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.

Homemade Italian Margherita Pizza from Nancy Silverton's The Mozza Cookbook

My book order from the Amazon.com have finally arrived.       The first edition of the Nancy Silverton's "The Mozza" cookbook.     It is filled with delicious recipes, and I tried her Pizza dough and my hands in making the pizza dough for the Margherita Pizza.      The dough is delicious, tasty and healthy.     The ingredients include dark rye flour and wheat germs.     The pizza dough turned out bubbly puffy at the edge just like the pizza you order from the local pizzeria.   Before trying to make the Margherita pizza recipe I found in the book, I decided to make my own special pizza with toppings made from my garden vegetables.      The toppings are:  roasted sliced onions, roasted cherry tomatoes, roasted zucchini, and some shredded Parma prosciutto.     Boy! it was delicious.      The onions, rather than sauteed were baked in the oven.  It made the onions toasty and sweet with concentrated flavor.      The recipe for the tomato sauce in the book is easy to follow, and with some modification to incorporate my home garden's fresh tomatoes, the tomato sauce turned out uniquely of my own.    Then, I tried the Margherita Pizza.     I did not know how such a simple Margherita Pizza can be so tasty.     There were four distinct flavors in my pizza singing in my mouth.     None overpowering the others.    First the crispy crust of the pizza (great flavorful crust!), then the fresh tomato sauce flavor - sweet and with full body that is not acidic like some tomato sauce can be; then, the ever so gooey and tasty mozzarella cheese, finally the fresh basil (home grown) greeted all and brought all together - Margherita pizza!      I love it.  

 With a little help from one of the Italian national shopper I met at the Corti Brothers market, I purchased a good prosciutto for my cooking.  Not cheap, but it tastes great.

( Need some more practice with spinning and forming the dough.)

 

Homemade tomato sauce tastes with just the right amount of acidity and sweetness, full tomato flavor (not like the hothouse tomatoes that's. . don't know what it is. .)

 Top it off with my creation.  Brush the edges with olive oil.

 Here it is - my pizza with crispy onions, roasted garlics, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini.

 Bubbly -- well developed and baked dough.

 

Here is the Margherita Pizza!