Washism

Made dark cherry sauce yesterday.

It was such a nostalgic taste... tasted like the cherries burried in the classic blackforest cake.

And the image that came to mind was the photo i saw of me & mum celebrating our birthdays 22 years ago when i was just 3. These days blackforest cakes are getting fancier & classier, but i still like the old fashioned classic blackforest that we used to get from small family owned bakeries.

And with a sprig of apple mint leaves from the garden, topped the sauce on creamcheese ice cream for dessert last night.

With 250g of american cherries

25g sugar

1/4 tsp cinammon powder

Deseed the cherries. I use the tiny little spoon like scoop of the coffee stirrer (you can get them at most cafes or Macdonalds).

Just make sure you dont wear a white shirt while doing this.

Toss cherries with the sugar and let it rest for 20min.

Heat the cherries in a pot and bring to boil.

Simmer on very low heat for 2minutes and stir very gently to preserve the pretty cherry shapes.

Switch off fire, cool completely before chilling in fridge.

And this is what i made today...

Gummies again! but using peach and mango fruit juice.

Gummies are surprisingly simple to make.

And at the rate J consumes gummy bears, i recon it is better to homemake them because there are no preservatives added.

Using the ice cube tray (very thinly coated with vegetable oil)

15g gelatine powder

70ml fruit juice of your choice

1tbs glutinous sugar syrup

1tsp lemon juice

3tbs sugar

Melt all the ingredients in a bain de marie (hot water bath), and pour into ice cube tray.

Chill in fridge till hard.

Dinner was

was a recipe i used from Harumi Kurihara

meat stuffed peppers with japanese style sticky mushroom sauce

and salad tossed with homemade celery dressing

Remember that i mentioned how i love those thick grated vegetable salad dressings?

i had this at a restaurant and fell in love with the amazingly tasty dressing on the salad, asked what was it. it was celery and tomato dressing.

So i came home, plucked the bunch of celery leaves from the celery in my fridge, and decided to experiment.

came up finally with this combination

100g grated onion

1 medium tomato

50g celery leaves

4tbs soya sauce

3tbs vinegar

1tbs sugar

1 and half tbs olive oil

Put celery leaves and tomato in the food processor, lightly squeeze away the juice, then fry in 1/2 tbs sesame oil till fragrant.

Cool completely before tossing with the onion and condiments.
Because the combination of celery leaves, tomato and onions, together with soy sauce, is so so so so so so fragrant on its own already, you dont need much oil in this dressing. But a little olive oil mellows the sharp taste of the soy sauce and vinegar.

=)