Dim Sum - Bok Choy Roll

Every year millions of people tell themselves that they will eat more vegetables and take better care of their health for their New Years' resolution.  Well, I have more Dim Sum for the Holidays ... this time Bok Choy Rolls.   These are even a bit healthy!

Spiced, ground chicken wrapped in bok choy (Chinese cabbage, pichay in Tagalog) leaves and steamed.  Low fat, good fiber, decent protein content ... and they taste good, too. 

Yes, these make it easier to follow your resolution to eat better. 
Bok Choy Rolls are also really easy to make.

So, good for you, easy to make, and yummy.  If pizza wasn't already Nature's Most Perfect Food, these might come close. 

Oh, who am I kidding?  Burgers, bacon, lasagna, and many other delicious foods would be higher on the list than this one.  Still, they're good! 

Ingredients

• Bok choy leaves
• Ground chicken breast
  
• Crushed garlic
• Grated ginger
• Salt
• Soy sauce
• Chopped green onion
  

Procedure

I diced up some boneless, skinless chicken breast.

I ground up the chicken breast finely in Big Iron's grinder attachment.

I eyeballed the things to add ... just made it smell good.  Normally I'm very careful about how much I add ... measuring, weighing, writing down notes ... this time I was just playing around.

I wouldn't need the filling for a few days.  So, I put the filling into a zip-top bag for storage in the deep freeze.

I took the bok choy, washed it, and cut off the ends.  I sorted through and picked the best and largest leaves.  Some of them were nearly white and I didn't want that.  I wanted green.  I think our pig enjoyed the white leaves very much.

I blanched the leaves in boiling water to soften them.  About ten minutes in the pot per leaf.

After the hot bath, into cold, cold water to stop the cooking process.

For each roll, I laid out a leaf and put in approximately one tablespoon of my filling.

I folded the end of the leaf over my filling.

Sorry about the fuzzy photo.  Didn't notice again ... my lens was a bit blurry after taking a photo of the leaves in boiling water.  Note to self: camera phones don't like steam.

Anyway, just fold over the end and roll up to seal.

Here are the little rolled beauties waiting on the baking sheet for their final dip into the hot water.

Finally, I steamed the rolls for ten minutes.

Remember: Steam is hot.  Hot hurts.  Just a kitchen tip from me to you.

Seeing all these laid out and done was really great.  I had a definite sense of accomplishment seeing 40 of these ready-to-eat.

Now, the question is ... how were they?


Test Results

Primary Test Group: Delicious! Masarap!


Test Group Rotary: Completely eaten quickly.


Potential Improvements

I'd spice them more next time.  Possibly some oyster sauce or hoisin sauce.

I think next time I'll blanch the leaves longer ... maybe steam them longer.  Make the leaves softer.

Potential Variations

Like anything wrapped, this could have just about anything inside the leaves.  I think that chicken, though, is probably the best.  Its flavor is mild and compliments the bok choy leaves well.

Conclusions

These are good.  And, as I mentioned, healthy too.  Whenever I make Dim Sum, I'll definitely make these along with it.

Cheesemaking ... Mozzarella

I love good cheese. Getting it here is difficult, at best. So, I decided to learn how to make cheese myself.

I've made a sour cream-like substance for a while now. But, I wanted to get more serious ... step up to real cheeses. With my discovery of an actual dairy where I could purchase cow's milk that hadn't been destroyed by the ravages of heat, my hopes grew.

Ingredients

• 4 liters cow's milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons citric acid
• 1/2 rennet tablet
• 3/4 cup water

Procedure

I poured all of the delicious white liquid into my stew pot. Four liters of white gold.


I put it all over a low flame.


While the milk was heating up, I prepared the citric acid. I mixed the 1-1/2 teaspoons of citric acid with 1/2 cup of cold water. I stirred a lot to ensure that it was completely dissolved.


I waited impatiently for the milk to warm up to 90F (32C). I used my nifty space-age infrared thermometer. This thing is perfect for cheesemaking!

90F (32C) is the temperature at which I'll add the rennet. While waiting, I dropped the half rennet tablet into a glass with 1/4 cup of cold water. Again, like the citric acid, I mixed very well.


At 90F (32C) I added the rennet. I stirred well ensuring to stir up-and-down in the pot to get complete coverage.

I heated the batch up to 105F (40C). The recipe said that in three-to-five minutes I'd see curds. It didn't, so I added the other half of the rennet tablet.

That resulted in a pot that was almost completely coagulated. Oops.

I managed to fix the problem. I cut the curds and continue to maintain the heat at 105F (40C). The curds shrunk as they expelled their whey. Saved!



Once I'd cooked down the curds well, I dumped the whole pot through a metal strainer. I took out the curds and put them into a two quart microwave-safe bowl.

As per the recipe's instructions (this is from a book that I have, review coming later), I nuked the curds for a minute. Then, I kneaded the curds ... when they got cool, I nuked again for 30 seconds. Knead, nuke, repeat. Finally, I got to a point that I liked with the consistency.

