Susan's Tofu Quiches

Tofu Quiches It was more than a year ago when I read about this creative tofu quiches on Fatfree Vegan Kitchen, and I finally tried it out the other day. Unfortunately I couldn't get nutritional yeast over here. (Actually I had absolutely no idea what it was. I was almost going to use regular active dry yeast, and I'm really glad that I didn't.) So I used good amount of shredded cheese, thus my quiches were by no means "fat-free." But I really loved them. :) Categories: Western-inspired

Udon Dashi (Tsuyu)

Tsukimi Udon (Udon noodles with an egg on top) If you like Japanese food, or have made Japanese dishes yourself, you probably know or at least heard of dashi broth. The word dashi usually means unseasoned stock made by boiling things like kelp, bonito flakes, dried baby fish or mushrooms. Sometimes it can mean seasoned broth for noodle dishes, as in the title of this post, but maybe the word tsuyu is more commonly used in that case. As some of you may know, in Japan, the region covering Tokyo (capital) and several surrounding prefectures is called Kanto, and that covering Osaka and neighboring prefectures is called Kansai. And broths of udon noodle dishes in Kanto and those in Kansai are distinctively different. The Kanto version and Kansai version have been considered as two major types of udon broths in Japan, and (I suppose) udon broths in other regions have been roughly categorized in either of those two. The difference? Well, take a look at this website of a popular Japanese TV show. What’s in those bottles are udon broths collected from different regions in Japan. (A staff rode a west-bound bullet train from Tokyo and ate udon to collect broth samples at the stalls on the platform at the major stops. :D) The bottle at the far right is udon broth from Tokyo, and it goes west as it goes to the left. You see the color difference? It is said that in Kanto, they use mainly bonito flakes to make the dashi stock, and then season it with generous amount of regular soy sauce which makes the broth dark brown. On the other hand, in Kansai, more kelp and even dried baby fish are used to make stock in addition to bonito flakes, and often their bonito flakes are not the thinly shaved ones usually used for Japanese traditional clear soup. The above photo is the thinly shaved bonito flakes usually used for traditional clear soup. But I heard that they use much thicker bonito flakes for Kansai udon broth and even mix flakes of a few different kinds of dried bonitos. And the most important seasoning ingredient is LIGHT soy sauce. Yes, it's got to be light soy sauce. Now, have you noticed that I kept writing “it is said,” “they say” and “I heard” in above passages? Here’s my confession: I had never made udon broth from scratch until this time -- I always used instant udon dashi mix. And my mom did so, too. Even though I have lived in Kansai region for apx. 20 years, I never knew exactly what they used for making udon dashi there. Thus, what's in the photo below are the udon broth ingredients I bought this time, based on the knowledge I have gained from the Internet. :P See how thick the bonito flakes are? Well, the broth I made with these ingredients and the seasonings in the recipe below tasted pretty close to the udon broth I had in Kansai and here in Kochi, so I think I’m on the right track. Now, thanks for your patience. Finally, here's the recipe I came up with by conbining a couple of Kansai udon broth recipes on the net. Udon dashi (tsuyu) recipe, Kansai type * For making the stock (for 2 to 3 servings?) 1700 mL water 20 g dried baby fish 30 g dried kelp 30 g bonito flakes (thick type, mixture of different kinds, if available) Put 1700 mL water, dried kelp and dried baby fish in the pot. Leave for more than 30 minutes. (Remove the heads and guts of the dried fish beforehand if you want the broth milder.) Heat over low heat for 10 to 15 minutes and take out the kelp before it starts boiling. (DO NOT boil the kelp, or the slimy stuff from the kelp will really ruin the flavor of the broth!) Turn the heat to high and add bonito flakes and boil for about 5 minutes, if used thick bonito flakes (and maybe 3 minutes if used thin bonito flakes). Drain. * The photo shows how I drain it. ---> * For making udon dashi broth (for 2 to 3 servings?) 1000 mL dashi stock 1 teasp. salt 1+1/2 Tbsp. light soy sauce 1+1/2 Tbsp. mirin Heat dashi stock, add seasonings. Add boiled udon noodles and cook for a couple of minutes. Serve with your favorite toppings such as minced green onions, wakame kelp, slices of kamaboko or sumaki (steamed fish cake products), tempura, tenkasu (tempura batter flakes) and shichimi pepper. * If you are interested in making udon noodles yourself, see this website. Now, as some of you readers have brought up in the comments, there is another place that you cannot miss when talking about udon culture in Japan. It is Kagawa prefecture known as Sanuki in olden days, and their thick-n-chewy Sanuki udon noodles are made by putting the udon dough in plastic bags and stepping on it to knead it with heels. And the key ingredient of their udon broth are dried baby sardines called iriko and their local light soy sauce. Those facts were already known (at least, among some people) in other areas in Japan, too, but what really made Sanuki udon -- as well as the udon culture in Kagawa prefecture -- popular throughout the country were probably this book, "Osorubeki Sanuki Udon" and this recent(?) movie called “UDON.” Thanks to the media attention, recently some people even dare to add a third category, "Sanuki udon broth" to the big two, Kanto and Kansai versions, and say that Sanuki version is a bit saltier and lighter-colored than Kansai broth. Unfortunately I have never had a chance to eat udon in Kagawa, but rumor has it that there are more udon noodle shops than traffic lights over there, or Kagawa natives only eat udon for lunch, or local people bring their own udon bowls and chopsticks to local udon noodle manufacturers (small, mom-and-pop type places) and enjoy old-fashioned good udon dishes which are not available at regular restaurants, etc. etc. And the place I’m interested in the most is this hilarious udon school where they teach you to dance on the udon dough to knead it. I’m not kidding. Believe me. Lucas of Nihon no Ryori actually gave it a try there. And here is another post about the udon school. Looks like a lot of fun, right? But even before they wrote about it, the taste of Sanuki udon must have been already introduced outside Japan, because someone picked it as one of “The Top 50 things every foodie should do” in 2005. How flattering. ;) Categories: Japanese

