nappa cabbage as well as the other vegetables. We also had some decent firm tofu from Whole Foods which I added. Next came daikon, carrot and potato, all precooked in the microwave oven.


Our seafood lineup is shown below (all frozen, and thawed in the refrigerator). It included shrimp, scallop (from Great Alaska Seafood), Pacific oysters (from Vital choice wild sea food and organics) and cod (from Whole foods). This was the second time we used frozen Pacific oysters. The first time I made fried oysters.  These were much better than the small fragmented fresh or pasteurized  oysters we sometimes get.


The picture below shows the vegetables which waiting to be put into the nabe; the leafy portion of nappa cabbage, tofu, shiitake mushroom, precooked daikon, potato, and carrot. 



We made sure the seafood was not overcooked. We also used  ponzu sauce as we were eating. This was a fun dinner perfect with the snowy winter outside and the steaming body warming nabe inside. We had warm sake (“Hakutsuru Ginjo 白鶴吟醸) to boot. Of course, there were leftovers. Classically, Japanese will end the nabe by adding rice or noodles into the remaining broth to make a “shime” 〆 final dish but we were too full and the next day, we made rice porridge with eggs for lunch.

Sunday, February 21, 2021

"Almost" no-knead bread, improved version of no-knead bread ほとんど捏ねないパン改善版

When we were organizing our cookbooks and recipe print-outs, we found a small book called "Cook's Illustrated All-Time Best Bread Recipes" (published in 2018). We had completely forgotten about this book. While I was browsing through it, I came across "No-knead bread 2.0" by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. This was based on the "no-knead bread recipe" by Jim Lahey which was popularized by Mark Bittman when his recipe was published in the New York Times. We learned about Jim Lahey's recipe through the Washington Post and bought his book. I made a few of the no-knead bread recipes from the book and they were great. But I have to agree with Kenji that because of the high hydration rate of 75-80% in the original recipe, the dough is very difficult to handle. In addition, placing the uncooperative dough in a hot cast iron pot runs the real risk of seriously burning yourself. As a result with some degree of struggle, it usually gets into the pot whatever way you  can manage without burning yourself. Fingers may be intact but at the expense of bread somewhat irregularly shaped. Also, the shape tends to be rather flat since the dough deflates a bit when placing it in the hot cast iron pot. This v 2.0 recipe reduced the hydration to close to 70%, and has added vinegar and beer for additional flavor. Also, you knead it a little so it is "almost" no-knead bread. Instead of putting the dough on a floured dish towel for the second rise, it happens in a skillet (or bowl I suppose) lined with parchment paper.  You can then transfer the dough using the parchment paper on which it is sitting to get it into the hot cast iron pot. All these changes make it much easier to handle the dough, and produces a consistent shape and really "artisanal" bread with sour dough-like great flavors.


Nice crust and good texture (multiple irregular holes).



Ingredients: (I am listing the original Kenji's recipe and metric weight in parenthesis which I converted by weighing the ingredients but not just numerical conversion of "cups" and "tsp", "tbs").
3 cup (425g) AP flour (Instead of bread flour, this recipe uses AP flour, I am not sure why but I should try it with bread flour).
3/4 cup plus 2 tbs (207g) water
6 tbs (80g) beer*
1 tbs (13g) white distilled vinegar (I used rice vinegar)

(Total liquid of 290g which makes hydration rate of 68%)

1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp instant yeast

*Kenji recommends to use light Pilsner-style lager beer such as Budweiser. I did not have Bud in our fridge so I used Sam Adams' Boston lager.<

Directions:
In a bowl, mix the ingredients using a wood spoon until no dry flour remains.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 8-12 hours in a warm place (I used our proofing box at 85F for 8 hours).
Take the dough out and put on a floured board and knead 10-15 times. Make into a boule-shaped dough ball.
Place the dough in a parchment paper lined skillet (below picture. Kenji's recipe include spraying with vegetable spray but I do not see the need for that and skipped that process).
Place this uncovered in the proofing box (the box has a water tray providing moisture to prevent a skin from forming on the dough). Let it rise for the second time for 1-2 hours.
Meanwhile, put the cast iron pot in the oven and preheat the oven to 450F at least 30 minutes before the second rise is done.
Using a lame, slash the top of the dough (see below).
Transfer the dough to the hot cast iron pot using the parchment paper.
Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on and 5-10 minutes more minutes with lid off. 
As you can see in the picture below the resulting loaf was picturesque. It actually came out exactly like the picture in the book (on the front cover of the book).


