Carrot Cashew spread with miso 味噌味人参カシューナッツスプレッド

My wife found this unusual recipe in the WashingtonPost and made it (I helped). It is a spread made of carrots and cashew nuts with miso flavor. The miso flavor part sold this recipe to us, albeit the combination sounded very odd. We garnished with roasted sesame and spread it on flat bread.

This was a first snack with our usual red wine and we also had my salmon spread shown in the top dish.

Both were quite good and although the carrot cashew was a bit unusual it was very good.

Ingredients:
4 large carrots cut into pennies
1 1/4 cups roasted and salted cashews (original recipe calls for raw unsalted cashew but in general we like nuts that have been roasted)
2 cups 1/3-salt Swanson's chicken broth (original recipe calls for vegetable broth to keep it vegetarian).
3 tablespoons white miso
Roasted (although it was already roasted, we dry roasted on a frying pan) white sesame seeds, ground in a Japanese Suribachi until oil came out (1 tsp) (this is our addition) and save some for garnish.

Directions:
Peel and trim the carrots, then chop them into 1/2-inch pennies.
Place in a medium saucepan along with the broth. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes or until the carrots are very tender.
Remove from the heat. Reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid and whisk the miso into it until dissolved.
Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked carrots and cashews, and the ground sesame seeds and the miso mixture to a blender; puree until fairly smooth.
Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with the sesame seeds

We are not sure how much of the difference it would have made between using raw and boiled cashew and roasted cashew. Our addition of ground toasted sesame seeds added a nice fragrant sesame flavor. The combination of miso and sesame flavors are most noticeable. The carrot and cashew flavors are a bit muted, but the carrot did give a nice texture, slight sweetness and color to the spread. This was a very unusual spread and we liked it very much.

Rosemary Pine nut cookie ローズマリー松の実クッキー

Christopher Kimball, who is a founder of America's test kitchen, left there and started a new cooking site/publication called Milk Street. We started subscribing to his quarterly Milk street magazine. This cookie is from one of those issues. We always like savory and not sweet cookies like anchovy black pepper cookies and chili cheese shortbread, so this was a natural for us to try, so we made this one weekend (I did the grating and chopping and my wife did the rest).

It is topped with pine nuts and honey butter glaze.

Ingredients: Pictures #1 and #2 (by accident I included sesame seeds in the picture. They are for another dish).
1 1/2 cups (213 gm) AP flour
1/2 cup (85 gm) cornmeal
1/2 cup (99 gm) sugar
1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 tsp grated orange zest or orange flavoring
16 Tbs (2 sticks) salted butter softened (14 tsp. for the dough, 2 tsp. for the honey topping)
1 cup pine nuts
3 Tbs. honey

Directions:
In an electric mixer with a paddle, mix the sugar, rosemary and orange zest until the moisture from the orange zest and rosemary makes the sugar form coarse clumps (#3, 2-3 minutes).
Add 14 tbs butter in small pats one-by-one until they are well incorporated making a wet paste (#4). Beat on high until fluffy. Add the flour gradually until a dough ball forms on the paddle (#5)
Break up the dough into small chunks and place them in an aluminum foil lined 13 x 9 inch baking pan  (excess edges of foil all around to facilitate the removal of the cookie) (#6)
Press the chunks (using fingers) into a flat sheet (#7)
Place the pine nuts in a single layer and press them hard into the dough (#8)
In a small bowel melt the remaining 2 Tbs. of butter. Add the honey and mis thoroughly. Brush the surface with the honey butter (#9)
Bake it at 325 F for 40-45 minutes (#10)
Let it cool for 15 minutes and lift out the sheet of cookies to the cutting board
Cut into small rectangles and let it completely cool on the cooling rack.

The aroma of the orange and rosemary while these were cooking was quite strong and very pleasant. The combination of orange, rosemary and pine nuts all works. It is sweet/savory with very complex flavors. The honey butter glaze is a nice finish. This cookie can be enjoyed while sipping wine.

