fizzy sakura green tea

Lupicia's Sakura Vert (green tea with cherry blossom leaves) cold brewed in carbonated water...so delicious!

Had to be careful opening up the bottle...

Still a little too nippy for cold drinks but I look forward to having this combo again.

mauna kea tea

Glad I got to check out the Made in Hawaii Festival.

All kinds of food items, clothing, knick knacks and crafts that are made in Hawaii.

Jam packed with all sorts of vendors.

I'm glad I got to pick up this green tea made by Mauna Kea Tea.

The tea is grown on the slopes of Mauna Kea and is organic.

Can't wait to share this with Satoshi.

tea festival

They recently had a tea event at Hankyu Department Store.

There were so many brands I wanted to purchase to try, but their teas were all in large quantities, nothing really small to "just try".

I did get these though...Steven Smith Tea Sampler (6 different teas--2 black, 2 green & 2 herbal) and 2 types (Isabel & Kokorobijin) from Creha (pronounced ku-ray-ha), a tea maker from Saga prefecture in Kyushu.

The Creha teas are floral & fruit flavored and are perfect for cold brew style.

How are you keeping cool these days?

green tea pork belly rolls

I saw these pork belly rolls filled with used green tea on a tv show, but could not find a recipe, so I adlibbed.

Using several leaves from that huge cabbage, I wilted it in a hot non-stick pan, then set it aside.

Then I made the rolls.

With about a gram of green tea (brewed and ready to throw out), I divvied it up between 6 pieces of pork belly slices.

Put the flap of each pork roll side down onto a heated pan to seal.

Cook for several minutes then turn until all sides are cooked.

Cover with a lid and cook for several minutes so that the inside will cook too.

Not sure how long I cooked everything for, but it was fast (we use gas to cook with, so that might be why also).

Drizzle with ponzu (citrus soy sauce) before eating.

Dinner is served.

NOTES: I know, not really a recipe, sorry.

Still, I think this would be a nice pupu (appetizer) or something for bento.

I didn't season the cabbage (because Satoshi should be watching his salt), but you could definitely use salt, pepper, or your favorite dressing.

Though the television did not specify, I would try to use organic tea especially since you will be eating it.

It is a great way to use up tea that you have brewed and would normally just throw out or put into your compost.

I'm making this again.

made in japan

Since we had bought that organic green tea from the Shimabara/Nagasaki food fair, I thought it might be nicer to enjoy this ground up like matcha.

While eating the leaves after brewing was an interesting and delicious way, I feel like being able to drink it would be an easier alternative.

I bought the matcha mill by Porlex.

They are the same company that made the coffee mill that I wrote about here.

With just 1 gram of green tea.

You can make about a teaspoon or so of matcha.

The package says that 1 gram of tea will be enough for about 1 or 2 cups of matcha...

We tried some this morning with some frothed milk as a latte and think 1 gram (of tea) is enough for 1 cup rather than 2.

I still have to figure out how to get my frothed milk a little tighter...

Changing the subject...It's St. Patrick's Day and we'll probably be having canned corned beef and cabbage for dinner since I've not seen fresh corned beef here...

It's also a 3-day weekend here...though Satoshi needs to work tomorrow.

Hope you all have a nice weekend.

kikkodo

It is amazing what you come upon while walking around.

I recently found this tiny senbei (wafer/cookie) shop called Kikkodo.

Apparently they have been around for more than 100 years! And they do everything by hand. Amazing.

These ginger senbei caught my eye...700 yen for a package of 12. (I counted them, there are more than 12 in the package, more like 18)

Delicious, crispy with a lot of ginger flavor. Perfect with a cup of green tea.

Kikkodo (UPDATE: no longer in business)
4-6-9 Katsuyama
Tennoji, Osaka
Phone: 06.6772.4168

p.s. It's Friday here, I hope you have a great weekend!

happy valentine's day

Happy Valentine's Day...in Japan, it's only for the guys...which I've told you about here and here.

This is the recipe I used for the truffles, though I only made half the recipe.

