yuzu & daikon

Apparently this year root and leafy veggies are plentiful and super cheap.

I was able to get a nice sized daikon and yuzu for 98 yen each!

(BUT, I was saddened to see on the news that the farmers here are having to throw out tons of produce! apparently due to the lack of food operators not operating at full speed..um can't the produce be frozen or given away to countries that don't have enough food?!)

Anyway, with part of the daikon I made some yuzu daikon pickles.

Found on the internet: 2 servings

500 grams daikon, peeled and sliced into sticks

1 yuzu, juiced and thinly slice the peel

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons sugar 

2 tablespoons vinegar

some dried chili pepper

In a bowl put the daikon and salt and massage, leave for 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes, squeeze out the water from the daikon.

In a ziploc bag, put the daikon, yuzu peel, sugar, vinegar and chili.

Massage gently then store in refrige.

Enjoy after a couple of hours.

NOTES: The whole recipe was for 2 servings, and since I didn’t know how it would taste I only made half the recipe.

It was so easy and tasty, I’d definitely make this again.

I froze the rest of the yuzu peel to bake with and or to add to osuimono (clear soup).

Saturday night, with about 1/3 of the daikon, I peeled and grated it to put into mizore nabe.

Grated daikon is called oroshi but it is also called mizore because it looks like sleet.

After the ingredients of the nabe (hot pot) were cooked I added the grated daikon and waited for for the liquid to come up to a boil before serving.

With the leftover yuzu juice, I made some ponzu (1 tablespoon of yuzu juice & 1 teaspoon shoyu per person) for us to use while eating our nabe.

I still have the top part of the daikon which I plan to use in the coming days.

yuzu marmalade spareribs

I've been working through a book about using the fish grill drawer.

One recipe that caught my eye was a marmalade sparerib.

The spareribs they use were not too meaty.

Here is the recipe if you'd like to try...

500 to 600 grams spareribs
3 tablespoons marmalade
1/4 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
1/4 cup sake (rice wine)

Marinade the ribs for 30 minutes to half a day.
Preheat the fish grill on high for 2 minutes
Place the ribs on the grill and cook for 5 minutes.
Flip the ribs over and cook for another 5 minutes.

NOTES: Since my ribs were meaty and thick I marinated them overnight.

Instead of cooking it in the grill for 5 minutes on each side, I put the the ribs into a pan (with the marinade) and cooked it on low for 10 minutes on each side.

Then I put the ribs into the fish grill for 3 minutes on each side to get a nice char on it.

I shouldn't have put the marinade in the pan with the ribs as it made the ribs more salty and the yuzu that was in the marmalade was also too salty to eat.

Now I know and will try this again.

I like cooking in the fish grill because it gets rid of some of the fat from meats.

I look forward to cooking more things this way.

on a walk

Today we had sun! After a couple of grey and rainy days, it was nice to get out for a walk...except that the wind was super strong and icy!

After we tried the sausage with yuzu in it, I researched and found out it was made by Minoo Sausage.

I had seen it at a local supermarket, but when I went back to buy some, they had already sold out.

Fast forward to today, on my walk, I found it at a touristy shop along the trail to the Minoo Falls...800 yen (tax included).

I froze it and we'll eat it as pupu (appetizers) this winter.

Along the trail, I also found some yuzu...Todoromi yuzu is grown in the Minoo mountains.

1 kilo was 320 yen (tax included).

I was so happy to find some.

When I got home, I started prepping to make some yuzu marmalade.

And wouldn't you know, I ran out of sugar, so I ran out to the store and picked up some.

This year's marmalade is darker because I used brown sugar.

I still have a bottle that I made last year, and can't wait to try this year's batch.

Have a nice weekend!

yuzu marmalade

The day I passed by the fruit stand, they had huge yuzu from Minoo and were selling them for 280 yen for 2.

I had debated whether I would have time to make marmalade and decided to wait...

The next day, the sun was out, so I went to check out the fall foliage, then figured to check out the fruit stand to see if she still had the yuzu...bummer, she sold out.

So, I went to a stand that brings in veggies and fruits from Kochi prefecture and bought 4 yuzu for 400 yen.

If I can get my hands on some Minoo yuzu, I'll definitely make another batch.

otenba musume

One thing that Toyama is known for is kaki (persimmon).

The hillsides are filled with rows and rows of kaki trees.

