Making wagashi - 和菓子

Fishy, fishy!

Hello, and sorry for my absence... Life and work has taken too much time lately....

But, look what we did - we made wagashi - Japanese sweets! More precisely we made fish out of apple juice and agar-agar (kanten).

It´s super easy and we will do it again! These fish are perfect for matcha (green tea).

You need:
Good quality apple juice
Sugar
Agar-agar (powder or flakes, we used powder)
Sugar paste (optional)
Plastic or silicone mold

 I mixed 2 dl of apple juice, 60 grams of sugar and 3-4 grams of agar-agar in a kettle, and boiled it for 2-3 minutes. Adjust the sugar according to taste. Ours got a bit sour, but we like that! In the fish mold I made little balls of sugar paste as eyes. You don´t have to! 2 g agar-agar pr. 100 ml liquid gives a quite hard jello. You can use less and still get a good result.

After the mixture cools down a little bit (but not below 40 degrees C), pour into molds. The sugar paste might bleed, but I think it looks nice. The mixture will set when it gets colder, so fill it to the brim!

The fish sets quickly, you can leave the mold on your kitchen top counter or in the fridge. Serve with matcha and a fork/spoon (I´m going to get a real Japanese wooden fork soon).

Fun facts about kanten: Agar is derived from the polysaccharide agarose, which forms the supporting structure in the cell walls of certain species of algae, and which is released on boiling. These algae are known asagarophytes and belong to the Rhodophyta (red algae) phylum. Agar is actually the resulting mixture of two components: the linear polysaccharide agarose, and a heterogeneous mixture of smaller molecules called agaropectin. 

Tofu - a picture book

Enjoy!

Bean

Water

Grind

Prepare

Cloth

Pressure

Cool

Wash

Eat

Tofu box has arrived!

After travelling across the U.S. in a box, hand carried on a plane from San Fran to NL, my tofu box finally made the final stretch in a kangaroo trolley from NL to Norway yesterday.... my precious!

 Made of hinoki wood, it came with a sieve cloth and bag in white.

It´s very nice and it smells good too.

It also came with nigari, so today I have to get myself some soya and make tofu again.... stay tuned!

I also got this nice soya cup from my mother-in-law, bought in San Francisco. Very nice eggplant motive.

Tonkatsu - Sunday fastfood

Well, I didn´t know what to make of that piece of pork in my fridge...
so we ended up eating "fastfood" for Sunday dinner.
In other words, I turned it into tonkatsu, that´s Japanese for schnitzel. And who doesn´t like that?

Tonkatsu
You will need:
A decent piece of pork, your choice of cut.
Flour, 1 egg beaten and breadcrumbs (Panko) on separate plates.

Cabbage, cut into fine strips (and with some lemon juice and salt added).
Rice, boiled.
Tonkatsu sauce (Consists mainly of ketchup. I made mine with ketchup, soya, mirin and sweet soya).

Cut the pork in 1 cm thick slices. Pat lightly to even them.
Del ytrefilet av svin i 1 cm tykke stykker, klapp dem jevne.

Dip the pork in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, in that order.
Dypp i mel, egg og brødsmuler (jeg bruker japanske brødsmuler "Panko").

Make sure to push the pork well down into the breadcrumbs.
Dytt fileten godt ned i brødsmulene slik at det dekker godt.

Fry the pork in butter on both sides until nice and golden brown.
Stek i olje eller smør til de er pent brune på begge sider.

Serve with cabbage, rice and sauce. Some lemon is also nice. Enjoy!
Server med finsnittet kål, kokt ris og Tonkatsusaus (og sitron hvis du vil). Kos deg!

Yakitori / kushiyaki

Today I decided to make yakitori - grilled skewers with chicken and pork for dinner + for a summer party at my daughters kindergarten tomorrow. I made up a big batch of chicken, pork and asparagus ones.

There really isn´t much of a recipe... I made two different marinades, a traditional tare marinade for the pork and a ponzu/ ume one for the chicken.

