Liebster Blog Award

Hey! I am so happy that I got awarded with the Liebster Blog.  Thank you, Resh!

In the process, I came to know few other foodies with great blog sites with great recipe ideas.  I think this will be another "eating for health" year for me.

Now, I would like to nominate the following admirable foodie bloggers.    I hope you will visit them.     I must say this first that I am not familiar with this 'award' spreading activity.  I think this is a great idea to know other foodies, and learn about each culture's way of food preparation and life at the same time.  And I hope I have typed this information correctly here.     The following bloggers have wonderful recipes, photos, and if you enjoy International cooking like I do, you will appreciate these bloggers' efforts.
They are :
1. Nobleva from http://nobleva.blogspot.com/
2. Becca from http://colehillkitchen.blogspot.com/
3. Miss C (April) from http://tete-a-tete4food.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html
4. Quizzine from http://bakingoncloud9.blogspot.com/2012/03/macaron-ing.html
5. Binitha from http://yourstastefully.blogspot.com/

If you accept the award:

• Copy and paste the award on your blog. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.
• Pick your five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers who deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
• Hope that the five bloggers chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more bloggers.

Imperial Couscous with Beef

I love all the ingredients in this dish.    It is a wonderful combination of 'everything' available in my pantry type cooking - raisins, pinenuts, orange peels, etc.   Couscous is a new experience for me.  Just a small 1/3 Cup of it is enough to yield 1-1/2 C.  It is great to serve with Chicken or Beef Tagine prepared with various flavorful spices.    It's wonderful to learn variety of recipes.

 Serve with sprinkles of pinenuts.

Japanese White Loaf Bread with Raisins

Many bloggers are familiar with this Japanese White Loaf Bread.    I have tested the recipe with several different methods and with different flour.    The results are quite different each time.    But what I noticed is the difference of texture.    I am not sure if it is because of the additives in the flour or ?    For a while, I doubted my Kitchen Aid mixer functions as it claims, but while I was studying for my Mediterranean cooking, I came across the photo of this baker pulling this dough to show the well developed  gluten dough with "window pane" texture.     He pulled dough out of the mixer bowl of Kitchen Aid.    While the mixer is much larger model than mine, I thought of a different way to make it do the job of 'kneading'.     The new technique includes using the Paddle to do the first  approx 15+ minutes of mixing and kneading of the dough, depending on the amount of the flour mixture.     Then switch it to the dough hook to knead until the gluten is well developed to form the window pane.    The baked bread resulted in texture that is similar to the ones seen sold at the Asian bakery.    Flour - Unbleached Gold Medal all-purpose flour, instead of Cake flour - a mixture of regular flour and Japanese potato starch.     A bit of wheat germs and dark rye flour in addition to the basic ingredients for the Japanese Hokkaido Loaf Bread.
 The subsequent batch made with Wheat Montana all-purpose flour turned out with coarser larger pores.    I think a couple more testings will help me find out if it is the flour or etc....

  Improvisation of baking the loaf in covered loaf pan.  Sure, if you have the Pullman baking pan, that's great.     But for me, this works great.

 

Here is the Bread #2 made with Wheat Montana's unbleached flour.  

Texture:  Machine kneading time is the same, but the textured turned out with a bit more holes.      From my kneading experience, the more you knead, the finer the texture.      

Difference:   The bread #1 at the top is made with Gold Medal's unbleached flour & bread #2 here is made with Wheat Montana's. 

I am still not convinced with the test results.   Because when I tried it again with the Gold Medal's flour again, the result was not the same here with bread #3.     It became more airy... well we all know the truth... actually this one is caused by over proofing.      So back to drawing board.    Accurate proofing timing and control  to produce the fine product.     It's so challenging in a home kitchen.