Pumpkin muffins with topping

This is a muffin-form of pumpkin bread my wife made a number of years ago. She is now really into muffins and rolls rather than loaves and is converting bread loaf recipes into muffin/roll recipes. This is one such example. Because of the topping, this is a bit sweeter than usual but not too sweet. 

She usually omits the toppings but this time the topping really worked with pumpkin/pumpkin seasoning. As usual, I ask my wife to provide the recipe.

Ingredients:
Topping:
5 Tbs. packed light brown sugar,
1Tbs. all purpose flour,
1Tbs. unsalted butter softened,
1 Tsp. ground cinnamon,
1/8 Tsp. salt.
I used my fingers to mix all the ingredients together until the mixture resembled coarse sand.

Bread:
2 cups all purpose flour,
1 1/2 Tsp baking powder,
1/2 Tsp. baking soda,
1, 15 oz. can of unsweetened pumpkin puree (According direct mathematical conversion 15 oz. should equal 425 grams.  But when I weighed the actual contents of the can it came out to 418 grams. I provide this information in case I don’t have a can of that exact size),
1tsp. salt,
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon,
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg,
1/8 tsp. ground cloves,
2 cups granulated sugar,
1 Tbs. molasses,
1/2 cup vegetable oil,
4 oz. cream cheese cut into pieces,
4 large eggs,
1/4 cup buttermilk,
1 cup walnuts or pecans toasted and chopped.

1/2 cup candied ginger chopped. 


Directions:
I mixed the flour, baking powder and baking soda together in a bowl and set it aside. I combined the pumpkin puree, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a large sauce pan and cooked continuously until it turned brown and reduced by about half. I removed the pan from the heat and stirred in the sugars, molasses, oil and cream cheese. I mixed it until everything was incorporated and homogeneous. I whisked together the eggs and buttermilk and added it to the pumpkin mixture. (This step requires some care not to curdle the eggs so either let the mixture cool down or temper the eggs a bit before adding.) I poured the cooled pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture to form a batter. I folded the walnuts into the batter. Using a large scoop I distributed the dough into heavily greased muffin tins and sprinkled the topping mixture on top of the muffins. I cooked the muffins in a 350 degree oven for about 25 to 30 minutes or until a skewer came out clean. Just after cooking, the muffins are very tender so I let them rest in the pan for about 20 minutes before I attempted to remove them.

This is a great seasonal treat. It has lovely pumpkin spice flavor. The texture is very tender with a nice crunch from the nuts. And muffins are just the right size for breakfast with coffee.

"Udon" pasta with squid and marinara sauce イカとマリナラソースのウドンパスタ

 I ordered fresh whole squid from Hmart via the Instacart. Since there was a minimum of 1 pound for the order so I specified 1.5 pound to be safe. I was expecting one large intact squid. Instead I got a substitute; "cleaned and packaged" squid. Since this squid did not include innards 1.5 pounds translated into quite a lot of squid; three large packages, much more than I  expected. When my wife unpacked the bag she commented, "That's a lot of squid!" Since it was "cleaned" it was also more expensive per pound. I was thinking the body portion of the squid I bought would be intact so I could either stuff it or cut it into squid rings to fry. But the body portion had been opened to remove the innards. (Removing the innards even if the body has not been opened is not that hard and is what I do to prepare squid). In addition the thin skin (which is very hard to remove) and the small wings at the top were still attached. This all made it relatively easy for the person packaging the squid but not necessarily the customer left with the harder part of the prep. What I would have preferred is the body left intact but the thin skin and wings removed. Oh well, I kvetch.

I set to work and removed the wings ("enpera" エンペラ in Japanese. Supposedly, this word originated from "emperor" since the shape of the wings resembled Napoleon's hat) and removed the thin skin using a paper towel to grasp the edge of the skin and peeled it off. Most importantly, the good news was that the squid was fresh (i.e. no smell).  It was much fresher than anything we would get from Giant. It was a fairly good size with tentacles so overall I was pleased.  

