Ginger Pineapple Sorbet

Ginger Pineapple Sorbet adapted from Sam Choy's Sampler I tried out the ice cream recipe that Kat kindly shared in her comment to my blueberry post. Yeah, like she said, it was more like ice cream than sorbet. I loved it! :D (But if the ginger flavor was stronger than this, I would have preferred more sorbet-like texture.) So, the next step is adapting this recipe for my blueberries. Mmmm... it'll probably be a major project for this weekend. Oh boy! The number of my precious blueberries is limited. I can't afford to fail. Maybe I should buy some frozen blueberries and make test batches beforehand? P.S. Thank you so much, Kat. Categories: Sweets

Homemade Popcorn with Nutritional Yeast!

Yes. Nothing is impossible. I thought that, living in this rural place, I would never be able to get nutritional yeast. But thanks to Carolie who sent me two jars of it -- as well as many other goodies --, now I'm enjoying the afternoon munching on homemade popcorn sprinkled with generous amount of nutritional yeast (and salt, of course ;)) Yeah, this does taste like cheese. Yum! Ah... Homemade popcorn. It reminds me of the fun times I had when I was younger... like my first slumber party(?) in the U.S., winter vacation at my dorm-mate's house, and "video and popcorn nights" (in those days there was no such thing as DVDs. Ahem!) at a friend's place on campus... I had a real love-and-hate relationship with salty and buttery homemade popcorn then. Now I'm older more health-conscious and my choice this time was homemade popcorn with canola, nutritional yeast and a little less salt than I used to use. But I have to admit that munching on popcorn still makes me feel younger ;) Categories: Western-inspired

Garden Report - July 2008 -

My blueberries Yes, the fertilizer worked. The number of berries is not so impressive this year, but the size of each berry is! I hope the fertilizer improved the taste, too. So what should I make with twenty to thirty big, ripe and sweet blueberries? Blueberry tart again, maybe? Sad news. My chervil was looking great in May, but now it's gone -- the heat and plant louses killed it. I'm glad that at least I had a chance to put it on a piece of cake and take some photos (see previous post) . Categories: Garden

Mango Mousse Cake

Store-bought Mango Mousse Cake No, I didn't make this cake. (Again!) That's why it looks so nice. :P I came back from work around 3 pm, and felt like a relaxing tea time at home. My choice was this light, fluffy mousse cake with a chervil leaf from my balcony garden on top ... ... and this refreshing iced tea with a mint leaf from my balcony garden. Though not raining, it is depressingly cloudy outside. It's another humid and gloomy day in the rainy season here. This tea time was really a good idea. I'm glad that I took this shot of iced tea. .. It looks refreshing and makes me feel better on a day like this. Categories: Sweets

TLA #2 - Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!! -

Tanezaki Beach, near Urado bridge Today I didn't have to work in the morning, so I was there (see above photo) all morning. Sorry the photo is not very good... it was taken with my cell phone camera. As you can see, the weather was pretty good, considering that this area is still in the rainy season. And sorry! I forgot to blur this photo to hide the fish eyes. Hope you don't get put off too much. Anyway, I HAD TO take this photo for the record. ;) Yep, I'm happy. These are much better fish than the sardines I caught the other day, and with much, much less worry about the pollution. Yeah, great result! -- if only they were adult fish. :P Hahaha... Right. These were babies and could have been as small as the bait other anglers were using there this morning to catch big fish. I didn't return these babies to their parents but brought them home and ate them for lunch. See? The author of this blog is such a cold-blooded woman. But in my defence, it is well known -- at least around here -- that deep-fried baby horse mackerels are such a delicacy. Just sprinkle with salt and pepper, then flour and deep-fry. Twice. Yes, you deep-fry them until slightly golden brown, take them out and drain the oil, and then put them back into the oil to deep-fry again until nicely golden brown. Oh, can you imagine how nice and crunchy they turn out to be? Even the bones and tails turn so crunchy and tasty! And -- So SORRY! I forgot to take a photo of my deep-fried baby mackerels this time! I mean, ... there were only four of them and I didn't want them to turn cold and soggy, and from the first bite they tasted so good that I couldn't stop... :O Categories: Fishing

