Sweet Success after Sweet Failure

Chicken and Vegetable Stif-fry with a Secret Ingredient Seventeen days. It was obviously too long. I’m talking about my nashi (Asian pear) infused vodka. It has been seventeen days since I sank those pear segments in vodka. I should have checked it once in a while, but I just gave it a good rest in the dark in my small cupboard. In other words, I almost forgot about it. Besides, considering how long it took for my grape-infused vodka to be really flavorful, I thought I should give it 3 weeks or so. Wrong idea. I opened the jar today for the first time to check how it was doing, and I hated myself for waiting that long. The moment I smelled the vodka, I was almost shocked. It smelled sweet indeed, but not the kind of fruity sweetness that I had in mind. How should I describe it…? The smell reminded me of some kind of chocolate bonbons with real strong liquor in. No, I'm not saying that my vodka smelled like chocolate. You know the kind of bonbon that has a layer of coarse sugar or candy inside? The smell of my nashi infused vodka reminded me of that boozed-up coarse sugar! And it was so strong that it almost knocked me down. I strained the vodka and poured some in a glass to experiment. I added some ice and water to see if I can smell and taste the pears when it's thinned. Yes, I did, but not the way I wanted. It was not fruity at all. It was more like over-ripened pears that already lost its fragrance and is going bad pretty soon. Maybe it might taste OK if mixed with other drinks, but I had no idea what can be the right kind of drinks for that. Instead, an idea popped up in my mind. Can’t I use it for cooking? I heard about using vodka or bourbon for cooking chicken, so why not this infused vodka? So here is a Chinese-style dish I improvised: Chicken and veggie stir-fry with good amount of Asian- pear infused vodka! I marinated the chicken briefly in garlic, soy sauce and the vodka, then stir-fried it with minced garlic and ginger root and other vegetables. For seasoning, I used salt, pepper and about a teaspoonful Dou ban jiang (Chinese chili paste) dissolved in mirin, and at the end I added soy sauce and a good amount of my nashi- infused vodka! While I was stir-frying, I did smell the fruity nashi flavor a little. Maybe because the alcohol evaporated while being heated? Unfortunately I couldn’t detect the fruity flavor in the chicken when I ate it, but the dish turned out quite good. Honestly, I loved it. It was sweet, but the sweetness was a little different from what it usually is when used sugar and/or mirin only --- it was milder. Feeling good about this success, and feeling the urge to go out and eat lunch outside in gorgeous autumn weather, I packed my lunch and headed for a nearby park. Kinmokusei (orange osmanthus) was in full bloom there in the park. The weather is certainly cooling off around here. (This photo was taken last Thursday in the same park. The flowers looked just the same today.) It was a nice day after all, but I’ll be careful next time I infuse vodka with fruits and I'll definitely check it more often ;P

Spring Rolls

Spring Rolls Crispy spring rolls are my all-time favorite. They are also great for using up leftover veggies in the fridge because you can basically roll up almost anything --- at your own risk --- and deep fry. For the first batch, I used bean sprouts, carrots, ground meat (seasoned and sauteed), asparagus and shiitake mushrooms for the filling. Forgive me if the combination sounded weird to you. They needed to be used up, and I chose spring roll to use them up because there was another thing I wanted to make using the wrappers. OK, here’s my experiment. Someone said on TV the other day that natto-kimchi spring roll was great, and he recommended it to all natto-phobic people. The idea of hiding the odor/taste of natto with kimchi sounded like a good idea to me, so I gave it a try. Mmmm… I can give this 7.5 out of 10. Though I tasted natto a little, its texture and smell didn’t bother me almost at all. The crispy skin really helped. This may not be a “cure” for natto-phobia, but it did bring me one step closer to that highly nutritious food full of Nattokinase. Feel like going for a beer right now ? ;)

