Cinnamon sugar donuts

中文菜谱：肉桂糖霜甜甜圈

I wasn’t planning making donuts when I knead the dough.  And then I just change my mind for no reason at all.  Ha-ha, doesn’t that happen to all the women?

There were two of us, me and my husband, in the kitchen.  Coffee was brewing, music was on, and we worked on the dough together.  That made me feels happy, extremely happy.  

After the second rise, we shaped the dough into donut dough; deep fried them, glazed with icing sugar glaze, and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  It tasted like heaven!

The best thing to goes with freshly fried donuts would be one pot hot black coffee. 

Ingredients:

For icing sugar glaze:  

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoon milk

In a glass bowl, combine sugar and milk; whisk until all the sugar dissolves, and the glaze is glossy and running smoothly.

For Cinnamon sugar:

5 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoon ground cinnamon （or to personal preference）

Shift sugar and cinnamon together and transfer into a shaker. 

For the bread:

Sponge：

100 g milk
20 g bread flour

Whisk together milk and flour in a glass bowl.  Microwave the batter on high for 30 seconds.  Whisk again.  Microwave for another 20 seconds, and whisk until batter is smoothy.  And then microwave for another 15 seconds… repeat the process until you can write letters with a spoon on batter surface and those letters do go away.  

Cover up the sponge.  It can be use as soon as it cools down, but you can get better result with one day old sponge. 

Bread dough：

360 g bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
60 g sugar
10 dried milk powder
90 g milk
60 g egg
4 g salt
2 tablespoon butter, melted
oil (for deep frying)

Directions:

Add sponge, bread flour, yeast, sugar, milk, milk powder, egg and salt to stand mixer’s mixing bowl.  Turn to speed 2, knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Add melted butter, knead until the dough can make windowpane.

Cover the dough with greased wrap.  Wait until the dough double in size, punch it down and gently fold into a dough ball.  Let it rest another 10 minutes.    

Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough out into desired thickness, or about half inch thick;  cut into donut shape with two round shape cookie cutters.

Cover and rest the donut dough another 15 minutes.  Deep fry in 375F oil until both sides are golden brown. 

Remove the donuts from oil and drain well on paper tower.  Glaze with icing sugar glaze, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  

Do not waste the donut holes.  Deep fry them and coat evenly with cinnamon sugar too.  They are just awesome! 

Let me forget about calorie count for a moment and indulge in this guilty pleasure.  O(∩_∩)O~  

Stir-Fried Asian Aged Pork Belly with Dried Daikon

中文菜谱： 腊肉炒萝卜干

Asian aged pork belly is actually a great way to preserve pork when meat was scarce and nothing went to waste.  Fresh pork belly is marinated with spices and alcohol and then air-dried for a month or longer.  It is the fermentation process that gives Asian aged pork belly a distinct and unique aroma and taste. 

When I was a little kid back home in Southern China, making Asian aged pork belly and sausage was like a traditional winter event involving the whole family’s effort.  Aged pork belly is easier to make because it doesn’t require chopping and stuffing like the sausage.

Pork belly meat is my favorite when making aged pork belly.  But it is not easy to find in this small northern American town I live.  My husband and I drive to a nearby town where there is a newly opened Asian grocery store. I get my pork belly there.

For all those who don’t want to make Asian aged pork belly and sausage from scratch, they are available in frozen section in most Asian grocery stores.  Dried daikon can be found in pickled vegetable section.

Since I made my own Asian aged pork belly a month ago, I have been waiting so anciently to try it.  I also made some dried daikon a couple days ago. The newly made aged pork belly goes great with dried daikon.  

Ingredients:

1 piece aged pork belly
2 cup chopped dried daikon
1 cup dried red pepper, cut into half inch pieces
1 to 2 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1/3 to 1/2 caup chicken broth/water
2 tablespoon soy sauce
3 to 4 tablespoon chopped green oion
2 tablespoon cooking oil
salt to taste

Directions:

Rinse the aged pork belly thoroughly with water and pat dry. 

Steam the jerky for about 20 minutes, and then thinly slice them. 

Dried daikon are chopped into small bit size too。

In a large wok, heat the oil over medium-high heat, along with garlic, Sichuan peppercorns and red peppers.  Add the sliced aged pork belly; stir fry for 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the daikon, stir fry for a couple minutes.

Add chicken broth, soy sauce and salt.  Stir fry over medium-high heat until all the liquid evaporate.  Sprinkle with green onion, stir them well. Serve hot. 

I made 5 pieces this time.  After sampling this dish, my husband decides we will definitely make aged pork belly more next time.  

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Baked Potato with Bacon and Cheese

中文菜谱： 培根奶酪烤土豆

Potato is an awesome food source.  You can cook it whichever way you like and it will always turn out tasty.  This time I simply just baked it, and then top with bacon and cheese.  Tasty!  I love it so much majorly because they are the ones I grew and harvested in my own backyard garden. O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients:

4 medium or large size baking potatoes
4 to 5 tablespoon bacon bits
6 to 8 tablespoon crumble cheddar cheese
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
chopped green onion /chives（optional）
4 tablespoon sour cream (optional)

I skip the sour cream this time because my husband doesn’t like it.  However, I have to say that sour cream makes it tastier!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F/ 191°C。

Clean the potatoes with a brush and rinse thoroughly.  Poke each potato several times with a fork to prevent explosion during baking.    Place them on a baking pan, about I inch apart from each other.  

Bake 60 minutes.   Bake 10 to 20 minutes longer if you have really large size potatoes.  Gently compress the potatoes with your finger; if they yield to the touch, they are ready. 