A Pinch of Salt Needed

Yogurt Banana Muffins When I make a "healthier" version of muffins, using yogurt and vegetable oil instead of butter, I always add a pinch of salt even if the recipe does not call for it. Well, not always... because this time I didn't. I totally forgot about it. It was a big mistake... :( Categories: Sweets

Chinese Takeout

Chinese Takeout (With Special Discount around 6:30 pm) I've been really bad this weekend. I didn't cook, clean or do the dishes. The only chore I did was doing the laundry, just because I got soaked wet in the rain on Saturday evening. :P What was I up to this weekend, neglecting the housework? Well, I worked Saturday morning and was just lazy for the rest of the day. Today I slept in, and spent the whole afternoon and evening being an extra in a movie. (Details here.) It was a great experience, but certainly exhausting. Hence, this Chinese takeout. I had absolutely no energy left when the filming for the day was over. Categories: Asian-inspired

TLA #1 - Breaded and Deep-fried Sardines -

Breaded and Deep-fried Sardines I went fishing today and caught 16 sardines. Yes, I love fishing, though I haven't been fishing for YEARS... since childhood. My dad used to fish a lot and he took me with him several times when I was an elementary school kid, and that was about all my fishing career. But I had been secretly dreaming about buying my own fishing rod and going fishing whenever I feel like it. And last month, I finally bought myself a fishing rod -- as a reward for going through a hard time. I blurred this photo for those who do not think that sardines have cute eyes... Because I don't live close to the beach now, going fishing always means 30 to 40 minutes bicycle-riding. Actually I'm not too crazy about that part, especially when I have to carry my fishing rod on my shoulder, but still that doesn't keep me from my new hobby. ;) So some residents of Kochi city have witnessed, in the past few weeks, a middle-aged woman coming to some popular fishing points in Kochi city by a squeaky old bicycle and feeding fish. Hahaha Today I had a better luck and caught enough for my dinner. :D Categories: Japanese, Fishing

Cloudberry Jam on Cheesecake

Japanese Cheesecake with Cloudberry Jam from Finland Thank you sooooooooo much, dear readers, for letting me know how well cloudberry jam goes with cheesecake. I know -- only one person actually mentioned it, but I'm sure there were many, MANY others who were nodding enthusiastically in front of the display. I'm sure there were, because the combination is THIS GOOD! YUM! Oh, this cheesecake? No, I didn't bake it. It was store-bought -- one of those affordable sweets from Japanese convenience stores. And though it was labeled "baked cheesecake," it looked so white and creamy that I thought it was a gelatin cheesecake. But I definitely loved this baked one. Yes, with this berry jam from the country of Muumipeikko (Moomin), it was ... Heavenly. Divine. Mmmmmmm...... :) BTW, my favorite is Nuuskamuikkunen (Snufkin). Categories: Sweets

Spiced Lingonberry Cake -- Obachan's Version

Jams from Finland :) I don’t know how many times I have repeated this on my blog, but blogging has truly broadened my horizons. Not only it has increased my culinary knowledge, but it gave me chances to taste some foods that I can never buy in this rural city in Japan, even by ordering online. This time it was these jams. I got these jams several weeks ago from someone in Finland who I came to know through blogging. Spiced Lingonberry Cake - Obachan's Version - Actually we do have lingonberries in northern part of Japan, and I have tasted lingonberry jam once before when a friend of mine gave me a tiny jar of it as a souvenir. I loved the jam very much, but it was such a small amount and it looked obviously expensive, so all I could do was spreading it very thinly on my toast several mornings. Using it for cooking/baking was totally out of question. But this time, given this large jar of much tastier lingonberry jam from Finland, I felt no hesitation. ;) The night I received these jams, I made a dish which was sort of like mock “Swedish meatballs” and enjoyed it with generous amount of this lingonberry jam. (Sorry, no photos.) Maybe it was a strange idea to choose a Swedish dish to use the berry jam from Finland, but I really wanted to try the jam with some kind of meat, and when I googled for an idea, the combination of Swedish meatballs and lingonberry jam looked like a must-have. Of course I didn’t have enough ingredients to make “real” Swedish meatballs, but even with my “mock” dish, I was able to find out how the jam goes well with meat. Mmmmmm..... And this is my second attempt with the lingonberry jam. I adopted the recipe from this site (scroll down), and reduced it to half. I didn’t have sour cream and it was raining outside (meaning that I didn’t feel like going grocery shopping), I substituted it with yogurt and cottage cheese. So, again, my cake must have been pretty different from what it should be – perhaps much softer, fluffier and lighter-tasting. But I’m happy to say that I do love my “mock” spiced lingonberry cake very much. This sweet-n-tart cake was perfect for the tea time on this dull, rainy afternoon. ... Now what should I use the other kind of jam: cloudberry jam for? That is something I've never ever had before, and sooooooooo tasty! :D Categories: Sweets

