Japan

We are in japan! Enjoying japanese bread!

No Knead bread in Le Creuset

Happy New Year! Finally, we moved to a new place and we are settling down.

We moved little bit before Christmas and my husband's parents were here from Germany to help us move and spend Christmas with us. Since we were trying to finish everything before Christmas, it was quite busy and stressful but we were able to get most of the stuff done by Christmas and was able to spend nice relaxing Christmas.

About a week before the move, my son got sick and he was throwing up all day for one day. Thank god it lasted only one day. Then, right when we were about to move, my husband started feeling sick and he was not feeling well for about a week. Now, he feels fine and we were able to start a new year with healthy bodies.

Since we didn't have any furniture, we had to buy everything. We bought all the furniture from IKEA. IKEA is great. I think it would have cost a lot more if we didn't have IKEA. Even with IKEA stuff, buying all the furniture you need cost a lot of money. But I was able to get furnitures I like and the house is coming together.

I really love my house and the town I used to like before the Hurricane so I am still sad about it but the new house started to feel like home and I think it will grow on us with time. Plus, the town I used to live is about 30mins away so I will be going there at least once a week to see my friends and neighbors.

I don't know anything about this area so I just have to figure out what is around here.

Yesterday, I went to the library in the area. This library is very small and old but it seems like they have a program for my son once a week so I am going to sign him up for it. Hopefully I can make some new friends there.

Anyhow, enough about my life and let's talk about cooking.

In previous post, I told you that I finally bought Le creuset dutch oven.

There was this one thing I really really wanted to try making it when I get Le Creuset. It is no knead bread! This is how it came out.

Doesn't it look great? It really like bread you buy from bakery and it is super super super easy to make!

I think this bread started out as one person from NY bakery (Jim Lahey from Sullivan Street Bakery) invented this method so everyone can make real bread easily at home. Then, Mark Bittman wrote an article about it in New York Times and it got very very popular.

I don't remember how I found this out but I always wanted to try.

Here is the recipe in New York Times. 

But I used this website to make it myself since it is much easier to see and it explain the steps very well.
Click here for the recipe I used from "Simply So Good".

My husband loves bread so he was very happy when he saw this bread. He is excited that now he can eat this anytime at home. (Well it need to be rested for at least 18hours so I have to plan it though)

My husband's father (my father-in-law) also loves bread so he was also very happy to have this bread. I am happy that everyone loves it and it is really easy to make.

I don't need to knead the bread. I just mix the ingredients and let it sit for 18 hours and bake.

When you buy bread at supermarket, often time there are many chemicals to prevent it from spoiling but this one is all natural and it is a lot more economical and it taste better!

So if you have Le creuset, please try to bread. If you love bread, you will love this homemade bread!

Now I have all the cooking tools and I am excited about making new dishes and sharing it with you.

Things I recently made and cook books I recently borrowed

Summer is finally here and I am enjoying my first summer with a baby. Sometimes, it is too hot but I put him in a water bath outside my house and he loves it. We take him to the beach sometimes also. He doesn't really like the ocean water. I think it is too cold. Anyhow, my life is perfect with him!
He is already 5months and we just started to give him solid food. we started with rice porridge. (He is a half Japanese :-) It is interesting to see how he develop. He is growing up too fast!

Well, I have been cooking more lately but just didn't have time to update my blog. So I would like to upload some of the things I made recently.

First of all, I made biscuit. I had homemade biscuit the other day at a restaurant in Brooklyn and I wanted to try making it myself ever since. Here is how it came out.

Not bad, right? It tasted good also! I didn't know how easy to make biscuit at home. I love having it with butter and strawberry jam when it came right out from the oven. Yum!

I used the recipe in this book which I had for this biscuit.















Also, I made an indian dish. This is chicken with some indian spices with lots of cilantro and tomato. My husband and I love this dish. I didn't make it super spicy this time so we didn't need to be crying while we ate. For some reason, I love eating spicy food when it is hot.

