MOCHI - SNOWMAN

Ho! Ho! HO! and Great Cheers! and a Greetings.
So, it's more fun time in the kitchen with Grand-kids.  More wishes and ideas cute cakes and cookies.  Here is from Good Ole' Japan's DAIFUKU MOCHI.  What else can this wonderful be presented other than by itself? hmm... and I came up with the Snowman!  Didn't know what to use to decorate it at first and even went a mile off to shop for gumdrops and so forth, but end up with Hershey's Kiss and Life Saver's Gummy Sours.
So follow the regular recipe for the DAIFUKU MOCHI in my blog, except that I used the powder form of DANGO powder that I found.  Much cheaper than the SHIRATAMAKO.
Have fun!
(Click on image for more details)

Holiday Biscotti

What a fun month is December.  All the shopping fun and cooking and gathering with families over dinner, desserts, and all the wonderful holiday snacks.  Over the weekend, I made Challah with Raisin, Croissants, and Holiday Biscotti.  This time, I managed to obtain unsalted Pistachio at local farm market that it gave me a chance to make this tasty Holiday Biscotti again.
It contains chopped roasted (raw unsalted) pistachio, dry apricots, raisins.  Some are dipped in semi-sweet chocolate and roasted almond slices.

 

 

Melekimaka!

Ingredients

• 2 cups AP Flour 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs 
• 3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped--shell it yourself
• 2/3 cup dried cranberries and cherries; drained and dried overnight Maraschino cherries, chopped
• 12 ounces good-quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
• Almond slivers   and sprinkles that you might like

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
 
Line a half sheet baking pan (18x13") with silipad or parchment paper.   Shift the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl.   Beat sugar butter and lemon zest, salt, in mixer with paddle attachment until the butter is fluffy and pale in color;  Add 1 egg at a time and after well mixing in the first ones.  Stop and mix in pistachios and other goodies of your choice.  Use the spatula to incorporate them well.
 
Form the dough into a 13-inch long, 3-inch wide log on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until light golden - *depending on your oven-- about 40 minutes.  Cool for 30 minutes.
                   ** You are not done, yet.
Place the log on the cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 1/2 to 3/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake the biscotti until they are pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer the biscotti to a rack and cool completely.
 
Stir the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (bain marie) until the chocolate melts. (Or microwave it in a plastic or stainless bowl for 1 minute at a time - when you see the sign of "softness", take out and stir it crazy.  It is ready for use.)
Dip half of the biscotti into the melted chocolate. Gently shake off the excess chocolate. Place the biscotti on the cooling rack set over a parchment or wax paper to catch the excess chocolate for the chocolate to set  (you can reuse the chocolate after it becomes solid again). Roll in almond sliver before the chocolate solidifies or sprinkle with sprinkles or sugar crystals. Let it set until the chocolate is firm, about 35 minutes.

Wrap them up individually or in a holiday-ish container and share with friends and family.

Challah with Raisins

This is the follow up of the Challah with Raisins.
The Challah turned out as flavorful as the first Challah with Cranberries and Raisins.  The dough developed very well, and it is very tasty.  This is definitely a winning formula.
The original recipe is from:
http://bakingbites.com/2010/09/challah-with-raisins
Qty - 2 Medium size
Or Qty - 1 Large
Instead of making on large Challah, I divided the dough into two.  One for my sister and one for me.

My Ingredients:
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm (110F) water
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup Avocado oil
1 tbsp honey
 3 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour (and up to 1/4 cup extra for kneading)
2/3 cup raisins
TangZong: 35 g Flour + 125 ml water.  Mix well and heat to 65'C.  Strain.
Eggwash:  1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tsp water
Knead with Paddle first.  Then after adding all ingredients, change to dough hook to knead. The dough is quite wet the first 8 minutes.  Knead until the smooth dough forms.  Approx.   25 min. to 40 min. depending on your mixer power.

Brush dough with egg wash and Bake.

Stir Fried Asparagus with Shrimps

This is my adventure with Asparagus.  The dish turned out quite appetizing to eat GENZIMAI 'brown rice' with.  But the rice vinegar flavor is a bit overpowering.  Will improve on the sauce the next time.  In fact, tonight, I made creamy mushroom sauce with shallots with Provence spice for the Asparagus spears sauted in clarified butter. 

 

 It was heat through for 1 minutes and found out that it was 30 sec too much for the beautiful green asparagus.  It got overcooked. 

Shrimp Pearl-Balls

Glutinous sweet rice taste wonderful steamed.  Normally, the ground pork is used to make this dish, but I ran out of it, so I tested with shrimps.  Taste??? well, it's missing something, I am not sure what.  I will have to improve on it.  Maybe a dab of fat pork would do?

Form the grounded shrimps into a ball and roll it in glutinous sweet rice.  *The sweet rice is wash thoroughly till the water is clear and soaked in water for 30 min, then, strained well before use. (but not dry).

 Get the steamer ready.  These pearl balls are set in 'steamer' pan on top of the electric rice cooker.  I have never used it to steam anything.  Since it is not mine, it has been sitting in far corner of the kitchen cabinet for many years.  I filled the 'rice' cooking pot section with cold water - half of the pot.  Cover with lid and turn the rice cooker on.  Steam for an hour.  *Never open the lid of the rice cooking pot - well, there is no such thing as 'never'.  But I think if you are raised with rice as staple food, you and I have been told many a times - don't open the lid to check until it is ready

 After an hour, turn off the rice cooker.  Wait 10 min.  Then, open the lid carefully not to let the steam rain down on the pearl-balls.  Set the lid on the lid rester.  The sweet rice should look all translucent.  If your rice cooker has a glass lid, then, just check for translucent rice all around.   I rather cook it long enough to make sure the rice is cooked and internal meat is cooked through.  Uncooked rice is challenging to recook once the heat is turned off; and it usually require additional water, and there is a consequence of rice turning 'mushy'.

 The next day, they turned into my BENTO in mini-cupcake cups.