Sweet Seasons / May 2008 - Iris -

"Iris" by Nishigawaya Maybe some of you have heard of Japanese old custom of taking a herbal bath called "shobu-yu" on the 5th of May? It was part of several traditional customs to celebrate Boy's Day (which is now "Children's Day" to be more politically correct). And the herb thrown into bathtub for this custom is called shobu. It seems that shobu is usually translated as "iris," but to be precise, the shobu used for this herbal bath does not have flowers like those in above photo; it looks more like cattail (typha). (See the photos of shobu plant and shobu-yu here.) Nevertheless, many Japanese still associate iris flowers with this old custom and with the month of May. Actually, late May and early June are iris season around here, so it is no surprise to see lovely iris-shaped wagashi at most wagashi shops at this time of the year here. Categories: Wagashi

Garden Report - May 2008 -

Basil Chervil Sweet Marjoram Blueberries Today was not a good day for photo shooting. It was so cloudy and humid most of the day. But the green of my herbs looked really refreshing to my tired eyes when I came back from work today, and I couldn't help taking some shots. :) Categories: Garden

Seared Tuna with Soy Butter Sauce

Seared Tuna with Soy-Butter Sauce This is an idea which I stole from a Japanese magazine a while ago. (I forgot if it was "Orange Page" or "ESSE.") And IIRC, this was an idea by a Japanese chef named Kentaro. He is a well-known chef in Japan (partly because his mom is a popular chef) and he has written many cook books. There are some Japanese people who do not care for his recipes very much, saying that his recipes tend to be a bit too buttery, and I might as well agree with that opinion. But this recipe somehow caught my attention, and I was totally happy that I tried it out. This was actually a new discovery to me. Yes, I knew that soy-butter sauce is great with meat or fish. What I didn't know before was that how great green onions (negi) taste when sauteed with soy-butter sauce! Honestly, I didn't think the fish was terribly great, but I just loved the green onion topping with rich soy-butter sauce. Yum! :D Categories: Japanese

Whole Wheat Bread

Whole Wheat Bread This is a very good recipe from Allrecipes. Even I was able to bake something like this. :) The recipe does deserve five stars, I think.

Sweet Seasons / April 2008 - Butterfly -

"Butterfly" by Nishigawaya This wagashi reminded me of a white butterfly flying over a carpet of yellow nanohana (field musterd?) flowers. A charming sight which I really love to see every spring. I'm not sure what these pink stripes are supposed to be, but without them this wagashi would look rather boring, IMHO. Nanohana (field mustard) on the riverbank near my place In a way, this looks like a lovely gift box tied with a ribbon. :) Categories: Wagashi

Potato Sausage Cheese Muffins

Potato Sausage Cheese Muffins My Monday morning brunch. (On other days I have to eat breakfast very early -- and in a hurry -- to go to work before 7 AM, so recently Mondays are the only days that I can take time to enjoy brunch.) The recipe is here (in Japanese). *Woops, sorry! I forgot to mention that I replaced bacon in the original recipe with sausage. Diced potatoes were microwaved and then sauteed with onion and sausage before being mixed into the batter. With a good amout of black pepper mixed in, and grated cheese sprinkled on top (which was also my twist -- the original recipe does not call for grated cheese), these muffins tasted so good that I ate 4 of them at once. Mmmmm... Categories: Western-inspired

