Japanee Curry

mmmmmmm...reminiscent of my childhood is that lovely dish up there. I never actually knew that it was Japanese curry...I just always knew it as curry...or given my parents korean accent, it sounded like "ka-rheh."

It's really a simple meal....sautee some onions, diced potatoes and sliced carrots. Add water and packaged Japanese curry (which comes in a block that then dissolves in the warm water)...add meat and when almost fully cooked add some frozen peas. Serve over rice and you have yourself a flavorful meal complete with starch, protein and vegetables!

You will also notice a little bit of korean side dishes (banchan)...some courtesy of my mom and some courtesy of the Japanese market.

From left to right the food stuffs are:
- geem: roasted and salted seaweek rectangles
- chong gak kim chee: radish kim chee (top on plate)
- takuan: pickled radish, kind of a sweeter pickle (bottom of plate)
- jang-jo-rim: soy braised beef that has been shredded

I am totally on an asian food kick these days. Forrest says that I am just craving more spice after all the white bread thanksgiving food...I think it is just my pregnancy craving for more spicy, more tangy foods....

Mid week meal, reminiscent of Thanksgiving...minus the bird

Marin Sun Farms steak, pan roasted brussel sprouts and mashed sweet potatoes. I hope I can do Susi's brussel sprout recipe justice as it is just too damned yummy! You'd think a couple of days before Thanksgiving and with two Friendsgivings under my belt, I would be looking for something other than Thanksgiving style food....but eh, what do you do.


Susi's Brussel Sprout Recipe
Brussel sprouts, cleaned and and halved
1 Shallot diced
1 cup apple cider vinegar
Olive oil

Heat olive oil in a pan, sautee diced shallots until tender. Toss in brussel sprouts and sautee until brussel sprouts start to soften. Pour in cider vinegar and cover with lid for a few minutes, stirring regularly.

ENJOY

Pie-Tastic Friendsgiving

Lemon Meringue Pie with the meringue "well done" heeheehee. The filling is nice and tangy though. I couldn't decide what kind of pie to make for Hollis and Sal's friendsgiving so I made two and figured we could bring home the leftovers. So in trying to steer away from traditional pumpkin, I made the lemon meringue and a pear cranberry pie from a recent episode on the Food Network.

The lemon is a good standby for me as I have gotten pretty good at that one. I haven't really ventured off into too many different other pies yet as I have been pre-occupied with all the cake baking, but maybe I do need to revisit pie making instead. I do think I had the oven on a bit too high as the edges of the pear pie did burn a bit...but oh well, I hope the middle part is tasty!

Lemon Meringue recipe here


Pear Cranberry Pie Recipe

For the crust:
3 cups sifted flour
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon table salt

For the filling:
3 to 3 1/2-pounds pears, a mixture of Bartlett, Bosc and/or Anjou
1/2 cup sugar
6 ounces dried cranberries
3 tablespoons tapioca flour
2 tablespoons cranberry jam
1 tablespoon cranberry juice
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

To make crust, put butter, shortening, salt and flour into a bowl. Using a pastry cutter, mix well until mixture resembles large crumbs. Add approximately 6 Tablespoons of ice water and form into two disks, wrap in plastic wrap and put into refridgerator.

For the filling. peel and core the pears. Slice into 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick wedges. Toss the pears with the sugar, cranberries, tapioca flour, jam, cranberry juice, salt and nutmeg.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Roll disk one and place into pie dish, gently press dough into the sides of the pan and trim edges as necessary. Spoon in filling and spread evenly over dough. Roll out disk two and place over the filling. Press the edges together and and trim the rim of the pie. Use your fingers or a fork to create a decorative edge. Using a knife, cut slits into the top of the tie to create steam vents.

Place the pie on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake on the floor of the oven for 30 minutes. Transfer to the lower rack of the oven and continue to bake another 20 minutes or until the pears are cooked through but not mushy. Remove to a rack and cool a minimum of 4 hours or until almost room temperature.

ENJOY!

Cranberry Relish

With the impending holiday season, the recipes are getting delightful. Some of those favorite things that we wait all year for. Some of these things are cranberry sauce...which really only make an appearance during Thanksgiving, although this would be a fantasic year round condiment for turkey sandwiches. Katie and Matt had a Friendsgiving at their casa yesterday and I made a batch of my mother in law's cranberry relish and some Amish friendship bread as my potluck contribution.