Let it cool down completely (at least several hours or more) on a cooling rack before slicing.

When I mixed the dough, I thought this is too dry and would not work. But after 8 hours of rising, the dough was quite wet but it could be handled and kneaded. Using the parchment paper made transferring the dough to the hot cast iron pan much easier and safer. It also didn’t result in somewhat deflating the dough as happened with other method. Since the dough can be formed and slashed, it came out exactly like in the picture.

We lightly toasted a slice, lavishly buttered it and tasted. The crust was crunchy and the interior moist. The flavor was wonderful. The vinegar and beer emulated the sour dough taste complex and added real depth of flavor. This is definitely the best bread of this kind I ever made. 

Thursday, February 18, 2021

Milk bread with condensed milk and tangzong コンデンスミルクと湯種のパン

This is continuation on the theme of Japanese milk bread. My wife found this recipe somewhere on the Internet. This recipe uses condensed  milk and “tangzong” or “yu-dane” 湯種. The version I made used “tangzong” but no condensed milk. My wife’s previous version used condensed milk but no “tangzong”. This one uses both. So she was curious how this would turn out. Interestingly, it did not rise as much as the other iterations.


The cut surface also shows a bit larger holes compared to the previous milk breads we made. Nonetheless it is very soft and slightly sweet.



Ingredients:
for the tangzong
20 g (2 Tbs. + 1 tsp.) AP flour
75 g (1/3 cup milk) (the recipe called for water, I used milk)

for the dough
115 g (1/2 cup) whole milk
12 g (1 Tbs. sugar)
5 g (1 1/2 tsp yeast)
320 g (2 2/3 cups AP flour)
3 g (1 tsp. salt)
60 g (3 Tbs.) sweetened condensed milk (I have used up to 90g of condensed milk which worked just fine.)
1 large egg
55 g (4 Tbs. butter, melted)

egg wash (optional)
1 large egg
1 Tbs. whole milk

Directions:
for the Tangzhong: whisk the flour and milk together in a sauce pan. Heat until it thickens. Set aside and let cool.

for the dough: Warm the milk and add the sugar. Cool to 110 F and use it to bloom the yeast. In a stand mixer combine the flour and salt. Add the condensed milk, egg, melter butter, tangzhong and yeast mixture. Mix until a dough forms. Knead for 7 to 10 minutes. Shape to dough into a ball. Add to a bowl and coat with a thin coating of oil. Put bowl in a warm place (we used the proofing box) until doubled in size. Punch dough down. Shape into a loaf and put into a greased bread loaf pan. Back into the proofing box until doubled in size. If using the egg wash, mix the egg and the milk then brush over the loaf. Cook in a preheated 350 degree oven for 28 to 30 minutes until it is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool on a wire rack.

The main difference between this bread and previous versions was the texture. It was still very light but there appeared to be a lot more holes. It was still very soft and moist. It almost melted on the tongue. It also didn’t rise as much as the previous versions. It had a buttery slightly sweet flavor. This was still a wonderful bread lightly toasted and buttered.

Monday, February 15, 2021

One spoonful appetizers a.k.a baby food for adults 一口スプーンの前菜第二弾

This is another iteration of one spoonful appetizers. I am making more purées or what I refer to as “baby food for adults” to use as one gulp spoonfuls of food. In any case, the below are three such appetizers. From left to right: Kabocha potage カボチャのポタージュ, seasoned soft boiled egg 味卵 with ikura salmon roe イクラ and cauliflower puree with ikura.


I also strewed the plate with simmered kabocha カボチャの煮物 (left lower corner), braised cauliflower モンパルナスのカリフラワーand blanched sugar snap in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.


The below was what I served for another evening. This time I made broccoli puree which I garnished with flowerets of blanched broccoli. The other two are the same cauliflower puree and Kabocha potage shown in the pictures above.


I made broccoli puree from the stem of broccoli, onion, and parsnip. It has very good and interesting flavors. When I ask my wife to taste it, she thought it had asparagus.


I made the broccoli puree without a recipe but the basic is very similar to any potage or puree.