The Supermarket Chronicles - Part 3 -

My hometown used to be a small fishing village, which merged into a city decades ago. When I was a kid, I played on the beach (actually more like a rocky seashore) every day, and at spring tide, the entire family spent a whole day picking shell fish and sea weeds there. When my grandma was young, according to dad, she would go to the local fishing port every morning to buy fresh fish, and serve sashimi (sliced raw fish) at breakfast. Yes, as you might know, Japanese traditional breakfast often includes grilled (dried) fish. But I don’t think eating raw fish first thing in the morning is a very popular custom in this country. Personally I don’t even want to give it a try. :P So you think that my work in the fish section of the supermarket may make me homesick? Well... yes, sometimes. When we sold some fresh abalones there the other day, I couldn't help saying, "Gosh, I wanna go abalone picking right now!" as I was packing them. But most of the time I'm busy discovering and learning new things about the seafood diet here, which is a little different from what I was used to in my hometown, and that is really interesting. First of all, I was amazed to see so many elderly people in the neighborhood being the regular visitors of the fish section of this supermarket. They usually come in as soon as the store opens. I mean, I knew that older folks love fish. But this town is quite far from the ocean-- compared to my hometown-- so I didn’t expect the older folks in a place like this to be THAT crazy about eating fresh and nicely fatty fish. The privilege of working at this "interactive" fish section is being able to observe or even be acquainted with such regular customers. Although more and more fish and shellfish are farmed these days, still the items sold in the fish section are largely affected by the season and the weather here. There are regular items that we have on the shelves almost every day, but they don't always come from the same place, and they taste quite differently depending on where they are from. So I can see those daily visitors come to the store being pretty excited, wondering what goodies they are going to find that day. A couple of dressed up elderly women usually come in as soon as the store opens... maybe every other day. They seem to be meeting up at the entrance and enjoying strolling around in the fish section together, trying to pick their "sashimi of the day." And there is a grandma who just loves our saba-zushi (mackerel sushi). We usually make and sell saba-zushi on Thursdays and Saturdays around lunch time, and she never misses those days. Every time she comes, she claims that she is a big fan of our saba-zushi. Sometimes we have to tell her that we can't make the sushi because we have no mackerels, then she gets so disappointed. And in early April, the "bonito bones craze" has started. Every day a bunch of people come in -- as soon as we open -- almost frantically looking for bonito scraps, especially bones. For what? For simmering bamboo shoots. Maybe those who are familiar with traditional Japanese dishes have heard of “takenoko no Tosa-ni (simmered bamboo shoots, Tosa-style)?” The recipe calls for a bunch of bonito flakes, and the dish was named so because Tosa (former name of Kochi prefecture) is famous for bonito flakes. But I tell you what -- The hard-core bamboo shoot lovers in Tosa do not use bonito flakes for that dish; they use bonito bones. I didn’t know that because my mom simmers bamboo shoots a little differently, so I was surprised with their enthusiasm. At the supermarket, we usually put more than 10 packs of bonito scraps on the shelf, and in almost less than one hour, they are gone. And we keep hearing "Don't you have bonito bones today?" from the customers who came too late. Curiosity made me try using bonito bones for this traditional dish, and yes, now I know why they make such a big deal out of the bones of this particular fish. Some people may find it too fishy, and the chefs of sophisticated kaiseki would frown, but using the bones does give more richness and more flavor to the dish with almost “sweet” aroma (at least while the dish is warm). And -- this may sound barbaric but -- the fish meat left around the bones tastes oh so good! ;P So now I understand why bonito bones are so popular. But I couldn’t understand why the store sells so many different kinds of fish guts as well. I know some fish scrap is great for making stock and some fish egg taste great if cooked properly. But some fish guts seemed just useless and unprofitable because they were sold so cheap. Then one day an elderly woman asked me, “Oh, you don’t have XXXXX (<-- name of the particular fish organ) today?” and so sadly added, “Ah, nothing for my neko-chan (kitty) today!” Boy, all those fish guts and strings that made me think, “How the hell do they cook and eat this stuff?” were for beloved neko-chans in this community! I wonder how many other supermarkets in Japan pack and label foods for four-legged customers. No, I’m not being cynical. I like it. It makes me feel that this place is really like a good old, community-based store. Some of the regular customers of the supermarket deserve to be called "fish experts," I think. They always ask my boss detailed questions directly over the display case. (As I wrote before, the refrigerating display case is tall enough to hide the filleting process behind it, but to show the boss’s cap to let customers know that he is there to answer questions.) Maybe the experts are ex-owners of fish stores or those who moved into this town from fishing villages or chefs at local eating places and bento shops. Some of them often buy many (or all) packs of certain items at once, so I need to be careful when I see them. I’m supposed to check the display case once in a while and tell boss before certain items are completely sold out. But when such customers come, the part of the shelf which was full a minute ago can be totally empty when I came back from checking on the neighboring frozen seafood section. :O Among the “expert” customers, there is an elderly woman who loves sayori (Japanese needlefish) so much and always buys a few kilograms of them at once. Inspired by her, I once bought some real fresh ones in late March and made sashimi at home. Yes, it was my PF (preparing fish) 103: filleting Japanese needlefish. But I wasn't taught how to do it at work; I found a how-to website on the net and practiced at home. (These photos were taken before I filleted them, but I must say that the fish looked much, much more beautiful than these photos.) The fresh sayori sashimi was oh so heavenly good! No wonder she buys THAT many of them for herself and her neighbors. Categories: Supermarket

