Stir Fried Home Grown Celery

This is a simple dish made from my home grown free volunteer celery bunch in my garden.  I planted a bottom part of the store bought celery many years ago.  I never cropped it because it always grow this skinny sticks with flowers. It keeps on growing flowers and I let it die and so forth.  This year's weather seems to please every plants and there they are - celery.  Skinny as they are, there are many.  I scissor some off and stir fried its stalks.   Tasted not bad.  Rough leafy parts went back to the yard as a compost.  I actually don't have a compost, but I just toss them into the garden.  It seems to work out like that in my yard.  My compost bin in the past is a horrifying rat trap, so I don't do that any more.

I removed most of the top most leaves as they felt pretty tough.  Wash thoroughly and soak them in water for about half an hour in salt water.  Because I do not use any chemical spray in my garden, to make sure any micro critters are popped and gone I soak and wash all vegetables in salt water.  

Stir fry with small cloves of garlic in 2 TBsp of organic avocado oil.

Add 1/4 Cup of water, pinch of salt.  Cover and cook for 2 min or so.  Done.

Stir Fried Scallops and Shrimps with Carrots and Peas

Devein shrimps and wash in salted water.  Wash thoroughly and remove tails.  Slice two large scallops in to desired sizes.  Maybe into 8 pieces each.

Have a bottom of organic Ketchup, Tonkatsu Sauce (Japanese thick vege worchestershire sauce) and Chili pepper flakes or Cayenne pepper ready.

2 cloves of garlic crushed with knife's surface, peeled and slightly chopped.

1/2 TBsp of sliced or chopped peeled ginger - your preferences for sliced - you don't eat, just for flavoring or chopped in to eat with shrimps.

Medium High Heat.  Heat Stainless Steel saute pan well.  Hold your palm above the surface and feel the heat.  Then, add 2 Tablespoons of organic avocado oil.  Spread the oil all around the pan.  Wait till the oil shimmers.

Add Garlic and Gingers.  Stir about 4 times.

Add Shrimps and Scallop pieces.

Swirl in Tonkatsu sauce - a circle and a half.

Squeeze in Ketchup 3 circles from outer to inner.

Stir.  Add chili pepper flakes or a shake of cayenne pepper.

Stir.  Add a cup of peas with carrots (frozen package, defrosted)

Stir fry till all cooked.  Shrimps are white and orangish and Scallops are all white.  Serve.

Polly's CASTELLA Cake - Finally

This was baked back in January 31.  It was the fourth recipe I tried and turned out pretty good. 

It's always fun to beat up a great meringue.

Add egg yolks one at a time and beat well into meringue.

Sprinkle flour in  a small portion at a time and mix well.

Repeat.

Pour into greased parchment paper.  Pour it in slowly to release large air pockets.

Tap the mold a couple of times to release trapped air bubbles on countertop lined with towel.  The desired result is a cake with fine crumb resembling pound cake.   Notice the ingredients (at the bottom) that there is no addition of "fat" in preparation.

Bake in two cake pans.  Outer cake pan is slightly bigger than the inner and holds the Aluminum walls.

Revert the slightly cooled cake onto a reversed baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Slice the sides off to expose the tender crumbs.  The cut offs are your reward before the crowd.

Slice and serve.  Looks like there were still some more trapped air bubbles.  Better job the next time.

Ingredients in my recipe are as follows:

85 g egg whites

60 g sugar

60 g egg yolks

Add 20 g honey

Then,

60 g Flour - I use Natural White Premium AP Flour, Unbleached, Unbromated by WheatMontana

                    Can be purchased at Walmart.

20 g Milk - Add milk last - perhaps better to use Whole Milk, slowly add milk by drizzling it in at the top and whisk the milk at the top layer of the batter.

Using spatula, scrape sides and fold gently. Tap the mixing bowl a few times on the countertop to release more air.  Allow to rest for few seconds and tap the bowl on the countertop again.

Panning Brownie Pan

Form walls with Aluminum foil around the cake mold.

    Aluminum cardboard cake mold - I never quite understood the function of the cardboard, other than that back in the old days when the Portuguese arrived in Japan, there are no baking molds and oven and that the solution was to improvise the cake mold out of cardboard? or it creates gentler heat to bake against the batter and creates tender crumbs?  If you want to make the aluminum wrapped cardboard walls, create 4 sides with cardboard measuring 23 x 15 cm and about 5 mm thick.

*6/10/2020 - I am not sure how reliable the information is, but I found out that cardboard molds pass the heat slowly and helps retain moisture during baking - definitely a good reason to try the method rather than adding vege oil, etc.

I need to do some more research or actually test it out (again - I did it once and the cake did not turn out).

    I did not use lined cardboard for this baking.  I lined my brownie pan with buttered unbleached organic parchment paper.  Wrapped the brownie pan with aluminum wall.

    Noticed the ingredients that there is no "fat", except for the maybe using Whole Milk or milk with higher fat content.   The recipe resembles basic sponge cake.  I wonder Heavy Cream would work?  or Low Fat Milk and add 60 g vege oil

Preheat Oven to 160'C.

Pour batter into lined brownie pan very slowly to allow air bubble to release before hitting the cake mold.  It is supposed to prevent large air holes to form during the baking to give a finer look like a pound cake. 

Tap pan down on the countertop a couple of times to release trapped air.

Bake 35 min. - Bake in bottom of oven till beautifully browned and make light crepe paper sound when slightly pressed at the top.

Remove from the oven.

Remove cardboard and outer pan.

Holding the cake mold, drop it on a double towel covered counter top or if you have a foam pad, from 30 cm high a couple of times.  This will cause the cake to sunk down slightly at the same time forming wrinkle. 

Invert the pan onto a lined sheet pan.

This will cause the cake to smoothen the top - 30 sec. 

Re-invert the cake back onto another lined sheet pan.

Let it cool completely.

Serve.

Store any left over in an air tight container.