It's Been a Long Time...

My Lunch Today: Store-bought Pizza No, this has absolutely nothing to do with the project I'm working on now. I was (still am) so preoccupied with the project that I didn't want to spend much time for preparing/eating lunch today. This was really something quick and dirty, but looks kinda nice in the pic. Gee, when was the last time I had pizza? I don't even remember... Categories: Western-inspired

Obachan's Fish Curry

Fish Curry - Obachan's Version - This is what I improvised today: Fish curry with horse mackerel and eggplants. I just wanted to use some – maybe half -- of the frozen horse mackerel fillets sitting in my freezer. In a sense, those fish fillets are the evidence of how often I got frustrated in the last couple of months. (You know that I gut /fillet fish when I get frustrated … or bake sweets.) Anyway, I felt like trying something I’ve never tried before with the fillets, so when I saw a photo of Thai fish curry on the net, I told myself, “Yeah, this is it!” But I didn’t follow the recipe at all… I only had about 1/3 of the ingredients that was called for. So this fish curry was just the mixture of all I could find in my kitchen: horse mackerel, eggplants, tomatoes, onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, chili pepper, cumin, curry powder mix, salt& pepper, chicken stock, and coconut milk. I did find fish sauce in my fridge, but its expiration date was… no, I can’t tell this to the world. So I don’t think this deserves a name “Thai curry.” People in Thailand would probably get mad at me. This is obachan’s stress-induced fish curry. That’s what it is. :P But to my surprise, it wasn't bad at all. I might try this dish once in a while… to prevent my freezer from being fully occupied with frozen fish fillets. ----- WARNING! Obachan’s another ill-thought project is going to take place this weekend. Be very afraid ;) Categories: Asian-inspired

Sake to Sakana #3 Kubota

* The author of this post does not recommend sake-drinking to anyone who has not reached the legal drinking age or who should not consume alcohol due to medical/psychological concerns. No, I haven’t forgotten about this project. How could I? ;) This sake was what I enjoyed last Sunday night, after enjoying those cream puffs in the afternoon. BTW, I don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but I do make moderate use of what we call “2 channel,” a Japanese internet forum conglomerate(?) which is said to be the largest in the world. (Now I’m so happy that English Wikipedia has this nice coverage of 2ch! :D) When I started this “Sake to Sakana” series, I stepped into the wild jungle of 2ch and found a couple of extremely informative forums about sake and appetizers. Those threads are still my favorite and I browse them once in a while. This sake, Kubota 久保田 was one of those brands that so many people recommended to sake beginners. Also Mr. John Gaunter includes this Kubota in his list of “super popular sake” on his wonderful site, Sake-world.com. So I had been wanting to try this brand for quite a while, and I almost jumped with joy when I found 720 mL bottles of Kubota at EAON shopping mall. Unfortunately what I found was “Senju　千寿” rank of Kubota, the less expensive honjozo 本醸造 version, not ginjo 吟醸 or daiginjo 大吟醸. (The junmai daiginjo 純米大吟醸 version is named "Manju 萬寿 Kubota", and costs apx. three times more.) But I was determined to try the one I found anyway. The impression I had at my first sip of this Kubota was “Gosh, this is SWEET!” It was almost “creamy” sweetness that I had never tasted before. The distinctive (at least, to me) sweetness was followed by a pleasant sensation right after, which I liked very much. But I couldn’t help wondering, “Is this what they call ‘light and dry’?” because the impression of the sweetness was too strong. Then I warmed it, as I always do to see the changes in the taste at different temperatures. It WAS interesting. I think first I warmed up this sake to be a little warmer than body temperature, and I thought I felt the sensation stronger than the sweetness. Then as it cooled down to be about body temperature or a bit cooler, it got to the point where the sweetness and the sensation were felt almost simultaneously, making a very pleasant harmony. So my conclusion is: I like this sake lukewarm (Nurukanぬる燗). Read More This is an appetizer made with salmon, which I don’t know how to call. I saw it on TV Saturday morning and immediately decided to try it out, because everyone appeared in the program said it was great. I gave it a little twist of my own, though. Ingredients: 150 g Salmon fillet 3 or 4 cm Shironegi (white leek??) 2/3 to 1 Tbsp miso 1 tsp mirin 1 tsp sake A few drops light soy sauce A pinch corn starch White sesame seeds for topping Chop samlon fillet in small chunks. Slice Shironegi. Mince salmon and shironegi together until they turn into a coarse paste. Add the seasonings (miso, mirin, sake, light soy sauce and corn starch) and mince and mix. Repeat scooping up the paste with the knife and pushing it down onto the cutting board, until the seasonings are evenly mixed with the paste. Spread in a baking sheet or something lined with aluminum foil, sprinkle with white sesame seeds and bake until the top is appetizingly brown. Remove from the baking sheet, remove the foil and cut in rectangles. In the TV program, they used miso only, but I wanted to add a little sweetness with mirin and sesame seeds. It might be good to sprinkle shichimi or sahsho pepper on top for extra flavor. I guess you could use food processor instead of mincing with a knife, but they say the knife-and-cutting-board method would bring out the salmon flavor better. Another appetizer I enjoyed that night was this edamame-ten -- my recent favorite. It is edamame (green soybeans) mixed in white fish paste and deep-fried. Unfortunately this is not home-made… it’s one of the fish-cake products they sell at supermarkets. But it is so good with the natural sweetness and crunchiness of the beans. Now I have to make an embarrassing confession for someone in the quest of good home-made appetizer recipes. To tell you the truth, I’m hooked on this combination of jagariko and sake. Jagariko is the name of potato crackers, and the one in the photo is a cheese-flavored version. I found this appetizer idea in one of the 2ch forums mentioned above, and I wish I didn’t. This is very dangerous… because with this crunchy potato crackers, I cannot stop munching and drinking… Definitely bad for health. Very bad… :O Categories: Sake

