Rich Chocolate Roll Cake

Adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe.

Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF).

Sift together:

½ C + 3 T flour
½ C sugar
½ C cocoa (as always, Van Houten) 
1½ t baking powder
¾ t salt

Whisk:

3 eggs
2 t vanilla 
½ C grapeseed (or other mildly flavored oil)

Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients and set aside.

Whisk:

4 egg whites (room temperature are easier to whisk)

When the whites have formed soft peaks, add:

¼ C sugar

Whip until firm. Fold the egg whites, little by little, into the batter. Bake in a parchment paper lined pan for 12-15 minutes, or until cake springs back gently when touched in the center.

Allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then loosen the sides with a knife and gently turn the cake over onto a rack. Get a tea towel, and sprinkle on it a very light layer of fine-grained sugar. Lay the cake on the sugared towel, roll it up carefully, and put it on the rack to cool.

When the cake is cooled, unroll it, remove the towel, and fill with chocolate whipped cream. 

200 ml whipping cream
2 T cocoa powder
3 T sugar
(2-3 t coffee liqueur, Irish cream, espresso, whatever you like)

Whip cream, and when it is nearly done, add the other ingredients. Whip until fairly firm.

Fill and re-roll the cake. Finish with the seam side down. Cover with whipped cream into which has been added a little sugar and a few drops of vanilla extract.

If you want, you can cut a diagonal across the cake (before final icing) and make it into a log shape.

Chocolate Roll Cake (Simple Version)

This is a very mildly flavored cake.

Preheat oven to 190ºC (375ºF).

Line a long, thin pan with cooking parchment. If you have a jelly roll cake pan (10½"X15½"), use that. 

Prepare your ingredients. You will need 3 bowls (one for mixing the cake, one for whipping egg whites, and one for sifting the dry ingredients into). Two whisks are also handy, one for the cake, and one for the egg whites.

4 eggs
¾ C sugar
1 t vanilla
3 T flour
3 T cocoa powder - I prefer Van Houten  
½ t cream of tartar
⅛ t salt
fine or powdered sugar (for dusting)

whipped cream
shaved chocolate

Separate the eggs. Put the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another. 

Whip the egg yolks until light and airy. While continuing to whip, gradually add ½ C sugar and then the vanilla. Set aside.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and salt together into a bowl.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Set aside.

Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Add ¼ C sugar to the whites and whip until peaks form. Use a spatula to gently fold the whites into the batter. Continue folding until the batter is one color.

Gently spread the batter in your pan, and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned and bounces back when gently touched.

Loosen the sides with a knife and gently turn the cake over onto a cooling rack. Get a tea towel, and sprinkle on it a very light layer of fine-grained sugar. Lay the cake on the sugared towel, roll it up carefully, and put it on the rack to cool.

When the cake is cooled, unroll it, remove the towel, and fill with whipped cream or chocolate whipped cream. To make that, whip the cream and then add 10-20 grams of dark chocolate that has been melted in the microwave with a little coffee liqueur or espresso, then cooled before whipping into the cream.

Re-roll the cake after filling and finish with the seam side down.

If you like, drizzle a little chocolate sauce on the top and decorate with shaved chocolate.

Refrigerate the cake until serving.

Japanese Croquettes

2 C mashed potatoes
250 grams minced chicken
1 minced onion
(1-2 cloves garlic - minced)
1 T olive oil
salt 
pepper
3 eggs
flour
panko (Japanese Dry Bread Crumbs)
Canola oil for frying

To make the mashed potatoes

Wash thoroughly (no need to peel) and cut into roughly 1½ cm cubes:

About 500 grams potatoes

Place in a pot, and almost cover completely with water. A few little bits sticking out from the top of the water is not a problem.  

Add:

½ t salt

Cover and boil until soft. Test by sticking a fork into one of the bigger pieces. It should go in easily.

Remove from heat and drain the water by holding the lid of the pan slightly askew and allowing the water to pour out (but not the potatoes).

Add:

1-1½ T butter
(a little milk)

Mash the potatoes. They should be a little on the dry side, not creamy. You want them to hold together into patties.

While the potatoes are cooking, heat the olive oil in a frying pan, and stir fry the onions, (garlic), and meat.

Mix the mashed potatoes and the meat together thoroughly, adding salt and a little pepper to taste.

Make patties using about ¼ C mixture for each. (You'll probably get about 12.)

Put about ½ C flour in a disposable plastic bag. Scramble the eggs in a bowl. Put about 1 C bread crumbs in a disposable plastic bag.

