My Food Adventures

MOCHI DANGO in SPRING COLORS

2011-05-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

In spring you can buy three-color mochi dango. Apparently they are a traditional food for O-Hanami (cherry blossom viewing parties.) The white ones are plain, and the green ones are colored with a herb named mugwort in English. It doesn't have any flavor that I can detect. It would be nice to think the pink ones were flavored with cherry blossom petals, but I couldn't taste it if they were. But they are good - soft and chewy and not too sweet. And they look pretty in spring colors. I love mochi.

MY FAVORITE JAPANESE NABE

2011-05-01T05:12:00.000-07:00

Nabe (pronouced nah-bay) is the Japanese word for a kind of cooking pot, but it also refers to a one-pot meal including meat or fish and lots of vegetables cooked in broth. In Japan eating nabe is very popular in winter. There are dozens of different flavored nabes. Formerly my favorite nabe was kimchi nabe, and one of my friends has been raving to me about carbonara nabe. But recently at the house of a friend I was privileged to eat Hokkaido style Ishikari Nabe. It's fabulous!

Salmon, potatoes and cabbage (possibly onions too?) are simmered in stock, then milk is added. Japanese miso paste is thinned with some of the broth, and added. A generous slab of Hokkaido butter completes the gorgeously rich flavor. This nabe is one of my new favorite things! I like the way it is a blend of Western and Japanese cuisine. I sincerely hope you can eat it one day!

FRENCH FOOD

2011-04-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

My apologies for the long gap between this post and my last one. I've been through an extremely busy patch of life, as happens every now and then, but here I am again...

On my trip to France in February this was one of the best meals I ate, in a cafe with outside tables and chairs only a meter from the busy road. Sadly our very tight sightseeing schedule didn't allow for much cafe time. Don't get me wrong - I loved the sightseeing, and I thought Paris was a wonderful city. But French cuisine is famous so I regret being able to sample so little of it.

This cheese and ham 'sandwich' (which would be called a 'filled roll' in New Zealand) came accompanied by a large pot of pickled gherkins for us to help ourselves to.

Normandy is famous for puffy omelet, and while visiting Mont San Michel in France, our Japanese tour group stopped at a country restaurant to eat omelet, chicken casserole and apple cake washed down with apple cider.

Unfortunately the general feeling was that large quantities of raw whipped egg take a lot of washing down! Most of the tour group couldn't eat it. Although I ate it all, I certainly didn't enjoy it. And I seem to remember making puffy omelet at Intermediate School in New Zealand. I'm sure it was actually cooked, and tasted good.

As for the rest of the meal, the chicken tasted free range which was strange for my Japanese companions. Sadly it came with the odd feather, which was a bit off-putting. The apple cake was not very inspiring. Apple cake can be difficult to make well, because it easily becomes very stodgy and even soggy. This was both. The restaurant was very nice, with beautiful tableware and decor, so it was just too bad about the meal.

CREAM STEW

2011-03-10T03:56:00.000-08:00

Like Japanese curry made with roux, which I wrote about in an earlier post, this was made with cream stew roux. On the packet it showa a picture of a stew made with potatoes, carrots and what looks like chicken, but my friend Miyoko likes to jazz things up. This salmon and pumpkin cream stew was SO GOOD!!!

ZENZAI

2011-03-09T03:54:00.000-08:00

Zenzai is the Japanese answer to hot chocolate with marshmallows. On a freezing cold day when you want a warming drink, it's great. I love the mochi, but sometimes the sweet red bean soup is just too sweet for me. Perhaps a pinch of salt might help.

EDAMAME FLAVORED SNACKS

2011-03-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

Crunchy, not too salty snacks that taste like edamame (baby broad beans.) One of my favorite snacks in Japan. I try not to eat stuff like this too often (just because it's vegetable flavor doesn't mean it's healthy!)

CHOCO-MELONPAN

2011-02-27T06:27:00.000-08:00

Melon-pans are one of the wonderful things you can buy in Japanese convenience stores. Melon-pan is a kind of sweet bun with a very light texture and a slightly crunchy topping. They some in all sorts of colors, changing flavors with the seasons. Sometimes they have custard or cream fillings.This melon-pan had a deliciously gooey chocolate filling.

FRESH STRAWBERRY 'JAM'

2011-02-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

A simple and delicious way to use fresh strawberries is to mash them (or slice them if you prefer) and pile them on toast or fresh bread. So much better than sugar loaded jam! If you want to add something, try black pepper which is supposed to enhance the flavor of strawberries. Or if you feel like something decadent, how about a dollop of whipped cream...? Cream cheese under the strawberries would surely be good too.

MEXICAN TORTILLIAS IN JAPAN

2011-02-21T07:19:00.000-08:00

One of my friends is crazy about Mexican food. I've never eaten authentic Mexican food... so I don't know how close this was. Anyway, here are the tortillas and fillings my friend made for me.. spicy chicken and red peppers, shredded lettuce, salsa, guacamole, cheese, tomato and lime juice. It was great!

MATCHA SYRUP DESSERT

2011-02-15T19:22:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of a typical traditional Japanese dessert. It included cubes of some firm translucent slightly sweet substance I have yet to identify. Can you tell me what it is? The dessert also included plain and matcha-flavored balls of soft mochi (yum!), sweet red beans, one large sweet black bean, and a small piece of mandarin orange. It was served with a small bowl of matcha syrup to pour over the top.

Sweet red beans are almost always included in traditional Japanese sweets and desserts. A lot of Western people don't like the texture. I do, but I've noticed that the flavor varies - perhaps according to the quality. Sometimes they seem too sweet.

As for matcha flavor, I like it very much with some things (latte, cheesecake, or a strong bitter drink they give you at tea ceremonies) but I don't like it much as sweet syrup. So I had the black sesame syrup instead...

EATING JAPANESE NATTO

2011-02-13T19:53:00.000-08:00

There are plenty of Japanese people who can't stand natto, and even among those consume it every day, if you ask them, "Why do you like it?" they usually reply "It's very healthy." But in my opinion, "healthy" is not a good substitute for "delicious."

In case you never heard of natto before, it is fermented soy beans. Like many other fermented foods, it is often recommended as being good for you. It smells like week-old socks, and is both slimy and sticky at the same time. When you lift a fork-full to your mouth threads of slime will trail from it, and if you're not careful they will stick to clothing and the sides of your mouth. You can easily end up smelling like stinky socks all day!

Fortunately there is a reduced smell version available, because - although you might not guess it from my description - I do actually like natto! Why do I like natto? Because it's healthy... no, just kidding. Eating a bowl of natto over hot rice feels satisfying and wholesome. The nearest Western thing I can think of to compare it with is plain oatmeal. You can almost feel it doing you good.

I buy natto in serving size packs. Each serving comes with a little sachet of hot mustard and another of soy sauce, which you mix in just before eating. Japanese people often add sliced green onion as well. You can eat it on its own or over hot rice. It's very fast and convenient and I infinitely prefer it to 2 minute noodles.

While I was still developing my taste for this strange Japanese food, I tried it many different ways - for example, on toast with miso paste and chopped onions (quite good) or Tochigi style with brown sugar (horrible!) Although I disliked the texture of sugar and natto, the flavor was good, so I tried it with honey (not bad) and maple syrup (really really good!)

So now I enjoy shocking my Japanese friends by telling them I eat natto with maple syrup for dessert! It's delicious!

STRANGE THINGS WITH RICE

2011-02-12T19:00:00.000-08:00

There are many different ways to enjoy rice. It is often eaten 'garnished' with something else that has a strong flavor - for example, Japanese pickles (tsukemono.)

I love the very salty flaked salmon sold in jars at the supermarket. Just a little is all you need to add glorious salmon flavor to a bowl of cooked rice. Once a friend gave me home-made flaked salmon, and it was much better than the kind I bought from the supermarket.

