Ricotta Lemon Cookie リコッタチーズ レモンクッキー

I just made meat balls with Ricotta and parmesan cheeses using ground chicken instead of pork. I used only 2 tbs. from the container of ricotta. I mentioned to my wife that not only was that container open and mostly full but we were getting a back log of other ricotta cheese containers in the fridge, although luckily they hadn’t been opened. (Apparently, for some reason, every week we bought another container from the grocery store). I suggested to my wife that we should push using ricotta cheese for a while. Then, she saw the recipe of Ricotta cookies at King Arthur site. This was just what we needed and decided to make some. The original recipe used a glaze but we both agreed we did not need one. The original recipe also called for something called “ Fiori di Sicilia” which we didn’t have. But the recipe suggested micro-grated lemon zest and vanilla could be substituted for the “fiori di Sicilia” which is what she did. This turned out to be a great and not-too-sweet cookie. It has a soft consistency almost cake like rather than cookie. We had this as a part of morning breads (#1). We really liked it.

Ingredients X1
1 1/4 cups (150g) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup (41g) Semolina Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup (149g) granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 cup (227g) ricotta cheese, whole milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Lemon zest from one lemon (micro-grated) or 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia*


Ingredients (X2)
2 1/2 cups (300g) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 
1/2 cup (82g) Semolina Flour 
2 teaspoon baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
1 teaspoon Kosher salt 
12 tablespoons (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature 
1 1/2 cup (298g) granulated sugar 
2 large eggs, at room temperature 
2 cups (454g) ricotta cheese, whole milk
2  teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Lemon zest  (micro-grated) or 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia* 


Instructions
To make the dough: Weigh your flours; or measure them by gently spooning them into a cup, then sweeping off any excess.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater attachment, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. (The mixture will not be lightened in color or fluffy in texture.)
Add the egg and mix until fully combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat briefly. Add the ricotta, vanilla, and Fiori di Sicilia. Briefly mix to fully combine.
Add the dry ingredients to the ricotta mixture all at once. Mix slowly until no dry floury streaks remain. Cover the bowl or transfer the dough to an airtight container and chill for at least 2 hours, or up to overnight.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
Scoop the chilled dough into generous tablespoon portions.
Place the dough balls onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them evenly apart (about 12 dough balls per baking sheet)
Bake the ricotta cookies for 15 to 17 minutes, until the edges of the cookies just start to turn light brown.

This was a very nice cookie. It had a soft cake like texture and the lemon flavor really came through nicely  giving it a light slightly sweet flavor. It went very well with our morning coffee. That excess of ricotta cheese won’t be around for long now that we have discovered these cookies.

P.S. Out of curiosity we bought some “fiori di sicilia” flavoring and tried it out in another batch of cookies. While the resulting cookies were very different in flavor from the ones make with just the lemon zest and vanilla, they were still very good. The flavor was much less lemon but had an intriguing somewhat floral after taste. The texture of the cookie was still moist and soft like the previous batch. Next time I may add more of the flavoring to see if I can make it a bit stronger.

Chocolate Milk Bread チョコレートミルクパン

We regularly get a catalog from the King Arthur Baking. One of them had a recipe for “chocolate milk bread”. Being a fan of Japanese milk bread, my wife decided to make it. Compared to regular milk bread, this is much more difficult to make. A direct quote from my wife: “This is the weirdest bread I’ve ever made.” The dough was especially soft and sticky having the texture of dough you would pour rather than knead. Also the instructions to mix on high speed for 20 minutes were unique. The dough did indeed get stiffer after this treatment but it was still impossible to ”fold” and “shape” as instructed. We ended up using a floured board and a baker’s scraper to form it into a loaf and placed it in a pan. It rose very high after baking but collapsed a bit after it was removed from the pan and cooled. The texture was nicely soft but chocolate flavor was muted. We like it very much but knowing the difficulty of making this, we are not sure it is worth the effort to make it again.

Note: We made a second batch of this bread and using “Common Culinary Knowledge” (CCK) we added enough flour to make a stable workable dough. We also did not knead it 20 minutes but the usual kneading time of 7-10 minutes. We also did not bother reweighing the tangzhong but used it as it came out of the pan. The resulting bread was infinitely better than the first batch and is definitely worth making again (even though no distinctly chocolate flavor comes through). 