Next, I made salmon and napa cabbage. Salmon is just with salt and pepper and sautéed in a pan. Napa cabbage is cooked with bacon and some vinegar. I love this cabbage dish. I can eat a bowl full of this cabbage.

And, this is a edamame salad. We love edamame and we eat them quite often but I never had it in this form. This is a warm salad with mushroom, roasted bell pepper, snap peas and so on. I found this recipe on Martha Stewart magazine. I bought frozen shelled edamame. For flavor, I used vinegar and chili paste and stuff so it is a bit spicy but very good. To my surprise, my husband liked this dish. It is very healthy but tasty dish.

Speaking of edamame, I bought edamame plant this year for my container garden. It is growing some edamae but it is just like 5 of them so I don't really know what to do with them.

I also got basil for my garden as I always do every year. This year, basil has been growing really well so I have already harvested them twice and made pesto pasta. This pesto was really good. I wrote it down the recipe so I would like to upload it some other time.

I went to the library the other day and borrowed some books again. One of the book I borrowed was for my husband. This is from my favorite Japanese author named "Kotaro Isaka". He is very popular in Japan and I found that one of his books is finally translated into English. I always wanted my husband read one of his book so I borrowed it for him.

This is the book.

I read many of his book but I actually haven't read this one yet. I thought about reading it in English but I decided to get it in Japanese and read it in Japanese.

My husband finished reading it and he liked it.

He said he didn't like the first half of it but then he got into it and really liked it when he finished reading.

I went to this Jpaaneses used book store called "Book Off" in Manhattan the other day and purchased the original version of it. I am excited to read it. My husband ask me every day if I read it already or not. But I still have other books to finish so I haven't really started yet. (Plus, with a baby, my reading time is quite limited right now)

Other than the above book, I borrowed lots of cook book again. I realized that there are many celebrates publishing cook book lately.





This is a cook book from an actress "Eva Longoria". Since her parents are Mexican, I thought I can get some good Mexican recipes from this book. I liked many of the stuff I saw. I am excited about trying it.










This is my favorite celebrity chef Jaime Oliver's cook book about food from American continent. There are many dished which looks really good from all different regions. Very interesting book.











This is a book from iron chef Cat Cora. I actually have never tried her recipe so I would like to try something from this.













This is a cook book from Trisha Yearwood. I think she is an country singer (I am sorry but I am not sure about who she is)

In this book, there are lots of American classic recipes and some of them looks really good. I would definitely try her chicken salad and chicken casserole.







When I borrow or buy cookbook, the most important feature is pictures of the dishes. I don't like cookbooks without any pictures of the dishes. All of these cookbook above had many pictures of the dishes. However I wish they have pictures for each and every one of the recipe they have in the book.

Anyway, I am excited about trying some of the dished from these book. The only problem is that it is too hot to cook lately!

Garlic Bread

 I was watching Food Network the other day and Neelys were making garlic bread on their show. It looked really good and suddenly I had to make those garlic bread.

It is very easy to make. Click here for the recipe from Food Network website.

I was supposed to use Italian bread but I used Baguette instead. Also, I didn't have basil so I only used parsley.

Spread garlic butter parsley mixture on bread.

Wrap with foil and into the oven.

Then, take the foil out and sprinkle cheese then put in the oven till the cheese melt.

It is cheesy and garlicky and really good. My husband love bread so he loved this garlic bread. It is really easy to make so I recommend you to give it a try!

By the way, on the weekend my husband and I went to see a contemporary ballet show called "Swan Lake" at NY City Center. This is a modern interpretation of the classic "Swan Lake".

All the swans were male and it was very fun and interesting. We really liked this. It seems like they are originally from U.K. and they will have the show in NY till Nov 7. If you are interested, I think tickets are still available :-)

Honey Butter Toast

This is something I saw in Japan and I wanted to try it out. Normally, here in the U.S., most of the sandwich bread is already sliced so I couldn't make this but the other day I bought this unsliced loaf bread at a Japanese grocery store so I bought it and decided to give this toast a try.


