Dessert Around The World: Japan

Dessert Around The World: Japan

Monday, 25 May 2015 / No Comments

Hi there everyone! Today's destination of our Dessert Around The World is Japan! Since, lately I've been so into Anime and Manga, so i LOVE to share about Japanese Dessert with you guys. Enjoy!

Anpan

Image taken from itadakimasuanime

Anpan is a Japanese sweet roll buns usually filled with red beans, green beans, white beans, sesame, and chestnuts. Anpan was first made in 1875 during the Meiji Period by a man called Yasubei Kimura. The Anpan recipa was influenced by the western bread.

Coffee Jelly

Coffe Jelly is a popular gelatin dessert in Japan. It is a mix of agar jelly and sweet coffee established in the Tosho Period. It's usually cut into squares and is served in many kinds of dessert beverages. It's also usually mixed with milkshakes or as a garnish for an ice cream sundae. 

Imagawayaki

Imagawayaki is a pancake sandwich-like dessert which often served cold with Azuki bean paste. It's a popular dish and often found at Japanese Festivals in and out of Japan. Today, the fillings of Imagawayaki are various such vanilla custard, fruit custard, preserves, and curry fillings. 

Image taken from ytimg

So that's all from today's destination guys! See you on our next destination! Bye!!!

How to Make Miso Soup

How to Make Miso Soup

Sunday, 10 May 2015 / No Comments

Hello everyone... How was your weekend? I hope you can got the great one. Well, today my day is filled of teaching activities, a little bit tired but I really enjoy talking to the children, and this night this Saturday night is such a ‘me time’ for me and I chose to take my favorite love story book.

Image taken from: Miso Soup Recipe - Japanese Cooking 101

By the way, yesterday I already posted about the food that made from tofu. Did you try the recipe at home? I hope you can enjoy the food. Today I will tell about one of the most popular tofu dish from Japan. That’s Miso Soup. Have you tried this soup? If you are Japanese I’m sure you are very familiar with this soup. In the Japanese restaurant that’s very common if you order a bowl of miso soup to complete your Japanese dish. Beside of the taste that really authentic, miso soup is really popular because it’s such a healthy soup. Let’s see how to make the soup…

Ingredients:

For the dashi (or substitute 2 cups water, chicken broth, or vegetable broth):
• 2 cups water
• 2-inch piece kombu (dried black kelp)
• 1/2 cup loosely packed dried bonito flakes (katsuobushi), optional
For the miso soup:
• 4 ounces (1/4 block) silken or firm tofu
• 1 to 2 scallions
• 2 tablespoons red or white miso paste

Instructions:

1. Mix the water and kombu in a pan over medium heat. When the water starts to boil remove the kombu. If you using the bonito flakes, you can add the bonito flakes and let the water come to a rapid simmer. After one minute, remove the pan from the heat. Let the bonito steep for 5 minutes. Strain the bonito from dashi. Add additional water. Alternatively, substitute 2 cups water, chicken broth, or vegetable broth.
2. Cut the tofu become very small cubes and slice the scallions very thinly.
3. Pour the dashi or broth back into the saucepan and bring to a rapid simmer over medium-high heat.
4. Dissolve the miso with ½ cup hot broth until no lumps remain.
5. Pour the miso to the broth.
6. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the tofu to the miso. Simmer just enough to warm the tofu, 1 to 2 minutes. Do not boil the miso once the tofu has been added.
7. Put the scallions at the top of the soup.
8. Pour the soup to the bowl and ready to serve.

Now, you can enjoy your healthy miso soup at home. Ja matta ashita (see you tomorrow)…

How to Make Tofu Pudding

How to Make Tofu Pudding

Friday, 8 May 2015 / No Comments

Hello my lovely friends… listening to our favorite music is such a good way to boost our mood, because it will make us relax and forget some problem that we are thinking about. How about you? What is your way to boost your mood?.

image taken from: designverb

Beside of listening to the music, eating a sweet food also make my day effectively. Because today our star is the soft tofu, today I will tell you about how to make tofu pudding, or in Chinese called as ‘dou hua’, and  in my place called as ‘kembang tahu’. If you make this dessert at home, you can have new experience to try new way to enjoy healthy tofu. The pudding is so soft and melting in your mouth. Even just writing about this can make me hungry ha-ha. Okay, just check this out…

Ingredients:

• ⅓ cup (100 ml) boiling water

• 10 g gelatin

• 175 g firm silken tofu

• 5 Tbsp. honey

• 1½ cup (350 ml) unsweetened soymilk

• ½ tsp. almond extract

Instructions:

1. Mix the boiling water and gelatin in a bowl until it was completely become mixture.

2. Mix tofu, honey, and soymilk together. You can use food processor to make sure it will completely become smooth.

3. Transfer the mixture to the large bowl. Add the gelatin mixture and almond extract and whisk. Make sure you don’t making too much bubbles.

4. Transfer the mixture into individual ramekins. Put it in the refrigerator at least one hour until set.

Your pudding is ready to serve. You also can put the sauce like fruit sauce or ginger sugar sauce depend on your taste. I hope you can enjoy the pudding well, because it is healthy and also softy delicious.

