Sweet Seasons/ May 2006 - Azalea -

I never meant to post about wagashi on the last day of every month, but looks like that is the way it is going recently, right? See, it tells you that obachan is innately a procrastinator. * OMG!! I just realized that I skipped a wagashi entry for April! I'll do something about it sometime this weekend... Azalea This wagashi is another nerikiri (for the explanation of what nerikiri is, click here) with beautiful gradation of red and white. The black sesame seeds in the center represent azalea stamen. It is azalea season here in Japan now, and those in the above photo are my dad’s azalea which was in full bloom last weekend. Here I would like to share with you a wonderful site I found, which shows various traditional wagashi tools and how they are used. Though the text is in Japanese, it is not difficult to imagine the procedures from the explanatory(?) photos. And don't forget to visit this site to find out how much each of the traditional wagashi tools costs. Yes, try the currency converter linked on the sidebar ---- and scream! ;) Wagashi by OGASAWARA Categories: Wagashi

Meet the Local People at the Sunday Market

Just recently, I found out about the Farmer’s Market International Parade hosted by CookingDiva. It’s been a while since I last posted about our Sunday Market, one of Kochi’s major sightseeing attractions, so I decided to jump in. CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE. As I wrote in my previous post, the Sunday Market in Kochi city has a history of 300 years, and the number of outside stalls along the street (apx. 1.3 km) is said to be over 600 now. This market begins just across the street (well, almost) from the main gate of Kochi castle, so it must have been very convenient for castle employees in the feudal era. It’s so close that I can’t help imagining the feudal lord or his family members sneaking out from the castle once in a while to browse the stalls despite the rigid class system of that time. :) The Sunday Market is not a regular farmer’s market; in addition to things like plants, fish, fruits and vegetables, they sell antiques, clothes, toys, everyday items and even hermit crabs! This is the place where you see fresh foods and kind smiles on local ojichan and obachan’s faces. Read More Coming from the direction of the castle, first you’ll see the stalls of antiques and cutting tools on one side, and those of plants on the other. All of these patterns are made with 5-yen coins. Mushroom bed logs and cutting tools. Ojichan giving advice to female customers. This is Kochi’s local specialty: imo kempi (deep-fried sweet potato strips with icing). You can see this imo-kempi tower right outside Hirome ichiba. As I wrote in my previous post, Aisukurin is very popular here in Kochi. And this is the stall of ever-famous Sunday Market imoten (batter-fried sweet potatoes). Don’t miss the best imoten in Kochi! Yuzu citrus products. Bottled yuzu vinegar, yuzu miso, yuzu marmalade, seasonings with freeze-dried yuzu rind added, and more… So many kinds of green tea and herb tea! Pickles. One of the signs in the right photo says that all of these red pickles were colored with aka-jiso (purple perilla) only, which means, no artificial coloring. Anpanman lollipops and hermit crabs. I was told that these crabs would make lovely pets… :O "Lunch break" Fresh veggies. The vine-like things piled up in the right photo are sweet potato vines. I don’t know about other places, but here in Kochi some people boil them and eat them. They taste quite good when seasoned with dashi, soy sauce, sugar, sake and mirin. Dried fish. Different kinds of baby fish and katsuobushi, another specialty of Kochi. I’m not sure if she was going to sell what she was cooking, or if it was their lunch… This obachan asked me to include her in the photo. She was so excited when I told her that the photo was going to be on the internet. Plum season is just beginning. These green plums are typically used for umeboshi and ume-shu. The tomatoes are what they call “fruit tomatoes” which were bred to improve sweetness. These boxed fruit tomatoes have become a popular souvenir/gift recently, and they can be delivered. Well, these were just a part of the 600 outside stalls in the market. To fully enjoy the adventurous discoveries, come to our Sunday Market and meet local people! :D Many of them have been selling things here every Sunday since their parents’ generation. The venders are friends to each other, and you can see them chatting with each other and helping each other. When you see an unattended stall, venders at the neighboring stalls will tell you where the stall owner went and when (s)he will be back. Or they might even tell you the price of the goods and where to leave the money instead of the absent stall owner. In fact, this is a good place for visitors (esp. those from Western countries) to see something which is different from their common sense. I was once told by one of the venders that they have an unspoken rule here which is: keeping a laid-back, almost outdated harmonious atmosphere is very important in this market. Thus, they do not make outrageous efforts to advertise their products to win more customers than neighboring venders. Winning “against” others is not the biggest priority here. For them, this is a place where people who got tired of individualistic competitions can indulge in a nostalgic atmosphere of good old ways in a small countryside. But this explanation just brought some Westerners almost furious: they say that each vender must be wanting to make more money than others, so any kind of creative or loud advertisement should be allowed, because it will create a good competition and as a result will improve the sales of the market as a whole. Perhaps those Westerners left Kochi pitying conservative and unmotivated locals. But I’m counting on the local folks to keep this laid-back atmosphere for another hundred years or even longer. ;) Categories: Kochi