Whey Pancakes

Yes, I tried draining yogurt again. This time I used a little more expensive brand which tastes richer and less sour. Though the drained yogurt still did not taste as good as cream cheese, it was much better than the last time. I mixed it with grated garlic and mentaiko and made a dip. It was pretty nice on Ritz crackers; I enjoyed them with a couple of glasses of very, very affordable wine. Then I was left with the by-product, whey again. This time I used it for pancakes. A safe idea, isn't it? Yes, it was a safe idea AND a good idea. :) Oh, I almost forgot. Here's a question which almost all(?) Japanese home bakers have in mind or have been asking but not properly answered yet: How long does whey keep in the fridge? Would the expiration date of whey be the same as that of the original yogurt? Experts all over the world, please tell us the truth. ;) Categories: Sweets

Photogenic, But... (2)

Strawberry Tarts (which turned out rather disappointing...) Here's another one which looks pretty nice in these photos but didn't taste so great. The biggest mistake was the tart shell. I used my oil crust recipe, but for some reason that I still cannot understand, I thought that the baking time was 10 minutes instead of 15 minutes. And I didn't bother to check my recipe. It was an easy mistake to fix -- if I had noticed it in time -- but when I found out what was wrong, the shells were already filled with the cream and strawberries. :P So the shells were done but not crunchy and had a little "raw" taste of the whole wheat, the instant pastry cream was too light, and the strawberries were not impressively sweet. But they do please my eyes in these photos, at least, so I guess I didn't make these for nothing, after all. Haha... Categories: Sweets

Whey Biscuits

Whey Biscuits It was more than three years ago and on Jason's site (actually in one of the comments) when I first read about the idea of draining yogurt to come up with a cream-cheese like stuff. Since then, the idea had been on my list of "things to try out someday in the near future." Then draining yogurt has become popular among young Japanese bakers in the past couple of years, like many other "healthy substitution ideas" invented in Japan or imported from abroad. And when I found a Japanese cheesecake recipe with drained plain yogurt as the main ingredient, I instantly decided to try it out, remembering what I read on Jason's site years ago. The result? Well... I guess it was no one's fault that I found the healthier version of cheesecake rather disappointing. I found it too light and too sour, despite the numerous applauding comments to the Japanese recipe site. On my second try I added some cottage cheese and I liked it much, much better. Plain yogurt drained overnight Now, the question I came up with after draining yogurt was what I should do with the whey. Of course, throwing it away was out of question. Following a recipe I found on the net, I made a healthy, refreshing drink by adding honey and soy milk to the whey, which was really, really good. Also, I tried out adding some whey when making biscuits, and the result is what you are seeing in the photo on top of this post. Yes. It was another great idea. The biscuits were excellent. But soon I started asking myself this question: it is really worthwhile to separate yogurt and whey? These biscuits could have tasted just as great even if I used regular plain yogurt instead of whey alone, and using plain yogurt could have been more nutritious. What do you think? If the drained yogurt tastes more cream-cheese like, I would use it for cheesecakes, cheese tarts or dips and quit using cream cheese. But when I tried those ideas, I ended up adding some cottage cheese to make it richer and less sour. Then maybe it is easier and more nutritious just to start with cottage cheese and plain yogurt in the first place??? BTW, I did try washing hands with whey as recommended on a couple of Japanese websites. It sure made the skin moist and smooth. ;) ------ I added a couple of cherry blossom photos to my birthday cake post, if you're interested.