See you next time…

The History of Tofu

The History of Tofu

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Hello guys… did you enjoy everything today? I hope you have such a beautiful day. Yesterday my friend and I went to the Taiwan Restaurant to eat some delicious dessert. We ate the dessert that contains tofu pudding. Do you ever eat tofu pudding? Or the other food that made from tofu? How it was?

Image taken from: bbcgoodfood

I think tofu is really popular in the world because tofu is delicious and healthy. In my country for example tofu is called as ‘tahu’ and tahu is the one of the most popular food in Indonesia. But do you who is the founder of tofu? Do you want to know how this food can spread out the world?. Let’s see how the history of our creamy tofu.

Maybe we often hear the food made by tofu is originated from Japan, but actually the founder of tofu was China over 2000 years ago. The oldest evidence of tofu production is a Chinese mural incised on a stone slab. It shows a kitchen scene that proves that soymilk and tofu were being made in China during the period A.D. 25-220. Su Ping was writing the poem “Ode to Tofu” about tofu at about A.D 1500.

Tofu was brought to Japan by Kento Priest, who went to China to study Buddhism, brought tofu back to Japan during the Nara era (710-794). Firstly tofu was eaten as a vegetarian food in vegetarian diets for priests. In Japan in the dairy of the Shinto priest Nakaomi is the first time ‘tofu’. In 1489 the word "tofu" was first written in the actual Japanese characters. Tofu gradually became popular among the nobility and the samurai class. During the Edo era (1603-1867), tofu became popular among ordinary people. The cooking book "Tofu Hyakuchin" was published in 1782 and sold very well.

Tofu history in Western world - In 1603 the Spanish dictionary "Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam" was the first European document with reference to the word "tofu". Domingo Fernandez de Navarrete described in his book "A Collection of Voyages and Travels" how tofu was made. The first English reference to tofu was in 1704, when Navarrete's book was published in English. Tofu was first produced (non-commercial) in France by Paillieux in 1880. Hirata & Co started to make tofu in San Francisco in 1895. The first Westerner who produced tofu on a commercial scale was T.A. Van Gundy in 1929 when he started the company La Sierra Industries in California.

In the western world, "Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam" was the first document that write the information about tofu, that is the Spanish Dictionary. Domingo Fernandez de Navarrete described how tofu was made in his book "A Collection of Voyages and Travles". Navarrete's book was published in English, that’s the first document about tofu that written in English. In 1880 tofu was first produced for non-commercial in France by Paillieux. Hirata & Co started to make tofu in San Francisco in 1895. The first Westerner who produced tofu on a commercial scale was T.A. Van Gundy in 1929 when he started the company La Sierra Industries in California.

It’s been a long time since tofu was found and became so popular in the world. It’s proper because from tofu we can make a lot of delicious food. Some recipes about delicious foods that made of tofu will be our post next time. Have a nice day…

How to Make Black Sesame Paste

How to Make Black Sesame Paste

Thursday, 7 May 2015 / No Comments

Hello everyone. Like what I told before, in this post I will share about how to make black sesame paste. Black sesame paste is usually used in many kind of Asians foods. Just like mocha, tang yuan, bread, and many more. You will easily find them at the groceries store, but if you are the fans of Asians food, I think you need to know how to make the authentic one by yourself.

Image taken from: homemadeinhk

It’s so simple to make black sesame paste, let’s check the recipe below.

Ingredients:

• 1 part of roasted black sesame seeds (1 Tbsp.)
• 1 part of honey (1 Tbsp.)

Instructions:

1. Grind the black sesame seeds by mortar and pestle or in food processor. It takes some time for sesame seeds to secrete oil, but be patient.

2. When the sesame seeds are finely ground and become moist from natural sesame oil, add honey and mix all together. If you want to use black sesame paste for savory dishes, you can add a little bit of sesame oil instead of honey.

That’s how to make black sesame paste. If you can make the good filling for your dessert I’m sure the dessert will be so much special. See you next time… have a good day…

How to Make Matcha Ice Cream

How to Make Matcha Ice Cream

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Image taken from: justonecookbook

Good day everyone… how was your blessing day? I hope you can eat more and more delicious food to enjoy every second in your life. Eating delicious food is the best blessing, isn’t it?

Well in the afternoon I just ate such a delicious ice cream. That’s green tea ice cream or maybe many people called this one as matcha ice cream. This ice cream is from Japan, you can find many brands in the stores. But if you can make this one at home it will be perfect.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Half & Half (or 1 cup whole milk + 1 cup heavy whipping cream)
• 3 Tbsp. (18 g) green tea powder (matcha)
• ½ cup sugar
• Pinch of salt (about 1/16 tsp.)

Equipment:

• Ice cream maker

Instructions:

1. Freeze the ice cream bowl for 24 hours.

2. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the half and half, sugar and salt.

3. Start cooking the mixture over medium heat, and add green tea powder. Stir often and cook until the mixture starts to foam and is very hot to the touch but not boiling.

