major mushroom madness

I think i am having a major mushroom problem.

i cant stop buying mushrooms, cos am really loving the beautiful mushrooms of autumn!

Musrhooms in the morning, day and night.

ahhhhh..........

creamy white button mushroom hot cheese sandwich

simply sauteed with salt, pepper, and cream cheese, spread on bread, then topped with pizza cheese and popped in the oven

we had nameko (sweet stewed enoki) for lunch

my special autumn soba

grated mountain yam, spinach, okra, natto, nameko and ikura

Yes! the ikura in the shoyu mixture worked!!! this was much better than what we had on friday.

phew~

with grilled mushrooms and fish cakes

i like to lessen the amount of noodles and top my soba with a whole variety of toppings.

but when i eat soba outside, i like a lot of soba =) handmade soba is really good, and the fragrance of fresh soba is just different.

We had hotpot for dinner again! =)

curry hotpot, with lots of mushrooms, cabbage, sausages, chicken pieces, and tofu

to sweeten the curry, added pumpkin

J was so excited when he saw the hotpot on the stove again.

we both love hotpots cos it really is the yummiest way to consume loooooooooooooots of vegetables.

lastly, added white rice & cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese

instant cheese curry risotto transformation! of all the ways to finish the last bit of hotpot, this tops our list. =) =) =)

curry hotpot is yummy, but the base of my claypot usually needs a real scrub after that.

J usually does it for me. should i feel guilty or thankful? >.<

mon chou chou & beauty hotpot

Tokyo train station has this big Daimaru shopping mall that has a food floor fuuuuuuuullllllll of gorgeous cakes. we went once earlier this year on our wedding anniversary, but we were heading to a sushi restaurant, and didnt want to buy any cakes cos they will all melt by the time we finish our usually long sushi dinner.

last month on tv, there were many tv programs featuring cakes at this Daimaru outlet which was reopened recently, and is so so chic. of course every girl will drool at those pretty looking full of fluffy cream cakes...

we have been busy the last few weekends and i have been wanting to have a piece of roll cake from mon chou chou, a new roll cake shop from that food floor.

i used to detest the cream in roll cakes and any dessert. my good friend qiuxiang sitting next to me would always reach for all that cream and say i leave the best part wasted.

recently, i dont know why, but i am loving the cream in cakes!

either, the cream here is very skillfully made and also made with really delicious fresh milk cream, which makes it sooooooooooo light and fluffy, or its just me and my usual weird food liking swings.

Jun brought a little surprise home after work last night!

pink angel, filled with nice fluffilicous white cream, and strawberry mouse, with strawberry bits in there. the wings are made with white chocolote.

rena, filled with dancing lite coffee cream, chocolate truffles (yes! melt in your mouth real chocolate truffles), a slice of banana, and topped with white cream and nuts.

i was blown over by this.

i was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo satisfied that when we passed by the cake shop in Takashimaya today, i said i didnt need any. =)

Breakfast this morning

croque madame

we havent had croque madame for a long time, ham and cheese open sandwhich topped with a bulls eye egg.

Dinner was....................

bijin nabe (beauty hotpot) with added collagen

We bought this from the supermart, and just added whatever ingredients we like in there.

The soup was chicken based. Added white cabbage, pork slices, leek slices, lots of shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, maitake mushrooms, some fish cakes, and tofu.

gonna have nice skin tommorrow! =)

J says he just needed beer to go with hot pot.

gosh, the way he drank made it sound sooooooooooooooo good!

i couldnt stomach any beer cos i usually gulp lots of soup when i have hotpot.

i think i will grab a can of alcocohol free beer the next time we have pork steak for dinner.

comfort gratin

Morning soups are so soooooooo warming these days.

like i said, the warmth under my blanket is getting harder and harder to leave behind in the morning. but when i get waltzing around the house, its ok again =) thats the BEST thing about autumn. cool, so i dont feel tired so easily.

there was extra miso based soup from last nights udon dinner.

i added cabbage, and more beancurd pieces, some curry powder, simmered for awhile...

and we had a very warming curry cabbage stew this morning.

with grilled onigiri (rice balls)

Today i happily defrosted some ikura (salmon eggs) which we bought from Wakkanai during the summer hols.

took out a tiny portion and defrosted it in the fridge
had it with grated mountain yam to top on rice for dinner

but to our dissappointment, it was sooooooooooooooooooooooo salty and the smell was really really strong. jun gulped down the whole bowl of rice in seconds!

then we checked online and discovered, hoho we were supposed to presoak and steep in a shoyu, wine and mirin mixture before it will taste as good as what you have in the sushi restaurant!!! >.<

haha, since i didnt finish my ikura, it will be our mini experiment overnight. i m keeping my fingers crossed!@@
thank goodness this saved the day

comfort food seafood gratin

mushroom mix topped on blanched vegetables

grilled eringi mushrooms

its been a loooooooong time since i made gratin and i really enjoyed making the sauce from scratch. the first time i made white sauce, i was so amazed at how butter and flour and milk can can be so creamilicious! i used to crave chicken pie from the bakery once in a while. but now that i have my own kitchen. we have it whenever we like!=) for summer, gratin didnt come across my mind at all. so now that its getting colder, my creamy comfort food cravings kick in again.

i should try and make chicken pie the next time =)

persimmon muffins & houtou udon

persimmons are alllllllllllllllllllllllllllll over the place.

but not all are edible. trees are so orange polka dotted with yummy looking persimmons but are those are actually tasteless.

apparently, the owner has to control the number of persimmons so that enough nutrition goes into each fruit and makes it sweet.

needless to say, with persimmons growing everywhere, supermarkets are also selling them at low price when they are so in season.