Sweet Seasons / February 2008 - Shitamoe -

Shitamoe -- Grass Sprouts (under the snow) by Shingetsu Shitamoe is a popular wagashi motif for early spring. The word shita means "under" or "underneath" and moe, "sprouting" or "shooting out." In the photo above, you see the green between the brown and white parts? It is symbolic of sprouts coming out from the dark, winter soil underneath the snow. Japanese people have loved the liveliness of grass sprouts as an early sign of spring and the word shitamoe has been widely used in Japanese traditional poetry. If I'm not mistaken (because I forgot to ask at the store and now I'm writing this based on my own assumption), this wagashi is what they call ukishima. It is pretty close to Western cakes except it is steamed, not buttery and much moister because of the an (sweetened bean paste) mixed into the batter. (So maybe this could be a more beginner-friendly wagashi than typical anko-based ones?? I've heard many Westerneres saying that they couldn't stand the taste and texture of anko.) I found an English recipe here, if you would like to give it a try. It seems to be a recipe for two-layered ukishima in white and green, but if things like shiroan (sweetened white bean paste) and matcha (powdered green tea) are not available, I guess you can use azuki-an (sweetened azuki bean paste) only and make brown ukishima like this photo (scroll down and click on the watashi photo to enlarge). But of course if you are more ambitious and can get (or make) shiroan, you can experiment on beautiful ones like this, this and this. If you can't find joshinko (rice flour made from nonglutinous rice) called for in the recipe, you could substitute it with mochiko (rice flour made from glutinous rice) or just use wheat flour only, because I've seen ukishima recipes like that, too. It would make a little difference in the texture: mochiko may make it more chewy and sticky, and using wheat flour only may make it more cake-like?? But I don't think it would ruin the whole thing (hopefully). ;) * Wagashi by Shingetsu Categories: Wagashi

Feeling Cozy...

