pupu party

Yesterday, the weather was humid, a little rainy.

We went to my favorite bakery in Minoo, A Bientot for breakfast and afterwards we did some grocery shopping.

And then since the weather was so dreary, we then proceeded to stay indoors for the rest of the day.

Dinner was a hodge podge of items...pupu-style (appetizer-style)

Pupu #1: shrimp with avocado with chinese chicken salad dressing

Clean 5 shrimp, devain and butterfly
Cook with a teaspoon of sesame oil
Cut into bite sized pieces
Clean 1 avocado, scoop out in bite sized pieces
Dress with 2 tablespoons of chinese chicken salad dressing*

*Chinese chicken salad dressing #2: adapted from "Recipes Please"
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 tsp black pepper

Pupu #2 : eringi, maitake & red bell pepper sauteed with butter, olive oil & sage

In a heated pan, add the oil, mushrooms & bell pepper
Saute and coat well
When everything is cooked through, add a nub of butter and a 1/4 teaspoon of dry sage.

Pupu #3: Sin choi with ika geso (squid legs)

Clean squid legs by rinsing and running your fingers along the leg to take off sandy grit.
Cut into 3-inch sized pieces.
Follow recipe for Sin Choi Chow Jee Yuk, subbing the pork with the squid legs.

*I didn't make a new batch of sin choi, but it was much more soaked through this time around.

Pupu #4: Fried rice

1 chawan bowl of old rice from fridge
1/2 chawan bowl of minced char siu, lup cheong and green onion (leftover from manapua making)
1 egg, beaten
grinds of pepper

Add the rice and minced meats to the pan, heat through, breaking up the rice with a wooden spoon
Add the beaten egg and toss to coat everything.
Cook everything through.

NOTES: A little of this, a little of that...a good way to eat a variety of foods and it didn't take that long to prepare.

hitachino nest beers

I've been seeing posts on Hitachino Nest beers for some time now.

And found out from Rowena that it was International Stout Day on the 3rd (woo!).

Hitachino Nest beers are a craft beer made in Ibaraki prefecture by Kiuchi Brewery.

While we have a lot of International beers, I don't see many Japan craft beers in Osaka.

Craft beers are called "ji-biru" (gee-bee-roo), literally meaning local brews, so most only circulate in their areas.

I had hoped to find some of these nest beers in Osaka (because I didn't want to pay the postage), but came up empty, so I finally ordered four different beers from them.

Espresso Stout, 7.5% alcohol, very smoky and had a punch to it, my favorite.

White Ale, 5.5% alcohol, we had this with pupu-style (appetizer style) leftovers. This beer was citrusy.

Sweet Stout, 4.5% alcohol, not as much punch as the espresso stout, but smoky, a little chocolatey...delicious.

Japanese classic ale, this one is made like they made beer in the Edo Period and is aged in cedar barrels. 7.5% alcohol, fruity with a slight bitter aftertaste.

We had this one with our mille feuille...yum!

Actually, when the delivery dude brought them he had his truck temperature a little too low and they were pretty much "slushy". He was afraid that the temperature change would affect the taste.

The bottles didn't crack, so I didn't feel there would be any problem with them and didn't file a claim or return them.

A little tidbit...Did you know that in Japan the owl is usually a symbol meaning "no stress"? A play on words "fukuro" (foo-coo-row) in Japanese means no-stress and also owl. So you often see owls, as amulets/good luck charms, to ward off "stress", "hard times".

Overall, these beers were delicious, I'd definitely buy from them again.

The summery weather continues here, though they are forecasting the temps to FINALLY be going down next week...we'll see.

manapua

It's been awhile since I've baked bread, but the weather has been quite summery during the daytime, and I had some time on my hands yesterday, so I finally got around to trying my hand at manapua or char siu bao.

Manapua is a food I had growing up and I really like the baked version.

I used the same bread recipe that I use for anpan.

For the filling, I used some char siu, lup cheong (which I took out of the freezer) and green onion.

While you are waiting for the dough to proof, render the fat out of both the lup cheong and char siu separately, drain on a paper towel.

Chop the lup cheong and char siu separately into a dice and let cool.

Mix each with thinly sliced green onion and put into your dough before the 2nd proofing (at step 10 on the anpan recipe).

I baked these for about 18 minutes.

NOTES: The yeast was past the expiry date and I think I should have kneaded it longer. The dough was a little too wet to handle even if I added flour when I worked with it.

Next time, I would add a little more filling too.

Flavor-wise it was good and still had a nice crumb. I would make this again (with newer yeast this time).

millefeuille

You won't find many nabe (hot pot) dishes on this blog for three reasons...on weekdays, most times Satoshi and I eat at different times. On weekends, we mostly eat out. And I don't have a proper donabe (doe-nah-bay = deep ceramic pot).

After seeing a similar dish on television, I was itching to try this, but not wanting to go out and buy a donabe, so I made do with what I had...a 10-inch non-stick pan with a cover.

Millefeuille means a thousand leaves in French and is usually found as a dessert with layers of puff pastry and custard cream.

This recipe is a savory version.