Konnyaku Day!

Jason of Pursuing my passions kindly invited me to join a blog event, “Konnyaku Day” which falls onto May 29th. To celebrate this day and bring the lovely gray food into the spotlight, participants post about konnyaku dish on his/her own blog and send URL to Jason so that he can do a roundup. OK. Here’s my konnyaku post ;) If you are not familiar with konnyaku, wikipedia tells you what it is. It certainly is considered as a diet food today, but when I was a child, it was known for a different health benefit; it was said to prevent urethral calculus. I heard this from our elementary school teacher, and I’ve met several people who said, “Oh, yeah! I’ve heard of that, too!” And none of them knew why and how konnyaku could prevent that disease. I don’t, either. :P BTW, I wonder how many of the participants decided to join this Konnyaku Day event because they really love this gelatinous food. To be honest, I have never been too crazy about konnyaku. Yes, there were a couple of times that I truly enjoyed delicate and tasty sashimi konnyaku from Kyoto or somewhere. But usually I don’t feel so happy when I find that gray stuff in simmered dishes. Nevertheless, I always include konnyaku in the ingredients when I make oden (Japanese hotchpotch) for a particular reason that I mentioned in my previous post. Now, for this post, I chose something I have heard of but never tried making before. Konnyaku no miso ni (konnyaku simmered with miso) Here's the recipe. Konnyaku no miso ni Ingredients: 1 block konnyaku 1 Tbsp vegetable oil 2 Tbsp miso 1 Tbsp sake 1 Tbsp sugar 1 Tbsp mirin (rice wine) 2 tsp soy sauce 40 mL dashi stock 1 Tbsp roasted white sesame seeds A little ginger juice – optional Some salt Sprinkle salt over konnyaku block and pound with a pestle or a rolling pin.* Wash and tear konnyaku into small chunks.** Put them in a saucepan, add water just to cover them, heat and bring to boil. Drain. In a pot (or a frying pan), heat vegetable oil. Add konnyaku chunks and fry for a few minutes. Add miso and heat until the miso is browned and gives out good aroma. Add sake, sugar, mirin, soy sauce and dashi stock. Simmer until the soup is thickened, stirring occasionally. Turn the heat to high and coat konnyaku with miso glaze, shaking the pot. (Add ginger juice, if desired.) Transfer to plate and sprinkle with roasted white sesame seeds. * I didn’t know this until recently, but this preparation is supposed to let excess water ooze out and make konnyaku suitable for simmering. ** Torn konnyaku chunks have ragged surface which allows better absorption of liquid seasonings. I came up with this recipe after combining a couple of recipes and adding my own twists, but still I was not totally happy with the taste. It will taste a lot differently if I use a different type of miso. ------- These are sashimi konnyaku blocks that are meant to be sliced and eaten raw like sashimi (sliced raw fish). They say this type of konnyaku contains more water and less calcium hydroxide. Sashimi konnyaku is often flavored with things like green laver or yuzu citrus. (Like so many other food products here in Kochi, deep sea water is added to these sashimi konnyaku in the photo.) Sashimi Konnyaku --- Green Laver(Aonori) and Yuzu flavor Some people eat sashimi konnyaku with wasabi and soy sauce just like they eat sashimi, but for me sumiso (miso-vinegar dressing) is “the must.” The way sumiso brings out the flavor of green laver or yuzu is so delightful and refreshing, and it is something particularly enjoyable on a hot summer day. I guess you could make the same kind of food out of gelatin, but I would definitely prefer the firmer and somewhat chewy texture of sashimi konnyaku in order to fully appreciate this very wafoo (Japanese-style) combination of flavors. Categories: Japanese, WaFooD

I Will Be Gone for the Weekend...

