11/27/2012

In the bento: brown rice, bean curd braised pork belly, braised shiitake mushroom, bacon with cabbage, carrot with egg, sauteed broccoli.

Lime-Poppy Seeds White Cake

Lemon-poppy seeds cake has been on my to do list for long. The bag of poppy seeds was purchased at an Amish grocery store that I have always wanted to use it. The Thanksgiving provided an opportunity to complete this long-delayed project. The Nordicware cake pan has been used again to bake this beautiful white cake. I have used the recipe here and the cake turned out beautifully. The taste was a bit too sweet and boring to me, but I like how it looks like when converted to the plate. 

11/13/2012

In the bento: brown rice with carrot and mushroom, broccoli, eggplant with minced meat, miso braised saury.

11/12/2012

In the bento: steamed red quinoa, salmon sauteed with celery, eggplant with minced meat, miso braised saury.

Miso Braised Saury

Saury is a very nutritious fish while not as expensive as one kinds. Regularly the fish is pan-fried as a whole piece without moving the guts. I learned a new way of cooking it in miso so it can be cooked and eat in few days. The liquid tastes full of flavor while the fish keeps its only flavor. I shall now buy saury more often and cook it like this.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Oreo Crust

The last bit of pumpkin puree from the crown prince squash has been used in this cheesecake. The texture and flavor of the kind of pumpkin is very similar to kabocha, which is a Japanese variety of pumpkin. It is very dense and almost no liquid coming out when drain. The color of the raw flesh is golden yellow. This kind of flesh is perfect for pie or cheesecake since not too much liquid in the filling will mess up when being baked. I like to use Oreo as a crust whenever possible. Plus, the color combination looks good, doesn't it?

Pumpkin Mac-n-Cheese

Mac-n-Cheese is such a cold weather staple that calls for people's craving whenever it wants. Fall is the season for pumpkin, all kinds of pumpkins. The flesh of the vegetable goes very well with mac-n-cheese. Weeks ago when on the way back from hiking, we passed by a local farmer's market, I got some crown prince squash, which I have never seen and used before. I am so glad I gave it a try. It was dense, dry and deep in flavor. It purees very well and goes by nature into all kinds of sauce. I used part of the puree in the pasta, and saved some for a pumpkin cheesecake. Next time if I see this kind of squash again, no doubt I will get as many as I can.

Matcha Red Bean Pound Cake

I received a new cake mode of Nordicware. It's a beautiful rose shape with 10 cups capacity. To welcome it join my collection, I made a pound cake with green tea powder and some home made sweet azuki bean. This has been the largest cake I have ever made. It un-mold easily with non-stick interior. With this new member I might bake more now :)

11/7/2012

In the bento: steamed brown rice, sauteed Chinese broccoli, bacon stirfried with cabbage, pan-fried miso salmon, sauteed onion with egg.