Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Polly's Easy Macaroni Cheese Lunch Box

In a hurry out of door to the office?  But need some good tasting lunch to go?
Boil 4 Cups water
Add a box of Kroger Brand Macaroni and Cheese.  Why Kroger?  at least it doesn't have Yellow Color #4 or whatever the other brands use.  And it tastes pretty good.   You can always make from scratch... adding butter, and shredded cheese, and cream roux.
For this one, after Macaroni Cheese is prepared, Add a big handful of Salad Mix from COSTCO - Kale Salad Mix.  Stir it up, and Voila!  Your lunch.
 
 You can make Macaroni Cheese with Mushroom.   Clean and chop up mushrooms.  Stir fry them with some butter; salt and black pepper. 
Add them together.  Pack your BENTO Box.  Pack a small container of Peppercini.
At lunch time, Top it with Peppercini, and you got tasty lunch.
If you want Proteins, then add a can of drained Albacore.

Lemon Lime Bars

This is made from home grown Lemons and Limes.
My co-worker didn't know what to do with all the lemons in his garden... natural things to do is to share them, and we all benefits from the final product.

Makes 32 bars
Ingredients:
2/3 C butter, softened
1/2 C packed brown sugar
2-1/2 C flour, divided
1 TB + 1 tsp of equal amount of Lemon and Lime Zest from the home grown.  About 2 large Lemons and 1 large Lime Zest
6 eggs
2-1/4 C granulated sugar
1/2 C Lemon Juice
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp finely shredded lime peel - from 1 lime
2 TB sifted powdered sugar

1 beaten Egg white
Preheat oven to 350'F about 5 minutes before baking (*to conserve energy.)
Line 13x9x2-inch pan with parchment paper.  Set aside.

For crust, beat butter on medium to high speed for 30 seconds with paddle attachment.  It should become fluffy.  Add brown sugar; beat until combined.  At low speed, Add 2 Cups of flour and mix until crumbly.
Add 2 tsp lemon peel.

 Transfer the mixture into line pan.  Preheat the oven to 350'F.
Press down gently but firmly >> I used a small bottle to press down evenly.
 Do not compact the mixture, but roll out evenly.   The butter and flour mixture will naturally pack itself down.
 
Poke the dough with fork to prevent rising.   Bake for 10 minutes.   In the meantime, make the Filling.
*Do not brown it like some other recipes calls to do.  Take out and set aside.
FILLING:
In a mixer bowl, combine eggs and granulated sugar.  Beat well for 2 minutes at medium speed.  Add lemon Juice.  Take a quarter cup of the mixture out in a bowl or in a large measuring cup.   You are about to add some dry ingredients to it.


Tip:   If you were to add the rest of the dry ingredients into a large amount of liquidy mixture, likely result is unmixed chunks of dry ingredients floating every where.  To prevent this.  Add the dry ingredients into the 1/4 C of egg mixtures that you set aside.  Premix the dry ingredients with it to make a nice slur.
 Mix until well blended.  Making sure that there are no lumps.  Add more egg mixture into to make it even more smoother mix. Then, Add to the egg mixture
 Beat an egg white.
 Brush the bottom of the crust all around with the egg white.
Tip:  This technique will prevent the moist, liquid from soggying up the crust.
This technique would work with pie crust as well.
 Ready for the filling.
 Add the filling
 
 Bake for 30 minutes --- depending on your oven - until it is set.
 Remove from oven.  Cool for 1 hour.  Lift it out of the pan carefully.
 Peel away the parchment paper.
 Use a pizza cutter to slice through.
 Place it back in the pan or as is, Sprinkle white powder sugar through a strainer.
 Yum!
 

Turkey / Canadian Bacon and Egg Lavash Roll Sandwich

I don't know what happened to my Canon PowerShot camera back in January.  It stopped allowing me to view the subjects from the LCD panel.  It was in a middle of a KENDO family's New Years Dinner Party.  Murphy's law with my camera.  Always something seems  to go wrong on the day of important picture day.  Luckily I had my new NIKON 35mm to take its place.   I was about to throw away the PowerShot.  After all, it has been faithfully taking millions of photos since my grandson was born.  It's time, I thought.  Focusing through its viewing window was terrible.  It drops the subjects out of the grid, if you didn't remember to shoot the subject about 1/3 way down.  But one day, as a final resort, I took out its manual.  Took three hours to read through page after page, hoping to find out what had happened.  Then, there is one Single button on the camera that I have never touched that is labeled "DISP" was the answer.  As soon as I pressed it, LCD display lit up.  All this time, I thought it meant "Dispose" the shots taken, beside the Trash can icon, so I have never touched it.  But that was the answer... beside the point that a rubber band has been holding the battery compartment tight and all parts are dusty.   So some of the pictures were delayed to be uploaded and so did the food blog upkeeping.   But here they are.  Even though I noticed the majority of the visitors are only interested in the Pandan Chiffon Cake or Japanese Cheesecake, etc.   As I have explained to all before, this blog site is dedicated mainly for my family, and your visits are greatly appreciated.  As far as I know everyone in my Favorites are so far advance in their cooking that I am quite happy to learn from them.

