Buckwheat Here I Go Again...

Hello,

How are you doing?
Did you finish your Christmas shopping?


I found some Buckwheat Groats ( Whole Buckwheat Grain ) the other day at the store where I usually go. I was so happy and grabed right away :)

I still have Buckwheat Tea ( SOBA-CHA ), and using it to mix with some rice. Now I can use this whole one in some soup, salads, hot cereal, etc... for a more grain intake in our diet.

This is Eden Food brand. ( By the way, they have a lot of various type of seaweed products, plum paste, dried daikon, ponzu...etc.)

---

And I boiled some of the Buckwheat Groat and mixed with tomato sauce which I made the other day.

The grain got tender and absorbed the flavor of the tomato sauce, and the good thing is that the grain doesn't have a strong Buckwheat taste that I thought.
So, I can use with various types of dishes, replacing pasta or rice.

My husband wants to try mixing it with oatmeal, so let's see how it comes out.

It is getting chilly here in California, but a lot of places are in heavy snow I guess. Please keep warm, and I hope you have a Happy Holiday!

Home Made Pizza

Hello,

I am taking a little break from MISO project now :)

Still, I'm making miso soup often though.

Well, I make a pizza at home often. The reasons I like to make at home are...

1) I can use any ingredients I want. My husband and I sometimes can't agree about what we put on our pizza, so I can make 2 small different ones :)

2) I can adjust the amount of cheese and sauce, so I can make much lower calorie and sodium pizza than delivery or store bought ones.

3) I can try and make different types of dough each time, like; Thin crust dough, Dough with yeast or baking powder, Dough made with wheat flour, Dough with flaxseed or corn meal...

I sometimes use a ready to bake dough too, my husband's and my favorite is BOBOLI's, that is crispy, good size for two, and affordable.

Here's few pics of pizza I lately made...

MISO Project - Failure or what?

Hello,

Lately I have been trying to create a few new MISO dishes, but sometimes things don't turn out the way you want them to...

The other day, I made a turkey meatloaf, and I thought that it might be a good chance to create a new sauce with MISO paste.

I know there's some juice from the meat that I can use, so I started to think what else I can add to these mixture to make a delicious sauce.

...And, the ingredient I decided was...

Worcestershire sauce.

The consistency was pretty good, the color wasn't exactly what I was looking for, and the taste didn't quit go along with the turkey the way I thought :'-(

Maybe I should add some soy sauce or some kind of fruits (that's what I thought later.)

Oh well, s--t happens...I will keep trying to find a better flavor which matches with turkey.

However, my husband kind of liked the sauce, but still he agreed that the color didn't match with the meatloaf. He said that the sauce blended with the flavor of the turkey. Hmm, interesting.

Here's the picture of the meatloaf. Does anyone have a idea?

MISO Project Part 2

Hello,

Hmm.. Just curious if I am the only one who does this, but when I buy MISO Paste I usually get a different type of MISO paste than what I already have on hand. I like to keep 2 different types of MISO in our fridge at all times. Making MISO soup with 2 different types of MISO paste gives your MISO soup a more UMAMI flavor.

Currently, I have sweet White Miso and a mixed MISO.

Sweet white MISO is also called "SAIKYO-MISO" in Japanese, it's the preferred flavor in the KYOTO area. This type of MISO is a much sweeter taste than most other types of MISO ( Various types of MISO contain about 12-14% of sodium. However, this WHITE MISO contains only about 5-6% sodium ).

So, this type of MISO is very easy to use for dressing or dipping sauce.

Below is a photo of a dish I made, which is a "Japanese Style Ceaser Salad Dressing"

With the dressing I mixed sweet WHITE MISO, White Sesame paste, and soup stock, grated fresh garlic, and grated Parmesan Cheese together. And I tossed with some fresh Lomain Lettuce, Arugula, and grilled Cornish Hen from last nights dinner.

A fresh simple salad ready in just a few minutes!

MISO Project Part-1

Hello,

Soy beans is the main ingredient for MISO Paste. It's also made from Rice, Wheat, or other whole grains nowadays. They are called AKA-MISO( Red MISO ), SHIRO-MISO ( White MISO ), or AWASE-MISO ( Red and White mixed MISO, or MISO with DASHI/Broth ). It's made everywhere in Japan, also some people make your own MISO paste,too. The colors vary from dark brown, reddish brown, yellow, whitish yellow...The difference of colors depends mostly on the duration of the farmentation process, and the ingredients used.

I sometimes use MISO for marinade mixing various ratios consisting of these four (4) ingredients; MISO, maple syrup, honey and soy souce, and few others now and then. Today's dish is a very simple and tasty miso marinade. I marinated in 1:1:1 ratio of white miso : maple syrup : soy souce for 2hours.


I used for some chicken this time, but seafood like shrimp, white fish, and shell fish, are good with it, too.

Oh, I forgot to tell you the last time, when I wrote about MISO Soup.
When you make your miso soup, please try to use 2 or more different types of miso when you have a chance that gives your miso soup more "UMAMI".

And you never want to boil the soup once you put MISO paste into the broth!

MISO Project

Hello,

"MISO" this is my next project as a Recipe Developer. Well, if you say MISO, the first thing that comes to mind is MISO Soup which is the most popular dish here in the U.S. I think.

Do you like MISO Soup?
How Often do you eat MISO Soup?
Have you ever made MISO Soup at your home before?
What kind of ingredients do you like into your MISO Soup?



My husband and I love miso soup, ( I told him so many times how good miso (soup) is and now he eats more often than before :)

MISO contains an antioxidant, so there are a lot of good effects for your health, helps lower cholesterol, helps to prevent cancer, anti-aging, helps good digestion...

BUT, have you considered how much sodium is in MISO? Here's a little tip, Please try to use ingredients with a high potassium into your MISO Soup, such as Sweet Potato, Spinach, Kidney Beans, Lentils ...etc. These ingredients also helps to control and eliminates excess sodium from your body.

Did you just think that "Beans into my MISO Soup?!", I thought the same thing at first. "Celery?! lettuce? Whew!" But, MISO Soup is like a buffer solution, the soup blend very well with many different ingredients and helps keep the same P.H. Balance. So, you can use various different types of vegetables, meats, and fish, too! I learned this in cooking class during my first year in junior college. Now I use celery, broccoli, beets.. any kind of vegetables, and now I understand that all vegetables have different types of vitamins, iron, and other essential minerals that your body needs to function at it's highest potential. Keeping you healthy, fighting colds, and other germs / viruses from harming your body.

See you soon!

SOBA-CHA Recipe-Part 6

Hello,

This is a picture of the Miso Soup that I made the other day which I added a lot of ingredients, such as; Carrots, Onions, Cabbage, Yams, Green Onions, Garlic Chives, Hijiki Seaweed, Kiriboshi Daikon (Dried Daikon), Fu(dried wheat gluten), and SOBA-CHA (Buckwheat Tea).


I believe that eating Miso soup with a lot of vegetables (including sea-vegetables) is one of the best ways to get all the various nutrients your body needs. All the minerals and vitamins are incorporated into the soup, and that's the reason it makes the miso soup more delicious. Also eating Miso Soup is very good for your health. Such effects as lowering your cholesterol, prevents cancer, to keeping the brain active...etc. As one of many soy beans products, Miso soup is one of the best comfort food among Japanese people, I believe.


As a Japanese person (woman) who lives outside of Japan, it is very important to keep miso paste in my fridge, and make some miso soup so often!


And I would like to try and incorporate the miso paste into some American type of dish as my next Recipe Developing project. Hopefully, I can come up with a delicious recipe this way. Never know until you try, right!