Chocolate vanilla panna cotta チョコレート、バニラ パンナコッタ

As I mentioned before, my wife grew up with desserts as the end to a dinner. It was a kind of parental bribe, "eat all your dinner or you won't get dessert." So for a little kid the dessert was almost the goal of the meal. As I also mentioned I did not grow up with desserts so if my wife wants one usually she has to make it. (I, however, am not the least bit averse to helping her eat any dessert she may come up with) She makes a buttermilk panna cotta that we really like. With this success and after cruising several recipes on the internet, she was inspired to try a variation. She came up with this two layer, chocolate and vanilla panna cotta. She served it in a small double walled espresso glass. This makes a nice dainty dessert that is perfect for us. The recipe, however, can be scaled up for larger servings. 

Ingredients:
1 tsp. gelatin
3 Tbs. water
3/4 cup 4% milk
3/4 cup cream
1/4 cup sugar

for flavoring:
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs. cocoa powder

Directions:
Bloom the gelatin in the water and set it aside for a few minutes. Add the milk, cream and sugar to a sauce pan and heat gently until the sugar melts (don't boil). Take a ladle of the warm milk mixture and add to the gelatin mixture until the gelatin is completely melted into the milk. Add the melted gelatin into the rest of the milk mixture. Divide the milk mixture in half. Add the vanilla to one of the halves. Pour into a glass container that has been tipped on its side. See picture below.

Put into the refrigerator until it becomes firm. Meanwhile put the cocoa powder in a small bowl. Scoop in some of the milk mixture and stir to form a paste. Add back into the milk mixture. Stir to fully incorporate. When the vanilla mixture become firm add the chocolate mixture on top. Put back into the refrigerator until everything becomes firm.

This is a lovely little dessert. The texture is very creamy and smooth with a nice chocolate flavor contrasted with the vanilla. Just a few sweet bites to round out any dinner.

Cream cheese and chive with white bread muffin

This is one of my wife's baking projects. She likes cream cheese with onions and chives. It come in a small plastic tub. She usually uses it for mashed potatoes. She noticed that there were several containers in the fridge that were not getting any younger. She also like muffins stuffed with a “surprise” such as sweet potato or flavored ricotta cheese. So she decided to use the cream cheese in muffins. She used her favorite white bread recipe (which surprisingly we have not blogged before) and filled it with cream cheese as shown below.

I will turn the next part over to her

Ingredients
1/2 cup milk
3 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. butter
2 packages yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water
4 -6 cups bread flour

for the filling:
1 tub of Philadelphia cream cheese with chive

Directions:
Combine the milk, sugar, salt and butter in a sauce pan and heat up until the milk is scalded and the other ingredients have melted or dissolved. Add the water and let the mixture cool. Add 4 cups of bread flour and yeast to a stand mixer. When the milk mixture has cooled add it to the flour while stirring on speed 2 with the bread hook. Add more flour as needed to make a smooth workable dough. Put dough in a bowl and coat the surface with vegetable oil to keep it from drying out. Let rise until doubled.

Form the muffins by punching down the dough. I weighed the dough and decided to make muffins weighing 2 1/4 or 63.78 grams. With this dough I got 20 muffins. I then used a small ice cream scoop for the cream cheese and made 20 balls weighing about 11 grams. I folded the dough over the individual cheese balls and placed the muffins in a heavily greased pyrex baking dish. I baked them at 400 degrees for 18- 20 minutes or until they sounded hollow when tapped.

These muffins were pretty good. As usual an air space developed above the cheese. I fully expected the cheese would melt into the bread but was surprised to find it sitting there about the same consistency as when I put it in the dough. (Made me wonder what the cream cheese was actually made of). The bread was good as always and the cream cheese flavor was very pronounced. But I have to say in all honesty the easiest thing to do in the future if we want this flavor combination is just to make the muffins and smear the cheese on with a butter knife.

Baguette bake in ceramic baker version 4

This is the 4th installment in the continuing saga of trying to bake baguette using the Emil-Henry ceramic baguette baker. I think this time, it came out best among the 4 tries. Again, I made sure we only used 3 cups of flour in total, otherwise the baguettes become too large and fuse together.  The below is when it came out of the oven. The center portions of each baguette still stuck to the baker.

So we decided to let them cool before trying to remove them. Although, even then, we had to use a small spatula to “encourage” them to give up their stronghold on the baker. We were finally able to take them out without breaking the crust (below).