Ingredients (X1 one loaf)
Tangzhong
2 tablespoons (11g) black cocoa
2 tablespoons (11g) Dutch- process cocoa
1 1/2 tablespoons (11g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (70g) milk, whole preferred; cold
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (70g) water, cold
1/2 tsp. King Arthur espresso powder (optional). (this brings out the taste of the chocolate

Dough
1 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon (219g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour, plus more for dusting or to make the dough stable and useable. 
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (70g) milk, whole preferred; warm (110°F)
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon (41g) granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons (10g) King
Arthur Baker's Special Dry Milk, optional
2 1/2 teaspoons (7g) instant yeast
scant 1 teaspoon (5g) table salt
3 tablespoons (43g) unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg, beaten; divided
Scant 1/2 cup (75g) semisweet chocolate chips

Ingredients (X2) (Why make just one loaf when you can make 2 ?) We made 2 loaves
Tangzhong
4 tablespoons (22g) black cocoa
4 tablespoons (22g) Dutch- process cocoa
3 tablespoons (22g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (140g) milk, whole preferred; cold
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoon (140g) water, cold
1 tsp. King Arthur espresso powder (optional). (this brings out the taste of the chocolate)

Dough
3 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (438g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour (or however more is needed to make the dough stable and useable.  
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (140g) milk, whole preferred; warm (110°F)
6 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoon (82g) granulated sugar
3 tablespoons (20g) Dry Milk, optional
5 teaspoons (14g) instant yeast
2 teaspoons (10g) table salt
6 tablespoons (86g) unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten;
Scant 1 cup (140g) semisweet chocolate chips (we didn’t use this)

Directions:
To make the tangzhong: In a small saucepan, whisk the cocoas, flour, milk, and water until no lumps remain. Over low heat, bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly, until the mixture looks glossy and thickened to the consistency of hot fudge sauce, 3 to 6 minutes. Transfer the tangzhong to the bowl of a stand mixer; it will weigh about 145g after cooking (or 284 if doubling the recipe). If your tangzhong is more than 155g, (or 310g when doubling the recipe) return it to the pot and cook it a bit longer. (We did not bother to do this with the second batch and the bread turned out just fine.)

To make the dough: Add the flour, milk, sugar, milk powder, yeast, salt, butter, and egg to the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the cooled tangzhong.

Using the dough hook, mix on medium-low speed adding additional flour as needed until a soft, sticky workable dough forms, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue mixing until the dough almost clears the sides of the bowl (it will stick to the sides for much of the mixing time) and is smooth and elastic, 15 to 20 minutes total (We did not do this with the second batch we made, 7-10 minutes worked just fine). Every few minutes, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then continue mixing. Eventually the dough will strengthen enough to mostly pull away from the sides of the bowl; the dough will still be slightly sticky but significantly more manageable than it was before. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until puffy and doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Lightly grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan or 9" x 4" Pullman loaf pan with nonstick spray or vegetable oil.
Use a bowl scraper to gently ease the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently form the dough into two loaves. (At this point the original recipe gave complex instructions on how to fold the dough into various squares, which, given the consistency of the dough was quite impossible. It held together but was more a pouring consistency. (#1) Forming it into loaves was the best we could do.) (#2) Cover and let the loaf rise until it just crests over the rim of the pan, 45 to 90 minutes, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. (#3) (If using a 9" x 4" pan, let the dough rise until it's about 1" below the top of the pan.)

Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the chocolate milk bread for 30 to 35 minutes, until the loaf is fragrant, the top crust is firm, and the internal temperature is at least 190°F. Remove the loaf from the oven and cool briefly in the pan before turning it out onto a rack to cool completely.

The loaf was so soft that when we turned it out it started collapsing on itself (# 4) and we had to cool it on its side. Nonetheless once it cooled it stabilized and the soft texture was very nice. (maybe we should leave it in the pan longer before turning it out). There was almost no flavor of chocolate. We ate it for breakfast lightly toasted with butter. It is good we made this bread because it makes our library of Japanese milk breads (to the extent we know of it) complete. But there are various of the other versions we would choose to make before doing this one again.