Ingredients:
Broccoli stem, hard bottom removed and hard skin removed (I used stems of two broccoli heads), cut into small cubes.
One medium onion, finely diced
One parsnip (or maybe a potato), skinned, cut into small cubes.
1/2 cup of chicken broth or more depending on the consistency of the puree (I used Swanson's no fat reduced salt)
1 tsp unsalted butter and 2 tbs olive oil
Salt to taste
Two bay leaves (optional)

Directions:
Add the olive oil and butter to the pan on medium flame and sauté the onion until cooked (2-3 minutes).
Add the broccoli stem and parsnip and coat with butter/oil and add the chicken both to cover.
Add the bay leaves and simmer until soft (15-20 minutes)
Remove the bay leaves and puree using an immersion blender until smooth (add more chicken broth for desired consistency).
Season with salt

These appetizers are nice. The spoonful is just the right amount for a satisfying gulp. They provide a nice range of flavors although the consistency seems, well consistent. It is lovely and smooth but I can’t help but think of it as sophisticated “baby food for adults”. I’ll have to come up with something different.

Friday, February 12, 2021

Perfectly pillowy cinnamon rolls 完璧に柔らかなシナモンロール

This recipe  is from King-Arthur flour. The recipe was on a card that was enclosed with the collapsible bread proofing box we recently bought from them. This recipe piqued my wife's interest because it is made with "tangzhong" 湯種 and, of course, because it is a "sweet" bread. So she made this one day. She also added raisins but omitted the icing called for in the original recipe.


Some of the raisons on the surface got a bit dried up and hard but otherwise these were wonderful cinnamon raisin rolls. When they came out of the oven they were really soft but after a few days in the refrigerator, they did get a bit chewy but were still flavorful. My wife slightly reduced the sugar in the filling so they were pleasantly sweet but not too sweet, perfect for breakfast.



Ingredients:
for the Tangzhong
1/2 cup (113 g ) whole milk
3 Tbs. (23 g) bread flour

for the dough:
2/3 cup (151 g) cold whole milk
2 1/2 cups (300 g) bread flour
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. (25 g) sugar
2 tsp. yeast
4 Tbs. (57 g) butter softened
1 cup raisins or nuts (optional)

for the filling
1 Tbs. (14 g) butter, melted
1/2 cup (107 g) light brown sugar, packed (amount reduced slightly or increased to taste)
2 Tbs. (15 g) bread flour
4 tsp. (10 g) cinnamon
pinch of salt

For the icing (optional) I did not use it.
3 Tbs. (42 g) butter melted, divided
1/2 tsp. vanilla
pinch salt
1 1/2 cup (170 g) confectioners sugar, sifted
1 to 2 Tbs. (14 g to 28 g) milk

Directions:
For the tangxhong: in a small saucepan, whisk together the milk and flour and cook over medium heat until thickened. Transfer to a large bowl.

For the dough: Immediately add the dough ingredients to the bowl with the tangzhong in the order listed. (The order is important because the cold milk cools the tangzhong to the right temperature for the yeast). Mix and knead to make a smooth, elastic, somewhat tacky dough. Knead for 7 - 10 minutes. Put in a bowl and move to the proofing box set to 81 degrees until the dough rises and is puffy.

To assemble: Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface and pat into a 10 X 12 inch rectangle. Stir together the filling ingredients and sprinkle over the dough, leaving a 1/2 inch strip uncovered on one of the long sides. Distribute the raisins or nuts over the filling. Starting with the filling covered long side, roll the dough into a log. Slice into 12 slices. Put the pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet spaced about 2 inches apart. Tuck the tails underneath each roll to keep them from unravelling as they rise. Back into the warmer until they about double.

Bake on a rack in the upper third of a preheated 375 degree oven for 14 to 18 minutes until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with 1 1/2 Tbs. of melted butter.

For the Icing (optional): Mix the remaining 1 1/2 Tbs. (21 g) melted butter with the remaining icing ingredients. Ice the rolls while they are just lukewarm.

These rolls have just the right amount of sweetness and the butter cinnamon mixture is very nice. While they were baking and when they were lightly microwaved before serving the yeasty cinnamon aroma was one of the pleasures of these rolls.

