obsession with snickerdoodles

Oh yum!  What’s better than cinnamon-sugar and butter in a warm melting embrace?

So the baking bug has caught up with me again and I spent the entire night yesterday making a batch of snickerdoodle cookies AND snickerdoodle muffins.  No regrets.  I could’ve spent the night watching Grey’s Anatomy or Criminal Minds though.  The cookies were awesome; light and buttery with cinnamon spice!  The muffins were sticky sweet and a delight to bite into!

snickerdoodle pair in a bag for my bear and friends

I originally wanted to give the snickerdoodle cookies to my Kinder class but I’m rethinking… They were just too yummy!  And the muffins will stay in our house as breakfast treats.  Or maybe I’ll make a new batch again tonight… who knows? hahahaha…

Lotus-Root Sanduiches

I have become a fan of two wonderful vegetables here in Japan; renkon or lotus root, and naga-negi or green onions.  Why?  Because they have amazing textures, are super versatile, and add so much fun and deliciousness to every meal!  I had actually made this dish for Bear quite some time ago, and he loved them so much that I decided to post it.  These beautiful renkon sanduiches are crunchy and flavorful, and go wonderfully well with a dash of ponsu!

Ingredients:

• 1 lotus root, thinly sliced into rounds, if the renkon is too big, you can lice the rounds further into halves
• nori or seaweed, cut into half-inch strips
• shiso or perilla leaves
• lean bacon, cut into 1 in. squares (depends on the size of the renkon)
• katakuriko starch
• canola oil for deep-frying

Procedure

1. Rinse and dry the sliced lotus roots, place the shiso and bacon between two slices.
2. Use the nori as a “belt” to keep the sandwich together.  To do this, you can moisten the seaweed strip to make it more pliable.
3. Dust the “sandwiches” with katakuriko starch.
4. Deep fry and drain well on a paper towel.

TIP: You can use light soy sauce with lemon juice to substitute for ponsu.  Happy Eating!

Bolinhos de Arroz

A sad little plate of cold, uneaten rice was sitting on the kitchen counter when Samir saw it.  “My mom would use leftover rice for bolinhos de arroz!” said the bear.  “Can you make them?” he pleaded, his eyes glistening with tears.  “How can I make something which I don’t even know?” I snarled.  “Uhm, you just mix this rice with eggs… I think” he said thoughtfully.  “Oh, just go look for it on the Internet!” I growled, wiping my hands on my pajamas.  I was feeling grumpy that morning because I hadn’t eaten and was overwhelmed by the amount of food I was planning to make. Silly me.  Anyway, Bolinhos de Arroz or Little Rice Balls were wonderful.  Being Asian, cold rice meant only one thing for me; fried rice.  Bolinhos de Arroz, a Brazilian dish was something new, and I’m sure you’d them love too!

bolinhos de arroz, perfect for leftover rice!

BOLINHOS DE ARROZ

Ingredients:

1 cup leftover rice

2 eggs

1 small chopped onion

chopped parsley (I used the dried kind though)

1 cup of flour

1 tbsp cornstarch

salt and pepper to taste

grated parmesan cheese (just if you have any)

2 cups of cooking oil for deep frying

Procedure:

1.  Heat the oil in the pan.

2.  Meanwhile, mix the rice, eggs, onion, parsley, constarch, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese together.  Slowly add in the flour until the mixture turns into a gooey, doughey consistency.

2.  Using a spoon, drop balls of rice into the hot oil.  Once golden brown, drain on paper towel and set aside.

3. Enjoy your bolinhos de arroz! I think they go well with ketchup. Hehehe

Easy Japanese Eats

I think I will be spared from holiday weight gain because of tummy problems that have been pestering me for a week now. Despite that, I vowed to eat good food, tasty and healthy as to not feel too sorry about my condition.  A few nights ago, we enjoyed nabe or hotpot, which was basically throwing in pieces of meat, tofu, noodles, and veggies into a boiling pot of miso or soy sauce flavored stock.  It tastes better and more wonderful than it sounds but it left us with a feeling of contentment and bliss as we let out mild burps after the meal.