Let me tell you, kneading hot cheese is not exactly a pleasant task. Ouch! Still, it was worth it.

I rolled up the curds like a ball of bread dough, bringing the edges in under and pushing up from inside.

The result? The lovely picture you see at the top of this post. I'm so proud!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Tastes good. A little more salt would be nice.

Test Group C: Was confused about the cheese until I explained that it wasn't like Cheddar. It's intended to be melted on a pizza. Commented that the cheese needed more salt.

Test Group J: Unfortunately, they were in Cebu when I made the cheese. So, no feedback here.

Test Group M: "It tastes like mozzarella."

Potential Improvements

More salt. More kneading. Less rennet.

Potential Variations

This was the 30-minute method. It's really more like the Hour-or-Two Method. Still, the results are nice.

I want to try the traditional method for making mozzarella. The kind you see the Italian grandmothers do in delis.

Conclusions

I did it! I made my own mozzarella! I am so pleased.

I ended up using far too much rennet. So, no ricotta from this batch. In the future, I'll get better.

Still, P288 worth of milk (P72 per liter once we include the cost of diesel) made 550 grams of mozzarella. Here, mozzarella comes in 250 gram blocks for P240-to-P250. So, we got P530 worth of good mozz out of P288! If I back off on the rennet, I should get some ricotta, too!

The best thing is, I don't have to worry about when the stores will have the mozzarella in stock. I'm in control.

I like control ...

Snickerdoodles ... Quelle coïncidence!

Well, last night I had a bit of a disaster in the kitchen. First, my French onion soup went wrong ... just bad, bad. As in "it's now pig food" bad. There was nothing burnt, nothing left out, no wrong ingredients, just somewhere along the way I did something wrong. Very wrong.

Then, my Snickerdoodles didn't come out right. I've made at least a thousand of them in my life, possibly more. I figure that's quite a few considering I'm not a professional (although, I might be here soon!). I've never had problems with Snickerdoodles before. A couple things went wrong.

Not to mention, last night my oven was haunted. It just won't heat past 300F, maybe 325F. I dreaded calling the repair man today. So, just out of curiosity, I tried setting the oven to "blast furnace" and it heated up nicely to 460F. Just like it always did.

Gott im Himmel! A batch of Snickerdoodles ruined due to a miserable oven. Then, I noticed something horrible. Something unimaginable. I'd left out the baking soda. In fact, I'd left it off the ingredient list in my first Snickerdoodle post (fixed now). I walked away from the cookies, which the Primary Test Team devoured anyway, and pretended they never happened. They don't exist to me.

I'm posting now, but after everyone else has posted about Snickerdoodles. I feel like a copycat.

Fortunately, a few folks have posted today ... including Katy at Sugarlaws. She suggested melting some of the butter. I'm going to try that.

And, regarding feeling bad about being a copycat ... oh well ... I'm taking a few over to a potential client for a taste. Can't be too sad about that!

Ingredients

• 84 grams (3/4 cup) butter
• 180 grams (1-1/2 cups) sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 385 grams (2-3/4) cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 28 grams (1/4 cup) melted butter
• 30 grams (1/4 cup) white sugar
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  

Procedure

I preheated my oven to 400F (200C). Nice and hot so the little guys will flatten nicely.

As usual, I creamed butter and sugars together brutally. I really notice a difference in the cookies when the cream step is taken seriously. Then, I added the eggs and vanilla ... mixing them in well.


While the eggs and vanilla were finding their new home, I put the dry ingredients into a separate bowl and whisked them together. Making sure to evenly distribute the
Whisk dry ingredients together in separate bowl. Incorporate completely, but not too much.


I added melted butter and stirred slowly to mix. Oh, this time the dough had the right consistency. It wasn't firm and hard. It is gooey and really needs a couple of hours in the chiller .. which is where it went.

8-10 minutes (most were at 8) in the oven at 400F (200C) and they came out delicious! Don't cook too long or you'll burn them. Don't cook too short or they'll fall. If they fall, they're still delicious, just not as visually appealing.


Let them sit on the sheet for about a minute before transferring them to wire racks for complete cooling.

Yields

30 cookies (using a 1-1/2 ounce ice cream scoop)

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Marasa! More daddy!

Random Test Group: Wow! These are amazing.

Potential Improvements

Katy at Sugarlaws put cinnamon in her cookies, too. I might try that. Boost the cinnamon flavor a bit.

Conclusions

Cookies are great. Plain and simple ...

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies ... Oatmeal Showdown!

The oats that I like to use here are the imported Quaker Oats. They are P111 per 510g package. This turns out to be about P1.58 per cookie. So, I wondered a bit about using them. Kind of expensive.

So, when I saw some oats imported from Australia here at just over half that price, I took interest.

I guess the overall question is: why am I using imported oats? Well, I wrote about it here. It's easy to see the difference in quality.

The Australian oats weren't quite as nice as the American oats. But, at a mere P60 per 500g package, I was willing to try them out.

So, we had a showdown! In the green, weighing in at 500g, oats from the Land of Oz! And, in the red, weighing slightly more at 510, old-fashioned Quaker export-only oats from the United States!


