Bolivian spicy cheese cornbread ボリビアのスパイシーなチーズコーンブレッド

It would appear that my wife is "binge baking"...something I fully endorse. This recipe comes from "Milk Street". She decided to make it because we had several ears of fresh corn left over after making corn souffle and she thought this would be an interesting way to use them. We've never seen a corn bread recipe that used raw fresh corn this way.

On the cut surface, you can see the melted cheeses. You can also see the hole that is left when the cheese melts into the bread. The original recipe calls for Monterrey Jack. Maybe we will use that next time.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/3 cup white sugar
1 Tbs. aniseed
2 1/2 Tsp kosher salt
2 Tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (or more if a hotter bread is preferred)
3 cups corn kernels
1 jalapeno pepper diced
1 1/2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs
1 1/2 sticks salted butter melted and slightly cooled
8 Oz. pepper jack cheese cut into 1/2 inch chunks (we used double Gloucester, smoked Gouda and Gruyere)

Directions:
Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish. (I greased the dish then added parchment paper cut to size and greased it as well. I have found this is a sure proof way to keep the bread from sticking.)

Put the cornmeal, sugar, aniseed, salt, baking powder, and cayenne pepper in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Combine the corn, jalapeno and milk in a food processor. Process until very smooth. Add the eggs and butter and process until smooth again. Pour the corn mixture into the flour mixture and mix until smooth. Add half the batter into the prepared baking dish. Dot the surface with the cheese squares (#1) then cover them with the rest of the batter.

Cook in a 375 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted at the center of the bread comes out clean (#2). Let the bread rest for 20 minutes before serving.

This is  a pleasantly spicy bread with a rich moist texture. The cheese chunks add a nice burst of cheese flavor. (We suggest using cheeses that hold their form when heated like the smoked Gouda. We found the melting cheeses such as Gruyere melted into the bread leaving a small hole behind.)

Nattou and avocado salad 納豆とアボカドのサラダ

I had several ripe avocados in the refrigerator. Whenever we have extra avocados, I usually make guacamole. This time, I remembered a Japanese recipe I saw that used nattou 納豆 and avocado. Since I had frozen nattou which was getting old, I decided to make this dish. As usual, I took the liberty of changing the recipe using my common sense. Since nattou is involved, I served with cold sake (our house sake "Mu" daiginjou 八重垣『無』大吟醸) as a first dish .

As a garnish, I used a chiffonade of basil and dried nori strips. The only reason I used basil instead of perilla was that some cuttings of basil which my wife had harvested were sitting in a glass of water on the counter in front of me. I served more nori strips on the side so we could add more as we ate the salad and mixed the ingredients together.

The avocado and tomato were dressed with Mayer lemon juice (I happened to have one. We love the flavors of Meyer lemon), olive oil and Kosher salt.

Ingredients (for 2 small servings):
1 small package of nattou, previously frozen, thawed, prepared by adding the sauce and mustard that comes in the package with the nattou. Using my nattou mixing contraption, I mixed well (a few hundred times). This will reduce the smell making it to palatable for my wife.

Half ripe avocado, stone and skin removed and cut into bite-size cubes
2 Campari tomatos, skinned (by blanching) and cut into bite-size cubes

Kosher salt, olive oil (we used our favorite spicy Spanish olive oil), and lemon juice from one half of a Meyer lemon (it has the taste between orange and lemon juice).
Several leaves of basil, cut into fine chiffonade
1 package of seasoned nori sheets, cut into thin strips

Directions:
Add the lemon juice to the avocado and tomato and coat well, season it with salt and drizzle olive oil.
Top it with half of the prepared nattou
Garnished it with chiffonade of basil leaves and nori strips

Before eating mix everything together and add more nori strips.

Although nattou was a bit sticky, at least, there was no strong smell (which is good for my wife). This is a really interesting combination and the addition of olive oil and Meyer lemon juice was a key to this dish.

