speculoos apple crumble

I love the internet...I got this idea from Dorie Greenspan, who got the idea from a bistro that she visited in Paris.

It made a lot of sense to me to use speculoos cookies because they have that "christmas-y" apple pie type of flavors.

Since I had a not-so crispy apple, I decided to try it, instead of throwing the apple out.

I sort of made up my own recipe...

Speculoos Apple Crumble : makes 2

oil
1/2 apple, sliced
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
several grinds of cinnamon
2 packages of caramel biscuits a.k.a. speculoos a.k.a. biscoff, crushed
2 pats of butter

Use some oil to grease your ramekins.
After slicing your apples place into the ramekins.
Sprinkle a teaspoon of vanilla sugar on each
Grind cinnamon on each
Crush a package of caramel biscuits (1 package has 2 cookies) onto your apples. (I crushed them with my fingers, because I wanted it chunky) Use 2 cookies for 1 ramekin.
Cut the pat of butter into smaller pieces and place here and there in ramekin (use 1 pat for 1 ramekin)

Bake at 180F (350F) for 30 minutes.

NOTES: I'll admit my crumble was a bit dry, but the aroma from the oven was really nice and overall it was delicious especially with a cup of tea.

I definitely want to try this again, maybe adding some oatmeal and nuts to the topping.

apple crisp muffins

I've been making apple crisp lately. Not sure why, but I think I may be addicted to it.

Probably because I put a dollop of vanilla ice cream on it as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Changing the subject a bit...I needed something fast for breakfast on Sunday, so I figured why not try putting apple crisp and muffins together?

I used this recipe by Tyler Florence for the base of the muffin, and added 1/2 an apple (chopped), a handful of cacao nibs, 25 grinds of cinnamon, 3 little grabs of muesli and 1/2 a teaspoon of ground flax seed.

Instead of the butter, I used all oil. I had to bake them a little longer than 20 minutes (About 24 minutes).

The texture was a little drier than when I make banana muffins, but it was still delicious. There was a lot going on in there with the muesli, nibs and apple, lots to chew. I'll probably make this again when I have leftover apples.

Hope you have a great week.

unagi dokoro kishi

Monday night we had some of Satoshi's friends and their families over for dinner. (We always get together with these families for Christmas.)

Usually when we have parties, we like to start them around lunch time, so that the children have time to run around outside while the adults chatter away, but this time, the party started late because everyone had things during the day, on top of that, Satoshi had to work until 18:30. By the time we started eating it was 19:30.

I made bulgogi, szechuan salt & pepper shrimp, spicy poke and apple crisp.

The other wives brought cake, and pork wrapped around bainiku (ume paste) and shiso (perilla leaves)--The recipe is easy so I'll be making this soon and share it with you!

It was a loud gathering (6 adults and 5 children) filled with lots of chatting, laughing, drinking and eating. I hope we didn't bother the neighbors too much.

Yesterday was the last day of the Golden Week. For lunch, we went to Hibarigaoka Hanayashiki, this is 3 stops from where we live. In Japan, there are many guide books for finding eating places, dessert places, just about all topics not just food--if you can be featured in one of these guide books you are almost guaranteed a boost in business. We have a book that is filled with all kinds of eating places around our area. As Satoshi was flipping through it to get an idea of where to go for lunch, he came across an unagi (eel) restaurant. This restaurant has a 230 year history dating back to the Edo period (actually we realized that the owner's family's restaurant in Wakayama, has the history).

The restaurant is very tiny, only 10 seats at the counter and 6 in back in a little room. The place was almost to capacity when we got there, but we were able to get seats at the counter, we looked over the menu and the owner explained the size differences of the unagi don (eel bowl).

Satoshi ordered the unagi teishoku (2940 yen about US$29.40) this comes with an unagi don (eel bowl), unagi cream croquette, kimo sui (broth with the liver of the eel), tsukemono, unagi jelly (terrine of unagi, yuzu (citron) and other herbs).

I don't really like unagi, but will eat it, so I ordered the small order of unagi don (1470 yen about $14.70).

After Satoshi ate his terrine and some broiled eel liver (both quite teeny), our orders of donburi came.

The eel was very tender and the sauce was light tasting. I love sauce on my rice, but to tell you the truth, my chopsticks skills suck and for me to eat rice that has sauce on it is hard because the rice doesn't stick together, so I "balance" rice onto the chopsticks and scoop it into my mouth...disgrace being of Japanese ancestry, but true. I think when I was staying with my host-family, my host-mom felt sorry for my chopstick skills because she would almost immediately bring out a fork or spoon for me during meals.

Still, the una don (short for unagi donburi) was delicious!

By the time I had "balanced" all my rice onto my chopsticks, Satoshi was finished.

Then I asked him, "aren't you supposed to get a croquette too?" He said, "it must be coming soon." Then he asked the owner, "doesn't the teishoku come with a croquette?" She replied, "I thought I mentioned that we aren't serving croquette today." So then Satoshi said, "uh, so what about the liver broth and tsukemono?" The owner's face turned white as a ghost and she began apologizing profusely.

She/her staff had forgotten to give us the tsukemono and broth to eat with our meal.

We ate our tsukemono and drank the broth. I didn't care for the broth, it was quite fishy and bitter too.

