Japanese Curry Rice

 

Made this curry for lunch today. I typically use the instant curry bars, but we didn't have any on hand. Rather than making a trip to the store I decided to make the curry from scratch considering I had all the ingredients available. I followed a recipe I found here. I substituted curry powder for garam masala and added 1.5 tsp of  cayenne pepper because I like my curry nice and spicy. Whenever I've made curry at home I've had a hard time getting it to the right spice level but this time I was very satisfied with the results. If you like to watch videos, there's also a video of how to make the curry rice on the same site.

Hearth Bread

 

Got this recipe from the back of a flour bag. Not too bad tasting.

Ingredients:

3 1/3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 1/3 cups water
1 teaspoon honey

Directions:

1 . In a medium bowl, stir together flours, salt and yeast. Stir in water and honey. Knead dough until smooth and springy, but still slightly sticky. Add a little flour or water as necessary.
2 . Lightly brush oil inside of large bowl. Place dough in bowl, turning to oil all sides. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
3 . Line cookie sheet with cooking parchment paper or lightly sprinkle with cornmeal. Gently push fist into dough to deflate. Shape dough into a round ball. Place on cookie sheet, cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place about 45 minutes.
4 . Place baking stone on lowest oven rack and heat oven to 475°F Carefully cut an X-shaped slash on top of dough; spray with cool water. Place cookie sheet in oven on baking stone; place one cup water in a shallow pan on the other rack.
5 . Bake 10 minutes; reduce oven temperature to 425°F Bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until bread is golden brown and skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on a cooling rack.
6. NOTE: Stir-ins can include: 1/4 cup of 1 or 2 of the following--Kalamata olives, roasted garlic cloves, cut-up sun-dried tomatoes, slice chives, shelled sunflower seeds, 1 teaspoon fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried herbs such as rosemary or thyme.

Recipe Copyright?

I've been wanting to post the recipes for the food I make for some time. But I didn't know if it was legal or not. I've done a little bit of research now. I think the issue is best summed up in this site. But basically the author says the ingredients are NOT under copyright protection. It should be okay to post a recipe as long as the directions are rewritten and not posted verbatim. Also, linking to the original source and giving credit is a good idea. So I have decided that this is what I am going to do.

Grilled Pork with Grape and Arugula Salad

 

I got this recipe from Great Easy Meals by Food Network Magazine. This is an awesome book I use a lot to make food for my family. Most of the meals can be finished relatively quickly and this is one of them. It took me about 35-45 minutes from start to finish. Maybe it doesn't seem like that fast, but compared to food that takes 4-5 hours, like my failed ravioli attempt, 35-45 minutes is pretty quick. 

Grilled Pork with Arugula and Grape Salad

adapted from Great Easy Meals

1 medium shallot

2 tbs. balsamic vinegar

2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 5-oz boneless pork chops (I like to use thin cut)

3/4 cup red seedless grapes, halved

4 cups baby arugula

1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese

1. Mix together the shallot, vinegar, 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp black pepper in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.
2. Put the pork chops in a bowl. Add 1 tsp thyme and 3 tbs of the dressing. Use your hands to coat the pork with the marinade and let it sit for 5 minutes. Note: You can also season the pork chops with salt if you like before you marinade, but I don't because I think they are salty enough with just the marinade. I've made this recipe before where I have salted the chops and they come out too salty for my preference.
3. Heat the grill pan on medium-high. Grill the pork about 4-5 minutes per side so that it is cooked through. Plate the pork on individual small plates or on a single large plate depending on how you like to serve your meals.
4. In a large bowl, toss the grapes, arugula, and gorgonzola together. You can add the dressing to the salad but I like to serve it separate so my family can portion their dressing to their preferences.

cookingwithdog: Melon Pan

I've been wanting to try to bake melon pan for a while now. There's a bakery in my area that used to make really good melon pan, but they changed their recipe or something so it doesn't taste good anymore. This particular recipe was a big hit with my family but the cookie was not hard or sugary enough for me. It might be because of my family's unreliable oven. That's why the melon pan didn't brown on the top as nicely as it should have. Whenever I bake things in our oven they always come out pale even if they are fully cooked.

