Mini Lasagna cups ミニロザニアカップ

One day, all of a sudden, my wife asked if we still have wonton or gyoza skins. I said we had leftover gyoza skins frozen. I was not sure why she was asking this. I found out that she saw a recipe for “mini-lasagna cups” which uses wonton skins as the pasta. This is a good dish to make since I have been reheating my marinara sauce once a week for several weeks now to make it last. It was time to use it up. In any case, the picture below shows the mini-lasagna cups she made. They are perfect for a lunch or appetizer. The combination of flavors is very nice.

You can see the layers in the picture below; layers of ricotta cheese and spinach and alternating layers of marinara sauce (actually one time when I reheated it I put in chopped up cooked chicken) separated by the wonton skins. She ran out of the wonton skins and some of the lasagna cups ended up having a layer of Pennsylvania Dutch noodles instead. (Because she had those and hey, they are a form of pasta).

 

I am not sure where she saw this recipe but I’ll ask my wife to take over. (Note from wifey: I found the recipe in the Washington Post and as usual treated it as just advisory.)

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked spinach
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups shredded cheese (I used a combination of dry mozzarella, smoked gouda and cheddar.)
1 1/2 cups husbandito’s marinara sauce
36 wonton skins (3 per 12 muffin cup tin)

Directions:
Mix the spinach, ricotta cheese and salt together. Put half of it in a separate bowl and stir in 1/2 of the shredded cheese. Fit a wonton skin into the bottom of a 12 cup muffin tin. (I used muffin papers to make it easier to get the finished product out but it turned out they weren’t necessary.) Evenly divide the ricotta spinach blend into each cup (#1). Fit another wonton skin on top. Spoon the marinara sauce on top (#2). Cover with another wonton skin. (Note that at this point I ran out of wonton skins so I used cooked pasta as shown in the left side of #3) Evenly divide the ricotta shredded cheese on top (#4). Top the mixture with remaining marinara sauce and grated cheese (#5). Cook in a 375 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes until cheese on the top is melted, browned and bubbling (#6). 

These were a bit tedious to put together but they were worth it. They had all the satisfying complex flavor of a full lasagne with all the elegance of a single portion. They made a perfect lunch with a salad or a small bowl of soup. 

Home-made cream cheese 自家製クリームチーズ

 Recently there has been a shortage of cream cheese . For several weeks we tried to order cream cheese from our regular grocery store and found out all cream cheese and its derivative products were out of stock. Since making cheese has become my wife's thing, she decided to address this shortage the same way she addressed other shortages during covid by making her own. She searched the web for a cream cheese recipe. One thing she noticed was that the recipes for buttermilk on the web were basically ‘take milk and add acid (lemon juice, vinegar, etc). Then the recipes on the web for cream cheese were also basically ‘take milk and add acid.’ Huh? Acidulated milk is the panacea for all things cheesy on the net? She also noticed that other recipes involved such things as rennet or cream cheese cultures that she didn’t have. 

She decide to make her own recipe incorporating various aspects of the recipes she read and her own experience making cheese curd. The basic approach seemed to be combine milk and cream and curdle. She had success making cheese using buttermilk to curdle the milk so she decided to use a variation on that technique. For example, she saw that the rennet based recipes used a ratio of milk to cream of 4:1. She also used an approximation of the ratio of buttermilk to other ingredients that worked for the other cheese she made. She used those ratios to make the cheese (see the ingredients listed below). Then instead of pressing the curd as she did before, as per some of the recipes she read,  she whirred it in a food processor to make it creamy and the consistency of cream cheese. The result was really fantastic. If she can make this, we do not need to buy commercial cream cheese. The picture below is "schmear" of the cream cheese she made on a crumpet she also made. It was very good!