So, this sandwich is made from a flat bread that is as large as Poster size.  It's called Lavash.  I found it at Koreana Plaza Market in Rancho Cordova where it sells variety of multinational food selection.  Out of curiosity, I purchased it, and found out that it is a large sheet of flat bread.  So, here and there, I enjoyed it in morning by toasting part of it and spread butter, then, honey; and I also made this sandwich roll.
Serves 2
Ingredients:
Sliced Turkey Meat - brush with Olive Oil and grilled in George Foreman's Hamburger Grill
Canadian Bacon  brown them in the grill, too.
Salad >> out of Prepackaged Kale Mix purchased at COSTCO
Poppy salad dressing that came with the salad mix
Hard boiled eggs - sliced
Pepperchini
Lavash flat bread - small 1/4 section
I love George Foreman's Hamburger Grill (counter top).  It's my favorite kitchen tool.  Use it to brown the turkey meat and bacon.
The rest is all up to your imagination to stack them up on the Lavash.   Dress up. Roll up.  And Enjoy!


 (*as you can see the camera is out of focus point without the LCD display system turned on.)

MITARE YAKI DANGO 2014 for the Party Dessert/Snack

This one was served at the gatherings of fellow Kendo mates.   We had a great time together.  And I brought the MITARE YAKI DANGO as desert/snack.
DANGO Ingredients:

250 g SHIRATAMAKO  Glutinous sweet rice

200 - 250  ml  hot water

**The amount of water depends on the type/process of Glutinous Sweet Rice you purchased.     *But Not the regular "Rice Flour".

**Start out with 150 ml of hot water, add more as you mix.  The dough should be as soft as ear lobe or marshmallow.)

Set a large bowl of water with strainer and set aside.
Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil.

Roll out the dough into a long rope and cut into 1 to 2 inch chunk.  Then, roll it between your palms to form into balls.     Place all the balls into rolling boiling water.   
They will sink.  Stir to let loose from the bottom of the pot.   Boiling water would calm down.
Cook till water comes to rolling boil again.   Control the heat, if needed to prevent liquid from boiling over the pot.  But keep steady boiling point.  
Cook for 1 minute longer.  Take one out to test.  Is the center cooked?  Translucent all way around?  Then, Done.   Remove from heat and dunk into a strainer over a large bowl of cold water.
Put three DANGO into a skewer.
Slow roast/grill on top - directly over a grill or on a non-stick pan.   Carefully not to let each strand touch each other.   When a bit of 'grill' marking is set on the DANGO proceed to spin MITARE around it.
MITARE Ingredient:

Sugar 100 g

Soy Sauce 50 mil

MIRIN 30 ml

Water 180 ml

KATAKURIKO (Potato starch) 20 g

Mix all liquid together, but saving 1/4 C to mix with KATAKURIKO.  Then, add the starch slur into the liquid mixture cook over medium low heat.

Stir continuously with Heat Proof spatula over medium low heat.  Liquid will evaporate quite a bit and thickens.     This process might take as long as 30 minutes

Note:  MITARE must be cooked until it is so thick that it would stick and cover the slippery heat proof spatula as you see on this photo.  Otherwise, the syrup would drip off the DANGO.

Take spoon and scoop the syrup, then, start wrapping the DANGO in one hand and the MITARE in the other spoon.  Spin around and around until all surface of the DANGO is covered. 
If you ever wanted to start a new lifetime sport, come and check us out at Sacramento Kendo Dojo/Club

Then, you might be lucky to have one of this at our next party.



MITARASHI DANGO 2012 revisited

This particular YAKI DANGO (grilled DANGO) with MITARASHI (sweet teriyaki style flavored syrup) was made back in December 31st of 2013 for the New Year Welcome.  I was too busy and forgot to post this that turned out beautifully and best of all tasted great and enjoyed by everyone.
Click on the images to read comment on it for the Techniques.   The recipes are the same from previous posting at http://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/2010/06/pollys-mitarashi-yaki-dango.html
DANGO Ingredients:
250 g SHIRATAMAKO  Glutinous sweet rice
200 - 250  ml  hot water
**The amount of water depends on the type/process of Glutinous Sweet Rice you purchased.     *But Not the regular "Rice Flour".
**Start out with 150 ml of hot water, add more as you mix.  The dough should be as soft as ear lobe or marshmallow.)

 

MITARE Ingredient:
Sugar 100 g
Soy Sauce 50 mil
MIRIN 30 ml
Water 180 ml
KATAKURIKO (Potato starch) 20 g

Mix all liquid together, but saving 1/4 C to mix with KATAKURIKO.  Then, add the starch slur into the liquid mixture cook over medium low heat.
Stir continuously with Heat Proof spatula over medium low heat.  Liquid will evaporate quite a bit and thickens.     This process might take as long as 30 minutes
Note:  MITARASHI must be cooked until it is so thick that it would stick and cover the slippery heat proof spatula as you see on this photo.  Otherwise, the syrup would drip off the DANGO.

Take spoon and scoop the syrup, then, start wrapping the DANGO in one hand and the MITARASHI in the other spoon.  Spin around and around until all surface of the DANGO is covered.