April Weather

Whew!  Lovely April weather.    March ended with high notes of spring rain falls.   My vege garden seedlings have sprouted with beautiful YOGA palms stretching out of their brown bed coverings.   They welcomed the warm sun today, and they looked very happy.   Of course, there are cold weather loving plants that sprouted a week ago that greeted the down pouring rain - KABOCHA and Kuri squash.  Then followed by some GMO free Tomato seeds sprouting their tiny leaflets in the egg shell planter bed that I made for them.  They are all enclosed in the recycled plastic Strawberry cartons, just perfect to keep them sheltered.    There are couple of  other veges in my garden that have been just enjoying the spring rain - rhubarbs and leeks.   I think I will harvest ... and make Rhubarb .... hmmm... something...  It's kind of natural to say "Pie", but can it be something else?   Actually I did come across Rhubarb something when I was visiting some other foodies' blogs.    My replanted red Beet stem tops are doing well.    They look like they will be growing / rebirthing beets again by summer.    The "rebirthed" Leeks did a great job from growing Leek from its own roots that I cut off and replanted in my garden.  

 I cut the leek right above the root to let it grow again.    I think it will grow again(?)
So, what happened in March as far as cooking?  Quite a few tasty adventure.    So, let me post a few Photo journals of my food adventure.   If you would like to have the recipes, please let me know.   Sometimes, while I am editing my photos, I have typed the information on the photos, so if you click on the images to enlarge it, you should see some notations.     I know most of you have different experiences with cooking, and I hope you can tell what ingredients are needed and prepared from the photos.   If not, please drop me a note.    I am more than happy to send you the recipe or direct you to the foodies who posted them.  

Liebster Blog Award

Hey! I am so happy that I got awarded with the Liebster Blog.  Thank you, Resh!

In the process, I came to know few other foodies with great blog sites with great recipe ideas.  I think this will be another "eating for health" year for me.

Now, I would like to nominate the following admirable foodie bloggers.    I hope you will visit them.     I must say this first that I am not familiar with this 'award' spreading activity.  I think this is a great idea to know other foodies, and learn about each culture's way of food preparation and life at the same time.  And I hope I have typed this information correctly here.     The following bloggers have wonderful recipes, photos, and if you enjoy International cooking like I do, you will appreciate these bloggers' efforts.
They are :
1. Nobleva from http://nobleva.blogspot.com/
2. Becca from http://colehillkitchen.blogspot.com/
3. Miss C (April) from http://tete-a-tete4food.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html
4. Quizzine from http://bakingoncloud9.blogspot.com/2012/03/macaron-ing.html
5. Binitha from http://yourstastefully.blogspot.com/

If you accept the award:

• Copy and paste the award on your blog. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.
• Pick your five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers who deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
• Hope that the five bloggers chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more bloggers.

Imperial Couscous with Beef

I love all the ingredients in this dish.    It is a wonderful combination of 'everything' available in my pantry type cooking - raisins, pinenuts, orange peels, etc.   Couscous is a new experience for me.  Just a small 1/3 Cup of it is enough to yield 1-1/2 C.  It is great to serve with Chicken or Beef Tagine prepared with various flavorful spices.    It's wonderful to learn variety of recipes.

 Serve with sprinkles of pinenuts.

Japanese White Loaf Bread with Raisins

Many bloggers are familiar with this Japanese White Loaf Bread.    I have tested the recipe with several different methods and with different flour.    The results are quite different each time.    But what I noticed is the difference of texture.    I am not sure if it is because of the additives in the flour or ?    For a while, I doubted my Kitchen Aid mixer functions as it claims, but while I was studying for my Mediterranean cooking, I came across the photo of this baker pulling this dough to show the well developed  gluten dough with "window pane" texture.     He pulled dough out of the mixer bowl of Kitchen Aid.    While the mixer is much larger model than mine, I thought of a different way to make it do the job of 'kneading'.     The new technique includes using the Paddle to do the first  approx 15+ minutes of mixing and kneading of the dough, depending on the amount of the flour mixture.     Then switch it to the dough hook to knead until the gluten is well developed to form the window pane.    The baked bread resulted in texture that is similar to the ones seen sold at the Asian bakery.    Flour - Unbleached Gold Medal all-purpose flour, instead of Cake flour - a mixture of regular flour and Japanese potato starch.     A bit of wheat germs and dark rye flour in addition to the basic ingredients for the Japanese Hokkaido Loaf Bread.
 The subsequent batch made with Wheat Montana all-purpose flour turned out with coarser larger pores.    I think a couple more testings will help me find out if it is the flour or etc....

  Improvisation of baking the loaf in covered loaf pan.  Sure, if you have the Pullman baking pan, that's great.     But for me, this works great.

 

Here is the Bread #2 made with Wheat Montana's unbleached flour.  

Texture:  Machine kneading time is the same, but the textured turned out with a bit more holes.      From my kneading experience, the more you knead, the finer the texture.      

Difference:   The bread #1 at the top is made with Gold Medal's unbleached flour & bread #2 here is made with Wheat Montana's. 

I am still not convinced with the test results.   Because when I tried it again with the Gold Medal's flour again, the result was not the same here with bread #3.     It became more airy... well we all know the truth... actually this one is caused by over proofing.      So back to drawing board.    Accurate proofing timing and control  to produce the fine product.     It's so challenging in a home kitchen.   

Curly Chicken with Fuji Apples and Fingerling Potatoes

Fingerling Potatoes are colorful and quite tasty.  Adding them to the spicy curried chickens with chopped sweet flavorful Fuji apples gave it a new face.