Friend or Foe?

If you are gifted the starter for Amish Friendship Bread, is the gifter a friend or a foe with a trojan horse? You see, it's another round of this bread but it just never ends. ;) Today, I tried cheesecake pudding as the main flavouring and then added 2 handfuls of dried cranberries and one handful of white chocolate chips. As usual, I cut the sugar all the way to a scant 1/4 cup. Amazingly, I liked it! It has a very subtle fruity flavor and interestingly enough, it doesn't really taste like cheesecake. If you don't hate walnuts as I do, I suggest adding a few walnuts as I think it would be nice contrast to the fruit. =P What I particularly like about this version is it doesn't taste too artificial. I find that amazing since it's cheesecake out of a box in powder form. Nevertheless, I'm thinking maybe the vanilla and cheesecake flavours sorta melded together to enhance the fruity flavour. Also, plumper cranberries would have been better (like Trader Joe's brand) for a bigger bite of fruit and thus more flavour.

The previous versions I've made so far were lemon with lemon oil, walnuts and cranberries; pistachio with pistachio nuts; butterscotch with white chocolate chips. With the starter, I also made cinnamon buns and biscuits. Both are a giant YUCK!!! I was going to try other stuff too but forget it! I'm sticking to the sweet bread. The last bit of pudding I left are chocolate and banana. Let's see how that will turn out when I'm ready for another go.

King of Calzones

I decided to try making calzones again (it's been ages) but using a King Arthur Flour recipe. I seem to get pretty good results with their recipes so here's hoping it works! Interesting note to their recipe is that the dough is really just their Hearth Bread recipe.

The recipes makes two calzones the contents of which I decided to be...

#1 Mushrooms sauteed in olive oil with garlic. I used spaghetti sauce as the base and threw in some farmer cheese that I had on hand for the salt factor. Damn that stuff is salty!!

#2 Gravlax. Hey, I made 6 lbs of the stuff! I gotta get creative here. I threw it with ricotta cheese to balance it out.

So how spectacular are they to be worthy of being King? In this case, size matters. They were both one foot long and nearly as wide!! As for taste...not bad. There's lots of potential hiding in these pockets of dough. #1 tastes better than #2. Or maybe I'm just tired of eating pound after pound of oversalted gravlax. It'll be a while before I revisit making that! I thought I added enough cheese for both, but nope. I needed way more! The farmer cheese just disappeared into the mix as if none were added! The gravlax overpowered everything else including the bread, but was made extra salty by the ricotta. Here I thought it wasn't all that salty. Well, it was salty enough. So something to counter the heavy aspect of the salmon would have been nice. Alas, the bread was too bland for that. Maybe an herb (dill since it's gravlax?) or a veg would have been better. Either way, I won't be putting that into a calzone again unless I'm truly inspired by something. Maybe I should put in horseradish!!

Regardless of the innards, the bread was great though a bit too crunchy since it was so flat. I should have rolled it as recommended though the foldover (combover?) was given as an alternative. I could definitely make the bread part just as a loaf. I enjoyed the flavor of the crunchy crust, while there were a lot of holes on the inside "meat" of the bread. Overall though, these calzones are funny looking. =P

For dessert, I made Nigella's Chocolate Fudge Cake but without the fugde. As usual, I forego the icing part. At this point, I'm starting to lose faith in her desserts. I never found her desserts to be that wondrous, though there were a few here and there that were pretty good. The rest were mostly average, a few were just downright trash. This fell into the average spectrum. Not enough chocolate flavor. The seemingly sumptuous additions of fat in the form of sour cream provided very little to the cake aside from higher cholesterol. Though the cake was fairly light in texture (ok, the sour cream probably helped here), the lack of flavor killed its effect. It only made the cake even more bland as if I were truly eating air. However, I did enjoy the top which had a nice slight and unexpected crunch. I actually made one 8x8 square cake and then a bunch of muffins instead of a 2-tiered cake. Since I was so underwhelmed by the results, I chose not to give my friend any of the cake in muffin form.

