SHIZUOKA GOURMET

Tofu Terrine

dragonlife — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:48:49 +0000

Tofu does have to be food exclusively for vegans, vegetarians and people with special priorities.
I can assure you that monivores like I are very fond of any any combination including tofu!

Here is a simple recipe that will impress your friends:
Tofu Terrine!

INGREDIENTS: For 4 servings

-Tofu (momen tofu, a bit mopre solid than kinu tofu): 300 g
-Wakame seaweed (salted preserves): 15 g
-Carrots: 30 g
-Sugar peas in their pods (or their equivalent. They are called pois gourmands in French, or kinu saya ingen in Japanese): 8
-Salt: a pinch (for boiling the veg)
-Mushrooms (white agarics): 3
-Broad beans (boiled or steamed) for decoration: 4

-Eggs: 2
-Soup stock: 2 tablespoons
-White wine: One and half tablespoons
-Salt: 1/3 teaspoon
-Pepper: to taste
-Salad oil for brushing

RECIPE:

-Break the tofu in large pieces. Boil lightly. Transfer into a large clean cloth and press as much water out as possible.

-Wash the wakame in clear cold water. Boil for a little while. Take out and press water out. Put it inside a clean cloth and press out as much water as possible.

-Chop the carrot fine. Boil a little and take water off as above.

-Take the “thread” off the sugar peas, boil in salted water. Let cool completely. Take off water and chop finely.

-Cut the mushrooms very fine (you may fry or boil them a bit if you wish to).

-Work the tofu in a suribachi (mortar and pestle) to obtain a smooth paste. Add eggs and mix with the pestle (food processing is fine, too). Add wakame seaweed, carrot, sugar peas, mushrooms, soup stock, slat and pepper, and mix.

-Coat the insides of 4 ramequins/oven cups with a very thin layer of salad oil and pour 1/4 of the mixture in each. Flatten the surface with a spatula.

-Place ramequins inside a steamer. Steam on a medium fire for 5 minutes, then 10 more minutes over a low fire.
Let cool down completely.
Wrap them in cellophane and keep in refrigerator until you serve them
Decorate with broad beans.

NOTE:

This is the basic recipe. It is open to all inds of variations!

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⑧ココット・ロンドにお湯を沸かし、スチーマーに⑦を並べて、湯気の上がったお鍋にセットする。中火で５分ほど蒸し、さらに弱火で７～１０分ほど蒸し、粗熱をとって冷蔵庫で冷やす。お好みでそらまめを飾る。

Panda’s Vanishing Act?

dragonlife — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:00:26 +0000

Just had some fun with another capuccino at Caffeteria Il Cuore!

CAFFETERIA IL CUORE
420-0035 Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Shichiken-cho, 13-20, Ishiwata Bldg. 1F
Tel. & fax: 054-2723737
Business hours: 11:30~23:00 (open every day)
Credit Cards OK

RECOMMENDED RELATED SITES:
Warren Bobrow
Bread + Butter
Elinluv Tidbit Corner
Tokyo Terrace
Comestilblog

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Traditional Japanese Cake-Dorayaki: The Basics

dragonlife — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:29:32 +0000

Dorayaki, a traditional Japanese cake which combines many traditions and gastronomies has been a delicacy for such a long time in this country that it has expanded to the point of crossing all seas and oceans.

This posting is only a summary of common knowledge but I hope it will help many to understand the delicacy and make it themselves for the pleasure of all, adults and children alike!

I will eventually post a basic recipe for it!

Dorayaki (どら焼き, どらやき, 銅鑼焼き, ドラ焼き) is a type of Japanese confection which consists of two small pancake-like patties made from castella wrapped around a filling of sweet red bean paste (anko/餡子).
Incidentally Castella (カステラ, Kasutera) is a popular Japanese sponge cake made of sugar, flour, eggs, and starch syrup, very common at festivals and as a street food.
Now a specialty of Nagasaki, the cake was brought by way of Portuguese merchants in the 16th century.

It originally only had one layer, and the current shape was invented in 1914 by the Ueno Usagiya.
In Japanese, dora (銅鑼) means “gong”, and because of the simililarity of the shapes, this is probably the origin of the name of the sweet.
Legend has it that the first Dorayaki were made when a samurai named Benkei forgot his gong (dora) upon leaving a farmer’s home where he was hiding and the farmer subsuquently used the gong to fry the pancakes, thus the name Dorayaki.

In Kansai area, such as Osaka or Nara, this sweet is often called mikasa（三笠）. The word originally means triple straw hat, but also an alternative name of Mount Wakakusa, a low hill with gentle slope located in Nara. Many local people picture the shape of this hill while eating a mikasa. In Nara, a larger mikasa of about 30 cm in diameter is famous.