Another common fishy thing is katsuo bushi, which is dried bonito flakes. The dried bonito resemble pieces of wood, and are scraped to make flakes that look like fine wood shavings. Katsuo bushi gets sprinkled on lots of things including okonomi-yaki and tofu. Sometimes the deliciously flavored shavings are mixed through cooked rice. If I do this, I usually add cooked edamame as well.

Seaweed can also be nice with rice. Black hijiki seaweed is sometimes mixed through cooked rice adding an interesting flavor, color and texture. I've snacked on dried wakame seaweed straight from the packet before, but recently a friend served me crunchy, salty dried wakame crumbled over rice. It was very good, better than torn nori seaweed which quickly goes limp in the steam from the rice. I do like nori with rice, but I usually buy the slightly oily and salty Korean nori, and eat it as a side dish rather than put it directly on top of the rice.

BRAISED FISH & DAIKON

2011-02-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

Buri-daikon is one of my favorite meals in Japan. Buri is amberjack, or yellowtail, and the Japanese say it is especially good in winter.

To make buri-daikon, cut about 600g of daikon (giant white radish) into 2-3cm thick half moons.
Using water in which rice has been washed, bring daikon to the boil for minutes or so, then turn off heat and leave till cool. (Actually I usually skip this step - because I'm lazy...and I don't think it makes much difference.)
Take 2 buri fillets and cut into two or three pieces. Blanch them by dipping into boiling water then into ice water.
Put 2 cups of dashi (fish stock) into a saucepan and add the daikon and buri.
Bring to boil then add 1 tablespoon of sake and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Reduce to medium heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Add about 3 cm ginger root which has been finely sliced, 1 tablespoon of mirin (cooking sake) and 3 tablespoons of soy sauce.
Cover with a drop lid (or a piece of aluminum foil resting directly on the food) and simmer until the daikon becomes gold-brown in color.

I haven't tried it, but my recipe book says you can use bonito or tuna fillets instead of buri. You can also use buri cheeks which are considered a 'waste' part of the fish these days. However the flesh from the cheeks used to be highly valued, and is particularly delicious (yes, of course I tried it!) Eating fish cheeks may be a bit fiddly, but just think of it as a challenge for your chopstick skills!

RASPBERRY CREAMS

2011-01-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

Is your mouth watering? Mine is!

I ate this dessert at a Christmas party I was lucky enough to be invited to. The friend who bought these had to stand in line at a famous sweet shop for a very long time.

It was so nice to taste fresh raspberries again. I always associate raspberries with Christmas because in New Zealand it falls in summer. Sometimes we spent the holiday season on my sister-in-law's farm, where there was a huge patch of raspberry bushes. On Christmas morning, after opening the presents, someone would go out to the raspberry patch and pick a huge bowl of fresh raspberries to have with Christmas dinner.

MORE CRACKERS IN JAPAN

2011-01-25T22:23:00.000-08:00

Seriously, Japanese crackers are amazing. These elegant little packages contained nothing short of art! More evidence that in Japan food is an art form!

I suppose the 'crackers' on the right were technically dried vegetable chips. Whatever. Among other things there were was mushroom, sweet potato, green bean, lotus root, and burdock root.

This packet included shrimp, crab, and seaweed flavors. Usually black color means back sesame flavor, but since this packet had a seafood theme perhaps it was squid ink...

As for the last packet, the black cracker has the same kind of seaweed used for sushi. The largest cracker had sugar crystals on it, not salt, and I have no idea what flavor the others are, but they all tasted delicious.

DUMPLING SOUP

2011-01-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

CARROT CAKE

2011-01-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

Carrot cake is popular in New Zealand. It probably comes in third after those other perennial favorites, chocolate cake and banana cake. I used to make carrot cake quite often, using wholemeal flour and always adding cinnamon and raisins. The traditional topping is cream cheese icing but I think prefer lemon or orange butter icing. Good carrot cake should be moist and soft. Once I tried out my carrot cake recipe with daikon. The result was ... interesting. Not horrible. I prefer carrot cake.

I haven't seen many carrot cakes in Japan, but maybe I just go to the wrong cafes. The carrot cake in the photo was a gift from my friend. I have really nice friends! It was every bit as good as it looks.

EXPERIMENTS WITH HOT WINE

2011-01-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

The first time I had delicious hot mulled wine was when I went to the Czech Republic over New Year. Vendors on the streets of Prague were selling it in paper cups. It's a wonderful warming winter drink, and also has a nice festive feel.

Naturally I tried to make it at home. I boiled some cinnamon sticks, sugar, and orange and lemon slices in water, then tossed in a bottle of cheap red wine. Do you know what happens when you heat alcohol? Heady fumes rapidly filled my kitchen as the alcohol evaporated, and set off the alarm of my gas detector! Even with the doors and windows wide open, it took ages for the fumes to clear.

Not wishing to repeat that episode, I wondered if I could just pour the wine into the hot liquid before drinking, just as you add milk to tea or coffee. That worked well. Even a quite small amount of wine seems stronger when it's heated.

Then my lazy streak kicked in. The hot wine I drank in Prague was not spiced, so I wondered whether wine, sugar, and hot water would make a good drink. It does! I also tried heated orange juice laced with red wine (tastes great but looks murky and unappealing) and hot lemon tea with red wine (very nice.) If you really want the spice and citrus flavors, a shake of cloves or cinnamon and a slice of lemon will do the job.

Give it a try - it's delicious!

WEDDING CAKES

2011-01-14T19:09:00.000-08:00

Image via WikipediaI've been to two weddings in Japan. They weren't so different from weddings back home, except that they seemed rather more formal and lavish. Many young Japanese couples just have Western style weddings these days, and there are lots of "chapels" around Japan with hired-for-the-day Caucasian "ministers" (often just actors.) But some couples have both a Western and a traditional Japanese ceremony (probably at twice the expense, not to mention all that exhausting effort!)

But this post is not about ceremonies, it's about wedding cakes. The weddings I attended had fairly standard looking wedding cakes, grand white tiered affairs. Someone told me that like the "ministers" they are hired rather than bought! I don't know if that's true, but I do know that the rich heavy fruitcake that is the traditional wedding cake (and Christmas cake) of countries with a British Heritage, like New Zealand, is almost unknown in Japan. Fortified with brandy or some other strong spirit, the cake can be kept for long periods of time. So the quaint custom of keeping your wedding cake's top tier for your first baby's christening or your first anniversary is not as shocking as it sounds. The flavor of the cake actually improves. I know this is true, because I followed this custom.

A little while ago my friend Sachiko brought me some traditional Japanese wedding cake. It was sweet adzuki beans covered with two layers of mochi, one white and on pink. A combination of red and white signifies celebration in Japan.
Although I like traditional Japanese sweets very much, I'd take a rich fruit wedding cake any day.
I love rich fruit cake!

GINGERBREAD MOCHI

2011-01-04T19:52:00.000-08:00

Mochi is rice cake, made by pounding cooked mochi rice till it is sticky and glutinous. It can be cooked a number of different ways, for example, in soup, or toasted over a wire grill, and with many different accompaniments such as kinako (nutty flavored toasted soybean flour), or sweet red bean jam. Soft mochi is sometimes sweetened to make little Japanese style cakes, but in winter and around New Year plain unsweetened mochi can be bought for zenzai (made from sweet red bean jam, zenzai is the delicious Japanese counterpart for hot chocolate with marshmallows), toasted mochi, and a traditional New Year soup called zoni.

Sometimes I like to experiment by combining Japanese ingredients with Western tastes. Here is one of my experiments, putting a new spin on a Japanese New Year classic. Toast some squares of plain mochi till puffed and golden brown. Immerse them in simmering water for about a minute, then roll in a mixture of kinako, kurozato (dark brown sugar), a generous amount of dried ginger, and some chopped toasted almonds. The flavor is like gingerbread. Eat while it's warm, but be careful... every year a few Japanese choke to death on mochi! I recommend taking small bites and chewing well (which is what you ought to do anyway, right?)