I suppose frosting fans could say that the cake is fantastic with the sugary topping, but I must disagree. The cake part should be able to stand on its own. The frosting should merely enhance the beauty already there. Also, the cake itself was plenty sweet enough, though not quite overwhelmingly so. It was a tad over just-right. The addition of frosting would have been sugar overkill especially since it would have been in cloying fudge form. No thanks. I'll take my cake without a side of diabetes please.

Tofu-cow Patties

Well, most people know what cow patties are. They're...well...cow excrement that when plops out forms patty shapes which is retained as it dries out into hard discs that you can fling around like frisbees. Fun at farms. Anyhow, I'd purchased House brand's tofu hamburger mix from the Japanese market a while ago out of pure curiosity. It's basically just a mixture of seasonings that you mix into tofu and then fry up like a hamburger. I just had to try it out, especially the seaweed one. Mmm, seaweed hamburgers.

First off, I don't know how people can form tofu into shapes, cook them up and then serve them still in that shape. I've drained my tofu quite well, mashed it quite well, and still, my tofu never stays into any shape. It just falls apart. After a lot of careful flipping and even more loud cursing directed towards the sizzling pan, I was able to pan-fry up some tofu hamburgers. Heck, I might as well call them tofu sliders because any larger and they wouldn't be called patties.

Despite all the effort and expletives, I was absolutely disappointed hence my calling them tofu-cow patties since they were pretty well...you know. They were surprisingly tasteless even with all that MSG which came to haunt me later in the evening with an all night "drinking" binge. Splattering on some tonkatsu sauce was an improvement, but not by much. Looking into the fridge for other possibilities, I tried salsa, sandwich spreads and some leftover Heinz Chili sauce. None of them could inject interest into them. Ah well.

As a side to the tofuburgers, I rummaged around and found the only suitable item-shrimp chips. Well, at least I stayed with the Japanese theme. They do look like fries! ;) I even doused them in a bit of that Heinz Chili sauce for fun. However, it turns out they actually taste pretty good with salsa. Ha!! For the best shrimp flavour, though, they are best left unadulterated.

Ah well. So much for that dinner. At least I got an excuse to play with my food. =)

Sort of Daily Bread

As much as I love a good quality bread, I don't actually eat much bread. Buying a baguette is a challenge against time...before the bread goes stale that is. Just like my sweets baking, I've for the most part decided to always share my kitchen creations so that a) I'm not stuck eating all of it and b) I can share with my friends which is always a good thing to do. =) So in finding the Daily Bread recipe at King Arthur flour, I was excited to see a simple-to-make bread that promised to be tasty. Less work would mean I'd be more likely to have a chance to put forth the effort and time to make delicious bread! Does it live up to its name?

Well, it's certainly easy to make. I threw everything into the bread machine to knead for less than an hour before dumping into a bowl to rise overnight. This morning, I didn't have time to shape it, let rise and bake it so it continued to bubble up until mid-afternoon. I then threw it into the clay cooker gifted to me for Christmas. This thing definitely makes mediocre bread better. Imagine the possibilities! I guess I overdid the first long rise session as it didn't poof up all that much over the next hour. Nevertheless, I threw it into the oven. In about a half hour, I had crusty bread with a decent hole structure. Though the holes were on the small side, they were numerous and made a nice light contrast to the heavier crunch of the crust. It certainly smells delicious and the taste was pretty darned good for the effort...which was minimal. Though it requires that overnight rise, this is still a great recipe for bread in a hurry (to go with your Curry in a Hurry) since it's such an easy going recipe. Eventually, I'd like to try the no-knead bread so that I can really have bread on hand more or less whenever I'd like some. Fast food that's not unhealthy. I like! =)

All in all, this bread is good on its own or with a slather of butter, but I really made this bread to soak up some bagna cauda from Nigella Lawson. Yes, it's been hiding in the fridge with no mates to play with. This will make for a nice little snack now. =)

