Softy

Tofu brownies

Which bowl? asked my husband, when I told him to get it. Good grief! We only have two bowls that are not in the box and can’t you see, I’m using one already! Never mind, I will get it, I snapped. Not being able to use the kitchen for a few weeks has brought me to the the breaking point. Calm down-I remind myself- this is exactly the reason I was born in modern age not pioneer era. Won’t it be nice when we get our kitchen back? said my husband. Sometimes a glass is half-full personality gets on my nerves. You betcha! More than you will ever know, just don’t ask me to go camping with you.

I start expressing my desire to redesign our kitchen to my husband about two years ago. Why? Is something broken? was his reply. Born and raised on a farm, he lived a simple life. The house he grew up in did not have dishwasher, clothes washer nor dryer. My mother-in-law washed clothes in big round tub and hand cranked to squeeze water then hung to dry outside. They had milking cows and churned cream to make butter. Eggs collected from hen house was so fresh that it was hard to remove shell from boiled eggs. It took a while but I was persistent as suggested by the tune of what Laura wants, Laura gets. I campaigned hard and made promises like I will be a happier cook in a new kitchen(?). Butter churn, paddle and mold-We received as keepsakes after my mother-in-law passed away. It still smells like butter and many precious memories. 

Back to the bowl story. I wanted make this brownie recipe adapted from Setsuko Pastry LLC in Seattle. One problem- you need a food processer. I have one but this is reoccurring dilemma,-where is it? Ah…Darling, can you mix this very fast like a food processer? In that bowl?

Ingredients for Tofu brownies use 1- 3x8 loaf pan

• Chocolate 1/2 cup I used semi-sweet baking chocolate. Break into small pieces and put in a glass measuring cup.
• Milk 1 Tablespoon
• Soft tofu 8 ounces or half package
• Sugar 1/2 cup
• 1 Egg
• 1 Tablespoon of all purpose flour, corn starch and cocoa powder (I used unsweetened). Mix in a small bowl.

1. Heat oven to 350F I used toaster oven and it came out OK.
2. In a glass measuring cup with chocolate, add milk then microwave 20 seconds at a time to melt. Set it aside.
3. Put tofu and sugar in a food processer and mix until smooth.
4. Add egg and chocolate mixture. Mix well
5. Sprinkle in the flour mixture and combine- do not over mix.
6. Pour in the prepared loaf pan and bake for 25 minutes or until no longer jiggles.
7. Cool, wrap in plastic wrap and chill.

Chilled tofu brownie has a soft, fudgy, slightly weird texture. It goes well with fruits like strawberries.

I hope you had a Happy Easter. Our Easter dinner was mostly store bought this year. I roasted potatoes and made blueberry sauce for ham. Making hard boiled eggs take too long because of weak heat source so I made poached eggs for salad instead.

Paper grass is just for decoration of course.Kumato –brown tomato has unique flavor and color.These two plates from Crate and Barrel have the same name as me.

Outside is looking more Spring like each day.Asian pear tree has way too many flowers. We need to thin it in a few weeks.Bees are working hard pollinating Asian pear tree.  

Kitchen project is on the way to the finish line.The back splash was put on in one day.The budget busting refrigerator.

I hope our kitchen is done by this weekend.

Joy of Cooking

Chinese Style Salad with Pork and Carrot Cupcake

I cooked in a real kitchen yesterday. No, not my kitchen but a neighbor’s. She kindly offered to let me cook in her lovely kitchen. She has lived here 19 years and we’re two years behind. We have known her and her family for 17 years and she always has been a great neighbor. We‘re surrounded by really nice people in this suburbia cul-de-sac. I feel blessed that we accidently ended up here. Ah…. Are we having rabbit stew tonight?

She happens to have an OVEN in her kitchen, I wanted to bake a cake. Simple but with an Easter theme. Carrot cake sounds Easterish? No? My husband likes carrot cake. Our wedding cake was that. HIs mother saved the top tier of the cake in her freezer for years. We were supposed to eat it on our first anniversary but we were no where near that place. I remember her phone call one night, ‘Guess what I found?’ I totally could not come up with any guess because I didn’t hear her ‘in the freezer’ part, I threw random, boring answers at her - money? a ring? keys? She probably thought that I suck at this game. She and his dad were a real hoot, we miss them very much.

I kind of understand that my neighbor is eating healthy so this Chinese style salad will fit the bill. The meat sauce goes well with variety of vegetables. I uniformly and thinly cut  to enhance the oriental flair. Very talkative Molly

Ingredients for Pork meat sauce

• 2 lb. pork (not ground pork) cut in small pieces
• Vegetable oil 2-3 Tablespoon
• Soy sauce about 1/4 cup or more/less
• 1 clove of minced garlic

1. In a skillet (preferably wok), heat oil at high heat.
2. Add pork and sauté until meat turns color (no longer pink)-only 1 minute or so.
3. Pour soy sauce and cook until sauce is bubbly. If you like you can add a teaspoon of sugar.
4. Add garlic and stir.
5. Pour over your favorite vegetables and rice sticks or bean glass noodle.*

*Thin match stick ginger and cilantro would add nice flavor too.I don’t like cilantro actually. I add young pea sprouts instead. 