Super easy and only 2 ingredients, well 4, if you consider the matcha powder and chopped almonds.

I tasted some before giving them to him and we also had some extras to enjoy too.

Have a nice Valentine's Day, everyone!

matcha scones

Awhile back, Kirk asked if I had made matcha (green tea) scones, which I had not.

Well, I finally did.

This recipe is relatively easy. The scones are not sweet, you may need jam or something sweet (maybe a sweet beverage) with them. We liked them as is.

Kat's matcha scones: makes 10-12

180 grams flour
8 grams baking powder
1 tablespoon matcha (green tea)
50 grams butter
20 grams sugar
1/2 egg
50-75 mililiters of skim milk*

Cut butter into the flour and baking powder
Add the matcha and sugar, mix
Add the egg and milk
Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in refrig for 30 minutes
Roll out to about 2 centimeters thick and use your favorite cookie cutter
Bake at 180C (350F) for 15 minutes

NOTES: To get half an egg, I scrambled a large egg then weighed it then divided the amount in half. The amount I used in this is 26 grams.

*As for the milk, first use 50 mililiters and if the dough is too dry, then add a little milk at a time while mixing.
The dough should be moist but not runny.
The cutter I used was a 5 centimeter (about 2 inch) round.

If you want to make these scones richer, use cream instead of the skim milk.

You could easily double this recipe so that you won't have to "half an egg"...

I hope Kirk makes these for his wife and I hope she enjoys them!

jouvencelle

Last Saturday after his German class, Satoshi met up with his niece.

She is still in college and is starting to look for a job, which I wrote up about here.

He received these wafers by Jouvencelle, called Coronetta, from her for taking time out of his schedule to talk to her about job hunting, interviewing, etc.

They are very thin, in fact, they were packed in bubble wrap. Inside of the wafer roll is a thin coating of green tea chocolate...delicious.

Hope she'll be able to find a job.

karinto

I've told you before that I love to munch on karinto and other things.

We recently received this matcha (green tea) karinto from MIL. (thank you!)

Satoshi told me that the round one is made from sticks of karinto then coated with a sugar glaze.

The matcha flavor was very light, but these with a cup of green tea really hit the spot.

summer teas

About this time every year I get a postcard in the mail from Mariage Frères. The card is sent out to announce their line of summer teas.

Apparently, this year their new summer tea is called Babylonia, a green tea with red fruit, citrus and cornflower.

You need to buy something in order to receive the new summer tea, so I purchased another summer tea called Thé sur le nil. This is also green tea based with some citrus too.

Both are very refreshing.

To make iced tea, I usually do a cold water brewing method, just add some tea to some water and leave overnight in the fridge to steep (about 1 scoop of tea for 1 cup of water).

Then the next day, I just filter out the used tea and drink straight away...so good.

Over the past couple of days, the weather has been very rainy so I haven't been craving too many iced drinks, though the humidity is supposed to kick in over the next couple of days so these iced teas will be perfect.

gokan

Last Sunday, Satoshi asked me what kind of dessert he should bring home after work. I asked him to get the pudding from Gokan. I've written about Gokan in the past and we've eaten at their cafe in Kitahama too.

In the Hankyu Department store, I've also walked past the Gokan counter many times and this pudding had caught my eye.

Not just because it looks delicious...but because they are served in these beautiful ceramic tea cups.

The custard pudding is marbled with green tea pudding. And instead of the usual liquid caramel on the bottom, I think the caramel was made with kokuto (literally black sugar or raw sugar).

The pudding is then topped with some sweetened adzuki beans, some shiratama (rice flour dumplings) and some matcha (green tea) gelatin cubes...oh, and a whole strawberry.

We really liked this, it wasn't too sweet and the portion was just right.

brr!

Once Satoshi and I went to see the Phillies play and the weather was fahreezing!

Yet I saw many people walking around in thick coats and eating ice cream around the stadium.

At the time, I thought these people were crazy.

But nowadays, I can eat ice cream in fahreezing weather too. (though maybe not outside in the cold.)

