You all have suckered me into the bread making. Ordered a Pullman loaf pan and yeast tonight.

Am having tea and fresh shokupan with the lightest of toasting this morning (with some marmalade made in France by a friend’s dear mother). Am feeling the most human I have for some time.
Any jiggly rolls that appear on my belly in the next few days will be be cherished and fondly doted on.

The shokupan day 2 dough that gets broken up and combined with the last few ingredients has the most intoxicating “tang” to it. And that tangy taste permeates the finished bread, really bringing out the butter and milk flavours. It’s nothing like any of the other breads I’ve been making.

Although this might be a fixed date for some people, many others are making a seasonal change right now... or thinking about it.

I’m in the “thinking about it” camp but it seems like a great excuse to theme some of the current housework and projects.

If you don’t know about it already, let me introduce the concept of Koromogae

https://jpf.org.au/senseis-voices/koromogae/

We live in a small flat in London but MrLapLap maintains a storage space. We have kept our visits there to an absolute minimum since March, but we’re looking at packing up some of our warmer winter clothes. Koromogae seems like a good way to mark the temperatures reaching 20C/68F on a consistent basis - which I think is Tokyo round about now and London very soon.

The Mizuna I mentioned planting from seed is grown enough to start eating. Has been left untroubled by the Snails and slugs that proliferate round here, and the greenfly seem uninterested in it (greenfly are more attracted to young radish leaves). The shiso (AKA Aojiso or green perilla) has been growing much more slowly. Storing the seeds in the freezer for a night before planting may have helped with the germination. Will have to keep guarding the shiso from pests for a bit longer. Once they are bigger they can fend for themselves well, but I’d forgotten how long it takes before they reach that point.
We have no soil in our back garden, this is happening in a few plant pots. The Mizuna reaching maturity really has signalled a change - even if it’s just a vivid green representation of how long all this has been going on for!

We are relocating for 6 months due to the pandemic and we're going to finally have space for a garden. I'm hoping to grow shiso along with a variety of other things.

I've never heard of Koromogae but I've always done something similar without a fixed date. I have winter/spring/summer/fall sets of clothes that I'll rotate out based on temperature. We also have varying table clothes, sofa covers, and artworks that we swap out once summer really starts. I'm not sure what we'll do this year because we'll be staying in a family member's house. I'm hoping for a little peace from gardening with my SO and fishing (actually reading) for a month or two.

Finally got bread flour and yeast! And then discovered that the dough hook for the mixer is missing.

Meanwhile, put up a Green Running Man sign over the door to the garage. For a very brief split second when it catches me out of the corner of my eye, I can almost imagine I'm in Japan...:)

This recipe is the one MrLapLap has been requesting (normally he just lets me get on with bread making projects but this one really pushes his buttons). You just crank a spatula around in three vigorous bursts and let the fridge do the rest. You don’t have to use wieners, obviously. Am really enjoying this youtuber’s enthusiasm and am steadily making my way through his videos. Last night I tackled the natural yeast shokupan (fabulous!) Whilst doing that I put together the dough for this hot dog bread which I’m just about to shape and bake this morning.

Might work with chorizo.

I wonder, does Mr.Laplap also like these ?



https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/焼きそばパン...obapan_001.jpg

I remember, very clearly, the first time I ever came across these, on that fateful first visit to Hakone in October 2002. MrLapLap and I had just met the day before, and as we waited (after the boat ride and as part of the Hakone Loop) for the bus to arrive, he popped into a combini and emerged with one of these. I was horrified.
Am happy to report that these double-carb items just don’t appeal to him in the way they used to. They became more and more disappointing as he matured and he hasn’t had one since LapGirl was born. Not to say he couldn’t be tempted, but I think it’s the benishouga that would be the irresistible enticement - the example in that picture is morosely lacking in red ginger.
As someone with a lifelong weakness for potato omelet sandwiches (and battered squid ring sandwiches) I am in no position to judge, but... :(

jib71 - I’m not sure the wiener bread dough would go with chorizo. The chorizo fat would melt, you’d have to get the cooking kind. MrLapLap suspects that chopped up olives would go with the mochi-mochi texture. Definitely works with bacon!

The last remnants after the morning’s demolishment

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3715c4179.jpeg

Just finished off a second batch of the sourdough shokupan. Made double the amount and gave the additional loaf to a friend of LapGirl’s on her request.

It doesn’t have yudane, nor the long fermentation of the 3 step/day process Pain de Mie, but the sourdough does introduce some of that tang. For the effort and time taken and the result I get, am perfectly satisfied. No milk, no eggs, just a little butter, but extraordinarily rich tasting - heaven!
The recommendation is to use a natural yeast nurtured from raisins, but I just added my usual sourdough culture (fed with white flour). But I also added 2g of instant yeast so that it wouldn’t take too long to rise and develop too much of a sourdough flavour. The first proof took about 2 hours.
The resulting loaf isn’t as robust as the Yudane Pain de Mie - needs a little care when slicing so it doesn’t compress - but it’s so delicious, and way too easy to eat too much of (I don’t have a Pullman loaf pan, it’s fine without it)

that’s exactly what it is.
its the benishouga that makes the yakisoba/pan combo work. Without that, to me it’s like eating a pile of starch.

Also in Hakone, I discovered a curry pan that had fukujinzuke in it. Might’ve been the only place I’ve run into that put fukujinzuke inside curry pan and it was divine. Had been losing interest in curry pan for a while, but I couldn’t believe how much difference the fukujinzuke made and I wish more bakeries did that.

As kids we grew up with these (link below). I remember them from summer fairs and as they grew more popular became something of Canadiana lore. When I first saw them in Japan labelled as AmericanDogs I was appalled. :D


https://whatsdifferentincanada.tumbl...34/pogo-sticks

What's next? That abomination called katsu-sando?

A few of the Katsu places have turned to take-out......perhaps they always had it ? Anyway, I have been enjoying the take-out ! I hope the local restaurants continue the take-out and delivery options.

The first time I saw these was when I lived in Korea. Come to think of it, I've only seen full-sized hotdogs encased within pastry/bread dough in Asian bakeries here in the U.S, like 98*C, Tous Les Jours, and Paris Baguette. The regular bakeries usually used (at least in TX) the smaller sausages and called them pigs in a blanket. Brings back memories, used to grab one on the way for quizzes and exams during university.