Cream Puffs with Double Filling

Cream Puffs with Whipping Cream and Chestnut Cream Filling This was my very first time making cream puffs. Believe it or not, I didn’t make a disaster. Oh, I’m serious. I really expected a disaster, because I’ve heard a lot of sad stories about cream puff shells that “did not rise,” or “rose but fell after a short while.” You know where I got the recipe for the shells? A calendar hanging near the bathroom in my apartment. My boss gave it to me in the beginning of this year, and it has beautiful photos of sweets with recipes. “Cream puffs with chestnut cream filling” was on its October page, and I dreamed about trying it out, staring at the photo while brushing my teeth. Finally, I bought a can of chestnut cream at my favorite store MARCO yesterday, and started my project early this morning. The can says the cream is imported from France. Is this a popular brand over there? To my surprise, the puff shells came out of the oven alright and did not fall. The only thing was that the bottom part was a little tough. But not too bad for a first try… I think. The filling was a combination of vegetable whipping cream and chestnut cream. I added a little whipping cream and rum to the chestnut cream, which probably made the cream a little too runny. But the taste was VERY satisfactory. :) These cream puffs in the autumn afternoon sunshine... And the steam drifting up from the teacup... Oh, it was so very healing. Too bad these photos are not showing how they actually looked. Please use your imagination. ;) Categories: Sweets

Kogyoku Apple Jam

Vanilla Ice Cream with Kotyoku(Jonathan) Apple Jam I’m glad that Kogyoku (Jonathan) apples are becoming popular around here recently. Now I know two supermarkets in my neighborhood where I can buy Kogyoku apples throughout the apple season. I used to envy those who can get granny smith for making apple desserts, but Kogyoku apples here are said to be a decent substitute. When I thought about making jam with these sour apples, an idea popped up in my mind. What if I use the skin, too? Would that make the jam red, or at least pink? So I googled, and found that quite many women in Japan thought the same thing. I found a Japanese website with appetizing photos of apple jam with red spots (the skin) showing here and there. I thought that the jam would look lovely with ice cream or yogurt. So I tried it out, with the amount of sugar being 25% of the weight of the Kogyoku apples. While in the pot, my jam looked pretty close to the jam on the Japanese website mentioned above, but after canning, mine turned darker orange. Mmmm.... And the color seems to be getting darker with time. The difference is: I used spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg, and I also added a little amount of pectin at the end, which was probably unnecessary. Though not too happy with the color, I like the taste of this jam very much -- I found the texture of the skin rather pleasant. But I’m not too crazy about the combination of this jam and buttered toast. Categories: Sweets

Project Dashimaki Tamago -1-

Dashimaki tamago Yes, I finally bought a tamagoyaki-pan the other day. (Must be a stress-induced impulsive buy. :P) Here's my not-so-successful dashimaki tamago. Mmmmm... Definitely needs improvement. There you go. This is my tamagoyaki-pan (copper). And I'm practicing rolling the eggs with chopsticks, not a turner. It is a common practice for beginner Japanese chefs. Of course I don't mean to be a chef in the future or anything, but just wanted to be able to do that because that looks cool. Now, I can roll dashimaki tamago, at least, with these chopsticks. But my dashimaki doesn't taste good at all. So I guess I need more experimenting with the amount of dashi and other seasonings... Categories: Japanese