New Year mochi at Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto

JAPANESE NEW YEAR FOOD

2011-01-03T03:34:00.000-08:00

I know I should have done this post on New Year's Day but the truth is, I'm not the most organized person around.

Just as Western people have lots of special traditional Christmas food, in Japan they have lots of special New Year food. One of the things they eat is called osechi ryouri. For more than a thousand years Japanese people have prepared a variety of beautifully presented delicacies with special traditional meanings to be eaten on the first three days of the year.

I'm told that not many people make their own these days. Instead people spend a lot of money (typically hundreds of dollars) buying osechi ryouri. I consider myself very lucky to have been invited to friends' houses to eat gorgeous osechi ryouri three time now! The osechi ryouri in the photos was home-made too, by my friend's father, who enjoys cooking as a hobby now that he is retired.

ROTTI BUNS

2010-12-19T05:53:00.000-08:00

There's another new shop in Teramachi... (or maybe it's actually Sanjo)... and it's my idea of heaven (well, almost!) "Rotti Bun". It doesn't sound immediately appealing, does it? I'm not even sure it sounds edible. But the smell hooked me as I was walking past, and drew me into the shop. It smells like your mother is the best baker in the whole world, and she's been baking cookies and cakes just loaded up with love all day long. Seriously!

They had a selection of drinks (comparable in price and style to Starbucks) and a choice of three different buns - regular, vanilla, and chocolate. I ordered caramel macchiato and a regular rotti bun, and took a seat by the window. The coffee was just how I like it, and the *bun* ... was... !!!!!... even better than it smelt!

So what is a rotti bun? Well if you know what melon pan is you've got a starting point. A sort of cross between a sweet roll and sponge cake with a slightly crisp shell covering it (if it's any good at all.) And if you've ever eaten a freshly baked melon pan while it's still warm, well you're getting closer to a rotti bun. But its better than that. And in the center it has just the right amount of sweet butter. Every mouthful was divine, right to the last, and it was so good I didn't rush up to the counter and buy another one, because it was unthinkable that I should sully such a perfect experience with greedy repetition.

RHUBARB & TAMARILLOS

2010-12-16T23:35:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia
I mentioned rhubarb and tamarillos in my post about trifle, and someone asked me what they are...
Rhubarb is a leafy vegetable with thick fleshy stalks. The leaves would make you very sick if you ate them, but the stalks are delicious cut into 2cm lengths and cooked with some sugar (rhubarb is very sour.) People often combine it with apple for pies, or use it with breakfast cereal. It's really good with custard or crumble, and my mother makes rhubarb trifle, which I love. I've only ever seen canned rhubarb in Japan, but I've heard of people growing it here. It's very easy to grow.

Image via WikipediaTamarillos (sometimes called tree tomatoes) are a fruit about the size and shape of a kiwi fruit, with smooth dark red skin. Inside is yellow flesh, and dark red seeds like large tomato seeds. A few hardy people eat them without sugar, but I can't, because they are both sour and a little bitter. But if you peel and slice them, then sprinkle lots of sugar over and let them sit a few hours (macerate?) they become wonderful. You can also boil them with a tiny amount of water and a lot of sugar.

The flavor is very rich and strong. The only thing I can think of to compare them with is cassis, but the flavor is quite different. If you somehow get hold of some tamarillos, they are difficult to peel unless you pour boiling water over them, just like as you do for tomatoes.

Sadly I've never seen them in Japan.

CHRISTMAS TRIFLE

2010-12-16T17:49:00.000-08:00

Image via WikipediaIn New Zealand you can't really have Christmas or New Year without trifle. And probably there are many different versions as there are cooks. Basically it's three layers - a layer of broken chunks of sponge cake, a layer of thick custard and a layer of cream.

Many people pour jelly over the spongecake and let it set before they add the custard. Some people add fruit salad, fresh or canned. Some people sprinkle sherry or some other alcohol over the cake.

My mother used to make trifle with stewed rhubarb or tamarillos (sadly I hardly ever meet anyone who even knows what tamarillos are), and replace the custard with lime flavored instant pudding (That was an inspired combination!)

My favorite way to make trifle is very quick and simple. I smear raspberry jam (possibly thinned with sherry) over the chunks of sponge cake. Sometimes I add sliced banana. I think it's really important to have a nice creamy custard. And after adding the final layer of whipped cream, I decorate it with fruit, either strawberries or passion fruit pulp.

How can such an easy dessert be so incredible delicious?

MICROWAVE PAVLOVA

2010-12-12T05:28:00.001-08:00

Pavlova is a famous New Zealand dessert (whatever Australians may tell you.) The story goes that a chef created it in honour of famous ballerina Anna Pavlova when she toured New Zealand early last century.

Every New Zealand family has their pavlova specialist. In my family when I was a child, it was my Auntie Francey. At Christmas and New Year family gatherings, and whenever there was a celebration like a 21st birthday party, an engagement party or wedding anniversary, it was her responsibility to bake the pavlova.

Pavlova is a very festive and impressive dessert and many people believe it is difficult to make, but it's really very simple. Basically it is a large meringue, crunchy on the outside and marshmallow textured on the inside, topped with whipped cream and decorated with fruit, especially strawberries, kiwi fruit, or passion fruit pulp.

Usually pavlova is baked in an oven, but you can also make a version of this dessert in your microwave. Of course it doesn't have the lovely golden brown crunchy meringue. It's all marshmallow, still very delicious. And you can get the color (but not the crunch) by browning your microwave pavlova in an oven. If you'd like to try and make this, here's the recipe...

4 egg whites
pinch salt
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon vinegar

Beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until they are stiff (I wouldn't attempt this without an electric beater!)
Add the sugar gradually, sprinkling it over the surface of the egg white while continuing to beat. When there is only a little sugar remaining, mix the cornflour with it, then add to mixture. It should be thick and white and glossy, and the sugar should be dissolved (you can check by rubbing a little of the mixture between your fingers.) Finally add the essence and vinegar and beat till they are mixed in.
Now pile the mixture onto a dinner plate, and cook in microwave for 2 minutes. Leave it to cool without opening the door. When you are ready to serve, spread with whipped cream and decorate with fruit.

PANETTONE

2010-12-12T05:27:00.003-08:00

Panettone is a fruity Italian loaf often eaten at Christmas time. I especially love Panettone toasted, and it makes the best French toast I've ever eaten! (French toast with Italian bread, made by a Kiwi in Japan - how's that for fusion cuisine?!) I make this recipe in my bread-maker, and it turns out very well.

3/4 cup warm water
6 tablespoons oil
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
3 cups bread flour
1 packet dried yeast
1/2 teaspoon almond essence
1/4 chopped almonds (or walnuts)
1/4 raisins
1/4 lemon and orange candied peel
(you can add glace cherries and angelica too if you like)

Put everything in the bread-making machine and run the light crust setting.
(Of course you could make this by hand if you don't have a bread-making machine.
Just follow the instructions for any sweet bread recipe.)

GIFTS OF FOOD

2010-12-12T05:11:00.000-08:00

My friends often give me interesting food to try. Recently my friend Junko gave me two plastic containers of food. She said they would be good with rice and beer. One of the containers had small fish she said her father had prepared (no idea what kind but I think they came from Lake Biwa.) They were sauteed in soy sauce and sugar - kind of teriyaki style. I'm pretty sure the sauce was exactly the same as that used for the large cooked grasshoppers a friend from Nagano once presented me with. The fish were indeed delicious with rice, but quite bony. I wonder if small fish bones are worse than crunchy legs...

