foodie kind of weekend

It has been raining and windy the past couple of days. Yesterday Satoshi had to work, since he was out of the house, I asked him to bring us home some dessert. Here's what he brought home from a shop that specializes in seasonal fruits, Shinjuku Takano.

A tart with a custard cream-like filling and fig, chestnut, asian pear and persimmon on top.

Mont Blanc, a yellow cake bottom with chestnut cream piping and nuts all around.

A pannecotta with Australian mango diced up top.

And a whole persimmon filled with a custard cream.


Today's breakfast was masala chai, scones and an omlette with sage, basil and parsley in it.

I had seen this post on Jasmine's blog, Confessions of a Cardamom Addict, earlier this year for Masala Chai. Her recipe calls for the spices to be whole then lightly crushed. I only had these spices in the ground form, so I had to ad-lib a bit...

Masala Chai adapted from Jasmine's recipe : serves 2
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 star anise
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 grinds fresh black pepper
2 scoops of Darjeeling tea
3 g sugar (1 sugar cube)

Lightly crush star anise and put all the spices and tea into a disposable tea bag.
Add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil, add the tea bag and allow to steep to desired strength.
Add milk and sugar.
Strain through a fine sieve.

Enjoy!

NOTES: I really enjoyed this chai! Not sweet like the ones served at Starbucks and LOTS of flavor! Gosh, I wonder how it would be if I actually crushed my own spices...


Tonight's dinner was pizza. I had wanted to make a better crust since the last time--it was quite bready. I used the recipe on the yeast packet box, and found a recipe for the topping in a book my brother gave me called "The Essential Baking Cookbook". The topping is a potato, onion, capers and cheese pizza, no sauce, just olive oil.

NOTES: I pricked and pre-baked the crust, and it still poofed up a bit, I put the topping on and baked it for 20 minutes. The recipe called for goat cheese, but I couldn't find any, so I used camembert. It was still a bit bready, so I'll have to figure out if I should cut the amount of dough used for the pizza. Other than that, it was delicious!

Hope you have a great week!