Midnight Madness

A couple items *just* came out fresh from the oven! It's a two-fer late-nighter tonight! Why? I'm not too sure. I do know it became a midnight cooking session because I became preoccupied with a computer problem as I waited for the butter to soften to room temperature. As for why both tonight...quite frankly it just came down to the fact that I'd been wanting to try both recipes out and their oven temperatures were quite close. Also, I had the OJ in the fridge (nearly gone!) so that had priority, and I wanted to double check that the cake flour hadnt' gone bad. I couldn't smell a problem but sometimes, you just gotta take the plunge and EAT it. Ew! ;)

First up to bat:

Chelsea Clinton's Chocolate Chip Cookies
I made these waaaay too big so 24 cookies became 12. Obviously, I don't know how to eyeball 2 tablespoon's worth of dough. =P As a result, I had to bake them a bit longer than 8-10 minutes which translated into crunchy cookies. The first batch I definitely overbaked as they were very well done (not burnt) and crunchy-crisp with a bit of stick-to-your-teeth chew. The second batch I caught on that the cookies were continuing to bake as they cooled off so I took them out at just a touch golden brown. Still crunchy but with a more delicate flavour. Overall, pretty good. I could recognize that these cookies were the type that would sprawl out in the oven but they didn't taste exactly like the previous types I've made. Could the cake flour make such a big difference in flavour? I liked it. It didn't taste as sweet and heavy too which is always a plus in my book.


Next up:

Nigella Lawson's Orange Breakfast Muffins
Self-rising flour is a pain to piece together especially when it's a fraction of a cup. Aside from that though, this is pretty easy to whip up. I left out the ground almonds (none on hand) and the orange zest (same issue) but they certainly smelled good going into the oven. Coming out, they smell like Japanese-style pancakes with maple syrup already doused on top. I was fearful that the copious amounts of baking powder and baking soda would be apparent in the taste, but the OJ seemed to cover it up. If I had the missing ingredients, I probably wouldn't have even noticed it one bit. These muffins are very very airy inside. Fascinatingly airy...like eating muffin clouds. So tender too! Oh my! These MUST be eaten fresh. Orange zest really would have added a nice oomph of orangey flavor. Perhaps next time, I will add a touch of orange extract if I don't have the zest on hand. Surprisingly, the top has a bit of crunch to it as if it had cornmeal in the batter, but I believe this is due to the airiness which allowed the high oven temps to crisp it up really quickly. I'm quite impressed by how different they are to the average denser muffin. Forget about muffin tops. I'll take these! Though they don't look particularly tasty, I find them quite delicious!

I'm going to get fat. Though I only nibbled on the cookies, I just devoured an entire muffin. Oops!

Foreign Kit Kats

When traveling abroad, I'm always excited to see something familiar from home that's not quite familiar. If I were a McDonald's fan, for example, I'd be ecstatic to go to London to try their curry menu, or to try noodle offerings in Asia. Then there's always trying the standard item (say, a Big Mac) to see if you can taste anything different.

Well, I'm not a McDonald's groupie so I can't add my vote to others' experiences. Regardless, the idea is the same for other products like the special varieties of Kit Kat available overseas...except I wasn't overseas the other day. Instead, I was at the local big Japanese supermarket, Mitsuwa when I chanced upon a Sakura Kit Kat (cherry blossom flavored) and Matcha Kit Kat (green tea flavored). I'd never seen these in the market before so I had to buy them to experience the same thrill whilst traveling. Cheap thrills...I know.

After I excitedly ripped open the wrapping for the sakura one, I suddenly got worried as I sniffed the very fake smelling cherry. It was so fake, I thought my nose had just consumed some strawberry Nestle Quick (which incidentally was my favorite flavour as a child). Thoughts immediately turned from Nestle Quick to London. London? Yes, when I excitedly ripped open an orange flavored Kit Kat. My entire family has a thing for Jacob's Club Orange. We've been eating them since I can remember. We're addicted so we're always on the lookout for a new orange/chocolate wafered/biscuit concoction. Fortunately for the Jacob's brand, I found the Kit Kat to be utterly overly sweet, and the orange flavor not quite right. I immediately bought another case of Jacob's to take home. Yes, I said case, not pack. Addiction, remember?

