Yummy looking pizza dough recipe

I recently realized that Masa and I have never made pizza together. If we lived in Canada we would have made pizza several times but since home made pizza is not that common in Japan, I never think to make it. I stumbled across a great looking recipe on Choos & Chews.
The recipe was originally published in one of Jamie Oliver's (The Naked Chef) cookbooks.

Measure out 1 kg of strong white bread flour and 1 level tbsp sea salt onto your work surface. Mix 14g of dried yeast (I used 10g of instant yeast), 1 tablespoon of castor sugar and 4 tablespoons of olive oil in about 650ml of tepid water. There is no need to let the mixture stand if you use instant yeast.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and trickle in the liquid. Using a fork, draw the flour in towards the liquid. When all the liquid has been incorporated into the flour, knead until you have a soft, smooth and springy dough. Roll the dough into a ball. sprinkle some flour on top. This recipe yields about 6-8 medium-sized pizzas.

Place the dough in a warm place to rise until it has doubled. This should take about an hour. Once the dough has risen, knock it back, that is, gently knead it so you push out some of the air.

Divide the dough into 6-8 portions, and you can either freeze your portions, put them into the fridge for later, or use the dough immediately. It's best to roll the pizzas out about 15 minutes before you intend to cook them.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll each portion of dough out as thin as you can. I didn't attempt a toss, but I did manipulate the flattened dough from palm to palm until they thinned out further. Play with your favourite topping (less is more!), drizzle on some good olive oil, a bit of sea salt if necessary, and freshly ground black pepper.

I topped one pizza with some blanched asparagus, lots of mozzarella, some asiago, oregano, black pepper, salt and a drizzle of olive oil. I baked the pizza at 220C for about 10 minutes.

I'm very excited to try this sometime this week. Then I'll have pizza dough ready for a variety of uses.

Tomato-Quinoa Bread

I was just reading Kitchen Confit and came across a delightful looking recipe for Tomato-Quinoa Bread. I love tomato bread and had always assumed that you needed sun dried tomatoes to provide tomato flavor. Much to my surprise and delight, you can use tomato juice instead of water and have the same effect. Who knew? I haven't actually done much research on bread making because I get put off by the plethora of bread machine recipes and lack of recipes for those who do everything from scratch. I don't each much bread and thus do not want to sacrifice precious Japan-apartment space for a machine that would get used once a month.




Changes to the recipe: millet instead of quinoa (I thought I had the latter but it was infact the former), regular flour (I didn't have bread flour), vegetable juice instead of tomato (I couldn't find regular tomato juice)

Anyway, the dough has to rise 8-12hrs in the fridge so pics of the finished product will have to come tomorrow. It is actually a much brighter color than it looks in the photos.

Peach Crisp

Yesterday we bought some peaches from a fruit vendor near Oji station. They were five for 500yen which is a pretty good deal around these parts. I wanted to bake something not so intensive last night so I decided to use one of the peaches and another one we already had to make peach crisp.

Peach Crisp for two

Filling
2 large peaches dash of cinnamon dash of ginger
2tsp tapioca

Topping
1/4c butter 1/2c rolled oats 1tbsp bran 1tbsp brown sugar dash of cinnamon dash of ginger
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Mix the filling ingredients together and put in glass baking dish. Put all topping ingredients in a small bowl and mix like pastry. Put over the filling and press down a bit. Bake for 30min and let sit at least 10min before serving to allow tapioca to absorb extra peach juice. Serve with ice cream if dessert or alone for breakfast.

Peaches in Japan are pretty bland but the crisp tasted like a little bit of home. I really miss my mom's apple crisp because the like the peaches, apples are also on the bland side in Japan. Japanese fruit growers seem to favor large, beautiful but tasteless fruit. I'll take the deformed, flavorful ones any day.

A Good Hamburger

I was waiting for Masa in Korakuen last night and decided to try a newish burger shop, Zest Premium Burgers, on the first floor. It can be pretty tough to get a good burger in Japan albeit there is a plethora of fast food burgers. Every once in a while you need a good one. I was sold as soon as I saw that they make their own fries out of great Hokkaido potatoes. Who could resist? The patty was 100% Angus beef and they cook it right in front of you. Here is their description:

The new Zest Premium burgers use Angus beef, ground upon ordering, grilled to perfection and topped with locally-sourced veggies and our homemade Zest sauce. They're fresh, natural and juicy, the way a burger should be.