Ingredients

• 450 grams (4 cups) butter, softened
• 840 grams (4 cups) brown sugar
• 380 grams (2 cups) white sugar
• 8 eggs
• 2 tablespoon vanilla
• 840 grams (6 cups) all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 510 grams (about 6 cups) American Quaker oats
• 200 grams (2 cups) raisins
• 500 grams (about 6 cups) Australian oats
  

Procedure

I turned on my currently uncooperative oven (last night, it wouldn't go above 325F, now it will ... whoever heard of a fickle oven?) to 350F (175C).

Using Big Iron, I creamed the butter and sugars together. As usual, I creamed them well. Big Iron's #3 setting moves the mixer blade faster than the eye can focus. I know what you're thinking ... yeah, it is pretty cool!

Then, I mixed the vanilla and eggs in well.

While the eggs were mixing, in a separate bowl, I whisked together all the dry ingredients. This works so well. No more concentrated lumps of baking soda/powder on which to gag. I mixed in the dry ingredients and the raisins. Just enough to incorporate.

Now that I had the base mixture, I used my trusty kitchen scale to split the batch in two. In one half, I mixed in the American Quaker oats along with a half teaspoon of some red food coloring powder. In the other half, I mixed in the Australian oats with some green food coloring powder.


With each, I used my standard ice cream scoop, put 20 to a half-sized baking sheet ... and baked for 10-12 minutes at 350F (175C). About 6 minutes into each batch, I would swap (left-to-right) and rotate (front-to-back) the baking sheets to ensure even cooking.


Let cool completely on a rack ... and let the taste test begin!

Yield: 140 cookies.

Test Results

I tested based both on the looks of the cookies and on the taste. I setup nice plates that had bite-sized pieces to eat plus whole cookies to view.


From all test groups, the overwhelming favorite was "red" ... the imported from America Quaker Oats.

Conclusions

The smaller-sized Aussie flakes didn't hold the cookies together as well. The American cookies were taller and had better texture (to me).

Be willing to pay for good ingredients. They are worth the money.

Pizza Quest - Italian Sausage

As my thousands of regular readers know, I'm working towards making some great pizza here. I've got a good crust, the cheese is good, and the sauce is good. Now, I'm onto the toppings.

I want Italian sausage and Canadian bacon. But, for Canadian bacon I need a whole pork loin and I haven't found one. I need to hit up a butcher when they're first cutting. Everyone here just sells tenderloin.

So, I went for the other half of my Favorite Pizza Toppings Ever ... Italian sausage. I remembered watching my favorite food scientist, Alton Brown, making some. There was no need in my mind to look any further.

His recipe called for chopped parsley. That sounded a little wimpy for my taste. So, I swapped in some oregano instead. I started with a small amount (1/2 teaspoon) to replace the parsley (1 tablespoon). Next time, I'll more it up more.

Ingredients

• 1 kilogram ground pork
• 1-1/2 teaspoons fennel seed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Procedure

I toasted the fennel seeds in a frying pan until they got a little browned. The smell was amazing! Just keep them moving to avoid burning them.


Then, I tossed the fennel seed, salt, oregano, and black pepper into a small bowl and whisked them together to combine properly.


Finally, I poured the spice mixture onto the ground pork and mixed it all together by hand. Try to do this in a cool place. You can also refrigerate the bowl to help keep things cold. You don't want the fat in the pork to melt.

Should store for a few days in the fridge. I put mine in the freezer as I have some pepperoni curing that I want to use on pizza at the same time.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Delicious! Marasa! Masarap!

Potential Improvements

Possibly a little more fennel seed or oregano. Not sure. Will have to try it.

Potential Variations

A spicy version!

Conclusions

Fantastic. And, can be even better.

White Chocolate Chip Cookies for a Friend

A few days ago I wrote about how a friend of mine gave me some goodies from Hawaii. I'm always so thankful when someone thinks about me when traveling that they bring some pasalubong.

I beat my brain against a proverbial brick wall trying to come up with something good to make from the macadamia nuts. I thought sugar cookies with macadamias. Nah. Didn't have enough of the nuts to make those worthwhile. I only had slightly more than a cup of nuts, so I had to augment them with something otherwise I'd make 4 or 5 cookies.

It hit me ... white chocolate chips. Those chips are mild, so they won't overpower the macadamias. I'd make the now-classic New York Times (Jacque Torres-created) chocolate chip recipe substituting white chocolate chips for the chocolate disks he wants. And, I'd add the whole can of macadamias (minus the two giant ones I couldn't resist eating).

Ingredients

• 315 grams butter
• 280 grams brown sugar
• 225 grams white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 240 grams all-purpose flour
• 240 grams cake flour
• 1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 565 grams chocolate chips
• 4.5 oz. macadamia nuts with sea salt

Procedure

I put the butter in my mixer until it was creamed a bit. Last time, I put the butter and sugars in. Oh, the mess. The sugars were ejected quite nicely from the mixer. So, cream the butter a bit first. Then, I put in the sugars and cream for a few minutes. It is so important to let this whip for a while!

