Jasmine Tea

Strawberry Bubble Tea and Sweet & Salty Popcorn

2011-07-03T12:42:00.000-07:00

A relaxing Sunday afternoon, mostly overcast sky with lucky sunny breaks in between, I revisited Finn Slough, a place not so far away from where I live, a tiny community with distinct looking wooden houses built along a marshy river bank. Every time I go there, I can't stop imagining how life would be like in the old days when it was still a robust fishing village. The Finnish fishermen may be long gone, but what's left are the remnants that merged with the landscape to create a unique place. Here are some of the pictures taken.

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After a joyful afternoon with some new photos to process, I'd like to have something fun and refreshing as snack. Got a box full of local strawberries the other day. They were so juicy but still a bit tart. I also have some tapioca balls that I wanted to try out. So, I make some strawberry bubble tea, with all natural ingredients, no artificial milk and fruit powder as in a lot of other recipes suggested.

Recipe: Strawberry Bubble Tea

Serve 2

Ingredients:

1 cup strawberries, washed and cut into halves or quarters

1 ripe banana, cup into 1" pieces

1/4 cup cooked tapioca balls

1/2 cup low fat milk

1/2 cup strong tea, cool in the fridge if freshly brewed

3 Tbsp sugar syrup (mix 1/2 cup white, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 cup water, simmer until sugar melted)

2 Tbsp sugar or honey (optional)

ice cubes (optional)

Instructions:

Put all ingredients except tapioca balls in the blender. Process until smooth. Put tapioca balls in a glass first and then pour in the blended mixture. If prefer ice cold drink, put a few pieces of ice cubes in.

Easy enough, right? Just a few tips to make it right:

The strawberries I have are still quite tart. So, to reduce the sugar that I have to put in, I put in a banana. It increase the sweetness and also the creaminess of the drink.
There are a few different brands of tapioca balls in the Asian market. I bought the one that is vacuum sealed and made in Taiwan, where bubble tea originated. And cook it according to instruction on the package. The process usually involves cooking the balls in boiling water for 15 to 30 mins and then steep in the boiled water for another 30 mins. Adjust the timing to get the chewiness texture that you want.
As the sweetness of the berries varied, adjust the additional quantity of sugar or honey to suit your own taste

Last week I went to the farmers' market and bought some kettle corns which were so good that me and N finished a big bag in no time. Of course, I will try to DIY so that we can have a continuous supply of it at home. We always use the Alton Brown method of making popcorn and season it with different spices after cooking. How to incorporate sugar is a different story because you want the sugar to melt. The Rachael Ray recipe solves the problem: to put in the sugar with the popcorn in the oil before it pops. The popcorn came out perfectly cooked and tasted just like the one in farmers' market.

Recipe: Sweet and Salty Popcorn

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup popcorn kernels

2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Utensil required:

A good quality big stainless steel bowl, around 10" in diameter.

Aluminum foil to cover the stainless steel bowl, poke a few holes on it for ventilation

Oven mitts

Instruction:

Heat oil over medium heat in stainless steel bowl until just before smoke comes out. You can test the hotness by putting a piece of popcorn kernel in. When it pops, the oil is ready.
Add popcorn kernels and sugar in the oil all at once. Cover the bowl with the piece of holey foil.
Put your oven mitts on and start shaking the bowl continuously. After a 20 to 30 sec., the popping starts. Yes, there is a bit of exercise involved. It will take a few minutes to have the kernels all popped. But don't stop shaking until the popping sound gradually dies down. Turn off the heat.
Season the popcorn with salt.

For those of you who are in Canada and US, Happy Canada Day and July 4th!!

All images copyright © Yogi Studio 2011

Caribbean Chicken Wings

2011-05-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

Finally got some time to finish off this post!. Once again, I rely on the food and its taste and color to make the bad weather go away. I am getting tired of this gloomy wintery spring. I want the bright and blooming sun, not the timid and shy one. I believe this Caribbean chicken can perform its magic. The sweetness and spiciness compliments each other perfectly, with the use of the citrus to brighten up the flavor, these chicken wings are scrumptious and addictive. Don't be scared by the long list of ingredients. Just gather all the seasonings and put it in the food processor and the marinate is done. You do need some time to marinade the chicken, but the reward for waiting is big. The cooking process is hassle free. What can be simpler than baking and glazing!

I hope you will enjoy this easy recipe and let's hope for better weather everywhere!!

Recipe: Caribbean Chicken Wings

Adapted from Sunny Anderson's recipe on Food Network

Ingredients:

1 jalapeno, chopped (if you want it not so spicy, remove the ribs and seeds; use habanero if you want it spicier)

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp ground ginger

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 green onions, chopped

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 Tbsp lime

2 Tbsp orange juice

2 lb. chicken wings

Directions

Process all ingredients in except chicken wings in the food processor until smooth. Reserve 1/2 cup of marinade. Marinate chicken with the remaining marinade for at least 6 hours or overnight in the fridge.
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a piece of aluminium foil on the baking sheet and then put a bacing rack on top of it. Put the chicken onto the rack. Bake the chicken for 20 mins.Discard the marinade.
While the chicken is baking, heat up the reserved marinade in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Reduce the marinade by about 1/3 or until it is slightly thickened. It takes about 10 mins.
Take out the chicken after the first 20 mins of baking. Brush it with the glaze. Increase oven to 400F. Bake chicken for another 15 to 20 mins, until cook through. Keep an eye on it in the last 5 mins to avoid the chicken to be over-cooked, or burnt.

All images ©Yogi Studio

Lemon Cheesecake with Blueberry Sauce

2011-04-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

I walk very fast. But I do things slowly.

I don't like cooking dinner after work because I have to rush everything. I like to cook slowly on weekends and enjoy the chopping, the mixing, the tasting of the food.

I'm slow to realize what I really like to do in life.

I'm slow in my blog post. Since I started going back to work last April, I could hardly manage doing one post a month. Of course, partly it is due to my day job, but partly it is also due to my slowness in taking pictures, processing pictures, testing recipes, and composing the post. But, I enjoy every minute of it.

To all my readers and visitors, thank you for all your patience.
I made this last weekend.

Hope you will like it!

Lemon and chocolate desserts are two types of desserts that I love dearly. Lemon cheesecake is especially light and refreshing. Well, 'light' in terms of its flavor and month feel. But it still a cheesecake. To cut down the calories, I made four small lemon cheesecakes. I put the other three in the freezer and will test out different toppings later. The original recipe is using the classic lemon curd as topping. But I wanted to use up some of the frozen blueberries that I still have from last season, so I made this sauce that compliment the lemony flavor impeccably.

Recipe: Individual Lemon Cheesecake with Blueberry Sauce

Modified from Luscious Lemon Desserts by Lori Longbotham & Alison Miksch

Make four 4" wide, 1" tall cheesecakes

Ingredients

Crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

4 Tbsp (2 oz.) unsalted butter, melted

Filling

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 Tbsp lemon zest

2 8 oz. package cream cheese, room temperature

2/3 cup sour cream (better to use full fat ones)

1-1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 eggs

Blueberry sauce for 1 cheesecake

A handful of fresh or frozen blueberries, approximately 1/3 to 1/2 cup

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp or more water

Directions:

For the crust:

Place the rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 350F.
Stir graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Mix well. Press crumb to the bottom of four 4" wide non-stick spring form pans. To get a cleaner edge, use the bottom of a small spoon to press the crumbs firmly together and clean up the edges.
Bake the crust for 8 to 9 mins, or until the crust is set. Remove crust from oven and place it on the wire rack to cool.

For the filling:

Reduce oven temperature to 325F.
Boil a kettle of water to use as water bath for baking.
Process the sugar and lemon zest together in a food processor until the sugar turns yellowish and the zest is finely ground.
Using a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese in medium speed, until light and fluffy. Add the sugar-lemon mixture gradually and continue beating until smooth. Scarp down the side occasionally. Add the sour cream an lemon juice, beat until combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until fully incorporated. Don't over beat the batter after the eggs are in.
Wrap each of the spring-form pans with foil to prevent water from the water bath to go in. Pour batter into spring-form pans and then put them in a small roasting pan or tray. Put the pan in the oven. Pour boiling water into the roasting pan until water reach halfway of the height of the spring form pans.
Bake for 35 to 40mins, until the surface of the middle part of the cake is still jiggly and the surface of the cake loss the grossiness. Don't over bake. The internal temperature of the cake should be around 160F to 165F.
Take the cakes out from the oven and water bath and let them cool on the wire rack When they are completely cool, remove the foil. Refrigerate them for at least 8 hours or overnight.
Remove the ring of the spring-form pans. Serve it plain or with your favorite sauce or toppings.

For the blueberry sauce

Heat sugar, blueberry and water together in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolved and the sauce reaches a consistency you like, about 4 to 6 mins. Mix in the lemon juice off heat. Let it cool down before serving on top of the cheesecake. Adjust the taste and consistency by varying the amount of sugar and water.

All images ©Yogi Studio

Spring Vegetable Soup and Whole Wheat Buns

2011-04-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

I'm here to summon spring to come as quickly as possible. The cherry trees around my neighborhood should have been blooming outrageously by now. But those pinkish fairies still haven't shown up yet. I am hoping that through cooking, I can make it look like spring is here.

This vegetable soup is delightful and refreshing. By taking a further step in making the broth first with some basic ingredients and herbs and then straining the broth, the sweetness of the vegetables infiltrate the broth thoroughly without the mushy vegetables messing up the clearness of the soup. After making the broth, you can freeze it for later use. The time taking to make the soup is short, depending on the vegetables you use.

Receipe: Spring Vegetable Soup

Adapted and modified from Cook's Illustrated May 1, 2001

Ingredients:

Broth

1 medium carrot, minced

1 rib celery, minced

1-1/2 medium onions, minced

1 medium leek, white and light green parts only, rinsed thoroughly and minced

3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled and crushed

1 Tbsp of olive oil

4 cups home made chicken broth*

3 cups water*

1/4 tsp whole black peppercorns, crushed

1 bay leaf

1 tsp dried thyme or 1 sprig fresh

5 parsley with stems

Soup

1 rib celery, chopped

1 medium carrots, cut into 1/4" thick rounds

2 medium leeks, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4" strips, rinsed thoroughly,

6 small red potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1/2" cubes

1 medium head broccoli, cut into small florets

2 cups baby spinach, if using regular spinach, remove the stems

Directions:

Broth:

Heat olive oil in stock pot over medium heat. Add carrot, celery, onions, leek and garlic. Cover and cook vegetables, stir occasionally, until veggies are softened, about 5 to 7 mins.
Add broth and water, black peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme and parsley. Turn up the heat and bring it to a boil and turn it back down to simmer. Simmer until the broth is flavorful, about 20 to 30 mins.
Strain the broth, squeeze out juice from veggies and then discard the veggies.

