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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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. 

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.