First, I cut the bottom part of loaf bread for about 4 inches thick. Then, make incisions at the edge between crust and inside, also made a cross incisions inside. Add butter and honey.

Set the broiler to "high" and put the toast under the broiler for about 5 min or until it is golden brown.
If you would like, you can add more butter and honey at this point.

I shared with my husband. I ate half and my husband ate the other half.

It is all done!

Of course, I don't throw away the crust. I cut them into stripes and bake it in the oven with some butter & sugar or make some crouton for salad.

My husband loves this toast. He said he had never seen anything like this. This has been quite popular in Japan for a few years already and you can find them in many coffee shop and stuff. I think whoever come up with this toast is a great inventor!

Penne with Tomato Sauce & Failed Bread Making

I would like to show two things I made last week. First one is Penne with tomato sauce. I used store bought tomato sauce so it is super easy. But I added some sautéed onion, garlic, cherry tomatoes and fresh basil. This makes a huge difference.

My husband loves pasta and he likes those simple pasta very much so he was happy to have this.

Also, I baked bread last week. Or attempted to make one. It didn't come out well and it is a bit embarrassing to show how bad it was but I will show it anyway. Here it is.

Can you tell how thin it is? I was trying to make regular sandwich bread but this is what came out from the oven. It was so thin that I had to laugh.

The taste was good and my husband loves bread also so he was eating this happily despite the shape.

I just wonder how this happened. When I had the second rise, it was rising up properly and pretty big but when I baked, it shrank. I have no idea what I did wrong. Oh well, bread making is not easy and I still need a lot more practice to master this. I hope someday I can make a perfect sandwich bread at home.

Challenge for another homemade bread

I have tried to make homemade sandwich bread for a few times in the past. I have never made this perfectly and need more practice. So I tried it again to make it better.

It was a bit smaller than I have expected and it is not even. This is not a perfect sandwich bread which I was trying to make but the taste was there.

First, I made the dough and separate them into two. (At this point, it is already uneven....)

Roll them and put them in the pan.

This is after baking.

Let's cut them into thin slices.

I made turkey sandwich with this bread. The taste was really good. I just need to work on the shape.

Freshly baked bread is really good. Since this was quite small bread, we ate them pretty quickly.

Well, it seems like I need more practice on baking bread. In the future, I would love to bake baguette and sourdough bread but first I would like to make a perfect sandwich bread. Hopefully, the day will come very soon :-)

Homemade Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan

I love Indian Curry. When I was living in California, I used to live with this wonderful Indian lady and she was a great cook so I was able to eat delicious Indian food all the time. Even after I moved out from her place, there are so many great Indian restaurant around so I was always eating great Indian food.

Now, there are many good Indian restaurants in NY also but there is not one really close to our place. I think the closest Indian restaurant from us is about 30mins away. I always say that we need a good Indian restaurant in my city! but until then, I make my own Indian food at home.

Anyway, the popular dish in American Indian restaurant is Chicken Tikka Masala. I am not sure if this dish is actually eaten in India but it seems like this dish is also popular in UK.

I borrowed this curry book from the library. This book have many curry dish recipes from all over the world such as India, Thai, Africa, and so on. I wanted to make Chicken Tikka Masala and I found it under the category of Britain. It seems like the origin of this dish is under discussion among many people. No matter where it is from, I love this rich creamy dish.

If you are interested in this book, here is the amazon link.















First, I marinade the chicken with some yogurt, garlic, jalapeno, ginger and so on. I had to marinade this overnight. Since I realized this when I start cooking, that night dinner quickly became something else and Chicken Tikka Masala was postponed for the next day :-) (I should learn that I need to read the whole recipe before I start cooking!!)

