Spring Vegetable Soup and Whole Wheat Buns

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:

1. 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.
2. 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:

1. 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.  
2. Put the dough into a 5 quart plastic container.  Cover with the lid ajar. Let it rest for 2 hours.
3. Close the lid (not air tight) and put in the fridge. Dough can be used over the next 10 days.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Cool the buns before serving.

Light Whole Wheat Bread

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:

1. 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.  
2. 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.
3. *Refrigerate the dough in the covered (not airtight) container overnight.  The dough can be kept in the fridge for the next 14 days.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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!

Japanese Sweet Bread

 

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:

1. 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)
2. Making the dough: 
1. 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. 
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Preheat oven to 350F.  Brush the surface of the bread with egg-wash. Bake the bread for 15-20mins or until golden brown. 
5. 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

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!

Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan

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:

1. 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.  
2. Make yogurt coating: Mix yogurt, oil, garlic and ginger, set aside.
3. 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.
4. 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. 
5. 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:

1. Mix milk, sugar and yeast in a small bowl.  Set asides for 15-20mins until mixture is foamy.
2. 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.)
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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. 
6. 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.