Spicy Sweet Roasted Kabocha Squash

I thought about roasting the whole squash this way. I ended up roasting the slices 15 minutes on one side, and 10 minutes on the other. A few of the edges of the thinner slices burnt, so a total bake time of 25 minutes is too much. Maybe 10 minutes on each side might suffice. Smashing the whole squash against a concrete step worked really well in opening it.

Prep to make Roasted Squash

Ingredients

1/2 small kabocha squash, washed and seeded
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Slice the kabocha squash into 1/4" slices.

In a large bowl, sprinkle spices on top of squash. Add sesame oil. Toss squash to coat. Add soy sauce and toss again.

Lay slices out in a single layer on a silicone mat-lined baking tray.

Roast for 10 minutes on each side. Flip slices and rotate the tray at the 10 minute mark.

Roasted Kabocha Squash Slices

Kitchen Notes: Ginger Beer, batch #2

I made another half-gallon batch of this today using bread yeast instead of champagne yeast. I'll find out in a couple of days if the type of yeast has any impact on the taste. You cannot use bread yeast when making hard apple cider, for example, unless you want your cider to taste like apple bread.

From the first batch, the first liter was drunk 2 days after I transferred the brew from the 1-gallon jug to the two 1-liter glass bottles. It was sweet and had a very strong ginger kick to it. The best part was the carbonation. Nice and fizzy. The second bottle was drunk a week after racking and it wasn't as sweet. It had some carbonation and it might have bordered on being slightly alcoholic. Nonetheless it's a fun experiment.

Coconut Chia Drink

Finally there is a use for my unused half-pint jars. This tastes pretty good at any time, morning or night. I usually make three 8 oz servings at a time. I started using Trader Joe's light coconut milk (the stuff from the can not carton) since it only contains coconut milk and water. You can get coconut milk with 60% or more coconut milk in the can at an Asian grocery store. Be sure to read the labels for the ones that just have coconut milk and water as its ingredients.

Ingredients per 8 oz (half pint) jar:

1 tbsp organic chia seeds
1/3 c light coconut milk
2/3 c filtered water
1 tsp honey or some stevia sweetener, if desired

Directions

Fill each clean jar with chia seeds. Pour in coconut milk, water and sweetener. Stir well so that the chia seeds don't all clump together. Put clean lid onto the jars and secure with a jar band.

Put in refrigerator for a few hours. The chia seeds will have ballooned in size from absorbing the water. Give the jar a quick shake before opening and drinking.

You can also blend the contents of one jar with 2 medium ripe bananas for a quick smoothie.

This doesn't have a pudding consistency and is really meant for drinking. It's also not for anyone counting calories either. Most of the calories in this recipe are in the chia seeds. A third cup of light coconut milk is about 50 calories.

Perfect Soft Boiled Eggs via Steam

I'm pretty sure that you can use any quantity of eggs for this. It's definitely not something that you'd want to do for Easter though, unless these were for breakfast and not EE dyeing/hunting.

Bring a pot of water to boil. Insert metal steamer basket. Add eggs. Boil for 6 minutes. Turn off heat. Put eggs in cold water to cool down. Peel eggs. Enjoy.

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Just like how Starbucks makes them, well, not really. I really did try to replicate the taste. Except, I forgot to add the vanilla extract to the dough so I added it to the spiced icing instead. This scone tastes less sugary than what you can get at Starbucks. There's only a third of a cup of brown sugar in the whole batch, plus whatever icing that was squiggled on top of the scones. These taste really good when eaten the same day they're baked. They're slightly less fresh the day after. And, the scones have dried out somewhat after that but a good complement to tea and/or coffee.

Pumpkin Spice Scones, glazed and all for me...!

This dough was really, really wet and sticky. I was concerned that it wouldn't form into the triangles after baking. If you want easier cleanup, place a silicone mat under the rack that the scones are cooling on before glazing.

Scone Ingredients

2 c unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 c light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cloves
3/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 c organic pumpkin purée
1 large egg
up to 3 tbsp organic half'n'half
1 stick (8 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

Spiced Glaze Ingredients

1 c powdered sugar
1 tbsp organic half'n'half
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

To make the dough, blend together all the dry ingredients and the butter in a food processor. Next, add all the wet ingredients (egg, pumpkin, half'n'half). Pulse until it just comes together. It'll be sticky and wet.

Turn dough out onto a silicone mat. If the dough is too sticky, wet your fingers with some water and gently press the dough out into a rectangular shape. You're aiming for an even block of dough that is 1/2" tall. If you're as good as a Starbuck's baker, you can pat this dough out to be 10" x 7". But, if you're not, it'll look like some rectangular blob.