Pound Cake with Candied Buntan Citrus Peels Ever since I started working at the supermarket, I have been craving sweets, especially cakes. After my work from dawn to lunchtime, I come back to my apartment and see bright afternoon sunshine coming through the lace curtain. Yes, it's my favorite time of the day. Soon it became my everyday routine to enjoy, after quick lunch, home-made sweets with hot black tea with milk. It is so cozy to watch the steam coming up from the tea cup. Nice buttery cake and warm tea heal me more than anything else. (And I guess my body is trying to develop a "thermal" fat layer to keep me warm when at work early in the morning. That must be the reason behind this craving for sweets.) :P BTW, the candied citrus peels in this pound cake were made from buntan citrus from dad's orchard, and as you might have guessed, it was my mom who made them. Buntans look pretty similar to grapefruits, but they are less juicy than grapefruits and taste sweeter. The rind is much more bitter than that of regular oranges, but after the bitterness is largely removed by repeated boiling and soaking in water, buntan rind can make good candied peels with the remaining bitterness balancing out the sweetness of granulated sugar. Yes, I admit it. There's nothing wrong or outrageous about making candied buntan peels. The problem is that making them has become my mom's major winter project in the past couple of years. (Her mom's summer project is making that bright-colored shiso drink. Remember?) And when she does it, she does it all the way. In summer, the two fridges at my parents' house are filled with plastic bottles with bright reddish-pink drinks, and in winter, me, my sister and mom's tea ceremony students receive her home-made candied citrus rinds in big ziploc bags more than once... Mom's Candied Buntan Peels Mom says that she and her students munch on them as they chat after their weekly tea ceremony lessons and they all love them. (Of course. How could the students say anything bad about something their teacher made?) And I heard that my sis once baked bread with them. Here I am with this pound cake, gradually developing a fat layer underneath my skin. Hahaha ... Categories: Sweets

The Supermarket Chronicles - Part 1 -

Yes, I’ve survived another week at my new workplace, a small supermarket, and yesterday was the first payday. Of course the pay was very small because I started working there in the middle of this month, but it made me so happy. If I don't get fired for some reason, from next month on I’ll be able to pay all the bills, buy groceries and still have a little money left in my bank account. Yeah, mediocrity. I know. But in this country, if you are a single, middle-aged woman living in a rural town, even such a mediocre success can be hard to achieve sometimes. I mean it. Anyway, let me tell you what my days are like now. I wake up at 5:50 am every morning and spend good 5 minutes to make myself “cold-resistant” by putting on warm clothes including “high-tech” underwear and several pairs of long socks. Then I have a big breakfast because I won't be able to have lunch until around 2 pm. The supermarket is only about 5 minutes by bicycle, which is very nice especially on rainy days in winter. Usually I meet my co-worker -- my mentor-- in the dressing room. Then we go downstairs to the small kitchen in the fish section of the supermarket, where our boss (who is the owner of the supermarket) and one elder guy are already filleting fish. There my mentor and I share some morning chores, including washing a fish scrap bucket in an outdoor sink using water and a scrubber. Yes, outdoor. Rain or shine. Or even snow. (Actually it snowed on my second day there.) Now you know why I need “high-tech” underwear? ;) After that, my mentor and I start packing the fillets and sashimi (sliced raw fish) the two guys prepare one after another. There’s an automatic wrapping machine there, and we punch in different code numbers to wrap up the seafood in Styrofoam trays with plastic food wrap and put proper stickers on them. Now, I don’t know if this is the same in other countries, but here in Japan, learning fish names can be a nightmare. The classification is so detailed -- for example, I have seen 4 or 5 different kinds of horse mackerel so far -- and complicated by special local names. Some fish are called by different names as they grow. I wonder how non-Japanese people being trained to be sushi chef feel about this. Don’t they think it’s crazy? So there ARE challenges, but I guess I’m enjoying my work there. Maybe it has a lot to do with the fact that I was born and raised in a small fishing village until I was 12 years old. In my childhood, I often went to the local fishing port, and sometimes accompanied dad when he went fishing. The fishy smell or grotesque-looking fish scraps I smell/see at my work now are, of course, not very tempting, but those make me feel somewhat nostalgic rather than totally disgusted. That’s probably why I’m feeling better than the time when I was working at the bento shop. BTW, the photo is the horse mackerel that I filleted in my kitchen. I just wanted to post a seafood-related photo with this story. And I might change the title of this post soon. (I'm a bit tired of "******* chronicles.") … To be cont’d … Categories: Supermarket

SPAM Chao Fan

SPAM Chao Fan (Fried Rice) My lunch today. SPAM, egg, onion, green onion and rice. Can't go wrong. ;) Categories: Asian-inspired