P.S. Turns out that over time this bread has gotten better. A nice very subtle chocolate flavor has moved to the fore. The texture has also gotten firmer

Apple Pie Muffin Made with Juiced Apple アップルパイマフィン

This all started when my wife made “apple pie muffin”. Since the recipe called for “apple cider”, which we did not have, I used our juicer and made apple cider. I discarded the resulting apple pulp. My wife found out and said she could have used the pulp to make muffins like she did with carrot pulp making the carrot bread muffin. We still had a number of apples and the previous batch of muffins vanished quickly so this time, I made apple cider and kept the apple pulp. My wife made this version of apple pie muffin using both the apple cider and pulp. Why separate the  juice and pulp of apple and then combine to make muffin is a big question but it worked and she made a nice apple muffin (picture #1). Interestingly there was much more apple juice to the amount of pulp. I would say the pulp was slightly over 1 cup and the juice was over 2 cups. (So that explains why those apples were so lovely juicy.) 

Ingredients (X 1, made 12 muffins)

For the crumbs: 
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 
1/2 cup flour 
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 
4 tbs butter 

1 tsp. salt (optional)

For the muffins: 
Juice 3 apples. Drain the pulp (1,2,&3) and save both the pulp and the juice. 
1 to 1 1/2 cup of apple pulp.
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 
2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened, 
3/4 cup granulated sugar 
2 large eggs, at room temperature 
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; for table salt use half as much by volume 
1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature 
1/3 cup apple juice, at room temperature.

Directions: 
Prepare oven and cooking utensils: Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

Make the crumbs for the Muffins: Stir together brown sugar, pie spice,1/2 cup of the flour, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the cinnamon in a medium bowl until well combined. Work in 4 tablespoons of the butter using fingertips until mixture is well combined and resembles wet sand. Set aside. (On a whim my wife decided to add 1 tsp. of salt. This was a remarkable improvement. The salt complemented and accentuated the sweetness of the crumbs. It also provided a surprising note of enrichment.) 

Make the batter for the muffin: In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat granulated sugar and remaining 2/3 cup butter on medium speed until fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape down sides as needed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition, about 30 seconds. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together salt, baking powder, baking soda, flour, and remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Whisk together sour cream and apple juice until well combined. Stir flour mixture into butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream mixture, until flour mixture is moistened but large flour streaks remain. 

Assembly: Spoon batter into bottom of each paper liner. Sprinkle 1 packed teaspoon brown sugar mixture evenly over batter in each muffin liner

Bake for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F and continue baking until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 12 to 18 minutes, rotating pan halfway. Let cool in pan 10 minutes. (#4)\

These were very good muffins and a bit less work than the previous version of apple pie muffin. It had a very tender moist texture with a subtle apple flavor. The salted crumb topping was a nice surprise accentuating the taste of the crumbs that complemented the slightly sweet apple flavor of the muffins.

Wild Rice Salad ワイルドライスサラダ

This is our on-going saga of dealing with BUB (best-used-by) date. We found a vacuum-packed package of wild rice (from Whole Foods) in which BUB was a few years ago. We opened it and decided to cook up half and see if it is OK to eat. It was OK and I made a wild rice salad (not following any particular recipe) with sweet onion, celery, pecans, and craisin (dried cranberry) and my usual honey mustard dressing.  This turned out to be quite good. We vacuum packed and froze the remaining half of the wild rice.

Cooking wild rice:
To save time, I decided to use our trusty Instant Pot. Since I never cooked wild rice in an Instant Pot, I looked it up. The information I gleaned was that the ratio of rice and liquid is 1.3 to 1 since the liquid does not evaporate in an Instant Pot. So I washed and drained 200 grams of wild rice and added 154 grams of chicken stock and cooked it on high-pressure for 20 minutes and naturally de-pressurized. The rice liquid ratio appears correct and the liquid was almost completely absorbed. But when we tasted it, it was clearly under cooked because it was still very hard (al-dente was an under statement). I ended up recooking it by adding the same amount of the chicken stock as the first time and cooking it another 30-40 minutes in a regular pan until the liquid was all absorbed. I did not add any salt but even low sodium chicken stock (Swanson’s) added enough saltiness. We liked the resulting wild rice. 

So, next time, I may increased the cooking time to 30 minutes to see if that will work better.

Making the salad:
Cooked wild rice (I used half of the cooked wild rice which is 100 gram dry weight of wild rice)
2 stalks of celery, strings removed and finely diced
Half of medium sweet onion, finely diced
1/2 cup pecans, roasted in toaster oven and chopped 
1/4 cup craisin
Zest (micro-grated) and juice of one lemon

Dressing
1 tbs Dijon mustard
1 tbs honey
2 tbs rice vinegar
6 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Just add all the ingredients and the dressing in a bowl and mix. 

