Swiss Butter Cookies

Melt:

½ C + 1 T butter

Set aside.

Whisk in a large bowl:

2 eggs

Blend into the eggs and beat until thick, about 10 minutes:

½ C + 2 T white sugar

Mix in:

the melted lukewarm butter
a smidgen of salt
(¼ t vanilla or lemon essence)

Fold in:

1½ t grated lemon rind (just the yellow part, not any white part. Don't forget to wash and dry the lemon first.)
2 C white flour

Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Alternatively, you can freeze the dough in batches. Wrap each batch in plastic, then put in a ziplock freezer bag.

Preheat oven to 170C (325F).

Lightly flour a clean surface, your rolling pin, and the bottom of a cookie cutter. Roll dough into about ½ cm (¼ inch) thickness, cut with a cookie cutter. Place the cutouts on a thinly buttered sheet of parchment paper (or baking pan or cookie sheet.) Ball up the scraps and roll out again until you've used all the dough.

Spread the tops of cookie with egg yolk. Bake until golden at the edges, for 12-15 minutes. Cool for a minute on the sheet before moving them to a cooling rack.

Broccoli Sprouts

Day 1 

Soak 1-2 T broccoli seeds for about 10 hours.

Day 2 morning and evening

Drain, rinse with fresh water, drain.

Cover with gauze and a rubber band.

Place in a warm, dark place, like under the sink.

Day 3 morning and evening

Rinse with fresh water, drain. Repeat if the water seems cloudy.

Cover with gauze and a rubber band.

Put them back in the warm, dark place.

The fuzzy bits are roots, not mold.

Day 4 morning and evening
The same routine: rinse, drain, put back.

Day 5 morning

Rinse with fresh water, drain. Repeat if the water seems cloudy. 

By this time, your sprouts should be pretty good-sized. If you want, take some out and place them in sunlight for a couple hours to get nice and green to use that day. Return the rest to the cool, dark place, covered with gauze.

After sunshine

Day 5 evening

Rinse with fresh water, drain. Repeat once or twice. 

Day 6 morning

Rinse with fresh water, drain. Repeat once or twice. 

Place the jar in indirect sunlight for a couple hours, then cover and refrigerate. 

Tips

• Broccoli sprouts take 4-6 days to grow.
• Excess moisture is bad. The seeds should be damp, but not wet. Don't leave any water at the bottom of the jar after rinsing.
• On day 2-3, when tiny roots appear, they will look fuzzy. That is not mold. If they get moldy, they will smell foul.
• I rinse mine only morning and evening. Others suggest rinsing them 3-4 times a day. Sometimes I give them a soak for a few minutes.
• The brown hulls keep them a little too moist, so you can remove them while you soak the sprouts by touching the surface of the water with a wooden chopstick. They stick readily to the chopstick and you can get rid of them.
• You can start eating them from about day 4. Take out what you want that day and give them some indirect sunlight for a few hours to make them green. Direct sunshine might cook them.
• You may want to start another batch on about day 4 in order to have a constant supply of fresh sprouts.
• I start taking out portions each day from about day 4, and by day 6 or 7, if there are any left, I put them in indirect light for a few hours and then rinse and store them in a covered container in the fridge.
• 1 T of seeds seems to make about 3 cups of sprouts.

Corn on the Cob

Place an ear of corn, still in its husk, inside a plastic bag. Tie it loosely. Actually, you don't need to put it in a bag, as is works just fine.

Put it in the center of the microwave. Set the timer for 4 minutes, 30 seconds or so less if the corn is small. 

Use an oven mitt to remove the corn from the microwave. You might want to let it cool for a minute. Then, while holding the top, cut all the way through just above where the husks are attached. No need to remove the bag.

Pick up the corn by the top and gently shake. The corn will fall out of its husk, minus all silk.

