The other night, I made a Hawaiian pizza for dinner using dough and sauce from scratch, Canadian bacon, and canned pineapple slices. We didn’t use the entire can, and I didn’t want to waste the juice so I decided to use it in a recipe I had saved on Pinterest a while back for Hawaiian Sweet Rolls from Yammie’s Noshery.
Yammie’s Noshery has some great recipes, especially for tasty looking bread; see Peeta’s Stuffed Cheese Buns. However, I sometimes find that I’m not getting consistent results and have to modify the recipes by either reducing the yeast or adding more flour.
This time, I followed the recipe exactly (using bread flour, not all-purpose flour), except I used pineapple juice from a can of crushed pineapple, and crushed up a slice or two and mixed it in. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly, using only extra flour when kneading and forming the rolls of bread. During the first mix, the consistency was “sticky, but not gooey” just as indicated in the recipe. I punched down the dough, and thought it was fine, until I started to separate the dough into twelve equal pieces.
I had a difficult time forming the balls because the dough began to stick to my fingers and the surface, both of which I dusted in flour. I ended up kneading a little more flour in to make the dough workable, but still had a hard time forming evenly shaped balls. I didn’t want to add too MUCH extra flour since the recipe already calls for four cups, which I thought was a lot! I had been looking over some pan de sal and pan de leche Filipino recipes, and they usually only call for three cups when making about twelve rolls.
I finally managed to form twelve rolls and spaced them evenly, covered them, and let them rise. They more than doubled in size when I checked on them after an hour! And they continued to grow even more during the baking. When I pulled the bread out of the oven, I was afraid I had ended up baking one big tray of bread!
Luckily, I was able to still pull apart the bread, but not without guidance of a butter knife. The rolls are soft and airy, yet dense at the same time. They don’t feel heavy while holding them, but once you start to eat them, you realize that one roll alone is extremely filling.
In the end, a tasty recipe, although I’m not sure I will make these on a regular basis. If you’d like to try it yourself, you can find the recipe here at Yammie’s Noshery.
I know that stews are generally eaten in the winter, but today I am sharing a recipe for a Korean dish called sundubu jjigae (순두부찌개 in Korean, or スンドゥブチゲ in Japanese) because I love it so much that I can eat it any time of year. Sundubu jjigae is a stew made with meat, seafood, vegetables, and uncurdled (extra soft/silken) tofu.
(I know in my picture it looks more like a soup… and that is because I embarrassingly added MUCH more liquid broth to last night’s dinner than I intended to, resulting in a soup rather than a stew. The recipe below has the actual measurements required to make this Korean soft tofu stew.)
I first ate sundubu jjigae with my sister-in-law at a Korean restaurant here in the Bay Area, just before I left for Japan. Then when I moved to Japan, there was a Korean restaurant in our AEON mall food court called 韓菜（ハンチェ）”HAN CHE” which served bibimbap and sundubu jjigae, and I fell in love, and ate there regularly. They served their sundubu jjigae with a bowl of rice and salty, toasted seaweed, which is now the only way I can enjoy this dish.
Today, I will show you how to make sundubu jjigae! This recipe is pretty flexible, in that I’ve seen a variety of recipes online, and each calls for different measurements of different ingredients. When I made this dish for dinner last night, I was simply putting together a meal using only ingredients we had on hand, and so you won’t see any green onion in my pictures, even though the recipe calls for it (and you should use it). I also like to add enoki mushrooms, beech mushrooms (white and/or brown), and clams. In today’s post, you will see that I used thinly-sliced pork loin hot pot meat (frozen leftovers from another night, when I made nabe) and some frozen mussels. You can also add beef, shrimp, or a seafood mix.
Also, the recipe I adapted mine from calls for gochugaru (고추가루, Korean red chili pepper flakes). I actually couldn’t find this in our large Asian supermarket the last time I went (either they were out of stock, or it was labeled in a way that I couldn’t read it… ^^;;;;). I did find gochugaru at a small Japanese market, but it was quite expensive… Around $6 for a small bag, and I’m sure it was marked up, as were all the other items the shop was selling. So, instead I opted to use Red Chile Pepper from Trader Joe’s which is probably not the same thing. If you can get your hands on the real thing, go for it.
Also, while you’re out shopping for ingredients, if you can find barley tea (麦茶 “mugi-cha” in Japanese, 보리차 “boricha” in Korean), grab this too! Mugi-cha is one of my favorite teas and I drank it everyday, all summer long, while I was living in Japan. I bought this big bag of ITO EN (伊藤園) brand mugi-cha at a Japanese market in San Jose, but since I’m really the only one who drinks it, it is lasting forever…! Any brand of mugi-cha is fine, but I like the ITO EN one because 1) it’s the one I always drank in Japan, and 2) I love the mugi-cha man on the packaging and from the commercials!!