Soup

Bring broth to simmer over medium heat. Add celery, carrots, leeks, potatoes. Simmer for 6 mins. Add broccoli, simmer for another 3 mins or until potatoes and carrots are tender. Stir in spinach. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

*Kitchen note:

The original recipe asks for store-bought chicken broth and 7 cups of the broth without water. Since I was using home-made broth and I didn't like the chicken flavor to be too strong, I diluted it with water.
You can try cooking with other ingredients. Such as putting some diced tomatoes in and replacing potatoes with mini pasta; adding green peas in is also a very nice touch.

These whole wheat buns are soft and light in texture. The original recipe is to make a loaf with raisin mixed in the dough and sugar sprinkle on top. The instruction below is simplified. If you are familiar with the no knead method of Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, same steps are taken in this recipe. If you are not, please refer to my post on Light Whole Wheat Bread or their book for further details.

Recipe: Milk and Honey Whole Wheat Buns

Adapted from Healthy Bread In Five Minutes A Day

Ingredients:

4-3/4 cups whole wheat flour

4-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1-1/2 Tbsp yeast, or 2 packets

1 Tbsp kosher salt

1/4 cup vital wheat gluten

2 cups milk

2 cups lukewarm water

1/3 cup honey

2 large egg

Extra milk for brushing the top

Directions:

Mix all the dry ingredients together in the standing mixer with a dough hook attachment. Whisk the wet ingredients together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients all at once. Stir all ingredients together in the mixer until all combined. No kneading is necessary.
Put the dough into a 5 quart plastic container. Cover with the lid ajar. Let it rest for 2 hours.
Close the lid (not air tight) and put in the fridge. Dough can be used over the next 10 days.
On baking day, cut up the dough and quickly shape it into ball shape with a wet hand. Each ball should be a size of a small orange. Put the dough on the baking sheet lied with parchment or silpat. Let the dough rest for an hour.
30 mins before baking time, preheat oven to 375F. Position tray into middle of the oven. Just before baking, brush to top of the dough with milk. Bake the dough for 25 mins, or until internal temperature reaches 200 - 210F.
Cool the buns before serving.

Chicken Tagine with Apricots and Almonds

2011-03-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

This year, March seems to be a slow and hard month to get by. Winter does not want to leave. It's still freezing cold in the morning outside. Sad news keep coming in the past week. The haunting images and video clips of the disaster in Japan makes one wonder how unpredictable and vulnerable life is. No matter how advance the technology we have, when face with the force of mother nature, we are always the loser. Losing your home, losing the loved ones, losing all your belongings...these are scary scenes.

But, as time passed, the other side of the story emerged. Life is vulnerable, but it is also resilient. The lost of all your belongings at the moment does not mean lost of your hope to the future. When people are held together to face difficulties, there is hope.

As the headlines gradually replaced by other world crisis, this may get forgotten very quickly. I put this down in my blog post, to remind myself, that it is a blessing to have what I have right now, and that there are people all over the world who are experiencing extreme hardships due to all kind of natural or man-made disasters. They need our continue support.

Please donate to: Red Cross Canada, Shelterbox Canada, Doctors Without Borders
(or other non-profit organizations of your choice at your own countries. I put these few down here because I am more familiar with their works)

Because of busy work schedule, I have not picked up my camera for a while. This weekend, I felt an urge to make use what I have to take some pictures. So I tried out this recipe from Cook's Illustrated. I made a few Moroccan style stew before but N did not seem to like it. He accused me of making "funky" stuff. But this time, he finished his whole plate of food all at once and didn't even pick out the apricots which he usually considered as "funky".

I did make some changes to the recipe. As usual, I halved the recipe. Instead of putting in green olives and dried apricots, I decided that almonds would add a nice crunchy texture to it and more appealing to N. So, I paired almonds with apricots instead. I also skipped the mashed garlic which should be added with the lemon juice at the end. The good thing about this recipe is that, it does not need a traditional tagine. According to Cooks, a heavy-lid Dutch oven is just as food to keep the moisture in during cooking. So, here is the modified recipe.

Chicken Tagine with Apricots and Almonds

Adapted from Cooks Illustrated January 8, 2007
Serves 3 to 4

Ingredients
2       medium size chicken breasts, boneless,
trim off excess fat
3         medium size chicken thighs, boneless, skinless,
trim off excess fat
1/4      cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1         large onions, halved and sliced 1/4" thick
2 lemon zest strips (about 2" long)
4         medium cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4   tsp sweet paprika
1/2      tsp ground cumin
1/4      tsp ground ginger
1/4    tsp ground cinnamon
1/4      tsp ground coriander
1/8      tsp ground cayenne pepper
2         cup low-sodium chicken broth
1         Tbsp honey

3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced 1/2" thick

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/4 cup roasted almond, chopped

2 Tbsp lemon juice (for serving)

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, minced (for serving)

salt & pepper

Directions:

Brown the chicken - Pat dry the chicken with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Dredge the chicken in flour and shake off the excess. Brown the chicken in the pot on both sides, 6 to 8 mins. Don't crowd the pot. If too much chicken, brown it in two batches. Take the chicken out and put it aside.
Brown the onion - Add 1 Tbsp oil to the pot and return to medium heat. Add onion, lemon zest, 1/2 tsp salt. Cook, stirring often, until the edges of the onion are browned, about 5 to 6 mins.
Add spices and broth - Stir in minced garlic, paprika, cumin, ginger, coriander, cinnamon and cayenne, cook until fragrant, about 30 sec. Slowly whisk in broth and honey, scraping up brown bits.
Return browned chicken thighs to the pot, bring it to simmer and cook for 4 mins. Add carrots to the pot. Then put the chicken breasts on top of the carrots. Return to a simmer, cover, and cook until thickest part of the breast register 160 degrees. about 10 to 12 mins.
Make the sauce - Transfer all chicken to a plate and loosely covered with foil. Stir in chopped apricots, return to a simmer, cook, uncovered, until liquid are slightly thickened and carrots are tender. about 4 mins.
Add back the chicken - Shred the chicken into bite-size pieces. You can also keep the chicken in whole piece. Take out the lemon strips and stir in the shredded chicken. Season with salt and pepper.
To serve - Stir in lemon juice and let it sit off heat for 5 to 10 mins. Sprinkle cilantro and almonds on top of individual portion and serve with couscous.

Spicy Wonton with Peanut Sauce

2011-02-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

The scent from the steaming of diakon cake, the oil sizzling sound of deep fried snacks, the preparation of the togetherness tray (a box of candies and snacks for greeting of guests), on the night of Chinese New Year eve, to prepare for the visiting of friends and relatives in the next few days, all works were done in the kitchen. Those were the time I loved to spend with my mom, watching her using all of her strength to shred the diakons, maneuvering in the tiny little kitchen tending several dishes at the same time. My mom does not like cooking that much, she treats it as a chore most of the time, but in time of needs, she can perform magic.

I miss all the hussel and bussel of Chinese New Year. In fact, this year, I almost forgot about what date Chinese New Year was on until I watched the evening news. Being away from my hometown for too long and preoccupy with work make me stop caring about any festive days from far away. But on New Year Day, my parents called from my hometown. Loud noises of people filled up the other end of the line. My parents and all my uncles, anuts, cousins and their kids, were all together having a new year dinner banquet. I got a chance to talk to relatives that I had not seen for ages. At that moment, I truly felt that I was right there with them, celebrating the new year together. This is what Chinese New Year is about: family, friends and food.

To celebrate Chinese New Year, I made the spicy wontons. Wontons are easy to make and everyone has their own way, using different ingredients to make it. Here I used both ground pork and shrimps because I like the texture of the pork and the sweetness of the shrimp together. As for the aromatic ingredients, green onion is a must, sometimes I also use shitake mushroom and cilantro. This time, I added some dried scallops to increase the seafood flavor. Peanut sauce is optional, but it does add another dimension to the wontons. N specially requested peanut sauce to come with his wontons. The recipe makes a lot of wontons. After I fold them into individual wontons, I put them on a tray and freeze them. Then I put them in the ziplog bag. So, I can have wontons to enjoy for a few weeks.

Recipe: Spicy Wonton with Peanut Sauce

Ingredients for the fillings (make approximately 70 pieces):

3/4 lb. lean ground pork

5 water chestnuts, chopped

1/4 cup bamboo shoot, diced

2 small green onion, chopped

1 tsp minced ginger

1 Tbsp shredded dried scallop (whole dried scallop soaked in hot water for 10 mins until softened, then shredded by hand)

8 oz. shrimp, peeled, chopped into bite size pieces (around 1/2")

1 package of wonton wraps

Seasoning for the pork

1 tsp rice wine

1-1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp cornstarch

a pinch of black pepper

Seasoning for the shrimp

1/2 tsp rice wine

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cornstarch

Spicy sauce for one bowl of wonton (about 10 pieces)

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp garlic

1/4 vinegar

a few drop of chili oil

1 tsp oil

Garnish

1 green onion, chopped

2 Tbsp roasted peanuts, chopped

Directions

Mix ground pork, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, green onion, ginger and dried scallop together. Add the seasoning. Set it asides.
Mix shrimp and seasoning in another bowl.
Folding the wontons: Take out a wonton wrapper, place a teaspoon of filling and a piece of chopped shrimp in the middle. Using your finger, put a thin film of water on the edge of the wrapper. Using your thumbs and index finger on both hands, bring the four corners of the wrapper together. Squeeze the wrapper to close the dumpling.
Cooking one bowl of wonton (10 pcs):

Boil 2 cup of water and one cup of chicken broth in a saucepan. Add 1 tsp of salt to the boiling water.
Mix the spicy sauce ingredients in a serving bowl
Add wontons to boiling water. Keep them boiling for 3 to 4 minutes until wontons rise up to the surface.
Remove and drain the wonton with a slotted laddle. Put wontons into the bowl with spicy sauce. Mix well with sauce. Garnish with green onion and serve. If using peanut sauce, drizzle sauce and sprinkle peanuts on top and serve.