Strawberry Cheesecake by Marianne

Marianne's beautiful Strawberry Cheesecake

A few notes about making cheesecake with fruit:

• All ingredients need to be room temperature or you will have a lumpy cake.
• The amount of sugar you add depends on the sweetness of the fruit you use.
• You can make a coconut cheesecake by substituting both the fruit and sour cream with coconut cream (and adding a cup or so of coconut shavings or flakes). If you use sweetened coconut flakes, add less sugar.
• The ratio between eggs/cream cheese/flour is really important. It is 1:1:1. This helps to keep your cake from cracking.

Preheat oven to180ºC (350ºF). Oil or line a 9 inch springform pan with parchment paper. Don't forget the sides.

Crust

In a food processor blend:

1½ sleeves of Graham crackers, animal crackers, or whatever you prefer. This should make about 2 cups of crumbs

Add and mix in processor or by hand until the mixture transforms to pea-sized lumps:

½ C butter

Place the crust into the pan and bake for about 10 minutes or until the crust is golden.

Filling

While the crust is baking, blend:

32 ounces cream cheese (907 grams)
¼ C white sugar

In a standing mixer on the lowest possible setting (or mix it by hand), add and mix until smooth:

4 eggs
1 T of vanilla
1 C sour cream

Mix again at a low speed until it is well combined.

Add:

2 C puréed fruit—Mango, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, or whatever. Frozen fruit is fine (but make sure it is room temperature so it will purée smoothly). If the fruit is tart, add more sugar to taste. If your fruit is really sweet, omit the sugar.

Sift in and blend until smooth:

4 T flour

Pour the cheesecake into the cooled crust. Bang the cheesecake pan hard on the counter a few times to get the top of the cake even and to eliminate air bubbles.

Put a pan of water into the oven on a lower shelf. (I use a glass pie pan. If you only have one rack, wrap the springform pan in foil to keep it watertight and put the cake in the pan of water. No one wants a soggy crust.) 

Bake for 15 minutes at 180ºC (350ºF), then turn the oven down to 135ºC (275ºF)—or 120ºC (250ºF) if your oven runs hot. Bake for about 45-50 minutes. 

The key to a crack-free cheesecake is to first bake it in a hot oven and to be sure not to overcook it. To check if your cake is done, use an oven mitt to lightly jiggle the pan in the oven. If the cake is generally smooth and it has a slight jiggle to the center, it is done. Turn the oven off and leave the door slightly ajar for 20 minutes. Then move the cake to a counter to cool for an hour. When you can pick it up with a bare hand, cover it with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge overnight.

About 2 hours before serving, take the cake out of the fridge and remove it from the pan. It should be firm enough that it easily slips out. Remove the parchment paper (if you used it). To get the paper off the bottom, place plastic wrap or parchment paper on top of the cake, put a plate on top of that, and turn it upside down. Peel the paper off the bottom crust, then place a serving plate on the base of the pan and flip it back over. Leave it in the fridge until you are ready to serve it.

Chickpea and Chicken Curry

This can also be made without chicken.

Heat in a frying pan:

1 T olive oil

Add:

1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped

200-300 gm minced chicken

Stir fry and break up the chicken. As that cooks, add:

1 T curry powder

1 t chili powder

When chicken is cooked, add:

½ C water

½ t bouillon powder

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Stir around about, turn down fire and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until almost all the water has evaporated. Taste and then add salt and pepper. Be careful, as both bouillon and the chickpeas are already salty.

Serve over rice.

Simple Eggplant Salad

Mix together in a bowl:

1 t soy sauce
1 t apple cider vinegar
1 T olive oil
1 t lemon juice
1 t sesame oil
¼-½ t tobanjan (Chinese chili spice)
1 small clove garlic, finely minced (oroshi)
(1 t tahini)
½-1 t sugar, to taste
salt to taste

Add:

1 steamed Japanese eggplant, chopped

Chill and serve. Top with sesame seeds.