This made quite a large amount of the salad. The lemon zest and the juice added nice citrucy flavor.

Sashimi Daikon Garnish 刺身の大根つま/けん

Sashimi is usually served with garnishes called  “Sashimi-no-Tsuma 刺身のつま”. The kanji ideogram assigned to the word “tsuma” can be “妻” meaning “wife” which has a somewhat sexist tone indicating shashimi is the main character or “husband” and the garnish supporting sashimi is characterized as the “wife” supporting her husband. The alternative meaning is  “褄”  “edge” specifically in reference to the edge of Japanese kimono clothes since these garnishes are often placed at the edge of the serving plate. The “tsuma” can be thinly julienned daikon, cucumber, carrot, daikon sprout (“kaiware daikon” 貝割れ大根) and other vegetable. Other items such as perilla leaves, lemon slices, “kasisou 海藻” sea plants, edible flowers such as dandelion are also common.

Besides being decorative, there are thought to be several purposes for these garnishes: 1) to refresh your mouth, 2) help keep the sushi fresh (preservative effect) (this is attributed especially to daikon), 3) draining excess moisture away from the sashimi so it isn’t sitting in exuded moisture. Daikon garnish is especially noted for this when it is placed underneath the sashimi. But in the end, I think, being decorative and traditional are the main reasons for why the “tsuma” sashimi garnish is used.  Although eating “tsuma” is not against the etiquette (which I often do but only a small portion of it), the vast majority of “tsuma” is untouched and discarded after serving its purpose much like parsley garnish in the west.  I have seen that, in some sushi bars in Japan, after the sashimi was served, the chef will make a small hand roll of these garnishes and serve it to the guests. Some sushi bars or Izakaya may not use garnish at all or  instead of the traditional garnishes, use other green leafy vegetables.

One evening, I served a small assorted  sashimi plate (picture #1) which included tuna chutoro 鮪の中トロ, scallop ホタテ, botan-ebi shrimp ボタン海老. I also serve tuna and avocado cubes 鮪とアボカドの角切り. All came from Riviera Sea Food Club. Later I fried up the shrimp heads as tempura 海老の頭の天ぷら.  All are good but the point of this post is the “tsuma” garnish. I added the “diakon-no-ken 大根のけん” and perilla leaves from our window sill planter.

Among the “tsuma” garnishes, thinly julienned items are called “ken 劍” which means “sword” apparently from its shape. To make this properly, after the skin is peeled, the inner part is peeled into paper thin layers called “Katsura-muki 桂むき” which produce a long, paper thin sheet of daikon. This is cut into manageable size, stacked and then julienned. Katsura-muki is one of the most difficult Japanese knife skills and it is beyond me. Other alternatives are special cutters. The cheaper one is essentially a spiral cutter which does not produce a true “ken”. The more expensive cutters indeed produce “katsura-muki” and quite good “ken” which is being used in many sushi bars and Japanese restaurants in the US (and probably even in Japan since these cutters are designed and produced in Japan including commercial motorized ones).

So, when I serve  sashimi, I do not add “daikon” garnish.  Recently, however, when I was browsing the new Izakaya cook book called “Rintaro”, I found a short passage indicating you could make authentic “Daikon-no-ken” by using a regular slicer. I tried it and it worked (picture #2).

The important idea is how to preserve the direction of the fibers within the daikon. Once I figured how this would work, I tried it. I first cut the daikon into 2 inch lengths, peeled the skin, and using the Benriner slicer (#1 in the composite picture) adjusting to produce fairly thin slices, made the slices cut along the length. By slicing this way, the direction of the fiber is same as in the “katsura-kuki” sheet. I then stacked them (#2 in composite picture) and julienned along the length (#3 in composite picture). This method produces a nice crunchy consistency because it does not cut across the fibers of the daikon. Soak the julienne in cold water (#4 in composite picture) and then drain before serving. Because both slicing and julienne are done with sharp blades, the surface is shiny and the results are really good if not perfect.(Picture #2).