Barley tea is grain-based and caffeine-free. It is brown in color, and a little earthy in taste; some people think it has a similar taste to weak coffee, or to ほうじ茶 “houji-cha” (roasted green tea). Some studies say there are some health benefits to drinking barley tea. I’m no expert on the health benefits, but in Japan, it’s a very popular drink in the summer because it tastes very refreshing and has a cooling effect on the body.
The tea can be enjoyed hot or cold, but in the summer time, I recommend cold-brewing. These bags I bought are “1-liter tea bags”, so you just toss one bag into a 1-liter pitcher, add cold water, and stick it in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
Now that your tea is prepared, you can start to prepare the anchovy broth required for the stew. You will need dried anchovies and konbu (dried seaweed). Although the Asian supermarket I shop at has a “dried seafood” aisle, I actually found the dried anchovies in the fresh food section near the produce. It was in the same aisle as tofu, packaged sprouts, fish cake, etc. Konbu is not the same as wakame, which is available in markets both fresh and dried. (Click the links to see pictures on the Wikipedia pages!) Konbu is thick, and usually sold in flat strips or sheets.
Anchovy Broth Recipe adapted from Korean Bapsang Makes six cups of broth.
Ingredients
10-12 medium to large dried anchovies
2 pieces of konbu (about 3-inch squares)
6 cups of water
Directions
Pour the water into a pot. Soak anchovies and konbu in the water for at least 20 minutes.
Place the pot on the stove and bring to a gentle boil. When the water reaches boiling temperature, reduce heat to medium and boil for about 10 minutes. Leave the pot uncovered to let the fishy aroma escape. Do not over-boil, otherwise the broth may become cloudy, and the flavor may change or even become unpleasant.
Drain the liquid to remove anchovies and konbu. Discard anchovies and konbu.
Leftover stock can be refrigerated for up to 4 days, or frozen for future use.
The embarrassing part that I will share with you is that while cooking and taking pictures for this blog, I wasn’t paying attention and I accidentally pouredall six cups of broth into my stew, even though the original recipe only calls for one cup of broth… and so, there you have it. That is why I ended up making a soup instead of a stew. Oops!Be careful not to do what I did, because the flavor will become diluted and you will need to increase the seasonings in order to make the soup taste flavorful. (ﾉω＜；)
Meanwhile, during the 20 minutes that the anchovies and konbu are soaking, you can begin preparations for the stew. Wash, chop, or dice your ingredients. Then put a pot on the stove so you can begin making sundubu jjigae!
The original recipe on Korean Bapsang only uses sesame oil and gochugaru to make a flavor. This is what I used to cook the meat, garlic, and onions. However, to flavor the broth, I also added a big, heaping tablespoon of gochujang (고추장, red chili paste), which you can see in the photo second picture above. I did this because, as I mentioned earlier, I accidentally used way too much broth… you can probably omit the gochujang, or maybe you can substitute it for the gochugaru and sesame oil… or go ahead and add both, if you want it to be spicier. Feel free to experiment! I will experiment the next time I make this dish, too.
Sundubu Jjigae Makes about 2 servings.
Ingredients
1 package sundubu (extra soft or silken tofu)
a few slices of beef or pork (rib eye, sirloin, pork loin, or pork belly)
a few pieces of seafood (shrimp, mussels, clams, or oysters)
1/2 small zucchini, sliced
1/4 onion, diced
green onion, diced, for garnish
1 tbsp. gochugaru
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. garlic
1 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
a pinch of pepper
1 tbsp. gochujang
1 cup anchovy broth
1 egg (optional) — not necessary, but tasty! Also, if your dish is too spicy, the egg helps cut back on the spice.
Directions
Prepare your meat and vegetables: Cut the meat into small thin strips. Clean the seafood. Slice zucchini into round pieces, and then slice in half. Dice the onion. Chop the green onion and set aside a little for garnish.
Add the gochugaru and sesame oil to a pot, then place over medium heat. The gochugaru will burn easily, so do not preheat the pot and oil. Stir well until you make a paste, then add meat, onion, garlic, and soy sauce. Stir fry until the meat and onions are almost cooked.
Pour in the broth. (Be careful to add only the amount you need! ^_~) Boil for 3-4 minutes.
Add zucchini. Cook for 2 minutes.
Scoop out the soft tofu into the pot. Cook for two minutes.
Add seafood, green onions, salt, and pepper.
Optional, but recommended for tastiness: Break an egg into the stew while it’s still boiling hot.
Serve with white rice and toasted seaweed.
