A Pretty Sleeve...

My trusted computer of many years has recently gone "poof" and I'm now the proud owner of a Asus Eee pad... which is so incredibly cool, I decided to dig out my sewing machine and make a fitting sleeve to keep it in when not in use... and it turned out so pretty, I decided to make another one and before I realised it, I was wondering if anyone else loved his tablet as much as me. I thought of putting one of them for sell on Ebay... here's how it looks!

Love the 70s candy fabric!

The link is here!

Cheers all!

Update: SOLD!

And we are 5 now...

...Adele is our new little pumpkin and it's almost hard to believe she will be 5 months in two days. She has been tasting a few things here and there, like cooked pear and carrot, but she's taking it slowly and still prefers the comfort of a warm bottle of milk...

The cold days are coming and I'm feeling that cooking vibe coming back. Nothing breaks a cold day like baking a big loaf of bread and having the oven warm up the kitchen. Oh and the smell! 

I have recently made the most amazing discovery and though it has been pretty much all over the web, I just have to share it with you all. It all started when searching for a good recipe for pillowy white bread, a bit like wonder-bread, without the bad stuff in it. I personally love crusty bread with a fair amount of rye, but lets be honest, my two toddlers don't agree with that when it comes to making sandwiches. After many loafs going straight to the bin and a month hiatus from baking altogether, I discovered it. 

TangZhong!

Now that I got your full attention, let me tell you that it's the best method I ever found for making that illusive wonder-bread. The bread retains just enough moisture, the crumb melts in the mouth, the crust is thin and light golden, the taste is just right... and if that wasn't enough, it's super easy to make and keeps for days without any chemicals added to it (if it lasts that long!). 

Now, I don't know the exact science behind it, but I challenge you all to give it a try! The only problem you might encounter is that a bread box (Pullman) is absolutely necessary to pull this off. These might be found in speciality shops, but I also seen them on ebay and several websites. They are a bit costly, but completely worth it. 

The recipe is basically that of an enriched bread, with milk powder and butter added to the dough (no eggs). The trick that changes everything is the Tangzhong, which is a mixture of flour and water, cooked until it reaches 140F (60C).

The result? Take a look!

 

No inside pictures yet, the bread was so hot that I decided to wait and ended up falling asleep. Will be coming soon!

So here's the recipe! Enjoy and let me know how it turns out!

TangZhong Bread

TangZhong

250 ml of water

50 g of all purpose flour

Bread Ingredients

500 g of all purpose flour

2 tbsp of skim milk powder

160 g of prepared tangzhong

210 ml of warm water

8 g of salt

50 of sugar

10 g of dry instant yeast

50 g of unsalted butter

Prepare the tangzhong, by whisking the flour and water together in a small pan. Cook on low heat without letting it boil (until 60C). It should thicken but still be quite runny. Set aside to cool. (you can keep any extra tangzhong in the fridge for a few days).

Now, mix all the dry ingredients for the bread, add the water, tangzhong and melted butter. Start working the dough until it becomes soft and elastic (about 10 minutes by hand). Let the dough rise in a well oiled and covered bowl for 1 hour (in a warm spot, like a barely heated oven). Punch down and let rest for 15 minutes. 

Pour the dough on a floured surface and punch it down gently, shaping it into a rectangle, the same length as the bread box. Roll it tightly and drop it into the pullman box with the seam down. 

Turn on the oven at 180C and let the dough rise in the box (without the lid) and just covered with plastic wrap (so you can see what's going on). That's about 25 minutes. 

When the top of the dough is just about to reach the top of the box, put the lid on (it shouldn't touch the dough yet. Now give it another 10 minutes to fill the box a bit more and bake for 40 minutes (35 if you like it whiter). Remove the bread from the box immediately after baking and let it cool on a rack.

This recipe is exactly the right amount to fill one pullman bread pan with the lid on.

Enjoy! 

Japan

It's been a while.
Though I'd love to say this is finally a new post on what's been cooking in my tiny kitchen, another matter is far more pressing. As many of you might know, I have a great interest in everything Japanese and lets face it, an overwhelming number of us do. What has happened lately is a tragedy... and it is still unfolding.
I wish them all courage and strength. I'd also like to send a call out for Hiro, my good friend in Sapporo, from whom I haven't got any news. I hope you are all safe!

Want to help? Follow the link:

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/11/6246445-japans-earthquake-how-to-help
Peace.

   

Passion Fruit Pie - a sweet little piece of sunshine

My husband's recent birthday was the perfect excuse to prepare something sweet. 

Our passion fruit vine has been giving us so much fruit this year that it was meant to be... passion fruit pie. 

It's like a little piece of sunshine... and it's hard to just have one slice. Enjoy! 

Passion Fruit Pie 

Bottom Crust
1 package of butter cookies (about 20)
1/2 cup of melted salted butter
1 teaspoon of water (if necessary)

Easy, just run the cookies in a blender, add the butter and the water and mix for about 10 seconds. Pour everything in a medium size pie mold or any other pan. Press the crust tightly. It should not be thicker than 1 cm (4 inch). Leave aside.