I had a burger, fries and a drink for 1070yen which is decent for a good burger. They seem to have two locations in Tokyo, Korakuen and Hiroo, if you wanted to check them out.

Working out Matthew McConaughey Style

A while ago Masa and I were talking about what kind of body is sexy and how to get that way. I mentioned that Matthew McConaughey has a great body so we googled his workout routine. We didn't find the exact one but I did find a good article on Men's Health Magazine website. It was called "Work Out with Matthew McConaughey" by Mike Zimmerman.

I immediately felt a connection with what he had to say and was inspired by a couple of quotes:

"I go for distance instead of time," he says, "to where I'm sweating and tired as far away as possible from where I started."

But doesn't he worry about having enough gas left in the tank for the return trip? Nope. "The return trip is always easier," he says. "Think about it. One, you can anticipate the road you've already traveled. Two, when it's time to eat the hay, the horses get home no matter how tired they are. Third, you're past the hump. You're in. Each step gets you closer to sitting down and relaxing."

"I tell myself, Okay, you're going to run as far as you can today, then run back, and you have as much time as you want."

I tried the run until you are really tired and then turn around method tonight and I ended up running twice as long and far as I normally would have. I also ran through the city instead of the river valley and ended up exploring as I ran. I got pretty close to a state of flow at the pace where I feel I can run forever. I ended up running from my apartment to Nishi Kawaguchi station. The total distance was 6km and I kept up a slow steady pace. It will be a good start to training for the Toda Half Marathon.

Quick Japanese Vinegar Pickles

Usually when you make Japanese-style pickles you have to wait a while for the salt to draw the water out of the vegetables. I saw my mother-in-law take a shortcut once that really saves time. The following recipe is based on a recipe from a Japanese cookbook called "One Dish Cooking". The original recipe calls for regular vinegar without sugar and uses the traditional method of letting the cabbage sit for thirty minutes while the salt draws the water out.

Fast Cabbage Vinegar Pickles
1/2 head of cabbage shredded or cut into small pieces (your choice of size)
1tsp salt

2tbsp sushi vinegar (or regular rice vinegar mixed with a bit of sugar)
1-2tbsp water
1tsp soy sauce

Put the cabbage into a glass bowl and sprinkle with salt. Scrunch the cabbage over and over until it becomes limp. This should take only a couple of minutes. Rinse the cabbage well, return to bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix the vinegar, water and soy sauce. Pour over the cabbage and serve. You can make this ahead of time and keep on the table or in the fridge.

I can't rank things

One of my clients was late today so I had a bit of time to write in my notebook. While doing so I came to a realization that I severely dislike ranking things. It doesn't really matter what it is - I have a hard time doing it. I think I have a hard time separating things from their context which is needed to rank. This realization came in the middle of reading Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. While journaling I started to wonder what my favorite character in the book is. I couldn't decide. Not because I like them all so much but because they are just a part of the story - they are just an element. Then I tried to think of my favorite character from fiction - also couldn't do it. Then I got curious about my lack of ability to choose a favorite character because of context. I decided to take a step back and do something like make a top ten drink list. Sounds easy enough, right? I found it took a while and I only got up to six and they rankings are deeply related to the context. I even had to do a formal brainstorming session.

Top Six Drinks

1. Water - the only beverage I enjoy any time, any place- especially during and immediately after a workout or when I first wake up in the morning.
2. Lemon water - cool but not cold, in a nice water glass with a stem, drunk while sitting on the couch
3. Peppermint tea - when the tea is cold on a hot day
   
4. Hot tea - with a bit of honey - drunk on a cold day when the room is cold and I can warm my hands on the mug while reading a book
   
5. Sangria at Bar ChitChat - drunk while chatting with friends but only if there are no smokers near
6. Blue Raspberry Slurpee/slushie - While driving on a hot day with the windows down and music blaring - especially on highway 21 between Fort Saskatchewan and Sherwood Park or highway 15 between Fort Saskatchewan and Edmonton