I’ve been doing this online bagel shop called “Bagelier” (Facebook page / website) since 2009, and now I supply to 6 cafes + individual customers across Perth.  I don’t know how I got here.  I didn’t put an ad or promote my home business elsewhere except writing about it here in Umeboss, but somehow I got offers from cafes and now I deliver my bagels to them regularly.

It’s been so great doing wholesale service – it’s kind of like my dream had came true.  I work at home and also take care of my son.  What else can I ask for?

But now, with appreciation for all the supports I’ve received, I’m thinking to downsize this bagel business.  There are quite few reasons for this, but one of them is that I realised baking bagels is something I wanted to do as a side, not as a main job.  Also that I had much less time to be with my son to play together and do what he wants to do since I started the wholesale service.

So from June 2013 I will stop wholesale and would like to concentrate on individual customers only.

I’ve also decided that I will only open the “bagel shop” few times a month.  This “open day” will be updated regularly on Bagelier’s Facebook page.  Since Bagelier doesn’t have a physical shop, I will set up a “pick-up place” for customers to pick up their orders on the open day.  Everything including taking orders and answering the questions will be done online (via email and through the website) as before.  The difference is that customers can now pick-up their bagels without minimum order & any delivery fee.

So this is the positive side.  And, you won’t need to buy bagels in set of 5 – you can purchase 1 of each flavour if you wish.

There will be some extra bagels sold on the “open day” so customers can purchase some extra in addition to their ordered bagels as well.

It sounds little selfish, but I hope some customers are happy with my decision.  Some orders can be arranged for delivery, and please remember that I’m flexible

Everything will remain as it is until the end of May – so if you would like to place some order and get delivered to your door, simply visit my website www.bagelier.com and start choosing your bagel selection!

And, if you have Facebook account, don’t forget to LIKE me and connect with Bagelier  @ my Facebook page

Stay tuned ♪

Thanks everyone

Here in Perth the Autumn has arrived and I’m enjoying the beautiful sky and temperature.  …. It rains a lot, and I see lots of snails (gross!), but let’s think that all this is part of nature.  :)

In my hometown, Japan, we get lots of delicious food in Autumn.  Some fruits, fish, chestnuts, sweet potatoes, etc etc are the best to be eaten in Autumn.  But here, I don’t see much Autumn fruits sold cheap at the shops.  Grapes, pears, mandarines, persimmon – to name a few – are the Autumn fruits, but grapes are not really cheap!  Maybe it’s still too early?  I hope the price will drop in few weeks when we start to feel winter is just around the corner.

I baked walnut nougat slices last night.  It’s a perfect sweet to munch on with a cup of hot tea.  I found that roasted almond would have gone much better on the nougat rather than walnuts, so I will try making it with almond next time.

Here is the recipe:

* butter and egg should be at room temperature

* I used 20cm x 20cm oven pan, but you can use a bigger sized pan

<Walnut Nougat Slices>

~ the base ~

• Unsalted Butter 150g
• Granulated Sugar 100g
• Egg 1
• Plain Flour 300g

~ the topping ~

• Unsalted Butter 30g
• Granulated Sugar 80g
• Cream (I used Whipping) 100ml
• Honey 30g
• Whole or chopped walnuts 150g

1. Roast walnuts in the oven or in the pan over stove.  Leave to cool down.
2. Base – Add sugar to butter, and mix using a whisk.  Beat egg, and gradually add to the butter mixture.  Mix well.
3. Shift in flour, and mix using a spatula. (DO NOT over-mix)  Once the dough comes together, wrap in plastic and rest it in the fridge for 3 hours +
4. Set oven at 180 ℃.  Line baking sheet in an oven pan, and spread the dough over.  Poke few times with fork.  Bake in the oven for 15~20 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and leave to cool.
5. Topping – Place all the ingredients except walnuts in a sauce pan.  Over low heat, simmer to caramelize.  To check it’s ready to take off the heat, simply drop the caramel into a cup of water – if the caramel forms small balls inside the water, then it is ready.  Take it off the heat, and mix with walnuts.
6. Spread the nougat over the base.  Level the surface.  Bake in the oven at 180℃ for 20~30 minutes.
7. Slice into pieces before it’s completely cool.

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Today there was an Indonesian Food Fair in Bateman.  I heard there’ll be many authentic Indonesian foods including savory and sweet, so I headed down there to have a try.

This WAICC Indonesian fair is annual event, and is carried out at Bateman Catholic primary school building.
When I arrived there – …WOW, lots of smoke coming out from satay section.  There were people grilling satay in front of the building, and it was very smoky!! Smelled good at the same time too – variety of meat with Indonesian peanut sauce… yum!

