Strawberry Roll Cake

Strawberries are on their season and very cheap at supermarkets!  Why not try making this cake with them??  It was very easy and I finished making it in less than 45 minutes.

<Sponge>

• 3 Eggs

• 60g Plain Flour

• 60g Granulated Sugar

* Heat up the oven to 200.

1. Place eggs in a bowl.  Place the bowl over warm water bath, and whisk eggs with hand mixer.  Add sugar gradually and whisk until ribbon stage.
2. Add flour and fold in with spatula.  (Be careful not to mix too much as it will cause the sponge not rising well)
3. Place the mixture carefully into lined oven tray, and bake it for about 10 min.  (Press the sponge with palm lightly and if it bounces back it is cooked.)

< Cream & Syrup >

• 200ml Whipping Cream

• 20g Granulated Sugar

• 5g Gelatin

• 2tbsp Water

• Strawberries

• 25g Granulated Sugar

• 50ml Water

1. Mix gelatin with 2tbsp of water.  Mix 25g Sugar and 50ml Water in a pan and dissolve the sugar.  Let it stand to cool.
2. Once the sponge sheet is cooled down, remove the baking sheet.  Place the sponge on the baking sheet again, and brush the syrup over it.
3. Whip the cream with sugar till soft peak.
4. Soften the gelatin mixture over hot water bath, and add to whipped cream.  Mix it through quickly.
5. Spread the cream on sponge sheet.  Place some cut strawberries on.
6. Roll up as if you are making sushi roll.  Keep in the fridge till set.

KOHARU-BIYORI

KOHARU-BIYORI is a day that you can feel the spring is just around the corner.  Today was the one for me!  Sunny, nice wind and blue sky:)  so I went riding (motorbike)! 

View of Perth city...on the way to Attadale

***Point Water Reserve in Attadale****  This is one of my favorite spot in Perth.  Why??  because there is an unique feature in this place.

 Can you see there is a small path in the water??  When it is low tide, you can actually walk through to the other side of the river!!!  Of course most of the time this path is under the water and you can’t walk through it.  Usually in the summer holidays/weekends this place is full of people!

Today it was pretty windy so there were many many people enjoying water surfing.  Not many people on the ground.  I could see just few people walking through the path:p

This cafe is also usually filled with people but it was pretty late When I got there and very windy, so not many customer.  I love a pit stop here:)  Clear sky, beautiful view and a great coffee!!

Smiley Cupcakes

Great treat for kids

<Cupcakes>

• 200g Plain Flour

• 2 tsp Baking Powder

• 100g Unsalted Butter

• 1 pinch Salt

• 140g Granulated Sugar

• 2 Eggs

• 120ml Milk

* Heat up the oven to 170

1. Place softened butter in a bowl, and whisk until fluffy.  Add Sugar gradually, and keep whisking until it becomes whitish colour.
2. Add eggs and the half the amount of milk to the mixture and mix it through till it’s smooth.  Then add half the amount of shifted flour / BP in.  Mix it through.
3. Add the rest of the milk, and then flour / BP to the mixture and mix through.
4. Spoon the mixture into cupcake liners, and bake them for 20~25 minutes.

<Icing>

I used diet yogurt this time   It sounds little bit healthier somehow:p  And it sets on the top of cupcakes well!

1. Just mix 1 tsp of vanilla flavored diet yogurt (or plain) and icing sugar.  Adjust the consistency with the amount of icing sugar as you add.

Spread the icing on the top of cupcakes.  Decorate with M&M and jelly beans to make smiley face

Roasted Eel on Steamed Rice (Unagi Donburi)

Here is another easy Japanese meal tip:)

Donburi means “food arranged on steamed rice”.  The bowl which is used for this style of serving is also called Donburi. (or Donburi bowl)

Some people don’t unagi (eel)  as they look like snakes:p  But it tastes really delicious!

In Japan unagi is quite expensive, especially the natural ones.  The unagi which was grown in a fishery and raised by humans are much less expensive.

Hamana Lake (Hamana-Ko) in Shizuoka prefecture is one of the famous place for unagi.  You can enjoy the fresh, natural unagi for quite reasonable price.  If you want to eat fresh natural unagi elsewhere in Japan you will have to pay more than 10000 yen per head!  … expensive :p  but that’s the price range for unagi.

In Perth you can only get frozen unagi (cooked and vacuum-packed) from Asian grocery shop.  All the Japanese restaurant in Perth (to my knowledge) uses those frozen, vacuum-packed ones for their menu anyway, so why not just buy those from a shop and enjoy the unagi at home!  It costs much much cheaper

What you need to do is just heat up defrosted unagi in a microwave or hot water, and arrange on steamed rice.  Garnish with takuwan (yellow coloured radish pickles) and nori (seaweed) if you like.

Then you can enjoy Unagi Donburi!  How easy is it!!  Itadakimasu.