Honey Cake

19Sep09

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A Sweet and Happy New Year 5770!
Shana Tova! It is Rosh Hashanah, and I had to make the honey cake I’ve made every year since 1979. It’s from Joan Nathan’s Jewish Holiday Kitchen. I wrote about this treasured book last Pesach (Passover), including recipes for almond macaroons and Egyptian haroset. The posts also explain how [...]

Filed under: Non Japanese Food, Okashi, Sweets   |  10 Comments
Tags: honey cake, Shana Tova 5770

Senbei Japanese Crackers

13Mar09

I’ve had a package of mochiko (sweet rice flour) in my cupboard for months. I think I bought it to make crispy rice crackers, but the recipe in my book called for joshinko. So off I went then to buy the correct flour, and until beginning Ella’s Challenge the package has sat, neglected at the back of the shelf.

Filed under: Agemono, Deep-Frying, Grilling and Pan-Frying, Japanese Food, Snacks, Sweets, Yakimono   |  7 Comments
Tags: Japanese Recipes, rice crackers, senbai

Persimmon Purée Gelée

05Nov08

Persimmon, an exotic fruit for one who has always lived in cold northern places, is a taste of tropical paradise and daydreams. The first time I ate a persimmon was when I moved to Ann Arbor after college and lived in a house with a communal kitchen. My husband, who was then just one of the house-mates, found a crate of almost rotting fruit behind a produce store. I was reluctant to taste trash, but everyone else seemed to be enjoying them. That was the best fruit I’d ever tasted. Astringent persimmons (Hachiya) are edible only when they are very soft. They were perfect!

Filed under: Japanese Food, Okashi, Sweets   |  13 Comments
Tags: agar-agar, Japanese Cooking, Japanese Recipes, persimmons

Breaking the Fast

10Oct08

I just posted about kreplach, a sort of dumpling—a filling wrapped with dough—and this post includes a recipe for another kind of wrapped food: blintzes! Like the dough for kreplach, the wrapper for blintzes is also made with flour and eggs, but it’s formed in a completely different way. The wrapper is a crepe, a sort of thin eggy pancake!

Filed under: Eggs, Grilling and Pan-Frying, Non Japanese Food, Snacks, Sweets, Yakimono   |  2 Comments
Tags: blintzes, cheese

Ginger Soy Milk Panna Cotta

17Sep08

Soy milk is a new and unfamiliar ingredient for me. Of course I’m still thinking about different ways to use agar-agar so it was natural to consider a sort of panna cotta. I chose ginger juice as the dominant flavor and used maple syrup as a compliment. Coriander is a spice that adds a mellowing flavor, and the hot pepper adds a subtle bite. The kanten made a nice soft gentle pudding, so for contrast I browned some apple wedges in butter and sugar. The butter added some richness. The cinnamon adds another layer of flavor.

Filed under: Asian Influenced Food, Japanese Food, Sweets, Western Influenced food   |  4 Comments
Tags: Japanese Cooking, panna cotta, recipe test