This morning my husband had to work, so I packed him a special bento lunch to cheer him on. There is simmered pork from last night (pork cooked in soy sauce, sake, mirin, sugar and water), along with some salad and steamed rice. The gimped word 'love' is written using pieces of nori seaweed. The little black dots are black sesame.
At roughly 5:00pm, I decided to make whole wheat buns. I had run out of home made bread at lunch time, so I got motivated and whipped up another batch. My husband does not eat whole wheat bread, so these should last a long time in the freezer. They are 100% whole wheat and SUPER light. I attribute this to a couple of tricks. One of which is my grandma's trick of adding vinegar to the dough. The other trick is my own--vital wheat gluten. Wheat gluten is a yellow-ish powder that adds height to bread, which is perfect for whole wheat goods. I added about half a cup vital wheat gluten for these buns. As well, I added a lot more sweetener than the recipe calls for, which is for no purpose other than I like sweet bread. A quarter cup sugar was added, as well as a quarter cup Splenda. These buns rose quickly and were done by 8:00pm exactly. Delish!
Notice how the one bun on the right decided to be unique in shape. ^_^
Just a look at the raw dough before rising. I make all my bread by hand--no food processor or mixer and definately NO bread machine. Kneading dough is a good way of taking out your frustrations!
For supper I prepared 'Mabo Dofu'. This dish is made of minced pork, simmered with tofu, green onion, garlic, ginger, 'to-ban-jan' (spicy Korean paste), chicken broth, sake, sugar, soy sauce and miso. It is really delicious and oh so inexpensive to make! You can purchase the sauce in asian food markets, but it is ridiculously easy to make it from scratch.
Tomorrow my husband wants to make sushi. Stay tuned for that!
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