Posted April 30th, 2009 in Food | No Comments »
Azuki is red colored tiny beans which oftenly used for Japanese sweets. In Japan we use azuki bean paste (paste is called “An“) as a filling for manjyu (Japanese cake), steamed buns, bread (An Pan), etc, or as a topping for pan cakes, sticky rice cake, ice cream… there is azuki ice cream too. I’m sure you’ve seen azuki ice cream in Japanese restaurants.
An has actually different types: very smooth to chunky. I like chunky An as I can enjoy the texture of beans.
Here is the recipe for “An” …
- 250g azuki beans (raw)
- 250g sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Place azuki beans in a large pot, and fill with water. Bring to boil and then drain. Repeat this action 2~3 times.
- Place beans in the pot and fill with water. Bring to boil, and then turn down the heat. Simmer over law heat until beans easily break when you squeeze with two fingers.
- Drain beans well. Place beans in a clean pot, and add sugar and salt. Turn on the heat and dissolve sugar over law to medium heat. Stir occasionally.
- When you scrape away the beans and you can see the bottom of the pan, remove from the heat. Spread beans onto a flat tray or plate. Let it cool.
Softer you boil beans at stage 2, smoother the An becomes.
My friend gave me this beautiful loaf the other day, and I enjoyed thick toast with chunky An. I love this bread! It’s dense, and chewy. Scent of honey really whet my appetite. I can’t get enough of this. So nice ♪
Posted April 29th, 2009 in Eat out in Perth | 2 Comments »
It’s been a while since Miami Bakehouse opened its second shop in Melville. They represent themselves as a winner of more than 300 awards, and their range of pies is amazing: more than 30 pie varieties. Crab & Feta, Big Breakfast, Chili Beef and Stockmans (combination of kangaroo, camel and emu!!) are just examples…
All the bread are baked fresh every day, and they have a huge range of cakes / sweet items at the counter as well. You can either take them away, or eat in. They serve nice coffees and other beverages to accompany those baked food. You also can choose to get gourmet rolls if desired.
Last week I went to Melville shop with my friend, and had a wonderful time there.
My friend had decaf soy latte with coffee eclair, and I had skinny long mac with danish.
There’re about 8 tables inside, and 5 tables outside.
I definitely would love to try one of their famous pies - probably Seafood Medley! combination of prawns, fish and scallops served in a lemon pepper sauce… sounds yum!
Posted April 27th, 2009 in Food | No Comments »
This long weekend was lovely! Nice weather, nice food…. On Saturday night we were invited to aunt’s house for BBQ. We had a drink, sung karaoke… it was fun :) Sunday I went out with friend, and chatted for 2 hours over 1 cup of coffee and 1 piece of cake. Talking never end… That night D’s family and I went to South Ocean for dinner. It was pretty disappointing that waiters mistook our orders twice :( 2 dishes out of 3 were not what we ordered, and waiters seemed to not understand what we were saying. It actually happened few times in the past… It was much nicer with their previous manager. Shame that he no longer works in this restaurant.
Anyway,
Tonight I cooked dinner at home. Asian Salad, 3 kinds of pizza, and Takoyaki. A bowl of Edamame as appetizer too 
I like the base of pizza to be thin and crispy. Light taste and nice texture.
< base >
- 4g sugar
- 7g dry yeast
- 80ml warm water
- 250g plain flour
- 2g salt
- In a small bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Pour yeast mixture and stir well. Stir in additional water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until all of the flour is absorbed.
- Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly for about 1 minute.
- Lightly oil a large bowl. Place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with damp cloth or kitchen paper, and them plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 245.
- Deflate the dough and knead briefly on a lightly floured surface for about 1 minute. Pat the dough into a sheet, and bake in the oven for about 5~10 minute (until just cooked).
Then, you can enjoy decorating pizza toppings!
I made three flavors:
< cajun chicken + bacon + bbq sauce >
Spread napolitana sauce (recipe below) on pizza base. Arrange chopped bacon, shredded chicken breast (boiled or grilled), sliced mushroom, sliced mango (tinned), and sprinkle cajun spice. Top with grated Mozzarella cheese and bake in very hot oven until nicely colored.
< tuna + corn + mayo + bechamel >
Spread bechamel sauce (recipe below) on pizza base. Arrange tuna (tinned) and corn kernel. Sprinkle paprika and drizzle mayonnaise. Top with grated Mozzarella cheese and bake in very hot oven until nicely colored.
< seafood + lemon + coriander >
Spread napolitana sauce on pizza base. Arrange branched seafood (prawn, squid etc), sliced olives, and drop little amount of pesto. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over, and sprinkle chopped coriander and salt&pepper. Top with grated Mozzarella cheese and bake in very hot oven until nicely colored. Serve with lemon wedges.
Enjoy while it’s hot ♪
****
< Napolitana Sauce >
- 1 tin whole tomato
- 1/4 onion
- 3cm carrot
- 3cm celery
- 1 clove garlic
- 1~2 basil leaves
Chop onion, carrot, celery and garlic finely. Saute vegetables with 1 tablespoon olive oil over low heat. Pour tinned tomato and bring to boil. Turn the heat down to low, and add shredded basil leaves to the sauce. Simmer for about 10~15 minutes. Season.
< Bechamel Sauce >
- 5g unsalted butter
- 5g plain flour
- milk
- Melt butter in a small pan. (don’t let it burn) Add flour and stir. Pour little amount of milk, and stir. Add milk, little amount at a time, and stir well each time until the mixture is right consistency.
Posted April 25th, 2009 in Perth WA | No Comments »
This Anzac day I spend whole day at Caversham Wildlife Park in Whiteman. It was little cloudy, but luckily not raining. It’s been cold weather since couple of weeks ago. Change of season
At Whiteman Park, there are wide picnic spaces and some parks where kids can play around. It’s free to enter this area, but you have to pay $22.00 per adult to enter wildlife park.
There are kangaroos, Koalas, lots of wild birds, llama, piggy, donkey, wallabies, goats, sheep, camel, wombat, Tasmanian devils, etc etc…
You can feed kangaroos, llama, and ride on camel. You also can take photos with wombat at wombat shows which runs daily at 11am, 2pm and 3:45pm.
See more photos here
On the way back home we stopped at Strawberry Farm which is located on the corner of Wilson Rd and Toodyay Rd (few hundreds meters after Roe Hwy from city) This farm sells very sweet strawberries at very cheap price, but it’s now Autumn and not strawberry season, so we couldn’t get any strawberries. Instead, I bought one small watermelon. (cheap) I should come back here in Spring for one huge tray of strawberries.
Posted April 22nd, 2009 in Ume's Interests | No Comments »
This is a photo blog by a Japanese who travels around Australia. The photos on this blog are truly beautiful and take my breath away! These images are exactly what I imagine of Australia before I came here. Lots of nature, lots of wildlife… This guy captured the moment of natural beauty!
And more at here!
The title of this blog “Image to Kotoba” = “Images and Words”. Words are written in Japanese, but I’m sure that anyone can feel the moment of each scene.
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