helenjp

Thank you for your help! We don't have all-purpose flour in New Zealand, and in Japan and NZ, people tend to keep low-ratio flour as their workhorse flour. I forgot (again ) about US flour. I'll try it again with ordinary Japanese bread flour, which is still far from being a very high-ratio flour. "Heavy, almost a little chewy" - but still more like a cake than a brownie?? I appreciate your detailed comments, because I knew that not only the flour, but the drier cake styles I grew up with in NZ (we don't have US style brownies) were influencing my perception of the cake. I hear you about this not being your favorite cake, but I'm curious to see what types of cake the oil/cocoa base can produce - my sister asked for the best way to make a budget chocolate cake in the Netherlands, where butter can be perversely very expensive. On the other hand, she can buy good cocoa. I also plan to make a more cakey version, maybe with less oil and some yogurt (not a big cost factor for a home baker with home-made yogurt available) for comparison.

I'm curious...I made mkfradin's Million Dollar Chocolate Cake as part of an experiment to find a good but budget-friendly oil/cocoa-based chocolate cake. The flavor was good, but the cake (baked as a sheet) didn't dome markedly, although it did crack a little as it cooled. The finished cake was fudgier in texture than I expected. Japanese cake flour normally has a much lower protein/gluten content than US flour, and I used a type of flour which I know to be particularly weak, so I think that was mainly responsible for the lack of rise/spring (and I maybe underbaked it by 5 minutes or so). So now I'm wondering just how moist those of you who baked the MDCC found it? Before I start changing type or amount of flour or cocoa, I'm curious to know what the baseline was! In comparison with standard neighborhood cookbook recipes, the MDC cake has a higher proportion of cocoa to flour, and also less flour/cocoa in proportion to the liquids, so it should be a moist cake anyway...the question is, how moist should the cake be when correctly made? To sum up, very roughly speaking the MDCC translates (by volume) to 0.75 part flour/ 0.25 part cocoa: 1 part sugar: 1 part liquid: 0.5 part oil: 0.5 part egg. A bog-standard oil/cocoa cake for comparison has 0.8 part flour/ 0.2 part cocoa: 0.75 part sugar: 0.6 part liquid: 0.3 part oil: plus an optional 0:3 part egg

Yeees! Looking forward to hearing more! First question: what DO those Lotte Cream Chocolates you are fond of look like? I can't figure out which one you like!

That's what the recipe I listed upthread is (not wanting to nag, because there's lemonade and lemonade and to each his or her own, but there are times when it certainly comes in handy to be able to add anything from 2 to 4 parts water to your lemonade mix.)

OO...Olive Oil, but not necessarily "Extra Virgin"

* Fresh sardines soaked briefly in salty water and baked with OO and a tomato/herb/peppers/breadcrumb topping. *Potato wedges in OO ala Malawry's blog! *Bruised lettuce salad. Years ago I read a column by a Japanese cartoonist who claimed to have eaten a salad where the lettuce was gently "beaten" into the dressing, creating a kind of wilted salad effect with a fresher taste. It's been a regular on our table ever since, but I'm beginning to wonder if I haven't morphed the recipe out of all recognition - can't recall the exact original any more! *Plus miso soup with negi dividing onions and shimeji mushrooms, and rice. A rare "western" menu for us, served on a western dinner plate, even!

Deltadoc, when I was young and gullible, somebody recommended swallowing a whole (small) clove of garlic dipped in honey as a remedy for colds. I can testify that I did indeed forget that I had a cold - hours and hours of lying on my bed writhing and groaning in pain put it right out of my mind... Hot lemon with chilis, a slice or two of garlic (strained OUT of the tea before drinking!!) and honey, now that's a different story.

I'm impressed that you cook all week, and then come home and cook some more! And thanks for the very interesting view of life on (or off, rather) a U.S. college campus. I always wondered what the big deal about fraternities and sororities was! (But one niggling question remains: if a fraternity is a "frat", does that make a sorority a "sot"?...)

The mochiko was just called mochiko, but I found it in the local branch of Isetan...haven't seen the powder form in any supermarkets. It was produced by a small firm in Asakusa though, so there's hope that it could be available in specialty stores around Tokyo.

different chicken soup bases I think I used to use the type in a round glass jar, but recently I buy packets and empty them into old jars, so I don't have pack around to check. The difference between "tori-gara suupu no moto" and Knorr etc. is the absence of MSG (if you hunt around, that is). The flavor is much milder, and I find it much more versatile.