Ok, back to the Japanese-themed Kit Kat. That fake cherry scent made me recall the bad experience of the orange Kit Kat. I feared it would be much too sweet for enjoyment and indeed, I nearly spit it out. If I were a diabetic, I think it would have killed me on the spot. It must have been at least twice as sweet as the British orange versions. That Matcha Kit Kat would have to wait for my tastebuds to reset themselves and for my mind to recover from the trauma.

Today, I braved the Matcha. I was hankering for some sweets, chocolate sweets really, when I eyed the package. This time, I ripped open the packaging with some trepidation. A quick sniff revealed very little...that's promising. A small bite revealed...green tea flavor! Surprisingly tasty since I've had some pretty bad matcha flavoured stuff. It's all the rage these days to flavour anything including your laundry in matcha. Yet I've heard that shades of green is out for car paint. As for the sweetness, it was on par with the average Kit Kat which is a bit sweet for my tastebuds (but fine for average folks I guess). Hooray! At least I didn't burn a hole in my wallet with two misses. They're incredibly expensive as a Kit Kat. $2.29 EACH and they were on sale. =O The matcha one was even smaller than the average Kit Kat. Ouch!

Carefree Carpacio

Though Nigella Lawson's Salmon with Ginger, Soy and Rice Vinegar from Nigella Bites does not mention that this dish is essentially a carpacio, it is. She regards it as a starter to a dinner for 8, but I ate it for lunch! ;) It's just a nice, simple dish with a delicious flavour combination from the short ingredients list of soy, rice vinegar, ginger and sesame oil plus a scattering of scallions. I decided to use sashimi grade salmon as I just don't feel comfortable "cooking" less than prime fish with an acid. As good as this dish is, I did find that it became too salty if left in the sauce after the vinegar has "cooked" the salmon so in a way, this was much tastier used almost like a dipping sauce to sashimi. For fun, I broiled up the leftover pieces in the sauce which turned out quite good. I was not able to eat all of it in one sitting so I figured cooking it would prevent me from giving myself a good dose of food poisoning as surely I would somehow figure out a way to do that. ;P

Foray Into Porky Heaven

Enticed by the circular from Kings Supermarket, I could not help myself when I bought some berkshire pork. Not that they wrote a descriptor that caused salivation. The mere words "berkshire pork" is all I needed to see. And what a lovely cut of meat (center cut pork chop) in person. The same thing happens when their circular has wagyu beef in it. Needless to say, I try not to go there too often.

Thankfully, this premium pork was worthy of it's hefty price tag. While trimming a bit of the excess fat away (I just can't bear to have it there...sorry), it felt wonderful as the fat effortlessly sheered away. Alas, preparing the chop became disturbing. You'd think I'd be disturbed just as a veg, but that's never happened. I could degut a fish like it were paper. However, in handling this cut of pork, my hands became oh so slightly bloody, as in a smear here and there, but it was incredibly vibrant red and a smidge viscous. Quite frankly, it looked like I had cut myself and were exuding blood drip by drip. The fact that this was once a little piggy hit home like never before. As I flipped the chop around on the wooden board, the thunk of the rib against the wood became painful to my ears as the hollow note struck me straight to the soul. At least with factory farming, having it for dinner is probably the best thing to alleviate the tortured creature. Oh, I didn't just say that, did I? But with berkshire pork, those oinkers are of superior pedigree and pampered...maybe even massaged like kobe beef for all I know. It got the good life...cut short. After such a sacrifice for the dinner plate, I better not mess this dish up...