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Pork curry with almond sauce アーモンドソースポークカレー

 We like to roast pork in our Weber but because of Covid, the cuts we usually use for roasting are not always available and we have had to make do with whatever we can get. Case-in-point, we recently got a bone-in shoulder pork roast. This cut was very large. In addition, it contained a portion of the scapula bone which I removed requiring some further “at home” butchery to get the various sizes and portions that we wanted. In this case I removed the bone and divided the roast into three segments. The first segment was the meat around where the bone was removed. I cut it into small chunks for stew or curry. The remaining two segments consisted of a smaller portion of roast which I used for “ni-buta” 煮豚 or simmered pork and a larger portion of roast which I barbecued in our Weber. 

I commissioned my wife to come up with a dish using the small chunks and suggested a curry. This time, my wife wanted to make a new curry she had not tried before. She chose one from Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbook “Indian Cooking. In addition to using quite a few spices (#1 & #2 below), it also includes pulverized almonds which is something we have not used before. The resulting curry is shown in the picture below. It was a lunch one day. I served the curry over rice with tomato (Skinned Campari tomato), blanched sugar snaps and broccoli which I warmed up in the curry while the curry was being heated.


I also served Japanese pickles which traditionally accompany Japanese curry. The red on the left is “Fukushin-zuke” 福神漬け (people from Hokkaido call it “Fukushin-zuke”a but the rest of Japan will call in “Fukujin-zuke” (a mixture of daikon, lotus root, egg plant and cucumber, soy sauce flavored) and the white objects on the right are “rakkyo” らっきょう (pickled small onions).



Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves
1 inch sized ginger cube coarsely chopped
5 Tbs. slivered almonds, roasted
3/4 to 1 cup of chicken stock
2 lbs. of pork shoulder cubes
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
2 medium onions finely chopped
1 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garam masala

Directions:
Put the garlic, ginger, almonds and 6 Tbs. chicken stock in a blender (we used an immersion blender) and blend until you have a paste (#3).

Add several tablespoons of peanut oil into wide frying pan. Add the cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and cook until they “bloom” becoming fragrant. Put in the onions and cook until lightly browned (#4). Put in the almond paste as well as the coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper (#5). Stir until it browns slightly. Add the meat the salt as well the chicken stock (#6). Cover and cook on simmer for several hours until the meat gets tender. Add the garam masala before serving.

Just a Note: The meat did not get tender in the sauce even after several hours so I removed it and put it in a sauce pan covering it with chicken stock. I simmered it that way for about an hour. It got nicely tender and made additional sauce in the chicken stock. I added the meat back and sauce into the curry and it was much better.


This was very good. We've never had anything like this before. It had plenty of depth of flavor but was not too (spicy) hot. The almonds gave it a creamy texture and added a note of nuttiness that was very nice.  The additional veggies I put in as it was being heated up added some bright notes of freshness as well as additional flavors. It made a great lunch.

Saturday, February 6, 2021

"Kuri-mu pan" Cream custard buns クリームパン

 While I was growing up in Japan, sweet breads called "Kashi-pan" 菓子パン were very popular among kids. They came in many forms such as Melon-pan メロンパン  bread covered with a thin layer or sweet crunchy cookie, or bread filled with  cream custard (cream pan クリームパン), chocolate  (choko-pan チョコパン) or sweet bean paste (an-pan アンパン). The word “pan” is derived from the French word for bread “le pain” pronounced (le pan). Although these breads were very popular with kids either my parents' policy (most likely) or my own choice (I doubt it), I rarely enjoyed "kashi-pan" while growing up. When my wife and I visited Japan, my wife found "Kashi-pan" and, like the kid she is at heart, she really liked it. When we got home she even made "melon pan". My wife in general is very fond of filled buns. She somehow found this recipe for "Asian cream custard buns". She made two versions shown below. For the buns on the left, she fully encased the filling in dough. This is the more traditional way of making them. On the right, she filled a depression made on the top of the bun with the cream custard. This is the method she used for ricotta cheese buns


She said she did this to avoid having a bun with the steam created gap on the top as as shown in the picture below. This occurs because of the steam produced by the filling during baking. The one with custard filled in the surface depression does not have this problem. Since both are basically the same bun just prepared slightly differently I think both are equally good.


The picture below shows the glazed buns with cream totally encased in dough just out of the oven.


And these are the ones with the surface depression filled with custard.