The other container had sweet potato stems, which I had no idea you could eat! And they were really good, a little sweet, and slightly sour. I wonder if the Maori people in New Zealand ever eat sweet potato stems?

PUDDING

2010-11-30T16:33:00.000-08:00

The word 'pudding' means something completely different in Japan than it does in New Zealand. When I hear 'pudding' I imagine bread pudding, rice pudding, steamed pudding, apple sponge pudding, or self-saucing chocolate pudding, or some other delicious and probably hot dessert, often served accompanied by ice-cream, whipped cream, or maybe pouring custard. But in Japan, pudding is custard with runny caramel topping. I think it's what we call creme caramel.

My first encounter with this kind of pudding was when I decided to try making some Brazilian food because a Brazilian guy was staying with us in New Zealand. A quick search of the internet produced two recipes, feijoada and pudim. The dessert had a much shorter list of ingredients, all of which I recognized and knew where to buy, so of course I made the dessert. I manged to get a nasty burn while making the caramel, but the result was so delicious I made it again many times.

In Japan the puddings are always mini, like individual creme caramels, but the caramel is always thin and liquid. They are sold in supermarkets and convenience stores, like yogurts. The matcha pudding in the picture was from somewhere a bit more upmarket, because it was a beautifully packaged gift from an employer.

Do I like pudding? Yes, it's quite nice. But now that the weather's getting colder I find myself missing New Zealand puddings...

CARAMEL BROWNIES! YUM!

2010-11-29T06:52:00.000-08:00

First there were cheesecake brownies... then there were cheesecake greenies... and now....

CARAMEL BROWNIES!! (I love caramel so much!!!)

I've been playing recipe leggo again. I used the same recipe as for cheesecake brownies, but I replaced the cheesecake mixture with caramel made by heating sweetened condensed milk in the microwave and thinned with a little cream. Viola! Caramel brownies!

MEAT AND POTATOES JAPAN STYLE

2010-11-28T18:19:00.000-08:00

If you go to the supermarket in Japan you can see huge 5kg and 10kg bags of rice and tiny 300g to 500g bags of potatoes. It's the complete opposite of New Zealand where the bags of potatoes are huge and the packets of rice are tiny. But in Japan potatoes are just another vegetable, not a staple food.

One Japanese meal I make again and again is 肉じゃが (nikujaga which means 'meat and potatoes'.) It's easy and delicious. Nikujaga uses beef sliced as thinly as bacon. Slightly fatty beef makes this dish even more delicious. But in New Zealand mince might be the easiest available option.

In a large saucepan, brown 400-500g thinly sliced beef and 1 large sliced onion in a little oil. Add 400g potato chunks (and carrot if you want.) In Japan slimy konyaku noodles are often added to this dish as well, but it is still good without them. Add water until all the ingredients are almost covered and bring to boiling point. My recipe book says to remove the scum, but I never do. (I wonder if anyone does?) Reduce the heat then add 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, 3 tablespoons sugar and a dash of sake or cooking sherry if you have some. Cover with a 'drop lid' or if you don't have one use a piece of tinfoil. Simmer until most of the liquid has gone. Serve with rice.

This tastes even better the next day!

For a more exciting version of nikujaka:

http://kyotofoodie.com/kyotofoodie-style-nikujaga/

CHEESECAKE GREENIES

2010-11-23T19:20:00.000-08:00

Seems like I always make cheesecake brownies for dessert so I decided to change the recipe around and make cheesecake 'greenies.' Instead of using melted chocolate I added extra melted butter and extra sugar, and mixed 2-3 tablespoons of matcha with the flour. The mixture was not as thick as usual. It might have been better to substitute white chocolate for dark chocolate. Or perhaps I should have creamed the butter and sugar together, then added the eggs (instead of beating the eggs and sugar then adding melted butter.) This sounds a bit like recipe leggo!

The 'greenies' turned out quite well anyway, and my workmates seemed to enjoy them.

CONVENIENCE STORE FOOD

2010-11-22T23:54:00.000-08:00

I like convenience stores in Japan. They are very convenient. They seem to stock all the essentials for life. I suppose they are comparable with dairies in New Zealand, but their prices are similar to, and occasionally even cheaper than supermarkets. If you wanted to buy a meal from a New Zealand dairy, you could get a meat pie, maybe a sandwich, an ice-cream or yogurt, a reasonable range of cookies and snacks like potato chips or maybe some fruit.

You can't get meat pies at Japanese convenience stores, but you can buy a whole range of obentos (lunch-boxes) featuring various combinations of rice, chicken, grilled salmon, cooked vegetables, noodles, salads. You can buy a pasta meal, sushi and rice balls, sandwiches and filled rolls, and of course cakes, cookies, snacks and sweets. You can heat food you buy in the store microwave, and if you don't carry your own chopsticks in the ecologically approved way, disposable utensils are available.

Here is my lunch on the last day of my ride around Lake Biwa. The coffee, peanut chocolate and rice ball were all delicious. The calzone thing was horrible. It was full of not very good mayonnaise, which is a real let-down if you are expecting melted cheese. I should have made more effort to read the packet.

KIMCHI FRIED RICE

2010-11-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

A while ago I wrote about kimchi cheese bread, and I mentioned that I love kimchi fried rice. Here's a photo of my kimchi fried rice just before I turn down the heat and put the lid on to cook the egg and melt the cheese. I usually use thinly sliced pork, and clean out whatever vegetables are lying around in the fridge. But I think beansprouts, shitake mushrooms, carrot matchsticks, and wakame seaweed are especially good in this dish.

By the way, a lot of people tell me they don't like kimchi because it's too spicy. That was my impression of kimchi too, but actually there are hundreds of different kinds of kimchi, using many different vegetables, and the kimchi I usually buy in Japan is not so spicy (probably made for Japanese tastes.) Also, I find that combining curry or kimchi with cheese seems to make it milder.

CORNFLAKE SUNDAES

2010-11-17T03:35:00.000-08:00

If you order a sundae or a parfait in Japan, it will arrive at your table looking like a dream desert, but as soon as you dig down into it you will find... CORNFLAKES!!! Sometimes you will find a lot of cornflakes. It's very strange for Westerners to find breakfast cereal in a dessert. I suppose it is similar to how Japanese people often feel if they encounter rice pudding. It's a strange world, isn't it?

EDIBLE CHRYSANTHEMUMS

2010-11-16T01:50:00.000-08:00

Image via WikipediaI've encountered a lot of completely new vegetables in Japan, and shungiku instantly became one of my favorites. This dark green leafy member of the chrysanthemum family looks a bit like spinach when it has been cooked, but had a delicate flavor unlike anything else. It's really good in nabe, delicious tossed with lettuce in salad, and wonderful steamed with a light dressing of soy sauce or ponzu. But my favorite way to eat shungiku is in clear soup with mini gyouza (a kind of small Chinese dumpling.) I always add the gyouza dressing (made of soy sauce, sesame oil, a touch of chili, and lemon juice or rice vinegar) to the soup.

DELICIOUS DINNER

2010-11-14T01:49:00.000-08:00

This was my dinner last night. I had pan-fried pork steak. Pork is my favorite meat, and I always enjoy it. I also had sweet potatoes with mustard flavored mayonnaise, fried tomato, and mushrooms with parsley pesto. It was all very delicious.

Zucchini was a real treat, because usually one zucchini costs at least 100 yen (NZ$1.50) in Japan, but my supermarket had a few for only 50 yen. I have no idea why it's so expensive here, because it's a really easy vegetable to grow. I know this because it was one of the few vegetables I managed to grow successfully in New Zealand, where I had a really pathetic vegetable garden.