There were lots of Indonesian signature foods such as Nasi Lemak, Mee Goreng, Martabak.  I got this sweet sesame ball-thingy (labelled “ONDE” but I’m not sure if this is the name of the food??) and it’s good  It’s like the sesame balls you get at Yum Cha, but this one has different filling inside.

There were many great foods to buy.  I’ll definitely come back next year!

For my son’s birthday we had a family lunch at Wagamama Subiaco.  I’ve been to Fremantle shop few years ago (which had been now closed for business) so I knew this restaurant is not a proper Japanese restaurant ; their menu is definitely a fusion of Asian cuisine.  But we went there anyway!

They do “kids eat free!” –  a child eats for free when an adult purchases a main meal.  This offer is available everyday!

Hiro chose “mini yakisoba” (stir-fried noodle), and his baby cousin chose “mini cha-han” (stir-fried rice).  These say “mini” but the dish was pretty big.  They both couldn’t finish their meal.  I thought they taste bit too salty, but I guess that’s how local people like it.

I ordered “chicken katsu curry bento”.

My party ordered “pork belly ramen noodle”, “yakisoba”, “teriyaki salmon with rice”, and “teriyaki beef bento”.

“Chicken katsu curry bento” – the curry is not Japanese curry – it contains coconut cream.  I didn’t like the rice too – too mushy  They probably don’t bother using expensive Japanese rice (short grain).    And, I was surprised the difference of meal size between “teriyaki salmon” and “bento”.  ”Bento” contained just small amount of rice, but “teriyaki salmon” contained big mountain of rice on its plate.

Well. atmosphere is nice and the staff were friendly.  We had fun over all.

We ordered desserts as well.

We ordered “banana katsu”, “coconut creme brûlée”.

“Banana katsu” came with coconut ice cream on side, and  ”creme brûlée” came with chocolate brownie spring roll on side.  Creme brûlée and brownie spring roll weren’t very sweet.  They were all ok, but next time I’d probably just order ice cream if I want some dessert.  Ice cream flavours include vanilla | coconut | lychee | green tea | black sesame seed |, and I think they are much better choice.

Wagamama Subiaco 

Today is my son’s 2nd birthday ~~!!!!

Yesterday he had so much fun with his friends  I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since I held him for the first time at the hospital.  He grow up too fast :_(

Last year on his first birthday, I made him only pancake so he could eat it.  But this year, I made a huge birthday cake with lots of fruits + his favourite Japanese character “Anpanman”!!

He loved it!!  All other kids were gathering around the cake too.

He could blow the candle pretty good!  Well done, Hiro.

Happy 2nd birthday xxx

Today we had birthday lunch with family.  We went to Wagamama Subiaco ; I will write about it on next post

Thanks for reading!

It’s been beautiful days in Perth.  I only remember Perth’s summer as hot and dry, but this year is very different (last year too, maybe) – humid, rain, and sometime very cool.

Today  I visited my friend’s new house and enjoyed swimming in their yard.  It’s a sunny day with nice breaze – so perfect to just sit on the poolside and chat.

When I got home I felt like something grilled meat.  In Australia we happen to have bbq quite often, and I’m used to this type of food.  I love it.  Australia Day is approaching and I definitely think we are gonna have some bbq with family on the long weekend.

Today I made grilled pork.  The pork is marinated in miso-mixture so it’s got some Asian flavour.

This miso-marinated pork is great to have with steamed rice, and is best to make with pork belly.  The fat makes the meat juicy, soft and tasty.

But this time I had this with somen noodle.  Somen noodle is like a king of summer food in Japan.  Simply boil the noodle, cool down in cold water, then eat with soy sauce-based dipping sauce with some condiments.  Love it.

<Grilled Miso-Marinated Pork>

• Pork Belly 2 fillets (around 500g)
• Miso paste 3 tbs
• sake (cooking wine) 1 tbs
• Mirin 1 tbs
• Honey 1 tbs
• Soy Sauce 1 tsp
• Sesame Oil 1 tsp
• garlic 1 clove – minced
• ginger 1 small knob – minced

1. Mix everything except pork belly in a shallow plate or in a plastic bag.  Marinate pork belly in the mixture overnight.
2. Take out the pork, and slice in 1cm width.
3. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a skillet pan over high heat, and grill the pork.  The meat is easy to get burnt because of the miso marinade, so be careful.  Turn around the meat with tong often so it won’t go black.
4. When the meat is fully cooked, golden and crispy, take out from the pan.  Serve immediately with salad and rice/noodle.