Cinnamon Rolls to Celebrate My Survival

Cinnamon Rolls Today was my first day off at the new daytime job, and I was determined to bake something to celebrate my survival. Yes, survival. You know, I have never been an early bird (except for the times when I had to get up early for certain reasons), so getting up at 5:50 am every morning for 6 days in a row -- in the middle of winter -- was certainly a challenge for me. I forgot to set the alarm off last night, so I woke up at 5:50 am this morning as usual. But it was nice to stay in bed, feeling happy about not having to rush to work. Happily dozing off once in a while, I thought about what to bake today, and finally decided to go for cinnamon rolls. Sorry, those who gave me wonderful cinnamon roll recipes about a year ago when I gave it a try for the first time. Today, I thought about trying one of yours, but I just didn’t feel like doing the conversion! So I took an easy way out, which means, I, again, relied on ”allrecipes.” (The site takes care of U.S.-metric conversion as well as changing the serving size.) This is the recipe I picked this time, but I baked mine in a square pan instead of muffin cups. Because I didn’t have enough all-purpose flour, I mixed in bread flour and even cake flour to make the dough. Also, I chickened out about the amount of margarine (actually I substituted it with butter) and used a lot less of it for the filling. So my cinnamon rolls didn’t turn out as gooey and moist as I had wanted, but still, I think I made a big progress. ;) Categories: Sweets

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, I started working at a supermarket two days ago. My job is packing seafood and putting them on the shelves from 7:00 to 13:00. I need to memorize what code number should be used for which fish and which fish should go where on the shelves. But you know what? I'm enjoying my work now. :D These are no-butter and no-egg brownies that I baked a couple of days ago. At that thime I didn't even think about St. Valentine's day, but today is the 14th and I still have some of these left, so why not. I wish you all a very R*O*M*A*N*T*I*C Valentine's day. ;) Categories: Sweets

Daikon Simmered with Hotate

Daikon Simmered with Canned Hotate (Scallops) with Blanched Komatsuna on the side When making a simmered dish with daikon radish, it is generally recommended to pre-boil it with a little amount of raw rice or in rice rinsing water until a toothpick can be inserted easily. It is a well-known tip here in Japan, but most of us do not know the scientific reason behind it (or if there is one at all). So, having been triggered by a question from someone who read my buri-daikon post, I did a bit of net research. Let me share the result with you. In a nutshell, the pre-boiling process mentioned above is supposed to remove the slight bitterness or harshness of daikon and make simmered daikon soft and tasty. They say that adding rice, or using rice rinsing water for this process means boiling daikon in a colloid solution, and the bitter substance contained in daikon will be adsorbed onto the colloidal particles during this process. If a colloid solution is the key, then can’t we just add regular wheat flour or corn/potato starch in place of raw rice? Well, some Japanese websites say that a little amount of wheat flour will do, but I found one person saying that it’s not a good idea because wheat flour contains some protein (but didn’t really mention how that protein negatively affects this process). And more than three people wrote that if used potato starch, the simmering water will turn into glue, which I totally agree with. (I mean, if used too much of it.) On the other hand, some people do say that using raw rice or rice rinsing water is not necessary; pre-boiling in regular water is just fine. Or some even say that pre-boiling is not necessary at all because these days daikon radishes do not have such strong bitterness. Confusing, isn’t it? What I do -- as a sort of compromise solution-- is: do pre-boiling for simmered daikon dishes with light seasoning, and skip it for those with heavy seasoning. To me the best example for the former is furofuki-daikon, and the latter is oden or buta-bara daikon (daikon simmered with pork ribs). I put buri-daikon (daikon simmered with yellowtail) in the former category, because the fish has the risk of giving an unwanted fishy flavor to the dish, so I don’t want any additional unwanted flavoring from the daikon. Personally, I believe that this pre-boiling trick makes a big difference when you want to enjoy the delicate taste of daikon itself with light seasoning. Now, I was also asked for a tip to avoid bitter daikon and choose good ones. But sorry, I still cannot find an answer. The problem was that there were many websites talking about the “pungency” of daikon, but not exactly about the “bitterness.” They say that the pungency is caused by a substance called isothiocyanate, and its precursor substance is contained more in the tail end and near the skin. Thus, there are ways to deal with the pungency; advices about which part is suitable for what kind of dish are available almost everywhere. Now what I don’t know is whether the bitterness is caused by the same substance, isothiocyanate, or not. My hunch is probably “No,” because simmered daikon can be bitter without any pungency. Then I have no idea if there is a way to avoid certain bitter parts in a daikon or tell bitter daikon from non-bitter ones. Harvest season or fertilizers used may make some daikon more bitter than others, but how can you check out such information when buying one at the store? So all I can say is, "To choose good daikon, choose fresh ones. And if worried about bitterness in simmered daikon dishes, don't skip the pre-boiling." That's about it. Sorry. As for the softening effect, some say that an enzyme contained in rice bran makes daikon soft, though I couldn’t find any site clearly mentioning the name of the enzyme. But in my experience, daikon did soften quicker when a little amount of rice or rice-rinsing water was used for pre-boiling. So, to me this pre-boiling technique is not a mere old-wives tale, but some of the seemingly scientific explanations seem pretty wishy-washy. That’s the way I see it. And I don’t really need to find out the ultimate truth of daikon boiling anyway. What’s more important for me is the feeling of warmth and happiness that a tasty winter dish brings to me… ... like THIS! :D ** Just in case: After chopped daikon are "pre-boiled"with raw rice or in rice rinsing water, they need to be drained, rinsed with running water and then cooked in water and seasonings. You don't want to use the colloid solution from the pre-boiling for cooking and seasoning the daikon, of course. Categories: Japanese