NEW TEA STORE

2010-11-13T02:23:00.000-08:00

Image by MotleyPrincess via FlickrThere's a new store in town, near the Oike Street end of Teramachi, my favorite shopping street. The store is called Lupicia. (ルピシア）They sell tea, and they are a class act! The shop is gorgeous. Along the one wall there are small tins of different teas - probably hundreds - for customers to inspect and smell. If you want to try before you buy there is an area at the back of the store where they will brew a cup of whichever tea you are interested in. They have teas from all over the world, green teas, black teas, herb teas, fruit teas, flower teas, even South African red bush tea. There are some very special Japanese style teas available in pretty little sample packs of three teabags for 300 yen, and also in various sizes of beautifully packaged gift tins. They would make wonderful souvenirs or gifts for tea drinking friends back home.
The store opened just yesterday. I found they have a mail order tea business on the internet, but I chatted with the charming European manager who was strolling around the shop in traditional Japanese dress, and he told me the store is the only one in Kyoto. (After we left the store my friend and I were speculating about the nationality of the manager. My friend thought French but I thought perhaps Belgian or Swiss...)

Now I'll tell you what I bought! The first tea that attracted my interest was 'Karigane Nikki' ( 雁ヶ音日記 ) which is Houjicha (roasted tea) with cinnamon. Then there was the fruity-scented 'Karakoro' ( からころ ), a black tea flavored with yuzu (citrus) and plum. Finally I bought 'Tattoo', a green tea blend with jasmine flowers and longan fruit, which smells heavenly and is described on the packet as having a smoky flavor.
I only bought 300 yen sample packs of each of these, but I still received three gift teas at the check-out, where they also inquired whether I wanted my purchases gift wrapped. So in addition to my selections I will also be able to try 'First Flush', 'Grapefruit' and 'Champagne Rose' (no English description on the packets so I don't know what I'm in for.)

It's enough to make me wish I was into tea... but sadly, although I drink the occasional cup of tea, and I do like to try new things, what I really like is coffee...

AS-YOU-LIKE-IT PANCAKE

2010-11-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes described as Japanese 'pizza', okonomi-yaki is a kind of giant cabbage pancake or fritter, and the name literally means 'as you like it'. I realize that cabbage pancake doesn't sound very inspiring, but it's one of my favorite meals in Japan. I was introduced to okonomi-yaki by the first Japanese home-stay student who ever stayed with us. He also taught me my first Japanese words beyond konnichiwa and sayonara... ika (squid) and ebi (prawn or shrimp.) Different areas of Japan have different styles of okonomi-yaki. For example, Hiroshima-yaki uses noodles and hardly any (maybe none?) cabbage. But my favorite kind is Kansai style. Here's how I make it.

You need 2-3 cups of finely shredded cabbage, an egg, 1/4 flour, and a little cold water (2 or 3 tablespoons.) A little grated yama-imo (slimy mountain potato) always makes it better, but that would probably be difficult to get if you're not in Japan. You mix the egg, flour and water to make a medium batter, then add the shredded cabbage. And here is where 'as you like it' comes into play... add anything you like for extra flavor. Common additions are diced squid, shrimps, kimchi, cheese, pickled ginger, and chopped onion or leek. Just use your imagination, and maybe clean up the left overs in the fridge.

Heat some oil in a heavy frypan and add the mixture (it should cover the frypan and be 2-3 cm thick). Turn the heat to medium low, cover and cook for about 5 minutes. You are supposed to lay strips of thinly sliced pork belly on top before you turn it. I've used bacon, but usually I just skip this step. The easiest way to flip it is to slide it onto a plate and turn it over back into the frypan. Cook uncovered for another 5 minutes. (Check that the middle is cooked through.)

So that's the okonomiyaki, but you need the right sauce. If you can get proper Japanese okonomiyaki sauce, great! If you can't, mix 3/4 ketchup with 1/4 Worcester sauce, and a dash of soy sauce. Slather this sauce over the okonomiyaki, and a creamy mayonnaise (not sweet or vinegary) and enjoy.

If you visit Japan, you should really try to go to an okomiyaki restaurant. They are usually not expensive, and often have a large hotplate at the tables, so that you cook your own. It's fun. The picture shows Hiroshima-yaki from a restaurant near the ferry terminal at Miyajima-guchi in Hiroshima-Ken.

INSTANT SOUP

2010-11-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

Japan has all sorts of wonderful instant stuff, and I'm still surprised by something new from time to time. One of my friends gave me two different kinds of instant soup to try. I think she said the first one was from China. It looked like a rice puff cracker. You were supposed to put it in a bowl, sprinkle the powder sachet over, and pour on hot water. It was quite nice.

The other came beautifully presented in a gift box with four different flavors, small wafer containers with kanji written on them. You were supposed to break the wafer container open, place it in the bowl and pour hot water over. It was good, and even had chunks of dried vegetable in it.

FRIENDS WHO COOK

2010-11-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

I'm so lucky. I enjoy cooking myself, but I also have friends who cook. Have you ever eaten a cookie called a yoyo? Made with custard powder and sandwiched together with white icing, any New Zealander or Australian would recognize them immediately. My Kiwi friend in Japan makes divine yoyos. And her lasange is to die for.

One of my Japanese friends often makes delicious cheesecakes. Along with an Asian desert made of steamed rice cake topped with red beans, they are her specialties. Once she made a sweet potato pie with puff pastry which was really good.

Another cooking friend of mine worked in sushi shops in Toronto and California, and knows how to make some unusual and delicious variations on the usual sushi types. (Unfortunately he is used to larger, more easily cleaned kitchens so my tiny cluttered kitchen smelt horribly fishy when he was finished.)

A while ago the same friend cooked me this delightful meal. Eggplant, red peppers, beansprouts, chicken and Mexican seasoning mix. It tasted as good as it looks.

CHEESECAKE BROWNIES

2010-11-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

Cold weather makes me feel like baking... This is my favorite brownie recipe, translated from Japanese especially for you. (Who would have thought I'd find a favorite brownie recipe in Japan? But these are seriously good!)
Line a 20 cm square tin with baking paper and preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.

For the brownie mixture:
50 grams butter
150 grams chocolate pieces
60 grams (1/4 cup) of sugar
2 eggs
50 grams (1/2 cup) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the cheese mixture:
100 grams cream cheese
30 grams sugar
3 tablespoons cream
1 teaspoon lemon juice

First make the brownie mixture: Melt the chocolate and butter together over hot water (or microwave for about 50 seconds)
Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl until thick. Mix in melted chocolate, then add sifted flour and baking power and mix gently until just combined.
Now make the cheese mixture: Combine softened cream cheese with other ingredients, beating until thoroughly combined.

Pour cheese mixture onto chocolate mixture and swirl around with a spoon to create a marbled pattern. Bake for about 30 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius. Cool in tin and cut into squares or triangles.

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE

2010-10-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin cheesecake for Halloween!

Base:
Rub or cut 2 tablespoons cold butter into one and a quarter cups flour until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Mix to a stiff dough with half a cup of cold milk to which 1 teaspoon of vinegar has been added. Roll out to cover the bottom of a spring-form cake pan.
Filling:
Blend one cup of cooked pumpkin, 2 eggs, one can of sweetened condensed milk, 100grams of cream cheese, and a pinch of nutmeg in a food processor or blender until smooth.
Pour into cake pan and bake at 180 degrees C for approximately one hour. Cool in pan, and chill in refrigerator before serving.

SNOZZCUMBERS

2010-10-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

Image by Kodamakitty via FlickrHave you read BFG by Roald Dahl? It's a children's book about a big friendly giant (BFG) who lives with a lot of horrible child-eating giants in a country where the only food that grows is a kind of vegetable called a snozzcumber. These vegetables taste so bitter and disgusting it's almost no wonder the bad giants would rather eat children.

