oden 2nd round

When we have oden, usually it is a 3 night in a row affair.

so, needless to say, oden was for dinner.

i usually fill 2 big pots with all our favourite fishcakes, which is why the claypot is always filled up on each of of the nights.

dengaku miso with fresh salad vegetables

dengaku miso, is a sweet miso usually made with miso & sugar or mirin (sweet wine), and with a little chilli flake.

i like to make this paste to match oden so we can dip our fish cakes in this appetising miso paste.

i managed to control my oden intake this evening. phew!

last night, had to drink so many cups of water i wished i slept in the toilet.

i think i should be fine =P crossing my fingers

banana raisin cake

OK my cheese craze isnt over yet.

just gotta have cheese toast for breakfast to start every morning.

i vary the cheese toast each time though.

this week has been pumpkin cream cheese, white button mushrooms cream cheese, and this morning, mentai(egg roe) mushroom & potato cheese.

i dont know why but i just dont feel like having rice in the morning for the time being. J has gotta bear with me for awhile i guess =P

I made another cake today

Banana raisin fluffy & moist cake

when J had this with his after work coffee, he said hey this taste seems familiar. something which i have tasted in SG!

i guess, yeah banana cake is everywhere in SG isnt it?

We had oden for dinner tonight

and i was very surprised when J said, ahh... its been quite some time since we had this.

but but, we just had this 3 weeks ago at okaasans place?!

i think i overate again >.<

natto meat sauce

Oven took a break from baking today cos i went for a lil walk at Kichijoji today.

Got me a new pair of long pants for my room wear since my yoga pants is getting tight with my expanding waistline@@

Came home and whipped up a simple pasta dinner.

Natto meat sauce topped with poached egg on fettucine with enoki

Couldnt decide if it was yofu (western style) or wafu (japanese style) today so when J asked if it was fork or chopsticks, got stuck there.

Pasta was yeah sort of western, but the sauce was so wafu.

and salad...

lettuce leaves mixed with broccolli, tossed with kamaboko fish cake slices & croutons with

wafu dressing

this could be eaten with chopsticks too

and onion wakame soup

consomme based

So i think it was wayo style today =)

natto meat sauce was miso and shoyu based, and i think i prefer a shoyu based meat sauce to tomato based meat sauce.

theres this thing weird about me and my relationship with tomatoes. i once mentioned, i love fresh tomatoes, but if i had a choice between a tomato based dish and cream based one, i would take cream.

now that i have learnt how to make a miso & shoyu based meat sauce, this is gonna be my favourite!

natto miso meat sauce

natto 3packs

ground pork 300g

big leek 5cm chopped

shoyu 2tbs

sake 2tbs

mirin 1tbs

ginger juice 1 tbs

white pepper

miso 3tbs

place meat in fry pan without switching on heat, pour in all condiments except miso.

using a hand whipper or chopsticks, loosen up the groundmeat bits, switch on fire.

when meat turns colour, add natto and miso. stir & add 3tbs of water. simmer for 1minute on medium heat.

good for 3 portions of pasta sauce.

or wrap with rice, and serve with a piece of nori.

basically this can be a topping for any kind of plain noodles like udon.

the weekends here soon!!!

blueberry kinako cake & hongkong style fish congee

The eggs at home have been multiplying thanks to the 3 supermarts near my place who keep trying to outbeat each other at low prices.
I m happy though=)
this means more stuff for me whip up!

Made blueberry kinako cake today

kinako is roasted soy bean flour and has a really really nice fragrance
This was made using the chiffon cake technique except with less eggs and instead of wheat flour, rice flour.


used a round cake mold too instead of the chiffon tin.
works well too!

blueberry kinako fluffy cake
rice flour 70g
kinako powder 30g
baking powder 1/2tsp
3egggs
sugar 60g
butter 10g
milk 30ml
dried blueberries 1/2 cup

Preheat oven to 190degC.
Using a hand mixer, whip the eggs and sugar(poured in a third at a time)
till the meringue like mixture leaves ribbons.
sift in flour mixture into this bowl.
add in melted butter and milk.
grease cake tin, pour blueberries in, then batter over, bake at 30minutes.

i know i have got lots of mini cakes at home, including this that Js ex secretary bought for the office from her Hakone holiday