Ingredients:
for the custard:
2 large eggs + 1 egg yolk
70 g sugar (1/3 cup)
15 g corns starch (2 Tbs.)
20 g cake flour (2 Tbs.)
300 g milk (1 1/4 cup)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbs. butter

for the dough
250 g bread flour (2 cups)
50 g cake flour (1/3 cup)
30 g sugar (2 Tbs.)
20 g sweetened condensed milk (1 Tbs +1 tsp)
80 g cream (1/3 cup)
80 g milk (1/3 cup)
1 egg (25 g for the dough, the rest for the glaze)
1 tsp. yeast
1/2 tsp. salt
30 g cold butter cut into small cubes (2 Tbs.)

Directions:
For the custard
In a bowl, mix eggs, sugar, corn starch and cake flour until well combined. Heat milk in a sauce pan until steaming. Temper the egg mixture with the hot milk by adding several ladles full slowly and stirring to combine. After the egg mixture is tempered add it to the milk still in the sauce pan. Cook on medium low heat until it starts to thicken, stirring constantly. This could take some time so be patient. When it achieves a fairly firm consistency (i.e. won't run off if placed on a flat piece of dough). Take it off the heat. Add the butter until melted and then stir in the vanilla. Continue whisking so it doesn't form a skin as it cools. After it cools slightly cover with plastic wrap touching the top of the custard, again so it doesn't form a skin as it cools. Set aside or put into the refrigerator to use later.

For the dough
Add everything from the bread flour to the yeast into a stand mixer. Mix until dough forms. Let it rest for 30 minutes. Add the salt and knead for 1 minute. Add the butter a piece at a time kneading the dough until smooth. Knead 7 to 10 minutes. Form into a ball in a greased bowl. Turn the ball until it is covered with grease. Put into proofing box set at 81 degrees. Let it rise until doubled in size.

To assemble:
Punch down dough. Weigh the dough and calculate how many 50 g buns the dough will make. Then weigh the custard and see how much each scoop of filling must weigh to equally fill the 50 g buns calculated. I completely encased the filling for 8 buns in dough and put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet. I formed the remaining buns into balls and put them on the cookie sheet. The cookie sheets went back into the proofing box until the buns had about doubled in size. I took the buns made into balls but not filled with custard and using the base of a small cup dipped in flour pressed down on the center of the ball until the cup stopped moving. I then filled the depression with the remaining calculated portions of custard. I took the remaining egg and glazed the fully encased muffins completely and the depression filled buns just on the bread portion. I cooked them in a 375 degree oven for 12 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. I removed them from the oven and cooled on a rack.

These buns were everything you would expect in a kashi pan. The dough was tender and slightly sweet. The custard was luscious, not too sweet and vanilla flavored. What a breakfast treat!

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Sweet condensed milk bread

I made a Japanese-style super-soft milk bread recently. It was made with"Yu-dane" 湯種 or "Tangzong". I am not sure how my wife came across this recipe but this was also dubbed as "Japanese-style milk bread." It does not use Tangzong but uses sweetened condensed milk instead. My wife really wanted to try this recipe. We usually do not have any kind of condensed milk on hand so we ordered some when we had groceries delivered. As shown in the picture a space formed near the top surface. Maybe the secondary and last rising was a bit too much.  Otherwise this was a fine looking loaf of bread. It is not as soft as the previous milk bread but much softer than the regular white bread loaf we make. It has slight sweetness and the texture was great. Toasted and buttered this is great loaf.


My wife also used an egg for the glaze.


The grain of the cut surface shows slightly larger holes than the previous milk bread. This may be due to slight over raising after making the loaf.


One of the reasons this dough rose more vigorously may be this new contraption we got recently. This is called "Brod & Taylor Collapsible electric bread proofer". You just set the temperature which is said to be calibrated to the content temperature rather than the ambient temperature in the box. We interpret this to mean that when set at 81 degrees it is indicating that the bread being proofed is 81 degrees not the overall air in the box. The instructions say it was calibrated at the factory whether its for bread dough, yogurt or slow cooking).


This is collapsible so when it was not in use it flattens for easy stroage. The top has a clear window so that you can check on the progress of the bread dough rise.


Another good thing about this contraption is that it includes a shallow tray which can be half filled with water and provides moisture inside the box. We did not cover the dough but the surface did not dry out or make a crust. My wife is looking forward to using the box to make yogurt.