Tare:
Soy
Mirin
Sugar
Salt
Dashi

Sour marinade:
Ponzu
Umeboshi, honey marinated
Salt + pinch of sugar

I put the whole batch in the oven, as I don´t have a grill at hand. I think they stayed about 15-20 minutes on 200 C. Half I packed down for tomorrow.

We had them with a simple carrot salad (sliced carrots in ponzu sauce), rice and miso soup. The sprinkle is furikake and there´s some sweet soy too.

Rice! 米

Rice and new sakura rice bowl

Oh, simple happiness... yesterday I went to the japanese grocery store with my little girl and got supplies. I decided to get rice grown in Japan, much more pricy than the Italian or US-grown types, but worth it I think. We also got nori, kids crackers and furikake.

So we had dinner; new cooked rice, salmon and asparagus with nori on top.

ご飯 Still with training chopsticks....

Warm soba noodles - winter food

Soba is a typical summer dish eaten cold in Japan. But in the winter we make it in a hot broth with vegetables and meat or fish, just like ramen or udon noodles.

So this is a non-frill winter dinner in our house:

Warm soba with salmon

- Soba noodles, cooked after instructions and rinsed in water.
- Hot broth (soy, sake, sugar, salt, mirin or menmi with sugar and mirin).
- Vegetables; I used lotus root (renkon), fennel and pak choi.
- Grilled salmon with teriaki glaze and sesame seeds.
- Nori.

Instructions:

Cook soba, rinse, set aside.
Grill a piece of salmon in the oven untill done (while you´re cooking the rest).
Simmer the renkon in oil, soy and sugar (broth base) until soft but crispy, add fennel and pak choi and fry some 5 more minutes. Pour in the broth, heat and add soba.
Serve with grilled salmon, sesame and nori on top!
Yum!

I ruined the tofu + making more kumihimo...

Ah, I can´t believe I did that! But after 2-3 hours of making tofu it took me 30 seconds to ruin it.... It all went fine up until when I added vinegar. The tofu didn´t curd so fast, so I thought I´d better heat it some more. I put it back on the heat, turned around, focused on the dishes, and then it boiled! Oh... it burned and boiled.... I scooped up the curds and made the tofu anyway, but it didn´t come out right. I don´t have any pictures... and I just want to forget the whole thing. But I still want tofu... *sulk*... so tomorrow I have to get more soy beans.

"Red on red": Faux leather and satin braid with silver details and red glass pearl.

On the other hand, kumihimo braiding is still fun! Yesterday I tried flat braid with heart pattern. I will post a picture soon when the light is better for pictures.

I´m adding a few pictures of other braids; satin, 100% silk and satin/ faux-leather combo.

I´m working on a small surprise for a friend right now. I hope she will like it!

"Mother and daughter": Satin braid with gold plated details and glass pearls.

"100% silk": Hand colored silk in red and lilac with silver details and red glass pearl.

(Thanks to my mum for the silk!)

http://krysantemumdesign.epla.no

...I don´t really like them that much!

Yes, the truth will always come out.... And finally my daughter had to come clean (after 2 mochi half eaten): Mummy, I don´t really like those sweets that much!

Here she´s pretending to want some! For the camera....

Daifukumochi - the candy that makes Norwegian kids cry...

So I came home from Japan two years ago with loads of Japanese sweets. They´re mainly made of rice flour and beans. The taste is somewhat different from western sweets. My daughter has set her mind on liking everything Japanese, so she ate them with all the enthusiasm only a small kind can. She also invited the neighborhood kids in for a treat... the result; tears.

They looked so tasty, pink and green, in such a nice box!

Two years later I thought I´d try to make my own. I didn´t have azuki beans to make the filling, so I made plain without filling, but with green tea. They came out very well on the second try!

Here goes:

Daifukumochi

3/4 cup glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp matcha

potato starch to dust with

Sift matcha into flour in a large bowl.

Mix sugar and water in a pan, bring to a boil.

