Chestnut, Brown Butter, Sage Muffin 栗の粉とセイジマフィン

This fall we bought a new batch of chestnut flour. It was to replace the previous batch we had been storing in the freezer that had a Best-Use-By (BUB) date of 2015. The new batch came in bulk; 3 bags of flour. Given this “plenitude”, my wife was trying to come up with new dishes to use the chestnut flour. She came across a recipe for “chestnut and sage muffin” at the “Serious eats” site.  This was a perfect recipe to use for 2 reasons: 1) as previously stated we had an abundance of chestnut flour and 2) The sage bush in our herb garden still had nice lush green leaves despite several cold days and snow. The muffin was really good. Nice sage and brown butter flavor and chestnut flour made this muffin very light and moist.

I ask my wife to continue as usual.

Ingredients: (makes 12 small muffins)
Several bunches of sage (with about 5 leaves on each, one of which used in the browned butter the other steeped in the milk).
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup milk
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup chestnut flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup yogurt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract


Ingredients X2: (suggested to make larger muffins)
Several bunches of sage (one of which used in the browned butter the other steeped in the milk. The more leaves use the more intense the sage flavor).
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup chestnut flour
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoon baking soda
1  teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine milk and sage in small saucepan and heat to a bare simmer, then remove from heat and cover. Allow to steep at least 10 minutes, then remove sage, squeezing as much milk as possible from sage before discarding.
2. Place butter and remaining sage in small saucepan and heat over medium until melted and foamy. Allow to cook until liquid butter is golden brown and solids at bottom are deep brown and smell nutty. Transfer to a heatproof container, remove the sage and make sure to scrape out as much of the browned butter solids as possible.
3. Combine all purpose flour, chestnut flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium mixing bowl. Sift if necessary, or simply whisk together. In separate mixing bowl, combine sage milk, sage butter, yogurt and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry until all streaks of flour are incorporated and batter is fluffy and slightly lumpy. Divide evenly between cups in a 12 cup muffin pan lined with paper cups. Bake 7 minutes, then rotate pan and bake another 3-5 minutes, until a skewer inserted into muffin comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake. Allow to cool in pan slightly before transferring to rack to finish cooling.

These are truly remarkable muffins. They are a combination of unexpected tastes that work extremely well together. The combination of browned butter and sage came through with a pleasing robustness. The chestnut flour added a slightly nutty dimension. The chestnut flour also contributes to the very light and tender texture of the muffin. While these muffins were a bit of surprise flavor-wise they were also a great new discovery. Next time we’ll double the recipe so the muffins are a bit larger.

P.S. In early February, the plum tree in our yard started blooming. It is always amazing and nice to see this when it is still winter and the weather is still cold. It is such a nice early harbinger of hope for the upcoming spring.

Sweet Potato and Chestnut Rice サツマイモ、栗ご飯

My wife got three relatively small Japanese sweet potatoes or “Satsuma-imo” さつまいも from Whole Foods.  She was vaguely thinking of making sweet potato muffins but the amount was not really enough. I suggested making sweet potato rice instead (I ended up using all three potatoes for three different dishes). Since we also had prepared chestnuts, I made sweet potato chestnut rice. To extend the autumnal theme, I also made miso soup with mushrooms and lily bulb. Since I also made new batches of pickled daikon and “asazuke” 浅漬け cucumber, I served those on the side.

This is a close-up of sweet potato chestnut rice. I sprinkled “goma-shio” ごま塩, a mixture of black sesame and salt.

For the miso soup, I added shimeji しめじand shiitake mushroom along with lily bulb 百合根 which sank to the bottom. We picked the lily bulb up with the chopsticks so they got their place in the photo op.

Ingredients:
2 cups (using the cup came with out rice cooker) of short grain rice (we used “Yumepirica” ゆめぴりかHokkaido rice we got form NY rice factory).
1 inch square kelp
1 Japanese sweet potato, peeled, diced and soaked in cold water
10 prepared chestnuts
1 tbs x4 concentrated “Mentsuyu” Japanese noodle sauce

Directions:
Wash the rice, place it in the rice cooker, add the specified amount of water, add the seasoning, sweet potato and chestnuts and turn on the switch.
When it is done (see below), remove the kelp and gently mix.

