Tofu Dango

It's hard to not try a new recipe when you see the food item raved about on an anime series. Part of this recipe is about curiosity and seeing how there are so few ingredients for it, the dumplings practically begged to be made. Depending on the sauce used on the dango, it can be sweet or savory. It's pretty easy to make.

Dango (dumplings) coated with black sesame,
vanilla sauce, and a savory sauce

Prep/cooking time: 20 minutes
Cuisine: Japanese
Food type: appetizer or dessert

Tofu Dango

Ingredients

6 oz tofu (roughly half a box of Silken tofu, firm)
2/3 c. glutinous rice flour

Directions

1. Mix ingredients together in a bowl. If it is too dry, add a little bit of water. If it's too wet/sticky, add a little bit more rice flour.

2. Form into a log and separate it into equal portions. Half, then quarters, then smaller pieces from the quarters.

3. With the smaller pieces roll each into a ball. You may coat each with a some rice flour to keep it from sticking to your hands.

4. Bring a pot of water to boil and add the dumplings. Boil for 2-3 minutes or until the dumplings are floating on the water.

5. Use a slotted spoon or strainer to take the dumplings out. Immerse in a cold water bath to stop the dumplings from cooking.

6. Spear three dumplings onto a bamboo skewer. Set on a plate.

At this stage, I don't advise eating them. They're really, really bland.

Dango Sauce Variations

(savory)

1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar

Bring to a boil and let cool in a small bowl. Spoon over dango.

(simple vanilla sauce, not vegan)

1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp flour
1/4 c. milk

Bring ingredients to a boil. Let cool and serve over dango.

(sweet, black sesame)

1/4 c. black sesame seeds
1/4 c. brown sugar

Grind seeds until powdery in a suribachi or food prep. Coat the dango and serve.


View more pics.

Hon-kaeshi (soba sauce)

Hon-kaeshi is a dark Japanese noodle sauce often served with chilled soba noodles or other savory dishes. Its ingredients are a ratio of dark soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. I have adapted the ratio for 1 serving, though, it can probably be multiplied for more. And, since I'm using this with a bowl of fresh soba noodles, this preparation is for serving it fresh. A traditional method would be to cook the ingredients together for storage in the refrigerator. You could probably use unbleached granulated sugar instead of brown sugar, but you should use a good quality soy sauce and mirin. I used Takara mirin, a cooking sake.

Ingredients

1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp brown sugar

Directions

Combine ingredients and mix until sugar has dissolved. Serve as is in a separate bowl from soba noodles or mix with soba noodles, then serve.

Can also prepare with rehydrated wakame seaweed and serve over cooked soba noodles. I like wakame since it is cheaper and easier to find in the Pacific NW than bonito, and much easier to prepare than kombu seaweed.

Because this recipe calls for both sugar and soy sauce, it can also be used as a flavoring with grilled chicken (yakitori), thin slices of beef served over vegetables (sukiyaki), etc.

The traditional Kaeshi prep method is as follows:

4 1/4 c. (1 litre) good quality soy sauce
3/4 to 1 c. mirin
3/4 to 1 c. brown sugar

Directions:

1. In a pot, heat mirin until boiling, then simmer until much of the alcohol has evaporated.
2. Turn off heat and add sugar to pot, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
3. Add soy sauce and bring to a boil until liquid temp is 185 degrees F (85 degrees C).
4. Turn off heat and let cool until transferring liquid to a container.

Snickerdoodles

What's a better reason to bake cookies than making a batch of one with an amusing name. There are four primary ingredients in this recipe which make them really delicious and yet so unhealthy. They are a perfect complement with milk, ice cream, or eating them at a rest stop along Interstate 5; which, strangely enough is where I had them last this summer. In WA state, all the rest stops along I-5 are staffed by local volunteer groups like the Ham radio club of Vancouver, Lion's International, Rotary club chapters, etc. The state highway benefits from having fewer tired drivers on the road, thus fewer accidents, and the nonprofit organization is able to raise 'donation' funds. It's a really neat idea to offer free coffee/tea/cocoa and cookies to visitors at rest stops. I have never seen an accident (fortunately) between south of Olympia and north of Portland along this highway.

Anyhow, back to the recipe. We can safely assume that these cookies originated from Western Europe, or wherever there was a large influx of sugar and dairy traders. The Joy of Cooking book attributes the cookie's origin to Germany. Other sources seem to indicate it being of Dutch, New England (Pennsylvania USA), or Roman origin. It is basically a butter-sugar cookie dough rolled in cinnamon sugar before baking. Traditionally it was made with cream of tartar as its leavening agent and aluminum-free baking powder can be substituted. It's interesting to note that these cookies don't resemble snails in any way, so attributing the origin to the German word Schneckennudeln ("snail noodles") is odd.