Since it is marinated overnight, the chicken soaks up all the flavors.
Then I grilled this. I was supposed to use a broiler but it was not grilling as I planned so I used frying pan instead. I think I should have cut the chicken bigger. Since it is well marinated, the chicken started to fall off a bit.

I mixed canned tomato, cilantro, ginger and so on in the blender and heat it up in the pan with some cream. The color of this sauce in the book was more bright orange but mine came out a bit dark. I think it might be because I add lots of cilantro.

Add the chicken and heat up. Serve with basmati rice.

Since my husband loves bread, I also made Naan. This was also in the book. (The book had a regular Naan but I added garlic and cilantro and made garlic Naans)

The dough was too soft and it was difficult to shape so the shape was not great. I added chopped garlic and cilantro on top because I had this kind of nann in Indian restaurant before and I loved them.

This is before baking

After baking

Does it look like Naan? This recipe did not have yeast in it so it was very quick bread. I personally like the one I made with yeast. I liked the texture of that one better. (Here is the link for the post for the Naan I made before with yeast)

Despite the color of Chicken Tikka Masala and the shape of Naan, the taste was great. I loved it and my husband loved it even more! It was worth spending time making this. The one thing I would change a bit next time is that I would make it little bit spicier since it was not much spicy.

Indian curry is great. It might take some time but the flavor is there. I guess in order to create this kind of big flavor, I need to spend some time. And for these delicious dishes, I have no problem spending more time in the kitchen. Actually, I love spending time in the kitchen anyway!

This book is due return soon but there are many more things I would like to try from this book. I think I will renew it and extend my due date for this book :-)

By the way, it seems like Avatar DVD is released. I watched it twice at the movie theater. If you would like to go back to the world of Pandora, here is the link to Amazon :-)
  

Asparagus & Mushroom Pasta plus garlic bread recipe

I had some asparagus in the fridge so I decided to use all of these asparagus and made pasta with it. In addition to asparagus, I also added mushrooms, arugula and grape tomatoes. You can eat lots of vegetable with this pasta.

I just sauteed vegetables and combined with cooked spaghetti but here is the recipe.

Asparagus & Mushroom Pasta (for about 3 people)
Ingredients
Asparagus   about 10 (cut into smaller pieces)
Mushroom   1 pack  (sliced them)
Arugula       a handful
grape tomatoes     about 5 (cut into half)
Canadian bacon or ham or regular bacon  4 slices (cut into small pieces)
Garlic     2 clove
Spaghetti    300g
Olive Oil    2 table spoon
Butter        1 table spoon
Heavy Cream    3 table spoon
Parmesan Cheese   as much as you like
Salt & Pepper        as much as you like

1. heat up a pan with olive oil and sauté chopped garlic until fragrant

2. Add asparagus, mushroom and canadian bacon and saute.

3. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in a pot until your desired firmness.

4. When asparagus and mushroom get soft, add tomatoes and saute more.

5. When tomatoes start to break down, add arugula and saute until they are soft.

6. Add cooked spaghetti and one ladle full of pasta water and mix well with the vegetables. When everything is mixed well, add heavy cream, butter and salt/pepper.

7. Serve them in a plate with sprinkled parmesan cheese on top.

I also made garlic bread with some baguette. This is easy and always come out great.
Here is the recipe.

Garlic bread
Ingredients
Baguette  (cut into slices)
Olive Oil
Garlic    (cut the tip of it)

1. Turn the broiler on high.

2. Slice baguette and place on the baking sheet.

3. Sprinkle olive oil on top of the sliced baguette.

4. Place the oven sheet under the broiler and broil until it is golden brown.

5. Take it out and rub garlic on the baguette while it is still hot.

And that's it. You have garlicky delicious garlic bread! This is quite garlicky so this recipe is for garlic lovers! Enjoy!

Wonderful visitor from South Africa

My German trip report has finished and now I will report what is going on in NY. Over the weekend, we had good friends of ours came to visit from South Africa. They are a couple from California and my husband and I met them in California about 5 years ago. Since they live in South Africa, even though we talk on the phone, we hadn't seen each other for about a year.