Here is the summary of tips for using the Emil-Henry ceramic baguette baker.
1. The total amount of flour is 3 cups. In our case we used a biga starter (1 cup bread flour, 1 cup buttermilk and 1/8 tsp instant yeast, let it ferment overnight). I added 2 cups more of bread flour). This time I had to add a bit more water.
2. Baked 25 minutes450F with lid on and an additional 10 minutes with the lid off. The additional 5 minutes of baking without the lid on made the crust more brown and harder. The harder crust appeared to help in removing  he baguette without breaking the crust.
3. Let it cool down before removing the baguette.
4. As suggested by a friend, I dusted the baker with cornmeal. I am not sure whether this helped or not. The cornmeal did not stay in the area that stuck the most since the baguettes are not flat.

In any case, we had the best baguette so far without a broken crust. Because of the slightly longer baking time, the crust was browner and a bit harder than in the previous tries. Nonetheless it tasted really good and the crust was just nicely crunchy not too thick or hard. They should have included better instructions with the baker. It should not be this difficult but, in the end, you cannot beat the crust this baker produces

Addendum (10/26/2022)

Despite all the tips described above, the next time I made baguette the center baguette stuck to the two on either side. So, this time, I made only two baguettes and left the center slot empty. This worked much better. There was some minor sticking but the baguettes came off the baker with intact crust. Finally perfection has been achieved. 

Ingredients for two mini-baguettes

2 cups bread flour

1 cup water 

1 tsp active yeast

1 tsp salt

Bake 450F with the lid on for 25 minutes and with the lid off for 5 minutes.

Grilled bluefish and matsutake lunch

We used to get a whole fresh Spanish mackerel at Whole foods, but it has not been available for a long time. Since we started buying groceries from the Korean grocery store HMart through Instacart, we have found they have more variety of whole fresh fish available. We got whole Spanish mackerel from them a few times. This time, however, mackerel was not available but bluefish was. We have used bluefish* in place of Spanish mackerel in the past and decided to go with it. I am not sure how I ordered it (by weight or by the numbers) but I ended up with two rather large bluefish not cleaned at all. So, I had to scale, gut, remove head and make filets. It was a bit of work but the fish was really fresh. As before, I made bluefish simmered in miso sauce ブルーフィシュの味噌煮 from the filets and  "tsumire" fish balls soup つみれ汁 from the fish meat scraped off the bones. I set the fish ball soup and miso simmered fish aside for another meal. The remaining filets, I salted and grilled. We happened to have matsutake 松茸 from Oregon mushroom and matsutake rice 松茸ご飯 rice leftover from dinner the previous night. So I made matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物, warmed up the  rice and served with the bluefish for our lunch on Sunday.

* I am not sure of its Japanese name but it appears to be "Oki-suzuki" オキスズキ. I have not seen or eaten it while I lived in Japan.

I first salted the fillet and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. I cooked the bluefish filet with a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan on low flame with skin side  down until the skin got brown (6-7 minutes, I also applied decorative cuts on the skin to prevent the skin breaking during the cooking). I cooked 80% on the skin side, flipped it and completed the cooking. I served this with pickled myoga 冥加の甘酢漬け, salt picked cucumber and nappa cabbage きゅうりと白菜の浅漬け and thinly sliced cucumber dressed in sushi vinegar 胡瓜の酢の物. Since the fish was well-salted, we did not need additional sauce such as soy sauce for this.

For the matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物, I made bonito "dashi" カツオの出汁 from a dash pack seasoned with mirin and light colored soy sauce and salt, added thinly sliced matsutake, silken tofu, "kyoubu" 京麩  decorative gluten cake (dried, hydrate before adding to the soup), freeze dried "mitsuba" 三つ葉 and yuzu zest ゆず (frozen).

The bluefish prepared this way was very good. The flesh was pleasingly oily, soft and had a nice flavor. The skin did not get crispy but stayed soft. It may have been a bit strong tasting fish to accompany the delicate matsutake but we really enjoyed this lunch.

Special Kaiseki box from Sushi Taro v2 寿司太郎特別会席弁当二回目

We had the second take-out special kaiseki  box from Sushi Taro. Again, this was amazing. We just wanted to record what we enjoyed.

Sardine with uni-mustard sauce イワシのぬた. The accompanying gelee (“nikogori” 煮凝り) was not to be missed

Sashimi,  wild snapper 天然鯛, tuna 鮪. Nice decorative touch. The carrot cut into “momiji” maple leaf にんじんの紅葉 and circular cut daikon stalk “karakuls a-girl” 大根の唐草切り shown on top of the maple leaf carrot, another example to attention to detail.

Pacific saury sashimi さんまの刺身. This was really good.