Recipe: Chinese Peanut Sauce

1 Tbsp peanut butter

1/2 Tbsp chicken broth

1/2 Tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

1-2 Tbsp water

Direction:

Mix the all the ingredient together. Whisk until smooth. Add more water if you like a thinner consistency.

Light Whole Wheat Bread

2011-01-12T20:36:00.000-08:00

Winter is well underway. Unlike the eastern part of the continent, cool air in the west coast was not accompanied by heavy snow but pouring rain lately. When a rare sunny afternoon appeared in the weekend, me and Yogi couldn't resist to go out. It was cold. But the cool air was surprisingly refreshing. It wiped away all the hussell and bussell during the holidays. The clear sky and earthy smell of the bare trees calmed my soul and redirected my senses to take notice of the brand new start of a year.

So, what now? Another year. Do I have to come up with some resolutions again? Not this time. Just like to keep things simple. Only one goal in my mind: to spend my time in a meaningful way. Cooking and photography mean a lot to me and I will try to do more of it.

I always want to learn more about bread making. During the holidays, I finally got some time to explore a little bit more on it. In my mind, making bread is time consuming and the outcome is not always satisfactory. I have seen the no-knead bread recipe popping up on the internet everywhere. Jim Lahey's recipe on The New York Times being one of the earliest ones. The idea is so tempting. Just mixing the ingredients without kneading and have the dough sit overnight. Then shape and rest the dough and bake and you have fresh bread to eat. When I kept looking on the internet, I found an even more convenient way of bread making. In Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg claimed that the dough they made can be refrigerated and each time you want to make fresh bread, you can just cut out a piece of dough to use. That sounds fantastic but does it really work? Although prove is everywhere on the internet, I remained skeptical. So, I bought a kindle version of the book to try out their recipes.

For the past two weeks, I have made four batches of the dough with slight variation of the process. Each time I gained a little more knowledge on how to handle the very wet dough and how to shape the bread. I must say that, although you may not be able to achieve the very open crumb structure that you want or the shape and the slashes may not come out as what you expected, the taste of the bread is generally quite delicious and would not be inferior to any supermarket bread. For that, in addition to the convenience, will keep me making these bread. It is an added bonus that book's website is very resourceful. There are tonnes of tips on bread shaping, Q&A to solve baking problems and recipes as well. The following is based on one of the basic dough recipes in the book. I have modified some of the procedures to suit myself . To understand more about their approach of bread making, the ingredients and the techniques, please buy their book.

Recipe: Light Whole Wheat Bread

Adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
by Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg

Makes 4 1lb. loaves. The recipe can be doubled or halved.

Ingredients:

3 cups lukewarm water (95F to 105F)

1-1/2 Tbsp yeast (2 packets)

1-1/2 Tbsp Kosher salt (1 tsp regular table salt)*

1 cup whole wheat flour

5-1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Whole wheat flour for the pizza peel*

Directions:

Attach dough hook attachment to standing mixer.*Mix the yeast, salt and water in the bowl of the mixer*. Add whole wheat and all-purpose flour. Turn on the mixer at low speed for 30 to 45 secs, or until the ingredients are well mixed. The purpose is just to mix the ingredients together. No kneading is necessary.
Transfer the dough into a 5-quart lidded (not airtight) container. Cover and let the dough rest for 2 hours in room temperature until the dough rises and collapses, or flattens on top.
*Refrigerate the dough in the covered (not airtight) container overnight. The dough can be kept in the fridge for the next 14 days.
On baking day, dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off about 1 lb dough (about the size of a grapefruit). To shape the dough into a ball, stretch the surface of the dough an pull the dough to the underside. Turn the dough around and repeat the same stretch and pull process. If the dough is to sticky, you can use a wet hand to handle the dough. This process should take about 30 to 45 secs, the less time in handling the dough the better. Put the dough on the parchment paper and let it rest for an hour. Alternatively, dust the pizza peel with flour and rest the dough on the pizza peel.
Twenty minutes before the baking time, put a pizza stone in the middle rack of the oven and a broiler tray at the bottom rack (or anywhere in the oven that does not interfere the rise of the dough).Heat up the oven to 450F.
Just before baking, dust the surface of the dough with some flour and slash the top of the dough in cross, scallop or tictac-toe pattern using a serrated knife. Holding the parchment paper, put the dough onto the pizza stone. If using pizza peel, slide the dough onto the pizza stone. Carefully put 1 cup of hot water in the broiler tray. Bake for 35 minutes until the bread is firm and deeply browned, or until it reaches 200F to 210F. To have a crisper bottom, you can pull out the parchment paper 2/3 into the baking time.
Let the bread cool down on the rack before slicing.

*Kitchen notes:

The Kosher salt that I use seems to be quite salty. So, usually I put in 1 Tbsp only. Please adjust the amount of salt to your own taste.
The whole wheat flour for the pizza peel is only required if you do not use parchment paper for resting the bread. I find it easier to move the dough around if I use parchment paper instead.
You can also mix the ingredients by hand directly in the food container, as suggested by the original recipe. But I found it much easier to do it with a mixer.
Based on the original recipe, the dough can be used after the 2 hour rise. But as this dough is very wet and sticky, it will be much easier to handle if it is refrigerated first.
Open crumb structure - The first few times I tried the recipe, the crumb came out a bit dense, but the bread was delicious. Although N liked the dense texture, I still wanted to see some bigger air pockets. So, the next time I made the bread, I put a little bit more water in ( 2 to 3 Tbsp more). The dough was very sticky and wet. I also minimized the dough shaping time. After it rested for an hour, the dough did not rise much and also spread out and flattened a little bit. However, when it was in the oven, the bread rose beautifully and the crumb structure turned out to be the best I ever had.

Winter to me is beautifully depressed. Hope you enjoy the rest

of the winter and have fun making bread!

Crsip Chocolate Chip Cookies with Dried Cranberries & Pistachios

2010-12-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

T's the season to enjoy and relax oneself

and

spend some great times with your family and friends.

Don't strain yourself too much in holiday gifts and cooking.

Sometimes

simple things mean more than anything.

Here is a simple easy chocolate chip cookies

that I've been making for several Christmas.

Wish everyone a great holiday season!

Recipe: Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies with Dried Cranberries & Pistachios

Adapted from Luscious Chocolate Desserts by Lori Longbotham

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup (6 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 Tbsp light corn syrup

2 Tbsp whole or 2% milk

2 tsp vanllia extract

1 cup miniature bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup unsalted natural pistachios, toasted, shelled and chopped

3/4 cup dried cranberries (or tart cherries), chopped

Directions:

Place the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 375F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda.
Beat the butter in a electric mixer at medium high speed for around 5 mins or until the butter is pale, light and fluffy. Add sugar to the butter and beat for another 3 to 5 mins or until light and fluffy. Add corn syrup, beat for a few seconds. Add milk and vanilla and beat until blended. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture. Beat until just smooth, scrapping down the side if necessary.
Stir in chocolate chips, pistachios and dried cranberries with a rubber spatula. Press the dough together with your hands.
Shape the dough into 1" balls and place them, 1-1/2" apart, on a baking sheet lied with silpat. (or butter the baking sheet). Flatten the dough with the palm of your hand to a 1/2" thick disk.
Bake for 4 mins, switch position of the baking sheet and then bake for another 4 to 6 mins, or until the cookies are golden brown. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 3 mins and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Red Rice, Beef and Beans Burrito

2010-11-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

My mom used to call me "rice bucket" when I was a kid. In Chinese, that means a person who like to eat a lot of rice. I could have lots of plain rice with just a little amount of other food. Rice was not a side dish to me, it was my main dish. But, this was no longer true. Having too much rice in the past made me opt for other type of staple food whenever possible. Until one day, I found out that there were so many other ways to cook different types of rice in other parts of the world. The result is usually extremely flavorful rice with distinguished texture depending on the type of rice you use. Having rice is not boring anymore. And once again, I become a "rice bucket".

One of my favorite types of rice is Mexican red rice. I love the tomato flavor with a bit of spiciness from the jalapeno. To make a complete meal and also to please N, I usually make the bean and beef burrito. But at anytime, I can just have the red rice by itself.

The following recipe is coming from Cook's Illustrated. I have tried a few red rice recipes. The amount of tomato and onion is just right in this recipe, not too overwhelmed. As usual, the measurement showing is half of the recipe as this was how much I made. I have also modified the cooking method. This is a straightly stove-top method, in contrast with the oven method in the original recipe. But perfect cooking rice turned out every time!

Red Rice (Mexican Rice)

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Magazine, September 2004

Serve 3 to 4 as a side dish

Ingredients

1 1/2 ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered

1/2 medium onion, peeled and quartered

1 1/2 medium jalapeno, minced

1 cup long grain rice

1/6 cup canola oil

2 gloves of garlic, minced

1 cup low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth

1/2 Tbsp tomato paste

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup minced cilantro leaves

1 lime, cut into wedges for serving

Directions:

Process tomatoes and onion in food processor until smooth and thoroughly pureed, about 15 seconds. Transfer mixture into measuring cup. There should be around one cup of mixture. Pour one cup of chicken broth into mixture. Put it aside.
Rinse rice through strainer under cold running water for 1 to 2 mins, drains and put it aside.
Heat oil in a sauce pan over medium-high eat, about 1. When you put 3 to 4 grains of rice in the pan and the grains sizzle, the oil is ready. Add rice and saute, stirring frequently, until rice is translucent and light brown, about 5 to 6 mins.
Reduce heat to medium. add garlic and jalapeno, saute for a min.
Add the tomato mixture, tomato paste and salt. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low. Cover the rice and let it simmer for about 10 mins, until water is mostly absorbed by the rice.
Uncover and let it cook under low heat for another 8 mins.
Remove from heat, cover and let it stand for 5 mins.
Fluff up the rice with a fork, stir in minced cilantro and serve.

The following is a really quick and easy way to make beef with beans to accompany the rice in the burrito. I am not sure if this is authentic or not, but it certainly taste good.