This is a very autumnal and nice rice. Nice sweetness from both the sweet potato and the chestnuts with contrasting texture of soft and somewhat crunchy. I just sprinkled the “goma-shio” and my wife, as usual, added butter and soy sauce. The soup also went very well. The nice sweetness and crunchy texture of the lily bulb and mushrooms worked well together. We were also pleased with the daikon tsukemono.

Chestnut Soup 栗ときのこのスープ

We used to get fresh chestnuts from California every fall. The preparation, especially removing the inner brown membrane is time consuming and difficult. So we decided to try commercially prepared chestnuts sold either in a jar or a plastic pouch. As a test to see if the prepared chestnut tasted any different from the fresh, I made chestnut rice 栗ごはん with it. The final dish came out similar to using fresh chestnuts with the added advantage of much less effort of preparation required. (Since we posted  making chestnut rice with fresh chestnuts and this preparation tasted exactly the same we did not post it again.) But this exercise proved to us that fresh and commercially prepared chestnuts are interchangeable.  After making the rice we were left with one and half bags of prepared/roasted chestnuts (about 7-8 oz or about 200 grams.) My wife came up with this chestnut soup recipe which she found on-line. Again I had to modify the recipe because of the ingredients we had. The original calls for dried porcini and fresh button mushrooms but I only had fresh shiitake mushrooms.

Ingredients
5-6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced.
2 tbs. unsalted butter and 2 tbs. olive oil
1 large leek, white and tender green parts only, finely chopped
1 carrot, thinly sliced
2 celery stalks finely chopped
1 teaspoon minced rosemary (from our herb garden)
7 oz. (200 grams) peeled roasted vacuum-packed chestnuts (see picture below)
3 cups chicken stock
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

For garnish
1 tbs each of olive oil and unsalted butter
5-6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stem removed and caps thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh rosemary, finely chopped up

Directions
In a saucepan on medium heat, add the olive oil and butter. Add the sliced shiitake mushrooms, leeks, carrot, celery and rosemary and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are cooked; about 15 minutes. Add the chestnuts and stock, season with salt and pepper. Bring the soup to a boil and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth.

For garnish
In a frying pan, heat the oil and butter. Add the sliced shiitake mushrooms, cook over moderately high heat until lightly browned (6 minutes). Season with salt and pepper. I served the soup warm and garnished with the sautéed shiitake and the chopped rosemary.

This is an excellent soup/potage. The chestnuts and leeks imparted a nice sweetness and distinctive chestnut flavor. Although the original recipe calls for heavy cream, I served this warm without any cream. It really didn’t need it. We had this as a lunch with slices of my home baked baguette. I am sure certain chestnut dishes cannot be made using these kinds of prepared chestnuts but I will try to use them in more of our favorite chestnut dishes

Chestnut Flour Cake with Persimmons and Buttermilk チェストナッツフラワーと柿のケーキ

This is an another cake my wife made from the new chestnut flour.   She came across the recipe using chestnut flour, persimmons, and buttermilk. Since we happened to have all these ingredients, she went for it. The cake was very moist and had nice chestnut flavor but the persimmon flavor is very subtle (i.e. not discernible at all). It was not too sweet and perfect for breakfast.

Ingredients:
172 grams chestnut flour
148 grams or 5.2 ounces of persimmon puree. *
1/2 cup buttermilk (we used my wife favorite buttermilk from Harrisburg dairies.)
3 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup melted unsalted  butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
generous pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder

* The persimmon came from Weee (#1 below). They are “Fuyu” 富有柿 (which is pronounced “fuyuu” meaning “wealthy”) variety and are called chocolate fuyuu because of the dark brown color of the fruit. They were not expensive but they were small with seeds. (Most commercially grown Fuyu persimmons are seed-less). They were irregular in shape with dark blemishes which made them look like they came from somebody’s backyard tree. But when ripened they are very good with pudding-like consistency and sweet. Only problem was that it was very difficult to remove all the seeds/stones.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Butter 9" cake pan. (Having learned from our previous experience with the chestnut flour cake we added a buttered piece of parchment paper to the bottom of the pan and the cake came out of the pan with no problem) 
Puree the persimmon and set aside (#2). Sift chestnut flour to remove any larger bits/chunks.
Mix dry ingredients in bowl and set aside. Using either an electric mixer or a bowl whisk and beat the eggs. Add other wet ingredients. Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until fully incorporated (#3).
Pour batter into buttered pan and put into pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes, until the cake is firm in the middle and a toothpick pulls out clean. Remove from oven and cool on baking rack for at least 30 minutes before serving (#4). We reheated in the microwave for 15 seconds (First picture).