Hiro made New Year’s mochi (kagami-mochi) using Play-Doh.  A little mandarine on top

And he ate mochi we made.  It was first time he had mochi – I was little worried that he might get choked on mochi (that’s a major reason for people being admitted to the hospital in Japan during New Year’s holiday season :p)

And we were treated with Spanish chicken dish by our friends  It was delish!

I brought some sushi and dessert.

I wasn’t in Perth this time last year so I’m not sure if it’s only this year or it’s been like this since last year, but Perth’s summer is getting humid….!!!  Since I came to Perth in 2003 Perth’s summer has been always HOT and DRY.  Now I don’t know if I’m in Japan or Bali or Australia :p  I hate hot and humid climate….  it makes me go crazy (*_*)

Australia Day has been always sunny and hot (and dry), so hopefully it’ll be like that next week…

It’s been sooo hot (+ humid) here and I don’t feel that tomorrow is next year already!!  I really miss white Christmas and snowy New Year’s Day.

I decided to make some sushi and zenzai (mochi in red bean porridge) just to make myself feel like it’s a special day.  We eat zenzai on New Year’s Day in Japan

In Japan, New Year’s Days (usually 1st ~ 3rd of January) is supposed to be doing nothing but relaxing with families, so people make lots of food before New Year’s Eve that can be kept for at least few days – idea is that no cooking in the first few days of January.  But here in Perth it goes up to 40℃ and I can’t cook food and keep them for a long time.
I just made inari-sushi, zenzai, kinako-mochi (mochi dusted with sweet soy powder), and soup for Hiro.

I couldn’t find Japanese kinako (soy powder) so I used Korean one instead.  No sugar, just plain kinako.  For dusting mochi, I added sugar to the powder to make it sweet.

I haven’t used this mochi-pounding machine for a long time! I got it from Japan – it’s actually a kid’s toy, but it works in a small amount of mochi rice.

We are gonna eat zenzai in the morning on New Year’s Day. Hopefully we can eat noodle  (toshikoshi-soba) at midnight of  New Year’s Eve!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Soft and fluffy, simple cake − rolled up with whipped cream and strawberry jam, topped with cocoa cream and chocolate.

As the sponge is baked in thin, flat square, it cooks & cools down quickly.    It only takes 1 hour to make!

You can add fresh fruits inside the roll, but today I just made it simple.

I didn’t add too much sugar to whipped cream as I added strawberry jam.  The sweetness is just right to my taste

<Simple Roll-Cake>

Sponge  30cm x 30cm

• Egg (L) 4  - at room temperature
• Granulated Sugar 60g
• Plain Flour 40g

Cream

• Whipping Cream 100ml
• Sugar 1 tbs

Others

• Strawberry Jam
• Whipped Cream with Cocoa Powder
• Chocolate to dust

1. Make sure the eggs are at room temperature.
2. Line 30cm x 30cm shallow oven tray with baking paper.   Set oven at 180 ℃
3. Separate egg yolks and whites.  Add 1/2 of sugar to the yolks, and whisk until creamy and pale colour.
4. Shift in flour, and mix until just combined.
5. Add a pinch of sugar to egg whites, and whisk until fluffy.  Add remaining sugar gradually to form a stiff peak meringue.
6. Add 1/3 meringue to the yolk mixture.  Mix well.  Repeat with remaining.
7. Spread the mixture onto lined tray.  Tap lightly to release any air bubble inside the mixture.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Leave to cool.
8. Whip cream with sugar.
9. Peel off the baking sheet, and place the sponge on a piece of clean baking paper.  Spread 1 tbs of strawberry jam & whipped cream, then roll up using the baking paper.  Chill in the refrigerator before slicing.
10. For topping; mix whipped cream with cocoa powder.  Spread on top of rolled-cake.

(Christmas) tree made of sugar donuts

This super-easy-to-make donuts needs just a plastic bag from mixing the dough till dropping into hot oil.

<Sugar Donut Balls> makes about 10

• Plain flour 100g
• Baking soda 1/4 tsp
• Egg 1
• Raw sugar 1 tbs *
• Unsalted butter 1 tbs
• Milk 1 tbs
• oil to deep-fry / sugar to dust

1. Place all dry ingredients in a plastic bag.  Close the bag with hands and shake to mix the ingredients.
2. Melt butter.  Once it’s cool enough (but not cold) add milk and egg.  Mix well.
3. Pour the butter mixture into the plastic bag.  Mix the dough well inside the bag.
4. Heat oil in a pan to 160℃.
5. Cut one end of plastic bag to make a small hole.  Squeeze out the dough into oil. Deep-fry until golden.
6. While the donuts are hot dust with sugar. **

* You can use white sugar or dark sugar – different sugar gives different flavour to the donuts
** You can use cocoa powder, cinnamon, green tea powder or kinako (soybean powder)