Ingredients:
8 cups whole milk

2 cups cream (I used light cream)

5 cups buttermilk

2 Tbs. salt

Directions.
Combine the ingredients in a large heavy bottomed pan. Slowly heat mixture until it starts to separate into curds and whey (#1). (This will start to happen just before the mixture reaches 212 degrees.) Remove from the heat and let rest for 10 minutes. Ladle the curds into a colander lined with 3 layers of cheese cloth (#2). Squeeze out as much whey as possible. Then add the curds to a food processor (I used a motorboat blender) and whir until the curds reach creamy consistency. Stir in salt to taste. The consistency will become thicker as the mixture cools. Spread a “schmear” on a piece of toast and enjoy. 

This cheese was very good. The taste of the cream really came through followed by a slight tanginess of the buttermilk. The flavor got better over the next few days. This tasted great on a cracker with a glass of wine.

Octopus and cucumber in sumiso dressing 蛸のぶつ切りと胡瓜の酢味噌あえ

This is nothing new; just a continuation of frozen and boiled Spanish octopus from Great Alaska Seafood. This is a good example of how an octopus leg cut can make a big difference in texture.  Boiled octopus can be sliced thinly with a wave cut or cut into chunks called "Butsu-giri" ぶつ切り. The cut that is used depends on the firmness of the cooked octopus meat. Firm texture octopus it is quite chewy. A thick slice would be too difficult to eat. The thin wave cut provides a manageably chewy piece and the wave pattern catches any sauce that is used. Alternatively if  the octopus meat is soft, the thinly slice wave cut doesn’t have any texture and basically dissolves when eaten so cutting it into chunks is the better choice. Since this octopus was a bit on the soft side, I opted for the chunky cut and made this classic "octopus and cucumber  sumiso-ae" 蛸のぶつ切りと胡瓜の酢味噌あえ. I served this with store bought squid shio-kara (right)

Since this octopus leg was more tender than ones from Japan, this "Butsu-giri" cut really worked. It is not too chewy but has nice texture.

Tender simmered octopus たこの柔らか煮

I have to admit that I really like octopus (tako) and am on a constant prowl to find places to get decent tako. I have gotten octopus from a few different places with varying success and I’ve cooked it several different ways over the years. Among the seafood vendors, recently, we have been getting fairly good frozen  seafood from  Great Alaska Seafood . This time, they were selling frozen Spanish octopus legs and we tried them. (At another time, they were also selling Alaskan octopus -uncooked and frozen- but we did not try it.) The legs were from Spanish octopus, boiled and frozen (see the picture 2nd from the last below). It came as 4 pounds of octopus in 8 half pound vacuumed sealed packages. After thawing a package in the refrigerator, I thinly sliced it and tasted it. It was fresh tasting but compared to Japanese products, it was much softer. So I decided the first dish I would make would be simmered octopus  or “Tako-no-yawaraka-ni” 蛸の柔らか煮 literally meaning “tender simmered octopus”.  I tried this before with tako from other sources and despite long simmering, the octopus never got really tender. This time I have two elements which would make this dish successful; 1. This particular octopus had been pre-cooked before we received it and it was much more tender than the boiled and frozen octopus I tried before and 2. I now have a Instant pot which allows me to make this dish using pressure cooking. The combination of these factors resulted in a dish that was quite a success. The octopus was very tender and flavorful. 

I served this with fried shrimp heads (they were from Tako Grill takeout). Whenever we have shrimp (“bonanebi“ 牡丹海老) sashimi, we get fried heads which we heat up in the toaster oven and serve with wedges of lemon and salt broth soaked sugar snaps. On the right in the picture below is squid shiokara イカの塩辛 (frozen which comes in a plastic pouch). This is certainly a good line-up for starting the evening.

Here is the close up of the octopus.

The picture below shows how the octopus legs came. Two good sized legs in one package.

Since this was a trial, I used only one leg for this dish.