Probably thanks to the French Macarons vogue, modern dorayaki also come in various colours, with the bean paste, usually made of red bean paste and sometimes of white bean paste, replaced with creams of many colours.

Here in Shizuoka Prefecture which produces half of all Japanese green tea, they make dorayaki with matcha (抹茶) tea, both in the castella and in cream combined with the anko/bean paste!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’09/72): PC Crash Bento 3

dragonlife — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:26:44 +0000

I finally got my laptop back last Wenesday, but I was still left to deal with a big problem: a mail box overloaded with spams.
It took me hours to first download more than 100,000 spams (yes, you read right, one hundred thousand critters), 99% coming from only two single bots (spam robots)!
It took me half an hour to erase them just to sse them coming back!
I was seriously thinking of changing my mail address, a bothersome affair if there is any. Luckily I do have computer-wise (the old geezer isn’t) friends who told me to consult my provider directly. Which I did.
The company taught how to deal with a Japanese language filter box (their services are in Jpanese only), but it still took them almost half an hour to clean my mail box!
Anyway, I’m a bit wiser and cleverer now, and I can resume my blogging activities in tranquility!

Since she also needed to be careful about her own weight, the Missus has decided to maximize the veg part and minimize the high-calories items in my bentoes from now on!

She steamed the rice withn vegetables including mushrooms and carrots that she mixed later with small pieces of fried chicken.

As for the garnish, on a bed of lettuce (grown in Shizuoka) she placed plenty of renkon/lotus root slices fried with black sesame, whole red radish (with their stems) and simple tamagoyaki/Jpanese omelette.

As for the salad cum dessert, on bed of shredded veg she placed a cople of plum tomatoes, pieces of jiro kaki/squat persimmon and some walnuts. She also added some lightly seasoned potato and cucumber salad for supplemetary calories.

Very tasty and just enough to hold on until dinner!

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Vegan Rice Cupcakes

dragonlife — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:12:29 +0000

Just discovered this cupcake recipe for my vegan (I’m not) friends with the extra bonus of possible variations!

Japanese style vegan rice cupaakes!

INGREDIENTS: For 1 mug cup (arrange quantities accordingly for a greater number)

-Rice powder (Ris Blanc): 4 tablespoons
-Cornstarch: 1 tablespoon
-Sugar (of your choice, honey might be feasible): 1 tablespoon
-Baking Powder: Half a teaspoon
-Olive oil: 1 tablespoon
-Soy milk: 4 tablespoons

RECIPE:

-In an oven ramequin or mug cup first pour rice powder, cornstarch, sugar and baking powder and mix well.
Next add olive oil and soy milk and mix well.

-Depending on the kind of rce powder and soy milk you use, you may have to increase the amount of one or both for a smoother mixture. Experiment!

-Cook insid emicrowave for 2 minutes or more. Check by pushing a thin wooden or meddle stick. It should come out clean. The taste is light. You may add sugar.

-Have a good look at the cake while it cooks. It should not be more than 2 minutes 30 seconds.
If you use kabocha powder, you will need 1 small teaspoon plus 1 teaspoon of water.

-The above green cupcake was made by adding 1 teaspoon of spinach powder and 1 teaspoon of soy milk!

-Add 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon of soy milk for a cocoa cupcake!

-Add 1 tablespoon of carrot powder and 1 teaspoon of soy milk for a carrot cupcake.

-Add crushed apple for the above!

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Vegan Tofu Lemon Cupcakes

dragonlife — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:11:40 +0000

This is a slightly different version of the Japanese style vegan tofu cupcake I introduced a couple of days ago. It will give you an idea of how to play on that idea!

INGREDIENTS: For about 16 cakes

-Tofu (kinu tofu): 180 g
-Sugar (of your choice): 0 g
-Soy milk: 3 tablespoons
-Lemon juice: 1 tablespoon
-Olive oil: 2 tablespoons

-Flour (use chestnut flour if you are wheat allergic): 160 g
-Baking powder: 2 teaspoons

-Grated lemon skin: 1 whole lemon
-Dried English tea leaves, finely chopped ( the contents of 1 tea bag is adequate)

RECIPE:

-Mix flour and baking powder well.
Mix soy milk and lemon juice separately and and set apart.

-In a large bowl drop in the tofu and sugar. Mix well until you obtain a smooth paste. Add the soy milk, lemon juice and olive oil. Mix the lot thoroughly with a whisker.

-Add the all flour and baking powder mixture and mix in with a spatula until floury lumps have disappeared, but don’t mix too much!

-Pour mixture into cups and sprinkle them with grated lemon skin and dried tea.

-Bake inside oven for 16 minutes at 190 degrees Celsius.
If you make mini cupcakes, 12 minutes should sufficient.
keep looking at the colour of your cupcakes!