Now, take the patties one-by-one and first coat them with flour, then dip them in the eggs, and finally coat them with bread crumbs. When you have enough ready, you can start frying them. Handle them gently.

Heat about 1cm of canola oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan. As always, the oil is hot enough when the ends of a wooden chopstick put into the oil bubbles. 

Carefully place a single layer of patties in the oil. When they are golden brown, turn them carefully and brown the other side. Drain on a grill over newspaper. 

If you have leftovers, they can be used in an obento or reheated in a toaster oven or grill to crisp the outsides.

Gravy for Roast Fowl

To make gravy, you need to use equal portions of fat and flour. If your roast fowl did not provide enough fat, use a little butter, too.

This recipe makes just over 1 cup of gravy.

Put: 

2 T fatty drippings from your roast chicken 

in a sauce pan. Heat it and add: 

2 T flour

Whisk until blended and smooth. Stir in slowly: 

the juices from the pan plus milk or chicken broth to make 1 cup

Simmer for about 5 minutes. Season with: 

salt and pepper 

Roast Chicken

Preheat oven to 230ºC (450ºF).

Clean all the little bits of gross stuff out of the interior of your chicken. Rinse it out and pat it dry with paper towels. Just before cooking, fill the cavity loosely, no more than ¾ full, with rice stuffing or whatever stuffing you prefer. Close the cavities with a skewer. Fold the wings back securely behind the chicken. Tie the legs together at the ankles with string.

Place chicken, breast side up, on a grill above a baking pan, and cover the top of the bird lightly with foil. Place the pan in the oven. Turn down over to 180ºC (350ºF). Roast for about 20 minutes per pound. Remove the foil towards the end of cooking to allow the top to brown. 

There are a few ways to be sure your bird is cooked:

Move one of the legs; the joint should feel loose.
Liquid that runs from a pricked bird should be clear, not pink.
If you have a thermometer, the internal temperature of the thickest part of the thigh meat (be careful not to let the thermometer touch the bone) should be 74ºC (165ºF).

When done, remove the chicken from the oven and place on a platter. Allow to cool 10 minutes before carving. 

While it's cooling, use the pan drippings to make gravy.

To carve, hold the knee with a fork, gently pull it away from the body, and use your knife to cut away the leg. Carefully separate the joint by twisting the tip of your knife between the 2 bones. Divide the thigh from the drumstick similarly. Slice the breast starting at the neck area, and cut thin slices against the grain along the length of the breast. Your knife should be somewhat parallel to the contour of the breast. Arrange artfully on a platter or serve directly to plates.

Roll Cake

This is not a sweet cake. The sweetness is in the fruit and cream. If you want it more sweet, increase the sugar in the batter by 2-4 T.

Preheat oven to 190ºC (375ºF).

Line a long, thin pan with cooking parchment. If you have a jelly roll cake pan (10½"X15½"), use that. I don't, so I just use what I have.

Prepare your ingredients. You will need 3 bowls (one for mixing the cake, one for whipping egg whites, and one for sifting the dry ingredients into). Two whisks are also handy, one for the cake, and one for the egg whites.

4 eggs
½ C sugar
1 t vanilla
2 t cornstarch
¾ C minus 2 t flour
¾ t baking powder
½ t salt
fine or powdered sugar (for dusting)

whipped cream
strawberries

Separate the eggs. Put the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another.

Whip the egg yolks until light and airy. Gradually add the sugar and then the vanilla. Set aside.

Place the cornstarch in a measuring cup, and add flour until you have ¾ C. Pour this into a sifter, then add the baking powder and salt. Sift it all together into a bowl.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Set aside.

Whip the egg whites until stiff (when you pick up your whisk, there will be little peaks). Use a spatula to gently fold the batter into the whites. Continue folding until the batter is one color. Do not overmix. Overmixing will cause the cake to become rubbery.

Spread the batter in your pan, and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned and bounces back when gently touched.

Loosen the sides with a knife and gently slide the cake onto a cooling rack. Get a tea towel, and sprinkle on it a very light layer of powdered sugar. Turn the cake onto the sugared towel, peel off the parchment, roll it up carefully, and put it on the rack to cool.

When the cake is cooled, unroll it, remove the towel, and fill with whipped cream and strawberries. (If you like, you can prepare the strawberries ahead of time by washing, cutting, and sprinkling them with a little sugar. Keep them in the refrigerator until you use them.) Of course, you can use other fruit, like kiwis, bananas, blueberries, etc.