While waiting for one of our trains, I picked this up at one of the markets for us to try....Otenba Musume. In Japanese "otenba" means "tomboy", "musume" is "daughter".

Not sure as to why it is named this.

Dried kaki and yuzu...nothing really mind blowing, but I was happy to try this.

A great snack and nice with wine.

cool!

I saw this yuzu tree in Kyoto over the weekend.

It had huge yuzu (citron) on it.

And also these cute "flower" looking yuzu on it.

I could be wrong, but I think these "flower" ones eventually turn into the big yuzu...cool yeah?!

yuzu marmalade

The other day I made yuzu marmalade.

This year I found some yuzu from Todoromi, an area in Minoo that is known for their yuzu, which I've written about here.

I only had 2 yuzu but it seems like I came out with a little more marmalade than when I made it last year.

What have you been cooking up in your kitchen?

yuzu white

On the website of Minoh Beer, they had a seasonal beer made with local yuzu (citron).

A couple of months ago, I had asked a local liquor shop, if they were selling this beer and at that time, the owner said, "nope the season is over"...boo!

To my surprise though, I found it at Yamaya...woot!

At first, I was kinda leery about trying this beer because the list of ingredients is malt, hops, yuzu peel and coriander.

But when I tasted it, I liked it. Refreshing and because they use real yuzu the flavor isn't fake.

I only wish that this beer wasn't seasonal because it would be nice during the summer, matching with a salad or something light, like a fish dish.

Still, I'm glad I got to try it.

foodie couple of days

Tuesday was Ii fufu no hi, Satoshi brought home some sweets from Jouvencelle.

A matcha daifuku (matcha cake with matcha cream, whipped cream wrapped with a thin mochi) and a persimmon cake (fluffy cake with cinnamony cream, whipped cream then covered with kaki (persimmon)

Both were delicious, thank you Satoshi!

Wednesday was a national holiday, Kinro Kansha no hi (Labor Thanksgiving Day)

The weather was forecasted for rain, but the autumn leaves were apparently at its peak...what to do?!

Since we woke to a rather sunny morning, we got out and about early and walked to Saikoji.

It was a mixed bag, some trees were bright red, others were still green.

Kinda weird this year probably because the weather has been weird.

Some of the trees around the Kanon at Benzaiten, had turned red, but for the most part everything was still green.

We walked to the falls but were very disappointed because all the trees around the falls were still green if not brown...boo!

To "cheer" ourselves up, we decided to have some coffee and something sweet and popped in at Hashimoto-tei.

I tried their buttercream cake. I didn't see the small print in the showcase which said "rum raisin"...the cake was filled with rum soaked raisins...which totally over-powered the whole cake, you couldn't even taste the buttercream...blah.

Satoshi still hungry after his cheesecake and coffee, decided to try the yuzu croquette.

It was good, there were bits of yuzu peel here and there, but the majority of the croquette was potato...130 yen.

For dinner, I made some kinpira gobo and spinach goma-ae.

I also used some leftover boneless fried chicken sticks to make some "sushi".

Just nori, freshly cooked rice, lettuce and chicken...no other seasonings.

We dipped these into a tonkatsu-mayo sauce.

Again, Satoshi, who doesn't care for chicken, gave it a thumbs-up!

Thursday the weather turned wintry...the wind was icy.

Thank goodness the sun came out for the most part of the day.

Dinner was a repeat of savory mille feuille...this time I added eringi, gobo and eggplant to the pork and chinese cabbage. As well as kim chee.

What have you been enjoying?

new recipes

There is a dish that Satoshi and I like at Capricciosa, their tuna and ika (squid) salad.

The ika (squid) is boiled and the tuna straight from the can, placed on top of some purple cabbage and lettuce.

I found the recipe for their dressing online at Cookpad.com, it's really close to the real deal.

Capricciosa-style dressing from Cookpad.com
250 cc red wine vinegar
10 grams garlic
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
250 cc olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

NOTES: I cut this recipe to 1/4 because the weather is getting colder and we'll probably be having less cold salads.

I threw everything into the food processor and whizzed it.

For the salad, I was too lazy to go out and buy some ika (squid), so I just divided a can of tuna and topped the salad with some red bell pepper.

Our tuna is only 80 grams, maybe half a can (or less) in the States?!

I used the type that is packed in water. For the dressing I spooned a tablespoon over each salad...it was delicious!

I'll probably use the rest in pasta salad or something...

For our main dish, I tried another new recipe from "Orange Page's Yasai ga ippai toreru mainichi no okazu".