I'm visiting my parents' house this weekend. Tomorrow my mom and I are going to pick sea shells (abalone -- hopefully). Hope it won't rain tomorrow, but even if it would, it won't stop us anyway ;)

Because I Couldn't Find a Ripe Avocado...

Soybean Tomato Cucumber and Shiso Salad To be perfectly honest, what I really wanted tonight was avocado and shrimp salad. But I couldn't find a ripe avocado, so I changed my mind and made this salad for my late night supper. After supper, I found a recipe for honey ginger dressing on the net. Now I'm curious -- really curious. Maybe tomorrow... ;) Categories: Western-inspired

LOOK!!

Dog Rose ... Blooming!! Looks like I'm going to be able to pick (a few) rose hips this year!! :D So happy... because I was really disappointed last year. And... wow!! :D (May 25, 2006) Categories: Garden

Super-Runny Marmalade!

Konatsu Marmalade on a Breakfast Biscuit Yep, I did it again, and this time I almost blew it. What did I do? I made konatsu marmalade with my dad’s konatsu oranges again. Last year I had a great success, so this year I wanted to make more and give some to my mom as a belated mother’s day gift. IIRC, last year I used about 200 g of konatsu orange peels, which was apx. 1/5 of the amount mentioned in the original recipe, and I reduced the amount of other ingredients accordingly. This time I used a little more than 500 g! Imagine how long I had to keep slicing the peels… It was almost a nightmare, even with my favorite background music on all the way through. Now I remembered that last year, I kept adding konatsu juice and lemon juice at the end, which probably changed the proportion in the original recipe quite a bit. So this time I decided to follow the proportion more precisely. I put the shredded peels, sugar, konatsu juice and water in a big pot and brought them to a boil, then simmered for about an hour. At that point, the shredded peels didn’t look as soft as I remembered from last year, and the mixture seemed very runny, but I didn’t care, thinking that adding pectin at the end would make everything perfectly fine. Everything seemed fine until I added some pectin…. Still the marmalade was not thickening. I simmered it for another 15 to 20 minutes, and added a little more pectin…. Still no good… I simmered it for another 30 minutes, but still, in the pot, rather stiff peels were simmering in runny orange soup. It did not look set at all! So I added a little more pectin… and tasted the marmalade. OMG!!! IT WAS AWFULLY TERRIBLY EXTREMELY KILLINGLY SWEET!! The tricky part, which I completely forgot this time, was that this pectin I used was pre-mixed with sugar -- yes, the kind you can directly add to the simmering fruit & juice mixture. The pectin mentioned in the original recipe was obviously not the pre-mixed type. So if I was going to use the same amount of pectin mentioned in the recipe or more, I should have reduced the amount of sugar that I added to the mixture beforehand. There I had to choose from 2 alternatives: a) runny marmalade with tolerable sweetness and some flavor of this charming citrus fruit or b) properly set marmalade with intolerable sweetness with no trace of refreshing konatsu flavor. I chose a), thinking that refrigerating would help making it thicker. To me, keeping the refreshing taste of konatsu was more important, after all. So I added more konatsu juice, lemon juice and water until I thought it was finally OK, then canned the super-runny marmalade the same way I did last year. While cooling the hot jars on the kitchen table, I went through the original recipe one more time, and found out what I forgot to do… I forgot to squeeze the water out from the shredded konatsu peels after they were soaked in water for three hours!!! :O Luckily, as I had expected, refrigerating did make the marmalade a bit less runny, and taste-wise it is OK, as far as you don’t mind a little too fibery texture for marmalade. Konatsu Marmalade on Yogurt This is the best way to consume this runny marmalade, I guess. Honestly, this combination is not bad at all. I gave mom 2 small jars of this marmalade when I had lunch with her the day before yesterday, and she hasn’t called me yet to tell me whether she liked it or not. Maybe she is still looking for a politically correct way to express her impression of the marmalade. ;) Categories: Sweets,Bloopers

Sticky & Slimy...

