iburi gakko cream cheese

Remember that dip we had at Donpachi in Sendai?

Well, I found the tsukemono, Iburi Gakko (smoked pickles in Akita dialect).

Smoked Daikon, a type of pickle from Akita Prefecture.

I used about a 2-inch sized piece and chopped it up.

Then mixed with some cream cheese.

No real recipe.

I also found those Levain crackers, the ones that are made in Japan.

NOTES: This is great on crackers, but I am thinking it might be nice put in with a tuna sandwich too.

I'm making this again.

kokohead foods smoked ahi spread

Have you tried this yet? I don't know what I was looking at online but a picture of this came up...and then I needed to try it.

Apparently, it was developed by Chef Kevin Hanney who is the owner of 12th Avenue Grill and Koko Head Cafe and has been around for 18 years?! (where have I been?)

I called around and found it at Tamura's (another place is R. Field inside of Beretania Foodland). (Before you go to buy this, please call to make sure they have some)

It really is nice with the smokiness and creaminess.

This spread/dip went nicely with lavosh.

Of course, now I want to try re-creating it (smoked ahi (tuna), mayo, tamarind, onions, anchovies, chili pepper, garlic, salt)

I'm flying out today.

It was a shorter trip than in the past, but I got to spend time with family, meet up with a lot of friends and eat out at some of the places on my list.

The weather was often pretty miserable with the humidity and heat. Traffic was a nightmare at times.

I was often the "dinner" for mosquitos and I was also reminded "loudly" several times that "Kat, you do not tan".

I know it is hurricane season here, but I hope Hawaii's weather stablizes soon, it is definitely killer without an a/c.

Be well everyone.

Talk to you from the other side of the world.

kamaboko dip

After making the spam wonton, I set aside 5 water chestnuts to make some kamaboko dip before freezing the rest of the can of water chestnuts.

This recipe is really easy to make, just throw the first 3 ingredients and the water chestnuts into a food processor and pulse then mix with some mayo.

Enjoy on Ritz crackers.

inspired by a book

Recently I was reading a novel, "Tough Cookie", the author often gives recipes of some of the delicious food described throughout the book.

In this particular book, a spicy dip made with velveeta cheese was mentioned.

Processed cheeses can be found here, but since I had some Fromage Roux, a creamy French washed rind cheese, and since I had some leftover taco filling from taco rice, I nuked the two with some salsa.

It was delicious on toasted bread! and probably would have been better if we had had some tortilla chips.

In the same book, there was a recipe for muffins with marmalade in them.

I remembered I had some marmalade in my freezer, so I added it to the muffin recipe I always use along with some chopped almonds.

I baked it a little longer than the original recipe stated because of the jam--I had sandwiched the jam between the batter.

I think I should have mixed the jam into the batter instead.

Still, I liked this, the marmalade originally wasn't too sweet, so it matched nicely with the muffin.

miso dip

When we went to Kobe last Wednesday, I popped into Fine, a shop by Cerfeuil to see their jams and to see what was new.

I noticed some savory types and checked my cookbook written by them.

Inside the book they had a recipe for a miso dip with sesame seeds and garlic.

The recipe calls for you to fry the garlic, but since I was afraid I would burn the garlic thus getting bitter garlic, I instead roasted it. (425°F/220°C for 40 minutes with some olive oil)

It came out really good and reminded us of houba miso, which we've had in Takayama (pre-blog) and abura miso, which we've had in Okinawa.

A little sweet, a little salty, a little kick from the roasted garlic and nuttiness from the sesame seeds.

We had this with steak but I think it would also be nice with veggie sticks.

Great with beer.

Here is my adaptation of the recipe...makes about 1/2 a cup

40 grams awase miso*
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon sake (rice wine)
1/2 teaspoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
10 grams garlic, roasted (about a clove and a half), then minced
2.5 grams black sesame seeds
1 teaspoon sesame oil
green onions, chopped (amount to your liking)

*Awase miso is a mixture of miso made with beans and miso made from rice. Different makers combine the two in various ratios. I made my own in a 1:1 ratio. If you can't get the two types just use what you have on hand. Depending on how sweet your miso is, you may have to adjust the amount of sugar. Or if you don't want the dip to be too sweet and more on the salty side, you can cut back the sugar.

Mix everything well. Let chill.

Enjoy!

NOTES: The recipe didn't include this but I also added some chopped green onions for a spicy crunch.

The cookbook says that it would be nice mixed with some vinegar as a sauce for yakiniku (grilled meat), but we think it may not match.

It also said it would be nice in a musubi...so that is what I did and you know what? It was.

I had some leftover steak, so I cut it up into smaller pieces and heated it up with some green onions and a half teaspoon of the miso dip.

Put it into the musubi and lunch was served.

The book only talks about the dip matching with beef but I'm pretty sure this would work with pork and chicken too.

In fact, I sauteed some thinly sliced pork with onions in some sesame seed oil then added the miso (about a teaspoon), a scrambled egg and green onions.

Poured over rice, it was a great buta don (pork bowl).

We love it and I'm making this dip again.

roasted garlic and red pepper dip

I had some cloves of garlic sitting out and wanted to use them up, so I roasted them with a red bell pepper and made a simple dip out of them.

3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1 red bell pepper, washed
1/2 tablespoon EVOO

72 grams of cream cheese (about 2.5 ounces)
grinds of pepper (to your liking)
handful of Italian parsley, chopped, leaves only

Heat oven to 220C (425F)
Drizzle oil over garlic
Roast red bell pepper and garlic for 40 minutes.

Peel skin off of red bell pepper and take out seeds.
Peel garlic

Throw both into a food processor, whiz until a paste
Add in cream cheese, pepper & parsley

Whiz until you get the consistency that you want.