Ingredients for carrot cupcakes Make 12 regular muffin cups.

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon maple syrup or honey
• 1 Tablespoon finely grated orange zest
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour-sift with baking powder below.
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 7 Tablespoon fresh orange juice, warmed
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners then spray with Pam for easy paper removal.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter, granulated sugar, maple syrup and orange zest until pale and creamy.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
4. Stir in the carrots.
5. In small bowl, mix together orange juice and baking soda.
6. Add half of sifted flour and baking powder and orange-baking soda then mix.
7. Add rest of flour mixture and orange mixture and combine. Do not over mix.
8. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake about 20 minutes. Cool.

Ingredients for mascarpone icing

• 3/4 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 4 oz. cold mascarpone cheese

1. Beat together butter and confectioners sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Stir in lemon zest and mascarpone until blended.
3. Frost cooled cupcakes and decorate if you like.

She made chocolate covered strawberries for us. Yummy!

 

Spectacular neighborhood cherry blossom

I thought sheet rock process is the messiest but painting cabinet on site might be a winner! They took long hours to prepare for paint. They took doors and drawers off from cabinets, cover everything, primed and sanded by hand. I’m just grateful for their hard work.

UDON

Simplified Japanese fat noodle dish

Have you seen ‘UDON’? It is a 2006 movie about a guy who wants to be a comedian abroad in New York but couldn’t make it and broke, returns to his home town of Kagawa prefecture in Shikoku. HIs father owned a fat noodle shop which he had no desire of taking over. He eventually got a job at the local town newspaper as editor of tourist guide book. He accidently created Sanuki noodle boom which is Kagawa’s specialty udon. I like the scene in which he and a lovely colleague go all over town trying different noodle shops. I had the sudden urge to have noodles after watching it. This funny, cute and delicious movie is available on Netflix. You’ve got to see it if you like udon noodles.

Kagawa is the smallest prefecture in Japan. It’s nickname is udon prefecture (うどん県) Many self-serve Sanuki udon eateries available there. Similar to self-serve yogurt shops, you choose noodle sauce and choose your toppings then pay. The price is determined by number of toppings not by weight. Don’t fret! it’s not expensive!  Charter the ‘udon taxi’ (about $50 for 1 hour) there and you could try lots of udon shops and taxi drivers really knows udon but I think that will make you udon out for a while. Do you know there is such an udon shop in Seattle? U:DON  is the name. Cute, huh?  It’s located in University district. I bet students love this good but cheap place.

I like fox (きつね) among toppings the best. The fox is actually fried bean curd sweetened with sugar and soy sauce. There is an old folk tale of how Foxes possess magical power that transform themselves into human to deceive people and their favorite treat is fried bean curd. Some people in Japan worship fox and use bean curd as an offering. Another popular topping is tanuki (たぬき-red raccoon) fried mixed vegetable tempura (かき揚げ). A Tanuki also can turn himself to human or other object and trick people without being mean-spirited but I don’t know if they like fried vegetable tempura though. Today I made a simple udon noodle topped with soft poached egg. We still don’t a have kitchen, remember? This one pot wonder is hearty and easy!

Ingredients for today’s udon dish Serves 1

• Water 300cc
• Dashi (soup stock) 1 packet This one is tea-bag style and specifically for udon noodle.
• 1 Frozen Sanuki udon bundle –no need for defrost, no precook necessary ( I like frozen noodle better than dry ones).
• 1 stalk of Green onion finely sliced.
• Grated ginger (optional)

1. Boil water in pan
2. Add dashi and simmer for 5 minutes
3. Remove dashi packet from pan and put noodle in.
4. Cook about 4 minutes.
5. Sprinkle with green onion and your favorite topping. My husband likes add a few drops of rice vinegar.

I made the soft poached egg in the microwave using a poached egg gadget but you could make it in same pan as noodle is cooking. Gently drop the egg in after the noodle has cooked a little bit, cook until desired hardness is achieved. Here is another handful of fresh eggs from a friend.

We had snow last Thursday. The second snow fall in March My painting teacher ‘s neighbor built a snow man and a snow kid..Ah may be it’s a pet.Then next day was sunny and warm. Gorgeous display of flowers in front of the grocery store.

The kitchen floor is refinished and stained.A skilled cabinet installer spent 12 hours to put cabinets in the kitchen. Exciting and grateful. 

I remember something from the movie where someone said “A boom is like a festival, at some point it ends”.  That’s something to think about.