This is the latest Haagen Dazs flavor here...cookies and green tea. The sweetness from the chocolate cookies balances out the bitterness of the green tea.

I would eat this again (even on a cold day).

uji

Sunday we spent the morning at church for their Autumn service. It was basically the same service as the one during Obon except this time they had chairs for everyone to sit on.

After the service, Satoshi, my MIL and I went to Uji. It is about 40 minutes from the Higashiyama area by train.

I have visited Uji with my Aunty M1 and with Satoshi during various times of the year. This was the first time to visit the Tale of Genji Museum. This museum showcases "The Tale of Genji" and the culture of the Heian period in Japan.

I studied this in college but to tell you the truth, I don't really remember much about the story (guess I should go back and read the book I have stored away...somewhere...)

Anyway, my MIL had been wanting to visit this museum for some time now. Last year was the 1000 year anniversary of the tale being written by Murasaki Shikibu.

Most of the displays were in Japanese, so I couldn't understand most of them, but did find the display on incense intriguing. The display had different items like clove, sandalwood and other items which were combined to make different fragrances for incense.
After walking around the museum and the Ujigami Shrine (the shrine is a UNESCO world heritage), we walked across the river to the Uji shopping arcade.

My MIL was interested in checking out the sweets at Nakamura-Tokichi, a famous green tea shop in Uji.

We found the shop and a VERY L-O-N-G line waiting to get into the cafe. Instead of waiting for a table, we went across the street to Yamakawa, a patisserie.

This tiny patisserie also had a cafe, so we signed our name to their waiting list and after about 15 minutes, had a table.

If you are going to eat anything in Uji, get something made from green tea because Uji is known for their matcha (powdered green tea).

Satoshi got their sencha (roasted green tea) roll. My MIL got the matcha ice cream and a slice of baked cheesecake (she found the ice cream too strong and made Satoshi eat most of the ice cream). I got their matcha vanilla (matcha cake with matcha mousse, a layer of vanilla mousse and adzuki bean and a layer of vanilla whipped cream). This dessert was really light, and the sweetness of the vanilla layers balanced out the bitter matcha layers.

It was a beautiful day and we were glad to get my MIL out of the house.

Tale of Genji Museum
45-26 Uji Higashiuchi
Uji, Kyoto
Phone: 0774.39.9300
Admission: 500 yen (about US$5)
Open: 9:00-17:00, Closed on Mondays

Patisserie Yamakawa : UPDATE: 2/2014: this shop is now called Patisserie Yuji
70 Uji
Uji, Kyoto
Phone: 0774.66.1102
Closed Tuesdays and every 3rd Wednesday

kuromame + kuri + matcha muffins

Remember I received some bottled items from my MIL? I used the bottle of kinkan (kumquats) for some muffins. Well with the remaining two bottles, I did something similar.

I mixed green tea into the batter and added the kuromame (black beans) and kuri (chestnut).

Like the kinkan (kumquats), the kuromame and kuri were also packed in syrup.

I cut the amount of sugar for the muffins in half because the beans and chestnuts still had some syrup on them.

Use this recipe, but disregard the earl grey tea and nibs. Also, instead of 150 grams of flour, use 140 grams of flour and 10 grams of powdered green tea.

I added 60 grams of kuromame (black beans), using a slotted spoon, drain most of the syrup before measuring. There were only 9 kuri (chestnuts) in the bottle, so I placed one chestnut into each muffin cup and with the remaining 3, I sliced them in half to garnish the tops.

Bake at 350F (180C) for 25 minutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick.

NOTES: I had a bit of a disaster in the kitchen. While defrosting my butter in the micro, it sort of "blew-up", leaving me with a lesser amount of butter. I added some EVOO to make up for it, not sure if this is what made the muffins drier. Still, the green tea flavor really came through in these muffins. Cutting the sugar was a good call too, the beans and chestnut were sweet.

matcha

I'm still hooked on matcha. A couple of weeks ago when Satoshi had the day off we went to Kyoto to take his mom to a department store in Shijo.