I am sure this is a very minor thing but I feel better knowing I can do this without mastering the katsura-muki technique. By the way, my wife and I enjoyed all of the daikon garnish.  Since we had excess of the “daikon tsuma”, I made Japanese style salad next day. I added cucumber and carrot prepared like the daikon. I made a simple Japanese style dressing mixing sweet vinegar, soy sauce (x4 concentrated noodle sauce) and sesame oil (picture #3) and served with chicken sausage with sage and apple we got from a local gourmet grocery store. The salad was nice accompaniment to the sausage and very refreshing. 

Braised Eggplant with Ground Chicken 茄子のそぼろ煮

I am always looking for a new recipe especially using eggplants. This one also came from a  chef Kasahara’s 笠原 Youtube episode. Although the original recipe calls for ground pork, I happened to have ground chicken so I made it with eggplants and ground chicken. This turned out to be a good dish and the eggplant absorbed the flavors and almost tastes like meat.  I did not add a poached egg as suggested in the original recipe.

Ingredients:
2 Asian eggplants (long and slender), stem ends removed, peeled the skin in stripes, and cut into half inch rounds
1 1/2 tbs vegetable oil with a splash or dark sesame oil
200 grams ground chicken
2 scallions, finely sliced
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tbs x4 Japanese noodle sauce
2 tbs sake
2 tsp sugar
200 ml water

(hand torn perilla leaves as garnish if available)

Directions:

Add the 1 tbs oil to a frying pan on medium heat, cut side down brown both sides for about 5-7 minutes. remove from the pan and set aside

Add the remaining 1/2 tbs oil to the same pan and add the chicken and cook for few minutes until color changes and meat crumbles into small pieces, add the ginger and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant

Add. the sugar and cook for 1 minute until the surface of the meat becomes shiny (the original recipe calls for more sugar)

Add the sake, soy sauce or noodle sauce, water. Put back the eggplant and cook for 5-7 minutes until the liquid reduces to the point only a thin layer of the liquid remains, add the scallion and mix and shut the flame off

I thought this might be too sweet but the seasoning worked well. My wife really liked it. I will add this dish to my eggplant go-to recipe.

Apple Fritter アップルフリッター

We received a Christmas present which included a good number of apples and pears. We finished all the pears and made a significant dent in the number of apples but we still had several honey crisp apples left. We happened to come across this recipe for “apple fritters”. Since we have never made an apple fritter, and we also happened to have some apples on hand, we decided to try it. It was kind of a production but we fried up fritters for breakfast one weekend. We did not bother with “glazing” them. Hot off the oil (#1) and with cappuccino/cafe late, this was quite a special breakfast. Crispy outside and soft inside with apple cinnamon flavors—can’t be beat, although we should not have this type of breakfast too often.

The original recipe came from “Serious eats”.

Ingredients

For the apples:
226 g granny smith apples (we used two honey crisp apples, peeled, cored and diced in small pieces)
42g unsalted butter (1 1/2 ounces; 3 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon plus a pinch kosher salt

For the dough:
355 g all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons apple pie spice*

2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Canola oil, for frying

*Apple pie spice: 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger and 1/2 tsp cardamon.

Directions:
In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly with a wooden spoon, until milk solids sink to the bottom of the skillet and turn light golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add apples and stir to evenly coat in butter. Cook, stirring occasionally, until apples are crisp-tender and still hold their shape, about 5 minutes. Add lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and apples are glazed in sugar mixture, about 2 minutes. Transfer apples to a large plate and refrigerate until cool, about 20 minutes.

Set a wire rack inside a 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet; set aside. Fill a large Dutch oven with 1 1/2 inches of canola oil and heat over medium-high until oil is 375ºF (190ºC).

In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, apple pie spice, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt to combine; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, milk, sour cream, and vanilla to combine. Add sour cream mixture and cooked apples to dry ingredients, and, using a flexible spatula, fold together until a thick batter forms.

Working in batches carefully drop about 1/2 cup of batter into the hot oil and, using the back of a spoon, immediately press fritter until fritter is about 4-inches in diameter. Fry, adjusting heat as needed to maintain temperature, and use a spider skimmer or slotted spoon to flip fritters halfway through. Cook until fritters are browned, puffed, and cooked through, about 5 minutes (picture #2). Transfer finished fritters to prepared wire rack and repeat with remaining fritters (picture #3).

This recipe made a quite large amount (picture #3). The fritter heated up very well in the toaster oven. They were quite a treat (Can’t go wrong with sweet, spicy, fried bread.) The outside had a wonderful crunch and the inside was soft and sweetly spicy. The apple gave a burst of sweet fruit taste.