Sweet Seasons/October 2005 - Cosmos -

As has been written by many, wagashi (Japanese traditional confectionery) is known for its beauty that reflects the changing seasons in Japan. It does not necessarily mean using ingredients in season like baking blueberry pie in summer. Those traditional sweets are actually shaped and colored to depict various seasonal features. There is no doubt that tea ceremony played a crucial role in the history of wagashi. In this highly ritualized preparation and drinking of tea, seasonal themes must always be reflected on everything: equipments used for preparing/drinking tea, hanging scroll picture on the wall, flowers in a vase, and wagashi served before drinking tea. To meet this need, Japanese confectioners have been making great efforts to creatively represent seasonal themes with their wagashi. Starting this month, I’m going to post at least one wagashi entry a month, coupled with photos of what it represents, such as a flower, leaf, fruit or scenery…plus some trivia about Japanese sweets. In twelve months, my work will turn into a lovely sugary calendar with my own wagashi photos ;) (I take photos of wagashi myself, but I don't make the wagashi myself.) ***** Read More Cosmos (Mexican Aster) This is nerikiri in the shape of an autumn flower, cosmos (Mexican aster). Nerikiri is a type of wagashi made mainly from sweet white bean paste. A mochi -like ingredient called gyuhi (made from shiratamako, sugar and water) or sometimes yam is kneaded into the bean paste to make it softer, smoother and moister. It not only makes the texture of the paste pleasant to the tongue but also makes it easier to handle and suitable for molding. Also the nerikiri paste can be colored easily. In a sense it seems similar to marzipan craft, but while marzipan is often used for decorating cakes, basically nerikiri is not meant to be used for decorating other sweets, as far as I know. The name “nerikiri” probably came from the kneading work. In Japanese neru means “to knead” and kiru “to cut.” Very often, nerikiri has sweet bean paste filling inside, thus the sugar content is not very low. However, a good nerikiri never tastes overly sweet for me; the sweetness is not heavy but by no means too light or tasteless, which goes wonderfully well with bitter and flavorful matcha (green tea served in tea ceremony). * Mochi --- Rice cake. * Shiratamako --- A type of rice flour. The rice is soaked into water and milled as in water (not drained), pressed to get the water out and dried into solid, then made into powder. A finer flour than mochiko. *Wagashi from OGASAWARA 3-4-6 Honmachi, Kochi city, Kochi

Poached Pears

Poached Pears Today I found an European pear, La France on sale. The price was down to 1/5 of the original price because the pear had a big bruise almost turning brown, and the rest was rock-hard. Usually I never buy this kind of pear no matter how cheap it is, because I can't stand a rock-hard pear, but this time was different. I knew it was a perfect chance to try out the recipe I saw on crystal’s site. So I bought the half-rotten pear and a cup of vanilla ice cream and hurried home (I mean, my apartment). This was easy to make and tasted so heavenly, even though I accidentally added a few drops of almond essence before I realized the mistake and added more than enough vanilla extract. (They were in very similar bottles and I didn't bother to read the labels.) :P Mmmmmm….. I’m speechless.