Recipe
4 cups cranberries
1 medium orange
1 cup raisins (I used golden raisins)
1 dicedmedium onion
1 diced bell pepper
2 garlic cloves
2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 cup cider vinegar
1 can (6 oz) frozen cranberry juice concentrate
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon each cayenne and ground cloves (I put in a little extra cayenne)
1 teaspoon whole mustard seeds

Put cranberries (recipe says to do a rough chop, but I didn't) into a 5 quart pot. Peel thin outer layer of orange peel and cut into slivers and add to pan. Cut off all white membrane, hold orange over pan and slice out the sections and add to pan. Add raisings, onion, green pepper, garlic ginger, vinegar and cranberry juice concentrate. Bring to boil, stirring occassionally for 10 minutes. Add sugar, salt, cayenne, cloves and mustard seed. Boil gently, stirring more often as mixture thickens for about 20 minutes. Store in refridgerator for immediate use or put into canning jars and process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Makes 5 half pints.

NOTE - for those allergic to apples (Eddie) I think a sherry vinegar or a red wine would produce the same result...just add a bit of brown sugar to emulate the sweet vinegar flavor of cider vinegar. You know a champagne vinegar would probably work out well too.


ENJOY!

Pear Spice Birthday Cake

Above is a birthday cake for my father in law who is an avid golfer. They are visiting this weekend and we will be celebrating his birthday a few days late. Never one to pass up the opportunity to bake a cake, I whipped this one up so we could have cake Friday night.

Close up of the decoration. I even tried to make dimples on the golf ball. Recipe to come.

Recipe...

Standard white cake recipe with less milk (moisture content is made up with the use of pear butter) and the addition of cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg and cocoa powder.

Amish Friendship Bread

Bread starter... Mary Claire brought that over.

Couldn't wait to cut into it... It was barely out of the oven when we sliced into it...It was good..a nice dense sweet bread - yum. Next time I am going to bake in a muffin pan as the crust is super delicious.

Recipe

Day 1 Do nothing (see ziploc bag for day 1 starter date)

Day 2 Mush the bag

Day 3 Mush the bag

Day 4 Mush the bag

Day 5 Mush the bag

Day 6 Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk then mush the bag

Day 7 Mush the bag

Day 8 Mush the bag

Day 9 Mush the bag
Day 10 Follow the instructions below:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Pour contents into a non-metal bowl.

Add 1 1/2 cups each flour, sugar and milk. Mix and measure out 4 one cup portions of batter and put into 4 ziploc bags. Write day 1 date on the bag and distribute to friends or keep all to yourself!

To the remaining batter, add the following

3 eggs

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup oil

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon sale

1 box vanilla instant pudding

Mix thoroughly and then pour into greased loag pans. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, if desired. Bake for one hour. Cool until bread loosens from the pan and serve.

NOTE - do not refridgerate the starter or use any sort of metal spoon or bowl. It is normal for the starter to rise, bubble and ferment so when the bag fills up with air, just let it out.

Holiday Party Menu

I forgot to take picture - bleh, but I wanted to share the menu as I was able to get away with turning the stove on for only one dish....outside of the cake.

Mostly No Cook Party Menu

- Crudite (french breakfast radishes, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes)

- Hummus & Artichoke dips (store bought)

- Cheese Platter - this was a fun one and I got to splurge at cowgirl creamery!!

(Parmesean, Mt. Tam, an old sharp cheddar, sheep gouda, goat cheese)

- Charcuterie (assorted salami, proscuitto, cornichons and olives)

- Delived Eggs

- Caviar service (American bowfin YUMMY)

- Lots of crackers, bread and cheese

- Birthday cake

Chester's Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Chester! We had a party this Sunday...our once annual party which happens to always be around the holiday season. I think that it's only around the end of the year that we actually remember to have a party. This year Chester was also totally blase about doing anything for his birthday so we decided to have a little "surprise" cake for him at the party since basically most of his friends would be at the party too... After a near misso of his almost not showing up - Chester arrived about 2 hours into the party and then we promptly sang happy birthday and cut into this dessert.

Chester's comment when presented with the cake? "WOW, but that is a horrible brand of camera." Funny..

This was my first "structural cake" and I was totally nervous about how to actually get all of the pieces to work together. I may need to get a fondant smoother as the texture wasn't very flat on the cake...and instead was a bit lumpy. Covering the cake in fondant was a bit of a challenge as it had lots of different layers and corners, but overall I am pretty proud of it.

See the pic below so you can see more details that I tried to put on the cake :)

Cake Recipe (I made 1.5x a normal batch to make enough cake)

1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3 cups sugar

6 large eggs, at room temperature

2 1/4 cups self rising flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

Frosting

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup heavy cream

4-8 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 cake pans. I used 2 square pans and one loaf pan. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Pour into prepared baking pans.

Bake in oven for about 20-25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Leave on cooling rack until cakes are fully cooled.

To make frosting, put all ingredients into a mixer and mix on low until incorporated. Then increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy.

To assemble cake carve the square cakes into rectangles with the camera flash addition. Reserve cut cake to make the bulge that is for the camera film. Use a round cookie cutter to cut out 2 disks from the loaf cake. Stack all the pieces on top of each other and fill with frosting or jam. Cover with fondant and decorate with royal icing.

ENJOY!