Kat's Pork Kim chee MilleFeuille Style "Nabe"

300 grams pork belly, thinly sliced
100 grams kim chee
1/4 hakusai (chinese cabbage)
1 pack maitake (hen of woods mushroom), broken up into pieces
1 pack eringi (oyster mushroom), sliced thinly
1 chicken consomme cube
1.5 cups water

Cut the core of the cabbage and wash each leaf, leaving it as much intact as possible
If the base of the rib of the leaf looks thick, use a peeler and shave off some of it
Also, if the leaf is too wide, cut it to a 3-inch width

Layer cabbage and pork, then slice to about 3-inch squares.
Arrange the layers into your pan or deep pot
Add maitake, eringi and kim chee into the gaps.

On low heat, add part of the water and cover.
Cook for 10 minutes then add the consomme cube.
Add more of the water then cover and cook for another 10 minutes.

Check to see that the rib of the cabbage is at least a little cooked through, it doesn't have to be limp.

And as long as the soup comes up to near the top of your layers, the pork should be cooked through after the 20 minutes.

NOTES: this was so good! If I had a deeper pot or larger frying pan, this would have been easier to cook.

I know this blog has a lot of pork and kim chee combination recipes but the two go so well together.

The last picture is of what was leftover in a 4-cup Ziploc container, by the way, Satoshi had 4 servings and 2 bowls of rice.

I'm making this again.

It's Friday here, hope you have a good weekend!

danshari

Today is Bunka no hi (Culture Day), a national holiday here. Thought I should share something "cultural".

The word that is trending in Japan these days is "danshari". It is made up of 3 different chinese characters.

"Dan" also read as "kotowaru" means "refusal", "decline", "refuse to".

"sha" also read as "suteru" means to "throw away".

"ri" also read as "hanareru" means to "separate from".

In other words, danshari means to get rid of things that you keep for those "may need just in case" times or clothes that "you'll wear later when...".

One of the people who have talked about this in Japan says that "things should have a "tokimeki" feeling"...."tokimeki" means that it gives you a kind of "exciting" (happy) feeling.

"If you still have tags on an item you bought, chances are they don't give that "tokimeki" feeling. Because if you really were excited about it, you would take the tags off and be raring to wear it or use it."

And while keeping items packed away in boxes does preserve them, if they mean something to you, you try to use them daily, instead of saving them for a "special occasion"."

Throughout the 10 years we've been in Japan, I've been going through my clothes, as well as other things and getting rid of some of them.

Satoshi on the other hand, has never done this. Well, I'm happy to say that I've FINALLY gotten him to go through his things and get rid of stuff.

Even in Hawaii, we had many gifts we received for our wedding. I had left them behind when we moved to Japan because we didn't know how big a space we would be living in.

On top of that, "we were waiting to use them "when" we bought a house", well, 10 years later, we still don't have a house of our own and it doesn't look like we will, so instead of keeping these items tucked away, I recently gave away a lot of dishes and tableware items to various non-profit organizations...someone should be using them.

It takes some practice to "let go" of things, but once you start, it gets easier.

Oh and the main thing they said to do, is "be sure to "thank" the items you are giving up, as they've worked hard being a part of your life".

I know Satoshi has more things to go through, it will just take a little more time for him to de-clutter.

made in japan

Do you have a touch panel screen cell phone?

If you live in a country where you need to protect your hands from the cold, then you may want to get a pair of these...MUJI's touch panel gloves.

It is such a pain (and cold) to take off your gloves when you need to use your phone, then put them back on after you're done.

These special "finger-tips" (thumb and pointer on both gloves) help you maneuver the screen.

I got black because all the other finger tip colors kinda stood out.

Best thing, they are made in Japan.

It'll be awhile until I can use these though...the weather went back towards summer...we're talking mid-20sC (mid-70sF) during the daytime...it is November isn't it?!

cake pops

Cake pops...they are all over the web.

I've tried them here, and here.

My blog friend, Genki also documented her adventures making them, here.

It was a rainy day on Sunday, so since I was stuck indoors, I decided to try my hand at making them.

I took the easy way out and bought 2 slices of cake instead of making a whole cake. The type of cake I used is called castella, a moist eggy cake that originated in Portugal and is a famous food item in Nagasaki.

Instead of a can of frosting, I used some cream cheese and powdered sugar.

Kat's castella cake pops : makes about 7

2 thick slices castella
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
54 grams cream cheese
1/2 tablespoon milk

Chocolate to coat:
1/2 a bar Lindt Bittersweet chocolate (49%)
2 handfuls 60% Ghiradelli chocolate chips

Mix the first 4 ingredients together and "eyeball" out 7 balls.
Chill.

Heat chocolate over double boiler.
Dip ball into chocolate, then drizzle chocolate in circular motion around the ball.
Decorate with your favorite sprinkles.

NOTES: There was supposed to be 7 but when I tried dipping the first ball into the chocolate on a chopstick (like a true cake pop) it totally disintergrated and HAD to be fished out and eaten right away.

So, I changed my method and dipped the balls into the chocolate, placed them onto parchment paper then drizzled the chocolate over the top.

They weren't overly sweet and Satoshi liked them too.

Would I make these again? probably not, too much of a p.i.t.a. I am glad I tried making them though.