For your own good

I may well be preaching to the converted here (where I live is hardly a metropolis, it takes a while for anything interesting to find it's way from the city to our littlish island), but there is something I am just bursting to tell you about! On Sunday we spent the afternoon with friends, and they arrived with two large boxes of the most delicious pastries you could ever imagine - Beard Papa's cream puffs! Now I'm not usually a fan of this type of thing, I've never really gone in for fresh cream or custard... until I was introduced to these heavenly treats:



After our visitors left, there was one pastry remaining - a strawberry cream puff. Not strawberry flavour (yuck), but fresh, strawberry puree whipped into fresh cream. It is no more. Words fail me, you have to try one! There are branches of Beard Papa's globally now (http://www.beardpapa.com/index.php), so if you find yourself in the vicinity of one just walk in through those doors and indulge!

Feet futons

OK, I have to stop complaining about how cold I am - I've just read about the Arctic temperatures over at Heather's place (http://shinshuulife.blogspot.com/2010/01/wed-be-better-off.html) and she wins! And actually yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day, even though we've once again woken up to a very heavy frost (and solidified olive oil). The weather here is so fickle, but I really appreciated the reminder that Spring will soon be on it's way, especially after such a cold spell.



I took Heather's advice and invested in some warmer footwear for inside the house:



They are effectively feather futons (duvets) for feet (modelled here by M - I should have bought them in any other colour than pink!). They are doing the trick, warm toes = happy mummy. And these, teamed up with the huge, cosy fleece house coat sent to me by a very sweet friend up in Hokkaido (I owe you, Vicky!), are making me far more pleasant to live with.

Something else that made me happy this week was being asked to sample some prototype food products which have been developed with a view to becoming new '名物' (meibutsu, local speciality) for Kotahira. It's very much a Japanese thing, the desire to have a unique product which might become synonymous with the place of it's origin. If they can come up with just the right kind of product, they could rake in millions as the tourists come in their hoards to buy their omiyage (souvenir goodies). The powers that be of Kotohira have decided that they want their town to become famous for... garlic! I was given a bottle of garlic infused soy sauce, and a jar of garlicky miso to experiment with:



They are branding it 'Garlic Zamurai' and I rather like the package design. The soy sauce has a very pungent garlic smell, so I used it in recipes that called for garlic but without adding any, any they turned out great! The miso is far more interesting, not your average miso at all. It's chunky and spicy (I thought that the slivers of green were negi (spring onion) but they turned out to be sliced green peppers!), delicious actually, although I could probably use more of it if it didn't have quite so much kick to it. I tried it out on K the other night, making a sauce to spoon over some pan-fried tofu:



I can't quite remember what went into it, but it went something like this:

2 tablespoons miso
60ml dashi (stock, I used kombu)
1 tablespoon sugar
a splash of soy sauce
a splash of cooking sake

Mix the ingredients together in a small pan and simmer gently until reduced.

Warm thoughts

Today must have been one of the coldest days of this winter yet. I really, really don't like to be cold. I am miserable if I get cold toes. So before I dive back under the kotatsu, I just wanted to show you something I picked up in the shops today.

Obviously I am not alone in yearning for the spring to arrive - it would appear that new tactics are being employed to will this cold snap away. There I was, looking for some comfort snacks to munch on whilst warming my extremities, when I came across a display of the usual fare... but it was all pink! The packages all featured a huge cherry blossom tree, and the flavours were all... cherry blossom! OK, so the cherry blossom Kit Kat released last year was good, but how would this work with prawn cracker snacks (Ebi Sen) and the like? In spite of my diet, I just had to find out:



What we have here is a bag of Saya Endo, a salty rice based snack made with peas (and yes, they are shaped like pea pods). I am rather partial to a bag of these every now and then on the basis that they contain a vegetable and must therefor be good for me ;-) This particular bag is 'salty cherry blossom' flavour, and according to the label really does contain powders made from both the blossoms and leaves of the cherry tree. Reading a bit closer, I understand that this is part of a range of products designed to encourage students sitting entrance examinations, and that there is a supposedly sacred tree in Hokkaido to which one can ask for special help (some people will believe anything - personally, I feel that their time would be better spent doing a bit of extra revision).

Anyway, I ate them and indeed they did have a slightly floral taste to them. Not bad, but I'll stick with the regular flavour next time. At least as they disappeared to a warmer place, I was visualising the arrival of the warm sun as it wakes the flora around. Ahh, the power of the mind...

Getting back on the horse

I've been sulking. A few months back, I took a few knocks that really put me off blogging here. I was upset and quite cross! Anyhow, I've decided that I do want to write here, and those who don't want to read it don't have to - there, you have my permission! I have decided to do this for me, and I'm pretty sure that the children will also like looking back on this sporadic documenting of our life in years to come.

So, time to get back in the saddle.

I'm easing in here with a recipe for you. The weather has turned cccccold, and we spend a great deal of time snuggled under the kotatsu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu). We need food to warm us to the core, and so lately I have been making lots of nabe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabemono). For a start there's very little preparation needed so I don't have to stand in my chill kitchen for very long, and then we all get to sit around the steaming hot pot :-). There's really no rules for this dish, just throw in whatever you fancy/whatever is in the bottom of your fridge, but I'll include yesterdays ingredients here just so you can get an idea of things. I apologise for there not being a photo of this dish, it was pillaged before I had chance to join the ravenous clan at the table. And besides, I have now idea how the restaurants manage to present their nabe to beautifully with everything in it's place, with mine the ingredients all get mixed up as soon as they get added to the pot! Anyone got any tips?

