PUDDING

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!

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

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

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.

Related articles

• Cheesecake Brownies (cathysfoodadventures.blogspot.com)

CONVENIENCE STORE FOOD

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.

Related articles

• Food for Cycling (cathysfoodadventures.blogspot.com)

KIMCHI FRIED RICE

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

 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?