Passion Fruit Cream
1 small can of sweetened condensed milk
1 small pack of whipping cream (38% fat)
10 g of powdered gelatin or 1 sheet
Pulp from 8 passion fruits

Remove the pulp from you passion fruit before you start anything else. Set aside.

Start whipping your cream until firm. Now dissolve the gelatin in a little bit of hot water. Add the condensed milk, the gelatin and the passion fruit pulp to the whipped cream and fold gently. Pour it into the crust you previously prepared and let set in the fridge for at least an hour.

Passion Fruit jelly topping
Pulp from 6 to 8 passion fruit
1/2 glass of natural peach juice (nectar)
1 tablespoon of sugar
10 g of powdered gelatin or 1 sheet

Now that the cream as set, remove the pulp from you passion fruit, add the peach juice and sugar and mix well. As before dissolve your gelatin in a bit of hot water and add it to rest. Stir very well and carefully pour over the cream. Return to the fridge for at least another couple of hours, just to be sure it won't fall apart and you get nice slices. 

Cheers all!

A Carb-less Nifty Little Salmon dish ... and a start up to a thinner you.

It has been a little over a year now that I decided to cut down on my carb frenzy and all I can say is that it has worked wonders on my health. So, no more big bowls of spaghetti and pizza is definitely a treat for special weekends. I feel lighter and oddly enough, more energized, though I suspect there's a lot of psychology involved. (see unusually large smile when fitting in my favorite jeans)

I realized for some time already that the reason why it is so hard to keep eating right is because... well, once hunger hits, I'm not ready to give it a good fight. If I could only have a way to whisk out something really tasty and filling in less than 15 minutes, I would be out of excuses... and that's just what I set myself to do. 

I went out and bought lots of individually wrapped frozen fish fillet (salmon, tilapia, haddock... any as long as it's a 100% unprocessed fish without anything added to it).

 This is what I'm talking about

I also bought chicken steaks and breasts, wrapped each individually and froze them. Also, ground chicken and turkey meat, divided and shaped into individual portions of no more than 150 grams each (about 5 ounces). I guess I'm pretty much covered, protein-wise. 

As for vegetables, cooking time and shelf-life was a problem so I decided to look for frozen vegetables that could also be quickly prepared and had minimal cooking involved. The best choices where frozen spinach, specially those that already come shaped into nuggets for easy use, mixed cut vegetables are also very convenient. Basically, I look for anything that is small enough to be cooked in no more than 5 minutes and also give a big plus to anything that doesn't require boiling. One of my best finds was dried wakame seaweed. All it needs is to be re-hydrated in some hot water and voila! Plus, it's incredibly healthy and rich in omega 3, doesn't spoil and is relatively inexpensive. I try to always keep cucumbers and tomatoes in the fridge, for a quick add-on to my meals.

I also got myself a digital scale to make sure I keep my carbs in check and a good 8 inch non-stick pan that is just the right size to accommodate the meal I'm setting off to cook... and also pretty much eliminates the need for extra oil.

As for carbs, I'm not a zealot. I'm not sure that cutting them down completely is healthy, but it does make things very hard and I realized soon enough that avoiding them too much always made me feel more hungry, so I compensated by eating more protein and soon enough, my cholesterol levels started to go overboard and seriously... I need that little guilty pleasure, even though it's just at 300 g (10 ounces) a day.

So this brings me back to the last post and that nifty little carb-less dish. 

I just whisked out a piece of salmon out of the freezer and let it slowly defrost (about 15 minutes outside), cut into nice bite-size pieces and set aside. I then rehydrated a handful on wakame seaweed in hot water for 5 minutes, drained and lay them at the bottom of a bowl. Added the salmon, one chopped cucumber, green onion. That's pretty straight forward. What really made this dish a winner  were  the topping: japanese dry seasoning and a slightly spicy soy sauce my husband concocted.

The dry seasoning was sent to me from Japan and as I'm quickly running out of it, I decided to try and reproduce it at home. So here's a close up...

 

...and that's what's in it:

• 1 Tbsp of black sesame seeds

• 1 Tbsp of white roasted sesame seeds

• 1 Tbsp of dried bonito shavings

• 1 Tbsp of granulated wasabi (optional) - use crushed wasabi peas for a similar taste!

• 1 Tbsp of chopped roasted nori (seaweed sheets for sushi rolls)

• 1/2 tsp of fine sea salt 

Mix everything well and keep in a airtight container, preferably in the fridge.

Ok, on with the sauce!

This is pretty easy too! Just mix about 1/4 of a cup of soy sauce with 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1 teaspoon of mirin (japanese sweet wine) and 1/2 teaspoon of Shichimi Togarashi, also called japanese 7 spice. Let it sit for a few minutes before using, so you'll get the full taste of that amazing roasted orange peel!

If you don't like spicy, you can freely skip the spicy stuff.

Now, just sprinkle your dry seasoning over the dish and add a couple of tablespoons of prepared soy sauce. 

Here's a wonderfully light meal, perfect for the Summer and so easy to make, there's just no excuse to eat junk.

Have a great week all!