This cake was very moist, slightly sweet with a dense texture. The nutty chestnut flavor came through but we couldn’t identify any persimmon taste. This was a very good addition to breakfast.

Castanaccio Pugliese (Chestnut Flour Cake) カスタナチオ

We like pancakes for breakfast sometimes. One of the unusual ones we like to make is chestnut flour pancake”. Since we are now in the chestnut season, we decided to have the chestnut flour pancake for breakfast one weekend. We keep all exotic and whole grain flours including the chestnut flour in a small freezer in the basement. When my wife got it out, she realized its BUB (best used by) was in 2015. It smelled ok. We went ahead and made the pancakes which were very good but even by our standards this flour was a bit too far past its BUB. We decided it is the time to buy a new batch. We got a couple of bags of chestnut flour and my wife looked for some new recipes to use it. She came across this recipe for chestnut flour cake on-line. Actually, she made a chestnut flour cake with the same Italian name “Castagnaccio” previously. But that cake was quite different from this one. It was very savory and did not use any leavening agent, or sugar but did use fresh rosemary which provided good flavor. Overall, however, we were not crazy about it because it was rather dry and crumbly. The new recipe she found must be a variation of an Italian generic cake called castagnaccio. In any case, the major differences are this cake uses a leavening agent, sugar and coco powder. Instead of herbs such as rosemary this used a combination of nuts and candied fruit. It is much thicker as well. This version is more suitable for breakfast or dessert than the previous version which was more savory and as the original recipe suggested “should be washed down with red wine”. The common thing is that both cakes are quite crumbly. (We ended up eating both of them as crumbs with a spoon.)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chestnut flour
1/3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
2 tablespoons honey, plus more for serving
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup of Harry and David’s medley of candied fruit. (The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup dried cranberries, plumped in 1/4 cup warm water or wine - preferably Vin Santo).
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup roughly chopped toasted walnuts (As added measure we added chopped chestnuts)
Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Prepare a 9-inch cake pan (The original recipe suggested lightly greasing it with olive oil but we had trouble getting the cooked cake out of the pan. We suggest next time greasing the bottom of the pan and adding a layer of greased parchment paper.)
Toast the pine nuts and walnuts. In a large bowl, swift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, honey, eggs and milk. Slowly pour the liquids into the dry ingredients, whisking very well to avoid lumps. The batter should be smooth and a bit liquid. Add the nuts and dried fruit. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 35 minutes, or until the cake begins to puff slightly and the middle is set. Remove from the oven and cool completely before removing from pan.
Dust lightly with confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder and serve with some warm honey.

We found it was difficult to remove the cake from the pan. A portion of it stuck to the pan and crumbled. (See the picture below). (Next time, we will use buttered parchment paper on the bottom of the pan). Even the portion that came out in one piece was difficult to cut into wedges since it kept crumbling. The only good thing was that even the crumbs tasted good.

Although eaten in crumbs this cake was very good. The chestnut flour added a nuttiness to the overall chocolate flavor. The pine nuts, walnuts and dried fruit added little bursts of flavor and texture. The dried fruit was particularly nice because it added a burst of sweetness. Interestingly, over time the chestnuts we added became rock hard and we had to be careful to remove them from every mouthful. We liked this cake better than the previous version my wife made. It would just be nice if it did not disintegrate into crumbs.

Octopus rice 瀬戸内海蛸めし

 We have been getting Japanese rice from the New York Rice factory. It may be hard to believe (we our selves are somewhat incredulous) that there could be such a difference in something as subtly flavored as rice but the rice from the rice factory is really good. It is hard to identify what sets it apart from the rice we used to get but in general we really like the texture, the taste and especially how well it can be reheated and still tastes like it just came out of the rice cooker.

 Whenever I order rice from the rice factory I usually supplement the order with other items. In the past, we got a kit to make “red snapper rice” or “taimeshi” 鯛めし, a type of seasoned rice famous in the Japanese inland sea area or "seto-naikai" 瀬戸内海.  Another time I ordered a similar seasoned rice kit made with octopus called “seto-naikai tako-meshi” 瀬戸内海蛸めし. After I bought it, however, the kit sat in our pantry for some time. When I checked the expiration date, it had expired the previous month, so I decide it was time to make it as a shime 〆 or ending dish one weekend. The kit came in several pouches; one with seasoning sauce, one with small bits of octopus, one with freeze dried items. It also included a rectangle of kelp. I made the octopus rice according to the instructions. I served it with a side of simmered Japanese root vegetables I had made and salted cucumber, daikon and nappa cabbage or "oshinko" お新香.

