blood orange infused vodka

The peels of the blood orange are so floral and fragrant that I only realized recently that I could infuse vodka with them.

I bought a small bottle of vodka (375 milliliters) and peeled one blood orange with a peeler.

I have about 4 more blood oranges and will add the peels as we eat them.

I put the bottle in the cupboard, excited to see what happens.

nuts soaked in honey

Nuts soaked in honey is trending here...

I'm not sure where this originated but remember seeing them in Paris at their markets.

Instead of buying the ones that I've seen at the markets here, I made my own.

Nuts Soaked in Honey : makes 1 bottle

Your favorite nuts (toasted, roasted or not), preferably unsalted
Your favorite honey

Fill a bottle with your favorite nuts and then drizzle the honey in to fill in the crevices.

Wait a couple of days before using.

NOTES: Super easy and delicious on plain yogurt.

Another way I've seen this used is on salad, which I hope to try soon.

I think this would also make nice gifts.

Have you ever seen/tried nuts soaked in honey? Please tell me how you used them.

preserved lemon chicken

A couple of weeks back, I preserved a lemon in salt because I wasn't planning to use it any time soon and I didn't want it to rot before I had a chance to use it.

Actually preserved lemon is trending here. Growing up, my mom used have a huge jar of preserved lemons outside, she never cooked with it, instead we used to eat a little of it whenever our throats were sore.

I found a recipe to use the preserved lemons and adapted on it.

Preserved Lemon Chicken adapted from Dancyu makes 6 servings

2 huge chicken thighs (with skin, no bones), cut each thigh into 3 pieces
3 prunes
3 apricots
6 olives
6 wedges of preserved lemon
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons of the preserved lemon juice
4 tablespoons whiskey
1 onion, thinly sliced
4 button mushrooms, thinly sliced
olive oil

Put the first 8 ingredients together and marinate for at least half a day.
Put the thinly slice onions and mushrooms in a baking dish
Lay the chicken, fruit and olives on top of the onions and mushrooms
Drizzle some olive oil over the chicken
Bake the chicken (uncovered) in a 180C(350F) for 30 minutes. And then under the broiler for 7 minutes.

NOTES: this was good, I would use slices of preserved lemon rather than wedges. I flipped the chicken around every time I opened the refrigerator door. The original recipe directs you to sear the chicken in a pan then bake-off. Next time, I would cook everything in a frying pan. I served this with quinoa and broccoli. I have a little more preserved lemon and will make this again.

keiraku's char siu

The other day on tv, there was a chinese restaurant that shared their char siu recipe.

I'm always interested in finding new recipes that taste like "home". This char siu recipe comes really close.

Keiraku's Char Siu

200 grams pork belly block
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon sake (rice wine)
1/2 teaspoon 5 spice (powder)

Put everything in a ziploc bag and marinate overnight.

Bake at 180C (350F) for 15 minutes. Flip and bake for another 15 minutes.

NOTES: The original recipe doesn't say to put everything into a ziploc bag, but it was the easiest way to marinate something and massage/flip it every time I opened the refrig.

After baking it for 30 minutes, the clear pork fat that was in the oven was actually glisteningly beautiful!

I let the meat rest for 5 minutes and I sliced it. It wasn't cooked, so I sliced everything and put it back into the oven for another 5 minutes.

Tastewise, it is close to the Cantonese style char siu that I grew up with. I like that it doesn't use all that red food coloring that we see in Hawaii.

I'm freezing most of this and will use it in fried rice. I'm making this again.

koregusu

Remember those Thai chilies?

Well, I used most of them to make "koregusu" (co-ray-goo-sue) an Okinawan hot sauce.

Just take some chilies, cut off the stem and put them into a glass jar.

Then fill it with some awamori, Okinawan liquor.

I'll let you know when we start using this.

using up the veggies in the fridge (and lanai) soup

Last week, I had wanted to use up all the veggies in my fridge.

I sauteed some onions until they were transparent, and then added 2 cups of water.

Then I added some pumpkin and when the pumpkin was cooked, I added some chicken broth.

I then whizzed the soup with my hand held blender until there were no lumps.

