Homemade Sandwich Rolls

In the past several weeks, Subway sandwich shop has been promoting the $5 footlong sandwiches.     For lunch, my co-worker has been kindly sharing the other half with me.      I watched the counter person removing the bread roll from this heat and humidity controlled bread box.      And I thought I could make that slightly browned soft exterior with soft crumb inside using Jamie Oliver's hotdog formula.      So I went to work.   I was bit disappointed with forming and shaping the bread.     But I was very thrilled to see my dough well kneaded and formed the best 'window pane' after 25 - 30 min of kneading.      It was already past my bed time, but the bread smell so good and look very inviting, and I had to butter one up to taste the fresh baked bread.     Chef Oliver's formula is awesome!     The dough produced a nice soft sandwich roll that remained soft after several hours and after a couple of days.     With fresh vegetables from the garden, it made a great sandwich bread/roll.

  

My PONCHIK #3

I have been hoping to find more foodies posting the PONCHIK somewhere.       But to this date, I have only found a few.       Maybe because it is just simply much easier to buy them at their local donuts shop or bakery?   or I am not keying in the correct search word in the right language.      I sure wish someone post their experience making the PONCHIK with sweet pastry cream filling.   The recipe for this PONCHIK is the same one I posted in the past.    The difference is that I used the mixer to knead the dough -- knead-by-hand the next time.  No short cut.

Manchego Croquettes - KORO'KE

Every Sunday morning before noon, as a child, I will take a shopping basket and skip hop all the way to "KORO'KE YA-SAN"  - Croquettes shop.     I will stand outside this large glass window and watch the cook make croquettes.   KORO'KE is what we call it in Japan.     Then, I skip hop all the way home with the hot KORO'KE' in the basket.        Just like other children, finger foods are the coolest, I thought.     The KORO'KE in Japan is shaped like the MacDonald's fried hash brown - flat, large oval shape.      The mashed potatoes are mixed with some chopped onion and some ground meat in it, etc, that I have no idea of the rest, but they taste creamy, comforting, and filling.     I didn't care for the meat in it or the chopped onions back then.     Since they are barely present in each fried KORO'KE, it didn't matter.      I just ate around them.   
Monday evening, I fried some Manchego Croquettes from the Spanish cuisine  - Tapas menu.      The grated Manchego cheese tasted mild with a slight pungent smell (to me).     Mixing it in with the mashed potatoes, it enhanced the natural UMAMI flavor of the potatoes.      Chopped onions and flat-leaf parsley from my garden complimented the sweetness of the potatoes, and I enjoyed it without any tomato sauce or the bolognese sauce, but... I like to use the traditional TONKATSU sauce - very thick fruity Japanese Worcestershire sauce.      I need to remember, however, that the preferred shape of the croquettes will be the bite size the next time, instead of the biggie size I made to look like the KORO'KE -- greedy.     I couldn't eat anything else after eating one.

Saving Dragon Fruits Plant

I was quite thrilled to find this red flesh dragon fruit sold at the Lowe nursery.      Ever since I tried making the dragon fruit frozen mousse, I tried to purchase them at the market a couple of times, but they are so expensive and always in poor condition.      When I planted this dragon fruit plant, I thought the location was perfect for it.         I grew through the late spring and into summer, but alas, it got attacked by the fungus disease.      After treating it with copper spray, the ultimatum was cut off the bad rotted spots.     I did what I could, and now the rest is up to itself.

Bird Art

Birds are kind of funny when it comes to pecking on fruits in the garden.    They just seem to know when they are sweet and ripe -- the ones that I have been waiting for the right time to pick.  They just seem to get to it before I do.