Imagine my surprise when I found snozzcumbers in Japan!! They look like fat bumpy cucumbers. Here they are known as goya (in English I think they are usually called bitter melon.) And they are supposed to be extremely good for your health. Anyway, there is a special Okinawan dish called goya champiru which has sliced goya fried with rice, egg, and maybe tofu. I can eat anything, but I don't enjoy champiru at all.

One of my good friends often brings me vegetables from her parent's vegetable garden, and one day she brought me some goya. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away, but I didn't want to eat champiru again, so for a few days it sat in the refrigerator. Then one night I was making pizza, and I decided that cheese might offset the bitter flavor and make it palatable. I removed the seeds, which are the most bitter part, and sliced the goya very thinly, then spread it over the pizza. I figured I could pick the pieces out if they tasted really bad, but I didn't need to. My flavor instincts triumphed again!

I like snozzcumbers on pizza.

APPLES FROM AOMORI

2010-10-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

There's absolutely no reason for me to still be in my pajamas at 1 pm... but I was blogging, you see, and you don't need to get dressed to do that. Then someone knocks at my door. I wasn't going to answer because I thought it might be Jehovah's Witness people again, but I change my mind, and slide open the window next to my door .

NOT Jehovah's Witnesses, but a good looking young man selling apples out of the back of a van. Red or yellow, sweet and delicious (he offers a piece of each kind to taste.) Only 500 yen for 1 kilogram.Good heavens! That's NZ$7.50! But that's what they cost at the supermarket (or more) and they look so good, and I want apples now! I just won't think about the price.

I find my money, put on some shoes and go out to the van. I buy a kilogram, two large red apples and two large yellow ones, hoping the smiling young man doesn't realize I'm still wearing my pajamas.

OUT OF BLUEBERRIES

2010-10-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

My local supermarket has been out of frozen blueberries for ages, so I've been buying frozen strawberries to use with my breakfast rice instead. They're pretty good, but I prefer blueberries. Maybe it's been a bad season for blueberries.

Did you know that black pepper and balsamic vinegar are supposed to enhance the flavor of strawberries? I don't have any balsamic vinegar, but I have been sprinkling black pepper on my rice. I think it's definitely a better match than cinnamon.

JAPANESE CURRY

2010-10-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

Fast, easy, delicious, economical and popular with just about everyone, Japanese curry is 'comfort food'. The photo is of a block of curry roux, which looks a bit like yellow chocolate. In New Zealand most folks use curry powder to make curry. You are supposed to fry the curry powder with the onions and meat to bring out the best flavor. But in Japan you add the curry roux at the end of cooking, and it flavors and thickens the curry at the same time.

If you buy curry at a restaurant (there are lots of restaurants that just sell curry) you get served a plate half covered with white rice, and half covered with curry. You also get a spoon to eat it with, and that's because it's what New Zealanders would describe as curry flavored sauce. On a lucky day you might get three or four small cubes of beef with your sauce, and maybe even a piece or two of carrot and potato. I know that sounds pretty lame, but even so it's really delicious and satisfying.
However when I make curry at home I make it chunky, with lots of onion, potato, and carrot, and instead of beef cubes I use thinly sliced pork. I make a big pot and the flavor gets better and better as it sits in the fridge.
Once I went to a friend's house in Japan and was served the most incredibly delicious curry I have ever had. We all pressed the cook for her secret. She told us it was because she used twleve onions!!!

KIMCHI CHEESE BREAD

2010-10-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaKimchi is a Korean food - pickled Asian cabbage (or sometimes other vegetables) flavored with chili and garlic. Koreans seem to eat it with almost every meal. I first encountered it back home in New Zealand when we had Korean home-stay students staying with us. I tried to make home-made kimchi, and while the result was fairly tasty, the smell was absolutely terrible every time I opened the refrigerator.

I sometimes buy kimchi in Japan. I love kimchi fried rice, and kimchi-cheese takoyaki (octopus dumplings) are the most delicious takoyaki I've ever had. Kimchi name is also very good. But recently I decided to experiment with kimchi-cheese bread (using my bread-maker of course.)

I made a basic white bread dough, then when the breadmaker finished the second kneading cycle, removed the dough, and quickly rolled it out. Then I generously sprinkled it with grated cheese, and dotted it with kimchi (warmed in the microwave so that it wouldn't slow the final rising of the bread.) Finally I rolled it up again and pushed it back into my bread-maker to rise and bake.

It was delicious! Definitely a winner! I put the kimchi a little too thickly in some places, so the filling fell out when I sliced the bread. Next time I will roll the dough more thinly and spread slightly less kimchi.

HISASHIBURI !

2010-10-19T05:53:00.000-07:00

That means 'long time no see' in Japanese. I've been kind of busy because I had an exhibition of my artwork. It's all over now, but to commemorate the occasion I thought I'd post a picture of my Sakuramochi Print!

Image via Wikipedia
A lot of Western people don't enjoy traditional Japanese sweets, but I really like them. When I first came to Japan back in 2003, I ate more things with sweet red beans than chocolate.
One unusual traditional style sweet I really enjoy is sakura-mochi. It is often served with matcha (green tea) in Spring, but it is available throughout the year. A center of sweet red bean paste is covered with sticky pounded rice, then wrapped in a salty pickled cherry leaf. I have to admit, the first time I ate it I thought it was interesting, but wasn't sure whether I liked it. But now it is one of my favorites. I love the flavor contrast between sweet and salty when you first bite into it.

SEAWEED: WAKAME

2010-09-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

Many different kinds of seaweed are eaten in Japan. One of them is wakame (pronounced wa-ka-may.)

This deep green sea vegetable is a standard addition to the miso soup eaten with many (most?) Japanese meals, whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner. I've had some delicious miso soup, but I've also been served a lot of miso soup I did not enjoy. But good soup or bad soup, I always like the wakame. One of my favorite Japanese salads is a combination of wakame, thinly sliced cucumber, and seafood with a sweet vinegary dressing.

Recently I traveled to Naruto on the Southern tip of Shikou to see the whirlpools there. One of the local food specialties in that area is wakame. In a souvenir shop they had tasting samples of wakame simply dressed with ponzu, a combination of sour citrus and soy sauce. It was so delicious that I bought a big pack of dried wakame to take home with me.

FOOD FOR CYCLING

2010-09-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

I often go on long bicycle rides, and it always makes me really hungry. Sometimes I pack a picnic, but even if I do, I eat it all up quickly and end up buying stuff from convenience stores. A while ago I rode from Kyoto to Uji to Ishiyama and back to Kyoto. The scenery was great, especially along the Uji / Seta River. I took a rice ball with corn, okra, and black pepper, some walnut brownies, a mini-pack of tofu, and a nashi pear. I ate all that at Uji, and by the time I got to Ishiyama I needed more food, so I bought fried chicken wings and a sweet potato chou cream (in NZ we call those cream puffs.)

Sadly I don't seem to lose any weight from biking....

BREAKFASTS

2010-09-15T02:02:00.000-07:00

I never skip breakfast. In New Zealand I always ate home-made meusli. Bought meusli is often loaded with sugar and far too sweet for my taste. Rolled oats for meusli are available in Japan, but only in expensive small bags which the miserly streak in my psyche prevents me from buying. The classic Japanese breakfast is rice, grilled fish, pickles and miso soup. It's very healthy and good... just not what I want for breakfast. Lunch maybe, but not breakfast.

So I have eggs sometimes - fried, scrambled or maybe a cheese omelet. Sometimes I have toast (made from my delicious home-made multi-grain bread.) However the breakfast I eat most often is rice 'pudding'. Many Japanese are repulsed at the idea of sweet rice, but none of them seem to have actually tried it...

