Scoop

Chocolate Pudding with Raspberry Caramel Sauce

A friend whose husband works for a food distribution company shared some Guittard tablet chocolate with me. It seems like there are endless possibilities available for what to do with this fortune.

Chocolate pudding doesn’t excite me as much as regular pudding for some reason. I love chocolate anything…wait I take it back, chocolate covered sea weed was pretty nasty. They are not meant to be together. Anyhow, chocolate pudding just isn’t clicking. We just need a fresh start (recipe) maybe?  Raspberry caramel sauce perhaps a great assist?

Ingredients and instruction to make four 4 ounce ramekins

Equipment: food scale, food thermometer, ramekins (I used smaller oven safe dishes), sieve and foil

Raspberry caramel sauce

• Sugar 60g
• Water 2 teaspoons
• Raspberry puree (I used seedless raspberry jam) 2 Tablespoons. Combine with 2 Tablespoons hot water in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a small sauce pan, melt sugar and water at medium heat. Tilt the pan sometimes to make even coloring. Add raspberry puree mixture and stir with wooden spoon. Stop the cooking process when it reaches a dark amber color. Pour into the ramekins.

Chocolate pudding

• Milk 200ml
• Heavy cream 100ml
• Milk chocolate 100g If you are not using tablet, chopped small
• Egg Yolk 2 Beat in medium bowl.

1. Heat oven to 302F Start boiling 1-2 cups of water.
2. Heat milk and heavy cream in a sauce pan to reach the 50-60 C temperature. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Stir well to melt chocolate.
   
3. Pour melted chocolate into the bowl containing the beaten egg. Mix well.
4. Sieve over an another clean bowl and strain the chocolate mixture #2
5. Put a paper towel over the chocolate mixture to remove foamy bubbles.
6. Pour into the ramekins leaving 1/4 inch head room and prick larger bubbles with tooth pick.
   
7. Cover each ramekin with foil. Place them in a deep casserole dish with a paper towel on the bottom. Pour boiling water 1/3 of way up to ramekins.
8. Bake for 45 minutes to 50 minutes.
9. Remove from oven. Leave on counter to cool then refrigerate.

I put on some melted ice cream to conceal the imperfect top surface then decorated with gold leaf. However, it clung to my fingers badly. I was about start singing ‘Gold finger~’. You’re supposed to use tweezers to handle gold leaf.

Gold digger’s spoon… so greedy!

If you’re going to Tokyo, make sure to stop by Lindt Chocolat Café in Ginza, They offer very nice chocolate pudding in a cute little jar.

My neighbor friend called me to ask if I would like to see her callow lilys. Yes, yes! It was cold and raining, so I sent my husband over to take some pictures.

What is that? A captain Hook?Iris were so grand!

 

 

Mash

Baked Sweet Potato

Strolling up the hilly Gerbera Street in Jiyuugaoka (自由が丘) for 10 minutes, a pastry shop Mont St. Clair was in our view. It was a tad smaller than I imagined but that in no way squashed my anticipation of what I was sure would be an amazing array of pastries to see. That was June of 2009. My voracious appetite to discover pastry shops drove me to this store. My husband was a willing partner in this search. 

Hironobu Tsujiguchi (辻口博啓) operates this store and twelve others. He was born in Ishikawa prefecture, the son of the owner of a Japanese pastry shop Beniya (紅屋). He could have followed in his father’s foot steps if not for a strawberry shortcake he had for the first time at his friend’s birthday party. His training  to become a pastry chef started right after graduating from high school. He won numerous and prestigious awards. He appeared on many variety/talk television shows – he beat iron chef Masahiko Kobe in Iron Chef in February of 1999, secret ingredient – Banana! He teaches Super Sweet cooking School on line as well as on-site in Jiyuugaoka. I’m short on space to list all his accomplishments though, I have to mention that in 2004, he opened a Japanese pastry shop ‘Waraku Beniya’ (和楽紅屋) to revive his father’s store which folded in 1985.

Sweet Potato is a familiar sweet to Japanese. I have not yet seen it in the US market. I followed his method almost entirely from his cook book ‘Sweets Done Right’ (ちゃんと作れるスイーツ). The only difference is that I mashed sweet potato all the way then strained it through the mesh to make it ultra creamy. Anyway, that’s how I dealt with the sweet potato that was getting new shoots.

Ingredients and instruction. Make approximately 8-2inch cups.

Equipment: food scale, sieve, 8-2inch diameter (Wilton) party cups or 4, 2-1/2inch cups (available in craft store). Pastry brush

• Sweet potato 400g cook and peel skin. I wrapped in foil and put in the oven for about 1-1/2 hour. You could also steam whole then peel the skin. Roughly mash it while it’s hot.
  
• Butter 80g softened
• Granulated sugar 50g
• Honey 20g
• A pinch of salt
• Egg yolk 30g about 2 eggs. Beat well
• Rum flavoring 1/2 teaspoon or if you are using real rum 6g

1. Put butter and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk well until color gets light and creamy.
   
2. Add honey and continue to whisk
   .
3. Add salt and mix well.
4. Add egg in three parts and continue to whisk.
5. Add rum and mix. Heat oven to 340F at this point.
6. Mash sweet potato with potato masher until it is like paste. Do not over mash if you like some texture. If you prefer smoother texture strain through a sieve.
   