Envisioning fried renkon (lotus root) chips, I fried thinly sliced pieces. Unfortunately, I drained them on a paper towel and they kind of steamed, so they weren't too crispy.

After setting aside the renkon, I sauteed some kale from the lanai with some red bell pepper in some olive oil.

I ladled a bowl of the pumpkin soup and then topped it with the renkon, kale, red bell and then sliced some okra.

Dinner was served.

It definitely isn't soup weather here yet, but I'm glad I was able to use up the veggies in my fridge and the kale from the lanai.

I'm also sending this soup to Deb for her Souper Sunday. It's been awhile since I've sent her a soup. If you've never checked out her round-up, please do, there are always creative and delicious creations there.

things I'm liking

Random things I'm liking...

This bowl for sauce/dressing.

My Twitter friend H sent this to me recently.

It is made by a potter named Shimizu Kumiko, who is with the Maruhachigama in Tamba.

This type of pottery is called Tachikuiyaki. I like the pretty blue glaze. (Thank you!)

Corn Kim chee Fritters.

Fresh corn, some kim chee, edamame, red bell pepper & some onion added to the fritter batter. So easy and so good (with beer)!

Recipe here

Daruma maguro, which is apparently the young version of Mebachi maguro.

This piece was super tender. Slicing it for poke (po-kay) was like slicing butter!

This came from Chiba, it was 189 grams for 752 yen. Not bad for local. I'm not sure if it was caught in Chiba or farmed.

Super fresh!

Andes salt and pepper Doritos...

look how "black" these chips are!

Not sure as to how they got them this black but they are really peppery!

White Belg by Sapporo.

Super fruity with orange peel and coriander.

Mint candies. I know some people hate this combo, but I love chocolate paired with mint.

Summer is pretty much the only time you see this flavor combo here...

Haagen-Dazs' Green Tea & Chocolate ice cream sandwich.

Chocolate wafer with green tea ice cream and a surprise piece of chocolate in the middle...crispy, yum!

Charles VII Biscuits filled with dark chocolate by Maison Fossier.

The biscuits reminded me of Hawaii's creme cracker and are slathered with dark chocolate...nice!

The coconut cookie from City Bakery.

Super chewy with lots of coconut in it...love!

What are you enjoying these days?

pork stock

So, after boiling the pork to make rafute, I kept all of the stock, which came out to about 4 cups.

With 1 cup of it I tried making ju-shi, which is an Okinawan rice dish cooked with veggies and pork.

I tried a recipe for fu-chi-ba-ju-shi (fu-chi-ba is yomogi (mugwort) in Okinawan, ju-shi is rice cooked with veggies and pork)

Anyway, I didn't have fresh yomogi, and the recipe didn't really have a specific amount to add to the rice, so I just added some julienned kale at the end.

The flavors were really light almost bland because I didn't add any pork when I cooked it, just the pork stock, a little shoyu and gobo (burdock root), I think this was good for Satoshi since he's supposed to watch his salt.

And with the rest of the stock, I threw almost everything I had in my fridge into this soup.

Some thinly sliced pork belly, ito-konnyaku (stringy devil's tongue), tofu (soy bean curd), gobo (burdock root) carrots, daikon, kim chee, a little miso (soy bean paste), a little leftover rice and the pork stock.

The ito-konnyaku made it seem like we had noodles in the soup and was perfect for the cold snap we had.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend.

re-creation

After making rafute and andasu, I did something I've been wanting to do for some time now...

Re-create Off the Wall's Shoyu Pork Pasta.

The flavors were a little lighter than theirs but still delicious.

Chop up some shoyu pork, I used some pieces of rafute.
Boil some okinawan soba, I think you could use fettuccine as a substitute.
Cut up some mustard cabbage, I used komatsuna (Japanese mustard cabbage)
some of the "gravy" from the shoyu pork
some butter
green onion some to garnish, some to cook with komatsuna

In a pan, put the komatsuna and green onion to start cooking it.
Add the pork to heat through and then add the cooked noodles
Add the gravy and coat everything with it
Then add some butter at the end
Serve immediately

I know, it's not really a recipe...