Fish Dinner Night

Pretty Colorful, isn't it? Wondering what this is? Maybe some of you figured out that this is chirashi zushi (uncaked sushi), but not sure what’s on top, right? Those fish-meat like chunks are vinegared gizzard shad. Many of you probably have had sushi more often than I did, and might have heard the name kohada. That’s what it is. Kohada is often vinegared and I’ve heard a lot about it, but this was the first time that I made vinegared kohada myself. And this boiled fish is what we call chinu (black sea bream). I had a hard time taking a shot trying to hide the ugly parts as much as possible, because the skin came off here and there... :( Very simple sweet and salty seasoning with sugar, soy sauce, sake, mirin and a few slices of ginger root. There’s a very good reason why these fish are not very photogenic. I gutted and filleted them myself. I know, I know. I live “in a rural town with abundant seafood from the Pacific ocean” and I’m originally from a coastal town known for fishing. So you think I’m supposed to be good at such preparations? Wrong. I can manage, but it’s a real clumsy work which is a typical “daimyo oroshi” (filleting work that a feudal lord would do, leaving lots of the flesh of the fish on the middle bone). This expression is used among (elder?) professional cooks probably because feudal lords in the past were those who were least likely to gut and fillet fish, and least stingy about the flesh left on the bone.　(*Sorry, I just found that daimyo oroshi was the name of a legitimate filleting method. It doesn't really mean "shitty work." ) Why did I go through all those troubles this time? Let me tell you, dear readers. These fish were special. They were not from the supermarket. They were straight from a local river, and I witnessed all the catching process! Oh, about the dishes above, vinegared gizzard shad was OK, and black sea bream was excellent, though it was small. (* I used instant mix for making the sushi part. Of course! How can I manage gutting/filleting fish AND making sushi from scratch! No way. ;P ) My kitchen is filled with the smell of fish right now. I’m not totally happy with it, but I have to admit that it makes me feel somewhat nostalgic. After all, that’s something I was very familiar with in my childhood. * And here is the story of how I got these fish.

My Very First Double-Crust Apple Pie

My Very First Double-Crust Apple Pie Take a look at the double-crust apple pie that I made yesterday! It was my very first time making pie crust myself. The temptation to bake an apple pie was triggered when I saw several kogyoku apples on sale at the Sunday market yesterday. Kogyoku is a tart variety that is suitable for pies and cakes. For someone like me who wants tart apples for baking but can’t buy Granny smith online, Kogyoku is the best substitute. (Granny smith apples are not available at regular stores in Japan but you can buy them from farmers by ordering online. Most likely you have to order by box and the postage will not be cheap.) So can you imagine how delighted I was when I found kogyoku apples on sale: 4 for 100 yen (apx. US$1.00)?! Usually 4 Kogyoku apples cost almost 500 yen at supermarkets. For my very first double-crust apple pie, I picked a basic recipe to stay on the safe side because I am not very experienced in apple-pie baking. But there was one thing I was determined to do no matter what; I wanted to bake a double-crust pie with leaf-shaped holes in the top crust. And see? I really had fun making the holes using my leaf-shaped cookie cutter. Now this is what came out of the oven. Not terribly bad, isn’t it? Unfortunately the crust was a little stiff because I did a substitution that no one would probably approve of. I didn’t have vegetable shortening, so I substituted it with butter and a little vegetable whipping cream. I saw a recipe somewhere that used butter and heavy cream but no shortening, so I assumed whipping cream wouldn’t be a too crazy idea. Maybe it was… (Later I googled for “substitute for shortening” and went through some forums. Most people recommended palm oil or coconut oil, but no one ever mentioned whipping cream. Hahaha... BTW, is that true that Crisco made a new trans-fat-free shortening?? I really want one.) Other than that, the pie was not really bad after all. The tartness of kogyoku really made a difference in the filling and I am so happy that I went to the market last Sunday. It was even better when I did… …this! Mmmmmm… :)

Sunday Market in October

Though it is still quite warm and humid around here for October, fresh fruits and vegetables at the market tell us that it’s Autumn now. *Click photos to enlarge. I'm happy to see wider variety of grapes sold at stores these days. In the past, we only had grapes with thick skins in Japan (or at least in Shikoku, I guess) and we never ate the skins. So I was shocked when I saw, for the first time, people eating grape skins in the U.S. Now we have grapes with thin skins here in Kochi, too, and my mom wouldn’t be frightened to see her daughter eating up grapes, leaving seeds and stems only. I always love to see the crafts at this stall. When I was a kid, one of my dreams was having my own chestnut tree so that I would be able to eat chestnuts anytime I want. Here they sell “red rice” and “black rice,” the kinds of rice widely grown in ancient times, but very rare now. Their nutritious values have been rediscovered recently and some people seem to love mixing them into regular rice. (But see the price…) Big Asian pears, ginger roots and early tangerines. Honeycombs& honey, and of course, sweet potatoes! Mushrooms and greens. I didn’t see many today, but pretty soon persimmons will be in season. Oh, there's no break for foodies, right? ;)