Sweet Seasons / October 2006 - Chrysanthemum -

Chrysanthemum I know. I cheated. Today is not October 31st, but I need to have a wagashi entry on the last day of every month, so please forgive me. This wagashi is another nerikiri with a beautiful color gradation. The color on the surface is lighter pink, and redder pink inside is showing through the cuts. * Click to enlarge It is said that in the past, it was a taboo to make chrysanthemum-shaped wagashi with 16 petals, because it is the emblem of the Japanese royal family. It may not be true any more because… Now I can see the readers of my blog putting their fingers (or mouse cursors) on the above photo and going 1, 2, 3… ;) * Wabashi by Shingetsu Categories: Wagashi

Buttermilk Pancakes for Breakfast

Buttermilk Pancakes My breakfast today. YUM! Oh, don't get me wrong. These pancakes were very small... just as big as your palms. I'm not such a big eater ;) ;) Categories: Sweets

My Therapy...

Chocolate Muffins Something frustrating happened last night and this morning, so I made these in the late afternoon to pamper myself. While baking these in the oven, I gutted a couple of fish to let my aggression out. :O A nice teatime with these muffins healed me. And a good thing is that I have more than enough fish fillet to make meuniere for my supper tonight. Cooking/baking can be pretty therapeutic, you know. :) Categories: Sweets

Apple Pork Chop and Rosemary Potatoes

Apple Pork Chop with Maple-mustard Glaze and Rosemary Potatoes This is what I made yesterday. And, Yes! I used the French seasonings that LPC sent me from Paris the other day! :D I used the mustard for the glaze, and sprinkled the lovely finishing salt all over the potatoes. The above photo doesn't show it much, but I did pour the mustard glaze into the prying pan and glazed the pork. I pre-boiled the potatoes and then oven-baked them, but couldn't wait until they turn brown... Everything was so great, especially the mustard glaze. It was just a mixture of the pink mustard, maple syrup, sugar and vinegar, but it was oh so good. The only thing was that the meat was rather tough... Well, next time I'll buy more expensive meat. The mustard glaze is definitely worth it. ;) Categories: Western-inspired

Autumn Festival Feast in My Hometown

Now I’m back in my apartment with lots of photos and memories of the autumn festival in my hometown held last weekend. On Saturday, October 14th, I took an early bus to my hometown to help with the cooking.　When I came to the small kitchen adjacent to the shrine, four women around my mom’s age were already there, busy with cooking. They were touya’s wives, including my mom. According to her, they had made a VERY brave decision of making many of the dishes of the feast themselves this year. (I heard that last years’ cooking team totally depended on the local catering service and it costed too much, so I guess there was a budget-cut.) As soon as I entered the kitchen, I was led straight to the deep-frying pot. There waiting were breaded prawns and seasoned fish meat to be deep-fried. Rice was cooking in the electric rice cooker, and someone was filleting fish at an outside sink. When you hear about elderly women cooking together for a community gathering, don’t you automatically expect them to be making “grandma’s signature dishes” with their expertise and all dishes to be wonderful? Oh well, that’s not necessarily always true. Sorry to disillusion you, but actually it was kind of hilarious. You know how it is to cook in a kitchen that you are not used to? To make things worse, everyone forgot to bring some ingredients/utensils and most of them were not available at the shop nearby. So things got pretty messy there. Kamasu (peto?) for the stuffed sushi was opened in a wrong way, someone added wrong amount of water to cook rice, and some said that some of the dishes had to be delivered to another place at 3 pm while others said 4 pm, etc. etc…. Ahhhhhhh!!! And you know what? The communication through cell phones often does not work in my hometown – sometimes because the elder people do not know how to use them, and other times, the cell phone displays “no-service area” message. :O And in this kind of situation, you have to realize that each household has a different way of cooking/serving and different preference of taste. In a very rural, traditional place like my hometown, women in our grandmothers’ generation learned to cook just like their mothers did, or after they got married, like their mother-in-laws did. There was no restaurant or shops in a small farming and fishing village, and of course no recipes from TV cooking shows or the internet, so they had no chance to get familiarized with more “standardized” tastes. And women of my mom’s generation learned cooking from them. So each family’s preference of taste seems to be rather persistently inherited. You know what I mean. ;) Participants of the festival enjoying the big feast. We served the big feasts on the festival eve and the main festival day. On the main festival day, the four cooking staff got together at 6 am(!!) to cook some dishes different from the day one and serve the feast around 11:30 am. (I joined them later because I was not an official member of the cooking team this year.) There came sooooooo many amateur photographers on that day to take shots of the unique rituals of our festival. They had no way to buy lunch, because absolutely no food stalls come to our festival, and the only store in the community sells candies, ice cream and seasoning stuff only but no snacks/bentos. So we made rice balls with "superfluous" gomokuzushi and fed the photographers. (Hope the cooking team next year does not hate us for doing that.) Unfortunately, we, the cooking team, could not join the feast both days – our duty was to stay in the kitchen and keep serving foods and washing glasses/dishes. :( We were all so tired when it was over, then one of the elder ladies came by and said, “Oh, you are lucky that you had to come here at 6 am today. When I cooked here for this festival, we came here around 2 am!” Gee. Then when my real turn comes in about 30 years from now, the cooking team would be meeting at around 10 am. Boy, I really hope so. :P Full write-up and photos of the festival: Preparing for the Autumn Festival - Part 1 - Preparing for the Autumn Festival - Part 2 - Autumn Festival in My Hometown - Festival Eve - Autumn Festival in My Hometown - Main Festival Day - Categories: Kochi, Japanese

