No-Fried Fish croquette with Siciliano sauce 魚コロッケ シチリアンソースがけ

To avoid meat & oil, but still wanting to be satisfied with what I eat,  I decided to make fish croquette. No fry. And I experimented Siciliano pesto from Barilla to make the sauce, which turned out perfect match with this fish croquette. 

I never tried Siciliano pesto until last week and always bought Genovese for safe-going. One night I found Siciliano at a grocery store and immediately grabbed it and tried it with penne pasta. That really was "Oh la la!" new discovery. The reason I went the sauce was I've got a new friend from Sicily in my German language class. New friends expand food variety,...right? This is fantastic.

It's an amazing combination of Ricotta cheese and walnuts. I'm sure I'll try all series of Barilla pesto haha! Now it's my turn to make her try Japanese products :) Tempura? 

You can check the fish dumpling recipe is my past post. Here you see all the process and details about the filling and tomato sauce to serve with. 

You need:

Fish filling, recipe follow (below) (下の魚の材料)

1 cup Bread crumbs (パン粉 適量)

1 cup All-purpose flour for dusting (薄力粉 適量)

1 Egg, beaten (卵一個 溶く)

300g/1 bottled Mushroom, drained (缶又は瓶詰めのマッシュルーム 300g)

6 Tablespoon Siciliano Barilla pesto (シチリアーノ バリラペースト 大さじ6)

1 clove garlic, minced (ニンニク 1片 刻む)

200ml/1 cup Milk (牛乳)

200ml/1 cup Water (水)

 Parsley for topping (パセリ 適量)

Salt & petter to taste (塩こしょう適量)

For the filling コロッケの具: just mix all in a food processor/blender till smooth. ミキサーに全部かける。

Cod (or similar fish) fillets (骨抜きの白身魚) 500g

All-purpose flour (小麦粉) 60g

Salt (塩) ½ tsp

Nutmeg (ナツメグ ひとつまみ) 1 pinch

Dill (ジル 2つまみ) 2 pinches, chopped

Direction.....>>>

Duchess Potatoes 焼き-マッシュポテト 肉料理の付け合せに♡

Welcome to Germany. I met you and how fast I fell in love was such a magic. Duchess Potatoes. Crispy out & creamy inside. Hot. Steamy. Put a lot of sauce on it and bring it to your mouth. How could I describe the feeling of "Mmm....(sigh, from nose.)"? You love it. You do. 

If I have to regret of my first Duchess Potatoes, I should've made them taller, bigger, thicker, and bolder like you can't tell which is the main part. They were tiny like that. 

But for sure they tasted pretty good, healthier than other recipes out there, actually it doesn't taste it that different, does it?, and more potato which is very important. I don't want extra fat, milk, oil to thicken and boost calories and just need nice amount of oil (here it's butter) to promote/back up the ingredients (here it's potato) itself. So I minimized the ingredients to enjoy simple delicious Duchess Potatoes. 

What do you think? :)

• 910g (2 pounds) potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (ジャガイモ910g 皮を剥いて一口大に切る)
• Salt & Black pepper (塩 黒胡椒 適量)
• 30g (2 tablespoon) unsalted butter, soften (バター30g)
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (ナツメグ2つまみ程度)

Direction..>>

Beautiful Handmade Cream Puff (Crispy) シュークリーム(サクッと固め)

Oh sweet load. This was simply gorgeous sweets that I made for the first time. These beauties are just like flours come out for Spring having a little of snow.. Perfect sweets for holiday of new season.
I love a little hard, crispy puffs more than flabby ones because all cream inside comes out when I bite it and it makes a mess in my hands. Do you like that? You don't. So I made hard one.
It's nicely hard enough to hold plenty of cream, crispy enough to bite and enjoy, and it tastes amazing when the cream spreads out in your mouth. :) ohaah! Maybe I don't need much words to spell them out...it makes me hungry again.
Please also check out How to make Pastry cream which I used for these cream puff. I added some rum in the cream. Tastes & smells even better!

50g All-purpose flour (小麦粉) 

1~1.5 Eggs, beaten (卵 1～1.5個)

30g Unsalted butter, softened (無塩バター室温)
60g Milk (牛乳)
2 pinches Sugar (砂糖 2 つまみ)
1 pinch salt (塩 ひとつまみ)
Direction....>>

Peach-Barbecue Chicken!

BABY. Look at that. I made this for Sunday dinner... Coincidentally, as her recipe says she made this for Sunday dinner. I can't find words to describe this amazing chicken babies. The best chicken I have ever made in my entire life. 

Check out the recipe I used here: The Pioneer Woman

How good this was? Come one, as shown. 

In her recipe, whiskey and Worcestershire Sauce were needed but sadly I didn't have both so I skipped Jack Daniel's part and used teriyaki sauce for substitute for Worcestershire Sauce. AND, instead of 12 small whole Chicken Thighs in the recipe, I used 2 big whole Chicken Thighs to bite wildly. joke, just we had them in the freezer. 

