smoked saba toasts

Was watching a Nigel Slater show and he talked about smoked mackerel toasts.

Smoked mackerel, cream, cheese and chives...mixed together and then baked onto bread slices.

I adapted this and served them on toast and then on crackers.

1 can smoked mackerel
1/4 red onion, diced
mayo
pepper
cheese

When putting this on toast, I put the cheese on just before toasting.

When we ate this on crackers, I didn't put the cheese.

NOTES: I think mixing the smoked mackerel with cream cheese and onions then nixing the mayo would be delicious too.

Kind of similar to smoked salmon dips.

The can of smoked mackerel is a brand from Shizuoka, I love the packaging.

The fish is caught in the area and packed in olive oil.

Will make this again soon!

ya kun kaya toast & blood oranges

I recently received a bottle of Ya Kun Kaya Toast spread from T. It was our first time trying kaya toast.

It has a slight nutty flavor and isn't overly sweet.

Apparently you should eat it with some butter between two slices of bread...we'll try it this way soon.

Another thing we tried were blood oranges that were grown in Ehime...bummer that these weren't reddish, but they were firmer than the oranges we are used to and they were super sweet!

Thanks T for the kaya toast spread!

e.a.t.

Recently the fruit/vegetable stand I go to had beautiful avocados from Mexico. Usually at the big supermarkets we pay 100 yen or so for a teeny orb, but this time the fruit/veggie stand was selling 2 for 250 yen and they were at least 2 times bigger!

I got this idea from Rachel's blog, La Fuji Mama.

Take a piece of bread and toast it.

Mash up an avocado with some lemon juice.

Top it with an egg cooked to your liking.

Breakfast, lunch or dinner is served.

NOTES: so simple but so delicious! I mashed my avocado with some lemon juice and a little balsamic vinaigrette. I also added a little ground black pepper. I topped my toast with an over-easy egg. And the bread I used was a walnut raisin. I have to admit I added a little too much lemon juice, so it was puckery, but for breakfast, it really woke me up!

What have you been eating?

city bakery

I recently had lunch at City Bakery.

This particular day their daily sandwich was an open faced sandwich topped with hummus and grilled veggies (tomato, eggplant, asparagus, red and yellow peppers).

They also drizzled some balsamic vinegar and sprinkled lots of cheese. I think the cheese was either pecorino or parmesan.

I enjoyed the crisp edges of the toast.

I hope to recreate this one!

ogura toast

In Nagoya, you'll find ogura toast on their coffee shop menus.

Toasted bread topped with butter or margarine is then slathered with ogura-an.

Ogura-an is koshi-an (smooth sweet bean paste) that is simmered with some honey then whole adzuki beans are added at the end to keep the shape of the beans.

For this recipe I used tsubuan (chunky sweet bean paste) because it is more readily available.

Ogura Toast : for 1

your favorite slice of bread, toasted
some butter
a dollop of tsubuan

NOTES: The taste reminded me of how my mom likes to heat up her tsubuan mochi in a pan with some butter.

I enjoyed the sweet-salty combination, it went nicely with some black coffee.

mini honey toast

Have you ever had honey toast? I have been seeing it here --Kathy and Reid both had it at the same restaurant in Hawaii, but I've also seen it around Japan too. I googled and found out that a karaoke place that has rooms around Tokyo has this on their menu. You can check out what they have on their menu here. (Some are huge-mongous!)

From what I've seen, for the "plain" version, they use one loaf of bread (yep, a whole loaf), honey and vanilla ice cream. In Japan, a loaf of bread is quite small by U.S. standards, it only yields 4-6 slices depending on how thick or thin you slice it. I was quite surprised by this when I first moved here because in Hawaii we buy loaves of bread with about 20 or more slices in a bag. I was also surprised to hear that in Tokyo they only have 4 slices per package but in Osaka we can buy packages with 4, 5 or 6 slices.

So getting back to the honey toast...having never tried this before, I wanted to try one. Unfortunately, I don't like to karaoke, and probably wouldn't be able to (and shouldn't) eat a whole one by myself, so I figured I should try to make a mini version. I couldn't find a small plain loaf but instead found a mini raisin loaf. This loaf was 6 inches long by 3 inches tall. I split it in half then cut out the innards of the loaf, leaving a little bread to serve as the bottom of the "bowl". (The other half of the bread will be tomorrow's toast for breakfast.)