NOTES: This was really easy and really delicious, nice with beer. I froze a couple of pieces of rafute to make this again.

What have you been enjoying?

soup weather

It's definitely soup weather over here.

The other night I made a vegetable bean soup with veggies from my fridge (carrot, daikon), veggies from the pantry (onion, potato, dried beans), some pearl barley.

And then just before serving I julienned some kale from the lanai and sliced some cherry tomatoes.

Spices were an Italian seasoning blend and a consomme cube.

Super simple, and a great way to warm up on an icy night.

Is it soup weather where you are?

konbu & okaka tsukudani

Yesterday was rainy all day long.

Perfect for cooking projects.

I've always wanted to find a recipe to use the konbu (kelp) and katsuobushi (shaved bonito) after making dashi (stock)--instead of just throwing it out.

Well, I found a recipe in Masakichi's book.

Super easy and relatively fast too.

Konbu & Okaka Tsukudani adapted from "Bento no hon by Yorino Masami"

Kelp after making dashi, cut into 1 centimeter squares (.39 inches)
Katsuobushi after making dashi
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 teaspoon honey

Put everything into a pot and heat on low and cook for 20-30 minutes
When most of the liquid has evaporated, turn the heat up to high for just a moment to get rid of any liquid*
*be careful as this is when everything can be scorched (burnt) easily

NOTES: this recipe actually calls for 2 teaspoons of kakijyoyu (kah-key-joe-you: oyster soy sauce), but I didn't have this so I just used all shoyu.

For your info, kakijyoyu is a soy sauce that is infused with oyster essence.

This recipe also asks that you use kelp & katsuobushi that has been used 3 times for making dashi.

When making dashi, I usually don't use my konbu/katsuobushi this many times, so I just made this with kelp & katsuobushi that was used once to make dashi.

The konbu was a little tough but still delicious with rice. Next time I think I'll cut the konbu into thin strips.

inaba chicken curry series

So that canned butter chicken I was talking about is a new item from Inaba. They are the same people who made those curries with the tuna in them. I don't remember how I found out about it, but I have a feeling it was from social media.

Anyway, I was able to round up the 4 types : from top left: chicken green thai curry, butter chicken, bottom left: chicken red thai curry, chicken yellow thai curry.

So far we've only tried the butter chicken. Instead of it having an Indian curry flavor, I think it tasted similar to the tuna thai curries we've tried in the past with chicken instead.

I'm gonna save the other cans for days that we can't get out of the house to eat.

When we tried the butter chicken was when I made the sabzi and cabbage side dishes.

Since the veggie recipes served four, I served the other half when I made tandoori chicken.

The mango lassi was bought at the convenience store and doctored up with some yogurt.

The weather has turned a bit icy though we were able to get out to see some fall foliage, I'll talk about that soon.

Hope your week is going well.

salvage

The day I came back from Hawaii, I was unpacking and getting ready to get some sleep when Satoshi says, "Kat, I tried to make rice..."

"There was a little more than 2 cups so I dumped it all in, but when it finished cooking it was super dry"

"So, I added more water and cooked it again"

"It was super junky"

So, I went over to check out the rice cooker...yup, clumpy, goopy, rice...

I told Satoshi, "I'll try to make ohagi from it"

He said, "you can do that?"

Well, the picture above is what I tried making...mini ohagi. I rolled a little scoop of rice into a ball then molded some sweet bean paste around it.

I also dusted some with green tea, some with kinako (powdered soy bean) and some were just as is.

He was impressed, I still have more "junk rice" but at least I know it can be salvaged.

To read more about ohagi, check out what I wrote here

natsumikan marmalade

The other day, I got together with Kazumi and several of her friends to make natsumikan (chinese citron) marmalade.

Apparently, every year they get together to make this marmalade, but this year was a little different.

See, Kazumi broke her wrist last month and hasn't been able to use her right hand, well, I was there to be her "right hand".

From 19 fruits, we had two large colanders of peel and nearly two liters of juice.

After cooking it with some sugar, we came out with 15 jars of marmalade and 1 large ziploc bag (we ran out of jars!).

There was lots of chatter, lots of contemplation as to how to go about making the marmalade (apparently every year is a little different).