I quickly boiled the tentacles in salted water with a splash of sake. (We enjoyed these as appetizers for several evenings with cucumber and wakame seaweed dressed in "sumiso" 酢味噌 vinegar miso dressing). I shallowly scored the body in crisscross fashion and cut it into one inch by a half inch rectangles. I used about a third of the prepared squid for squid in tomato sauce "udon" pasta. The rest I froze. This was lunch on Saturday.

I thought I used a quite a good amount of squid but once it was cooked, it did not feel like a lot.

 

Ingredients:
1/2 lb squid, body, cleaned, thin skin removed, apply crisscross shallow cuts on one side and then cut into 1 x 0.5 inch rectangles (see picture below).
1/2 cup marinara sauce (This was my usual homemade)
Cooked pasta (I used cooked udon noodles)
4-5 fresh basil leaves, cut into chiffonade,
Garlic, finely chopped (optional)
Salt and black pepper
Olive oil

Directions:
Add the olive oil in a frying pan on medium flame. Add the garlic (if using) and stir for 1 minutes or until fragrant. Add the squid and sauté for 30-40 seconds, add the noodle and the marinara sauce. Stir and warm up for few minutes. Garnish with the basil and splash good olive oil.

This was a good pasta dish. The squid was not chewy at all. 

Kabocha ginger rolls かぼちゃ生姜ロール

 I got a whole Japanese "kabocha" squash the other day from Hmart via the Instacart. I made my usual simmered kabocha かぼちゃの煮物 and pottage かぼちゃのポタージュ. That left half a kabocha. I could have made other kabocha dishes but my wife wanted to make Kabocha ginger rolls/muffins and I gladly donated the remaining kabocha. This is a variation of pumpkin ginger rolls she made before. Instead of canned pumpkin puree, she baked the kabocha in the oven and removed the meat (actually I did most of this part). Using this, she made the roll as well as stuffing for the rolls.

Because the stuffing includes some moisture steam forms when the muffins are cooked resulting in the small space above the stuffing shown in the picture below. This doesn't adversely affect either the texture or flavor. 

I asked my wife to continue with the recipe.

Ingredients:
For bread
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs yeast
420 grams (or 15 oz.) of mashed Kobocha (all of this goes into the bread. If more is available that goes into the filling)
2 large eggs
4 Tbs. butter melted
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

For the stuffing:
Note: See below, for 20 muffins I used about 360 gm. combined weight of kobach and ricotta
remaining amount of mashed  kobacha  (this is in addition to the 420 that goes into the bread)
ricotta cheese
Finely diced candied ginger to taste (optional)
amounts discussed below

Another stuffing option:

A total of 360 g combination of mashed cooked kobacha, cream cheese and 1/2 cup finely chopped candied ginger.  

Directions:
For the cooked pumpkin (kabocha)

Cut the Kabocha in half, remove seeds and guts. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet. Cook in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes until it becomes soft. Remove the skin and mash to a puree.

For the pumpkin bread:

Put the kobocha puree and pumpkin pie spice in the bowel of stand mixer. Add the sugar, salt, eggs and melted butter. Bloom the yeast and add it to the pumpkin mixture. Using a paddle stir until completely blended. Switch to a dough hook and add the flour to the wet ingredients. Knead dough for about 2 to 3 minutes until ingredients are blended then let rest for 15 minutes. Continue kneading, adding flour until the dough reaches a workable consistency. Knead for 7 to 10 minutes. If adding raisins knead them in after kneading for 7 minutes and continue kneading the extra 3 minutes to incorporate them.

Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowel. Turn the dough so it gets coated with the oil.
Cover and let rise until it doubles. Punch dough down and turn out onto a floured cutting board.