I got this recipe from the youtube channel cookingwithdog. It's a great channel that I really want to try out all the recipes from. You can also watch the original video here. Since the recipe is in video form, I transcribed the recipe so you can read it and follow along in the video. The process is time consuming and took me about 5 hours from start to finish.

Melon Pan
(5 pieces)

- Bread Dough -
140g Bread Flour (4.94 oz)
25g Sugar (0.882 oz)
1/3 tsp Salt
5g Non-Fat Dry Milk Powder (0.176 oz)
3g Instant Yeast (0.106 oz) - a little less than 1 tsp
1 tbsp Beaten Egg
70ml Warm Water (2.37 fl oz)
15g Butter (0.529 oz)
Bread Flour for dusting

- Cookie Dough -
25g Unsalted Butter (0.882 oz) Room Temp
35g Sugar (1.23 oz)
25g Beaten Egg (0.882 oz) Room Temp
80g Cake/Pastry Flour (2.82 oz)
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
Bread Flour for dusting

Directions

1.  Cookie dough: whisk butter in a bowl until creamy. Gradually add sugar and dissolve into butter. When the color turns white, slowly add the beaten egg. Do not add it all at once or the mixture will separate.
   
2. Add baking powder to cake flour and mix with a spatula. Sift the flour mixture into a bowl. Sift again into the bowl.
3. Add 1/3 of the cake flour mixture into the butter mixture. Mix with spatula. Repeat with the remaining cake flour mixture. Stir until all the flour is thoroughly mixed. Do not over mix the dough.
4. Place dough on cooking tray covered with plastic wrap. Flour your hands. Shape dough into cylinder. Wrap up the cylinder with the plastic wrap and cool in refrigerator for about 1 hour.
5. Bread dough: add sugar, salt, non-fat dry milk powder, and yeast to the flour. Mix well. Add the beaten egg to the warm water. Gradually pour into the flour and stir with the spatula until evenly mixed. Clean spatula with a pastry scraper and place flour mixture onto a pastry board.
6. Gather the crumbled flour mixture and form it into a ball. Briefly knead with hands. Throw dough onto board, fold it away, grab side of dough and throw again. Gather with scraper; knead dough with hands using body weight. Repeat process until dough is less sticky. Flatten dough and spread on the butter in the center of the dough. Grab outsides of dough towards center and knead in the butter. When the butter is mixed in, gather the dough with the scraper and form a dough ball. Continue to throw dough on board and knead. Repeat throwing and rolling process for 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth and glossy. Shape the dough into a ball and put in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm place (80F) for 40 minutes. Dough should rise by 50%.
7. Remove plastic wrap. Dip finger in flour then poke a hole in the dough. If the hole quickly disappears the dough needs more fermentation.
8. Weight the dough on a kitchen scale. Flatten dough to remove the gas inside. Roll the dough into a long cylinder. Divide dough into 5 pieces; make sure they are equal in weight. Shape into a ball. Line up balls on a cooking tray lightly dusted with flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
9. Divide cookie dough into 5 equal pieces making sure they are equal in weight. Flour hands. Shape pieces into a ball. Place a 3.5 inch diameter drawing of a circle underneath a piece of plastic wrap to use as a guide. Place the cookie dough ball on top of the circle and cover with another piece of plastic wrap. It helps to lightly flour the plastic wraps on the sides touching the dough so the dough will be easy to remove from the wrap. Flatten the dough ball into a circle to match the guide. Lightly dust a cooking tray with flour and place the cookie dough circles on it. Cover with plastic wrap. Set in the fridge in order to make the cookie dough easier to work with.
10.  Shape bread dough into a ball. Cover with the cookie dough circle. Hold ball upside down to bring cookie sheet near to center. Pinch the center and dip the ball upside down into the sugar. I like to roll the top of my dough around in the sugar to make sure it’s nicely coated. Hold melon pan on palm of hand and make a diamond pattern on top with the scraper.
11. Put the melon pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let melon pan sit in a warm place for second fermentation for 40 minutes at about 100F. Should double in volume.
12.   Preheat oven at 340F, bake for 12 minutes. Should be slightly brown on top, remove from oven. Place on cooling rack.