Chicken Meatball Nabe

Soup

1200ml dashi (stock)
50ml cooking sake
30ml soy sauce
30ml mirin
seasoning

Chicken Meatballs

480g minced chicken
1 onion, chopped
1 egg
20ml cooking sake
10ml soy sauce
1 rounded tablespoon cornstarch
some fresh, grated ginger
seasoning

1 pack enoki mushrooms, roots cut off
1 1/2 packs tofu, cut into large cubes and very well drained
400g Chinese cabbage, thickly sliced
240g daikon (mooli radish), peeled, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into half-moons
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
1 leek, sliced diagonally into large chunks

ponzu, for dipping/drizzling, add a little chili powder if you like

Bring the soup to a simmer in a large pot or pan. Mix the meatball ingredients together, and drop spoonfuls into the soup (I used a small scoop, made things very easy) followed by the rest of the ingredients. Continue to simmer until the meatballs aren't going to give anyone salmonella poisoning, then bring it to the table and let everyone help themselves!

Daring Bakers' Challenge December 2009 - Home for the Holidays

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I was delighted when I saw what this month's challenge was to be! I had planned to make one of these for the first time last Christmas - I'd made the dough and was all set to enroll the boys' help on the 25th, when M got taken into hospital, and by the time we got out the dough was only fit for the bin!

I chose to work with Y's choice of recipes, simply because I could easily get the ingredients needed. The dough was, as many DBs noted, extremely dry even after spending a day resting in the fridge:



I didn't have time to start again so just persevered with what I'd got. It worked out OK, I still managed to roll it out thinly (and I was surprised at how thick the gingerbread was after it had been baked). I made my royal icing a little too thick (which I suppose is better than too runny!), but I had no trouble 'gluing' the house together. Decorating it was the fun part, however what happened to all the sweets that I'd bought for this project?! Never mind, I'm beginning to think that less is more...



The pattern I used was taken from the BBC Good Food website:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/templates/gingerbread-house-2576.pdf

Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.

4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]

5. Preheat the oven to 375'F (190'C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Happy Christmas!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Daring Bakers Challenge October 2009 - French Macaroons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

It's days like today when I wonder if I was dreaming when I imagined I could bake. Maybe it's because I was already in rather a bad mood before even tying my apron strings. Let's just say, I've been knocked back a peg or two.

I had to gulp when I read of this month's challenge. The posh department stores have stunning arrays of French Macaroons, all perfectly formed and beautifully stacked. I've never tried one, never considered treating myself to one of these delights - they always seemed too sophisticated, too chic for me! My opinion hasn't changed.

It was my own fault. As usual, I'd left things to the last minute and was on a tight schedule. I'd gathered all the ingredients (and 'aged' the egg whites for 3 days) and scribbled what I needed to do on a scrap of paper, but stupidly didn't allow time to read the comments and advice from, thinking "If I just follow the instructions, I'll be fine!". I knew exactly what I wanted to do - they were being baked for K to take in to the office tomorrow to share with his colleagues (he's another year older!), and I'd planned a chili-chocolate roulette. K really isn't into fancy flavours, and I wanted to do something a little more interesting than just chocolate (his request), so the idea was that I'd bake a box of cocoa macaroons filled with a chocolate ganache, one of which would be secretly laced with chili. And cross my fingers that K's boss wouldn't pick the wrong one. I'd bought a fancy black and red box to package them in, they were all going to be sooo impressed!

Pride comes before a fall. Everything appeared to be going smoothly, however the smug feeling started to fade as I was piping them onto the trays. I counted them... enough to make 14 filled macaroons (the recipe states that this can yield 5 dozen!), perhaps mine were a little on the large size? The next problem, the lowest setting on my oven is 100c (the recipe said that the first bake needed to be at 90c). Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fine. Next step, baking for 7 to 8 minutes, or 10, or 15, or 20... they just didn't want to cook! It was now quite obvious to me that they were not going to look anything like French Macaroons, I decided to treat them as a completely different type of treat (K has never even heard of them anyway, no-one need know). They were flat, sightly soft and chewy, but actually quite delicious! So I paired them up and sandwiched them together with the ganache I'd prepared.


Then I phoned K. Exactly how many did he need (I was dying to try one)? "At least 15." Noooo...

Now, if it weren't the end of the month I would have had another attempt at this recipe (or, as many of the other DB's did, try Tartlette's recipe out), but unfortunately I am out of funds until Friday, so I raided the cupboards to see what else I could throw together. Reluctant to trust my oven again, I decided to go with one of the recipes in the instruction manual - my oven has various functions (including steam) and recipes programmed in, and these seem to work most of the time. Apart from today. My choux pastry didn't puff up at all, no chance of squeezing any cream in those... So much for the tight schedule, ended up baking a batch of CocaCola cup cakes. So much for sophistication!

Check out www.thedaringkitchen.com to see how French Macaroons are supposed to look. xxx