They had a baby last year and this time they came to visit us with the cute baby.

They also like eating like I do so when we meet, we eat a lot. The husband of the couple is really good at cooking so he cooked some wonderful meal this time again. And I baked some stuff.

Their flight was arriving early in the morning to NY, so I welcomed them with homemade Cinnamon roll. I had never made cinnamon roll before but it came out pretty good. Everybody loved them!

For lunch, our friend made shrimp sandwich. This was really really good! I know I will be making this again. We had some Champaign with raspberry also. Isn't that pretty? It is perfect to celebrate our reunion.

I also made raspberry mousse the day before. It was a lot of work but came out pretty good. Though the red raspberry on top supposed to set like jelly but for some reason it did not so it ended up like raspberry sauce but that was fine also.

Also, our friend made Huevos Rancheros. I never had this dish before but it was really really good! I love the cilantro on top. He used vegetarian breakfast sausage for this dish. This was my first time eating vegetarian breakfast sausage. To my surprise, it was good! I think if nobody told me, I couldn't even tell that it was vegetarian. I guess vegetarian meat products are getting better these dates. I might even consider using those products more.

We were on diet since we came back from Germany but we ate a lot this weekend. We have to go back on diet again this week :-) BUT having great meal with your great friends are priceless. I really love enjoying good food with great people. On Monday night, another couple came from Manhattan and had dinner with us. It was wonderful and we had a great time.

Since we hadn't seen each other for about a year, this was the first time meeting their baby. He was really really cute. He is so friendly and always smiling to people. I don't think there is anyone who can not smile back when he smiles. He totally stole my heart. I wish they live closer so I can babysit him all the time.

Anyway, my husband and I were so happy that they came all the way from South Africa. They were on the way to California but decided to make a special stop over in NY just to see us. I think it muse be really hard to travel with a baby but they made an effort to see us and it means a lot to me. I really appreciate their effort. I hope we can be friends for a long long time until we get old.

By the way, the wine I bought this weekend was pretty good so I would like to write it down here to remeber it. It was Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley called AVALON.

Another attempt for making sandwich bread

Thank you for all your nice comments about my attempt to make sandwich bread the other day. Your nice words encouraged and motivated me to try baking another one :-) So here it is. My another attempt on making sandwich bread.

This time, I tried not to knead too much because I heard it is not good for the dough to knead too much. And it happens sometimes when you use stand mixer for kneading.

This is how it looked after I kneaded with stand mixer. It still looks not smooth. I am not sure what to do to make it smoother.

After the second rise, I roll the dough out and put it in the pan. It looks much smoother here.

After baking for 30mins.

It looks better than last time, doesn't it?

It tasted really good. This time I reduced the amount of sugar. My husband liked having freshly baked bread with apricot preserve.

Over all, I am pretty happy with what came out. It is not perfect but It is definitely better than the last attempt. I still think that the dough is too hard and not smooth. It is does not rise too much when I bake.

I reduced the time of kneading this time but I started to think that maybe it is better to knead it with hand (even though it is a lot more work..) because I made bread last summer (Click here for that post)  and I knead it with my hand that time and the dough was smoother and softer. Well, I guess it also depends on weather and temperature and all these environmental issues which I have to take into account also.

I also used bread flour but maybe I will use regular flour next time.

Also, some people told me about Cool rise bread which you rise the dough in your fridge over night or so. I think this is great because you can make the dough, put it in the fridge and bake it in the morning.
Another method I learned is that you can also rise the dough in microwave. This method is super fast and easy. I should definitely try those two methods also.

I still have a lot to learn about bread making and I am willing to try many times until I perfect it :-)

Thank you for all your nice words! My attempt for becoming a better baker will continue....

I also want to make pita bread because I borrowed Middle eastern cook book so it will be great if I can learn how to make pita bread and eat it with falafel or hummus. (Those are also my husband favorite :-)