You know I've had this mook (book/magazine) from 1996 and have slowly been working my way through the recipes.

This recipe was so easy, my kind of cooking.

For 2 people
1 carrot, cut to 3-inch in size then julienned
10 slices thinly sliced pork round
1/2 tablespoon oil
juice of 1/2 lemon

Wrap the julienned carrots with a slice of pork
Repeat until all slices and carrot are used up
Heat a pan with oil and cook pork
Finish the dish with the juice of lemon

NOTES: cooking doesn't get easier than this. The original recipe says to nuke the carrots, but since I try not to use the microwave as much as possible, I just cooked the carrots when I cooked the pork. There was still a little crunch to them, which was nice.

We got these yuzu from one of Satoshi's German language classmates, these were smaller than the ones I bought earlier, maybe half the size, but you can't beat homegrown! (Danke!)

I used 1 yuzu for this recipe.

Well, it is Friday, boy, did the week fly by. Hope you have a great weekend!

yuzu marmalade

I was hoping to buy a couple of jars of yuzu marmalade, but I think I'm a little too early in the season because I couldn't find any around the Minoo station area.

I did come upon a vendor selling 3 yuzu (citron) for 150 yen (there was another vendor selling 1 yuzu for 100 yen!), so I bought some and decided to try making some myself.

The skins on most of these yuzu were speckled, so I only used the true yellow parts.

I squeezed the juice from the yuzu then from the peel, scraped away some of the pith.

Then I sliced the peel.

After slicing, I weighed the peel then measured the same amount of sugar.

In a pot, I added the peel, sugar, 2 cups water and the juice of the yuzu and brought everything to a boil.

While it was boiling, I scraped away the scum.

When the mixture started to evaporate to about half, the scum weaned and it was ready.

I think in the end I ended up with about 1 cup of marmalade.

A little bitter from the peels, but this is gonna be nice as yuzu tea or as a topping for yogurt.

sesame yuzu mochi muffins

The other day, I needed something for my afternoon snack, so I made these "muffins".

The recipe actually calls for mochiko (sweet rice flour), so it actually turned out to a texture similar to this recipe.

Sesame yuzu mochi muffins : makes 6 :adapted from "She Knows Muffin"
147 grams mochiko (sweet rice flour)
3 grams all purpose flour
6 grams baking powder
20 grams ground black sesame seeds
1 egg
40 grams sugar
40 grams yuzu marmalade
50 grams olive oil
70 mililiters milk

In a bowl, sift the flour and baking powder. Add the sesame seeds and set aside.
In another bowl, beat the egg, sugar and marmalade together until almost fluffy.
Put the oil and milk into the egg mixture and stir.
Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture.
Mix well.
Divide evenly into 6 muffin holders.
Heat your oven to 180C (350F). Bake for 25 minutes.
Check the 2 middle muffins for doneness with a toothpick.
Enjoy!

NOTES: The original recipe called for 150 grams of mochiko, but I didn't have the full amount, so I subbed regular flour. It also called for 60 grams of ground sesame seeds, but I thought that was too much, so I cut it back to 20 grams.

Also, the original recipe calls for 40 grams of honey, but I subbed yuzu marmalade instead. I guess I could've chopped up the yuzu, but didn't.

The batter was quite "dry" and baked with cracks, but this was good, not too sweet, the sesame flavor not too overpowering and it was quite moist. It went nicely with green tea on one day and vietnamese coffee on another.

MIL UPDATE: Yesterday, MIL excitedly called to tell me that she was finally able to take a "bath". For the past six months, she was having sponge baths, but the other day when the nurse came to check on her at home, she helped MIL get "into" the furo (bath). Apparently the areas where she had the skin grafts are still tender, so she can't actually sit and soak in the furo, but she said it just felt nice to stand in the furo instead of just getting wiped down. Guess it will take a little while for her to get back to her normal routines.

todoromi marmalade

Satoshi has been working very late hours. He also leaves for work earlier than usual too.

It is taking its toll not only on him, but on me too.

Most days I feel like I am jet lagged or have a hangover. One day, I ended up sleeping practically the whole day.

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, I was still feeling sluggish, but decided to get out and about because the next couple of days are supposed to be rainy.

I headed to Minoo station and went to check out several shops that I heard were selling the Todoromi yuzu (citron) marmalade made with yuzu grown in a part of Minoo called Todoromi.