The Killer Imoten (Deep-fried Sweet Potatoes)

Imoten (Batter-fried Sweet Potato) from the Sunday Market Ask someone in Kochi city this question, “Do you like imoten sold at the Sunday market?” You’ll quite likely get, “Oh yeah! I love it!” type of response with a heartwarming smile on his/her face. This everyone’s favorite, "imoten" is simple batter-fried sweet potatoes. “Imo” means potatoes and “ten” came from tempura. It’s the kind of food that is so simple and yet so good that you never get tired of. I can’t help craving for it once in a while. (Well, maybe twice a month.) Preparation is awfully easy -- all you have to do is to peel and chop up sweet potatoes, dip in batter and deep-fry. That’s it. But It’s also the kind of food that anyone can make at home but often ends up saying, “But I can’t do it like they do.” Walking through the Sunday market, you can find a stall where they deep-fry imoten (and other kind of tempura, too) right in front of you and sell them hot. When locals in Kochi say “Sunday market imoten,” it means the ones sold at this stall. I guess the secret of the great taste is the kind of sweet potatoes they use. Imoten from this stall is soooo sweet and ”hoku-hoku.” (How can I explain “hoku-hoku” in English? It’s not just “dry,” I suppose.) I also assume that they add something to the batter to make it slightly sweet and a bit chewy but not too heavy. Maybe sugar and possibly a bit of soy sauce as a hidden flavor?? I don’t know… The lady at the stall told me that they have been selling imoten for about 30 years at the Sunday/Thursday market. Their imoten is widely known now, being included in many guidebooks and websites, and you often see customers standing in line in front of the stall. It's just something you don't want to miss.

Broiled Chicken with Moromi-miso Glaze

Tori no Moromi-miso Yaki (Broiled Chicken with Moromi-miso Glaze) Maybe it’s about time I took a break from the culinary world tour I’ve been enjoying recently. I made a Japanese dinner tonight after coming back from Izakaya work. The entries were: satoimo no nimono (simmered taro), komatsuna no ohitashi (blanched Japanese mustard spinach with bonito flakes) and -- this was the experiment of the day – tori no moromi-miso yaki (broiled chicken with moromi-miso glaze). Yes, this is the moromi-miso that my colleague gave me the other day. I still have a plenty left, and I’ve been searching for recipes of dressing/glaze that call for moromi-miso. During the net search, I found a good number of Japanese sites that mentioned broiled chicken (or pork) with moromi-miso glaze, and I got tempted. Unfortunately none of those sites had a recipe with the amount of ingredients clearly mentioned, so I just improvised the whole thing. OK, here’s what I did: First, I sprinkled sake all over the chicken thigh pieces, grilled them in a frying pan, covered, over very low heat. While the chicken was cooking, I mixed about 1 Tbsp moromi-miso with a little sake, sugar and mirin. I needed to make the miso a little sweeter because, as I mentioned in the previous post, it was pretty salty--- a lot saltier than regular moromi-miso. When the chicken pieces were almost done and looked golden brown, I took them out from the frying pan, spread the moromi-miso glaze on top (skin side), and this time put them in the toaster oven to brown the miso glaze until I smelled its appetizing aroma. The chicken was served with a pinch of ground sansho pepper and a slice of sudachi orange on top. It was good. I’m glad that I tried. Sometimes my improvisation (or gamble) does seem to work ;) * If you're wondering what exactly moromi-miso is, I'm going to do a little research on the miso soon and add an explanation here, so please wait.