Kimchi Chicken

Slice thinly into bite-sized pieces:

1 large chicken breast (350 grams or so)

Marinate for 30 minutes in:

1 T sake
1 T cornstarch

Heat in a frying pan:

1-2 t canola oil

When fragrant, add:

½ onion, sliced
chicken

Stir fry until the outside of the chicken becomes whitish, turn fire to low and add:

1 clove garlic, slivered

Stir fry gently until chicken is mostly cooked. Add:

200 grams chopped cabbage (or whatever)

Stir fry until soft. Add:

200 grams kimchi

Stir fry over a low fire for 3-5 minutes. Season with salt, (pepper), and about 1 t sesame oil, as needed. Serve over rice. Top with:

Chopped green onions (negi)

Chocolate Bread

Put in bread maker in this order:

180ml water
1 medium egg (not a big one)
2 T brown sugar
½ t salt
2 T milk powder
40 gm butter
250 gm bread flour
50 gm whole wheat flour

Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in:

¾ t dry yeast

Set bread machine to "sweet bread" cycle. When the buzzer sounds, add:

85 gm frozen chocolate chips (frozen is the key)
40 gm chopped walnuts

When done, remove the pan from the machine and leave it for about 3 minutes. Then gently tap the bread out of the pan. Cool on a wire rack. Slice gently.

Beef and Spinach Pasta

Makes 3-4 servings.

Gather your ingredients:

2 cloves garlic

¼-½ C shiitake or other mushrooms

(1 eggplant)

olive oil

½ t oregano
salt and pepper

1 can or about 1¾ C crushed tomatoes

½-1 C fresh spinach leaves
½-1 C fresh basil leaves

(Parmesan cheese)

350 grams noodles

Recipe:

Mince: 

2 cloves garlic

Slice:

¼-½ C shiitake or other mushrooms

(1 eggplant)

In a frying pan, heat:

1 T olive oil

When warm, add:

garlic
mushrooms
200-300 grams thinly slice beef, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 bay leaf

As you stir fry that, sprinkle on:

½ t oregano
salt and pepper

When the meat is mostly cooked, add:

1 can or about 1¾ C crushed tomatoes

Stir-fry for a minute over a low fire until mixed in. 

While the sauce simmers, cook 350 grams noodles al dente (until they are ever-so-slightly still a bit hard in the middle). Drain and briefly rinse.

Put noodles in the pan and mix into sauce, along with:

½-1 C fresh spinach leaves
½-1 C fresh basil leaves

Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Stir until well mixed. (Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.)

Apple Crumble

Preheat oven to 190ºC (375ºF).

Wash, core, (peel, if the apple skins are gross), and slice:

2-3 apples

Place apples in a bowl, and toss thoroughly with:

1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ t finely grated lemon rind
a couple sprinkles cinnamon

(2 t cornstarch)

Grease a baking dish with butter, spread the apples in the dish, and place in the oven.

Now make the topping.

Place in a bowl:

½ C old fashioned oats
scant ¼ C light brown sugar
3 T flour
3 T sliced butter

Mix with fingers until the butter is mixed in and the topping comes together into clumps.

Take the pan out of the oven, sprinkle the topping on, and put it back in the oven. Bake until the topping is browned and crispy, about 30-40 minutes.

Storage

Someone asked me where I keep my bulk-buy goods in my small Japanese kitchen. There is a shelf under my kitchen/dining room table where, as you can see, I keep containers of whole wheat flour, bread flour, oats, rice, open bags of tortilla chips (and cereal, if we have it), and milk powder. The dish cupboard has pull-out shelves for baking items and spices.  

There are trash cans for the different categories of trash:  burnable, plastic, and cans and bottles. If I have overflow from those small cans, there are large covered cans are in the garage. Beside them are labeled drawers for cooking utensils, baking utensils, towels, cloths, extra spices, etc. In a big closet in another room, I have snap-shut trash cans where I keep the wholesale bags of flour, etc. 

Although this kitchen is much smaller, it is way more convenient.