Long Time No See!

Wow!
It's been 5 months since the last post!

Well, I have been occupied with my health issue, so I wasn't good blogging mood the past few months.
Now, it's clear (I hope, forever!) and the mood is getting back finally.

Since I was little away from blogging, facebook-ing, and hard-core food surfing, there are a lot to maintain and up date in the world (I still don't know well how I can manage sufficiently each of my SN account ;)

Also, I am not good at catching up all these fast technologies, so I've got little confused where to start and how first...

But, at the same time, I can't do much too, so I just post my daily blog day by day and enjoy reading other people's blogs or articles, and photos.

OKONOMI-YAKI

Hello,

OKONOMI-YAKI,
it's a easy lunch menu for me. It's easy, quick, and anything and you can use whatever you like.
Traditionally, we use flour, tempura flakes, cabbage, eggs, and a protein ingredient, such as sliced pork, shrimp, squid, cheese, etc...

My version is a little far from the traditional... I would say my version includes less white flour with more vegetables, still with a good protein of some sort in it.



And, instead of putting sauce on it, a lot of Aonori (Dried Seaweed flakes) and little Ponzu sauce work perfectly for me :)

Potato Pancakes

Hello,

Potato Pancakes, (sigh), this item I rarely make in my day to day cooking.

But, the other day I saw someone was making them on one of the food network shows and they looked so good! (My husband and I always get inspired by TV Cooking Shows so quickly and easily :)

Before I made potato pancakes myself, I had an image of potato pancakes; used as a appetizer or a side dish on a breakfast menu...

I realized that we have the same type of potato dish in Japan too. It's called Imo-Mochi. ( translated in English as Potato-Rice cake) We don't use butter to cook, or don't mix with grated cheese or jalapeno, but the gooey texture from their starch is exactly same.

It is fun and so interesting when I found out (re-realized) that there were the same types of dishes all over the world, using the local regional ingredients; Dumplings, Pasta or Noodle, Pickles, etc...

KOGOMI - Fiddelehead ferns

Hello,

I found fiddlehead ferns at Whole Foods Market the other day, and I just surprisingly took to my hand and put into the basket without any reason. ( I always have a shopping list in my hand and barely buy items not on the list)


I never expected that I can get KOGOMI (in Japanese) in the U.S.. This is one of the vegetables which tells us "spring has come" in Japan. It grows in wild mountain area, so it is sometimes transrated to "mountain vegetables", or "wild vegetables" in Englosh. I don't know they are all wild nowadays, it might be cultivated.

The package I got says it is distributed from Portland, Oregon. I can imagime that there must be from beautiful mountain area.


And then within a couple of days, I found a recipe of fiddleheads from one magazene, too! This is Indian Country Today that my husband recieves every issue. What a coincident, and I found out that fiddleheads sounds like pretty popular among Native American people, that was surprised to me too.

In the recipe, fiddlehead ferns are saute with butter and tossed with mixed greens. That is totaly different from Japanese cooking and that was very interesting to me too.




Oh, I made Tempura and enjoyed spring taste that night with my fiddlehead ferns.

GooGoo Bread

Hello,

Have you ever heard of "Goo Goo Bread" before?

This bread is called like this among Native American people. ("at least in my tribe", my husband says.) I learned how to make this from my husband a few years ago. It's a almost biscuit made with all purpose flour, shortening (or butter), sugar, baking powder, salt and milk. And it is cooked in a cast iron without using oven.

There is original recipe which my husband found from somewhere and I customized it in my way which is easy to work for me.

This one, I used dark brown sugar, and I used some milled buckwheat tea instead of using all of amount with all purpose flour. I love to use milled buckwheat tea in some baking, it gives great roasty flavor.

I tried to find why this bread is called "Goo Goo Bread", but I could not find it.

Does anyone know?

Cream Puffs

Hello,
As, I wrote here before. I love to bake, but I'm not good at it as much as I would love to be. However, making cream puffs might be the best baking dessert I can manage within my baking skills.

I love cream puffs, and the great thing is my husband likes to eat those cream puffs I make. I usually put a custard cream inside, but last time I mixed with red bean paste (あんこ/餡子) and custard cream together and put in the puffs.

WOW, It worked great!
I mixed 1:1 ratio, and the consistency was almost the same, so it was easy to blend together, too.

Sophisticated French dessert turned into a Japanese dessert; "WA-SWEETS".

In Japan, all types of dessert are called SWEETS(スイーツ), nowadays. I never get to use this saying, though...)

Profiterole a la Japon!

Cream Cheese Biscuits

Hello,

I like to read various cookbooks and cooking magazines, Cook's Country is one of my favorite. ( I love to watch their TV show on public television.)


In the last issue, there was a recipe of biscuits, the photo just caught my eyes. They looked soooo good!
And, I immediately decided to add cream cheese to my shopping list.

Just as I thought, I knew it from first sight that these biscuits would be great! And, they were so easy to make, too!

You mix all ingredients in a food processor and add butter and cream cheese then mix together with butter milk, that's it.

I don't use buttermilk so often, but I soon realized the differences from the other biscuits I have been making, and really tasted what buttermilk can do to the dough, which was so soft, moist, and an excellent taste.