Clearly, I was blinded by "berkshire" in front of pork. I wonder whether the same thing occurs in front of "Hathaway" when I invest...Anyhow, I'm not very good at cooking up hunks of meat like steak and well...pork chops. My parents don't like it medium rare so I usually end up cooking them to death. The meat is usually edible because I'm saved by the fact I used premium cuts like filet mignon so they're still good as long as they're not charred. So what the hell am I going to do this pork chop???

Brine it. Yes! That's it. Having doing brining before, I realized that it kept meat moist and tender. That should help me not mess up too badly. So what's in the brine? Water, salt, sugar, juniper berries, fresh thyme, bay leaves and black peppercorns. The chops bathed in the brine for 2 days. That should do it. After that, I just threw them into my cast iron pan and hoped for the best. It turned out okay! Hooray! First off, my parents though this berkshire stuff really did taste better than "normal" pork. Apparently, I did not overcook it because while the flesh was nicely firm, it was not dry. Tastewise, they found it perfectly salted with a right amoutn of herb, though they didn't care for the cracked peppercorn as it was too difficult to eat. A finer grind of pepper would have been more ideal for them.


As the side vegetable matter, I cooked up Ginger Chickpeas in Spicy Tomato Gravy from Judith Finlayson's 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes. It was surprisingly good though much too salty. I suspect my canned tomatoes were on the salty side so next time I'll cut the salt in half unless I use fresh tomatoes (both versions of tomatoes are listed as acceptable). Though it's quite simple in its ingredients list and even simpler to make being cooked in the crockpot, it was tasty. It really is on the spicy side from all the fresh ginger no doubt. My parents liked it. Hooray!

For dessert, we had Baba au Rhum (Rum Cake) from the Sopranos cookbook. It wasn't bad, though my mom complained its texture was too rough. It's surprisingly rough as if cornmeal were added, but I'm not sure why it was like that unless I messed up. My friends liked it, but I thought it was okay. I found it more sweet than rum flavoured which was disappointing. Being a yeast-based cake, I felt as if I were eating sugar-soaked bread...but better. ;) I'd have to say...it's a curious cake. I may try and find a different/better recipe or learn how to make it properly if that's the case.

Double Whammy...of Salt

After all that pulled pork, I had about a 3 lb piece of pork butt left over- the perfect size for making a slow simmered pork by Ken Hom. Though his recipe for Red Pork with Chinese White Radish called for pork shoulder, this hunk would do just fine. While it slowly stewed away into melt-in-your-mouth tenderness, the aroma of star anise, cinnamon, soy sauce and other nasal delights permeated the whole house which only served to increase the anticipation of dinnertime.

Alas, it was oversalted. I'm sure one source of the problem is that the meat I had was not as thick as a whole chunk of shoulder so there was no need to cook it so long. Plus this piece was deboned which meant there were sections that were on the thin side. Again, it was not a huge hunk o' meat. Unfortunately, the radish offered no balance to the dish. Instead, it too was unbearably salty. Though I had removed the pork from the pot while reducing the sauce, I should have done the same for the radish. In the end, the radish had to be thrown out. The recipe did not mention removing either while reducing the sauce, but I was suspicious from the dark color. Having never made a dish like this, I was not sure how far I could push the pork before it hit the point of too salty. Now I know! ;P Otherwise, my family enjoyed the flavors... but with a lot of rice and fresh vegetables to counter the intense saltiness.

Of course I had to continue the meal's theme of salt. The dish for me was quite salty as well, but knowingly so as the recipe called for the addition of rice into the sauce mix. I didn't bother with that step as I wanted to pour the Ginger Shrimp with Scallions over my rice (better control). The recipe is from Carol Gelles' Ultimate Diabetes Cookbook, and in reading the recipe, I knew it would be boring. Nevertheless, I had to satiate my curiosity. Indeed, it was as expected: salty and boring. Basically, it was just shrimp with garlic, scallions, hoisin and some soy. I never trust western recipes for eastern food. I have yet to come across a good one but I always hope it'll actually be good. Fortunately, the dish was edible, though not worthy of being photographed.