I thought they would comp our meal or at least discount it, but they didn't. Satoshi was upset that they didn't explain the menu clearer and do more to change the bad feelings. Still, the price he paid was too expensive for the amount that was served.

We both decided that even though it was delicious, we won't be going back.

warming up

Yesterday was raining off and on. It was brrr...cold. The condensation would come out from your mouth when you talked.

Though I made this dessert for Sunday's dinner, I wanted to share it with you on this cold day.

I love apple crisp. It is even better with fresh blueberries in it. I've made it before and posted about it here.

We recently received a box of apples from Satoshi's friend (Thank you!). What would you do with 36 apples? Well, I gave half of it away. We've been eating some for breakfast and I also made an apple crisp with blueberries.

1 apple, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 handful of blueberries

Topping adapted from Ellie Krieger
1/4 cup flour
2/3 cup muesli
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
20 grinds fresh cinnamon
1/4 cup EVOO

Mix the fruits with the topping mixture. Bake in a oven-safe dish at 350F (180C) for 40 minutes.
Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Though the ice cream is cold, the warm crisp is definitely a nice way to warm up.

This morning, I made some bread pudding using a chocolate orange french bread, blueberries and a sprinkle of vanilla sugar on top. Out of the oven it was bubbly and hit the spot on a cold morning.

Hope you are staying warm where you are.

foodie staff party

This was the first time we had 7 people (adults) over to our cute apartment. Some staff members of Satoshi's department are readers of this blog. I'm not too sure what kind of food they had in mind, but they were excited to come over and have dinner.

I didn't get to take many photos (was busy cooking and tending the "bar"), so I'll talk about what I served and show you the dishes that I served it on. Most of these dishes are made by a company called PTS International. The name of the plates is called"Westbury Court Lyrical Blooms". I couldn't find a website for these dishes, but did find one for replacements on Replacements.com. I bought these just before moving to Japan. It was a nice investment.

Starters: Layered Bean Dip. This is Satoshi's favorite. Ask him what he wants to be served at a party that we throw and this is the first item out of his mouth. Tortilla chips fit nicely in this bowl. This dip is very easy to make, put a layer of refried beans at the bottom of your serving dish. Next add a layer of chopped onions. Mix a scoop of taco mix into a container of sour cream, add this to the layer of chopped onions. Next add layer of chopped tomatoes (seeded), and layer of chopped black olives. Add your favorite guacamole or sliced avocados to the olives and top with shredded cheddar cheese. Serve with corn chips.

Blackened Ahi (Maguro). I put cajun seasoning on the outside of the maguro and fry in a pan with some oil for 5 seconds on each side. I'm glad I got this plate just before moving to Japan too, it is definitely a hit at parties.

Main Dishes: Steak with roasted onions. I grilled steaks and roasted onions. The onions were really easy to make, just drizzle olive oil, and grind some pepper and salt on top. Roast in oven for about 30 minutes.

Pork Ginger. This is another easy dish. Marinate the pork overnight in 1-1/2 Tbsp. sugar, 2 Tbsp. sake (rice wine) and 2 Tbsp. shoyu (soy sauce). Add some minced ginger. Minced garlic optional. Cook well and top with chopped green onions.

Pasta salad: Farfalle (bow-tie pasta) and Penne with chopped salami, tomato, red onion, carrots, capers, red bell pepper. Salad dressing was the lemon-oregano vinaigrette that I previously posted about here. I actually wanted it to be all Farfalle, but the supermarket that I shopped at before the party, didn't have any :( Still, I think it turned out well.

Dessert: Apple-blueberry crisp. I found some fresh Oregon blueberries at our supermarket and added them to this recipe from International recipes.net. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it was a nice ending to the party.

His staff came bearing gifts, too.

A new toy for Satoshi-this gadget adds gas to the beer as you serve so that it can give the "coming from the tap" feeling. Of course, Satoshi hates to read manuals--so he let his staff figure out how to put the gadget together...

Arare (rice crackers) from Funahashiya, a well known maker of tea sweets.

And a gelatin dessert called Goro from Taneya.

Notes to self: invite a little less guests (or make it pot luck) to enjoy self, food and conversation more....

Hope you had a nice weekend!

apples...lunch

I had a lesson today, so I met Satoshi in Umeda afterwards. We had lunch at a cafe called La Maison Marina de Bourbon. The cafe was very nice and the food was good. I had a pastrami wrap with cottage cheese and avocado. The tea I chose was a vanilla flavored tea. It was really fragrant. (UPDATE: 2011 this restaurant is now closed)

For tonight's dessert I decided to try my hand at Apple Crisp. We had so many apples and then received some more and there is only so much you can eat for breakfast...so, this is how it came out. I topped it with vanilla ice cream....I cut the recipe down a bit because my oven isn't big enough for a 2-quart baking dish, plus I don't have one. :) It tasted great!!


Ingredients:
6 medium (6 cups) apples, peeled, cored, sliced
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup uncooked old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup Land O' Lakes Butter
Vanilla ice cream, if desired
Instructions:Heat oven to 375F (190C). Place apples in ungreased 2-quart baking dish. Combine brown sugar, oats, flour and cinnamon in medium bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle sugar mixture over apples. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream, if desired.