Ingredients
1 tsp sugar
1 cup milk
2 1/4 yeast (just a note: this is the amount of yeast usually used to make 2 loaves. This may have been another reason the bread rose so much so quickly.)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. butter
3 1/4 cups bread flour
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 egg lightly beaten

Directions
Proof the yeast in the slightly warmed milk with the sugar dissolved. Add the yeast mixture and every thing except the egg to the bowel of a stand mixer. Mix until a dough forms. Knead for 7 to 10 minutes then turn out onto a lightly floured board and form into a ball. Place dough in a greased bowel turning to grease all over. Place in the proofing box set for 81 degree temperature until double in size. Punch down and form a loaf and put into a greased loaf pan. Put into the proofing box again until the loaf doubles in size. Brush the surface with the egg and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

This is a very lovely bread. Nice soft texture and a complex flavor just slightly sweet. The flavor was even better the next day. The texture was a bit denser and moist compared to the previous Japanese milk bread we made. Nonetheless it is a wonderful toasted/buttered breakfast bread.

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Matcha green tea tasting 抹茶の飲み比べ

Two years ago I made green tea and black bean cake  using the left-over "kuromame" 黒豆 black beans in syrup that came in the Sushi Taro osechi box. The recipe I used is in English in our blog. This year I commissioned my wife to take over making the green tea cake. Then, she pointed out that we were out of "matcha" 抹茶 green tea powder. I kept it in the freezer and mostly used it for cooking such as making "green tea salt" for tempura and apparently didn’t replace it after using it up. Since we are not physically going to our Japanese grocery store because of covid, I decided to get the green tea on line. Hibiki-an 響庵 is a company we have used in the past to get green tea and we could have gotten matcha from them but it is shipped directly from Japan and would have taken too long to get here. I then found "Matcha Kari" which imports its matcha stock from Japan but is located here so delivery time was much shorter.  I bought a mid-priced tea from them called "First harvest sipping matcha". (According to Mach-kari’s, Hibiki-an’s, and other websites which sell matcha, they offer several grades of matcha which appear to range from lowest quality/lowest price to highest quality/highest price, identified as “culinary”, “sipping”, “ceremonial” and “competition”.) (Disclaimer: I am not sure if there is official grading of matcha and if so what the grades would be). While we were waiting for this to arrive, I happened to see, while picking up a take-out at Tako Grill, that they had the matcha tea brand we used to get from our Japanese grocery store. This was very reasonably priced ($0.28 per gram, while the one from Matcha Kari was $1.17 per gram or over 4 times more expensive). I assume that the one from Tako Grill  was not as low-grade as “culinary” matcha  according to the lexicon I outlined but would be at the lower end of  “sipping“ grade. It also came from “Uji” 宇治 near Kyoto 京都. We have gotten regular Uji green tea (sencha 煎茶) from Hibiki-an in the past and it was pretty good. So as far as I was concerned this matcha (left in the picture below) was certainly good enough to make green tea cake. Then, a few days later we received the matcha from "matcha kari".


I have not made or tasted matcha for a long time but since we had two different kinds, we decided to have a tea tasting to see if we could taste a difference. I knew I had matcha bowls and a "chasen" 茶筅 (matcha frothing bamboo whisk) and a bamboo scoop or "chashaku" 茶杓.  The chasen and chashaku were easy to find but it took some search to find the matcha bowls. We have two; one that I brought with me for some reason when I first came to the U.S., and one that was given to us as a gift. Both are rather utilitarian  bowls but will do the job.


I made the two kinds of matcha, (the one from Tako Grill shown on the left and the one from Macha kari shown on the right) and taste tested.


For the sweet “chagashi” 茶菓子 accompanying the matcha I served the last of  the “kurt-kenton” 栗きんとん the mashed sweet potato with chestnuts from the Sushitaro osechi box and green plum I made simmered in syrup 小梅の甘露煮. It is customary to serve such a sweet with matcha to enhance the flavor of the tea. 


First of all, as a disclaimer, we have to acknowledge that we are not connoisseurs of matcha. Nonetheless after carefully sniffing and tasting both matcha we could state, with confidence, that despite quite a difference in price, we could not identify any difference in taste; none. The first thing that came to mind was the Japanese expression “Giving gold coins to a cat” or “neko ni koban 猫に小判” i.e. giving something of value where it can’t be appreciated. Well we did say we weren’t connoisseurs and this may just prove it. In the future, however, we will stick to the more reasonably priced macha.