While the sugars and butter were getting to know each other better, I measured out the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Using a whisk, I stirred them together. This works great. Never any worries about little pockets of some minor ingredient (ever gotten a big bite of baking powder in a cookie? YUK!).

Then, I mixed in the eggs until they were just incorporated. Once the eggs were in, I did the same with the dry mixture. Over-mixing here is bad. Don't do it! Flour likes to make gluten and we are not making bread!

Lastly, I dumped in the chips and macadamias. I folded them in before letting the mixer go to work for about 30 seconds. Folding them helps distribute them faster without the dreaded over-mixing.

Using an ice cream scoop (don't ask me the size, I don't know and I keep forgetting to find out), I put them onto a couple of half-sized parchment-covered baking sheets ... 20 to a sheet.

Into the oven for 12 minutes at 350F (175C). I rotated left-to-right, front-to-back at about 7 minutes to ensure even cooking. I never used to do this, now I'm fairly religious about it. Things come out better. I like that.

Let cool on racks and protect them from the ravaging hordes that will try pillage them.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Very good! My son ate one (that's saying something, he's picky these days).

Potential Improvements

More macadamia nuts!

I'm tempted to cook them a little longer to give them more structure.

Also, next time, I'll chop the nuts to distribute them more through the cookies. Some cookies received a nut, some didn't. Oops!

Conclusions

Another definite winner. Guess one just can't go wrong with the basics when it comes to cookies.

My son took a couple to school for snacks. He's happy with them.

Hope my friend likes them ...

Salami Pizza ... Sauce and Cheese Nirvana

While I was in Manila, I hit a wholesale club (one of my friends with us is a member). It was like being back in the States at Costco. In fact, I saw some Kirkland brand products. I suspect this place is owned by the huge corporate entity that is Costco.

I, of course, perused the dairy and meat aisles. Oh, what treasures they had. Meats of all kinds, sausages, hot dogs, sliced cooked sandwich meats, cheeses.

Yes, it was good.

I spied this package of mini-salami. A mere P177. It, like many foods now, spoke to me and said "I can survive the trip home". That package of mini-salami knew the magic words to open my wallet. It knew that I was concerned about even a few hours away from refigeration in the Philippine heat and humidity. It had eased my concerns and won my stomach ... err, heart.

So, I stood in line for 15 minutes and bought them.

Naturally, when I got home, things were busy. So, I put the package of salami goodness into my fridge and promised I wouldn't forget them. Yesterday, I was supposed to make something for Tuesdays with Dorie (I will today, really!) but I was dead. Just dead tired. Barely wanted to lift a TV remote from the comfort of my bed let alone actually cook something.

Then, while watching one of my favorite Jackie Chan movies, Drunken Master, there was a commercial for pizza. "Delivery!" I thought. Sounded good ... until I remembered that sounding good and tasting good were two different things sometimes.

Yet, I was still inspired. I wanted pizza now. I wanted pizza enough to ignore my lethargy and slink down the stairs to the kitchen. I took a block of mozzarella and handed it, along with a bowl and grater, to one of my nieces. She was happy to grate the cheese knowing that pizza was the ultimate reward (she's the one who giggles when she gets it).

Grating cheese avoided. Definite win there.

Onto the dough. I love a thin crust with some chewness. However, last time I made pizza my mom had requested a thicker crust. Thing is, you have to let a thicker crust rise again after you spread out the dough. Wasn't going to wait for that, I wanted pizza!

Mom still got her wish. Somehow the flames went out when I turned on the oven. So, when I went to put the pizzas in, no heat. The pizzas got a chance to rise while waiting for the oven to reach the blazing hot maximum temperature of our oven.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups / 420 grams all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 250 grams mozzarella cheese
• 60 grams Parmesan cheese
• 150 grams sliced salami

Procedure

I turned my oven onto the highest setting possible. That's 460F (238C). I'd do that even if it was 800F (425C). The coal-fired ovens in New York City's pizzerias are that hot. And they, I'm told, make great pizza.

For my own convenience, I got a relative to grate all the cheese. I would've used a food processor, but mine's dead, need to find another. I tossed the cheeses well so that I could just sprinkle both on at the same time. And, I successfully avoided eating too much of the yummy cheese mixture ... after all, need some on the pizza itself.

I put the flour, water, sugar, salt, yeast, and olive oil into my mixer with the bread hook on. I started out on low. Once the ingredients were mixed together, I scraped down the sides and put the mixer on medium. I let it run for 15 minutes.

Once the dough has received a nice machine beating (sure is better than kneading by hand!), I took the dough out of the bowl, drizzled a little olive oil into the bowl, and then put the dough back in. I made sure that the dough was completely coated with the olive oil.

I put a towel on the bowel and walked away for an hour.

When I came back, the yeast had done there job. Big ball of dough. I took it out and cut it into two halves. I used my scale to be somewhat accurate about that.

I didn't feel like tossing the dough today. So, I just used a rolling pin and made a couple of rectangular pizzas. Those taste just as good.