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Matcha Tofu Muffins

dragonlife — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:23:05 +0000

Tofu and Matcha tea are considered for good reasons as health food here in Japan.
They can also be combinedinto a very European/American style cake: Muffins!

INGREDIENTS: For about 6 muffins

-Tofu (kinu tofu): 150 g (no need to press waterout)
-Egg: 1
-Wheat (use one of your preference): 4 tablespoons
-Cornstarch: 2 tablespoons
-Cream powder: 2 tablespoons
-Sugar: 3 tablespoons
-Matcha tea powder: one and a half tablespoons
-Butter: 15 g
-Baking powder: 1 teaspoon

RECIPE:

-Melt butter inside microwave oven.
Take out and pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

-Drop all ingredients inside a food processor and process until you obtain a smooth mixture.

-Fill muffin cups with mixture up to nine tenths height.
(Pouring the whole lot in an oiled/buttered pound cake mold is fine, too)

-Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes (Check colour as all ovens have their own “character”)

-Let them cool completely.
If you don’t eat them at once, wrap them in cellophane paper and leave inside refrigerator or in a very dry box.

Best enjoyed with tea? LOL

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Baked Tofu Cheese Cake

dragonlife — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:55:43 +0000

One way to lighten your cheese cake and invest into a new taste is to introduce tofu!

Here is a simple recipe that will please anyone woorying about unwanted calories:
Baked Tofu Cheese Cake!

INGREDIENTS:

-Cream Cheese (Philadelphia): 230 g
-Tofu (kinu tofu): 200g (before pressing water out)
-Sugar: 70g (of your choice)
-Eggs: 2
-Vanilla bean pod: 1 (small) (if not available use vanilla essence)
-Soy milk: a little
-Flour: 2 tablespoons (flour of any kind is fine)
-Cornstarch: 1 tablespoon
-Biscuits (crushed to form a solid base under the cheese cake/optional)

RECIPE:

-Line the bottom of a oven cake mold with a layer of crushed biscuit.
You may do without it but it will help absorb excess water from tofu.

-Soften cream cheese to room temperature (you may warm it a bit inside a microwave oven) and mix with sugar.

-Once the cheese and sugar misture has become smooth, add the tofu by crushing it between your palms, addd the whole eggs and mix well with an eletric whisker until you obtain a smooth mixture.

-Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and extract the inside (or use vanilla essence), mix it with some soy milk and add to the mixture. Mix well.

-The last three steps may be done with a food processor, but mixing all ingredients one by one give you a “right feel”!

-Pour the mixture inside the mold over the biscuit layer and flatten the surface with a spatula.

-Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Bake for 50 minutes r until you have obtained the right colour and a raising mound in the middle.

-If the colour even then is too white, raise temperature to 200 degrees Celsius and bake for 10 more minutes.

-Let cake completely cool down.
Only then may you take it out of its mold and leave it inside the refrigerator overnight before eating it.

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’09/71): PC Crash Bento 2

dragonlife — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:22:34 +0000

As of November 2nd, the Kojima Company had not called me back yet to announce that my laptop was finally ready for me to collect. I had been without it for 11 days by then and for all the time suddenly found to write and read, I was really beginning to suffer from hi-tec retrieval!

I had requested the Missus to prepare a musubi/rice balls bento that time.
She came up with four different balls:

-One with Japanese-style pickled cucumber
-One with hijiki/sweet seaweed, sesame seeds and cheese
-One with pickled ginger and sesame seeds
-And the last one with umeboshi/Japanese pickled plums.

The tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette was of the plain variety. Just sweet enough.

As for the salad/dessert side dish she rolled wedges of jiro kaki/squat persimmon inside raw ham and place dthem over a bed of lettuce, cress, walnuts and black olives.

Very healthy!

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Vegan Tofu Cupcakes

dragonlife — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:32:24 +0000

Cupcakes are the norm all over the world when it comes to bakery and tofu is a must for vegans.
Now, it is possible to make very simple cupcakes for vegans!
Wheat flour allergics can replace the wheat flour with chestnut flour like the Corsicans and Portguese do in their traditional food!
This is only the basic recipe to which you can add fruits and vegetables!

Vegan Tofu Cupcakes!

INGREDIENTS: For 5~6 cupcakes

-Tofu (kinu toufu): 300 g
-All-purpose flour (for substitutes, read above): 100 g
-Sugar (white, cane, or even honey): 30 g

RECIPE:

-Get ingrediens ready and pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

-Mix tofu and sugar. Mix well.

-Sprinkle flour over tofu and mix roughly so as to leave a little flour on the surface.

-Bake for 25~30 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius or until desired colour.

-Dead simple, aren’t they?
Now your skills will reside in what you add!

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