Good times.

karniyarik

It was my first time making karniyarik (stuffed eggplant), which is Turkish.

I loosely followed this recipe from Saveur

Canola oil, for frying 

6 Japanese eggplants (about 2 lbs.), ends trimmed 

4 tbsp. unsalted butter 

1 lb. ground lamb 

1 tbsp. tomato paste 

¹⁄₂ tsp. ground cinnamon 

6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 

1 small yellow onion, roughly chopped 

¹⁄₂ green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and finely chopped 

2 medium tomatoes, cored and finely chopped 

¹⁄₂ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley 

¹⁄₄ cup chopped mint leaves 

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

I first prepped all the veggies, spices and herbs and set everything on the side.

Then I cut the tops off of 2 eggplants and then split them in half lengthwise.

In a non-stick pan, I added 1 tablespoon of oil and "fried" them on medium heat, flesh side down.

When the eggplant had a little color, I flipped them over and added some water and "steamed" them so that they would cook through.

When the eggplant was cooked through, I removed them from the pan and set them aside on a paper towel.

Then I made the stuffing.

Since I used 180 grams of a minced pork & beef mixture, I didn't add any butter or extra oil.

When the meat was cooking, I also used two paper towels to soak up the oil that came out.

When the meat was browned, I added some chopped onions (1/4 of an onion), chopped bell pepper (2 small bell peppers) and 1 clove of garlic (grated).

When the onions were almost transparent, I added the 1 tablespoon tomato paste and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.

For the tomatoes, I only used 4 cherry tomatoes and cooked them until the liquid evaporated.

Then I added the chopped mint and parsley (I just grabbed some from my lanai, didn't really measure this).

Instead of baking them in the oven for 5 minutes, I just topped the cooked eggplant with the meat mixture and served it warm.

NOTES: I think the type of eggplant that the author used was what the Japanese call "bei-nasu" (literally American eggplant) which is round and quite large.

When I went to the market I could only find long skinny eggplant, called "naga-nasu", so that is what I used.

This was my first time eating this as well as making this, but I really liked the flavors (Satoshi gave this a "thumbs up"). I think this meat mixture would be nice on warm baguette or with pita chips too.

I'm definitely making this one again.

mango chutney

Remember the other day I talked about green mango?

Well, another food item we put them in is mango chutney.

Since I had 4 mangoes left, I cut them up and tried making mango chutney for the first time.

The hardest part was peeling the mango and slicing them.

After that, I just followed my mom's recipe.

(When I asked if I could blog about the recipe, she said, "oh, I don't know about that...")

So...I added the spices and other ingredients, then cooked everything down for about an hour.

The results were pretty good, as I got approval "from the luna (Hawaiian for supervisor)".

I ended up with 13 ounces (the Bonne Maman jar) + a little less than 1/4 cup (about half of the furikake jar).

Mom and I tried the one in the furikake jar with some steak. It was a little more jelled than the one my mom makes, but it tasted good.

I couldn't believe how easy the whole process was. I'm taking home the bigger jar and can't wait to share this with Satoshi.

Thanks Mom!

"banana" vs banana

As soon as I put this coffee cake from Starbucks (on the left) in my mouth, I knew there was no actual banana in there.

The flavor was fake, and the cake was really dry.

I think I've said before that the items at Starbucks are hit or miss, this one was definitely a miss.

click on the photo and you can see up close for yourself.

The cake on the right was made by my BFF, topped with a delicious chantilly frosting (an added bonus).

You know her cake had banana in it because you can actually see the flecks of banana and it was really moist.

I guess the moral is that homemade will almost always be better than mass-made.

UPDATE: W was kind enough to share her recipe (Thanks W!), and I'm posting it here. There's an easy frosting and the chantilly one.

Banana Cake
1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 ea large eggs
1.5 cups mashed bananas
3/4 cup canola oil

Combine all ingredients and beat until well combined. Pour into greased 9x13 inch pan, bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes or until done. Let cool.