Once rolled out and on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, I applied the sauce. This is the sauce that I made a while back. I'm so glad I made extra and froze it. So, so easy. Of course, I scooped half of the sauce onto each pizza. Then, using the back of the spoon, spread the sauce out from the middle in an outward spiral motion.

Since my cheese-grating niece didn't like the salami (more for me, hooray!), I made half a pizza with just cheese. I spread the salami evenly over the other one-and-a-half pizzas.

Once the uncooperative oven got up to about 425F (218C), I put in the pizzas. Didn't want to wait any longer!

Cooked until the cheese was melted well and the crust was slightly golden. About 6 minutes in this case. Short time, yes. But, first time making the thicker crust. Didn't want to ruin it.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Marasa! Delicious! "I get all that? OK :)"

Unfortunately for the other groups, the pizza just didn't last long.

Conclusions

For mom's sake, I cooked it a short time. Next time, I'll cook it longer so that a nice crust will develop, even on the thicker version. Crust needs tooth. This pizza lacked that.

Pizza is always a winner!

Healthy Adult Oatmeal Bars

Oh yes, healthy. That's what we all want to try to eat. We want our friends to eat healthy. We want ourselves to eat healthy. We, especially, want our kids to eat healthy.

My son loves chocolate. That, in itself, isn't so bad. Trouble is, he craves those really nasty chocolate goo-covered sponge cake industrial garbage wrapped in plastic. I'm currently on a quest to find something we can make, something easy hopefully (and this recipe is EASY!), that he won't trade away at snack time for some crunchy chocolate cookies with strawberry frosting and bits of concentrated sugar sprinkles.

I snagged this recipe from Katy at Sugarlaws. I was feeling a bit lazy tonight and the recipe was so easy to do. I liked the sound of it.

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons / 100g oats
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 4 tablespoons corn syrup
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup / 50g raisins
• 3 tablespoons / 20g pistachios, shelled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon canola oil

Procedure

This one is so very easy. Just set your oven to 325F (163C).

Mix all the ingredients together well. They should all hold together, sort of, but there should be no excess liquid. If there's extra, add a little bit more oats and stir. Repeat until no liquid.

I poured my mixture into one of my silicone tart pans. These made perfect molds. The original recipe said it made eight small bars. I figured I'd just chop these in half to make reasonably sized servings. I am trying to make something healthy here. Excessive size is almost as bad as sugar death bomb cakes.

Into the oven for 35 minutes.

Done. Like I said, so easy!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Only a partial group tonight. Various members are out and about. This is probably good because I cannot imagine the look of disdain on my son's face if I asked him to eat these.

Honestly, I like them. They remind me of Boy Scouts many, many years ago. It gives your mouth a workout much like raw celery does. You know you're eating something of substance and something that tastes good. There is something very satisfying about this.

The batch didn't make enough to have for other testers. Probably good, anyway. I'm not sure these would be to their liking, either.

Potential Improvements

Not sure were to go. I think a little sugar would go a long ways with these. The honey just didn't cut it. Brown sugar, of course.

Conclusions

I won't make these again. Since I'm the only one here who would eat them, not worth my time.

These are definitely for hard-core granola eaters. They're not sweet or gooey ... nor are there thick chunks of chocolate in them.

What they are is good, solid food that provides great nutrition.

Honestly, this kind of food is what we should be eating. Trouble is, it just doesn't taste good enough ...

And therein lies my problem. I need to find something nutritious that will also please the five year old palette. Unfortunately, this isn't it.

If it were just me, I'd play with these a little, but keep making them.

Soft Potato Pillows (Rolls)

Potato rolls, potato bread, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. One, two, three ... many.

Back in the States, I would insist that we buy potato hamburger buns and potato hot dog buns. When we bought dinner rolls, they were potato based. So soft, so good, slightly sweet but not sickly so.

Soft like little pillows of potato-ey goodness, soft to give physical contrast to the food that these little yeast-grown balls of flour and potato carry. Yet, strong enough to actually hold their own against a hard-core backyard grill burger will beef drippings, caramelized onions, and, of course, Heinz ketchup.

Culinary perfection in bread form. Found on the bread aisle in every store ... cheap.

When I got here in the Philippines, my starches consisted of rice, rice, rice, rice, and sometimes, rice. Bread? That is a snack food around here. You go to the local bakery and buy little rolls for P1 (2.1 cents) each.

Hamburger buns? Only the fast food joints (McDonald's and Jollibee) have those. And, they aren't telling where they got their buns. So, the memory of a nice soft bread faded slowly from my mind.

That is, until this week. When I returned from Cebu, my RSS reader had over 700 items for me to read. One of them was this posting by Greg & Michelle, the Culinary Sherpas. They make sliders (yum!) and put them on potato rolls. I like their use of the phrase "utility food". You might see that used in my later writings.

My mind was racing. I'd given up on the bread before because I was terrible with breads. I figured that I would see real-life zombies roaming the streets looking for brains before I managed to get some bread dough to rise.