Rice with blueberries, walnuts & yoghurt

When I say rice pudding, it's not the rice pudding my mother used to make (although I love that too, and I still can't make it as well as my mother.) I use left over cooked rice. In winter I usually heat it. In summer I leave it cold. I add something sweet, like a handful of raisins or blueberries, or some raw chopped apple, or even some whole sweet beans that are used in traditional Japanese desserts and sweets. If I have walnuts I add a small handful of walnut pieces, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I top it off with a couple of big spoonfuls of natural unsweetened yogurt. The fruit or beans add enough sweetness for me.

It's quick, healthy (even more so if I use brown or multi-grain enhanced rice), satisfying, and delicious.

PARSLEY PESTO

2010-09-13T02:31:00.000-07:00

Spaghetti with chicken, tomatoes & pesto

In case you don't know what it is, pesto is a green paste made with basil, pine nuts and olive oil. You can spread it on bread, toss it through cooked pasta, dribble it onto pizza or cooked chicken. It's delicious with potatoes too, whether they are mashed, diced, sliced, boiled, baked or fried. Try mixing it with a creamy mayonnaise - yum!

In Japan basil is sold for premium prices, in tiny little bunches, or in little pots that start to die on me before I even get them home. Pine nuts are expensive too, and probably only available from foreign food stores. But you can buy huge bunches of parsley at the supermarket, or if you have a garden it's easy to grow. And parsley makes wonderful pesto. Heres how...

You need a blender or a food processor. Put in 4 peeled cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup almonds or walnuts, about 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 to 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 5 cups of loosely packed parsley (remove any tough thick stalks), and 1/2 cup olive oil. Process until everything is finely chopped, then add up to 1/2 cup more oil slowly until you have a dark green paste that is just thin enough to pour. Store in a glass or plastic container and refrigerate. Use within 3 months, or freeze for longer storage.

You can mix parsley with basil, and I haven't tried it out yet but probably you can make it with other herbs or mixtures of herbs. I've made it without nuts or cheese too, and it was still good.

By the way, did you know that parsley is a cure for garlic breath? So eating them together like this means you don't have to suffer a garlic after-taste next day.

YUBA

2010-08-29T23:39:00.000-07:00

Tofu is a diet staple in Japan, and there are many different kinds. Yesterday my friend Sachiko handed me a packet of yuba and said "please enjoy". I did !

When tofu is made the soy milk is heated and a 'skin' forms on the surface, just like with hot milk, but more delicate. the skin is carefully lifted from the surface and stacked in layers. This is yuba. I admit, when I was first told about yuba I didn't think it sounded appealing... but these days I'm a confirmed fan.

So what's it like? Well, the texture is like very creamy scrambled egg (just the way I like it!) And the flavour is of course like soft tofu. It can be eaten warm or chilled and is served with tsuyu (a dip made of soy sauce and clear stock.) I'm not sure whether you are suposed to tip the tsuyu over ithe yuba, or dip pieces of yuba into the tsuyu. Both ways worked.

Thank you Sachiko! It was delicious!

MATCHA LAMINGTONS

2010-08-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

Lamingtons are squares of sponge cake Covered with chocolate (or raspberry) icing and grated coconut. They were invented in Australia and named after an Australian Governor General, Lord Lamington. They are popular throughout Australia and New Zealand.

I've heard of lemon lamingtons (sounds nice - must try it!) but maybe I'm the first person to make matcha lamingtons...? Anyway, green tea powder and grated coconut are a delicious combination. If you'd like to try this out, the recipe is below.

Ingredients:

Sponge cake cut into squares. You can also use sponge drops. (In Japan I make these with 100 yen packets of べべカステラ　or　カステラ from the supermarket.)
1 cup of icing sugar
1 cup dried grated coconut
2-3 tablespoons of green tea powder (matcha)
a little hot water

Combine the icing sugar and matcha.
Add hot water gradually, mixing well, until the mixture
is a slightly thick syrup (like honey on a warm day.)
Put coconut into a bowl. Now the process becomes very sticky and messy!
Coat the sponge cake by dipping it into the syrup and turning it over.
I recomend using tongs or two forks, but some people just use fingers.
Be careful not to break up the fragile sponge cake.
Next lift the sponge cake and let the extra syrup drain of for a few seconds,
then place in the coconut and turn until completely covered.
Place on a tray or plate to set.
Repeat until you run out of sponge cake.

CUTE COFFEE

2010-08-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you know I love coffee. At home I drink drip filter coffee with milk, no sugar, but at cafes I usually order a latte (not at Starbucks though, because their lattes are too weak for my taste.) I love the thick foamy topping on lattes. Yum.

Recently I went sightseeing in Nara. Promoters of the ancient Japanese capital have come up with an anime character named Sento-kun. They hope to make Nara appeal to the younger generations in Japan who, strangely, are not flocking to Nara to look at dusty relics and mouldering temples.

We had coffee at the Kintetsu station before commencing sightseeing, and as an optional extra you could order latte decorated with Sento-kun. Of course I bought one to take a photo. They made the image by sprinkling chocolate powder over a stencil. Very easy to do. I want to try this out with some stencils of my own !

THINGS ON TOAST

2010-08-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

I have a breadmaker and bake my own whole-grain bread. It makes wonderful toast. Tomatoes on toast has been one of my favorite things since I was a child. I would slather on delicious New Zealand butter thickly, top with sliced tomato, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Since I came to Japan however, I've pretty much given up on butter. Hokkaido butter is pretty good, but it's also pretty expensive. Besides, I've lost the illusion of invincibility that is a part of being young, so using butter the way I like to use it (thickly) makes me feel vaguely guilty. And perhaps most significant of all, Japanese refrigerators don't seem to have butter conditioners. But I've found a very satisfactory substitute - mayonnaise.

I hate the too-sweet, too-acidic 'mayonnaise' in New Zealand. I never used it. You can buy wonderful mayonnaise in Japan, rich and creamy. Add crushed garlic and it would do for aoli (don't tell my friend Sandra, who is a real foodie, I said that!) I usually buy 'karashi' (hot muststard) flavor. It's an excellent stand-in for butter with tomatoes (doesn't work well with marmalade.) It's also really good with ham on toast. I never ate ham on toast before a Japanese friend introduced me to it, but now I'm a big fan.

The other thing I really love to eat on toast is banana. And that doesn't need butter, just a sprinkle of cinnamon.

LOTUS STEMS

2010-08-19T06:59:00.000-07:00

Show me a fruit or vegetable I've never seen before, and I'll try it!

Recently I spotted something new at the supermarket. I couldn't read the name, but luckily I was with a Japanese friend who told me the thick light green stalks were lotus stems. Although lotus root is a common vegetable in Japan, my friend had never seen the stems on sale before. Of course I bought some and, after returning home, Googled lotus stem recipes to find out how to eat them. I found two main kinds of recipes that used lotus stems - Vietnamese salads,and Indian currys. Having a large quantity of stems at my disposal I was able to try both. I didn't have all the neccessary ingredients so I improvised and what I made is rather different from the recipe I found. The results were very tasty anyway, so here are MY recipes!

LOTUS STEM SALAD
500g of lotus stems cut in half lengthwise then into 2cm slices.
juice of 1 lemon
100 grams julienned carrot
1 onion finely sliced and soaked in a little rice vinegar.
100g cooked prawns or shrimps
small block of silken tofu, drained and crumbled
50g 'Vietnamese pickles' (I used pickled myoga)
50-100g roasted unsalted peanuts (you can leave
them whole or chop them if you prefer)
finely sliced red chili
chopped fresh basil or coriander
fish sauce or soy sauce

Soak lotus stems in water and lemon juice for 15 minutes, then drain well.
Add carrot and toss in 75g sugar. Leave for 30 minutes, then drain again.
Combine stems and carrot with prawns or shrimps, pickles, vinegared onion, peanuts, roughly crumbled tofu, chili, and basil or coriander. Sprinkle with fish sauce or soy sauce to taste.

This salad was crunchy, fresh tasting, and totally delicious. You could maybe serve it with shrimp crackers.