Goodies from Paris!!

A "French" Package from LPC It finally arrived today! :D Yes, I got a package from one of my fellow bloggers, LPC of La petite chinoise. A “French” package with 5 food (or food-related) items! Can you imagine how excited I am? She kindly thought about me when she was shopping for her package for EBBP#6, and sent me one, too. On a lovely picture card, she wrote a detailed explanation of each item. (The picture was a work by Marc Chagall, BTW. I should have shown that side of the post card in the photo.) Here's the list of the goodies she sent me: ----- Fleur de Sel de Guerande … High quality “finishing” salt. I just took a lick, and YES! It is totally different from the mass-produced salt we have here. It’s mild and very tasty, and yeah I can definitely tell that it was handpicked by women only. ;) Maille Mustard… Mustard? Really? It’s pink! And I see the illustration of raspberry, blueberry and blackberry on the label. But after tasting it, I’m fully convinced that it is mustard. I love this taste! Hand/tea towel…You triggered something very dangerous in me, LPC. You wrote that French people wrap breads with this kind of towels. Now I’m picturing myself baking French baggetts at home and wrapping them with this tea towel. Let’s see what happens. (Maybe next week…) Jasmin Fruit Concassees…I’m tempted to use this for some kind of fish dish. Langue de Chat… Oh, this is so good. So soft and smooth… and looks so cute! I already ate two of them. And I’m definitely keeping this can. ----- This package really made my day. Last year, I did have a couple of offers of package exchange, but could not go for it because I was rather financially tight then. Now I’m making a little more money than last year, so I decided to give it a go this time. And I’m so glad that I did. I almost forgot the excitement of receiving something from abroad, but this package from Paris reminded me of that wonderful feeling. Thank you LPC for all these goodies! :D (Her post about my package is here, if you are interested.) Categories: Miscellaneous

Revenge of the Wild Boars...???

Revenge....??? I know these photos are not very appetizing, but I thought about sharing them because this may be something you don't see often. ;) Last weekend I stayed at my parents' house and I need to do so this weekend again. It’s for the autumn festival in my hometown. The town consists of 3 (or 4?) small sections, and every year one family from each section has to join the festival committee to take care of the festival. It is our family’s turn this year, so my parents and I have been involved in the preparation. (I’ll be posting about it on my another blog, if you are interested.) Anyway, these are the pics I took at my parents' house last weekend. This is how a couple of wild boars did a revenge in my dad’s veggie garden. As I wrote before, dad has a license to trap certain wild animals in a certain time of the year, thus my family eats wild boar meat once in a while this way. Now, in my hometown, wild boars often cause damages to veggie gardens and orchards every year. That's why dad decided to get a license to catch them in the first place. But this autumn, they dug up my dad’s veggie garden three times already while the neighbors' veggie gardens were untouched. So my mom and I are joking that it must be the revenge of the family members of the boar that dad caught last year. Dad insists that they are attracted by the special fertilizer he uses but the neighbors don’t. He says that the fertilizer has a distinctive smell from fermentation and the wild boars are attracted by it. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but the fact is that his young daikon (top photo) and Chinese cabbage (left) are suffering seriously. Categories: Miscellaneous