Ginger lemon frozen yogurt 生姜レモンフローズンヨーグルト

A long time ago, we used to make ice cream and frozen yogurt. We first used a "Frozen cylinder" device which we kept in the freezer to chill. Then to make ice cream, we added the mix and hand cranked until the ice cream formed. We felt, at the time, that the effort and quality of the resulting ice cream was not worth it; never mind that the cylinder took a big chunk out of our precious freezer space. Then, we came across a self contained (with compressor) mini-ice cream maker on sale and bought it. This was much better. We have made ice cream and frozen yogurt a few times, but them we forgot about it for a long time. While we were trying to find more space in the cupboard, we came across this old ice cream maker occupying valuable cupboard real estate. We were not sure if it still worked and decided if it did not work it was "gone/history".  But, miraculously, we flipped the switch and it still worked after all these years of neglect. So, we made, ginger lemon frozen yogurt. We served a few scoops with our favorite girl scout cookies.

We did not make it too sweet. The lemon and ginger flavor was very refreshing.

The recipe came from Alton Brown (Food network). We made some changes and also reduced the portions to fit our ice cream machine (maximum is about 2 cups).

Ingredients:
Greek yogurt 2 cups (my wife drained plain whole milk yogurt).
Lemon juice from one lemon
Lemon zest from one lemon (micrograted).
Grated ginger, 1 tsp
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup corn syrup
Crystalized ginger

Directions:
Mix the ingredients together and place in the ice cream machine container #1.
Put in the paddle #2, Put on the machine's lid #3.
Stir about 20 to 25 minutes with the chill unit on. #4 and #5.
When the ice cream is formed fold in the crystalized ginger, put into a container and then put into the freezer #6.

This ice cream came out nice and creamy. After few days in the freezer, it was so hard, we could not scoop it out of the container and had to microwave it for 20-30 seconds to loosen it up. Nonetheless it was very good. The lemon ginger flavor was very refreshing and would be perfect on a hot summer day.

Natto with canned mackerel in miso sauce 納豆さば味噌

I saw this recipe using canned mackerel in miso sauce サバの味噌煮 and natto 納豆.  Since I had one can of mackerel in miso sauce and one package of frozen natto, I decided to give it a go.  We had this with cold sake.

Since I made this from my memory of the recipe. When I finally found the recipe again I saw I had modified it a bit.

I garnished this dish with chopped chives.

Ingredients:
Mackerel in miso sauce, one can (#1).
Nattou, 1 package (#2), the original calls for 3 packs but that would have been too much (especially for my wife).
Miso paste, 1 tbs
Sugar, 1/2 tbs
Sake, 2 tbs (this was not in the original recipe).

Directions:
1. Add the mackerel with its sauce to the pan (#3) and add the miso and sugar (#4).
2. Add the sake and stir mashing the fish into small pieces (#5).
3. When the mixture starts to simmer add the nato (#6).
4. Keep stirring until the liquid evaporates and the desired consistency is attained (about 10-15 minutes on low flame).

The original started with dark sesame oil and finely chopped ginger. It also included the addition of Japanese dried red pepper which could have added more complexity to the flavor. While I was cooking the mixture with the kitchen exhaust fan on high, my wife came back in from the deck where she had been sitting and told me it smelled pretty bad out there (apparently all the smell of natto was expelled into the outside air over the deck--sorry neighbors). I served this warm with a garnish of chopped chives. This was ok but the smell of natto was still there albeit faint. My wife suggested it would probably be pretty good served cold which may reduce the smell a bit.

Chicken beer stew 鶏のもも肉のビールシチュー

This is my wife's valiant effort to "save the day" while I was at work. I bought some chicken thighs the previous weekend but I ran out of time and could not cook them. I was afraid they would go bad but my wife came to the rescue. She had a day off during the subsequent week and she had this dish steaming hot ready to eat when I got home. What a pleasant surprise! She looked up chicken thigh recipes on the internet and found one using beer and bacon. She figured this could not go wrong and made this chicken beer stew.

It is a complete meal on its own but we served it over rice and topped with crumbled bacon. My contribution was to add florets of rapini and to make a semi-dark roux to finish the dish (this portion is not in the original recipe). My wife also made a number of alterations to the original recipe.