Cut the potatoes right in the middle from the top and then squeeze the ends towards one another.  The potatoes should pop right open.  Sprinkle with salt, black pepper, cheese, and bacon, bake another 2 minutes or until the cheese melts.  

Top with sour cream (optional) and green onion/chives.  Serve hot. 

There is nothing but sand in one corner of my back yard.  I planted a couple potatoes there in the spring; didn’t expect anything at all because nothing grows well in that corner.  But it surprises me with almost a bucket of potatoes!   O(∩_∩)O~

In the summer, potato flowers bloomed. 

When it got cold, we went to check the potato field. 

Surprise, surprise, and surprise!

Tah-dah!!!! 

Homemade Honey Peanut Butter

中文版菜谱：蜂蜜花生酱

I posted before about how to make peanut butter with a coffee grinder, (http://www.yankitchen.com/blog/2014/10/18/-2-1).  Coffee grinder is good for making small amount of peanut butter.   I want to make more this time, so I go with vitamix to grind about 2 pounds of peanuts.

Peanut butter is so widely used in my home cooking that I always have peanuts and peanut butter handy.  It goes great with toasted bread, dessert, and it is also an important ingredient in Asian noodles, and salad dressing. 

Ingredients:

2 pound dry roasted peanuts
4 to 5 tablespoon honey
1 to 2 tablespoon peanut oil (optional)

Direction:

Place all the ingredients in to vitamix container, turn it on, raise the speed gradually to 7 or 8, and grind for about 1 minute.  Use the tamper to press down the peanuts when grinding.   

Plain dry roasted peanut is always my number one choice if I don’t roast them myself. 

Seconds after vitamix is turned on, peanuts are grinded into big pieces. 

And then those pieces become smaller pieces. 

In about 1 minute, wa-lah, we have smooth and creamy peanut butter! (Please be careful when grinding peanut butter.  If you smell anything other than peanut’s aroma, stop the machine!)

Grind a little bit longer if you prefer creamier peanut butter.

Stored in an airtight glass jar, it can last a couple weeks, longer if kept refrigerated.  But I always keep it room temperature.  

The fresher peanut butter, the better it smells and tastes.  

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Asian Pan Bread with Red Braised Pork Hock

中文版菜谱：红烧肘子肉夹馍

To be honest, it is so hard to come up with a proper English recipe name for this traditional Chinese dish.

Pork hock is one of my favorite meats to cook with.  They contain a lot of gelatin which is claimed to be good for the skin. After cooked for a couple hours, they become tender and very flavorful.  But they are not always available in my local grocery store.  Whenever they show on the shelves, I have to get to them before other Asian people do. 

I was lucky enough to score two packages of pork hocks during my last grocery trip.  Each hock weighs about one pound, the perfect size.  When the pork hocks are cooking on the stove, I use bread machine to make bread dough, and then use an electric grill to make some Asian style pan bread.

Red braised pork hock ingredients:

2 pork hocks (about one pound each)
2 to 3 tablespoon rock sugar (or regular granulated sugar)
1/4 to 1/3cup soy sauce
1large piece of ginger
1tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
2 cardamoms
2 to 3 star anises
5 to 6 clovers
1 to 2 pieces of dried rhizoma
3 to 4 bay leaves
2 green onions
1/2  cup rice cooking wine
salt to taste
boiling water

Directions：

Wrap the star anises, Sichuan peppercorns, cardamoms，clovers，dried rhizoma and bay leaves with a coffee filter paper（cheese cloth works well too）。

Tie it up.

Bring a large pot of water to boil with pork hocks in the water together.  Cook the hocks for 10 minutes after boil, and then fish them out with a thong.

Put the pork hocks, along with spicy bag, rock sugar, rice cooking wine, soy sauce, green onions and ginger into a cast iron pot.   I use a 4 and1/4 quart Le Creuset.  Fill the pot with fresh boiling water.  The water should cover the pork hocks or a little bit above them. 

Cook on medium high heat until it boils again, cover the pot and reduce the heat to simmer for about 90 minutes or until a fork or chopstick can easily pierce the meat.

Discard the green onion.  Cook on medium high heat again.  Cook until the sauce thickens up.  Stir gently to prevent meat getting burnt. 

When the sauce thickens up enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove from heat and serve immediately.  

The remaining sauce should have consistency of dark thick syrup.  

Prepare Asian style pan bread while the pork hocks are being braised.

Ingredients：

2 cup bread flour
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
1 teaspoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions：

Dissolve the yeast with lukewarm milk.  Let it stand for 5 minutes.  Transfer the milk into bread machine container, add bread flour, sugar, oil and salt, and start Dough cycle.  

The bread machine will automatically work all ingredients into a smooth dough ball and proof it. 

When the Dough cycle is done, the dough should be double in size.  Sometimes, the dough may  double in size before designated time. In that case, remove the dough earlier. 

Punch down the dough, fold it gently into a ball, cover and let it rest for about  10 minutes.  

Evenly divide the dough into 16 pieces.

Using a rolling pin, flatten each dough piece out into a thin flap, roll it up from one end like a jelly roll, and then roll them up again like a dough lollipop as shown in the picture.  

Roll out all the dough pieces to desired thickness, about a quarter inch thick again, cover and let them rest another 10 minutes.

Preheat the electric grill.

Place the bread dough on grill surface, one inch apart from each other, cover, and grill 3 to 4 minutes. 

Grill 6 to 7 pieces at a time, very efficiently.  

Pull the meat from pork hocks, tear or cut into small pieces. 

Mix well with the thick sauce. 

Slice the bread in half and stuff it with pulled pork.

Time to enjoy！

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