 

The octopus was in really small pieces as you can see on the top of the rice in the next picture. I used a one to one mixture of glutinous “mochi” rice 餅米 (called "Hakucho" はくちょう or swan from Hokkaido and regular "uruchi" rice うるち米 called "Yumepirika" ゆめピリカ also from Hokkaido. (These two rice varieties came from the Rice Factory.) 

The simmered vegetables included shiitake 椎茸 (from dried and hydrated), "renkon" レンコン lotus root, "gobou" ごぼう burdock root, carrot, small bamboo shoot "or sasatakenoko" 笹筍 and konnyaku or konjack 蒟蒻.

The next picture shows the modified "oshiko" salted cucumbers and other vegetables I made. I modified the original recipe by increasing the salt from 2% to 3% weight of the ingredients and adding a small amount of Vodka. As a result this dish lasts much longer than when I made the 2% salt version.

This octopus rice was ok but we thought the tai rice 鯛めし was better (the octopus pieces were really  very minuscule). My wife said that the seasoned rice I make including chestnut rice 栗ご飯 and matsutake rice 松茸ご飯 are better and there is no reason to buy seasoned rice kits. In any case, this was a nice "shime" dish.

PA Dutch Schnecken ペンシルバニアダッチ シュネッケン

My wife grew up in the PA Dutch area of Pennsylvania and PA Dutch food is something special for her from her childhood.  For Christmas, we usually get German-style cookies from a bakery called “Bredenbecks” which is located in Philadelphia, (historically Germantown but currently Chestnut Hill) and has been in business since 1886. According to my wife, these cookies were her grandfather’s favorite and he used to bring a large tin of them from Bredenbecks every year when her grandparents came for Xmas. So, for my wife, Bredenbecks’ cookies are associated with a good time during the holidays as a kid. Last Xmas, my wife decided to try something different in addition to the traditional German cookies. So she ordered a tin of “Schnecken” (which means “snail” in German).* As I mentioned before, I am not a “desert” person and I have to admit I am also not a charter member of the traditional German cookie fan club. For these reasons I have no problem by-passing a plate full of them without taking one. But the schnecken were great! (My wife actually caught me red-handed snarfing some directly out the tin between meals). 

*digression alert: One year my wife decided to order a stollen in addition to the traditional German cookies from Bredenbecks. While the cookies are shipped in a tin, the stollen was shipped in a light cardboard box. The goodies were delivered to the front door and quickly discovered by the resident squirrels who recognize a good thing when they smell it. They busted into the box and helped themselves to the stollen. By the time we got home the only things left were a cardboard shipping box with a large hole in it, a few large crumbs and chunks of stollen scattered all over the front porch. It was a merry holiday for some lucky squirrels. 

Recently my wife was going through one of the old PA dutch cookbooks she has when the recipe for PA Dutch schnecken jumped out at her. Knowing how much I liked the ones from Bredenbecks she couldn’t ignore the recipe and decided to surprise me with some. As shown in the picture below the schneken from Bredenbecks are little cookies and shaped more like a mini-croissant than a snail. 

As shown in the next picture, the PA Dutch schnecken my wife made is more like cinnamon a bun but as you can see, it is indeed shaped like a “Schnecken”.

The picture below shows the cut surface. Alternating layers of bread and cinnamon sugar/ butter. This version is not too sweet but very flavorful and we are enjoying them mostly as a breakfast.

I ask my wife, as usual, to share the “how-to” part.

Word of advice from wifey: in the tradition of old recipes used to make dishes for large farming families (such as the PA Dutch), doing hard labor chores the yield from this recipe is quite generous.…it makes 2 dozen schnecken! 

Ingredients:
For the dough
1 package of yeast
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/3 cup sugar
4 to 5 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cup milk (buttermilk would work too)
2 eggs beaten
1/4 cup melted butter

For the filling
1/3 cup butter softened
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. Ground cinnamon

Optional topping
1 egg white mixed with 1 tbs water
1/2 tsp. Sugar per muffin (more or less to taste)

Directions:
Add the dry ingredients (yeast through flour) to the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook. Mix together the wet ingredients (milk through melted butter) together and mix well. With the mixer running add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Add more flour as needed to make a soft dough. Knead for 7 to 10 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place.