Yum! Still enjoyable, even though I ended up making a soup. I promise to update with more accurate photos next time I cook this dish!
I have been munching on this handmade banana granola with Trader Joe’s vanilla yogurt and frozen raspberries all week long. I had a taste of some delicious banana granola from a farmer’s market, but it was expensive and I thought it would be easy to make some at home myself.
Making granola is as simple as mixing together a few essential ingredients in a single bowl, and then popping them into the oven. Unfortunately, I learned after the fact that homemade granola can either come out crunchy or chewy, and the recipe I followed made a chewy granola rather than a crunchy one, which is what I was trying to go for.
However, since this granola is homemade and doesn’t contain any preservatives, I stored it in the freezer to keep it from spoiling. Straight from the freezer, the granola does get a bit of crunch back to it. Next time, I’ll need to try another recipe though! I read it might be the honey which adds to the chewiness, though I may be incorrect. Anyone care to share their own granola baking tips?
This recipe was originally adapted from The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl, but adjusted while taking into account the ingredients list from the farmer’s market granola, and also reviewing a recipe from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop.
Homemade Banana Granola
Ingredients
2 cups rolled oats
2 overly ripe bananas
3/4 cup water
4 tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1 tbsp grape seed oil
Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients (rolled oats, chopped walnuts, sunflower seeds, and shredded coconut).
Blend together banana, water, honey, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and salt until smooth.
Add the blended banana into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in grape seed oil.
Lay out the mixture in a single layer on a baking tray. (I do not recommend using parchment paper as the granola may stick to the paper and go to waste.)
Bake for about 40 minutes, until the oats turn brown in color. Check the granola every 10 minutes or so and stir to ensure granola is cooked evenly. It will look soggy even when done at 40 minutes, but will crisp up as it cools.
Remove from the oven and let granola cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
My friend lives and works in a tiny town named Tsu, which is located in Mie Prefecture, about an hour away from the city of Nagoya. We decided to spend two nights in Mie because the guest rooms in the center she works at only cost 1,000 yen/person per night + a small cost for electricity. As mentioned in a previous post, our goals for the trip were to visit parts of Japan that we either had not been to, or did not spend enough time in. Our other goal was to make sure overnight accommodation was cheap, because now we were kind of like vagabonds, wandering around Japan without a home or job.
I actually had traveled to Mie Prefecture before with my friend Nat. The two of us took advantage of the Aozora Free Pass which let us travel from Toyohashi Station throughout the Greater Nagoya area on local JR trains unlimited for one day. We visited Ise Jingu and the nearby Oharaimachi, which you can read about here. My husband however still hadn’t been, which is why I decided we should make a trip out together so he could cross it off his list of places to visit.
Aside from Ise Jingu, there isn’t much to see in Mie, as you can see from this travel guide. Most people probably won’t travel out here if they have a short time in Japan because the rest of the prefecture is made up of small, rural towns. However if you have a chance to visit, I recommend even passing through for a day just to see what real daily living in Japan is like. Life seems relaxed and slower paced compared to the busy city life of Tokyo and other cities. People living in Mie looking for shopping and entertainment need to head to Nagoya, which can be as far as an hour away if not longer, depending on the train and distance.
As for the food, which is my top priority when traveling, it was delicious! Local specialties of the region include Matsuzaka Beef Matsuzaka region of Mie, Ise Udon, and Akafuku-gori (green tea shaved ice with mochi covered in sweet red bean paste). Let’s take a look at some of my favorite meals during our two days in tiny Tsu…
Above is Chicken Karaage lunch set from Tomiya Karaage Restaurant in Edobashi, Mie. Tomiya Karaage is a small, local restaurant which has been recognized for it’s delicious chicken dishes. You can get karaage pretty much anywhere in Japan, even at the conbini, but if you want good karaage, I recommend you come here. Cheap karaage often has a thick batter, and the meat sometimes has too much fat content. The karaage here are large in size, have a higher meat to fat ratio, and the batter is thin but crispy. The lunch set comes with shredded cabbage, potato salad, a bowl of rice, and miso soup. It’s been a while so I don’t remember the exact prices, but I do recall all of the lunch sets being under 1,000 yen. That’s less than $10 for all that food! I actually couldn’t finish.
Tomiya Karaage also offers a unique chicken dish which I hadn’t seen offered before at other restaurants: Chicken Tempura. As with the karaage, the lunch sets include shredded cabbage, potato salad, rice, and miso soup. The chicken is sliced long and thin and lightly coated in tempura batter. Very delicious!