Pour the liquid into the flour and whisk as hard as you can.
Transfer the mass back into pan and simmer while stirring for 2 minutes or so.
Put the mass on a plate and cut small pieces that you drop into

potato starch
and roll into small balls.

Enjoy! (Ps. Be careful when handing them out to kids - might case unwanted reactions!)

Tea-marbled eggs, o-cha tamago

New year - new things to try!

Marbled eggs are originally a Chinese tradition, but they´re used in Japan too. In Japan there´s also sho-yu tamago (eggs in soya), that´s an easier fix.

Anyway, recipe is easy, but cooking takes some time.

Put 3-5 eggs in a pan (one layer). Hard boil them and let them cool down.
Take a heavy spoon and crack the eggshell all over without breaking off pieces.
Put the cracked eggs back in the pan.

Mix:
2 tbsp black tea ( I used Darjeeling first flush - fancy me)
2 tbsp soya (I used organic Tamari)

extra salt if you use low-sodium soya

4-5 star anises
2 logs cinnamon or 1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
Pour it over the eggs and fill enough water to cover the eggs.
Let it simmer for 1-3 hours, refilling water if needed.

The egg will look brown and a bit scruffy when done... and can be kept in the fridge in the cooled down, strained liquid in a jar for quite some time or for 2-3 days wrapped in plastic.

Peel the egg and eat it as a part of a bento box, a snack, with dinner... I had mine with furikake!

Inari with shiitake

Today´s Sunday treat: Inari with shiitake mushrooms and rice.

I cheated and bought ready-made inari this time.... I usually make them myself from abura-age, but the inari no-moto is so handy when you have no time for that... I managed to get some without msg, so I´m happy!

Today I used:
2,5 cups of rice: white and brown mixed
3 large, dried shiitake´s, left for 30 minutes in warm water to soften
1/2 carrot, diced
Sesame seeds, black and white mixed
Mix of mirin, soya, dashi, salt and sugar

Rice is boiled, and while this happens I cut the shiitake and carrot into strips and boil them in a mix of mirin, soya, dashi, salt and sugar.
The boiled rice is mixed with this + sesame seeds and filled into the inari.

We eat the inari with soy sauce and ginger. Yum!

Homemade soy milk and tofu - step by step, part 2

My first tofu.

So, after making your own soy milk from beans, you're left with about 2 liters of fresh soy milk.
It's time to turn it into tofu!
(The tofu you make at home will come out as "cotton", not "silken", just for the record.)

First, you need a box or special tofu form to press the tofu in. I made my own out of a plastic box with some holes pinched, and the lid cut a bit smaller to fit inside the box with a weight on top. Line it with a cheese cloth or similar piece of loose-woven fabric, damp from being rinsed in cold water.Heat the soy milk up until about 80-90 degrees, hot, but not boiling. Use a thermometer if you have one. Switch off the heat and add your coagulant of choice, stir a couple of times and wait. You might have to add some more, but the less, the better.

I used apple cider vinegar because I couldn't get hold of nigari or gypsum. I added about 2 tbsp to 2 liters of soy milk.
When you see the whey and the solids separate into small curds, put the lid on the kettle and wait 10-15 minutes.
Take the lid off and check the state of things. If the curds are quite large and separated from the whey, you're all good. If they're small and still kinda integrated, add a bit more coagulant and put the lid back on. If you're happy, try to get most of the whey out before scooping the curds into your tofu form. Use a sieve and a large spoon.
Spoon the curds into your form lined with sieve cloth. Your final tofu block will be about half the size of the initial mixture. You might want to pour some in, wait for it to drain some, and then add more. When all is in, wrap the cloth over the top, put the lid on and weigh it down with a can or something else heavy. Place it in a bowl or in the sink so the liquid that comes out is collected. Leave for 20 min - 1 hour depending on how hard you like the tofu.
I drained mine for about 30-40 minutes.
Carefully slide your tofu out of the form and into a bowl of cold water. Remove the sieve cloth. Take the tofu out of the water and dry it with some kitchen paper. Enjoy!
It keeps 2-3 days in the fridge if you store it in a box with water.