Meanwhile combine the ingredients for the filling (butter through cinnamon) into a paste and set aside.

When the dough has doubled in size punch it down and divide it into two portions weighing them to make them about even in size. Roll out each portion into a rectangle of about 15 X 18 inches. Spread 1/2 the filling over each rectangle right to the edges. Roll up each “as for a jelly roll” as specified by the instructions. Cut each roll crosswise into 12 pieces. (A word of advice: to get pieces of somewhat equal size, cut the roll into thirds. Then cut each third into fourths (3 x 4 = 12). Place the slices cut side down into a well greased muffin tin. (First picture below) Cover and let rise until double. Just before baking brush each muffin with the egg wash mixture and sprinkle on the desired amount of sugar per bun. This sugar will caramelize slightly when cooked. Bake in a 375 degree oven form 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. (Second picture below). Another word of advice: remove the buns from the tins immediately after they come out of the oven before the caramelized sugar hardens . Once it hardens it will become extremely difficult to extract them. Also, scoop any caramelized sugar left on the bottom of the tins before it hardens and spread onto the buns.

Here are a bunch of snails. 

Imagine how nice it was to come home to the rich baking smell of butter, cinnamon and caramelized sugar. As usual my wife made a small one for me to eat immediately upon my arrival. Needless to say that one disappeared very quickly. While this is basically a cinnamon bun it is more demure than its better known cousin the sticky bun. The sweetness is just right with a gentle taste of cinnamon and a lovely soft slightly chewy dough. Only 2 dozen yield?

Chicken and chestnuts stew 鶏肉と栗の煮込み

For some years we have gotten fresh North American chestnuts from California. It is a lot of work to peel/clean chestnuts. It is particularly hard to remove the internal brown membrane or “shibukawa” 渋皮 that extends into the meat of the chestnut and is a particular characteristic of North American chestnuts.  The chestnuts we got from California last year were a bit disappointing. They were kind of dry and chalky. So this year we got prepared chestnuts in a jar. According to the label they appear to have been packaged/processed in France but the chestnuts themselves originated in unspecified EU countries. It said “roasted chestnuts” but in fact they were steamed. When we opened the jar, many of the chestnuts were fragmented with a few whole intact chestnuts tucked in at the top. They were not sweetened and tasted fairly good with nice texture**. So I decided use the chestnuts for this stew dish I saw on line. Since I had leftover daikon and burdock root I need to use up this recipe was a perfect choice. Although the recipe calls for “renkon” 蓮根 lotus root, I did not have it. I made this one weekend morning and served this as a lunch with kinpira-gobou 金平牛蒡 and rice.

**Interestingly, my wife discovered while eating the dish I made that several of the chestnuts indeed had the internal  brown membrane. These membranes were left in the nut and the nut was just processed as if they weren’t there. It was a rather unpleasant surprise to bite down unexpectedly on the hard shell-like substance. After that she recommended checking the chestnuts as they come out of the jar and if necessary dismantling them to remove any membrane left. We saw this as a sloppy element of the processing. 

Not all the items I put in the dish are seen in the picture. I also put in konjack or konnyaku こんにゃく．The seasoning is typical Japanese but the kobou flavor comes through strongly. While simmering, the chestnuts broke into large chunks but tasted good.

According to the recipe the chicken was to be cooked in water with sake and scallion before adding to the rest of the ingredients. I would have just put the cut up chicken into the stew. I suppose this extra process would reduce “chicken-ness”.

Ingredients (at least 4 fairly good size servings).
For pre-cooking of the chicken
Two chicken thigh, bone removed (I left the skin on) .
2 tbs sake
2 scallions
several slices of ginger
12000 ml water

For stew
2-3 inch daikon, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds and then quarters
2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces (“rangiri” 乱切り cut at 45 degree angle as you rotate the carrot)
1/2 “gobou” burdock root, skin scraped off using the back of the knife and also cut into bite sized pieces using “rangiri”
2 inch long renkon, skin peeled and cut into 1/4 inch thick half moon (I did not have renkon).
1/2 Konnyaku, torn into small bite sized pieces by hand (irregular shapes increase the surface areas), parboiled and drained
10-15 parboiled green beans
12-15 chestnuts (original recipe calls for roasted and sweetened chestnuts called “Tenshin amaguri” 天津甘栗.