Kabocha Pumpkin Souffles

These are kabocha pumpkin souffles I made yesterday. I know. It’s not Halloween yet. But I just felt like making a dessert with the kabocha pumpkin which I had bought the day before. I used a Japanese recipe, because I thought it was safe to stick with the recipe that called for this particular type of pumpkin. But this was not a great success. The souffles did not rise as much as I wanted them to, and did not turn out as moist as I expected. Also, they tasted rather bland to me, so I made sherry sauce with sherry, sugar and butter. I liked the sauce very much, but I have to admit that it almost hid the mild, natural flavor of the pumpkin. Oh well... Better luck next time. Categories: Sweets

Sweet Seasons / September 2006 - Mushi No Ne -

Mushi No Ne (Chirping of Insects) As I wrote before, wagashi is often made to reflect seasonal themes, and named to tell us what it is depicting. This one is no exception. Can you guess what they named this wagashi? --- The answer is mushi no ne 虫の音　(chirping of insects). The two brown lines represent autumn grass, perhaps leaves of sedge or susuki (Japanese silver grass), and the black sesame seed is a cricket. The chirping of cricket is a typical autumn theme here, perhaps as in other countries, too, and many Japanese associate the sound with the serenity and a slight sadness of a long autumn night. We especially love the chirping of suzumushi (Homoeogryllus japonicus, Japanese bell cricket or bell insect), which sounds like this.　(Click on the 56K next to the audio icon under the photo of the insect.) This type of wagashi is called manjuu, which is basically steamed cake usually with sweet bean paste filling. If grated yam is added when making the skin, it is called joyo manjuu, and the skin turns out whiter, softer and moister. I assume that is what this is. Sorry, I forgot to take a shot to show you inside of this manjuu. Instead, I added some trivia about the chirping of insects, so please read on if you are interested. Read More If you stayed overnight in a small village here in Japan in autumn and got fascinated by the beautiful chorus of the bell insects surrounding you, you might be tempted to let your friend in a bigger city hear it. So you hold the receiver of the house phone or your cell phone out of the window to let it catch the chirping sound. But your friend will not hear it. It is a widely-knonwn(?) fact here that the frequency of bell crickets’ chirping is too high for a phone to capture. According to some Japanese websites, a telephone can transmit the sound with the frequency below 3500Hz. But the frequency of the chirping of bell crickets is apx. 4500Hz, so it cannot be transmitted by phone. Another well-known theory here is that Japanese people and Western people hear the chirping of insects differently. The theory says that when a Japanese person hears it, (s)he uses the left hemisphere of the brain, while a Westerner hears the same sound using the right hemisphere, where the sound, noise and the music are processed. I think this is based on a book called Nihonjin no No ("The Japanese Brain" 1978) by Tadanobu Tsunoda. He gave dichotic listening test to both Japanese and Westerners and made a comparison. I haven’t read this book myself so I’m not 100% sure, but from what I've read in a couple of websites quoting this book, his findings seem to have indicated that Japanese do hear linguistic sounds using the left hemisphere of the brain and other sounds (music, noise, etc.) using the right hemisphere, just like Westerners do, with some exceptions: Chirping of insects and the sound of certain Japanese musical instruments are processed in the left hemisphere of the Japanese brain (or maybe more precisely, the brain of those who speak Japanese as the first language.) Does this mean that we Japanese are hearing those sounds as "linguistic sounds?" Are we perceiving that the insects or the musical instruments are "talking" to us??? Aren’t we strange people? ;) * Wagashi by Shingetsu Categories: Wagashi

Carrot Dressing

Green Salad with Carrot Dressing Pretty color, isn’t it? This is the dressing I made today. It’s carrot dressing. I bought a couple of carrots today to make a carrot cake, but I found myself too tired after I came back from shopping. So I went for something a lot easier and probably healthier (because I was going to give my carrot cake a thick cream cheese frosting). I started with a Japanese recipe I found on the net, and the ingredients were grated carrots, grated onion, grated garlic, salad oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar. But I found it too sour, so as usual, I added some twists of my own. I added soy sauce, olive oil, sherry, more sugar and even finely chopped pine nuts (leftover from my previous basil pesto attempt). Perhaps I added too many ingredients… I think they pretty much hid the natural sweetness of the carrots. But the dressing tasted good with these cucumbers and lettuce, and even better when used as a sauce for fish meuniere. :) Sorry, I forgot to take a shot of the meuniere... BTW, some of you might be interested in this… I passed the test that I took about a month ago. Yay! Categories: Western-inspired