Ravioli with wonton skin ワンタン皮のラビオリ

My sister-in-law gave me a cookbook called "Perfect Pairings"(special issue of "Food and Wine"). One weekend, my wife and I were browsing through it and found several interesting recipes. My wife really wanted to try this ravioli recipe which was paired with champagne in the book. Since it was a very hot summer day, we had this with a rather inexpensive rose wine from Provence called Domaine du Garde Temps 'Tourbillon' Côtes de Provence Rosé 2016 (made of 50% Cinsault, 30% Grenache, 20% Syrah). We started by trying to follow the recipe. When we realized the recipe used 12 oz. of cheese and made over 60 ravioli, I intervened and decided to "wing-it" in my usual style. I used most of the ingredients for the stuffing (without measuring) and took a shortcut using store-bought "wonton" skins instead of making a pasta dough. We served this as a first dish with the aforementioned (a bit over-chilled) rose wine.

For sauce, I simply made a brown butter sauce with capers and Meyer lemon juice with a side of basil leaves. I included a quarter of Meyer lemon just in case we needed more acidity in the sauce.

The next day, I made a sauce of finely chopped shallots sautéed in butter with basil leaves added at the end just to wilt them. I topped with grated Parmesan and just before eating squeezed on some Meyer lemon juice. This was a better sauce for the ravioli.

Ingredients (made about 32-35 ravioli):
For filling
1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1/4 lb prosciutto, thinly sliced and then minced into small pieces (We used Boar's Head brand which appears to be imported from Italy).
1 whole egg
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
One package of baby spinach, cooked without adding additional water, moisture pressed out and chopped.

Instead of using a pasta sheet I used one package of Wonton skins (We ran out of the skins leaving a small amount of filling which we cooked in a ramekin in the toaster oven).
Mixture of flour and water to form a glue to seal the ravioli

For sauce
3 tbs unsalted butter
1-2 tsp of capers, drained, roughly chopped
1/2 Meyer lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl (#1).
Using a small ice-cream scoop, place the filling in the center of the wonton skin and paint the skin with the flour and water mixture (#2).
Take another wonton skin, paint one side with the flour glue and press both wonton skins around the filling try to not to trap any air (#3).
Using an appropriate sized cookie cutter cut around the filling making the square into a round  (#4).
Repeat until either all the filling or all the wonton skins are used up.  We ran out of wonton skins a tad earlier than the filling) (#5 and 6).
Boil the ravioli in rapidly boiling water (salt and olive oil added) for 2-3 minutes or until they float (#7).
Drain and let it cool briefly on metal rack (#8)
After they cooled we stacked the ravioli on a large square plate with parchment paper brushed with olive oil to make multiple layers and keep them from sticking together.  At this point, I suppose you could serve, refrigerate or freeze them.

For serving:
Melt the butter in non-stick frying pan until slightly brown, add the capers.
If needed season it with salt (prosciutto is rather salty, so do not over season).
Add the ravioli and warm it up, squeeze on the lemon and serve immediately.

Making ravioli even when using pre-made pasta skins is a bit of work. My wife and I worked as a team. I filled and sealed the ravioli and she cut them into rounds with the cookie cutter. She over saw cooking them and I prepared the "landing pad" so they would not stick together. But it was worth it. Although I thought I may have used a bit too much prosciutto when I was making the filling (I was trying to use it up), it was just the right amount.  It amalgamated into the Ricotta and spinach mixture adding a nicely complex meaty, salty flavor. The Meyer lemon added a bright note which was both lemony and orangey. This went well with our rose from Provence. The wine is very light with some acidity which went well with acidity provided by the lemons.  The fresh basil leaves were also great. Next time, I may just add few basil leaves to the butter sauce itself. Since we serve only a few ravioli at a time, we will be enjoying them for some time to come. (Good thing we didn't follow the recipe and make 60!)

Pizza two kinds ピザ２種類

Although I posted my pizza recipes before, since I am running out of new dishes I decide to post these two pizzas I made recently which were really enjoyable with a glass of red wine. The dough was hand stretched (not rolled) then transferred to a wooden pizza peel coated with cornmeal (for easy sliding off the paddle). Then bushed with garlic infused olive oil (crushed garlic plus oil).  The first one is Pizza Margherita. Instead of plain Mozzarella cheese I used smoked Mozzarella for this (more details of the recipe have been posted before).