Nashi Infused Vodka

It was my pay day today, so I kicked off another project: Nashi (Asian pear) infused vodka. I definitely prefer European or American pears for making desserts, but for infusion, I think these crisp, juicy and sweet Asian pears would be very nice. I could be wrong but I’m eager to find out. We’ll see. (No sugar added.)

Garden Report - October 2005 -

Thyme and Sweet Marjoram It’s getting cooler day by day (though it’s been a little hot and humid for the last couple of days), and my herbs seem to be relieved. No more crazy summer heat! This year it really damaged my plants in the balcony garden, and almost killed my blueberry, sunshine blue. You see the part with brown leaves still remaining on the branch? I have to make a confession here…in July this year, my sunshine blue looked that way all over. Yes, all leaves turned brown and the whole plant looked completely DEAD. That 's the reason why I skipped the garden report that month. I was too hurt and depressed to take a photo of my sunshine blue looking totally dried up and dead. It was a result of several unfortunate factors combined, but above all, it was my fault. One day I was in a great hurry to meet up with someone and didn’t give enough water to my plants. Unfortunately in the afternoon the temperature went up sky high (record high, IIRC), and my god I forgot to turn off the air-conditioner before leaving my room! That was the only time in the whole summer that I forgot to turn it off before going out. And my sunshine blue was placed very close to the outside unit of the air-conditioner. Read More As I wrote above, I couldn’t take a photo of or write about the tragic happening at that time. On the other hand, I had a slight hope that the blueberry plant might come back. It was only one afternoon that it was exposed to abnormal heat …not several days. So I watered it like crazy every day after that, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed... I almost jumped with joy when I saw, after all the brown leaves fell, a few tiny green buds sprouting. But I waited to take a photo until more green leaves come out. It looked almost OK in late August – early September and I was so relieved…but I still waited , hoping to see more green leaves. And now it’s already October. ;P I hope my sunshine blue fully recovers from the shocking incident and have more berries next summer. I’m very happy with my thyme this summer. It looked completely dead at one point, but it came back, and now looks better than ever! Last year I had a problem of scale insects in my balcony garden especially on basil, rhubarb and thyme. I had to remove them with an old toothbrush again and again, and that really drove me nuts. This year, I had only a couple on basil and rhubarb, and none on thyme! Now, the dog-rose is the problem. I was hoping to be able to pick some rose hips this Autumn and that was the reason why I bought two (rather expensive) young plants of dog-rose online last spring. But they didn’t bloom. No flowers means no rose hips. Did they cheat or does it usually take a few years before it starts blooming? Nevertheless, I should say that I’m grateful for what the balcony garden gave me this summer. I had my first harvest of blueberries, rhubarb and lemongrass, which was really exciting! Rosemary, mint and sweet marjoram are constantly doing well. Unfortunately, myoga ginger did not bloom, but dill bloomed for the first time (it didn't last year) and now I have about 2 teaspoonful of dill seeds at hand. Parsley doesn’t look too healthy but at least I can always get the amount I need. Not bad. Not bad at all. :)

Guess What I Made This Morning - Sourdough Pancakes -

My very first sourdough pancakes Yes, sourdough pancakes! See? I finally sacrificed Charlie II. Just like the home-made pita bread I made last Sunday, this was my very fist attempt. But unlike the pita bread, I had no idea what sourdough pancakes should taste like, so I felt far more adventurous this time! That was part of the reason why it took me some time to decide on which recipe to pick out of numerous sourdough pancake recipes on the net. I couldn't imagine the taste/texture from the amount of sugar or oil in the recipes. I mean, they call it "sourdough" so it should taste sour, but how much? And I was a little surprised to see so many recipes being associated with "Alaska." Is this pancake originally from Alaska or something? Anyway, I finally picked this one because it is said to be a signature recipe of a lovely bed and breakfast place, and it calls for powdered skim milk. So, as mentioned in the instruction, I did some preparation last night, right before going to bed. I took Charlie II out of the fridge and mixed 1/2 C of him with flour and warm water. (The recipe was downsized to half.) Then I covered the batter with a damp cloth and left it on the kitchen table overnight. This morning, many small bubbles appeared on the surface of the batter. Charlie II was alive! I prepared the batter following the instruction and cooked my first sourdough pancakes. It was fun to watch them being cooked. Now, about the taste. It’s definitely ... mmm, what should I say... interesting. I think I will love sourdough pancakes but with some modifications to the recipe to suit my taste. The pancakes I made this morning were a little too sour with a slightly tangy aftertaste. Is this the way they are supposed to be or do you think something's wrong with my starter? Is Charlie II contaminated with some unwanted bacteria or something?? I hope not... (He has been in the fridge since the day I posted about him last time.) After all, it was fun to try the pancakes I'd never ever tasted before. I’ll try a different recipe next time, but it should be after I finish eating all the 4 big leftover pancakes that I froze this morning.