You can check out her original recipe, but I also write down all the steps I did with Japanese translation, which might help my friends in Tokyo ;) 

2 whole Chicken Thighs, Bone-in, Skin-on (鶏もも)

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil (オリーブオイル 大さじ2)

2 Tablespoons Butter (バター 大さじ2)

3 small whole Yellow Onion, Diced (Sサイズ玉ねぎ 3つ 刻む)

340g, fluid Barbecue Sauce (アメリカンなBBQソース)

1 jar Peach Preserves (桃ジャム 小さい瓶丸ごと)

100ml (1/2 cup) Water (水)

2 Tablespoons Teriyaki Sauce (Soy sauce would work well too) (照り焼きソース 大さじ2)

4 cloves Garlic, Diced (ニンニク 4片刻む)

3 whole Green Onions, Sliced Thin (万能ネギ適量)

Direction....>>>

How to make Pastry cream カスタードクリーム

The pastry cream recipe I always use and need to keep here to be able to see whenever I make sweets. 

I believe this pastry cream is very orthodox, simple, delicious, the most grocery store-like, and yet more flavorful of each ingredients. With this cream, you can make a fruits tart, cream puffs (about 14~15 puffs), Bavarian cream, Éclair, and Custard Filled Brioches etc. I'll add more sweets recipes. Stay tuned :)

私が一番使うカスタードクリームのレシピ。このクリームが一番オーソドックスで、シンプルでおいしくて、市販の味に近くて、でも素材の香りがしっかり活きてる気がする。

これでフルーツタルト、シュークリーム(14~15個分程度)、ババロア、エクレア、クリームパンが作れるよ♡ これからもスイーツレシピ増やしていくから、チェックしてね ;)

Makes 630g/3 1/5 cup/22oz (630g作れます)

• Egg yolk (卵黄) 6 M size
• Granulated sugar (グラニュー糖) 80g
• Corn starch (コーンスターチ) 40g
• Milk (牛乳) 2 cup (400cc)
• Cream (生クリーム) 1/2 cup (100cc)

Method.....>>

Hot & Flavorful Peperoncino. ペペロンチーノ

Have you ever had Peperoncino? You have. But surprisingly John never had one until today I made it for him. Why was it surprising? He's in Germany in his entire life and millions of Italian restaurants are just right there and of course way more chance to have Italian food than me who was in Japan just until very recently. Plus, he's 8 years older. Are you with me? well, I'll make whatever he never has, then he wouldn't surprise me any more ;)
Anyway, I made Peperoncino. The gorgeous smell of garlic and hot red pepper accelerates your hunger. Peperoncino needs very simple ingredients, thus it's not easy. Simplicity is difficulty, I'd say.  Did I do a good job? Don't ask me. It was good but I made it too hot. I could see he was trying to look "ok" but in his mouth it must've been on fire. Sorry. Grab some milk. You're alright.

Serves 2

• 1~2 cloves garlic (にんにく 1~2片) Thinly sliced.
• 1 red pepper (鷹の爪 1本) Remove seeds and cut into 2~3 pieces.
• 4 slices bacon (ベーコン 4枚程度) Cut thin.
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil (ドライバジル 適量) 
• 2 Tablespoon olive oil (オリーブオイル 大2)
• 1 cube/teaspoon consommé soup (コンソメ 1個) if you have.
• 1 ladle pasta-boiling water (パスタの茹で汁 お玉1杯) 
• 1 pinch salt (塩 ひとつまみ)
• Ground black petter some (粗引き黒コショウ 適量)
• 200g spaghetti (スパゲティー) Boil 1 minute less than the package says.
• [If you want to make it mild] Parmesan cheese on top

Direction....

Handmade Wan Tan (Wonton) dough and its soup! 手作りワンタン!

Don't I have it? then make it yourself. "Make what I don't have"-This is getting like my motto these days. Since I moved to Germany, I've noticed there are so many food I can't get which I didn't even care when I was in Japan and this has made me miss the food even more. It's strange that once you know it's hard to get, it makes you want it which you didn't care before.
So this time I made Wan-tan (Wonton) and its soup. Do you know it? Do you like it?
What was surprising is handmade wantan is very CHEWY. You can't compare it to ones grocery store has. And what's the most important is, damn ass CHEAP. sorry. and you can eat as much as you want, though you gotta make a lot of course. and I did it. and ate it.
John likes (rather say loves it?) Wan tan soup which my mom used to make and he requested me to make it. I said "But they don't have wan tan wraps!" and I ended up making it by myself , which was fun! You know, he loved mine ;)....

For ingredients, I used hamburg-steak dough which I made before and froze and defrost it. About 100g per 15 wraps. Ingredients & directions are here:

About 15 wraps (I made it twice more and freeze the half rest of it)

• 30g All-purpose flour (薄力粉)
• 20g Bread flour (強力粉)
• 1 pinch of salt (塩 少々)
• 3~5 Tablespoon Warm water (お湯 大さじ3~大さじ5)
• Cornstarch for dusting (打ち粉用にコーンスターチ又は片栗粉。)

Filling:

• 100g ground meat (beef, pork, whatever) (ひき肉)
• 10 cm (4 inch) green onion (万能ネギ)
• 1 teaspoon ginger, minced (生姜)
• 2 teaspoon soy sauce (醤油小さじ2)
• Salt & pepper to taste (塩こしょう)
• 1 teaspoon sesame  oil (ごま油) I used olive oil. I didn't have it. I couldn't make that.

Direction....