She said she wanted to buy some tea from Fukujuen. I think they have been in business since 1790. Their main shop is in Uji, the largest producers of green tea in Kyoto. They had this machine spinning and grinding green tea into matcha (powdered green tea).

I asked the guy working there if I could take a photo of the machine. He said, "if you ask me, I have to tell you "no"." So, I smiled at him and just snapped the photos.








The other week for dessert I had a big matcha monaka (a wafer filled with matcha ice cream and sweet bean paste) made by Gion Tsujiri--this store is in Gion and has been in business since 1890, but I bought this monaka at 7-eleven. The outside of the monaka is exactly like an ice cream cone (the cones that get soggy).

Satoshi was surprised at this one because it was expensive...315 yen (about US$3.15). Actually half of this would have been just right.

The very middle had the sweet bean paste.

Doesn't this matcha cream puff look like it is sticking its tongue out at you? This was a delicious snack from 7-eleven.

This melon pan from a local bakery was matcha too, but only on the outside.

The inside was just the normal milky bread.

Love the sugar coating on the outside.

Manneken makes a matcha waffle. It also has adzuki beans here and there inside. This was good but a bit sticky on the fingers.








Satoshi and I had lunch at the North Cafe in Umeda. The interior was very modern. We split a matcha roll.

The cake wasn't very sweet which was good.

We recently got these from the 100 day service. Shincha senbei from Kanshundo.

Shincha literally means new tea. These senbei (wafers) use the fresh tea of the season. Inside a package there are 3 wafers, (shincha) 1 with a green tea leaf, (tencha) 1 with sprinkled tea (tencha is the cutting of the leaf into thin pieces and is the step before the leaf is ground into matcha) and a wafer made from matcha.

Each wafer has the store's mon (family crest) imprinted on it.

Hope you aren't getting tired of all these matcha posts.

matcha nib muffins

We've gone into the rainy season here. Apparently it is 20 days early. Guess the weather will be wet for a couple of weeks. They predict the rainy season will end sometime in the middle of July.

Since I was still hankering for matcha, I decided to try a matcha muffin recipe. I used the basic recipe which I used to make these.

Instead of the 150 grams of flour, I used 140 grams of flour and 10 grams of matcha powder.

Adding a handful of nibs gave the muffin a nice texture, but added more bitterness to it.

This muffin was perfect with morning coffee.

matcha sweets

After meeting Maui Luna, I've been hooked on matcha sweets.

Here are just a few that I've eaten.

At Kimuraya, a matcha chiffon. Up close, this one actually looks like a moldy sponge, at least it didn't taste like one.

At Shouzan's cafe Bauhaus, I had the matcha cake. This one had a big kuri (chestnut) in the middle of the matcha cream and light cake.

This matcha coronet's cream from a bakery in our neighborhood supermarket was really sweet but the bitter powdered green tea on top evened everything out.

Baked Donut's green tea & black bean donut. Actually tastes like a moist cake rather than a cake donut.

Harvest's Uji Matcha cookie sandwiches. Like the previous coronet, the dusting of matcha on top evened out the sweet cream center.


Hope you have a great weekend!

happy valentine's day

It's Valentine's Day today...it kind of snuck up on me...I had envisioned making these great truffles...but didn't really have the right equipment...anyway, these are the truffles I made for Satoshi. Curry and green tea.

My recipe for the truffles: (adapted from a recipe on the internet)
Ganache:
140g milk chocolate (only because Satoshi likes milk chocolate)
1/4 cup cream
10g butter

Melt everything together then put into a bowl and chill for at least 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, form into balls with teaspoon. Put back into the refrig.
Temper 140g milk and dark chocolate. Put some chocolate at the bottom of your candy cup. Put in the ganache into the cup then put some chocolate on top. Top with your favorite seasonings or spices. I put a little curry powder and a little powdered green tea.

I sampled them (not the ones I'm giving to Satoshi) and they tasted really good! I hope Satoshi likes them.

Here's my mid-afternoon snack...dipped strawberries with the leftover chocolate.

Hope you have a very nice Valentine's day.