Beef, Bean and Rice Burritos

Adapted from Bon Appetit, found on epicurious.com

Ingredients

1/2 lb lean ground beef

1/2 onion, chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/2 Tbsp ground cummin

3/4 14 oz can black beans or pinto beans, rinsed, drained

1/2 14 oz can beef or chicken broth

1/2 can diced green chilies

2 green onions, chopped

Red rice, see above recipe

Directions:

Heat heavy 10" skillet over medium heat. Add beef and cook until brown, breaking up clumps with wooden spoon, about 4 mins.
Add chopped onion and garlic, cook until onion is transparent, stirring frequently, about 3 to 4 mins.
Stir in cumin and cook for 1 min. Add beans, broth and green chilies. Cook until beans are softened, about 10 mins. Press and crush beans with back of spoon, continue to cook until beans are creamy and thickened, about 5 more mins. Mix in green onion.
Assemble burrito by wrapping in a tortilla with any combination of beans, red rice, cheese, salsa, gucamole and sour cream.

Blueberry Drop Scones

2010-10-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

When I was young, I owed very little. All my precious things could be put in a shoebox. They were some stickers I exchanged with my friends, some letters from friends, some cassett tapes and sheet music with songs I loved. I told myself at that time that, they were the things that would be taking with me if there was a fire at home.

As you grow older, your belongings grow with you as well. Besides the basic necessities, I have all these things spread around the house. I'm amazed that during the last 20 or so years since I started to earn my own money, how much properties I have accumulated. Piles and piles of clothing, shoes, books, magazines, cds, dvds. Some of the stuffs are hiding in the corner of the closet, some tend to form clutters around the house. I looked around and began to wonder, how much of these stuffs I truly treasure, what are the stuff that I would be taking with me if there was a fire in the house. I realized that, I still have just a shoebox of things. The shoebox may be a little bit bigger, like the one for boots. All the stuff I loved when I was a kid should still be in the box. Plus additional items from friends and family. That's it! I seem to have spent a lot and own a lot now, but in the end, only a shoebox of things is all I need to keep!

The blueberry scones I made today is quick, simple, and no fuss cooking. It's a drop scone and no shaping and cutting of the dough is required. I have been making this for several years and N doesn't seem to get tired of it. With the use of buttermilk, minimum amount of butter (2 oz) is required but the dough remains moist. I wish everyone will try this!

Blueberry Drop Scones
Adapted from recipe of Tyler Florence from Food Network

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt

2 oz (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2"

cubes

3/4 cup buttermilk*

1 egg

2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries*

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Sprinkle and toss 1/2 tbsp flour on blueberries and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Spread cubes of butter on top. Cut in butter using a pastry blender until the butter pieces are coated with flour in pea sides and resemble crumbs. You can also do this step in a food processor. Just process the butter in flour in 5 to 10 one-second pulse.
In another bowl, mix buttermilk with egg. Then add to flour mixture. Mix until just incorporated. Don't over mix the batter. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Be careful not to work it to hard because the blueberries can easily bruised.
Drop large tablespoons on an ungreased cooke sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 mins until brown

*Kitchen notes:

Original recipe uses only all purpose flour. As usual, I tried to incorporate as much whole wheat flour in baking as possible. And this is one of the recipes that it works.
You can replace buttermilk with cream, of course. Or you can substitute buttermilk with 3 Tbsp buttermilk powder and 3/4 coup of water.
Every summer I would freeze 2 or 3 bags of blueberries when they are at their peak. The scones taste the best when the blueberries are sweet and juicy.
The original recipe is with orange glaze. I never made the glaze because I don't want the additional sugar. I think the scone is delicious just by itself.

Salmon, Shrimp and Corn Chowder

2010-09-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Took an afternoon walk. The warmth of the late summer evening sun was soothing and comforting. All my stress accumulated through the week disappeared.

You don't have to travel far to find beauty. This community farm around my neighborhood looks differently under different lights and weather.

Wish the summer color can last forever.

After the walk, I made this simple soup for the evening. With the abundance of salmon in Vancouver this year, this is a quick and delicious way to make use of the fish. I especially like the lemon zest and juice added at the end. It freshen and lighten up the soup. Please don't skip it!

Recipe: Salmon, Shrimp and Corn Chowder

Adapted from Epicurious.com, original author Mary Karlin

Serves 2 to 4

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 stalk of celery, cut into 1/2" slices

2 unpeeled small red potatoes, cut int 3/4" cubes

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper

2-3 green onions, coarsely chopped, including the green parts

1 ear of corn, cut out the kernels

2 cups fish or chicken stock

1/2 cup half and half (or heavy cream)

1 lb salmon fillets, skin and pin bones removed, cut into 1" pieces

8-10 shrimps, shelled

grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

2 Tbsp minced fresh dill

Directions:

Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Saute the celery for 2 mins. Add potatoes, salt and pepper and cook, saute and stirring occasionally for about 3 to 5 mins.Add green onions, corn and 2 cups of stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 12 mins or until the potatoes are almost tender.
Add half and half, uncovered, simmer until potatoes are completely soft, about 3 mins. Stir in salmon, shrimps and lemon zest. Simmer gently until the seafood are cooked through, about 3 to 4 mins. Add more stock as needed. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle dill on top when serve.

(P.S. This post had been in progress for a while and only until now did I have time to complete it. Fall is upon us now. But the memory of summer still stays on...at least in the pictures)

Fresh Berry Tarts

2010-08-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

Just finished two rounds of golf today (Sunday). An "All You can Golf" day for $25 at a nearby golf course has given me so much excitement and disappointment, so much fun and frustration, and so much joyfulness and soreness. Absolutely love this game! You have to be in focus in every single shot. You have only one chance to hit each shot. Clear your mind, relax and feel your body movement, try to duplicate what you have learned from driving range practice, but do not over-think;. swing and hit with a rhythm, and when you hear a sharp and crisp metal sound, your chance of having a pretty good shot is high. But the problem is, I cannot clear my mind and relax that easily, and I cannot hear that nice metal sound all the time. But yet, you learn from your game. When you screw up a shot, it's not the end of the world. You leave your disappointment behind, focusing on the present, try your best to recover. Knowing how to recover from bad situation is just as important. At the end of the rainy day, my hair was all messy and my pants were soaking wet, I met some nice people on the course and I spent some good times with N.

These fresh berry tarts are wonderful embellishments for a great day. You can use any of your favorite combination of fresh berries or fruit. My first choice is blueberries and raspberries. Their sweetness complement each other really well and they look gorgeous together. But raspberries were nowhere to be found yesterday, so I substituted with strawberries. This combination is also delicious.

The recipe is coming from the cookbook Tartine, a birthday gift from my sister-in-law a few years ago. I put it aside for the longest time until last Christmas, I made chocolate cookies out from this book, and they were out of this world. From then on, I was hook on the book. Not only are the details of the recipes worth reading, the kitchen notes are especially useful because those are tips from a bakery. To supplement all these, the pictures are gorgeous that I never get tired of looking at them again and again.

I specially like the easy-to-handle tart dough and the light but delicious pastry cream of this recipe. I will share the simplified version of the recipe below. Please get the book for the full version.

Recipe: Fresh Berry Tarts

Adapted from Tartine

Sweet Tart Dough

Ingredients:

9 oz unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Egg wash (optional)

1 egg, beaten

2 tsp water

salt pinch

Directions:

Using a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and salt at medium speed until smooth.
Add eggs. One at a time. Mix until smooth before adding another. Scrape the side of the bowl occasionally.
Add flour all at once and mix at low speed until just incorporated.
On a lightly floured surface, pour out the dough. Divide the dough into four equal portions. Shape each portion into a ball and then into a disk about 1/2" thick. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 325°F
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into 1/8" thick and cut out pieces of 1" to 2" bigger than your tart pan or tart rings. Transfer the dough to the tart pan and apply slight pressure to the bottom and side of the pan.
Put the pastry shell in the fridge and chill for 15 minutes or until firm.
Dock bottom of the tart shell with a fork, making holes around 2" apart.
If using 31/2" tart rings, bake for 10 mins. Mix egg wash ingredients. Take out the tart shell and brush the bottom and side lightly with egg wash. According to the book, this can seal the bottom and the side of the tart shell to avoid the tart shell to get soggy that easily.
Put the tart shell back to the oven and bake for another 20mins, or until lightly browned.

* Kitchen notes:

The baking time I posted here is based on my personal experience. For some reason, the baking time suggested in the book is a lot shorter. If you are trying the recipe for the first time, please watch out for your time. It may vary depends on the size of your tart pan.
As mentioned in the book, this dough is very forgiving. You can gather scarp pieces and roll it out many times and the dough is still good.
You can also freeze the unused dough.

Pastry Cream

Ingredients:

2 cups whole milk

1/2 vanilla bean

1/4 tsp salt

3 to 4 tbsp cornstarch, depends on the consistency you like

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1 tbsp pieces

Directions:

Place a fine-mesh sieve on top of a bowl. Put it aside.
Whisk together cornstarch and sugar. Add eggs and whisk until smooth.
Add milk to saucepan. Scrape beans out of vanilla bean pod and add to milk. Add salt. Cook milk over medium-high heat and bring to just under a boil. Stirring occasionally to avoid milk solid sticking to the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat.
Slowly laddle 1/3 of hot milk to egg mixture, whisking continuously. Pour the egg-milk mixture back to the hot milk in the saucepan. Cook the hot egg-milk mixture over medium heat. whisking continuously, until the custard is as thick as lightly whipped cream, about 2 mins. It is very easy to get over cook at this step. When you can see a few slow bubbles or start hearing bubbling sound coming from the bottom of the pan, it is time to remove the pan from the heat.
Immediately pour the hot egg custard through the sieve into the bowl.
Let cool for 10 mins. Stirring occasionally to release the heat and prevent a skim from forming.
When the pastry cream cool to about 140°F, whisk in the butter, one piece at a time.Whisk until smooth before adding another piece. Cool the cream before using. Put a plastic wrap right on top of the cream to prevent skin forming.

Assembling:

Spoon pastry cream into tart shell. Put your favorite berries on top.
If you like, you can brush the fruit with some apricot glaze. To make the glaze, put some apricot jam and little bit of water into a saucepan over medium low heat until the jam dissolved. Strain the jam through a sieve.