Frosting (optional)
1 small box instant banana pudding
1.5 cup milk (or less for thicker frosting)
1-8 ounce tub of cool whip
Whisk milk and pudding until thick, whisk in cool whip. Spread over cake and refrigerate.
**************************************************************************
Chantilly Frosting
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 Can Evaporated Milk (12 oz. can)
6 Ea Large Egg Yolks
1 Cup Unsalted Butter
1.5 tsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Chopped Macadamia Nuts (optional), toasted

Place all ingredients (except the vanilla) in a non-stick pot and cook over medium heat for about 7-10 minutes (or until thickened). Stir often to avoid scorching. **See below for an alternate method of preparation.

Remove from heat then stir in vanilla and nuts (if using). Cool in the refrigerator until frosting is of spreading consistency. Can be made 1-2 days ahead.

Makes enough to top a 9x13 cake. The key is using a non-stick pot.

**Alternate method: heat sugar, milk and butter over medium heat (stirring constantly). In a separate bowl, combine yolks, vanilla and an additional 2 tablespoons of sugar (whisk until smooth). When butter is melted and sugar dissolved in the pot, temper the yolks with some of the hot mixture (whisk while adding some of the hot mixture to yolks). While stirring the remaining milk mixture, drizzle in the yolk mixture and stir until thickened (7-10 minutes – may take longer). Pour into a stainless steel bowl (add nuts if using) and refrigerate until cold. Do not let the frosting boil while cooking.

pizza

The media has been running pizza delivery ads left and right, so of course, it gave me a hankering for some pizza.

I wasn't willing to shell out the money for delivery, so I bought some ingredients and pre-made crusts and dinner was on...

Take a look at these huge brown mushrooms, they were selling these in bulk because they weren't "normal" sized...whatever, I was happy that they were selling so many for so cheap!

We also added some black olives, salami and edam cheese.

The pre-made crusts were 22 centimeters (about 8 inches) and there were 2 in the package.

My first attempt, the pizza got a little darker than I expected, but it was delicious.

My second attempt, I had a lot of sliced mushrooms leftover, so I put it all on the pizza...yummy!

I loved the crust, almost cracker like and very crisp.

I think my hankering for pizza has subsided for now...maybe.

ginger ale

I know I was talking about soup weather but during the daytime it's been kinda summery. Still, you see people wearing boots and mufflers. Which makes me perspire just looking at them.

And I know they are looking at me weird because I am still wearing t-shirts and capri jeans...whatever...

For some reason I've been craving bubbles, but didn't want to buy soda, so I made...homemade ginger ale.

So easy, take a tablespoon of ginger syrup.

Add 200 ml (1 cup) of club soda.

Not as sweet as some of the ginger ales out there, but delish and refreshing!

june berry "jelly"

The other day I went over to my friend, Kazumi's house.

She recently renovated her kitchen and invited me over for lunch.

In her front yard, I noticed a june berry tree, which is also known as amelanchier.

I had learned about june berries when I went to buy some cake for Satoshi's birthday.

The patissier had some cuttings of this plant near the register and it had lots of berries on them. I asked him what kind of berry it was and he explained that it was a june berry.

So, when I went over to Kazumi's and saw the berries I asked her if they were june berries.

She said the were and went to pick some. They were a little tart, look like a blueberry and had tiny seeds like raspberries.

When the berries are ripe, they turn a dark purple.

After a delicious lunch of tuna and onion cake salé, lox and bagels and some tossed salad, she let me pick about half a pound of these berries.

I washed them then cooked them in some water for 15 minutes.

Then I strained the juice out in some cheesecloth.

After straining, I ended up with 1.75 cups of juice to which I added 1.75 cups of sugar and cooked it for about half and hour (or maybe it was longer).

I ended up with three half-cup jars of "jelly".

The taste sort of reminds me of blueberry...The next morning, I checked on it, but it didn't gel so well because I didn't add any pectin and didn't have any lemons to add some lemon juice.

So instead of jelly, it is a very thick fruit sauce.

This is great on yogurt and I'm almost certain it is great on pancakes too...

Yup, they were good on pancakes, I just need to tweak my pancake recipe and cut back some sugar in that to balance everything out.

Oh and I gave Kazumi two of the three bottles, I hope she liked it...(Thank you!)