Mekabu Huwa-Toro Udon There is a franchise udon place called“Hanamaru udon” near the office I work at in the daytime. It is a self-service place which is very convenient for someone who wants to have quick lunch alone, like me. They have a good variety of non-expensive udon and sides, and in the typical fast-food setting, it is usually easy to find a vacant counter seat. Yes, that is a cafeteria-type self-service place where you take a tray first and pick the topping(s) and side(s) you want from the shelves, then order the kind of udon you like, which will be prepared within a minute or so, and finally move to the casher and pay. This sticky & slimy udon is one of their recent entries. They have several versions of this huwa-toro series, including: natto, mekabu and beef, for each of which you can have a choice of either cold or warm soup. The one in the above photo is the mekabu version. OK. Let’s see what the name of this udon, “mekabu huwa-toro udon” tells us. Mekabu is the slimy green stuff next to the egg (right) and it is sporophyll of wakame kelp (Undaria pinnatifida). It is supposed to be rich in fucoidan which is said to have several health benefits. Fuwa (fluffy?) probably came from the texture of the grated yam, the white stuff next to the egg (left). Yam is rich in mucin which is said to enhance the digestion and absorption of protein, and protect the stomach wall, thus lowering the risk of gastric ulcer. Toro (slimy?) applies to all of the mekabu, yam and okura. Here in Japan they say slimy foods are good for health, and the combination of fucoidan and mucin does sound healthy to me. The only problem with this dish was that after you finish udon noodles, most of the healthy ingredients were left in the bowl with the soup. But if I’m not mistaken, they started offering an optional free (?? I’m not 100% sure about this point) bowl of rice with this dish so that you can pour the slimy soup mixture over the rice to make a very healthy and tasty donburi. I might give the donburi a try next time. BTW, hanamaru is a rating given to something that is well-done in Japan. Oh, that reminds me… In Japan, in most school settings, teachers give circles to the correct answers and checkmarks to wrong ones on your written exams. (So you can imagine how shocked I was to see so many checkmarks on my first written exam in the U.S.) In my childhood, kindergarten and elementary school teachers gave hanamaru (flower circle) when they thought a kid did a very good job. I wonder if they still do that these days… Categories: Japanese

Strawberry Mousse

Strawberry Mousse Did I mention about “a layer of white wine jelly over strawberry mousse” in my previous post? OK. Here it is. I gave it a try this afternoon. Yep. I’m the stupid one who forgot about the fact that strawberry mousse does not turn out really red. With a layer of white wine jelly, the dessert would have turned out pretty colorless. So I had to change my mind about the top layer. How about a little Japanese touch... So, to make the top layer, I added some strawberry puree to the white-wine & gelatin mixture to give it a reddish color. It was definitely a better idea than a plain white-wine jelly layer, I think. BTW, I’m a little sick of this same old “strawberry slices and mint leaves” combination. Maybe you are, too? Unfortunately the chervil in my balcony garden is just sprouting now and not ready to be on this lovely dessert today. I could have done something with whipped cream, but I was a little too tired to be creative after getting a haircut this afternoon... I still have a lot left in my fridge. Wanna come over and try some? ;) Categories: Sweets

Buta no Kakuni

Buta no Kakuni (Day 1) Sorry I forgot to tell you this earlier… My bronchitis is completely cured now! My cough was almost gone on Sunday and I posted about it on my another blog, but I forgot to officially announce it here and thank all the readers who cared about me. So, dear readers, thank you for your kind concern. * HUG * Now, back to the buta no kakuni I made at the end of the Golden Week... BTW, I wonder what the best English translation of “buta no kakuni” would be. The dish was called “braised pork belly” on a couple of Japanese websites, but I’m not sure if that is the best translation. Tell me -- what’s the difference between braising and simmering? When you heat pork cubes like these over and over in the soup that is just enough to cover them even for a couple of days until the meat becomes really tender, is it braising or simmering? Anyway, here's a recipe that seems to be one of the common ways to make buta no kakuni. Though I did not follow this recipe exactly, I guess it would give you the general idea of how this dish is made, if you are interested. What I did differently was that I browned the pork cubes AFTER pre-boiling them with green onion and ginger because I read on a Japanese site that it would help removing the fat more effectively. Then I rinsed the meat thoroughly with water, and put it in the slow-cooker with all the liquid seasonings and 2 boiled eggs. About the amount of the liquid seasonings... I kept tasting the soup and adding a little of this and that, so it must have been quite different from the recipe. On the day one, the pork tasted OK but was not amazingly tender or anything. But in the evening of day 2, after repeated heating and cooling, it was sooooooo soft… I was able to cut the meat with only a gentle touch with chopsticks. MMmmmmm… Fatty, greasy … but oh so good … A guilty pleasure, indeed. ;P Categories: Japanese