Renkon Hambaagu (Lotus Root Cakes)

Renkon Hambaagu (Lotus Root Cakes) * I think lotus root "cake" sounds better than "steak" so I changed the title and the caption. Thanks Ilane :) My colleague at the language school bought a macrobiotic cookbook recently. She let me read it while at work, and this recipe caught my attention. The dish is called renkon hambaagu. Renkon means lotus root in Japanese, and hambaagu is the Japanese name for hamburger steak or Salisbury steak. Basically, what this is is fried lotus root pate (if I can call this a 'vegetable pate') with soy-based sweet-n-salty sauce. Grated lotus root is the main ingredient. And the neat trick is that crushed yaki-fu is used in place of bread crumbs. So what is yaki-fu? It is dry baked wheat gluten, according to wikipedia. I usually use it for soup or simmered dishes, but never thought about using it for something else. And crushing it to use it as a substitute for bread crumbs was a totally new idea to me. Yes, I like this idea very much now. Renkon (Lotus Root) and Mochi-fu The baked wheat gluten I used this time was mochi-fu, a chewy type of yaki-fu. Maybe that was why my renkon hambaagu turned out pretty soft and elastic. I liked that. And the roasted sesame seeds I added to the pate (though it was not mentioned in the original recipe) was a good accent. The ingredients of my sauce were soy sauce, water, mirin, minced ginger and a little sesame oil. The original recipe called for mushrooms, which I omitted this time. I will give it a try next time. Another thing I really want to try next time is adding chopped shrimp to the pate. I think it would add a nice flavor and go well with the sauce, too. * Original recipe from: "Macrobiotic Hajimemashita" P.S. I got a daytime job today. FINALLY! So starting next Tuesday, I'll be working at a small supermarket in the neighborhood. Wish me luck. :) Categories: Western-inspired, Japanese

Home-made Taco Shells and Fresh Tomato Salsa

Home-made Salsa. (Next time I'll definitely go for a store-bought one...) I crave Mexican food once in a while, and for some reason, it's usually on Saturday. (The post from 2005 was posted on Sunday, but the dinner was made on the night before.) I wonder why. Maybe it has something to do with the way I spent many Saturday nights in the U.S. more than 10 years ago? You know, Taco hell, coors light and Saturday Night Live?? Now I am an obachan and my Saturday nights are a lot less exciting, but I still feel like Mexican food on some Saturday nights. And yesterday at the import food shop at the mall, I found something very tempting. GABAN "Taco Shell Mix" Yes. The instruction on the package said "Just add vegetable oil and water." Sounds easy. And I can actually make hard taco shells in my kitchen? Wow! I have to give it a try! Take a look at my very first home-made hard taco shells! Unfortunately, they didn't turn out very crispy. But it was fun to make them, though I broke one of the shells when folding it. The biggest mistake was that I forgot to buy salsa. I tried to make something similar with the ingredients I could find in my kitchen, but it was undoubtedly a bad idea. Yes, what I made tasted sour and spicy. But it just didn't taste like salsa. Categories: Other areas