Sandai Wagyuu is a term which means ”the three big beefs”. I’m sure you have heard of Kobe beef, but did you know that there are actually three regions which are famous for producing top-quality wagyu beef? The three regions are Kobe, Yonezawa in Yamagata Prefecture, and Matsuzaka from Mie Prefecture. Matsuzaka beef is produced from female black-haired wagyu which are fed fodder, soy pulp, and ground wheat. As with Kobe beef, they receive massages and listen to soothing music on a regular basis. This kind of treatment ensures that the beef will have a good taste and high fat-to-meat ratio.
We were able to taste Matsuzaka beef in two forms while strolling through Okage Yokocho in Oharaimachi (near Ise Jingu). Above is a Matsuzaka beef donburi, which was also served with a small side of Ise udon noodles. We were also able to try the Matsuzaka beef yakitori-style from one of the street vendors.
Ise Udon is another specialty which I talked about in my previous post on Ise Jingu. Thick noodles with a thick sauce made of soy sauce and sake, and served with a light garnish of green onions. The dish is famous for its simplicity.
Akafugu-gori, which I also mentioned in a previous post. The most famous place to buy this shaved ice dish is from the Akafuku Cafe in Okage Yokocho.
And lastly, because it was a hot summer day, I couldn’t help myself to two desserts to cool myself down. I stopped by a shop in Okage Yokocho which serves tofu soft cream. For 270 yen, you can get a full serving in either a cup or cone; or you can buy a children’s size for 170 yen.
Yum! I’ve been experimenting with different flours, different yeasts, and different baking methods. While my ideal bread would be baked in the oven in a fancy shmancy artisan loaf shape, I’ve gotten the best results using this Rustic Italian Bread recipe with a few modifications.
I’m using a mixture that is part white bread flour, and part all-purpose flour. Last week I baked the same bread using all bread flour, and the bread rose too much and ended up collapsing in the bread machine before baking. When I sliced off the top crust, I discovered a gigantic hole! It tasted great, but bread with a gigantic hole is pretty much impossible to make sandwiches with.
Also, I’m not sure if all bread machines have this option, but I’ve been making using the “European” setting. The dough is in the machine for about 3.5 hours, from start of kneading to the end of baking. I’ve tried baking on the “Regular White Bread” setting, and ended up with an extremely tough bread… though, this is possibly due to the instant yeast. I’ve switched brands and am having overall better results in everything I’m baking. I’ve also tried using the bread machine on the “Dough” setting, and then reshaping the loaf and letting it rise a second time. This also produces good results, but the family seems to like the texture of the bread the best when I bake it in the bread machine. Less energy and less dishes too.
Jalapeño Cheddar Bread
(using a bread machine)
Ingredients
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
2 cups white bread flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 – 2 jalapeños, seeds removed, chopped
2 – 2 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Directions
Proof the yeast by mixing it with warm water and letting it sit for about 5 minutes.
Add all the ingredients into the bread machine: wet ingredients first, then dry ingredients.
Set the bread machine to the “European” or similar setting then let it do it’s thing.
Enjoy the smell of cheddar and jalapeños floating in the air.
When the bread is done, allow it to cool on a wire rack until room temperature. Or, if you’re impatient like me, slice and enjoy while it’s hot and toasty.
I’ve still got plenty of posts about Japan up my sleeve, but sometimes it’s nice to post a little bit of local flavor. Even though I live in the Bay Area, I actually don’t go out to the bay that often — things are a little busier {and pricier} out there than here in the suburbs. But sometimes it’s nice to get out. We were invited to a 新年会 (shinnenkai, “new year gathering”) party at Yoshi’s Oakland Restaurant in Jack London Square. Traditionally in Japan, shinnenkai parties are held in January with friends or co-workers, but this one coincided just in time for the Lunar New Year. It was my first time to visit Jack’s London Square, and also my first time to eat at Yoshi’s. Nice views, good drinks, delicious food. :)
Jack London Square is in an area of Oakland that also encompasses the Warehouse District and rail yard, so Union Pacific trains and these large container cranes are a common sight. They were part of my daily commute’s scenery when I rode the BART train into work. When I was a child, I used to think they were dinosaurs.
Happy hour = $4 wines.
Dinner was fantastic. A three-course meal, plus dessert! For the first course, Sendai Miso Soup (tofu, wakame, negi, and nameko mushroom) & an Anou Pear & Beet Salad (baby mizuna, wild arugula, feta cheese, and honey balsamic dressing). The second course: traditional vegetable tempura, including my favorite eggplant and zucchini. The third course: Grilled Mary’s Farm Organic Chicken with crushed herbs, spicy miso, and housemade teriyaki sauce; and a plate of seasonal organic vegetables served with spicy miso, wasabi aioli, and tamari herb oil. The omakase dessert consisted of a bowl of fresh frozen yogurt with assorted berries.