Ingredients:
Boiled octopus leg, thawed
200ml Japanese dashi (I made this from dashi pack).
1tbs soy sauce
2tbs mirin
2tbs sake
several think ginger slices

Directions:
I used an Instant pot with a small metal container insert with a silicon lid (you could use the inner pot of the instant pot).
I added the octopus and the seasoning liquid into the insert and put on the lid.
I added 1/2 cup water to the pot and using the metal holder that came with the insert, lowered it into the instant pot.
I cooked it on high pressure for 30 minutes with natural depressurization.
The picture below is after cooking.
One of the problems with the Instant Pot cooking is that the simmering liquid does not reduce at all.
So I decided to put the leg and the simmering liquid in a frying pan and cook it on medium flame for 15-20 minutes until the liquid reduced by half.

I cut the leg into bite sized pieces and served it at  room temperature. This is a most tender and flavorful octopus leg. Next time I will make a larger amount since the entire leg was just enough for two small servings.

Crumpet Version 4 クランペット 第4弾

This is the 4th version of crumpet we (my wife) made. She essentially combined V2 ingredients with  V3 cooking method. She got much better at regulating the flame and made really good crumpets. Compared to thin and small crumpets (V2), V4 has nice crunchy crust but much softer inside. We liked V2 flavors and liked cooking method of V3 (using an 8 inch frying pan). So, this is culmination of all the good aspects of crumpets we made.

Ingredients:
(makes 7, 8 inch crumpets)
2 cups AP flour
1 cup plus 2 Tbs. cake flour
600 ml. warm water
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Sugar
3 tsp. Baking powder (The recipe said baking soda doesn’t work as well)
3 tsp yeast
3 tbs. warm water

Directions
Bloom the yeast in the warm water. Put the flour, water and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on speed 5 for 1 minute until smooth paste forms. Add the yeast mixture, sugar and baking powder and mix on speed 5 for another 30 seconds. Cover with cling wrap and put in a warm place for 15 to 30 minutes. The surface should get foamy but it will only increase in volume by 10 to 15 % (#1 picture below). 

The whole secret of getting the little holes in the crumpets is in the cooking. (They need a burst of heat at the beginning of the cooking process for the water in the batter to form steam bubbles which create little holes when they burst on the surface of the cooking batter.)  Put 1 tsp. butter in an 8 inch skillet and heat on low for at least 5 minutes.  Increase heat to medium and heat skillet for an additional 1 minute.  Increase the heat to high and immediately pour enough batter into the skillet to cover the bottom. (This will give the batter a burst of heat to start the bubbles forming.) After the batter is in the pan quickly reduce the heat to medium low and contiue cooking until the edges are risen, set and beginning to dry out (about 4 minutes). Keep checking the bottom to make sure it isn’t burning. Take skillet off the heat. Place a dry flat spatula on top of the crumpet and pull up sharply to remove the excess batter and reveal the underlying holes (#2). Turn the crumpet over (#3). Return to the heat on medium until the edges on the second side are lightly browned. Remove to cooling rack (#4). Wipe any crumbs out of the pan. Add a little more butter. Turn heat to high pour in more batter and repeat cooking process.

As can be seen in the picture 3 the bottom of these crumpets came out nicely lightly browned. These crumpets were really good. They had better flavor than V3 because the batter was cooked in butter, which gave it a browned butter taste. In addition we avoided the last step in V3 of adding additional water. We used the batter straight from the proofing stage. As a result it still made the required bubbles but the lovely yeast flavor came through. The texture of V4 was better than the texture in V2 because of the addition of the cake flour. When toasted the surface was crunchy with a browned butter taste. The interior was soft with a nice yeasty flavor. Slathered with butter that dripped into the many holes that formed in the cooking process this made a really nice breakfast bread. 

Crumpet version 3 クランペット 第三弾

We have made crumpets a few times. The first attempt was basically a failure. They were certainly edible but did not develop the small multiple holes which makes a crumpet a crumpet. The second attempt was a great success.  Using a “platar” resulted in small crumpets which were the right size but the cooking process was kind of tedious. My wife found a recipe in "Cooks Illustrated 2020" using an 8 inch frying pan to make a large crumpet. It is served cut into wedges. So, she tried it. The serving is shown in the picture below liberally slathered in butter; Yum. 