7. Combine mashed sweet potato and butter/egg mixture using a spatula. Do this with a quick and light motion.
8. Fill potato batter into a piping bag with large star tip. Pipe out into each cup - this is optional process - Simply spoon out and use butter knife to make a mount.
   
9. Brush with mixture of 1egg yolk plus 1 tablespoon water for shine.
10. Place filled cups on cookie sheet and bake for 25minutes.Plain looking sweet potato needs some dressing up to do. Here I topped with whipped cream, chopped chestnuts and sprinkled with cinnamon.

 

We participate in beautification of our city park last Saturday. WERK Day is in it’s 13th run. Volunteers were treated to a pancake and omelet breakfast then divided into 5-6 groups for bark dusting, gravel paving in the dog run section or poison ivy and other noxious species removal.Memorial Park is the largest park in our city.

Here is my husband shoveling gravel into the wheel barrow.

City gave each of us the lovely orange t-shirts…and free coupon to Wendy’s.

On the home front, we have our own beautification task to do also. Honey, can I volunteer to take a nap? The golden chain tree in our back yard is in full bloom. The vibrant yellow color lasts only for a week.The enjoyment was shared with bees too.The fig tree looks promising.I’m sure I didn’t plant the strawberry there. Over thriving strawberries delight my husband.

That evening my husband took me to Urban Farmer Steak House in downtown Portland for early Mother’s Day treat. We split the wagyu rib eye steak yet it was still too much! The food was great and  the décor sooo urban chic!

Super moist petit cakes arrived just in time for Mother’s Day from Japan. The gift is from my son and daughter-in-law.

And bouquets from my husband and my daughter.

Striking peony like multi-layered petal roses. Ahhh..nice to be pampered.Thought about my late mother all day… filled with gratitude.

 

Twist

Okinawan Style Steamed Black Sesame Infused Pork

Early Summer-like weather once again demands our attention to the yard and garden. Newly planted pansies are already stressed out in the heat. I apologized as I water them –  talking to myself increases as I get older and plants are excellent listeners fortunately. Cabbage flower

I would like to have more gardening time yet I need to take care of strawberries and other things that are getting moldy so a large quantity of my time was spent in the kitchen…by the way, what am I making tonight? No answer of course. It would be spooky otherwise.

I love the sweetness and aromatic sesame flavor of this dish…perhaps it needs some acidity. On a long ‘to do’ list day like today, you can’t beat the easiness of this recipe. It was introduced in www.cookpad.com and I adjusted only a little.

Ingredients and instructions for 12 wrapped pork

Equipment: mortar and pestle, waxed paper or foil cut in twelve 7 inch squares steamer pan with lid.

• Black sesame seeds 1/2 cup Ground well with mortar and pestle
• Soy sauce 3 TablespoonsThe reduced sodium Tamari soy sauce I used is gluten free.
• Sugar 2 Tablespoons
• Vegetable oil 2 Tablespoons
• Parsley or green onion minced (optional) 1-2 teaspoons
• Thinly sliced pork meat 300 g or roughly 1 lb. (pork belly or shoulder meat) cut in 3 inch strips
  .

1. Mix everything except pork in a large bowl.
2. Add sliced pork and coat with sesame mix. Marinate for 30 minutes.
3. Prepare steamer by boiling 3 cups of water. Divide meat into 12 piles. Put one pile in the middle of a square and gather the paper or foil and twist tight at the top.
   
4. Place the wrapped pork on the steamer rack an inch apart.
5. Cover and steam on medium high for 5 minutes then steam at low heat for 30 minutes.
6. Serve with soy sauce, ponzu sauce, lemon juice or gyoza sauce.

I made a true and tested strawberry honey roll cake for a friend who is recuperating from an injury. Glad! She is ok with gluten.And I thought my husband would appreciate it if I made him one too. Yup, he did!

May is National Celiac Awareness Month –Experimenting on gluten free dishes. Not only gluten free, these non-dairy strawberry marshmallows are soft and light. It’s just not suitable for roasting. No s’mores for you.The No, No and No (no gluten, no dairy and no fat) steamed strawberry cake had absolutely no flavor. I asked my husband to make chocolate sauce for this and it was upgraded to a maybe. As you can see, losing weight here is awfully hard.

Many hours were spent making beets and turnip pickles, strawberry puree and burdock tea. I felt like a pioneer woman WITH modern conveniences like a dishwasher. That is not pioneer woman like, my husband chimed in. Hey, don’t comment, it’s just a monologue.

We’re happy to have a vegetarian meal night once in a while....simply I didn't have time to defrost meat. Awesome pea rice! My son would be envious from Japan…not!

Cinco de Mayo is Children’s day in Japan. This is a gift from a quilter friend. Traditional Children’s day symbols include from top: carp, helmet and Japanese iris. Though each has special meaning, trying to explain would be lost in translation. Speaking of children, I met this little girl at a wedding reception last Saturday. Adorable isn’t she?