Called yumochi


fluffy & soft like mashmallow, yet chewy since it is mochi

Dinner tonight was cantonese


what i always love to have after a non stop work flight into hongkong

fish congee with dried conpoy & topped with fried shallots


choy sum with oyster sauce


if i m home, i love to have pickled cucumbers with my porridge, so i placed this on our table too =)
with pickled eggs


BBQed purple sweet potato
this has nothing to do with hongkong
something we got at the supermarket kagoshima fair. got me really excited cos i have never seen purple sweet potatoes with white skins!
kagoshima is famous for their purple sweet potatoes.

tonights congee was the first time i made congee successfully thanks to this method i saw on tv.
after soaking rice in water for 30 min, the point to having really smooth congee, is to blend the rice and some fresh water in the food blender.
then pour into pot and boil for only 15min!

my style
fish & conpoy congee
3/4 cups rice
2 tablespoons rolled oats
1 knob ginger
3 tablepoons full dried scallops
white fish slices 200g

wash rice.
soak rice and oats for 30min. soak conpoy in a pot of 4 cups of water during this time. discard water from rice.
Add the ginger into pot and bring to boil.
blend 1/2cup water with rice & oats in blender and pour this into the pot.
cook on gentle heat for 15min.
add chicken stock granules or just salt to taste.
stir in fish slices before scooping congee out.
top with shoyu & pepper & fried shallots.

ahh... warmed up my tum tum... =)

chap chye

The german multi layer cake baumkuchen is boom in Japan these days.
Funny thing is i never tried baumkuchen when i was in Frankfurt, first time i tasted this was when i came here. I love it! its like really plain layered butter cake, not as oily as kueh lapis, and very fluffy though dense.
Was at a food fair by Jucheim, and got this little treat for the both of us.
=)


This morning, i opened the cabinet, spotted my pack of dried mangoes, and decided i will open the pack today.
Yeah, some days those packs of dried fruit (i have plenty at home now) just sit there, but some days they call out to me =P
made a batch of biscottis with them

dried mangoes, dark chocolate and walnuts
i enjoy the plain almond biscottis i always stock up when i visit supermarts in Europe, but when i bake them, i love my biscottis gorgeously dressed.

This was dinner tonight, inspired to cook chap chye after walking past the hainan jeefan restaurant at Ebisu.



there was chapchye, potatoes & carrots curry, & a fillet of sauteed saba topped on brown rice


I dont know why but whenever we have one plate dinners, J likes to look at his plate this way, so the rice is on the top.
But is seems a lot of people here have the same style when they have curry rice.

chap chye was just not the same made by me though the ingredients were the same.
i even sun dried my own enoki!


but mums chap chye is still rules.

tonjiru for a rainy day

Its been raining raining the whole day and brrrrghh the wind is cold!
my shorts and tee short lounge wear attire has made a 180deg change.
the fleece blanket hasnt made its debut this cold season, but my hot water bottle is a must every night already.

anyhow, to help us warm up, gorgeous tonjiru (pork miso soup with lots of root vegetables) was our main for dinner.




tonjiru literally translates to pork miso soup. and typically pork slices, burdock, daikon, carrots, konnyaku and leeks are added. i love this miso soup because there is meat and lots of vegetables in there, and the miso just makes everything taste really good so each time we have this we consume lots of vegetables too! which is good for cold days when you just dont feel like having salads.


Ikura (salmon eggs) steeped in shoyu and topped on tororo (grated mountain yam)
we usually top this on our rice before slurping =)


cucumber yukari (those fragrant purple leaf flakes)yogurt mayo mini salad


mushroom mix stuffed into fried beancurd skins and toasted

looks like the rain will subside soon.
i need to do my laundry after a weekend of stocking!

no cheese day

Yay! i made it substaining from cheese today.

Breakfast was grilled shitake onigiri (rice balls)

rice wrapped whole shitake mushrooms sauteed in butter & shoyu. =)

Lunch was a dish called treasure bag that i tried to mimick after watching this restaurant featuring their special dish
A big piece of fried beancurd skin filled with...

udon! so this is what the customers at this restaurant look forward to, opening the bag with their chopsticks and tucking into hot hot udon in delicious plain shoyu broth.