Yogurt Jelly - Minty Minty -

Yogurt jelly with mint-liqueur flavored layer on top Just wanted to post something refreshing to look at, because it was so humid all day today. Yogurt jelly with mint-liqueur flavored layer on top. What do you think? I used this yogurt jelly recipe (in Japanese) for the yogurt jelly (without the fruit cocktail), and the blue-green colored layer was my improvisation. As usual, I tried hard to make the green color in the photo look closer to what I saw with my eyes, but without much success. I finally gave up, and instead, tried intensifying the effect of the backlight to make the photos look somewhat interesting. It was not quite successful, either, but I guess this is the best I can do. The plastic cups are from the office where I work at in the daytime. In other words, I washed and saved those cups after we ate store-bought coffee jelly there, and brought them home for future use ;P The taste of the jelly? Not too good and not too bad. The minty top layer did add a refreshing taste to this dessert, but I’m rather reluctant to call it my favorite.

I Did It! - Home-made Pita Bread -

Home-made Pita Bread with Hummus Yes, I made home-made pita bread today! It was fun. Really. I followed this recipe (thanks paola for the link!) step by step, and finally, I was able to enjoy the hummus with pita as many of you suggested. Yay! I would rate my first home-made pita bread as … maybe B-. The recipe yielded 8 but I downsized it to half and made 4 of them. Two out of them puffed up perfectly but the rest didn’t. Maybe the dry yeast wasn’t fully awake… it had been kept in the freezer for months and I didn’t leave it at room temperature long enough before mixing into the flour. (Or just as firmgirl says, "All pitas do not puff." That remark really made me feel at ease.) That said, the pita bread (with or without pockets) went well with the hummus, as many of you said. Thanks again for the suggestions! Next time I’ll try home-made whole wheat pita. With pita bread at hand, I HAD TO try out this recipe, Lemon Chicken Pita Burgers on Joe's site. I found the recipe about a week ago, but was about to give up on that because I didn't think I could buy pita anywhere. Unfortunately, there was another thing called for in the recipe that was not available around here: Greek seasoning mix. So I googled to see what kind of spices were included in the mix and just picked the ones I had: ground cumin, paprika, pepper, salt and garlic powder. I had to use regular oregano in place of Greek oregano, and probably that made a big difference because I read on several websites that Greek oregano is tangy or pungent. Anyway, making many bold (?) substitutions and omissions, I made something that can be called “Chicken Pita Burgers” which might be very different from Joe’s. Chicken Pita Burgers and Hummus-stuffed Cherry Tomatoes My burgers were not totally terrible, though… they were just another B- stuff, I would say. The problem was that I couldn't really taste the tang of lemon, and the pita bread was rather plain... To improve the taste, I put some hummus inside the pita burger. So it was pita+hummus combination all the way. Next time I’ll try this with whole wheat pita bread (home-made, of course) and more lemony yogurt sauce. BTW, I gave one thumb up for the hummus-stuffed cherry tomatoes. Those were pretty good. (I just love bite-size finger food ;))