Food Stalls at a Children's Day Event

Just wanted to share the photos of food stalls at a koinobori-related event in a town called Ino-cho. (May 4th, 2006) Crowded .... "Aisukurin" - with vanilla, matcha, strawberry, chocolate, soda and yuzu flavors This is something you find at almost any outside event in Kochi prefecture. The name aisukurin probably came from ice cream, but it's a little different. Aisukurin is more like a cross between an ice cream and sorbet, with a lot lower fat content than ice cream, tasting lighter and refreshing. My favorite is yuzu flavor. ;) Categories: Miscellaneous, Kochi

Actually You Don't Have to Be a Child to Eat Kashiwa Mochi on Children's Day

Kashiwamochi We celebrate “Children’s Day” on the 5th of May in Japan. Last year I did post something about koinobori, the carp-shaped streamers which are traditionally associated with the holiday, but I didn't mention much about the Children’s Day per se. So this year I joined a koinobori-related local event and ate traditional rice cakes called kashiwa mochi so that I can convince myself that I did something memorable in this year's Golden Week. My post about the local event is in progress now. This site has a good explanation of our customs related to the Children’s Day and the traditional sweets we eat on that day. (Scroll down to the bottom.) Notice the leaves wrapped around the rice cakes look a little different from the regular oak leaves? According to several websites, oak trees are not very popular in western half of Japan, so in some areas, people traditionally used -- and still use -- leaves of other plants such as sarutori ibara (Smilax China). Anyway, what makes kashiwa mochi a special dessert for me is the wonderful fragrance of the oak leaves. Some of my friends do not like it, saying it smells like medicine or something, but it doesn't bother me at all. I like it. It is my privilege to be able to enjoy the harmony of the fragrance of the leaf, silky texture of the rice cake, sweetness of the sweet bean paste filling AND a slight, refreshing bitterness of hot green tea. Mmmmm…. To indulge in this pleasure, I do not hesitate to claim that I am a child at heart. ;) * If you want to see how kashiwa mochi is made, click here. (Best viewed with Windows media player 9 series.) Categories: Sweets

Angel Food Cake

Angel Food Cake Well, the doctor told me to rest, but didn’t say that I had to stay in bed all the time. So, to make my restful afternoon more relaxing and enjoyable, I made this cake. Yes, I had to use up the egg whites from the custard cream for the tarts I made the other day. This is supposed to be an angel food cake, and now I can’t find the Japanese recipe I used, but I guess this recipe is pretty close (proportion-wise). The blueberry sauce is just store-bought blueberry jam thinned with a little water and liqueur. (But I didn't like it so much.) This light and fluffy cake is very dangerous in a way… I can’t stop eating. Now almost half of the cake is already gone before I even realized it… ;P Categories: Sweets

Garden Report - May 2006 -

Blueberry --- Sunshine Blue See the berries growing after the flowers are gone? I'm definitely going to harvest more berries than last year. Myoga ginger I thought this was dead, but NO! Look at this! This myoga didn’t bloom last year, but it might surprise me this year. Who knows?… Dill Looking good! I ought to make dill seed pickles this year. Thyme I don’t remember seeing my thyme blooming like this before… So happy about it. BTW, anyone wondering about my rhubarb plants? Now they are growing wild in my mom’s veg. garden, according to her. Maybe I can make a decent-sized rhubarb cake this year? Oh, I can't wait! ;) Categories: Garden