Assembly:
This gets a bit complicated. When making stuffed muffins I got tired of eye-balling the amount of filling I needed only to have it run out before I had filled all the rolls or have some left over, so I came up with a system to measure out the right amount. I do this by first measuring the total weight of the dough. In this case the dough weighed 1420 grams. I knew a muffin weighing about 71 grams is a good size so I calculated how many muffins I would get out of the dough; 1420/71 = 20 muffins. Next I calculated how much filling I would need. I knew from experimentation that an 18 gram ball would make a good ratio of filling to bread so I calculated the total amount of filling I would need; 18 x 20 = 360 grams. I took the leftover kabocha and supplemented it with ricotta cheese and about 1/2 cup of finely chopped candied ginger until the total equaled 360 grams. With this method the ratio of kabocha to other ingredients in the filling can vary but the total should be enough filling for all the muffins. The actual weights will vary each time the muffins are made depending on the combined ingredients. Only the method would be consistent.

I started by making each of the filling balls for the muffins and setting them aside. This makes assembly more efficient. Then I cut the dough into pieces, weighed them and stuffed them with the pre-measured stuffing balls. (The stuffing was just enough to fill each muffin!) I put the muffins into a heavily greased baking pan. Covered and let rise again (about 1/2 hour). Meanwhile, I preheated the oven to 375 degrees. I cooked the rolls for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan immediately after they come out of the oven.

These are great rolls. The crystalized ginger in the stuffing really makes this roll. It provides a nice burst of sharp but sweet flavor. The creamy texture of the filling really went well with the surrounding dough and the raisins added an additional burst of tender sweetness. Compared to canned pumpkin puree, kabocha really tasted better.

Special take-out Kaiseki box from Sushi Taro 寿司太郎のテイクアウト特製会席弁当

Prior to COVID the omakase counter at Sushi Taro was our special-occasion-go-to place. As a matter of fact, we had a reservation in March this year but because of COVID, that got canceled. I knew for some time that, although the restaurant was closed, Sushi Taro has been doing take-out. But getting there either from home or work for the pick-up was impractical. Since I started thinking about the NewYear “Osechi” 御節 from Sushi Taro, I contacted them. I was delighted to find out that they are going to do Osechi for the next New Year and I quickly placed an order. During that interaction, I learned that they do special omakase kaiseki boxes-to-go and that they can deliver. I quickly placed an order. Delivery was scheduled for Friday at 5pm. We were like little kids in anticipation. I even "just happened" to come home from work a bit early for the delivery. It arrived in two, two-tiered (bento or modified jubako?) boxes. (a total of four boxes with three compartments each). We initially thought we got two identical sets but when we opened the second box, surprise!  We were totally blown away. All compartments contained many wonderful different dishes. The first one had some cooked dishes, two different kinds of sushi. The cooked dishes in the top tier were still warm.

The second set included fresh sashimi and sashimi fish dishes.

Disclaimer alert:  This entry is just for us to remember what we enjoyed so we can relive the experience. A menu was not included so in some cases I am guessing what the dishes were and may be totally wrong.

We started with sashimi 刺身. Akami 赤身, chu-toro 中トロ, hamachi ハマチ, salmon サーモンand ama-ebi shrimp 甘海老.

From upper left clockwise: grilled ginko nuts 焼銀杏 (We love ginko nuts.We used to be able to buy small cans of boiled ginko nuts but they totally disappeared and we have not seen them for sometime. ), California Uni カルフォルニア雲丹, cod roe たらこ (not a “mentaiko” 明太子 but with some spice), grilled egg plant 焼きナス (it must have also been smoked. It had a nice smokey flavor and the broth was subtly seasoned and delicious ).

Abalone liver simmered with sansho 鮑の肝煮物 (I think this is seasoned with whole sansho pepper 実山椒, a type of “arimani” 有馬煮, this is a perfect drinking snack and we love it, the red berry must be goji berry or “kuko” クコ), sake steamed abalone 鮑の酒蒸し with a nice seasoning , I think the next one is Hokkaido "bafun" uni 北海道のバフンウニ , and under the cover is ikura marinated in soy sauce いくらの醤油漬け. (On one of our visits to the restaurant we had an impromptu uni tasting to compare California vs Maine vs Hokkaido - they are all good but I am a little partial to the Hokkaido uni mostly because I am originally from there. 

From the left upper clockwise: Some kind o pate/paste. I am not sure but monk fish liver ("ankimo" 鮟肝) may be included, some kind of fish liver simmered, edible flower petal (probably chrysanthemum) and chestnut "sibukawa-ni" 渋皮煮.