Fried sea eel collar and chestnuts, matsutake いが栗揚げ, fried lotus root, matsutake 揚げレンコン、matsutake 松茸、fried “anago” sea eel collar 穴子のかま揚げ. This is a really autumnal dish.  Tatsuta-age style anago collar, with a small fin attached, was new to us and was very good. We had the chestnut  dish at Omakase counter before but only a pro can do this type of dish imitating a real chestnuts peeking though the outer thorny shell. The shell was made of ground white fish meat with dried “somen” and deep fried. The chestnut was cooked in “Shibukawa-ni” so that inner brow skin is can be eaten without puckering taste. The matsutake with slices of yuzu were the essence of autumn.

Beef tongue stew with quail eggs and octopus 牛タンのシチュウ、うずらの卵、たこ. This is a really great dish. My wife loves stewed beef tongue. The tongue was very tender and perfectly seasoned (later we learned that this was from "Wagyu" 和牛). The surprise was the octopus leg which was a nice texture contrast. A perfect combination. It also had quail eggs which are always a favorite. 

Kamo-nasu eggplant 賀茂茄子, "anago" sea eel 穴子, sato-imo 里芋, shishi-togarashi しし唐辛子, “Kyo-bu” decorative gluten cake 京麩 simmered in broth (shishito was deep dried first, I think). Interestingly the flavor of the shishito subtly infused the fish and broth adding a deliciously different element. 

Grilled "sawara" (king mackerel) miso-fuan and turnip さわらの味噌祐庵焼きとかぶ. YUM. 

The following line-up of dishes was just a succession of exquisite mouthfuls of different taste profiles, and textures. Each one a special treat. There are not enough superlatives to describe them all. From left top clock wise: Aji (horse mackerel tataki with perilla seeds 鯵のタタキ紫蘇の種, grilled "mana-gatsuo" (Japanese pompano) 焼きマナガツオ、"Hamo" gonger eel liver ハモの肝 (exquisite), blue crab, crab mustard uni カニの蟹味噌ウニ和え.

Shirako "soft roe" ponzu 白子のポン酢あえ、goma-tofu with uni ウニと胡麻豆腐, "Ikura" salmon roe いくら, goma-tofu with uni ウニと胡麻豆腐. I have not tasted “shira-ko” for sometime and this was a special treat.

"Ankimo" monkfish liver 鮟肝 with vegetable, "Mizuna" Japanese green and quail egg yolk 水菜のお浸しとウズラの黄身,  "Wagyu" beef with kelp 和牛昆布締 (a very nice addition we have not had before). Of course “ankimo” is our favorite.

Sushi; salmon 鮭, ??, chu-toro 鮪中トロ, kohada 小肌, tai 鯛

Omelete 卵焼き, ama-ebi shrimp 甘海老,  cutlass fish 太刀魚?, hamachi はまち yellow tail, and “uni” 雲丹 sea urchin.

This is a lot of extremely exquisite food. This brings a bright ray of sunshine during this covid period. We are so fortunate we can have this and enjoy everything at home.

We keep forgetting but dessert is included. Roasted tea "houji-cha" 焙じ茶 flavored pudding/panna cotta. A perfect finale. 

Boiled eggplant in black sesame vinegar dressing ゆでナスのゴマ酢和え

After I made eggplant gyoza,  I had one more Japanese eggplant left. I often make “age-bitashi” 揚げ浸し from eggplant (of course eggplant and oil go together well in either Western or Japanese-style dishes).  But this time I wanted to make something different. I found a recipe (in Japanese) which does not involve frying. The dressing was also very interesting. The recipe said this tastes good either warm or cold. I made this dish in the morning and served it cold in the evening as an appetizer with cold sake. I served a rather small amount in these small covered Japanese bowls we got in Kyoto many years ago.

Open the lids and we have boiled eggplant slices dressed in roasted black sesame sauce.

The dressing really made this dish. The eggplant was a bit bitter/astringent initially when I tasted it warm but after refrigeration, it calmed down.

Ingredients:
One Japanese eggplant, stem end removed, cut in half lengthwise wise, then cut in to 1/4 inch half moon shape crosswise, soaked in cold water.

Dressing:
2 tbs black sesame, roasted (I dry roasted again in a frying pan), ground in a Japanese mortar  (suribachi すり鉢)
1.5 tbs sweet vinegar 甘酢 (1 part rice vinegar, 0.5 part sugar and a pinch of salt, heated to dissolve)
2 tsp soy sauce

Directions:
Drain the water the egg plant soaked in. Bring fresh water to the boil, add the eggplant and when the water comes back to the boil keep cooking for 1 more minute.
Drain in a colander and press the eggplant with the back of a ladle to remove any excess water.
Mix the warm eggplant into the dressing.


When I tasted it warm, the eggplant had a slight bitterness/astringency or “egumi” えぐみ in Japanese but when I served it cold in the evening, most of those tastes were gone. The dressing really makes it. This is a good alternative way of using eggplant without using oil.

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.