I laid eyes on a pack with the half price sticker yesterday! hmmmmmmmmmm it was sweet and soft, so much so it is easier to scoop the flesh out with a spoon. but this funny friend of mine, says he doesnt like sweet ones, the crunchy ones taste better. >.<

i cant possibly gobble down the whole pack of these no matter how yummy they are, so i made muffins with them so somebody would eat them too.

used 2 persimmons for 8 muffins. divide fruit into 16 slices

since they are tart enough, just slightly warmed them in the pan, added 1 tablespoon each of maple syrup & rum.

hotcake mix 200g

milk 150ml

eggs 2

preheat oven to 200deg C.

mix everything up, pour into muffin tins, top each muffin with 2 slices of fruit. leave the juices for later.

bake for 10min, brush the juice over each muffin, bake for a further 3 to 5min.

voila~

these were so irresistable i had 2 for my morning break!

Dinner tonight was houtou udon (3cm thick udon noodles =) i like!)

miso based, with fresh burdock strips, pumpkin, carrots and pork slices.

there are many styles of cooking houtou udon, but adding pumpkin is Yamagata style.

Also, there is shoyu based broth & miso brased broth at the same time.

the miso broth came along with the pack i bought.

and potato salad

i am so full again.

summer was a time i really had very little soup.

now that i am slurping so much soup on cold nights, i feel soooooooooooooooo filled up after dinner.

gotta control salt intake!

satoimo hotpot

Its hotpot tonight again~

satoimo(yam or taro) hotpot

Called imoni, which directly translates to simmered yams, this hotpot dish is a tradition from Yamagata. Basic ingredients are leeks, beef slices, yam, mushrooms, and konnyaku. The soup base is as sweet as sukiyaki with lots of sugar and soy sauce. I added lots of white cabbage and carrots too and lessened the eye popping amount of sugar mentioned in the recipe.

Satoimo is in season now, was inspired to try making this after watching a holiday in Yamagata TV program. =) i think i overate again (i always do when we have hotpot!).

I am so full@@

but am not complaining =P its been a cold day.

Sweet potato day & bonito mushroom mix

We are back~

from our long weekend break at okaasans place. =) refreshed

Dinner at home we both ate happily after we both had outside food quite often over the weekend.

Today is sweet potato day!

So i just wanted to have sweet potatoes as part of dinner

Chicken & sweet potato stew with shiitake mushrooms

shungiku vegetables wrapped in nori, fresh tomatoes & bonito simmered mushroom mix

this is the third time this autumn i am making bonito mushroom mix.

each time i see those mushrooms at such lovely prices, just cant resist!

plus the both of us love mushrooms, and this keeps in the fridge for a few days and freezes well too! very convenient stock.

Bonito simmered mushroom mix

1 pack shimeji

6 pieces fresh shitake (sliced)

1 pack enoki

1 tbs shoyu, 1 tbs mirin (sweet wine)

3 packs bonito flakes

Just place everything in the pot on low heat, cover and simmer for 2 minutes.

When musrhooms start producing juices, add bonito flakes so they soak up all the yummy juices.

keeps in the fridge for 3 days. freeze some if portion is too large.

The mushroom mix goes well with white rice or mix with uncooked rice & cook in claypot,

top on cold tofu for a refreshing mushroom tofu salad, or place on tofu and steam,

mix with any steamed vegetables or fresh lettuce.

and the list goes on.

=)

we have a nice sunny week ahead! woohoo!

doroyaki at home

Part 2 from last nights dinner>

Kimchi cheese risotto

We had this at a restaurant once. Kimchi cheese risotto. The kimchi fried rice came in a claypot & had a layer of melting cheese over. It was a really good combination since the cheese mellowed down the spicy kimchi quite a lot and made the whole pot of rice so tasty and easy on the stomach on the whole.

With the remaining of last nights kimchi hot pot soup, added rice, an egg, topped with some kimchi & slices of cheese... hmmmmmm....... mini luxury for breakfast

We had doroyaki (not dorayaki the redbean pancake) for dinner tonight

We both love okonomiyaki & monja, and when we first tried doroyaki at this hot plate restaurant in town called nanpuu, woohoo~ its a blend of okonomiyaki & monja!

doro means melt in your mouth. yaki means teppanyaki grilled.

So doroyaki is this omelette like pancake that really melts in your mouth.

We dont have a hot plate at home, so the large frying pan came in handy.

Added eggs & water to the doroyaki premix (yes, they started selling this at the supermart last month!! a collaboration between nanpuu & a company that makes such premixes).

Made 2 kinds.

mentaiko cheese mochi

pork slices & leeks

Both were dipped in nice hot broth. (soup powder came in the package too!=))

And like how we always have in the restaurant, caesar salad.

I think the teppan (hotplate) at the restaurants makes a difference.

Plus the amount of oil they use too. cos J n i immerdiately noticed the difference in the degree of melt in you mouth.

But it was good. guilt free. \(' ')/