Sweet Seasons / January 2008 - Year of the Rat -

Eto-gashi by Nishigawaya Did you think I gave up on this series? Nope! And I think this time I really made good use of the time. In the past couple of days, when I was not at the "Hello Work" (local employment agency), I read a couple of how-to websites on food photo shooting. And today I spent the whole morning trying to apply the newly acquired knowledge to my photo shooting. Also, this morning, I downloaded several fonts from a free font website. This one on the photos here is the one I finally picked. What do you think? When I started this "Sweet Seasons" series, I was planning to include a wagashi trivia in each entry. Especially, I was hoping to be able to cover different wagashi ingredients (sugar, rice flour, etc.) because once in a while my readers write to me asking, "Obachan, what's the difference between XXXX and XXXX?" (There are so many different types of rice flour, you know.) But I couldn't do it as much as I wanted because when I picked wagashi that were made into the shape of plants or animals of the season, they were almost always nerikiri and their ingredients were always the same. So this year, I'll try to post about a wider variety of wagashi, and include a trivia about different wagashi ingredients. (Well, I'll TRY, at least. :P) Oh, in case you're wondering... I have been posting a wagashi entry on the last day of the month so that the monthly archive of this blog always has a wagashi entry on top of each month. Yeah, it's weird to see, on the last day of the month, January's entry which is related to New Year celebration. Hahaha... OK. Now I should add a trivia about this wagashi in above photos, but I'm a bit tired. Forgive me... I'll take care of that tomorrow. For now, I just say that the Chinese character on this wagashi means "rat" and that is why this is called eto-gashi (wagashi with the Chinese zodiac theme). * Wagashi by Nishigawaya Categories: Wagashi

Almond Tarts

Almond Tarts Not bad, huh? ;) Categories: Sweets

Leftover From Last Night

Chige Soup (I used retort-packed chige soup base :P) I just had lunch and it was chige soup from last night. It was another cold and rainy day yesterday, and the rain didn't stop at night. It took two bowls of this soup and a can of beer, followed by a nice hot bath, to completely warm me up before going to bed. Today the soup tasted much milder. I'm going to throw some rice in it and make porridge tonight. ------- Last Sunday, I was with my parents in my hometown to help mom at her tea ceremony booth at a community event there. We (mom and her students incl. myself) did the same thing two years ago, and here is the post on that event in 2006, if you are interested. We were lucky about the weather, and luckly this time there was no squid hanging from a rope at the next booth. :P We had about 150 visitors, like last time. I didn't mind helping, and even enjoyed it, but doing a waitress work in kimono must have made me much more tired than I knew. (Kimono is our traditional costume that we wear on formal occasions (only), and it needs to be tied so tightly with many strings and belts.) On Sunday night, after coming back from the event, mom and I didn't feel like cooking. The three of us -- dad, mom and I -- just poured hot green tea over a bowl of rice and ate it with pickles, and went straight to bed around 9 pm. OK. I have a confession to make. The reason why I couldn't take any photos at the ceremony was that I forgot to bring... not my camera, not batteries, but... I forgot to stick a SD card into my camera! :O For those who might be interested, here's a photo of me from a few years ago. This kimono is very similar to the one I put on for the local event this time. Do I look very happy? Well, you never know what it is like to wear kimono until you actually give it a try... Hahaha... Categories: Asian-inspired

I Didn't Forget

My Very First SPAM Musubi Didn't I say (write) that I was interested in trying out SPAM musubi? Yes, I did here (in the comment section). Well, it was July. And now it's January. But I don't care. I finally gave it a try! Yes, I loved this fusion(?) musubi very much. :D No wonder it's so popular in Hawaii. This says 25% less sodium, but I thought it was pretty salty. Looks like there exist many creative versions of SPAM musubi in Hawaii. I've been reading about them since this morning. It's so much fun and inspiring. Well... Don't I still have plenty of SPAM? And plenty of time, too...?? ;) ;) Categories: Western-inspired, Japanese