Pad Thai and Mango Smoothie

2010-07-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

We've been having a streak of good weather in Vancouver lately. Blue sky, light breeze, 20-ish temperature; all the complains of gloomy cold wet weather in early summer were gone. On days like these, it is very hard to keep working in the office. All you think about is to get through the week as quickly as possible so as to enjoy the weekends outdoor. This is also not the good time to sit in front of the computer retouching pictures and composing blog posts. Yes, I admit that I'm a little slow in updating my post. But, in times when I'm not blogging, in between working and golfing, I'm still actively seeking inspiration for photography, trying out new recipes and thinking about what to eat and what to post.

Just when I was being a bit too laid back, the folks at food52 did a nice writeup on this blog. That is a big encouragement to me. I hope I can keep up my work and continue to put up posts with food that I love and pictures that are interesting to look at, not just once. (That is my goal!)

Back to food. Does hot summer and spicy hot food go together? Yes, it does. Especially when it is accompanied with a refreshing cold fruity drinks. Pad thai is probably the most popular Thai dish other than Thai curry. I love the sweetness, sourness and spiciness, all come together to form a complex yet balanced flavor. Don't be scare by the long list of ingredients. It does take a while (around 40mins including time spent on roasting peanuts) to prep all the ingredients. But once you have all the prep work done, the actual cooking time takes about 10mins only. As for the drink, mango is sweet and aromatic, with a hint of banana and milk, this drink needs no sugar if all the fruit are ripe. And, it takes just a few seconds to whip up.

Recipe: Pad Thai

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Magazine, August 2002

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp tamarind paste*

3/4 cup boiling water

3 Tbsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp rice vinegar

3 Tbsp sugar

4 Tbsp canola oil

8 oz. dried rice sticks, about 1/8" wide*

2 large eggs

1/4 tsp salt

12 oz. medium (31/35) shrimps, peeled and deveined

3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press

1 medium shallots, minced (about 3 Tbsp)

1 red Thai chili pepper*, minced

2 Tbsp dried shrimp, chopped fine (optional)

6 Tbsp chopped roasted unsalted peanuts
3 cups bean sprout

3 medium scallions, green parts only, sliced thin on sharp bias

1/4 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves (optional)

Directions:

Making sauce:

Rehydrate tamarind paste by soaking it in 3/4 cup boiling water for about 10 mins. Strain it through a strainer, pushing the pulp fibers to squeeze out the juice.
Mix fish sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and 2 Tbsp oil with the tamarind extract. Set it aside.

Preparing rice noodle and eggs:

Soak the rice sticks in hot tap water (not boiling) for 20mins, until they are softened and limp but not fully tendered. Drain and set aside
Beat eggs with 1/8 tsp salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

Stir-fry:

Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a 12" skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking, about 2 mins. Add shrimps and sprinkle 1/8 tsp salt on the shrimps. Cook, toss occasionally, until shrimps turned pink and opaque with brown edges, about 2 to 3 mins. Remove the shrimps and set aside.
Add 1 Tbsp oil to skillet. Add garlic, shallot and chili pepper. Cook over medium heat, stir continuously, until fragrant, about 1 min, add eggs to skillet and stir vigorously with wooden spoon until scrambled and barely moist, about 20 sec. Add noodles, dried shrimps, toss with tong or 2 wooden spoons to combine. Pour fish sauce mixture over noodles, increase heat to high, and continue to toss all the ingredients with the sauce.
Add 1/4 cup peanuts, bean sprouts, all but 1/4 cup scallions, and cooked shrimps over noodles. Continue to cook and toss, until noodles are tender. , about 2 mins.
Dish out the noodles. Sprinkle remaining peanuts, scallions and cilantro on top. Serve immediately.

*Kitchen notes:

The tamarind paste I bought came in a plastic package and was marked "Product of Thailand". You can buy it in most Asian stores. If you cannot find tamarind paste, you can substitute it with 1/3 cup lime juice according to Cook's Illustrated although I never tried this before. The tamarind gives the dish a distinct sour flavor that I think is hard to replace with any substitution.
The rice stick I used was also came from Thailand. They came in S, M, and L size. I use M most of the time, but this time I used L which is about 1/4" wide.
In the original recipe, 3/4 tsp of cayenne pepper is used in place of the thai chili pepper. You can add the cayenne to the fish sauce mixture if using.

Recipe: Mango Smoothie

Ingredients:
2 ripe mango
1/2 ripe banana
Some milk (2%)

Directions:
Coarsely chopped mango and banana. Add milk. Process with a regular or hand held blender until smooth. Adjust consistency with amount of milk. You can start with 1 cup milk first and add more if you want the drink to be less thick.

Japanese Sweet Bread

2010-07-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been making lots of bread. Making bread is a satisfying experience. Unlike desserts, bread is an essential part of the meal that you do not feel guilty for eating too much of it. And the smell of fresh bread is wonderful. I did not have much experience with yeast bread before. I usually just followed the recipes in Best Recipes closely and they never failed me. This time, however, I was curious to try out the Japanese bread making recipes that have been very popular among the Chinese food bloggers.

The bread that I grew up with, made by Chinese bakery, is soft and fluffy, without a thick crust. The dough is lightly sweet. And they remain soft and fluffy for a few days. There are different fillings that you can put inside. To balance the sweet flavor, the fillings are usually savory. Like, bbq pork, hot dog, curry chicken and ham and cheese. The red bean paste is one of the more popular sweet fillings.

After reading this post on Christine's recipe, I could not wait to try it out. But the recipe is originally written for bread machine. I kept searching and found a similar recipe adapted for electronic mixer on Corner's Cafe. After three trials, I finally got the bread that I thought was just as good as in Chinese bakery. The following is my adaptation of the recipe.

Recipe: Japanese Sweet Bread

Adapted from Corner's Cafe

Ingredients:

For Water-Roux Paste ("Tang Zhong")

25g bread flour

125ml water

For Bread Dough

375g bread flour

100g plain flour

32g milk powder*

75g granulated sugar*

3/4 tsp salt
1 package of instant dry yeast (2 1/4tsp)

1 egg, lightly beaten

150ml lukewarm water (around 95F to 105f)

40g butter, cubed

For Egg Wash - 1 egg plus a bit of water

Directions:

Making Water Roux: Mix flour with water in a small saucepan. Cook over low to medium heat, stir continuously, for 2 to 3 mins, until the mixture reaches 65c. At this stage, the mixture should form a paste and when you use the wooden spoon to scratch across the bottom, you can see the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and place a saran wrap right on the surface of the paste. Let it cool to room temperature before using. Or you can keep it in the fridge in an airtight container for a day or two. Do not use it when it turns grey. That means it has gone bad. (Water roux is the secret that makes the Japanese bread soft and fluffy)
Making the dough:

Fit the mixer with the dough hook attachment. Sift bread flour, plain flour, milk powder, suger and salt to the mixing bowl. Add in yeast and mix well. Add in water roux and beaten egg. Turn on the mixer at slow speed and slowly add lukewarm water until the dough form into a nice ball of dough.
Continue to knead the dough at speed 4 to 5 (Kitchen Aid) for 5 minutes until the dough is somewhat smooth and not sticky. Add in butter, continue to knead at speed 4 to 5 for another 6 to 8 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Take the dough out and knead it by hand a few times and then form the dough into a ball. Clean up the mixing bowl and grease it lightly. Put the dough ball back in the mixing ball. Cover the bowl with saran wrap.Put the dough in a draft free places.And let the dough rise to double in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hour depends on the temperature and humidity at the time.
After the first rise, punch down and take out the dough. Knead it a few times and divide the dough into equal size. I usually weight each portion to make sure they are of the same size. For the plain sweet bread, each dough ball is approximately 60g. Shape the dough into balls and put them in a slightly greased baking pan. Cover with saran wrap and let it rise the second time in a draft free place, until the doughs are double in size, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350F. Brush the surface of the bread with egg-wash. Bake the bread for 15-20mins or until golden brown.
If you like a shiny surface, brush the bake bread with a thin layer of butter.

1.After kneading the dough, form the dough into a ball and let it rise in the greased mixing bowl.

2. To test if the dough has risen enough on the first proof, poke the dough with your finger,

if the dough does not spring back, then it is ready.

3. Shape the dough into equal size balls

Making bread with filling: After the first proof, divide the dough into equal portion and shape the dough into balls. Let the dough rest for 10 mins. Using a rolling pin or use your finger, form the dough into a flat round shape. Put the prepared fillings* inside the dough and wrap the dough around it to form a ball. To shape the dough into flower shape, flatten the dough ball with the palm of your hand. Make 5 cuts around the dough. Place the shaped dough on a baking pan lined with parchment paper/silpat. Cover with saran wrap and let it rise for second time. Bake the bread as in basic bread recipe.

4. Let the dough rise for the second time until double in size. Then the dough is ready to bake

5. To make bread with filling, put the filling inside the dough.

6. Shape the dough, let it rise for second time and then bake it in the oven.

Kitchen notes:

I have reduced the amount of milk powder to adjust to my taste.
You may not need all the 150ml of water to make the dough form into a ball. It depends on the weather of the day.
The ideal temperature for proofing bread is around 85F. In order to have fluffy bread, you have to make sure that the dough rise enough. Otherwise, the bread will come out dense and tough. (This is from my own experience!) To make sure that the condition is right for proofing, I turned on the oven to 200F and when the temperature is ready, I turned off the oven. Open the oven door and let the oven cool down for 10 to 15 mins. Then, put a cup of boiling water in the oven with the dough to ensure the humidity is maintained inside the oven. Close the oven door and let the dough rise.
You can buy pre-made red bean paste in Chinese or Japanese grocery store.

Post update (July 9, 2010):

I just realized that after so many bread kneading I had done lately, my beloved Kitchen Aid was acting up on me. Fortunately, it was not a big problem. N helped me to hammer the pin down and it was fine. I was a bit disappointed with it but N reminded me that when I bought this model a few years ago, I did not expect to do that much bread making. Otherwise I should have got the more heavy duty one. From now on, I may have to hand knead my bread!

The Unexpected: Cocoa-nana Bread

2010-06-23T23:29:00.000-07:00

I am not a planner. I do not like to plan things ahead. Except for work related stuff, which I am paid to do and trained to do, I never good at planning anything. Even vacation, I did not like to do the planning until N asked me several times and got mad at me. I know, this is bad. But don't you think that things happen outside of your plan is more excited? Things that come out of a sudden burst of idea, things that do not follow the usual path. Like, when I first started this blog, I just followed my sudden urge to do it. No plan, no preparation, no research. Just go for it. I still feel so amazed and so full of gratitude that there are visitors/readers who like what I posted.