LOTUS STEM CURRY
300-400g prawns (or mixed seafood)
300mls fish stock (Make it with prawn heads
and shells? I didn't. I'm a lazy cook.)
2-3 tbsp Thai green curry paste
1 tablespoon of turmeric
150g lotus stems, cut into 5cm pieces
can of coconut milk
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce
fresh basil or coriander

Mix curry paste and turmeric with fish stock.
Heat to simmering then add lotus stems and seafood.
Cook a few minutes then add coconut milk,
lemon or lime juice, sugar, and fish sauce or soy sauce.
Serve sprinkled with roughly chopped herbs.

I ate this with chopped tomatoes and fresh mint (and white rice of course.) It was great!

Just a couple of weeks after this foray into lotus stem cuisine I traveled to Kurashiki. We ate a lunch that included sashimi at a canal-side restaurant in Kurashiki, and there under the sashimi, diagonally sliced and wafer thin, an exquisite garnish of pale green lotus stem. My Japanese companions didn't know what it was, but I did!

RICE & OTHER GRAINS

2010-08-09T02:45:00.000-07:00

In Japan I buy three different kinds of grains. Of course I buy rice. Brown rice is available, but I usually buy white rice because I find it more versatile. Japanese rice has short, rounded grains and is kind of sticky when cooked. I eat rice most days, sometime with every meal, although my breakfast is very un-Japanese (more about breakfast in another post.)

In addition to white rice I also buy 'mugi' which is barley. I get barley to mix with the rice to add fiber and vitamins. And I like the slightly nutty texture it gives the rice, without being too 'wholegrain'. Also, sometimes I add it to vegetable soups in cold weather. Vegetable soup with barley reminds me of my mother's vegetable soup back in NZ.

Finally I buy mixed grain. It includes barley, millet, corn, black sesame seeds, brown rice, and several other unidentified grains. It's a bit expensive, and health conscious Japanese add it sparingly to rice, but I buy it for bread. I've always preferred wholegrain bread, but the selection and pricing of wholegrain bread in Japan seems aimed at discouraging general consumption. It is only available from expensive little boutique bakeries.

Never mind! Have breadmaker, will improvise!

Here is my wholegrain bread recipe for a breadmaker. It makes very delicious bread, excellent for sandwiches or toast. It reminds me of Vogel's bread in New Zealand.

Wholegrain Bread: makes about 1 kg loaf
Ingredients:

1/2 cup water
5/8 cup milk (or milk and yoghurt mixed)
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup cooked mixed grains
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast

Follow manufacturers directions (OR put everything in the machine and switch on. That's what I do!)

ICE-CREAM

2010-08-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

I went to Kintai Bridge in July 2009, and there was an ice-cream shop with 100 different flavors! Unfortunately I had just finished a delicious blueberry-yogurt ice-cream from a shop with a much smaller selection, and I had no appetite left. Maybe I should say fortunately... how do you choose from 100 flavors?! In Nagano at a hot spring resort I once sampled wasabi ice-cream, but I didn't enjoy it.

But the ice-creams that really get me excited are the ones you can buy at the convenience stores. They bring out seasonal flavors (and not just in ice-cream) which you can only buy for a couple of months and then they're gone. Sometimes they re-appear next time the season comes around, and sometimes they're gone forever. Like the divine chocolate fudge brownie - frozen fudge brownie on a stick - briefly available in Winter 2007. It still haunts my taste buds!

Actually, winter is my ice-cream season. I know that's weird, but in summer I'd usually rather have iced tea. But when the weather is freezing and I'm bundled up in coat, hat, and scarf, I crave ice-cream. The object of my ice-cream desires during the winter of 2009-2010 was the wonderful kinako-mochi monaka. Kinako is a nutty flavored powder made from roasted and ground soy beans, and mochi is a soft, doughy, slightly sweet rice-flour cake. I think this one is a standard because I saw it first in 2008-2009 winter. Lucky me!

Another frozen treat I'm particularly fond of is the frozen fruit ice lollies. The first one I tried was mandarin flavor - frozen juice packed full of mandarin segments. That was good, but was subsequently eclipsed by the mango version. Recently I saw grape and peach versions at the convenience store, but I haven't tried them yet.... it's summer in Japan, you see.

FRIED RICE

2010-08-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Todays dinner was spicy fried rice with baby squid, and a salad of sliced cucumber and shiso leaves with bought onion dressing. (Shiso is a kind of herb.)
Fried rice has got to be one of the easiest things to make and is great for using up left overs, or odds and ends lying around in the fridge. To make this I heated some sesame oil in the frypan, added the squid which had been shaken in flour, salt and chili powder, and fried until brown. Next I added some sliced onion and fried that briefly. Then I added cooked rice and continued cooking till it was heated through. A splash of soy sauce and a shake of black pepper finished it off.
It was VERY delicious!

CRACKERS IN JAPAN

2010-08-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

Japanese crackers are so good. There are many different kinds. I especially love the little thin white crackers with tiny pink shrimps and flecks of green seaweed, and the thicker crackers with small black beans. Yum! But the best senbei I've had are the big ones you can buy warm from the oven (grill?) at senbei stands. Yesterday I ate a yuzu flavored senbei from a shop near Ginkakuji. It was covered with large sugar crystals, very crunchy, not too sweet, and not too salty, with just a delicate hint of yuzu citrus flavor. Absolutely wonderful.

SASHIMI-DON

2010-08-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Japanese meals is donburi. 'Donburi' is a bowl of hot rice with some kind of topping... so gyu-don is beef on rice, and buta-don is pork on rice, and oyako-don is rice with chicken and egg (oya = parent and ko = child!) Donburi is easy. It's quick. It's satisfying. And for me it's also comfort food.

Lots of Japanese restaurants sell donburi. You can often buy a a donburi set which includes a generously sized bowl of rice and topping, a small dish of Japanese pickles, a cup of Japanese tea, and a small salad for under 1000 yen. It's very good value.

I absolutely adore ikura-don, which is salmon eggs on rice. I also really like any kind of sashimi-don (sashimi being raw fish.) I love sushi and sashimi, but in my opinion raw fish over hot rice is a heavenly combination! I sometimes go to one of the sashimi-don restaurants in Sanjo Teramachi where I usually order a combination of salmon eggs (ikura), sqid (ika) and prawn (ebi.) If you want you can add soy sauce, wasabi or maybe ponzu (combination of sour citrus fruit and soy sauce) but I usually eat it without any extra flavoring.

Sashimi-don is really easy to make at home. I just buy a tray of sashimi from the supermarket, cook up some plain rice, and eat! Simple, elegant and totally delicious!

WHAT DO I EAT?

2010-08-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

My attitude toward food has always been celebratory and appreciative. I enjoy food! There are some foods I enjoy less than others, but I can honestly say there is nothing I dislike. Although I did dislike a bitter vegetable called goya for a while. But people all around me were eating and apparently enjoying the bitter vegetable (think snozzcumbers from Roald Dahl's BFG) so just I kept trying different recipes until I found a way to enjoy it.

People often ask me, "what do you cook?" or "what do you eat?" I suppose they ask me this because I'm a New Zealander living in Japan. My Japanese friends are probably just curious about what a foreigner might eat, and my NZ/Australian friends know I'm a bit of a foodie who loves to cook, so they wonder what I'm cooking up in Japan.

So here it is: Cathy's food adventures!

My Food Adventures

MOCHI DANGO in SPRING COLORS

MY FAVORITE JAPANESE NABE

FRENCH FOOD

CREAM STEW

ZENZAI

EDAMAME FLAVORED SNACKS

CHOCO-MELONPAN

FRESH STRAWBERRY 'JAM'

MEXICAN TORTILLIAS IN JAPAN

MATCHA SYRUP DESSERT

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