Finally! Not-Too-Crumbly Oil Crust

Apple-Custard Pie with Not-Too-Crumbly Oil Crust (tart shell) (Jan. 24 2008 * Sorry, I made some corrections to this post today. ) As you may probably know, I’m looking for a daytime job now. Which means, I don’t work in the daytime (well, actually until 5 pm) these days, and that means I have plenty of free time in the mornings and afternoons. It is indeed relaxing, but somewhat depressing at the same time, because financial worries are always on the back of my mind. But when waiting for the results of the interviews, there is nothing I can do except going through the job offers on the weekly magazines and websites for second or third choices. And the rain discourages me from going out. Ahhhh…. But looks like I can’t stay melancholic for too long. When I’m job hunting like this, usually I start thinking, “Hey, this is a perfect opportunity for a culinary experiment!” sooner or later, and it happened this time, too. Anyone remembers that I was looking for a“not-too-crumbly” oil crust recipe for tarts? Well, this time, I’m proud that I made a good use of my free time. I experimented a bit, and finally came up with an oil pastry recipe that I like! :D First, I really, really want to thank this Japanese lady who created this oil crust recipe. I tried out hers, and it worked! It’s a whole wheat tart shell, and the dough was not too hard to roll out if used parchment paper. The dough tore rather easily, but you can patch it easily with the excess from the edges, so it wasn’t a big problem. After coming out from the oven, the crust held up as you can see in the photo of her tart shell. And I loved the crunchiness from the whole wheat flour! It was pretty close to my “dream pastry.” Almost. But I wanted it to be a little heavier (firmer?) and crunchier when I use it as a tart shell. So I modified the proportion of the flours, added almond powder and adjusted the amount of the oil and soy milk. I also added vanilla extract, and next time I might try almond extract. So here is Obachan’s version of oil crust recipe, based on the great work by the creative and health-conscious Japanese lady I mentioned above. Oil Crust obachan’s version (Based on a Japanese recipe on COOKPAD) ** This is more like a cookie tart shell, so I guess I shouldn't call it a pie crust. 65 g whole wheat flour 45 g bread flour 1+1/2 Tbsp. corn starch 1 Tbsp. almond powder (2+1/2 Tbsp. Sugar for sweet tart shell, reduce it for savory tarts) 1/8 tsp. salt 50 mL vegetable oil (I used canola) 2 Tbsp. soy milk vanilla extract Sift the dry ingredients together into a bowl and stir well. Add vegetable oil. Stir and crumble well with fingers until thoroughly mixed. Mix vanilla extract into soy milk and then add to the mixture in the bowl. Mix with hands and “knead” in the bowl several times. (The mixture is crumbly so it would not be like kneading bread or biscuit dough, but I thought this process was necessary to develop gluten so that the baked crust will hold up.) Pat into a flat ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180 C. Pat the dough into bottom and the sides of a pie/tart pan. (I don’t think you can roll out this dough successfully.) Poke holes in the bottom with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes. (If you need to, remove the crust from the pan after completely cooled.) I just placed apple slices over the custard cream I made with "instant custard cream mix" The crust may not be impressively firm or crunchy when it is fresh from the oven. But it will improve as it cools, and will be (hopefully) much better after being baked again with a filling. As advised by the original recipe author, for extra crunchiness, it seems better to wait until the crust cools completely and hardens before pouring the filling into it. What I want to improve next time is reducing the slight floury smell (from the whole wheat?). Maybe more vanilla extract or adding grated citrus rind or something? ------ Jan. 25 (Fri) I had been looking for "affordable" small tart pans for quite a while, and finally(!!) I found some at my favorite wholesaler yesterday. What a great surprise! (I'm 100% sure that they didn't have any at the end of last year.) I bought 6 of them right then. So today, I baked 6 small tart shells with the small pans. The bottom rose a little too much because I was too anxious and didn't care to poke many holes, but the texture was "two thumbs up" (for me, at least). And you know what the best part was? The tart shell came out from the pan so easily-- all I had to do was inverting it on my palm! Oh, I'm so happy. There are so many pie, tart and quiche recipes I want to try. But if I bake one with my 18 cm tart pan, I have to eat the same thing for 2 to 3 days, because usually I'm the only one person who eats what I bake. But with these small pans, I can make only a couple of small tarts at a time. And it would be even healthier with my oil crust. This way I can make pies/tarts pretty often without worrying too much about my fat intake. YAY!! :D (I know. It depends on what kind of filling I use, right?) One question. Here some people say that it is (not really recommendable but) possible to freeze pre-baked tart shells. And I'm hoping it's true, because it would be really handy for me to bake many small tart shells at one time and use only a couple of them and freeze the rest. I like that idea better than thawing tart dough every time and baking only a couple of shells. What do you think? Do pre-baked tart shells freeze well? Categories: Sweets