In the rare occasion that I do plan ahead, things usually do not turn out as expected. I was in the mood of trying new baking recipe last Friday night. I wanted something simple and easy to do, but at the same time, N for sure would like it. So, it has to be something chocolaty. N has also been asking for banana bread several times. Since I got two really ripe bananas on hand, why not combine these two yummy ingredients together. Scanned through Dorie's book, found a recipe exactly what I wanted - a Cocoa-nana bread. Even the name sounds cute! So, I prepared to make it on Saturday morning. Although it was the first time I tried the recipe, I trusted Dorie Greenspan. Besides, what can go wrong with banana bread? I decided that it should be delicious enough to blog about it and on Friday night, I was already planning on how to take the picture.

I got up very early on Saturday to make the bread because I love having the freshly baked goods smell in the house in the morning. I followed the recipe all through. When the bread came out from the oven, it looked promising. But, the first bite of it got me wonder if there was anything wrong with my taste buds. The cocoa flavor was so overwhelm and the sweetness of the banana was completely lost to the bitterness of the bitter-sweet chocolate. I had a second bite, but still could not get use to the taste. I was upset and disappointed. I lost all my motivation to take pictures. But since I had setup my picture setting already, I did take a few shots just to practice my photography skill. N, being such a picky eater, to my surprise, did not complaint too much though. Just said it was not great, and then kept eating.

Curious of what other bloggers think about the recipe, I did some research on the internet. It turned out that this recipe had been tried out by the Tuesdays With Dorie group and several bloggers did not like it either.

It is now Wednesday night, what do you think happen to the bread? It's not in the trash can. It's been mostly consumed and a small amount left in the fridge. Strange things happened during these few days. The cocoa mellowed out and all the flavors melted together, and the bread wrapped in saran wrap is still moist! I had a big piece after I got home from work today. What a strange loaf of bread!

Salmon Teriyaki and Miso Soup

2010-06-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

I do not think that we have enough fish consumed in our diet. Don't know why. May be because I grew up in Hong Kong where fish were bought fresh, fresh in the sense that they were alive in the fish tank and killed by fish monger immediately after you bought it. So, I was a bit turned off by all the frozen or previously-frozen fish fillets that sell at the supermarket here. But, we got to adapt to and make the best out of what we have. As we have an abundance supply of salmon here and it is one of the most flavorful fish, I always like to try new ways of cooking it. Teriyaki salmon is one of my favorite salmon recipe.

This is a quick and healthy dinner. I always make the teriyaki sauce ahead of time and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. It can last for a few weeks. Besides salmon, I also use the sauce on grilled or broiled chicken thighs and on vegetable.

Recipe: Salmon Teriyaki

Teriyaki sauce recipe was adapted from Cooks Illustrated Magazine

Ingredients for the sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press

2 Tbsp mirin

1/2 tsp cornstarch

Other ingredients:

1 salmon fillet, about 6 to 8oz, 1/2 to 3/4" thick

1 Tbsp canola oil

Salt and pepper

Directions:

For the sauce:

Put soy sauce, sugar, grated ginger, minced garlic in a small saucepan. In a small bowl, mix mirin with cornstarch until the cornstarch is dissolved with no large lumps. Stir cornstarch mixture into the saucepan. Bring the mixture the a boil over medium heat and then reduce heat to low for simmering. Stir occasionally and cook until the mixture is thickened, about 5 to 7 mins. Adjust consistency of the sauce to your preference by adjusting the simmering time.

For the salmon:

Pan-fry skin-side down first Flip over when the skin is crispy and golden brown

I like eating the skin as well. So, I usually season both sides of the fillet with salt and pepper.
Add oil to the cast iron pan, swirl to coat the pan. Heat oil over medium heat until it is hot but not smoking. Put fish fillet in the pan, skin side down. Pan fry the fish for about 3 to 4 mins (depending on the thickness of the fillet) until the skin is golden brown. Flip over the fish, pan fry the flesh side for another 2 to 3 mins, until golden brown. Remove fish from the pan and pour about 1 Tbsp of teriyiki sauce on top of the fish. Serve.

To make it a complete Japanese meal, besides serving the teriyaki salmon with rice, I also like making miso soup. It is so easy to make miso soup when you have the right ingredients in your pantry and it is so much better than the over-salty soup in the average Japanese restaurant.

Kitchen notes:

Red miso is stronger and saltier in flavor while white miso is milder. I like to mix both of them. You can pick either one to suit your taste.
Using bonito powder to make the dashi soup base is a short cut step. Since I found out that even my Japanese sister-in-law is doing it this way, I did not bother making the soup base from scratch. But someday I will try!

Clockwise from upper left: Red and white miso paste, bonito stock
powder, yummy miso soup, dried wakame seaweeds

Recipe: Miso Soup

Ingredients:

3 cup water

1/2 package of bonito powder

1/2 package of soft or medium firm tofu, cubed

4-5 shiitake mushroom, sliced

1 Tbsp red miso paste

1 Tbsp white miso paste

A handful of dry seaweed (I used wakame seaweeds)

Directions:

Add bonito powder to water. Bring water to a boil over medium heat. Add tofu and mushroom, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low. Add miso paste. Stir occasionally and simmer until miso paste is dissolved, about 2 to 3 mins. Add dry seaweed, cover and simmer for another 1 to 2 mins, until seaweeds are softened. Serve hot.

Buttermilk Bran Muffins

2010-05-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hooray! It's the first long weekend of this year. I can finally have time to do my new blog post, plus tons of other housework. This is one of the ways to enjoy my personal time. I mean the blogging part, not the housework.

Whenever we have time on weekends, we like to make a big deal for breakfast. I personally not a big fan of big breakfast but N likes his to be like a brunch. I enjoy the making of it. Pancakes with sausages, waffles, scones, are our favorites. Yesterday, however, instead of making the usual with butter, I, for the first time, used applesauce as baking ingredients for muffins. I have read lots of recipes for low-fat baking using applesauce before but I have never tried it because of the skepticism about replacing butter in any type of baked goods. Butter is supposed to be the heart and soul of yummy baked goods. But inspired by the gorgeous Morning Glory Oat Muffins of Honey and Jam, I finally tried baking with applesauce and I am loving it.

This recipe of Buttermilk Bran Muffins was found on Epicurious and is originally published in Healthy Oven Baking Book of Sarah Phillips. It is a very basic recipe. You can add any ingredients like dried fruit, nuts to your liking. I added raisins, cranberries and flaxseeds. The applesauce and buttermilk really moistened the muffins. With the use of raw sugar, the flavour of the whole wheat and bran is deepened. I like how light the muffins are. For N, no matter whether there is butter of not in the muffins, he would put a large pat of margarine on it when he was eating it. So, he really did not miss the butter in the muffins at all.

Recipe: Buttermilk Bran Muffins

Adapted from The Healthy Oven Baking Book by Sarah Phillips

Ingredients:

Nonstick canola oil spray

1 cup unprocessed wheat bran

2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk

1/2 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 large egg

1 1/2 Tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 Tbsp flexseeds

1/3 cup raisins

1/3 cup cranberries

Directions:

Position a rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 350F
Lightly greased or spray twelve 2 1/4" x 1 1/2" nonstick muffin cups with oil.
In a medium bowl, whisk together wheat bran, flours, baking soda and salt.
In another medium bowl, using a handheld electric mixer set at high speed, beat the buttermilk, sugar, applesauce, egg, oil and vanilla until frothy, about 2 mins. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the buttermilk mixture. Stir until just combined. Add dried fruits and flexseeds or other nuts of your choice. Mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
Spoon batter into muffin tray. Bake until the tops spring back when pressed gently in the centre, about 20 mins. Do not overbake. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 mins before serving.

Zucchini two ways: Saute Zucchini with Corn, Zucchini with Dill

2010-05-11T21:08:00.001-07:00

I did not hate vegetables when I was a kid. But I was not really fond of them either. I just did not have any special feeling about them. They were just there in every meals, as an essential dish in a traditional Chinese meal. And the ways that they were cooked by my mom were very similar; stir-fry plain by itself or with some meats, adding some soy sauce or oyster for seasoning, or adding salt only. Sometimes, my mom also liked to boil, not steam, the vegetables in some flavored broth or salted water. When they were tendered, just poured some soy sauce or oyster sauce on top. That is the quickest and easiest way to make cooked veggies Chinese style.

Not until the time that I lived by myself in Canada because my parents sometimes went back to their homeland to stay for an extended period of time that I started to cook for myself. I was so busy and lazy at that time that I skipped the veggie dish sometimes. But I found out very quickly that there was something missing in my diet. I felt that I did not have a full meal. When I started to make vegetable dish again, I realized how important it was. The natural sweetness from the juice of the vegetables are magical. They help me to feel refreshed and revitalized my body. From then on, I hardly ever skipped my vegetable dish again.

Even though I like almost all types of vegetables, zucchini is never my favorite kind. I do not like to eat them raw as salad and if making stir-fry with it, the flavor get buried with all the sauce and the meats. They are never the star of the dish. But once I explored outside Asian cooking, I began to like it more and more. The followings are two of my favorite zucchini recipes. Simple but delicious, with zucchini as the star of the dish.

The first one is a Mexican flavored Zucchini and Corn Saute. The cumin and cilantro greatly enhance the flavor of the zucchini, accompanying by sweet corns, every bite is filled with the sweetness and juiciness of these two vegetables. You can use frozen corns if you want to make it quicker. But fresh corn really makes a difference in the taste of this dish.

Recipe: Corn and Zucchini Saute
Adapted from Gourmet, September 2004

Ingredients:
2       Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/4    cup sliced shallots (you can replaced it with scallions or onion)
1/2     tsp minced garlic
2       cups corn *
2        medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1/4" thick pieces
1/4     tsp ground cumin
1/8     tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Heat oil in a 12" heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Add shallots, stir and cook until softened, about 3 mins. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 sec.Add zucchini and 1/4 tsp salt, stir and cook until zucchini is half cooked, about 4 mins, Add corn, cumin and cayenne, stir and continue to cook until zucchini are softened to a degree that you prefer, about 1 to 2 mins longer. Stir in cilantro. Adjust taste with salt and pepper.