Dinner tonight was gyoza!

that crispy base is actually called wings.

a result of adding flour water into the pan while cooking the qyozas. this is usually served upside down with the wings on the top side.
added lots of leeks and cabbage in there.

but J says he prefers less leeks and more cabbage >.<>

gotta work harder at this!

hijiki rice

those long strips are actually a kind of seaweed called hijiki.

i parboiled them really long to remove the seaweed smell and steeped them in a sake & shoyu mixture. this really makes us finish our rice fast =)

haina jeefan at Ebisu

my cheese (& chocolate) consumption seems to be increasing crazily.

we had pumpkin double cheese toast (cream cheese & mozarella cheese) for breakfast, and pizzas for dinner. and this morning, having more cheese with my toast was perfectly fine to me!

spinach, ham & double cheese madam croque

i didnt notice i have been eating so much cheese until we passed by a roll cake shop today that had cream cheese roll cake, and i had a sample of it ans said, wow cream cheese tastes good in roll cake!

then i realised hey, i have been having cheese all day!

gosh, gotta cool down a bit. hopefully i feel like having rice for breakfast tomorrow.

but cheese and kaya would be good too!

ok talking about kaya, we had a mini date at Ebisu today.

walking out of the train station and into this high calss residential areas with a good number of good restaurants around, made me recall our dating days at robertson quay.

basically a residential area filled with big shots, tv stars and people with fat wallets, this was not really a shopping place, but rather a quiet classy neighbourhood with some interesting shops around which we wanted to check out.

quite foreign brand shops which excited me a bit, but most of all, we discovered a reasonably prices SINGAPORE cuisine restaurant! called hainan jeefan shokudo(shokudo = canteen)

which had chicken rice, hokkien mee, laksa, satay, fish head curry and plenty more.

gotta check that place out the next time we head on there!

and from the restaurant website, there is this link i followed that led to a singapore food blog written in nihongo & english by the owner, a japanese man who visits singapore frequently and blogs about the places he visits in singapore, and things he finds interesting in japan. interesting blog!

we had Japanese for lunch today

My salmon saikyo yaki (kyoto style miso marinated) set lunch

Juns was set too, but he chose oyakodon for main

the chicken was charcoal grilled before they dropped the egg in. yummy!

and after my legs gotta a bit tired from all that walking around Ebisu, we stopped by at shibuya at our favourite Cold Stone Creamery outlet for a sweet perkup before coming home

earl grey ice cream with chocolate fudge, sweet chestnut chunks, sponge cake pieces and whipped cream mixed on the cold stone, then topped on chocolate coated wafer bowl.

=) chocolate craving settled

dinner was chanko hotpot

with ground sesame to go with

chanko hotpot is basically chicken based soup with chicken pieces, and lots of vegetables.

we added lots of white cabbage which is in season now, and plenty of mushrooms.

needless to say, tofu in too. we have this tofu shop just outside our apartment so i toss in tofu in our meals quite often throughout the week. there are 3 tofu shops around this area, but i simply love this old lady. her smile ALWAYS brightens my day. she probably would have noticed my weird grammar, but her smile always sticks. and she so very very warm and gentle, i will have to miss her lots when the time comes for us to leave this neighbourhood.

well, in the meantime, i will be very thankful for the fresh and delicious tofu this strong old couple makes everyday. simple happiness =)

pizza

We had pizza & cocktail today!~

dried eggplant & ham with home made tomato sauce

I did this last week when the sun was strong and there were still eggplants at the mart.

dried for 2 days under strong sun with good wind. this is really useful cos it stocks well in the fridge. and just lightly pan frying with garlic and tomato sauce will suffice. sundrying made it sweeter and shortens the cooking time which keeps the really crunch in the eggplant slices.

Seafood genovese

I made this genovese sauce when my basil plant was spoting an afro look.

i really didnt expect the leaves to sprout so fast during summer!

so each time i harvest these leaves, i make basil sauce and freeze them in small batches for pasta or pizza.

Goes well with boiled potatoes too =)

genovese (basil sauce)

basil 50g

olive oil 50ml

hazelnuts/pine nuts 50g

1 garlic clove

wash and dry leaves, put everything in food blender.

the sauce calls for parmegiano cheese but do not add this if freezing.

add the cheese only when you are ready to use the sauce.

my basil plant seems to have retired for the year.

i still have some stock in the freezer, but i dont think this will last till next summer.

till next summer, i m looking forward to your afro look again mr. basil!

daikon salad with crispy anchovies topping

Autumn coffee roll cake

made coffee custard to replace the cream in the standard roll cake.

lessens my guilt for craving roll cake so often =P

i read in this dessert book that replacing the cream in roll cake with custard actually halves the calories! yay! =)