Suzy Sushi, I've sometimes used a strawberry for the doll's head in place of an egg, but those rice dolls look *so* cute. What a pity we only have boys. I put some kamaboko with doll designs on top of the sushi yesterday, and even my younger son sighed and said, "Mum, just exactly how old do you think we are???". Kiem Hwa -- blueberry coconut mochi??? I hope you kept my serving aside, I'll be right over...!

lemonade recipe with citric acid and tartaric acid. This is the type of lemonade my family used to make, and we used to serve it diluted with 1-2 parts water: 1 part lemonade (depends a little on how much ice you plan to add). It can be made in advance. I don't boil the lemon rind, just add them to the bowl with and pour boiling water directly onto the rinds, and otherwise proceed as the recipe directs.

Finally found some 100% mochi rice flour that was not clumpy like shiratama-ko but loose like wheaten flour, and made the third batch of shortbread. This was the whole point of the experiment, since I read a recommendation for using mochi flour. I used exactly the same proportions, type of wheatflour and oven temperatures. I can now say that I will never use mochi rice flour in shortbread again. Cooked to the barely-brown stage, the shortbread had an unmistakably raw taste, and they didn't taste cooked until thoroughly browned. They were almost rubbery at the barely-brown stage, and when thoroughly cooked, were hard without being crisp. However, the mochi rice flour appeared to be more finely ground than the plain rice flour (joushinko). Conclusion: the new Riz Farine (with an equal amount of plain wheatflour) was the most successful, almost certainly because of the fine grind. It cooked to a perfect short, crisp texture, partly because the fine grind made it possible to incorporate a higher proportion of butter than when using joushinko. With joushinko, the same proportion of butter produced an impossibly crumbly texture. Mochiko might be useful for the Melting Moment type of shortbread, but I think that it produces a rubbery texture rather than the smooth texture obtained by using a mixture of cornstarch and plain wheatflour).

Dried banana blossom...I found a pack of this in the local Philippine grocery (actually just discovered the grocery recently ). The Filipina shop assistant didn't speak much Japanese, and I forgot till later that she would probably have understood English, so we didn't get much further than that she uses it in adobo dishes. So...how do you use dried banana blossom?

Here's a quickie out of my tofu recipe file... Stirfried Tofu with Katsuobushi (2 servings) 1 block cotton (firm) tofu 1/3 oz or 10g fresh ginger 1/2 dried red chile 30g nozawana pickles (any salt-pickled greens would do, or Chinese slices of za-sai...that lumpy pale brown proto-cabbagey thing) 2 tab chirimen-jako, very small dried salted fish, optional Seasoning mix: 1 tab sake, 1/2 tab mirin (sweet sake), 1 tab soy sauce) 4-6" (10cm or co) of white negi (Japanese dividing onion, spring onion) Katsuo-bushi (dried smoked shaved bonito, at least 1 small packet) Put tofu under a light weight on a slanted draining board for an hour to get rid of some of the water. Slice thickly and halve each slice diagonally. Chop ginger very finely, removed seeds from red chile and cut in fine rings. Rinse pickles and chop up. (Soak if excessively salty). Heat a frypan well, add 1 tsp each of cooking oil and toasted sesame oil. Fry the ginger and chile briefly, and add tofu, turning with a fish-slice until both sides are lightly browned. Don't worry if slices break up. Over medium heat, add pickles, chirimen jako, fry briefly, and add seasonings from the edge of the pan. Fry till well amalgamated, then sprinkle over negi and katsuobushi, mix, and serve. Other family favorites...we like the * Korean tofu/beef patties that Torakris mentioned, made with sesame butter, and also * tofu/chicken/cilantro/spring onion/ginger nuggets, deepfried...use at least two parts firm tofu (pressed) to one part ground meat, whizz them up in a food processer or just mash together in a bowl. *Firm tofu, pressed, crumbled, and stirfried with canned soybeans and various veges (especially with curry spices); or * crumbled tofu salad-style mixed with a broken up omelet and tomato pieces and dressed with a soy-sauce vinaigrette. In winter, *simmered gently (so it doesn't toughen) with Chinese cabbage chunks in a mild, sweetish, soy-sauce seasoned broth. * Also nice simmered with thinly cut beef in a more heavily seasoned soy-sauce/mirin broth, with some green beans or scallions added at the end, almost suki-yaki style.

I was always told not to scrub a silver teapot - just rinse it out so that the accumulated tannin on the inside of the teapot is not disturbed. So I assume that silver teapots may produce a metallic taste when new?