Use a pastry knife and cut the triangle in half and in half again. Of the smaller triangles, cut these diagonally to make triangle wedges. Don't try to break these apart when they are wet. It simply will not work.

Bake on a rimmed or unrimmed baking sheet for 15 minutes. Try to break out the wedges as individual pieces and cool on a wire rack.

To make the spiced glaze:

Combine all the glaze ingredients together in a bowl. And use a spoon or sandwich bag to create zig-zag lines on top of the scones.

To make a simple sugar glaze:

Combine all the glaze ingredients except for the pumpkin pie spice and glaze accordingly.

AB Lavash Crackers

After having consumed many boxes of soda crackers, I thought I might try my hand again at making flat bread crackers. Although, these crackers are neither flat nor very hard cracker-like. This has turned out to be more of a soft flat bread than anything. On a humid, rainy day like today, it needs at least 12 minutes in the oven. I also reduced the amount of salt by half and it doesn't seem to have affected the taste since I am eating it with some baba ganoush.

Freshly made lavash crackers

Ingredients

2 1/2 c unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp organic granulated sugar
2/3 c warm water
1 egg
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1-2 tbsp melted butter for brushing

Directions

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together. Gently knead into a ball. Divide dough into thirds or quarters. Cover with a tea towel or the same bowl that the dough was mixed in. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

On a silicon mat that is large/small enough to fit on top of a standard sized baking tray, lightly dust with flour and roll out the dough to as thin as it will go without spilling over the sides of the mat.

Lightly brush the melted butter on top of the dough. If you don't own a baking sheet (rimless) Place silicone mat on an inverted rimmed baking tray (simply flip the tray over so you are baking on its flat side). Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the edges are light golden brown.

This recipe is from Alton Brown. And my crackers look nothing like his. Hmm. 

Ramen Noodles from Scratch

Most of the ramen noodle recipes I found on the web didn't call for egg as one of the dough ingredients. This is my second attempt at making ramen noodles. The recipe is pretty simple. While it is cheap to make, it probably doesn't compare to the convenience of the store-bought packages. The liquid potassium carbonate can be found in most Asian grocery stores and can be substituted with an equal amount baked baking soda.

Homemade Ramen Noodles w/ shitake mushrooms and egg

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 c unbleached all purpose flour
2 tbsp vital wheat gluten
1/2 c warm water
1 tsp potassium carbonate (liquid)

Directions

In a large bowl, stir all ingredients together. Knead into a ball. Cut into quarters and place unused portions into a plastic bag or covered with a clean kitchen towel.

Flatten the ball out with your hand and lightly dust it with flour on both sides. Either roll it out thin with a rolling pin or use a pasta machine and crank the dough through each setting twice until you come to the second to last setting. My pasta machine goes numerically from 1-8, with 1 being the largest aperture. For ramen noodles, I use setting #7 (second to smallest thickness).

Use the noodle cutting attachment to cut the noodles from the long length of dough.

Bring a large stockpot of lightly salted (1-2 tsp kosher salt) water to a boil. Fresh ramen noodles will cook in about 3-4 minutes.

Do not cook the noodles directly in the broth it will be served in.

To serve: Remove cooked noodles from the pot with a spider strainer (also found at an Asian grocery store, it usually has a long metal or bamboo handle with a steel mesh strainer) to a soup bowl. Add 1 soup ladle of the noodle's cooking water plus 2 soup ladles of the broth you are serving the noodles with. Garnish with toasted nori, halved hard-boiled egg, fresh or fried bean sprouts, etc.

Baked Zucchini Chips

These chips took a lot of time and effort for so little reward. Although, now I can say that I ate two zucchinis in five minutes. I'll need a lot more trays, oven racks, or a food dehydrator to do this recipe again. My all-time favorite way to eat zucchini is breaded and deep fried. 

Zucchini chips: slice, place, bake!

Preheat oven to 225 degrees F.

Ingredients

organic zucchinis, as many as will fit in the palm of your hand
a pinch of salt, less than 1/4 tsp
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

Use the cutting blade disc with the food processor, this is faster and easier than using a mandoline slicer. The only advantage the mandoline has over the food processor is the width size of the vegetable.

On a parchment paper-lined baking tray, place zucchini rounds side by side until the tray is full. Repeat with other trays. Use a pastry brush to brush each round with a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle salt on top, if you want. You can always add more salt after these finish baking.

If your oven heats evenly, you shouldn't need to rotate the trays.

Bake for two hours, or until everything looks dry and lightly browned. Use a spatula to remove the chips from the trays to a plate or airtight container, should the chips actually last that long.