Ingredients:
4 slices of thick cut bacon
2 onions sliced
4 chicken thighs
1 (12-ounce) bottle beer (preferably brown ale)
3  potatoes peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
4 sprigs fresh thyme
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
Cook the bacon until browned in a pan over medium high heat.
Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate.
Add the sliced onions and cook until translucent in the bacon drippings.
Add the chicken thighs and cover with the beer, making sure it is fully submerged. add the mustard, and potatoes.
Simmer until the chicken is cooked through and fork tender. Serve with the crumbled bacon as garnish

This was quite good. Although we were not sure the beer did much of anything. (My wife, not being a beer connoisseur, thought she had a very dark beer but it was actually a pale ale--she used Samuel Adams pale ale).  Probably a stronger dark beer would have had more impact. The original recipe called for skinless thighs which dredged in flour and then browned. Instead, I finished with medium dark roux (flour 2 tbs cooked in 2 tbs of melted butter until light brown and added liquid from the stew to make the roux and then put int back into the stew and mixed). This was a very good comfort food. My wife can make this dish for me again anytime.

Cinnamon bread シナモンパン

This is another one of my wife's baking. She is always on the look out for interesting bread recipes. Finally she found a block of time to make this one weekend. This is an interesting bread. It is a cross between a quick bread and a yeast bread containing both yeast and baking powder as leavening agents. The original recipe came from King Arthur flour web site.

I forgot to take a picture of the loaf when it came out of the oven.

Ingredients: (My wife doubled the recipe and left out suggested cinnamon chips and cinnamon sugar topping.)
6 cups All-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
4 Tsp yeast
2 Tsp. cinnamon, ground
2 Tsp. salt
2 Tsp. baking powder
2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup melted butter
2 large eggs

Instructions:
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, yeast, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, butter, and egg. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, beating until smooth. Let the batter rest at room temperature for 1 hour, covered. Towards the end of the resting period, preheat the oven to 350°F. Spoon the batter into 2 greased 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pans.
Bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes, until it tests done; a cake tester inserted into the center will come out clean.
Remove the bread from the oven, let it rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer it from the pan to a rack to cool completely. Note: Don't slice the bread while it's hot! It'll slice much better when it's completely cool.

(Yield: 2 loaves)

I am not sure about the rationale for using yeast and baking powder but the dough was very soft and sticky and no kneading was required. It had the consistency of quick bread. It was let to rise for an hour (below).

Then, it was punched down and scooped  into the loaf pans like quick bread.

The resulting bread had an interestingly pleasant tender texture. It was similar to quick bread but was firmer with larger holes which I assume was due to the yeast. With this process not much gluten was developed. This bread was flavored with cinnamon and is a perfect breakfast bread. Toasting made it a bit on the dry side and microwaving worked better.

Figgy cranberry sauce Version 3 イチジク、クランベリーソース V3

Last time I made "Figgy cranberry sauce", I could not get fresh or frozen cranberries and used dried and sweetened "Craisin". The other day, we were at a near-by Whole foods and I found frozen cranberries and decided to make figgy cranberry sauce from the frozen cranberries. I have never used frozen cranberries before. This time, I followed the recipe more closely and used orange peel during the cooking. We tasted the one I made from "crasin" and the one I made from"frozen cranberries" as an informal taste test. The consistency and the taste between them is a bit different but both are quite good. The frozen cranberry version is a bit more tart but has a fresh taste.

Ingredients:
Frozen cranberries (10oz bag) (Do not thaw).
Dried figs, coarsely chopped (1 cup)
Sugar 1/2 cup
White wine 3/4 cup
Orange peel, 2 long strips without pith
Salt, a pinch
Orange flavored liquor (I used triple sec), 2 tbs

Directions:
1. Soak the figs in hot water for 20 minutes.
2. In a sauce pan, add the wine and sugar on medium flame. Once it starts to boil reduce the heat and mix to dissolve the sugar.
3.Add, the cranberries, drained figs, orange peel and cook for 10 -15 minutes stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens.
4. Cut the flame and add a pinch of salt and the orange liquor and mix (I also added a bit of fresh orange juice since I had an orange from which the peel was made).

Below is after 10 minutes. You can see the sauce thickened.

Although finding frozen cranberries is a bit difficult (our regular grocery store did not have it), using it to make the figgy cranberry sauce is almost identical to the one made with fresh cranberries. The one I made from dried and sweetened "Crasin" is not bad either with less tart taste and a bit firmer consistency.