I changed my mind and made a dopiaza with the lamb, because the two-step cooking process meant I could start it while out of the house. The lamb, dry spices, ginger and garlic paste, and finely chopped onions first cooked slowly for an hour. When I came home, I reduced the cooking liquid, added a paste of cilantro, mint, lemon juice, and green chilies, and there we were. I'm not sure whether this qualifies as a curry in most people's minds, but I had a Spring longing for something fresh and green! Madhur Jeffrey lists it as Hyderabad dish, though my Afghan cookbook contains very similar recipes. map of Hyderabad Description of dopiaza method Quickie dopiaza recipe

In the supermarket today I noticed a heap of packs of fresh mixed herbs "for your hina-chirashi". I've seen quite a few summer herb chirashi-zushi, especially with edible flowers, but this was a surprise - looked like Italian parsley, chervil, chives, and I didn't really see what else was in there!

Cold spiced beef, yes yes! I wouldn't admit to it in public (nobody's reading this, right?) but I use it instead of fennel seed in certain Indian recipes, because I can't get fennel seed locally.

Hmmm...shellfish are usually thought to represent women in a more down-to-earth manner...but I note that the shellfish usually used for dolls' festival are not the ones that have the most lewd connotations. However, allow me to return you to a more elevated plane of discussion...

I dunno, it would take me just as long to walk up to the supermarket and back to buy the instant stuff as it would to just make it from scratch! So what kind of hina-chirashi does everybody have planned for Doll Festival tomorrow? We usually have clams (hamaguri) in clear broth with the hina-chirashi. Hina-chirashi is probably the most elaborate chirashi-zushi I make at home all year. First comes a basic gomoku barazushi (sushi rice mixed with things dried shiitake, carrot, sesame seeds, kampyo (dried gourd strips), aburage (thin-sliced fried tofu, koya-dofu (chunks of freeze-dried tofu). The gomoku-zushi goes into a bowl, and some nori is torn up and sprinkled over it Hina-chirashi is the only time I use that fluffy, pink cod (tara), which is put in clumps here and there on the gomoku-zushi, alternating with little piles of thinly shredded omelet. It's not that hard to make it yourself, and will turn a pale pink even without coloring...but I admit that I've only made it at home once or twice. What you put on the final layer is up to you. I use simmered temari-fu (decorated balls of wheat gluten) if I can find them, koya-dofu otherwise. Pieces of crunchy vinegared lotus root. Pieces of simmered dried shiitake. Nanohana (rape buds) or broccoli rabe or snowpeas. Cubed thick-baked egg (atsuyaki-tamago) to please son2, prawns to please son1. Since hina-chirashi is a type of bara-zushi rather than Edo-mae chirashi, raw sashimi isn't traditional, but slices of colored kamaboko (steamed fish paste) are common. A few salted cherry blossoms added to the rice (cut the salt in the rice seasonings a little) or scattered over the finished sushi look pretty. When my kids were in kindergarten, I made chakin-zushi "dolls" (a ball of sushi rice inside a thin omelet, folded to look like a kimono, topped with a quail's egg head) for their lunchboxes. We don't put up dolls, since we have boys, but they insist that we need to eat the traditional foods for the day! Sorry for all the unnecessary info for old Japan hands...hoped it might be of interest to others!

I actually came a similar recipe a while back, googling to see if anybody had thought of combining beer and chocolate . http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/r_0000001858.asp I didn't bake it, because it seemed to have an outrageously large proportion of sugar. I'm curious to know how the proportion of sugar compared with the recipe you used?

Nullo Modo, I don't see why you couldn't have rice pudding . A very small amount of rice (and brown rice is pretty good too, because like anybody with the right amount of moral fiber, it may break down but some hint of its former self remains) baked RAW with a lot of milk and some butter for a long time in a slow-moderate oven will do the trick. I don't understand this thing about putting pre-cooked rice into milk. I don't know what that is, but not rice pudding lacks the necessary comfort rating. In fact, I think I'll go and put a batch on for breakfast tomorrow...both my sons came home with bruises and scratches from fighting at school today. Today they get lectured, but tomorrow - rice pudding

Torakris, which Madhur Jaffrey book do you plan to use? I'm going to use "A Taste of India" - "Lamb or Chicken with Green Coriander", a Kashimiri recipe with yogurt and fragrant rather than hot spices. Tomorrow I'm going lamb shopping, because my Nz-exposed kids actually like lamb! Meanwhile, other recipes in the book got a good workout for tonight's dinner.

Sorority? Pledge? It's all Greek to me, but I'm fascinated to see what you're doing! Do you serve more than one menu per meal? Do students know in advance what they're getting? Sorry for the very basic questions...New Zealand students do the Bonfire Cuisine thing, except they mostly roster themselves to cook one-two nights a week. Anybody who can't cook well enough to feed their flatmates is quickly "encouraged" to upgrade their skills!