Eat with pretzels or bread.

Enjoy!

NOTES: too bad I had a dentist appointment Monday morning, this would have been perfect to munch on while watching the Super Bowl.

I want to try these two ingredients with garbanzos for a roasted red pepper hummus, I think it will taste like a pre-made hummus I used to buy in Hawaii...

p.s. today is Kenkoku Kinen no Hi (National Foundation Day), the day when the first Emperor, Jimmu, ascended the throne. It is a national holiday, hopefully the weather will be cooperative so we can get out and about, it has been raining here for the past couple of days.

spiced mixed nuts + herbed goat cheese dip

I recently tried the "herbed goat cheese dip" which was in "The Food You Crave", but since I didn't have the fresh herbs that Ellie uses in her recipe, I ad-libbed and added dried dill, onion powder, pepper and garlic powder instead.

It was great with raw red bell pepper, carrots, cucumber & steamed green beans. I want to make this again. It is a great way to eat a lot of veggies.

Another recipe I tried was for Ellie's "Spiced Mixed Nuts". It was so easy and so tasty. You are only allowed 1/3 cup as a serving, it is kind of hard to stop eating though...

To make them, I bought a package of unsalted mixed nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, mac nuts) and added some sunflower seeds.

Yum!

the past couple of days

Thank you for your Christmas wishes. Satoshi was able to take the day off so we spent the day together. (Christmas is not a national holiday here, so if it falls on a weekday, most times Satoshi has to work--I think this was the first time in 7 years of living here that he was able to take the day off.) To our family and friends, we appreciate all of your cards and gifts.

This Christmas was rainy and cold. I was hoping to see some flurries but there were none to be seen.

We had our annual Christmas party on the 23rd with two other families. I brought two cream cheese dips. One with smoked salmon and one with roasted garlic and served them with Ritz crackers. It was a nice gathering and nice to see our friend's children who are getting bigger each year.

Our Christmas dinner last night was a pupu (appetizer) party. I made a version of Deb's ahi, avocado, crab towers. For some reason, the market didn't have maguro today, so I subbed salmon cut for sushi. I did it a bit chunky but it was still delicious.

We also had slices of apple with smoked cheddar.

There was also some chips and a glass of Two Oceans pinotage, a South African wine.

Dessert was chocolate dipped strawberries.
Recently, I bought a fondue pot by Vanilla Patisserie, which I found out is a shop in England. DHC, which I have written about before, was selling these pots in dark 70%, milk with hazelnut and white at an introductory price of 800 yen (about US$8). Of course, I bought the 70%. Just warm up the pot in some hot water for about 10-15 minutes and you are good to go.

Despite the rain, it was a great day. We hope you had a Merry Christmas and were able to enjoy it with family and friends.

pupu party

When we lived in Hawaii, especially during the Summer, we would go down to Safeway and "hang out". Walking around just to cool off.

Our apartment didn't have air conditioning and for most of the year, it wasn't necessary, there were always tradewinds to keep us cool. But on those rare humid and/or hot days, we'd head to Safeway (or any market, actually).

We'd pick up ingredients to make layered taco dip, a bottle of wine, several varieties of poke. Dinner would be simple and cool...a pupu party. No standing in front of the stove. For those of you who don't know what "pupu" is, it means appetizer in Hawaiian.

I want to share with you a story of a time when we were getting ready for one of our "pupu parties" and I cut my finger really bad. Satoshi being the "great doctor" that he thought he was, put mercurochrome (that red stuff) on the cut. Boy, did it sting. The bleeding didn't stop. I had to go to emergency.

When we got to the emergency room, the nurse came out to look at the cut. She said, "alright, who put the mercurochrome on the cut?" I pointed to Satoshi. She sighed and left the room.

Then we were put into the examining room and the doctor came in. He took a look at the cut and said, "so, who put the mercurochrome on the cut?" I pointed to Satoshi. He sighed and left the room.

Then he came back to clean the wound, he scolded Satoshi because by putting the red stuff onto the cut, they couldn't assess how bad the cut was. By this time, the cut stopped bleeding. The doctor looked at it again and said that I wouldn't need stitches...whew.

As we left, the doctor smiled and told Satoshi that next time he should leave all medical things to him.

So anyway, Saturday's weather was perfect for a pupu party. I bought some smoked salmon, a red onion. I also found some feta cheese in oil with olives and bought a baguette and some cherry tomatoes.

This smoked salmon dip was really easy to make. The measurements are the amounts I used, but you can add more or less of any ingredient that you wish.

Serves 4
94 grams (about 3 ounces) smoked salmon sliced
36 grams (about 1 ounce) cream cheese
1/4 red onion, diced
several shakes of dried dill
several grinds of pepper
3/8 teaspoon capers

Throw everything into the food processor and whiz to the texture of your liking. I whizzed mine kind of fine. Serve with toasted baguette or your favorite cracker.

Today's pupu party was smoked salmon dip, toasted baguette, feta cheese with olives and sliced tomato. Sliced bell pepper and carrot. Saki ika (cuttlefish) & pirikara geso (spicy octopus legs). Yebisu dark beer. We'll probably have this type of dinner a couple more times this Summer.

I hope the weather is bearable where you are.

leftovers? quesadilla!

After making naan tacos, I had some black bean dip, ground beef, cheese and salsa leftover. So, I made quesadillas.

I've never made them before and just kind of winged it. I put the bean dip onto a tortilla with some ground beef, cheese and lettuce then put another tortilla on top.

Since everything was straight out of the refridge, I put the whole thing into a 150C oven for 10 minutes and then under the grill for 5 minutes. I cut the quesadilla into 4 pieces and ate it with salsa on top.

Fast, easy, yum!

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!