I then toasted the bread and the innards for about 4 minutes.

Then I melted a pat of butter with 1 tablespoon of honey. When the toast was ready, I put back the innards into the bread "bowl" then drizzled some honey mixture. Then I took 60ml (1/2 of the container) of Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream, put that on top of the toast and drizzled the rest of the honey mixture on top. I also made myself a cappuccino.

NOTES: Since I used raisin bread this reminded me of bread pudding or french toast. Is it supposed to taste like that...Kathy? Reid? anyone who has tried this? The toasted bread was crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, drizzled with honey and the melting vanilla ice cream it satisfied my sweet tooth. I had thought it would be a sickening kind of sweet but it was actually just right.

I can't wait to make this again when Satoshi can try it.

french toast & madeleines

Today's breakfast, french toast. I usually use french bread or something similar called "kuppe pan". The one thing I found out about "kuppe pan" is that it is a made-up Japanese word. They took the word "coupe" in French which means "to cut" and the word "koppe" in German which means "arched or shaped like a mountain" and put the two together to stand for a spindle shaped bread half the size of a baguette or batard. Some areas call it "koppe pan" and some areas call it "kuppe pan". I soak the bread in 1 cup milk and 1 scramble egg with a dash or two of cinnamon. I cook it on a non-stick pan and serve with "homemade" syrup. Instead of buying syrup, I usually melt 1 teaspoon of honey and 1 teaspoon of butter together. Really easy breakfast to make in the morning. Sometimes I also slice apples to put on top.

This weekend, I went bead shopping and pan shopping. In an area called Hommachi, there are several shopping arcades with lots of tiny shops. I got some beads and these madeleine pans. The pans here are different than the ones in the U.S. The big size makes six and the small size makes fifteen. I hope the small madeleine pan will work in my oven...my oven is REALLY small. When I bought the pans, I also came across black cocoa powder (cocoa powder made from dark chocolate)...I also had green tea powder and cocoa powder (from my truffle attempt), so I'm planning to made three different kinds of madeleines.

Well, this is what happened...the tiny madeleine pan doesn't fit nicely in my oven, so it kind of baked unevenly. The bigger madeleine pan fits nicely onto the turntable of my oven so it rotates and bakes well. The only thing that bothered me about baking these is that the shell like pattern didn't turn out on the finished product. I'm wondering if it is because I didn't flour the pans after greasing them with butter...anyway, it's the taste that counts, right? That was no problem. This recipe tastes great, a light and fluffy, spongy cake. I found it on the Joy of Baking site. I sprinkled the powdered green tea, cocoa powder and dark cocoa powder on just before tasting. :)

If anyone can give me pointers as to making madeleines, I really would appreciate it!

Madeleine
Ingredients:
8 tablespoons (113 grams) unsalted butter
1 cup (140 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup (133 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a small heavy saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat just until very light golden brown and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool until tepid. Strain through a cheesecloth-lined strainer to remove the milk solids. Keep warm while you make the batter.
In a small bowl place the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until well blended.
In bowl of electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar at medium-high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted (about 5 minutes). Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine.
Using a large rubber spatula, sift a small amount of flour over the egg mixture and fold the flour mixture into the beaten eggs to lighten it.
Sift the rest of the flour over the egg mixture and fold in being sure not to overmix or the batter will deflate.
Whisk a small amount of the egg mixture into the clarified butter to lighten it.
Then fold in the cooled melted butter in three additions.
Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes, until slightly firm.
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Generously butter two 12-mold madeleine pans.
Dust the molds with flour and tap out the excess. (Could spray pans with Bakers Joy instead.) (Make sure the pans are well greased or the madeleines will stick and be hard to remove.)
Drop a generous tablespoonful of the batter into the center of each prepared mold, leaving the batter mounded in the center. (This will result in the classic "humped" appearance of the madeleines.)
Bake the madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the centers spring back when lightly touched.
Do not overbake these cookies or they will be dry.
Enjoy!