As before I put slices of Mozzarella on the dough and then placed my marinara sauce on the slices of cheese. (the sauce was made from garlic, onion, skinned Campari tomato and several spices).  I put the sauce on the cheese instead of vice versa to prevent the moisture from the sauce making the dough/crust soggy, I put half of the torn basil on top before baking and added more after the pizza came out of the oven. I brushed the crust with the garlic infused oil on the outer edge and added grated Parmigiano Reggiano on the top.

The second pizza included ingredients my wife's suggested. The cheeses were Mozzarella (leftover from making the Margherita pizza), Double Gloucester and smoked Gouda, all finely diced and mixed.  I topped everything with oil cured black olives (stones removed) and pimento stuffed green olive (these olives were ear-marked for the Martinis I have on occasion...oh well).

I garnished the pizza with torn fresh basil and grated Parmesan.

The oven I use; (Miele) has an "intensive" mode which is set at 480F with intense heat from the bottom. I preheated the oven for 30 minutes with a pizza stone on the lower rack. I then slid the pizza onto the stone. It took less than 5 minutes for the pizza to cook. We ate one slice each from each of the two pizzas and then (we couldn't resist) shared one more slice. Luckily, our gluttony still left us with enough slices for leftovers. We wrapped the remaining pizza into 2 slice packets wrapped in plastic wrap and kept them in the refrigerator.  The slices heat up very nicely in the toaster oven (we use "toast" mode with the pizza slices on the aluminum foil). This is a great snack with a glass of red wine to look forward to after we come home from work.

Cold chicken stew with fresh tomato sauce 冷製チキンシチュー

This started out as a leftover control and turned out to be a very nice cold chicken vegetable stew perfect for hot summer. Whenever we barbecue a chicken in the Weber grill, we often use up the breast meat (for sandwiches) but often the dark meat gets left behind. In addition to the left over chicken dark meat, I found a small portion of daikon and 1/4 head of cabbage in the refrigerator.  So, I made chicken and vegetable stew. I had previously made fresh cold tomato sauce  for cold pasta with prosciutto and some of the sauce and Campari tomatoes were left over. So, I combined both dishes and served the combination cold with a garnish of basil chiffonade and a drizzle of our favorite spicy Spanish olive oil.

The addition of the tomato sauce really made this dish. It was perfect for hot summer as a starter.

Ingredients:

For Chicken vegetable stew
Cooked dark chicken meat, 2 legs, skin removed and meat torn into bite sized pieces
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 head cabbage, core removed and cut into bit sized chunks
4 medium Russet potatoes, skinned and cut into bite size
2 inch long Daikon, skinned and sliced in to 1/2 inch thick and then quartered
2 medium carrots, skinned sliced and cut into small cubes
2 tbs olive oil
4 cups no salt chicken broth (Swanson)
Salt and black pepper for seasoning

For cold fresh tomato sauce
2 tbs olive oil
1-2 tbs concentrated Japanese noodle sauce (adjust amount depending on your taste)
6 skinned Campari tomato, quatered
1/2 clove garlic, through a garlic press

Directions:
For chicken vegetable stew
1. Heat the olive oil in deep pan, sauté the onion, and cabbage until wilted. Add the remaining vegetables, cooked chicken meat, and chicken stock. Simmer for 20 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked.
2. Season it with salt and pepper.
3. Let it cool to room temperature and then refrigerate (of course you could eat this as hot stew).

For tomato sauce
1. In a mixing container (for an immersion blender), add the olive oil, garlic, noodle sauce, and 3 quatered tomatoes.
2. Blend using a immersion blender until everything is emulsified.
3. Add the remaining tomato pieces to the sauce.
4. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Assembly:
1. Put the cold stew in a glass bowl and add the fresh tomato sauce (the amount are arbitrary).
2. Lightly mix and taste, if needed add more salt or pepper.
3. Garnish with chiffonade of fresh basil or green perila leaves.
4. Drizzle with your favorite olive oil.