Fortunately, with my new zeal for cooking, I'd done a few bun recipes and had great luck. I was feeling confident that I could pull off something good. I wanted something that was close to what I could buy in the stores in Washington, if not better. So, I started scouring the Internet.

After a lot of Google fu, I found a recipe for Amish Potato Rolls on RecipeZaar. The problem was, the recipe is too big for my normal stand mixer. I have a 20 quart Hobart, but I didn't want to whip out the Big Iron just for rolls. So, I halved the recipe.

Oops, 2-1/2 eggs. Hmmm. I already thought the recipe sounded lightly eggy, and after my experience with the choux dough, I didn't want to have eggy potato rolls. So, I dropped the half egg. I also kicked the shortening up from 3/8 cup to 1/2 cup.

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 teaspoons yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1 cup mashed potatoes
• 1/2 cup Crisco
• 4-5 cups bread flour

Procedure

Preheated my oven to gas #4 (350F, 175C).

I put the water and yeast into my mixer's bowl and wisked them together. I let them sit while I gathered the other ingredients. A few minutes later, I added the sugar. I use SAF instant yeast. It is wonderfully forgiving unlike the insolent little yeast monsters found in packets.

I then mixed in the remaining ingredients, less the flour. Mixing them on low using my poor dying mixer blade (will someone please remind me to order a new one? I keep forgetting).

Once the other ingredients looked like some kind of lumpy porridge, I started adding the flour. One cup at a time. I added flour until the lump of dough formed was workable and a little sticky. That ended up being 4-1/2 cups.

I sprayed a second bowl with some cooking spray, scraped the mass of dough out of the mixer bowl using my silicone scraper (if you don't have one, get one! make sure you buy a one-piece scraper, the two-piece units tend to fall apart eventually), put a towel over the bowl, and let it all sit for about an hour in the Philippine heat ... err, warm spot in the kitchen.

When I came back to the dough, it had risen nicely. Oh, my days as a failed baker are ending!

I pulled out a small bowl and put in a generous handful of flour. I also got a 9" x 13" baking pan and sprayed it with cooking spray.

Before we go any further, I should note that the recipe suggested that you spray your hands with cooking spray to help keep the dough from sticking to your hands. I tried that. I sprayed between each little dough ball. They were wrong. Don't bother. Just accept that your hands will be a nice bit of dough on them. Oh, and be sure to take off all jewelry on your hands. Really, do it. You'll thank me later.

So, I made large golf ball-sized balls of the dough ... about 2 inches in diameter. I rolled each in the flour bowl to coat. And, lined them up in my baking pan.

With rolls like these, pull-aparts, you want to put the rolls close together. You want them to rise and cook together. This pushes them up rather than out.

Somehow I managed to pick the right size and got 20 of the little sticky dough balls in a 4x5 pattern in my pan. That was lucky.

Time for the second rise. I covered the pan with towels and let it sit for another 20 minutes. I probably spent a full two minutes of that time ensuring that my hands were dough-free. That stuff was sticky!

Finally, second rise is done ... into the oven. 350F (175C) for 20-25 minutes. I set my cell phone's alarm for 15 minutes because I didn't want to have another burn accident like I did with some of my cookies for Tuesdays with Dorie.

After 15 minutes, no worries. Looks like they still need another 10. But, out of pure paranoia and greed (I wanted to eat these!), I set my alarm for another 5 minutes.

I come back in 5 minutes and look into the oven. They hadn't made as much progress as I'd expected. And, I noticed that the oven thermometer was reading 300F (150C). That's odd. This oven keeps its temperature well.

Oh no ... after a little checking I figured out that the gas in the tank had run out. It was late, it was raining, and I didn't feel like going out into the back yard to get one of the spare tanks (we keep an extra two because I like to Be Prepared ... yes, ex-Boy Scout).

So, I kept the oven door closed and let the rolls coast for another 10 minutes. A total of 30 minutes in the oven. But, the last 15 were at a slowly decreasing temperature.

Were they ruined? Let's find out ...

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Oh my god! (yes, just like the ribs) How did you make these? Did you buy these? Marasa! Masarap! (Tagalog for "delicious")

These were consumed before any could reach the other test groups.

Potential Improvements

Well, cooking them for the full time would be good. While I love gas, running out at bad times is one of the risks here since we run off little 11 kilo tanks of LPG.

The bottoms were a little brown. Soft, but brown. I might try making them at 325F (163C) and cooking for 25-30 minutes.

I might try kneading the dough next time. I thought it was unusual not to. Although, that probably led to the wonderful softness.

Potential Variations

Not many. One really doesn't want to get away from the basic roll that is so good. Maybe adding a little more mashed potatoes for more potato flavor.

Possibly add some chives (I'll have to grow those myself) or other typical mashed potato toppings.

Maybe make these in hamburger bun size or in hotdog bun shape.

Conclusions

Fantastic! I could not have been happier with the result.

I think I'm going to make the sliders like the Culinary Sherpas.