For cooking liquid
250ml of the water in which the chicken was cooked
250ml dashi broth
100ml sake
3 tbs mirin
3 tbs soy sauce
1-2 slices of ginger cut into julienne

Directions:
For pre-cooking the chicken
Add the sake, ginger and scallion to the water and let it come to a boil then place the chicken into the water.
Turn down the flame to simmer and let it cook for 5 minutes and then turn off the flame. Let it stand for 15 minutes (the original instructions said cook for15 minutes but I thought that would be overcooking especially since the chicken will be simmered again with the vegetables).
Take out the chicken and cut into bite sizes pieces.
Keep the water which was used for cooking the chicken to  cook the vegetables.

For stew
Add the chicken cooking liquid to a pan
Add the chicken, vegetables and konnyaku
Cook them on medium high flame
Once it starts boiling, turn down to simmer, add the chestnuts and cook for 20 minutes.
Add the green beans in the last 5 minutes.

This has a typical Japanese flavor profile. I am not sure pre-cooking the chicken is necessary. The prepared chestnuts had a natural sweetness and the entire dish was really nice if not outstanding. The quality of the jarred chestnuts was not the best we have ever had but it was still a lot easier then trying to process the raw chestnuts and tasted better too. 

Traditional Irish soda bread 伝統的アイルランドソーダブレッド

 Just a few days before St. Patrick’s day, I happened to see  a  “real Irish soda bread” recipe on the “Serious Eats” website. I showed my wife the recipe and in passing mentioned that St. Patrick’s day was coming up. Next thing I knew she has found 2 other Irish soda bread recipes and for 3 days in a row when I came home a new loaf was cooling on the rack. What a treat!  This is the first loaf she made. It was baked in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven like “no-knead bread” and produced a nice brown crust and center was moist.

She cut the traditional cross on the top but the dough was very wet and just filled in. Nonetheless you can still a light impression of the cross.

The below recipe is from “Serious eats”

Ingredients
15 ounces all-purpose flour (3 cups; 425g)
1 3/4 teaspoons (7g) kosher salt; for table salt, use the same weight or half as much by volume
1 1/8 teaspoons (6g) baking soda
18 ounces low-fat cultured buttermilk (2 1/4 cups; 510g), well shaken

Directions
1.Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 450°F (230°C) at least 15 minutes in advance. Roughly cover the bottom of a deep 10-inch cast iron or enameled Dutch oven with a sheet of parchment paper; no need to trim.
2.Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk a full minute to combine. Stir in buttermilk with a flexible spatula until dough is fully moistened and no pockets of flour remain. For extra-fluffy results, stop folding as soon as dough comes together. For extra-chewy results, fold dough about 20 seconds more. Scrape sticky dough into prepared Dutch oven and smooth with a spatula into a rough boule-like shape. Score deeply into quarters with a sharp knife or razor, cleaning the blade between each slice.
3.Cover and bake until well risen and golden, 45 minutes. Remove lid and continue baking until chestnut brown, with an internal temperature of 210°F (99°C), 12 to 15 minutes longer. Invert onto a wire rack, discard parchment, turn right side up, and cool until crumb has set, about 30 minutes. Cut thick slices to accompany hearty soups and stews, or slice thinly for sandwiches. (This will be easier if bread is allowed to cool 2 hours more.) Store up to 24 hours in an airtight container and toast to freshen bread before serving.

The bread had a nice crunchy crust and the interior was moist with a nice crumb. The buttermilk gave it a subtle tang. The flavor was a bit salty. We had this with a lamb stew I made. (What else would you have for St. Patrick’s day?) This was the perfect bread to accompany the stew. 

Our plum tree was in full bloom and our backyard was filled with the nice sweet smell of plum blossom. This is the plum tree we got many many years ago. We wanted the type of plum that produced the fruit used to make Japanese salted plum and umeshu.  After some search, we finally found one at an Oregon nursery. It arrived as a twig in a small envelope but it miraculously grew into a good sized tree and provided lots of plum fruit over the years. We used the fruit to make “umeshu” plum wine. Then, a few years ago all the plum trees in the area got a fungal disease. Our poor tree was no exception. We thought it was a “goner” especially after we had to transplant it during a landscaping project. Although the tree is much smaller than it was at its peak, it appears that this plum tree is surviving. Spring is almost here.

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. 

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!