 

Ingredients
1 cup (5 oz) AP flour
1 cup (4 oz) cake flour
2 tsp. yeast
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup warm water (1 1/4 into dough before rising, 1/4 into dough after rising)

Directions:
Combine AP flour through salt in an 8 cup measuring cup (the measuring cup makes it easier to pour the batter into the pan). Add 1 1/4 warm water and mix until smooth. Cover and let rise until double (about 40 minutes). The whole secret of getting the little holes in the crumpets is in the cooking. Put oil in an 8 inch skillet and heat on low for at least 5 minutes. Meanwhile add the remaining 1/4 water to the batter and mix until smooth. Increase heat to medium and heat skillet for an additional 1 minute. Using a paper towel wipe the excess oil out of the skillet. Pour 1/3 of the batter into the skillet. Increase the heat to high and cook on high for 45 seconds. Reduce heat to medium low and contiue cooking until the edges are risen, set and beginning to dry out (about 4 minutes). Take skillet off the heat. Place a dry flat spatula on top of the crumpet and pull up sharply to remove the excess batter and reveal the underlying holes. Turn the crumpet over. Return to the heat on high until the edges on the second side are lightly browned. Remove to cooling rack. Immediately add half of the remaining batter to the pan, turn up the heat and repeat the cooking process.

The picture below shows the crumpet soon after it comes out of the skillet. As you can see there are many nice holes to collect the melted butter or honey. 

The method works well to elicit the necessary nooks and crannies to collect the toppings. The picture below however shows what happened to the underside that was exposed to the high heat to create those lovely holes. No matter how we did it this happened with the batter actually smoking. The good news is that although the surface turned black it apparently was not burned and tasted just fine.

This process of cooking the crumpet is certainly less tedious than our previous method. The crumpet was very nice; crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. It also held what ever topping we used very well. It tasted pretty good although I think the previous recipe we had tasted better. Also, I'm not sure about adding the additional 1/4 cup of warm water after the batter has risen to double. The recipe says the water in the batter converts rapidly to steam when the high heat is applied creating the bubbles that form the holes before the batter firms up. But this would also have the effect of deflating the rise created by the yeast. The next step would be to use the previous recipe with this cooking method to see what we get. 

Edamame hummus 枝豆フムス

 We usually stock frozen edamame since it is a good and healthy snack. Recently, we found the frozen edamame from a frozen case at Tako Grill to be the best. My wife, found a recipe for "edamame hummus" in the cookbook called "Smoke and Pickles" by Edward Lee which we recently acquired. It used shelled edamame. My wife wanted to make this dish but she thought rather than using our stash of edamame which was in the shell and would have to be shelled it would be better to order some frozen edamame that was already out of the shell.  So we ordered some from our regular grocery store. When deciding what to order we could not figure out if the packages available were edamame shelled or in pods. We took a chance and ordered one anyway and it turned out they were in the pods so they had to be shelled anyway. My wife cooked up the package and shelled them making about 1 cup. She turned the prepared edamame over to me to make the hummus. I diverted from the original recipe a bit but the resulting dip/hummus was quite good.

Ingredients:
1 cup edamame, cooked and shelled
1/2 shallot, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves,
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tbs soy sauce
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter (or tahini or Japanese nerigoma sesame paste)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1tsp salt
1/2 cup water (I did not add the water but I added hot water -may be 1-2 tsp to the peanut butter mixutre to make it looser)
2 tbs olive oil (1/2 tbs to sautee shallot and the remaining mixed into the final product)

Directions:
Mix the peanut butter, soy sauce and hot water to make smooth loose paste.
Heat the olive oil and sauté the shallot and then garlic, add the peanut butter mixture, the edamame and heat up (below).
Using a beaker and emersion blender, process the above mixture. I added additional olive oil to make the mixture a bit smoother. Add lemon juice and cumin. Taste and add a small amount of salt to taste.

This is a unique dip/hummus. The edamame flavor really comes through. Substituting, peanut butter for the tahini (we did this before) worked well. We really like this as a hummus variation.