Although this was mostly left-over control, this is a very refreshing cold stew. This is perfect for hot muggy days of summer in Washington.

Sour cream bread サワークリームパン

This again is my wife's baking since I cannot seem to come up with new Izakaya dishes recently, although I am making our favorites regularly. This is also from the "Beard on Bread" cookbook. She decided to make this bread since she had leftover sour cream from making "rich sour cream bread". The name is similar but this is totally different from the other recipe and much easier to make. It is a very versatile bread almost like a white bread loaf but it is a bit more tender and has more flavor.

Perfect for toasting with butter.

Ingredients:
1 package dry yeast
3 Tbs. granulated sugar
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups sour cream (I only had one cup of sour cream so I made up the difference with half and half and it seemed to come out just fine)
1 Tbs. salt
1/4 Tsp baking soda
4 to 5 1/2 cups bread flour

Directions:
Bloom the yeast in the warm water with the sugar dissolved. Add the salt, baking soda and 4 cups of bread flour to a stand mixer with a dough hook. Add the bloomed yeast and sour cream. Mix until dough is formed adding additional flour as needed. Knead for 7 to 10 minutes of speed 2. The dough should be soft, smooth and pliable. Put in a bowl with a little bit of vegetable oil to coat the dough so it won't dry out. Let rise until doubled in size.

Punch down and form into two loaves. Put the loaves in heavily buttered bread pans and let rise until doubled. Cook in a 375 degree oven until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Turn out on a rack to cool immediately.

We had this as a breakfast freshly toasted and buttered. This is a really basic but great bread. It has a fairly fine crumb and soft texture. There is a complexity to the flavor that is very good but subtle and hard to describe. The taste of the bread goes extremely well with the taste of the butter. We probably like this bread better than the other sour cream bread especially for every day.

Cold mint tea 冷ミント紅茶

This cold mint tea was served to us by a neighbor in the town where my wife grew up. It was a very hot summer day and we were waiting for the plumber to come take care of the inevitable plumbing problem that always seemed to manifest whenever we went to work on my wife's parent's house in rural Pennsylvania. We were frustrated, hot and tired when our neighbor suggested we retire to her front porch for some cold mint tea.  It was so refreshing, nicely minty and restorative.  Sitting, rocking on the porch, catching the occasional breeze, watching the cars go by on the street, discussing recent "doings" in the town, we became wrapped in a relaxing calm. What did it really matter the plumber hadn't shown up yet? My wife asked for the recipe for the tea. The neighbor explained how to make it and took my wife to a patch in the back garden where the mint was growing in profusion. Just then the plumber pulled in.

After the plumber left, the neighbor showed up at the back door with a bag full of mint cuttings for us to take home and plant in our garden. My wife started to say "Thank you..." when the neighbor stopped her and wagging a finger said "Never thank someone for a plant cutting or it won't grow; it is an old Pennsylvania Dutch custom."  Not missing a beat my wife said "...for helping with the house." The neighbor smiled, nodded approval, handed over the bag full of cuttings then said, "you're welcome." We planted the mint in several places in our yard after coming home and this year it has become established enough that we can make mint tea using the neighbor's recipe. Every time we taste this tea it reminds us of the time we first tasted it.

We served it in our favorite very thin Japanese tumbler (called "Usuhari"うすはり) which we bought several years ago when we visited Japan.

Ingredients:
Several handfuls of mint (to taste) (#1)
8 cups of water
1/4 cup sugar
3 Lipton (cold brew or iced tea) bags. Cold brew can be made without hot water but according to the package, it can also be made using hot water.

Directions:
Tear up the mint leaves (the neighbor stressed they should be torn, not cut) to increase the flavor.
Add the sugar (#2) and add the water (#3). Bring the water to the boil. Immediately turn off the heat and add the tea bags. Steep the tea for 5 minutes (#4). Strain the tea into a glass container and let cool. Serve cold.

The way my wife makes this tea it is not too sweet. The mint really comes through and this is very refreshing summer drink. We even occasionally take some to work to drink in the afternoon.