The curry pan was awesome.
The curry pan was awesome.
Thanks shinta|hikari for the sig.
"Spiceghettios."
I took a can of regular spaghettios and added in some extra aged cheddar cheese and a liberal dose of Tabasco (pepper sauce).
I contemplated going with another hot sauce (Frank's Red Hot), but the advantage of Tabasco is that it adds heat without adding in too much flavor. Spaghettios taste pretty good on their own, so I didn't want to overpower that flavor.
I was left with a filling (and gloriously unhealthy) pasta soup that gives a pleasing and subtle burn in the back of the throat.
(I take that back, Spaghettios are actually pretty healthy for you aside from higher than average sodium.)
Baked two pizzas yesterday.
This is the thick crust version.
This is the thin crust version:
The thick crust was really good, though it was lacking toppings a bit. The crust was really thick, but the the outside was crisp while the inside was nice and soft. It also lacked the oil usually found in pizza takeouts. Really, one of the best pizzas I have ever had.
The thin crust one had a raw crust, mainly because of a bad pan. The top was burning while the crust was still raw. Strange enough, people liked it better than the other one. Maybe it is because pizza = toppings here in my country. I am personally a crust man, with toppings being a nice plus.
Peace.
That looks great man. What does the sauce taste? Was it more like a simpler tomato paste, or heavily seasoned and modified?
Onions are probably the best thing you can have on a pizza, so I highly approve.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Seasoned and modified. It added marjoram, basil, oregano, cayenne, garlic, onion and chili flakes.
Peace.
I made Paska today! That's Mennonite/Ukrainian Easter Bread, which I wanted to make at Easter but didn't actually have time until today. Pics are of before and after baking. It's a citrus-y bread (has a whole orange and a whole lemon in it) that is usually eaten with icing instead of butter on the slices. Yummmmm
Fresh out of the oven!
Looks great! Can you share the recipe via pm? I love citrus flavors, so I might try making it if it is not too difficult.
Peace.
It really does look delicious. I am a fan of citrus fruits myself. I often eat Lemons by themselves (rine and all... minus seeds). So I envy those that get to taste this... =P...
It's dangerous to go alone. Take Nep.
This is the first time I've heard of citrusy breads. I think I've had breads before that perhaps had bits of orange peels in it or something (or maybe that was just the jam).
How does that taste? Looks awesome.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Hey shinta|hikari, any chance we can get the recipe for that curry pan? I imagine you bake the bread yourself which might put it outside of my culinary abilities, but it might be fun to try. Looks delicious, hope it tasted as good.
“For God will not permit that we shall know what is to come... those who by some sorcery or by some dream might come to pierce the veil that lies so darkly over all that is before them may serve by just that vision to cause that God should wrench the world from its heading and set it upon another course altogether and then where stands the sorcerer? Where the dreamer and his dream?”
Kare pan recipe
Makes 8 to 10 buns
The dough:
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 ¾ tsp. regular dry yeast
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs, beaten, with 1 Tbs. taken out and reserved for the eggwash (see below)
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbs. milk
• 2 1/2 Tbs. butter, at room temperature
The filling:
• About 4 cups of leftover curry (any filling will do really, including stews etc. If you are making curry, you can use the Japanese curry roux blocks that make it a cinch to produce a good curry. Experiment with what ingredients you like. Japanese curry is very flexible. I add ripe mango puree and bacon in my curry filling, but you can do anything as long as it can be mushed up to filling consistency. Recipe is at the bottom of the post)
The coating:
• Panko or Japanese bread crumbs
• The reserved 1 Tbs. egg from the dough
• Milk
To fry:
• Oil
Equipment and supplies:
• Parchment paper, cut into 10 pieces about 20cm / 8 in cm square (big enough to hold the buns)
• Pastry brush
• Deep fat fryer or wok or a deep enough pan for frying
• A spatula big enough to put a bun on
• Oven
1) Make the dough. If you’re mixing by hand, mix together the dry ingredients with a whisk (or sift). Make a well in the middle of the mixed dry stuff. Add the egg (don’t forget to reserve 1 Tbs. for the coating/wash) and milk into the well, and mix rapidly with your fingertips until you get a rough dough. Continue mixing until you have a ball.
2) Add the butter, cut into small pieces, and knead on a lightly floured surface. The dough will be very sticky at first but resist the temptation to flour your board too much, or the dough will become very stiff. If you keep scraping off the stuck on dough with a scraper and kneading and stretching, eventually the dough will become smooth, coherent and pliable.
3) Once you have a nice smooth dough ball, put into a clean ball, cover with plastic film and let rise for about 1 to 1/2 hours until doubled in size. Punch down the dough, re-cover and let rise an additional 45 minutes.
4) While the dough is rising, deal with the curry. Mash down or smoosh/cut up any big bits of carrot, potato, meat etc. Over a low heat, slowly cook down the curry until it’s reduce to 2 cups or so, and thick and paste-like. Let cool, then refrigerate until stiff.
5) Take out the dough, punch down, knead and divide into 8 to 10 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, and let rest for about 15 minutes under a piece of plastic or a damp kitchen towel.
6) Put about 1 tablespoon of milk in the reserved egg, and mix well.