4. Remove from the heat and transfer the mixture to a bowl sitting in an ice bath. When the mixture is cool, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

5. Once the mixture is thoroughly chilled, transfer to a pre-chilled ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions (20-25 minutes). Transfer the soft ice cream into an airtight container and freeze for at least 3 hours before serving.

I this most of the people will like the taste of this ice cream. So you must try this one in your home. If you don’t have any ice cream machine, please check our next post about how to make ice ream without ice cream machine. See you in the next post, have a great day…

How To Make Dorayaki

How To Make Dorayaki

Sunday, 3 May 2015 / No Comments

Good day guys, how was your day? I hope you have a great day.

Image taken from: itadakimasuanime

Well, since 2 weeks ago I have been intensively learning Japanese, so every spare time that I have is full of my best to practice Japanese. Today I practiced my listening with watching my beloved  Japanese cartoon, that’s Doraemon. I’m sure Doraemon is such a popular cartoon not only in Japan, but in the world. Doraemon has a favorite dish that called as Dorayaki, if you are Dorameon’s fans I’m sure you want to try to eat a mountain of Dorayaki like what Doraemon did.

Image taken from: tstatic

Actually you can make Dorayaki by your own because the step is so simple, let’s see how to make Dorayaki by your own.

Ingredients:
  - 4 large eggs
  - 140 g (2/3 cup) sugar
  - 2 Tbsp. honey
  - 160 g (1⅓ cup*) all-purpose flour
  - 1 tsp. baking powder
  - 2 Tbsp. Water
  - 1 tsp.oil
  - 1 can Ogura-An or 18 oz/520 g homemade sweetened red bean paste

Steps:
  1. Combine eggs, sugar, and honey. Whisk them well until the mixture become fluffy.
  2. Put the flour and baking powder in the bowl and start to mix all together. Keep in the fridge to rest for 15 minutes.
  3. Heat a frying pan over medium-low heat (close to low). The key to make the golden brown Dorayaki are, you need to dip a paper towel in oil and coat the bottom of the pan with the oil and then remove the oil completely. Pour 3 Tbsp. of the batter to create 8cm diameter pancakes. After the surface of the batter starting to bubble, flip over to cook the other side. Transfer to a plate. Cover up with a damp towel to prevent from drying. You do not need to oil the pan again. Continue making pancakes.
  4. Put the red bean paste above the Dorayaki, put more in the center of Dorayaki so the shape of dorayaki will be curved. Wrap Dorayaki with plastic wrap until become ready to serve.

Now you can make and eat Dorayaki as much as Doraemon did. For a mother maybe Dorayaki can be a perfect idea to be served when your children need a snack. I hope you can enjoy Dorayaki and invite Doraemon to enjoy this sweet pancakes together.
Have a great day..
See you next time..

How To Make Dango (Japanese Sweet Dumplings)

How To Make Dango (Japanese Sweet Dumplings)

Friday, 1 May 2015 / No Comments

Well good day everybody. I hope you have a great weekend. The weekend is such a good time to enjoy your time with your  family. Its will be perfect if you can combine family time with delicious snack. Make a chewy and bouncy Dango maybe can be an option to serve to  your family, specialy for the childern.

Image taken from: wikipedia

Dango or usually we call as Mochi  is a sweet dumplings from Japan that made from glutinous rice flour. In Japan this snack is usually serve with green tea in a lot of occation. Dango has a lot of different varieties in traditionally eaten in given seasons. This snack is so popular because it’s so simple to make it by your own. Let’s see how to make it.

Ingredients:

1.   ⅓ cup (55 g, 80 ml) glutinous rice flour

2.  2½ Tbsp. Water

3.  ½ tsp. Sugar

For Sauce:

1. 1 cup water

2.  ½ cup sugar

3. 2 Tbsp. soy sauce

4. 1½ Tbsp. potato starch or 1½ tablespoons cornstarch

5. 1½ Tbsp. Water

Steps:

    1.Combine glutinous rice flour, sugar and 2 Tbsp. water in a bowl. Mix it untill well combined.

    2.Using your hand to make it a dough. Slowly add the rest of ½ Tbsp. water. Try to make a ball, if       you still can’t make it become a ball and there are more crumbs left, isntead of pouring more water     you just need to wet your hand and try again to form into a ball.

    3. Then roll into a nice smooth balls.

    4. Cook the balls in a boiling water, about 2 minutes.

    5. When the balls start to float you should pick them up and put them in ice water to let them cool.

    6.Skewer them in bamboo sticks (3-4 dumplings each stick).

    7.To make the sauce you need to mix the water, sugar and soysauce in a pan and put it on medium      heat.

    8.In the other set aside you need to mix the water and the potatostarch.

    9. When the sauce boils, mixture the sauce with the starch quickly.

    10. Finally, pour the sauce over the dango balls and they are ready to serve.

Well that’s all the steps to make silmple Dango. I hope you can try it by your own and sweet your day with sweet Dango. Have a nice day, see you next time…