The dish shown below was a small whole simmered fish with roe, "kanroni" 甘露煮.  I thought this could be "Ayu" sweet fish but it was not.  So, I don't know exactly what it was. It could be "Iwashi" イワシ sardine. It was cooked to tenderness and the bone was soft and could be eaten. It was topped with "shiraga-negi" white hair scallion 白髪葱 . This is an example of the attention to detail characteristic through out these dishes. The scallion was a small detail but it went very well with this fish and really set off the dish.

From the top, kaskino-ha-zushi 柿の葉寿司 (trout sushi wrapped in persimon leaves), flower renkon 花輪レンコン and shime saba oshizushi (battera) しめ鯖の押し寿司 or バッテラ.

Nigiri-sushi 握り寿司. From the top left clockwise: Hamachi ハマチ, Toro トロ, kohada コハダ, sweet omelet, anago with “tsume“ sauce 穴子, and saba サバ or sawara さわら.

Pictured below large prawn/small lobster; probably "botan-ebi" ボタン海老 (raw) in a gentle broth,  topped with myoga, roe (cooked), and julienne of red and green sweet pepper. The sweet pepper and sweet meat went well together complementing each other.

Crab meat, jelle sauce, ikura, slices of dried persimmon 干し柿 and other items. Again, sweetness of the persimmons and crab are good match.

The next three dishes are all cooked and contain some kind of fish/sea food. The selection of ingredients such as the matsutake, myoga, chestnuts and kabocha in these dishes as well the use of eggplant and persimmon in the dishes above exemplify the autumn season.  The use of seasonal ingredients is another example of the attention to detail shown through out the dishes in these boxes. 

Underneath of all the vegetables were two good sized shrimp balls shinjo エビしんじょ(minced shrimp and white fish paste). Fried lotus root, kabocha, simmered "fu" gluten cake, matsutake stems, green beans topped with zest of “kabosu” かぼす.

Simmered “kabu”turnip かぶ, chestnuts 栗 and fish (cod?). The green is most likely “Mizuna” 水菜 .

Small tasty fish (I do not know what it is), simmered, matsutake 松茸, fried shishito ししとう, picked myoga 茗荷の甘酢漬け.

Fortunately, we just got a shipment of sake from Tippsy sake. We had a cold “Kagatobi” 加賀鳶 純米吟醸 from Ishikawa-prefecture 石川県. We throughly enjoyed these wonderful dishes in the comfort of home. It was quite a memorable treat!

Grilled mackerel salad with “Yuzu” mayonnaise 柚子マヨあえ焼き鯖のサラダ

 This is a small salad made of leftover salted and grilled mackerel 鯖の塩焼き. I just came up with this and did not have any recipe.

One interesting thing about this salad is the mayonnaise I used. This is Japanese “yuzu” mayonnaise which I got from one of the gourmet markets through “Instacart”. I added thinly sliced Videlia onion, sliced mini cucumber (both are salted. I let them stand for 5 minutes and then squeezed out the excess moisture). I also added skinned Campari tomato thinly sliced. I dressed the vegetables with the “Yuzu” mayonnaise.  I warmed up the mackerel in the toaster oven. I broke it into bite-size chunks and topped it with a bit more mayo.

I also served 4 additional small dishes. From left to right are blanched green asparagus with sesame dressing, グリーンアスパラガスの胡麻和え simmered Kabocha pumpkin かぼちゃの煮物,  salt broth soaked sugar snap スナップ豌豆の塩びたし and miso-simmered mackerel 鯖の味噌煮.

The salad was really good mainly because of this Japanese “yuzu” mayonnaise. I’ve used up almost half of this mayo already. I took pictures showing the container upside-down. I store it this way so that the contents would come out more easily from the opening.

This is a Japanese style mayonnaise similar in flavors and texture to Kewpie mayonnaise but it contains Japanese “yuzu” citrus juice. This gives a uniquely refreshing flavor. Although fresh Yuzu fruit is difficult to come by, frozen zest and bottled yuzu juice are readily available. I added a bit more yuzu juice to accentuate the flavor.