Melon pan before baking

Close up of melon pan before baking

Melon pan after baking

Pics from the Bay Area

Tandoori Chicken, Saffron Rice, and Side Salad

 

Tonight I made tandoori chicken with saffron rice and a side salad. I've made the chicken before and it's always very flavorful. This was my first time making saffron rice. I got the recipe here, which requires the use of a rice cooker. There is also a stovetop version. But heck, my family has a rice cooker, might as well use it. The rice was a big hit with everyone, especially my brother. I'd make it more often for him except saffron is expensive!! It cost about $20 for the saffron which I had to go to Ralph's to get since they sold out at the Albertson's nearest my house.  

Tandoori Chicken

Serves 4

8 skinless boneless chicken thighs

Juice of 1 lemon

Kosher salt

1/2 cup plus 2 tbs. plain yogurt

1 tbs. vegetable oil

1/2 small red onion, roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic, smashed

1 2-in. piece ginger, peeled and chopped

4 tsp. tomato paste

2 tsp. ground coriander

1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 3/4 tsp. hot paprika

2 tbs. chopped fresh cilantro

1. Preheat broiler. Make shallow cuts into the chicken thighs. Toss the chicken in a large bowl with the lemon juice and 1 1/2 tsp. salt.
2. Add 2 tbs. yogurt, the vegetable oil, onion, garlic, ginger, tomato paste, coriander, cumin, 1 1/2 tsp. paprika, and 1/2 tsp. salt in a food processor and pulse to make a paste. 
3. Toss the chicken in the paste and marinate for 15 minutes.
4. Line a broiler pan with foil. I make little slits in the aluminum with a knife where the holes in the top part of the pan are so the juices will drip down into the bottom of the pan. Otherwise, I feel the chicken gets all soggy. 
5. Broil for 5 to 6 minutes until slightly charred. Turn the chicken pieces over and broil for another 5 to 6 minutes.
6. Combine the remaining 1/2 cup yogurt and 1/4 tsp. paprika, cilantro, and pinch of salt into a bowl.
7. Top the chicken with the yogurt mixture and serve with rice.

Failed Ravioli Attempt #1

 

My dad got this recipe from a different cookbook my aunt gave him for his birthday. The filling inside the ravioli is made of several different kinds of mushrooms. The taste of the filling was very good with strong flavor. However, what makes this dish a failed attempt is that the pasta skin was way too hard. It wasn't fun to eat at all. The walnut sauce that accompanies the ravioli was also weird tasting. I don't think it complemented the dish very well.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

 

Made this cake from a cookbook my aunt gave my dad. It was good tasting but the inside wasn't cooked all the way, and it was too liquid-y. It may have been because we used to the wrong baking dish when the recipe calls for a 10x8x3 loaf pan. I want to try this recipe again. It's really rich, it's bread pudding after all. But it would make a good decadent dessert for the holidays.

Dr. Oz's Green Drink

 

After I made this, I officially gave up on "green" drinks. This was too fibrous, I thought I was going to gag as I was drinking it. I might try the version at Whole Foods just because I want to see what this drink it supposed to taste like. And it's also supposedly good. I think the taste would have been okay, except the drink was so thick. The texture is just too much to handle.

Hot Milk Cake

 

This hot milk cake is really delicious. I used whole milk instead of 2% in the recipe the first time I made the cake. The second time I used 2%. The whole milk makes the cake denser. The kids liked the whole milk better while my mom liked the 2% version. Overall it's really easy to make and it tastes wonderful!

My Sister's Chocolate Mousse

Foibles

Foible
noun.

A minor weakness or eccentricity in someone's character
• - they have to tolerate each other's little foibles
The weaker part of a sword blade, from the middle to the point