Alternately, you could fill it with whipped cream mixed with 10-20 grams of dark chocolate, melted in the microwave with a little coffee liqueur or espresso, then cooled before whipping into the whipped cream.

Refrigerate the cake until serving.

PS This cake can be covered with a chocolate ganache made from shredded dark chocolate with a little simmered heavy cream poured over it. Try using the same amounts of chocolate and cream. Make it in a ceramic or glass bowl, let it sit until the chocolate is mostly melted, and then stir with a rubber spatula. Once it is mixed, stop stirring. When cooled to a good pouring consistency, pour it over the refrigerated cake.

Guacamole

Guacamole with minced garlic and salt

Put in a wide, shallow bowl:

1-2 T freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
A little salt

Wash, dry, cut, scoop out, then put in the bowl and mash with a fork:

1-2 ripe avocados

Add:

1-2 T finely minced onions
1 small minced tomato

Some other additions could be:

finely minced garlic
a little cumin
a little cayenne
cilantro
minced Jalapeno peppers

Serve with chips.

Miso Soup

Miso soup made with Kagoshima white miso

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1/2 t dashi powder (bonito dashi is used traditionally, but konbu dashi works as well)

2 C water

2 T miso*

Your choice of ingredients (see below).

Place water and dashi powder in a pan and bring it to a boil. Add vegetables and cook until tender. Dissolve the miso in the broth. Don't boil once the miso is added to preserve its probiotics and aroma.

Serve.

*Pretty much any miso that you find at the supermarket will be fine. There are many varieties, and some are more robust than others, so adjust the amount of miso according to taste.

Some miso comes with dashi already added. If this is the type that you buy, then obviously you won’t need to add any dashi.

Some combinations to add to basic miso soup:

Tofu chopped in ½-1 cm squares, dried cut wakame seaweed.

Shiitake mushrooms, tofu.

Kabocha squash chopped in bite-sized pieces (this take a while to cook), shiitake, tofu.

Thinly sliced potatoes, thinly sliced onions.

Mixed mushrooms (shiitake, shimeji, etc.)

Bamboo shoots, wakame seaweed.

Diagonally sliced leek, tofu.

Spinach, tofu, green onions.

Whatever you have in your refrigerator.

Tips:

Add wakame close to serving time. Wakame left a long time in the soup tends to get a bit slimy.

Less is more. Keep your ingredients few. It’s not stew, it’s soup.

If you want to make miso soup with a mushroom base, which is very delicious, soak 2 dried shiitake mushrooms (for 30-60 minutes) in the water you will use for the soup. Take them out, remove the stems, slice them, and return to the pan. The mushrooms make a nice soup base, so you may not need much dashi. Continue cooking as for basic miso soup.

Erinn's Butterscotch Brownies

½ C butter (110 gm)

2 C brown sugar

2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1½ C flour

¼ t salt
2 t baking powder
1 C chopped nuts or a mix of nuts and chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Melt the butter by placing your metal mixing bowl in the preheating oven. While you do that, get your other ingredients ready.

When butter is melted, add all the other ingredients. (Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together to be sure there are no lumps.) Mix everything together, combining well.

Spread into 9X13" pan lined with cooking paper and bake for 25-30 minutes, until dry on top and almost firm.

Cool 10 minutes and cut into squares.

Lemon Chicken

Remove skin and any fat, then slice into ¾ cm lengthwise slices:

about 500 gm chicken breasts

Marinate for 30 minutes or more, in:

1 T soy sauce

1 T sesame oil

1½ t cornstarch

1 egg

½ T finely grated ginger

¼ t pepper

Prepare:

Canola or other oil for deep frying

Cornstarch (in a wide shallow bowl) for dredging before frying

Heat about 1cm of canola oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan. Remove chicken one-by-one from marinade and dredge with corn starch. When a wooden chopstick put into the oil bubbles a little, the oil is hot enough to use. Reduce heat to medium-low, and fry chicken slices for about 1 minute on each side, or until golden brown. Drain on a grill with newspaper underneath.

Sauce:

¼ C lemon juice

2 T water

¼ C honey 

A pinch of salt

1 T cornstarch - mixed with 3 T water until smooth

(Thin slices of lemon)

Please feel free to change these measurements according to how much sauce you want and the strength of the sauce you prefer. 

Heat lemon juice, water, honey, and salt. When very hot, add cornstarch mixed with water. Keep stirring until slightly thickened. (Add lemon slices and allow them to soften.) Pour over chicken right before serving.

Serve with rice.