I'm getting more confident with making yeast-based breads. This is good. It's always been a weakness of mine in the kitchen. I suspect that I'm having good luck because here in the Philippines, unlike Seattle, every part of the kitchen is a nice warm spot in which the dough can rise.

Asian Beef Ribs ... Carnivorous Delight

Growing up, beef was very common. We had it nearly daily and it was good.

Around where I live now (Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines) beef (baka) is not at all common. Pork (baboy) and chicken (manok) are far, far more common. I would go so far as to say that Filipinos love their pork ... very, very much. They're very good at cooking it.

I like pork, too. But, I can't get away from loving beef. Sometimes, I just want a big chunk of well-prepared beef. Today, when I was at the local butcher, I saw the ribs. There they were ... large, red, and screaming "slow cook us and you'll be happy".

Now I don't believe every bit of food that speaks to me. Cauliflower keeps promising to be tasty and, without the help of a generous amount of cheese sauce, I find that it lies. Beef, on the other hand, tends to tell the truth when it claims to be good.

I poked around the web a bit looking for inspiration. Most recipes make a classic stew-like sauce in which the ribs slowly cook. I didn't feel like that today. Finally, I decided just to wing it with something slightly Asian. One part soy sauce and one part brown sugar is the foundation of teriyaki sauce. Teriyaki sauces are like coconut milk ... they make everything taste better.

With that and adding a little heat, I was good to go.

Ingredients

• 3.7 kilograms beef ribs
• vegetable oil
  
• 3 cups soy sauce (Kikkoman's, Japanese style)
• 3 cups brown sugar
• 3 dried red Chinese chiles

Procedure

I had the butcher cut the ribs short. They were oddly cut in the first place (beef is often cut strangely here ... stew beef comes in rectangular blocks). I wanted to be able to pack the ribs into the cooker.

I snagged a large frying pan, put in some vegetable oil and seared the large sides of each of the pieces of beef ribs. This was probably the hardest part of the whole process. Yes, oh so difficult ...

While searing the beef, I mixed the brown sugar, chiles, and soy sauce in my slow cooker. I could've used a bowl and poured the mixture into the cooker later. But, why make more dishes to clean?

When each piece of beef was done, I'd put it directly into the slow cooker. I arranged the pieces so that they were packed in well. The whole process took ten minutes, maybe fifteen. No more.

Finally, I turned my slow cooker on. 200F (93C).

Seven hours later ... we had fabulous beef ribs.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Oh my god! So good! Marasa!

The other test teams were off on the other side of Leyte playing golf this weekend. So, they lose out.

Potential Improvements

Some of the meat didn't cook completely in the first bit of cooking. That's because I think I cooked too much for the slow cooker. I probably should have stopped at 3 kilos of beef ribs. I just couldn't help myself.

More of the dried chiles to give a little bit of heat. The three that I used just didn't convey anything to the large amount of liquid that was present.

Potential Variations

Could try this with pork ribs and chicken, too.

Conclusions

This beef was not lying. It was quite good.

So good, definite winner! Something to make again. I like making things in the slow cooker. You can use lesser cuts of meat and get fabulous results.

We haven't even used it yet, but the resulting sauce is probably amazing over rice.

Most beef here is P350 per kilo and up. The beef ribs were P210 per kilo. About the same as most pork. A definite win on the price front, too.

Breakfast Tarts

Breakfast ... it's supposed to be the most important meal of the day. Eat breakfast and your whole day is going to be better.

This is a wonderful thought. One, I think, created by people who are at home being awake and alive in the morning. I am, from the very base of my existence, a night person. If I'm awake at 6am, it's because I've stayed up all night (I'm trying to change this because the best time to play golf here is at 6am when it's not quite so hot yet).

I'm not a big cereal person these days. I used to love the stuff. Now, I'd rather have something more complex, more substantial, frankly, something without the additives, refined nastiness, and general chemical horrors required for mass production.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup cooked and diced bacon

Procedure

I preheated my oven to 350F (175C).

I mixed together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using a whisk, I mixed them thoroughly.

Fortunately, I found my pasty cutter. I was worried I'd have to do this with a fork. I used the pastry cutter to cut in the shortening. Did this until the particles were the size of small peas.

I added the water a tablespoon at a time, continuing to cut the mixture with my pastry cutter. Make sure all of the flour gets moistened.

Knead the dough for a few minutes to get it into a workable state. This is where I often fail to do enough. This time, I didn't. Enough kneading and the dough becomes cooperative.

At this point, I set the dough aside in a covered bowl and put together my filling. I beat the two eggs fairly well. I wanted to break up all of the long strings of gooey stuff found in the eggs.

The bacon, I popped out of the freezer, cut off in small slices while still frozen, and tossed quickly into a hot frying pan. The bacon cooked very quickly ... maybe two minutes tops over high flame.

While the bacon fried, I quickly diced the onion.

Once I had everything I needed, I rolled out the dough to about 1/8-inch (3mm) thickness. I selected a biscuit cutter that would cut circles in the dough the right size for my little silicone tart pan.