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins II

I brought 2 lemons with me when I came back to my apartment after the New Year's Day. Those were from my dad's orchard, and I was going to use them for baking. (He doesn't use any postharvest chemicals so I feel safer to use his oranges/lemons when I need grated citrus rind.) And somehow, I completely forgot about those lemons until yesterday. :P So last night, I did a little net search to pick a lemon poppyseed muffin recipe, and this is the recipe I tried out this time. Mmmm.... not bad, but the texture was not exactly what I wanted. Maybe I should try a recipe that does not call for yogurt next time. And there was another thing... and it was not related to the recipe. It was about dad's lemons. I'm no expert, so I may be sounding really stupid, but tell me... If a lemon tree has been grown right next to bunch of orange trees, is it possible that natural cross breeding causes the lemons to taste more like oranges? Dad's lemons are much rounder with more orangy skin color, and not as sour as store-bought lemons. And though I added enough rind (grated), these muffins didn't taste lemony almost at all without the glaze. Next time I'll probably try a different recipe with lemons from the Sunday market. Oh, if you're tempted to say "OMG, obachan! Your poppyseeds are not black!?" see this post. Yes, we went through that stage about a year ago. :) Categories: Sweets

Oyster Chowder

Riding my bike back to my apartment tonight, I made up my mind to have a hearty soup for dinner. The temperature dropped more than I had expected, and I was almost frozen to death on my way back. At the supermarket I dropped by, I spent more time than I wanted to, because I couldn't decide what soup to make. Once I filled my shopping basket with ingredients for chanko-nabe. But when I saw oysters on the shelf, my inner voice said, "Oyster chowder! Juicy, plump oysters in hot milky chowder with black peppers sprinkled on top!!" AH! How could I resist? So when I finally had this nice, warm oyster chowder at my kotatsu, it was already past 10 pm. Now I'm warm and satisfied, and sleepy... Categories: Western-inspired

Viva! Fusion food!

Second week of January. Leftovers from the New Year's feast must be gone in most Japanese households, but some TV cooking shows and magazines may be still featuring various ways to use up leftover osechi food, especially mochi (rice cakes). This is the time when many fusion dishes are invented. Now, take a look at the above photo. This is not my invention-- it's one of the "New Year's specials" from our local pizza shop. Well, "mochi on pizza" is nothing new with cheese and seaweed as accompanying toppings. I wouldn't have been tempted to blog about it if this were just a regular mochi pizza. But they used something interesting to make a Japanese-style pizza sauce for this pizza. Can you guess what it was? It's seafood. * I don't mean to say that this pizza shop is using osechi leftovers to make this "limited-time-only" version. I meant to say that it's time for "fusion food" here now and this pizza is an interesting example. * * * * * Thanks for guessing. :) Yes, it's uni (sea urchin). More precisely, sea urchin roe. I know some people would go "yuck!" but sea urchin roe is a terribly expensive (well, at least, good ones are) delicasy here, and if you say, "My favorite sushi is uni," it's like telling people that you are a sushi connoisseur AND rich. (But I don't blame you. I had hated uni until I tasted real fresh one a few years back.) Anyway, I don't think they used top-class sea urchin to make sauce for affordable pizza, but I liked this pizza very much. The sauce was not regular tomato-based one, and uni added an interesting richness with a delicate sweetness, and the sauce went well with the mochi and seaweed on top. But you HAVE TO eat this pizza while it's warm. Definitely. Categories: Japanese, Western-inspired