At first, we are skeptical about this mayonnaise but now we are sold. I even used in our sandwiches with great result.

I think using this with fish like I did here is a great combination. I am thinking of making tartar sauce with this. It should go well with breaded fried fish or Japanese “furai” dish 魚のフライ.

Harvest “Juugo-ya” moon gazing 10-1-2020 十五夜月見団子

This year "Harvest moon" was October 1 which is also Japanese "Juugoya" or 15th nights* for moon gazing. Unfortunately the evening of October 1 was raining and we could not see the moon but the next night, it was clear with some haze in the sky and we took these pictures.

*something to do with 15th night of the month in Luna calendar.

Since October 1 was a Thursday and a week day I  couldn’t make tuskimi-dango 月見団子 that day,  so I made them the weekend before. (Using the exact same recipe as last year). I also made the same mitarashi みたらしsauce. 

Here are 15 spherical "dango" piled up in a 9-4-2 configuration.

Since I made this a week ago and even though they were kept in a sealable container in the refrigerator, they dried up and got hard.

Using a microwave safe silicon container, I added the sauce and “dango” and microwaved it for 30 seconds or so. It became as soft as when I made it and the sauce also got warmed up.

We enjoyed this as an ending “shime” dish or dessert, whichever applies. The dango had a very pleasing soft creaminess and the sauce added some additional sweet saltiness. Very nice. 

Eggplant gyoza 茄子餃子

Last weekend I made gyoza 餃子. As usual, I used the trimmings from pork tenderloin. I made up a batch using wonton skins but I had more gyoza stuffing leftover. Then, I saw a Japanese recipe using thin slices of eggplant instead of Wonton or Gyoza skin. Since I happened to have a Japanese eggplant (one we can get here is a small diameter elongated eggplant. I only rarely see the other varieties of eggplant available in Japan such as "Kamo-nasu" 賀茂茄子 or "Mizu-nasu" 水茄子).  So, I made gyoza with this eggplant. A small amount of gyoza stuffing still remained after I made this dish so I stuffed a fresh shiitake mushroom to finish it up. I served this with some veggies as a starter one evening.

Since only enough leftover stuffing for one shiitake mushroom, I served three eggplant gyoza and half each of the shiitake gyoza. The veggies are sliced cucumber dressed in sushi vinegar 胡瓜の酢の物, skinned Campari tomato with sesame dressing トマトの胡麻和え, braised crunchy cauliflower モンパルナスのカリフラワー and sugar snap in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

Ingredients:

Gyoza stuffing is my usual. Hand chopped pork tenderloins trimmings, boiled and chopped cabbage, chopped scallions, garlic, ginger, seasoned with sesame oil, salt, and soy sauce. As I mentioned this was the leftovers after making regular gyoza.
One Japanese eggplant (one with small diameter and very long),
Potato starch (Katakuri-ko 片栗粉).
Peanut oils and sesame oil for frying

Directions:
Skin the eggplant using a peeler on both sides lengthwise, cut crosswise into 2 inch long pieces and then slice lengthwise into 3mm thick pieces and soak in about 5% salted water (#1) until the eggplant pieces get soft/limp (It took more that 30 minutes).
Drain in a colander and press using the back of a ladle to press out excess moisture and line them up on paper towels (#2) and press with another sheet of paper towel to blot.
Sprinkle potato starch or Katakuri-ko (#3)
Wrap the gyoza stuffing by folding the eggplant in half (#4).
Since I still had some gyoza stuffing left, I stuffed one fresh shiitake mushroom (#5)
Add 1tbs peanut oil and splashes of dark sesame oil in a frying pan on medium flame and place in the eggplant gyoza (#6).
After a few minutes when the eggplant is browned, turn it over and put on the lid for several minutes and finish with the lid off for 1 more minute (#8).

This time, the stuffing was well-seasoned and did not need any dipping sauce. This is not bad but both my wife and I prefer regular gyoza. We both missed the lovely crunch of the crispy wonton skin.