Yesterday, I made some agedashi tofu, or fried tofu.  I’ve always enjoyed this dish for its simplicity and subtle taste.  The key ingredient is katakuriko flour!  I tired making this tofu before with ordinary flour, and even cornstarch.  Well, they worked but it lacked the crispiness and pretty white coating that only katakuriko can give.  Katakuriko literally is potato starch, so if you happen to find some in your nearby grocery, try frying your tofu and veggies with them for a unique crisp and crunch!  In addition, I’m also adding a wonderful easy recipe for lotus root, or renkon rice.  I learned it from the kindergarten (everything you need to know yes…), and the kids and myself included loved it!

agedashi tofu, coated with potato starch

AGEDASHI TOFU

Ingredients

Tofu cut into blocks, to prevent oil from spalttering while frying, drain them on a paper towel first.  Don’t choose silken tofu as they are very soft and will crumble while being handled.  Choose firmer tofu.

1 cup of katakuriko, or just enough to cover your tofu

1 cup of canola oil for frying

3tbsp light soy sauce

3 tbsp mirin

grated ginger

Procedure:

1. Drain tofu for a few minutes, coat with potato starch and fry in hot oil.  Don’t wait for the starch to turn brown, once it gets hard and crispy, you can take it out and drain off the excess oil on a plate lined with paper towels.  Don’t overcrowd the pan with tofu, as it will interfere with the temperature.

2. In a serving bowl, mix the soy sauce and mirin.  Carefully place the tofu in the bowl and top with grated ginger.  Serve and enjoy!

Boiled rice with slices of crispy lotus root

RENKON RICE

Ingredients:

2 cups of rice

3 cups of water

1/2 cup soy sauce

lotus root, cut into semi-circles

soy sauce to taste

Procedure:

1. Boil rice as instructed, however add about 1/2 cup soy sauce to the water before cooking.  This will lightly flavor the rice.

2. Slice the renkon, or lotus root and lightly fry in soy sauce. Adjust to your taste.

3. Once the rice is cooked, top with renkon and mix it all together!  That’s it for a flavorful, healthy rice meal!

Neighborhood Haunt: Junpei

 

Junpei, just across the dormitories

 

One day, hungry and tired of eating convenience store food, I sent a message to a friend, “Where’s a good place to have dinner tonight?”

He answered, “Junpei.”  Followed by a brief instruction on how to get there, I dragged Samir along with me to a tonkatsu restaurant, small enough to be discreet yet just right across the university dormitories.  Junpei is a rather small place, and can seat only twenty customers at a time.  They prepare meals upon ordering so you’d have to wait a little to get your food.  They specialize in one type of food only: tonkantsu.  Tonkatsu with slices of juicy garlic between the crust and meat, tonkatsu filled with cheese and a crumbly shell, tonkatsu served with freshly grated daikon (radish) on top… bliss!  Being located near the university, the servings are huge, and you can even get up to two servings of rice. Not to mention, the prices are very reasonable.

 

yummy tonkatsu at Junpei!

So the next time you’re hungry for some tonkatsu, seek no further.  Head over and enjoy some of the best tonkatsu in the city for only a few coins from your pocket. Ahhh good!

 

 

kanazawa tabi:: ice cream!

So my friend and I ventured into the old pleasure quarters in Kanazawa city called the Higashi Chaya District.  The place was beautiful and well-preserved with cobblestone streets and dim lamplights.  It really took us back in time when it was busy with geishas running on its busy streets, and men in fashionable clothing would sit on the tatami, sipping tea, waiting to be entertained.  There, near the entrance was a charming ice cream store called “Chayu.”

just in case you drop by in Kanazawa...

look at all that ice cream...

Built to look like an old-fashioned teahouse, it housed some of the most interesting ice cream flavors we ever chanced upon.  There were flavors such as soybean flour, green tea leaves, salt, and black sesame.  But we wanted to be adventurous! So after poring over the menu, we decided on two safe flavors; salt and tofu.  I chose salt because… well salt is salt, right?  Then Jane chose tofu.  I chided her for her boring option since tofu is pretty much common in Japan.  The ice cream was good, very creamy and soft.  The salt ice cream was milky and salty at the same time, and I didn’t find it extraordinary.  The tofu ice cream was nice, it was bland on the tongue but left notes of tofu as an aftertaste.

left; salt ice cream and right; tofu ice cream

soy sauce and miso ice cream

After those two scoops, we felt like we needed more, so tried two new flavors; soy sauce and miso.  Hrmmmm… what can i say?