To prepare the tart pan, I sparingly sprayed each cup with a bit of cooking spray. This would ensure that the tarts would come out utterly painlessly. I put the tart pan on a baking sheet just for ease of transport.

I then pushed the cut dough circles into the tart pan. I pressed carefully around the outside to make sure that the dough was inserted well.

Then, just using my fingers (I wash my hands often while cooking, you should, too!) I picked up a little bacon and a large pinch of diced onion and placed it into each cup. Then, using a spoon, I poured the well-beaten egg into each cup nearly filling it.

Now, we're ready to cook! 10-15 minutes at 350F (175C). Watch for the edges to become golden brown.

When mine came out, they popped out of the silicone without any complaint. So easy!

Let them cool for a bit on a wire rack and eat as soon as possible. So good!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Delicious! Marasa! Make more please.

Test Group J: Very good!

Potential Improvements

I was a little disappointed with the shallow tart mold that I used. Lots of crust, not enough filling. I'll find something deeper next time so that we can get in more egg.

Potential Variations

As with many things, the variations are enormous. Just about any combination of egg, meat, starch, and spice is going to be good. That's the beauty of this recipe.

Conclusions

Utter winner. Hands down a breakfast treat. I need to experiment with the freezer on these. If I can cook a batch of 40 and keep them frozen until we wish to devour them like the voracious omnivores that we are ... that would be fantastic.

Good Pizza ... Oh My!

Good pizza. Such a simple pair of words. Pizza itself seems so simple. Just some dough, a little red sauce, and cheese ... in its most basic form. Toppings are nice, but optional. A good cheese pizza is heaven unto itself.

Pizza is a balance of its ingredients: crust, sauce, cheese, toppings. Too much of one and the others suffer. If one is bad, the others cannot make up for it. This makes good pizza hard. And, great pizza near impossible. There are just so many places where one can go wrong.

I've had great pizza. It is amazing. And, surprisingly, it is not some giant pie heaped with toppings and dripping with cheese. It was a well-balanced pie with high-quality toppings, cheese, crust, and sauce. Not too much or too little of any.

As I've written before, many commercial pizza places fall short on one or more of the basic aspects of the pizza. I think it would be better to be mediocre at all four ... rather than good at three and bad at one.

This recipe yields a decent crust. For the amount of effort required, it's pretty good. Still, not great.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2-1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 60g grated Parmesan cheese
• 250g shredded Mozzarella cheese

Procedure

Preheat your oven ... now! You want it as hot as possible for this. Mine gets up to about 460F (238C).

Mix the yeast, sugar, and water together. Set aside.

The original recipe calls for whisking the dry ingredients together, setting on the counter, making a hole in the middle, then pouring in the yeast-sugar water. Here's where I say ... no!

I put the dry ingredients into my mixer bowl and whisked them a bit by hand to properly disburse the salt. I'm told this aerates the flour, too. Not sure I believe this.

I poured in the olive oil (be sure to use good olive oil ... it makes a difference) and the water mixture. Then, I used the bread hook to mix slowly for a minute or so. I ended up adding an additional 1/2 cup of flour to get the right consistency. The dough should be slightly sticky.

Once mixed, I turned the mixer on medium to knead the dough. I let it knead for 10 minutes. When done, the dough will still be slightly sticky and quite smooth.

I put the dough in another bowl and tossed in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Put a clean kitchen towel over it and let the dough rise for about an hour.

I split the dough into two equal parts. For each, I rolled into a ball using my hands. Then, pat it down into a disk on the counter (with some flour down). To the amazement of my son, I tossed the disks into the air to get to the right size. Never done that before, it was rather fun. Easier than I thought it would be! Harder than those pizza guys make it look.

I used the pizza sauce that I made (and froze). Just put a big dollop in the middle and spread it outwards in a spiral motion using the back of your spoon. You want less sauce on the pie than you think. Too much sauce makes your cheese and toppings fall off. That's no fun!

Finally, I put on the cheese. Notice it's not all that much. It's the combination that makes it good. The bit of Parmesan adds a nice slight bite that I like.

I put these in for 10 minutes each at about 460F (238C). They came out looking amazing. I was shocked.

Pretty easy for a pair of 12-inch pies!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Loved it. Some even giggled when they got a second slice.

Test Group C: Very good! Bring more whenever you like. Was surprised that it was just a cheese pizza (good surprise, thought it had more on it).

Test Group M: Good!

Potential Improvements

Alton Brown has a crust recipe that involves slow-rising the dough in the fridge for 12-18 hours. This sounds like a very good idea. Let the dough have the time to develop a good flavor.

Potential Variations

With the addition of toppings, there are too many variations to mention.

I think I'll try freezing a crust or even a completed pizza. Let's find out if I can make my own frozen pizza designed for later quick-and-easy resuscitation.

Conclusions

It was so good to eat pizza that tasted good, had a good crust, and used decent cheese. This one is definitely a winner.

That said, there's room for improvement. The crust was present, had tooth, but wasn't great. With practice and probably a different base recipe, I'm sure I can do better.

Still, it was really nice to have my first good pizza in 15 months.