*If using fresh corn, you can rinse the corn with water and wrap them in saran wrap. Microwave for 2 to 3 mins. Then cut out the corn.

The second dish is even more easier. It is a great side dish for meat or fish. The recipe is originally from Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine but I forgot which issue it is. As with lots of other recipes in this magazine, you follow the instruction once and then do not need the recipe anymore. Here is my adaptation of the recipe.

Recipe: Zucchini and Dill
Adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1   medium zucchini, cut crosswise into 2 halves; cut lengthwise into strips of about 1/2" wide
1   Tbsp lemon juice
2   tsp or more fresh dills, chopped

Directions:
Heat oil in a 10" skillet over medium heat. Add zucchini strips and a pinch of salt, cook until golden brown on all sides, flip occasionally, about 6 to 8 mins. Add lemon juice and fresh dills, toss a cook for another minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste. I usually add quite a bit of salt to balance the lemony taste.

Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan

2010-05-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

Since I have gone back to work, time is becoming more precious. On a working day, I can hardly find time to make any special food for dinner. Our week night dinner is filled with quick stir-fry, pasta, and weekend leftover. Although quick and simple food are delicious too, sometimes you just want a little more spice in your daily life. So, I made this make-ahead chicken tikka masala last week. Just because it is Indian food (more accurately, Indian style food, since chicken tikka masala is supposed to be a British creation) does not mean that it is complicated although it does require more than a few ingredients, that is what makes cooking fun!

To make it quick to cook on weeknight, I made the sauce ahead on weekend. To prepare it for dinner on weeknight, all I had to do was to marinate the chicken with the spice rub for 45 mins while I was doing other chores in the house. Then put the chicken in the oven, reheat the sauce and assemble this delicious saucy dish in no time.

Recipe: Chicken Tikka Masala

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Magazine September/2007 Issue

For the chicken tikka:

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat*

1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt*

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 medium garlic cloves, minced (about 2tsp)

1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger

For the masala sauce:

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 medium onion, diced fine (about 1 1/4cup)

2 medium garlic cloves, minced (about 2 tsp)

2 tsp grated fresh giner

1 fresh serrano chili, ribs and seeds removed if you cannot take the heat (I used thai chile since

I had them on hand)

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 Tbsp garam masala

1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes*

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

* See Kithchen Notes

Directions:

Marinate the chicken: Mix cumin, coriander, cayenne and salt in a small bowl. Rub mixture on both sides of chicken. Refrigerate chicken for 30 to 60 mins or longer.
Make yogurt coating: Mix yogurt, oil, garlic and ginger, set aside.
Make the sauce: Heat oil in large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, stir occasionally and cook until light golden, 6 to 8 mins. Add garlic, ginger, chile tomato paste and garam masala to the onion, stir frequently, until fragrant, for about 3 mins. Add crushed tomatoes, sugar and salt, bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 15mins, stirring occasionally. Stir in cream and return to simmer. Remove pan from heat and cover to keep warm.
Broil the chicken: While sauce simmers, adjust over rack to upper middle position (about 6" from heating element) and heat broiler. Put a wire rack on a foil-lined baking sheet. Dip chicken into yogurt mixture and coat chicken with a thick layer of yogurt. Put chicken on the wire rack. Broil chicken for 10 to 18mins (mine is done around 15 mins). Flip chicken half way through cooking time. Chicken is done when it reaches about 160F and is slightly charred.
Let chicken rest for 5 mins. Cut it into chunks and stir into warm sauce. Stir in cilantro, adjust seasoning with salt, and serve with basmati rice or naan.

Kitchen notes:

I made the full recipe of sauce but used much less chicken (less than 1 1/2 lbs) because N loved the sauce.
5% plain yogurt instead of full-fat was what I used and the dish turned out fine.
I used a mix of crushed and pureed diced tomatoes in juice because the brand of crushed tomatoes that I used was very thick and I did not like really thick sauce.

Usually I serve the chicken tikka masala or any Indian curry dish with store-bought naan bread but I was always curious about what was in the naan. So I tried making Madhur Jaffrey's naan this time. It was really easy to make. The most difficult part is the hand-kneading part but it was a good exercise. Different from the original recipe, I made it using a cast iron pan instead of the grill and oven. And it came out very well. Here is my adaptation of the recipe.

Recipe: Naan

Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey

Ingredients:

5 fl oz warm milk, around 95F to 105F

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp dried active yeast

1 lb all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp vegetable oil plus little extra

5 fl oz yogurt, lightly beaten (I used 5%)

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

Mix milk, sugar and yeast in a small bowl. Set asides for 15-20mins until mixture is foamy.
Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Add 1 tsp sugar, yeast mixture, 2 Tbsp vegetable oil, yogurt and egg. Mix all the ingredients together and form the dough into a ball. (I accidentally put in more sugar, may be 1 to 1 1/2 tsp more, and the bread turned out sweeter than it should be but me and N did not mine this sweeter version at all.)
Dust a little bit of flour on the work surface. Knead the ball of dough for 10 mins or more until it is smooth and satiny.
Put a little oil in a large bowl. Put the ball of dough in the bowl and coat it with the oil. Cover the dough with saran wrap. Set it aside in a draught-free area for 1 hour or until the dough is double in size.
Punch down the dough and knead it again for a few mins. Divide the dough into 6 equal balls. Work on one ball at a time and cover the rest with a damp towel. Roll the dough into a tear shaped naan.
Heat a little bit of oil (1/2 to 1 tsp) in a cast iron pan over medium high heat until the pan is hot but not smoking. The pan has to be hot enough to have the naan puff up. Put the naan on the pan and fry each side until it is golden brown, about 2 to 4 mins in total for both sides.

Back to Work Granola

2010-04-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

How to make my work day a bit more fun? How to settle my growling stomach in the office? I need some sweet and healthy snacks! This granola is perfect for breakfast or snack at any time. It is with different varieties of nuts, maple syrup and honey as sweetener, and just 2 Tbsp of butter. I have been experimenting with different proportion of dry ingredients, sweeteners and oil for a long time. I like this combination the best because it is crunchy and yet the granola sticks together in cluster without too much oil and sugar. Maple syrup is essential in getting the great taste, honey only is just not good enough for me. But you can play around with different combination of nuts and sweetener to suit your own taste.

Recipe: Back to Work Granola

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

2 1/2 cup puff rice

3/4 cup walnut

3/4 cup pecan

3/4 cup mixed of whole and sliced almond

3 Tbsp flaxseed

3 Tbsp sunflower seed

3 Tbsp wheat germs

3/4 cup dried fruit, chopped (I used cranberries and apricot)

2 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Spread oats, all the nuts, seeds and wheat germ on to a baking pan. Toast the ingredients for 12mins. Add in the puff rice and toast for another 3mins..
Remove nut mixture from the oven. Reduce oven heat to 300F.
Let the nut mixture cool down for a few mins. Put 1/3 of the nut mixture in food processor and pulse it several time until the mixture are crumbly and the nuts are broken into small pieces but not powdery. Mix the processed nut mixture with the rest of the nut mixture in a large bowl. You can skip this step if you use chopped nuts. But I like the different texture with different size of nuts.
Combine butter, maple syrup, honey, sugar, salt and vanilla extract in a saucepan over low heat. Cook and stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture comes together smoothly.
Pour sugar mixture into nut mixture. Put in dried fruit. Stir to combine. Put mixture onto a baking pan lined with silpat. Press down and form the mixture into a single sheet of around 1/2" to 1" thick. Put it in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 mins until the granola turns golden brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool. Break into small pieces. You can keep it in the fridge for at least 2 weeks.

before and after toasting and baking

Kitchen notes:

I tried to make these into bars before but I found that more oil and sugar was needed in order to prevent them from crumbling when cutting. If you just break them into bite-size clusters, they are still easy to eat and store without crumbling too much.

No Title

2010-04-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

For the past month, I have been living in my dream world. Cooking, baking, making food looks pretty and taking pictures of pretty food, sharing those pictures with others. It has been so much joy. But somehow, incident just happens that pull one back to the reality. An opportunity came. It was one of those that you would regret and feel guilty about it if you do not take it. It was a no-brainer decision. I had to go back to the workforce and do what my profession trained me to do. I was happy and sad with my decision. Sad because I have less and less time to do what I really love to do. Happy because I can now spend more on my props and may be camera and lighting equipments. I will not leave this dream world that I have just found. Although there will be adjustments to how much time I can spend in it. But look, my African violet is blooming! I think my dream is still alive!

West Lake Beef Soup

2010-04-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

Usually when I have no idea what to cook for dinner or if I need to whip up something really quickly, I go for Chinese food. You can almost stir fry any type of vegetables, put some meat in, and you have a dish in no time. But Chinese soup is different. The ones that my mom likes to make, with meat, vegetables and Chinese herbs, usually take 2 to 3 hours to simmer. And it is said that those type of soup have medical value. I have yet to learn the right ingredient combination to make those type of slow-cook soup. The one that is easy and quick to make is the thickening soup, such as hot and sour soup, egg drop soup and West Lake beef soup. In an unusually windy and cool spring day like yesterday, I suddenly longed for the beefy taste and strong cilantro fragrant. So, I made the West Lake beef soup

*Kitchen notes:

This is my version of the recipe. As with other recipes, you can find thousands of ways to cook it on the internet, especially if you can google in Chinese. Like, whether you should parboil the beef first or not, whether you should marinate the beef or not. After trying different ways, I came up with my own way to suit my own taste.
I like cilantro a lot. To get the taste of the cilantro into the soup, I boil the cilantro stems with the soup for a while. If you do not like strong cilantro taste, please skip the step.
You can use just the egg white rather than the whole egg to make the egg strands.