The soy sauce tasted pretty much like soy sauce with butter, the kind that most Japanese would put on their corn-on-the-cob, and the miso flavor tasted like coagulated miso soup. Needless to say, we didn’t finish those last two scoops.  So I don’t think that everything can be made into ice cream.  I still regret though, that I didn’t try the green tea leaves and the soybean flour ice cream.  Or maybe that’s too much. Well I don’t know if I can ever go back to Kanazawa, but if I do, maybe I’ll try those flavors too!

Honeyed Chicken

I was feeling adventurous in the kitchen today and decided to do something radical with chicken.  I started early since this dish requires baking, and baked meats require more time to cook, though preparation was only for about ten minutes or so.  Costco sells these wonderful sakura chicken, which are really boneless chicken breasts. I looked around around and found a yummy looking recipe for Honeyed Chicken. Mmmm… good!

Majo and I decided that it tasted somewhat Christmassy, and that the recipe would also go well with pork.  The chicken was tender and juicy, and the honey sauce was delicious as a topping for veggies or rice.  I think I’ll make this again, when the colder season sets in.   Enjoy!

Honeyed Chicken is like Christmas this September!

Sauteed Mung Beans

Jane has been complaining that I’ve been posting and cooking “poor food.”  Hehehe…

Well, I happen to like nice and simple food, and being away overseas makes me long for home-cooked meals.  I was feeling “beany” a few days ago and decided to try cooking Sauteed Mung Beans or Ginisang Munggo.  I remember that everytime we had this back home, my mom would also prepare some fried fish.  I can’t prepare fish for the life of me, and they sell fish with all the guts here in Japan.  No way I’m into that territory… so I stuck to the beans.

nyarm!

MMM… good! I wish it were soupier though… and making the beans soft was a b*tch.  My Beaner friends also liked it, and it yeah instead of fried fish, I ate it with SPAM. Hehehe… Try it here:

SAUTEED MUNG BEANS (GINISANG MUNGGO)

1 cup of mung beans, cleaned and drained.

ground pork

1 medium tomato, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 garlic, minced

spinach (traditionally, we use malunggay leaves but there’s none here)

chicharron (as garnishing, optional)

fish sauce 1/4 cup

PROCEDURE:

1. Soak the beans 30 minutes to overnight.  Once they’re ready, boil the beans in water (you can add a boullion cube too if you want).

2. Sautee the garlic, followed by onions and tomatoes.  Add the minced pork and season with fish sauce.  If there’s none, just use salt.

3. Pour in the mung beans, add about a cup of water and boil until the beans are soft.

4. Once the beans are soft, add in the spinach and stir in.

5. Garnish with chicharron before serving.

Happy Eating!

Summer Eats

Japan is terribly hot AND humid during the summer, and to while away the time during the obon weekend, my Brazilian friends and I hied off to the coast of Shirahama in Chiba to pay homage to the sea!  Of course, no beach outing is complete without summer grilling and we had hearty churrascos to fill our bellies.

churrasco means MEAT, and more MEAT!

But after all that meat, decided that we also wanted something fresh! So off to a seaside restaurant for some traditional Japanese eats!

sashimi teishoku

seaside freshness!

Oh yummm… this is why we go to the beach!

Sauteed Bittermelon Success!

Bittermelon... no more trauma!

Most kids hate bittermelon with a passion!  I was no different until several years ago that I started eating it again.  First was during a trip to Okinawa, where goya champoru was a popular staple.  Then last year, I went to a Laotian classmate’s house where he served us traditional food from his country, including a bittermelon dish.  S liked that dish so much that he kept asking me to cook it every time he saw the veggie.  So I caved in.  I made the dreaded ginisang ampalaya (sauteed bittermelon)!

But before I actually cooked it, I did some research such as,; how do I lessen the bitter taste of the bittermelom, leaving only it’s aroma and flavor (Soak the sliced bittermelon in salt water before squeezing dry)?  Also, I wanted to know which meat was best with the dish.  I ended up using thinly-sliced pork and SPAM.  Yes, SPAM.  It’s what they use in Okinawa, so I thought, why not?

The dish turned out perfect!  There was no bitter taste, just a slight flavor and the saltiness of the SPAM complemented it well.  I got the recipe from here.  The only thing I changed was the addition of meat and SPAM.  A great healthy meal for everyone!