I'd imagine that the cinnamon could be swapped out with other spices like ground ginger, cardamom, allspice, or nutmeg, and the spice flavor would be much more intense.

Dough Ingredients

2 3/4 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 c. unsalted butter (2 sticks, softened)
1 1/2 c. granulated unbleached cane sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Coating

1/3 c. granulated unbleached cane sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

1a. In a bowl, combine dry dough ingredients together.

1b. In a smaller bowl, whisk together sugar and ground cinnamon. Set aside.

1c. In a separate bowl, combine butter, sugar, vanilla extract and eggs.

If you have a stand mixer, you could cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs and vanilla extract. And, gradually add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) until entirely incorporated into a dough. But alas, I don't have a stand mixer.

3. Gradually mix together dry with wet until a dough forms.

4. Take a teaspoon and scoop out some dough. Roll it into a ball and then roll in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Place ball on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and squish flat with the underside of the 1-cup measuring cup, or a large glass.

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges are golden brown; if you don't, the thicker cookies will taste a bit raw in the center. Let cool on racks before storing in an air tight container at room temperature.

Snickerdoodles Cooling on a Wire Rack

Bread Machine Pita Bread

The easiest way to knead dough is to have someone else do it for you. For this recipe I used a bread machine that typically spews out 1-lb loaves of squarely-shaped bread. Like most people reading/doing a recipe for the first time, things don't always come out in uniform shapes nor is the dough cut into equal-sized pieces. The flour used for this attempt is a mix between all-purpose unbleached flour and whole wheat all-purpose flour because I only have one container large enough to store 5+ lbs of flour and I bought whole wheat by accident the last time I was at the store. Anyhow...

A 500 degree F oven is very hot and was the perfect complement to the start of the rainy season in the NW. I was concerned that the dough wouldn't rise properly after it'd been cut and rolled out to form pita-like shapes (roundish) from the apparent humidity and cooler weather. The most awesome thing to see was the pitas being baked. They swelled up like little balloons in the oven. Taking them out was a challenge. Hot oven = hot pita bread. I'd advise against using tongs because they ripped through a few of the pitas. Only half way through the batch I realized that a metal spatula worked much better.

This is an average pita recipe which you can find just about anywhere on the Net. The bread machine not only kneads the dough, but provides a nice, warm enclosed space for the dough to rise properly. I also misread the original recipe and cut the dough into 12 pieces instead of 8. No wonder why I couldn't roll them out into 6" diameter circles.

Ingredients

1 1/8 c. warm water (110 degrees F)
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1. Put all the ingredients into bread machine and select the Dough setting.

2. Once risen (in the machine), turn dough out onto a floured surface. Gently roll and stretch it into a 12" rope. Divide dough into equal pieces. Set aside to rise for 30 minutes or until puffy.

I used lightly floured parchment sheets for this step so that the pitas wouldn't stick together.

3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Place a few pitas directly onto the oven rack and bake pitas for up to 5 minutes. If they turn golden brown, you've cooked them for too long.

4. Remove puffed up pitas from the oven and place in a large paper bag lined with a kitchen towel. Look, I don't know why this step works better than say, laying them out on a cooling rack, but it does.

5. Store pitas in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to a week; or store in freezer for 1-2 months.

These pair well with the baba ganoush recipe.

Pitas Baking in the Oven

Finished Pitas Cooling in a Paper Bag

Baba Ganoush (eggplant dip)

This recipe is surprisingly easy and has a total prep/cook time of an hour. You'll need a large European eggplant, not the long, thin Japanese eggplant. There are two parts to this recipe, the eggplant and the tahini (sesame paste).

Tahini Ingredients

2 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 c. warm water, scant

Eggplant Dip Ingredients

1 large eggplant
1/4 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. tahini
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp sesame seeds

1 1/2 tsp olive oil (optional)
dash of paprika (optional)

Directions

1. In a food prep (large enough to accommodate 3 cups), combine 2 tbsp sesame seeds, sesame oil, and sea salt. Grind by adding a little water at a time until a smooth paste forms.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

3. Take eggplant and slice in half. Putting the cut side down onto a lightly oiled baking dish, say a 9" x 13" glass or ceramic baking dish. It is not necessary to turn the eggplant while it bakes, nor be concerned if the skin starts to char.

4. Bake the eggplant for 40 minutes, until soft. Remove from oven and scoop out the eggplant flesh into the food prep where the tahini is already. Add minced garlic and lemon juice. Blend until smooth. View pic.

5. Remove eggplant dip to a container and let chill in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving.

6. When serving, add olive oil on top of the spread and sprinkle with paprika.

Makes almost 2 cups.

Note: Trader Joe's now carries 2.4 oz bottles of raw white sesame seeds for $1.99. It's in their spice section.