I was happy because they had some. One bottle was 450 yen (about US$4.50). I decided to buy one to try and one to give away.

Over the years, I've learned that during winter, most people in Japan drink yuzu-cha (citron tea). There is no "tea" involved, they just melt some marmalade into hot water.

After drinking the "tea", they eat the yuzu bits.

It is a nice way to fight off colds and warm up too.

I hope this is good, though I'm pretty sure it will be. UPDATE: it was delicious!

odds & ends

In Japan, they have different types of strawberries. This one is called Amaou.

Not sure if this is what is called an acrostic, but the name comes from A: Akai (red)
Ma: Marui (round)
O: Ookii (big)
U: Umai (delicious)

These guys were definitely big, round and delicious! Perfect for dipping in dark chocolate. (Mom says that this is an acronym not an acrostic...thanks Mom!)

So, without butter, I used only olive oil for these banana nib muffins. As I baked the muffins, I realized I didn't put in any eggs or vanilla extract either! They came out a bit dense, but they were really moist, probably because of the bananas.

Some "old-fashioned" bacon that I found. Only 6 slices in a package...won't tell you the price. Of all the brands I've found, this one cooks up the crispiest! With a brand name like, Butz, I wonder if there is some kind of hidden message? (Maybe?)

A new brand of candied yuzu (citron). Saw a segment on television where they were making these. It takes about 6 months to make a batch. They soak the citron peels in sugar water for several days then, air dry them r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w-l-y, then add more sugar.

These peels are so delicious! Makes your mouth pucker because they are so sour. They are brownish, because they don't add any coloring.

Well, they have finally started building. It looks like it will be 3 (or probably 4) new houses on the lot next door. All I know is that the scaffolding is as high as our building (3 stories)! If you notice the 2 cement slabs, each is for a house.

The newest macaron flavor at Starbucks is lemon. A bright yellow outside with a tart lemony gel filling. Delicious!

I had lunch with my host-mom the other day. I like having lunch with her, it gives us time to bond and she always tells me about the newest food trends. I wanted to share what she told me...egoma oil. Egoma is in the same family as shiso (perilla/beefsteak plant) and the leaves are found in Korean cuisine, maybe the oil too? She said that if you have high cholesterol, this oil will help bring it down and is better than olive oil. The only thing with this oil is that it is expensive and has a very short shelf life.

Hope you have a nice weekend, next week is Golden Week here.

odds & ends

So many things that I've eaten and haven't posted about!

Kobe's Isuzu Bakery has been in business since 1946, their chocolate france, a tiny french bread filled with milk chocolate and peanuts is great for snack or breakfast.




A rich caramel mousse covered with gooey rich chocolate from Palet d'Or.

Yuzumame, peanuts covered with a light rice cracker, then dusted with yuzu(citron) powder.

Yuzu yokan, a bar of jellied sweet beans and citron. I received this from a fellow blogger, Martin. I answered a quiz that he had on his blog and he sent me this delicious yokan. (Thank you Martin!)

Venchi's Unico, a hazelnut paste and caramel bits covered with a 56% milk chocolate--delicious.

Venchi's Cubigusto, a layer of milk, dark and extra bitter chocolate mixed with almond paste--perfect with coffee in the afternoon.

Shogoin's namayatsuhashi, a thin mochi (rice cake) that is flavored with nikkei (cinnamon).


And lastly, Zorra & Sandra are hosting a huge event.

Send them your favorite recipe of 2007! The whole thing will be round-up here. Check back on December 31st, they should have everything listed. To find out more info about the event, check out Zorra or Sandra's blogs.

Thanks Zorra & Sandra!

yuzucha

A couple of years ago, I was first introduced to yuzucha (citron tea), when my host-sister gave me a bottle of Korean yuzucha. I didn't know much about it then, but after trying it as a drink and as a topping on yogurt and also on toast, I was hooked!

This yuzucha is made by a company in Kochi prefecture on the island of Shikoku--the same company that makes a yuzu drink that I like called Gokkun.

I think yuzu and other citrus fruits, such as mikan (tangerine) have the power to keep you warm, that is why it is added to onsen or furo(hot spring or bath water)--plus, it smells nice and refreshing.

Yuzucha has no actual tea in it, in fact, it looks like runny marmalade.

Just put a tablespoon or two (depending on how sweet you want your drink) into your teacup and add hot water.

It is a nice way to warm up and I also love eating the strips of yuzu at the end.