7) Start forming the buns. With a rolling pin or with your hands, flatten out each piece into a thin round, with the center thicker than the edges. If you’re making 10 buns the circle should be about 18cm / 7 inches in diameter.
8) Paint the edges of the circle with the egg wash. Don’t make it too wet - the purpose of the egg wash it to act as a glue to form a seal.
9) Put a tablespoon or so of curry in the center of the circle. Gather up the opposing edges of the circle above the filling.
10) Pinch the dough all around to seal well, like making a dumpling.
11) When the edges are all crimped, push the crimped edge down to one side.
12) Add a bit more milk to the egg wash and put into a bowl or dish big enough to contain a bun. Dip the bun into the egg wash, coating it on all sides, then roll in bread crumbs.
13) Put each bun on a piece of parchment paper. Leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes - the buns should rise to about 1.5 times their original size.
14) In the meantime, preheat the oven to 150°C / 300°F. Heat the frying oil to 175°C / 350°F (this is pretty hot, be careful)
15) If the buns have developed any gaps, pinch them closed.
16) Pick up a bun with the paper, with a spatula. Slide the bun, paper and all, into the hot oil. Don’t worry the paper won’t burn - just scoop it out with the spatula.
17) Fry the buns until golden brown - this shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes per bun. If they won’t stay down just hold them down a bit. Do about 2 or 3 at a time at most - don’t overcrowd the pan.
18) Drain well on a rack or several layers of paper towels, and put the buns on a baking sheet. Bake for about 8-10 minutes. If you don't have an oven, simply extend the frying time around 2-3 minutes, although this might make the bread absorb more oil and make it a bit more greasy. Be careful of burning when frying for a long time.
Recipe adapted from a site somewhere.
I realized that the filling part is a bit vague, so here is my recipe for curry filling.
Japanese Kare recipe
1/2 package golden curry (or any brand that you like) roux blocks
2/3 cup diced carrots
2/3 cup diced potatoes
1 cup onions, sliced thick
300 grams lean ground pork (beef will work as well)
4-5 slices bacon, sliced into 1 inch lengths
Stock of whatever ground meat you are using
1 Ripe mango, mashed or pureed (optional, use only if making the bread soon after making the curry) - This will add an exquisite sweetness and acidity to the curry.
1) Cook the bacon in a pan until lightly browned (not crispy). Remove the bacon and set aside.
2) Brown onions in the bacon fat. Cook until it has become really soft and dark. This is important to achieve the sweetness necessary for Japanese curry.
3) Add ground meat and cook until browned. Add bacon and carrots in the pan. Give it a stir.
4) Add the stock until it barely covers the ingredients.
5) Bring to boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
6) Add the potatoes. Continue simmering for 10 more minutes or until all vegetables are cooked but not mushy.
7) Add mango puree and mix until evenly incorporated. Chop up the curry roux blocks to small pieces and add to the pan. Remove from the heat and mix until the curry has thickened.
8) Serve hot with rice, but not too hot that it will burn away your taste buds making you curse yourself due to impatience.
Last edited by shinta|hikari; Thu, 04-15-2010 at 01:15 AM.
Peace.
Looks awesome!
"Our hearts are full of memories but not all of them reflect the truth. The heart isn't a recording device. Even important memories change with time. They warp or fade, leaving us with but a shadow of what we hoped to remember." 天の道を行き、全てを司る。これは僕の世界。
Recent nom noms :
Breakfast :
Light dinner sandwich served w\ chicken noodle soup :
"taco salad" chile w\ corn topped w\ cream and cheese and lettuce :
STEAK!:
.................
.........................
......................................
You're making me want to eat breakfast and lunch again.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
You're making me want to eat in general.
Too bad I am no good at cooking.
It's dangerous to go alone. Take Nep.
Bill: This is pretty different from those breads that have fruit peel in them. Personally, I'm not so much a fan of chunks of stuff in my bread. In this one you peel the orange and lemon with a vegetable peeler to get the outside bit that has all the fruit oils in it, and then discard the white layer and chop up the inside fruit and puree it all in the blender until it's very smooth. The bread is only slightly sweet, and it has a very smooth texture.
Shinta: Recipe on its way to you! Also, I definitely am going to try out that curry pan. Looks amazing. I'll post here when I have some results
Just ate 2 sandwiches of Smoked Hungarian Salami with hot-peppered Monterey Jack cheese, tomatoes and lettuce and mustard on 12-grain bread and a glass of milk for lunch. Nothing glamorous but still good, nonetheless.
I made potato gratin with bacon (yes, I love bacon) during the weekend. It was easier than I thought, and tasted divine. It is very unhealthy, but that very reason I workout is to be able to eat stuff like this without worrying about getting fat.
These are the french vanilla chocolate cupcakes I made for dessert. The white ones are topped with vanilla frosting (which was not so good because I used half caster sugar instead of only confectioner's sugar because I did not have enough for the recipe. The brown ones were fantastic though. I used nutella and some cream to make a chocolate hazelnut syrup.
Then I made a thick crust pizza yesterday. It had tons of bacon (again). I think this is the best one I have made yet simply because it had a great crust that has good texture and flavor while having the proper thickness and still having a crunchy bottom. I am definitely keeping this pizza dough recipe. The balance between the toppings and the crust was also better than before.
Peace.