Recipe: West Lake Beef Soup (西湖牛肉羹)

Serve 2 to 4

Ingredients:

For marinade:

1/2 lb extra lean ground beef

2 Tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp Chinese cooking wine

1 tsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp sesame oil

dash of white pepper

For the stock:

1 cup low sodium chicken stock

3 cup water

3 thin slices of ginger

1 box of soft tofu, diced

1 bunch (about 10 stalks) of cilantro, rinsed, pick the leaves off the stem*
1/3 cup frozen peas

salt

soy sauce

3 Tbsp of cornstarch

1 egg, lightly beaten*

Directions:

Whisk all the marinade seasonings together and toss with the beef. Let the beef marinate for at least 15 mins.
Combine 3 Tbsp of cornstarch with 3 Tbsp of water. Stir until all the lumps are gone. Put it aside.
Boil the chicken stock, water and ginger together in a saucepan over medium heat.. When the stock is boiling, put the tofu and the cilantro stems in. Let the stock simmer for about 1 to 2 mins. When the stock is boiling again, put the marinated beef in. Break the clumps of the beef with a wooden spoon. Let the stock simmer for a while, about 4 to 5 mins, or until the beef is no longer pink. Stir in the frozen peas. Let it simmer for another min.
Take out the cilantro stems. Skim off the foams or the impurities on the surface of the stock. Adjust the taste or the soup with salt and soy sauce. I put around 1/2 tsp of salt and 2 tsp of soy sauce in.
Stir the cornstarch mixture again before adding to the soup. To thicken the soup, pour in half of the cornstarch mixture while the soup is simmering. Stir and let the soup simmer for a while, check the consistency of the soup before pouring in more cornstarch mixture. The soup should turn a little bit translucent when it is thicken to the right consistency.
Remove the pan from the heat. Drizzle the egg into the soup in a steady, continuous stream while stirring the soup at the same time. The egg will turn into thin strands that floats in the soup. Stir in the cilantro leaves. Serve hot.

Linguine with Clam Sauce

2010-04-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the lazy bugs just creep all over me. Over the Easter long weekend, we did not do our scheduled spring clean up, we did not fix our desperate looking plants in the front yard, we did not go for long walks with Yogi. I did not even have to cook. My MIL made a wonderful Easter dinner, as usual. And we had turkey leftover for a few meals. Finally getting tired of the leftover, we had to cook something, but no one wanted to go for grocery shopping. We took a look at what we had in the pantry, we found canned clams. Great! N likes clams sauce pasta, he even likes to cook it himself. So, this time N was the master chef and I was the sous chef.

The recipe is loosely based on the one in The Best Recipe. But after we made it so many times, we modified the ingredients to what we had on hand and we made it our own way. The original recipe is using fresh clams, which we sometimes use, and of course it makes a difference in taste. But the grocery store in our neighborhood does not have fresh clams. So, we do use canned clams quite often. I like that this is a light recipe with no cream or butter, but there is enough yummy taste with the use of the clam juice.

Recipe: Linguine with Clam Sauce
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 can clams, with juice

1 can clams nectar

1/2 cup dry white wine

pinch of cayenne or red pepper flakes

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 medium garlic cloves, minced

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and minced

1 lb linguine, or spaghetti

1/2 cup freash pasley, chopped

Directions:

Boil 4 quarts water in a large pot. Add 1 Tbsp salt to the water.
In a 10 to 12" skillet, bring the juice from the canned clams, the clams nectar and the white wine, a pinch of cayenne to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and let it simmer, until the juice is reduced to about 1 1/2 cup, about 10 to 15 mins. Remove the juice from the pan, set it aside.
Heat oil and garlic over medium low heat until garlic is fragrant, about 2 to 3 mins. Add tomatoes, increase heat to high and saute until tomatoes soften, about 2 mins. Add the canned claims, and the clam juice back to the pan. Cook until the liquid is reduced but there is sufficient for the pasta.
Add pasta to boiling water. Cook until the pasta is al dente or softened to the degree that you like, around 7 to 9 mins. Drain pasta. Add the clams and the liquid to the pasta. Stir in parsley and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Sprinkle parmesan cheese (optional) on top when served.

Chicken Fajitas and Guacamole

2010-04-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I am reluctant to try new recipes, especially if I have a recipe that I like and approved by N. Anytime I try a new recipe, I have to have a backup plan. What if the picky eaters in the family do not like it? They will have nothing to eat. So, I buy more bread, or prepare a second dish, just in case. If it is a complicated recipe, it has to be coming from a trusted and reliable source. One of the reliable sources is the Cook's Illustrated Magazine. I have several of their cookbooks, I subscribe to their magazine and their website and I watch their TV shows. I like that they tell you why something works and something does not work. And the outcome after you put in so much effort, is very good and approved by everyone in the family most of the time. But, the downside is that, their recipes usually involve a lot more steps than other recipes of the same dishes. They are definitely not 30-mins meals, although they do come up with a cookbook just for quick meal.

The chicken fajitas I made yesterday was from one of their recipes. Since I found this recipe, I have given up the very short-cut way of making fajitas with bottled salsa. The flavor is just incomparable.You can taste the freshness of the veggies and the marinated chicken is just as good by itself. Although I usually serve it with home-made guacamole and sour cream, I can just have it without any accompaniments. Here, I will try to simplify the recipe. Please subscribe to the Cook's Illustrated website if you want the original recipe.

Kitchen notes:

When preparing the chicken, do not forget to pound the chicken to 1/2" thickness. That is the key to efficiently absorb the marinade and cook the chicken in the time according to the recipe. If chicken is too thick, the time to cook it through will be much longer. It may result in the outside being overcooked while the inside is undercooked.
This is an indoor cooking recipe. Of course, you can always grill the marinated chicken.

Recipe: Chicken Fajitas

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

1/3 cup lime juice

6 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed thru garlic press (about 1 Tbsp)

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 tsp brown sugar

1 jalapeno pepper, minced (seeds and ribs removed if you want less heat)

1 1/2 Tbsp fresh cilantro leaves, minced

salt & pepper

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast (~1 1/2 lbs), trimmed of fat, pounded to 1/2" thickness*

1 large red onion, peeled and cut into 1/2" thick rounds (do not separate rings)

1 large red bell pepper, quartered, stemmed and seeded

1 large green bell pepper, quartered, stemmed and seeded

8 - 12plain flour tortillas (6")

Directions:

Make marinade for chicken, save some for later use - Whisk together lime juice, 4 Tbsp of oil, garlic, Worcestershire, brown sugar, jalapeno, cilantro, 1 tsp salt and 3/4 ts pepper. Reserve 1/4 cup marinade and set aside. Add another tsp of salt to remaining marinade and put the chicken in. Marinade chicken for 15 to 30 mins.
Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position. Heat broiler.
Prepare veggies for broiling - Brush both sides of onion rounds and peppers with 2 Tbsp oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange veggies (peppers skin side up) in single layer on baking sheet.
Cook chicken - Take chicken out from marinade, pat dry chicken, discard marinade. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium high heat until just beginning to smoke. Coat pan with oil, arrange chicken in single layer on the pan, smooth side down, brown chicken, about 3 mins. Flip over the chicken and brown the other side, about 2 mins. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook 3 to 5 mins longer, turning occasionally, until thickest part of chicken registered 160F. Set aside chicken and let it rest.
Broil veggies - while chicken is cooking, put veggies in oven. Broil until veggies are spottily charred and peppers are crisp-tender, about 10 to 12 mins. Flip over onion rounds once half way through broiling. Take out peppers first if onions need longer to cook.
Cut chicken and peppers into 1/4" strips. Break apart onion rounds. Toss the veggies and chicken with reserved marinade. Serve with tortilla, and condiments such as sour cream, guacamole, salsa and cheddar etc.).
As for the flour tortilla, you can heat it up in oven or microwave according to package instructions. I usually heat it up in a dry stainless steel pan (not non-stick) over low heat for about 1 to 2 mins per side.

Recipe: Gucamole

Ingredients:

1 tbsp of minced red onion

3 tbsp of minced fresh cilantro

1 small glove of garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced (remove seed and ribs if prefer less heat)

2 medium size ripe avocado, seeded, cubed and scoop out the inside

1 to 2 tbsp of lime juice

salt

Directions:
Mix everything together. Mash the avocado with a fork to the consistency, whether mushy or chunky, of your preference. Adjust taste with salt.

Katharine Hepburn's Brownies

2010-03-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

Midnight Snack

I remember the time that I was not really fond of sweet food. Growing up in Hong Kong, dessert was never an important part of the meal. The sweetest food that my mom ever made was the red beans or mung beans soup. And I kept on asking her not to put too much sugar in, otherwise I would not eat it. But even at that time, when it came to chocolate, I did not treat it as dessert or candy. It is "chocolate". A special class of food.

After coming to Canada, my taste palate changed. After getting married, my taste palate changed even more. Although I still do not like food that is too sweet, I do love dessert and crave for it very often. And my love for chocolate is even stronger, as N goes for anything with chocolate. But, as much as I love sweets, I am trying to exercise the principel of moderation, not to go overboard with it.

Out of my craving for sweets, I finally made these brownies again. I first found this recipe in Lori Longbotham's Luscious Chocolate Desserts, one of my favorite chocolate cookbook. There is another version of it with more chocolate in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. I have yet to try it. I stuck with the original recipe this time because I recalled how much I loved it the last time I made it. These are not the cakey type of brownies. These are the rich, sweet, fudgy, melt in your mouth brownies. These are the brownies that make you sneak out to your fridge late at night and break all your dietary rules.

Kitchen notes:

As mentioned by Lori Longbotham, you should let the brownies cool down completely before you cut it. They are quite sticky, so use a sharp knife. It is easier to cut it if you chill it first.

You can serve it at room temperature. But to me, I like it chilled. The first time I made it, I was not used to the fudgy brownies. I thought I did not like it. But after I put it in the fridge and tried it the next day, it was heavenly.
I added a touch of espresso powder to enhance the chocolate flavor.

Recipe: Katharine Hepburn's Brownies

Adapted from Lori Longbotham's Luscious Chocolate Desserts,
which was in turn adapted from Family Circle magazine.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1 tsp espresso powder

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup walnuts, chopped

Directions:

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325F. Butter and flour an 8" square baking pan.
Melt butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of about 1 1/2" of nearly simmering water, whisking until smooth. Or melt it in the microwave.
Remove the bowl from the heat, add the espresso powder, sugar, eggs and vanilla, whisk until well blended. Whisk in the flour and salt just until well blended. Stir in the walnuts. Transfer the batter to the prepared floured pan.
Bake for 35 to 40 mins, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out sticky, with just a few crumbs clinging to it, but is not wet. Do not overbake.
Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Chill and cut into 9 pieces.