Sweet Pumpkin Doughnuts

I used to make many kinds of doughnuts when I was back in Japan, such as sweet potato doughnuts, carrot doughnuts,  kinako (soy bean powder) coated doughnuts, doughnuts with vanilla ice cream and azuki an (chunky azuki paste), etc.  I love doughnuts with carrot, sweet potato or pumpkin as they are not too sweet and high in nutrition.  Good for kids

• 100 g pumpkin
• 150 g plain flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 50 g sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• vanilla essence

1. Cut pumpkin and peel the skin off.  Steam or microwave until it’s soft.  Drain well, an  mash up until smooth.
2. In a bowl, place mashed pumpkin, egg yolk, sugar and few drops of vanilla essence.  Mix with a wooden spoon or a spatula.
3. Shift in flour and baking powder and mix well.  (* at this point add 1 tbs of water into the dough if the mixture is too tough.  If the dough is already soft, there is no need to add water.)
4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and rest for 20 mins in the fridge.
5. Heat up oil to 160~170 ℃.  Using two table spoons, slowly drop half table spoon of dough into oil, one at a time, and deep-fry until it’s golden.
6. Drain, and serve on a plate.  Dust with icing sugar.

As I mentioned earlier this doughnut is not too sweet, so if you want to add more sweetness you can either:

drop into a tray of cinnamon sugar while it’s hot.

or,

you can dip into melted chocolate,

or,

enjoy with some icing.  :)

You can also make them in different shapes such as rings and sticks.

Ring : cut baking paper into appx 10cm square, and pipe out the mixture into ring shape onto the baking paper.  Slowly drop the paper (with the mixture on) into 160~170 ℃ oil, facing the doughnuts side down, and deep-fry.  The paper will come off itself.

Stick : Drop a tiny amount of oil on your hands, and shape the dough into a stick, then quickly drop into heated oil.  Be careful not to burn yourself!

Now, if you excuse me I need to go back to the kitchen and finish up my doughnut while it’s hot.

Milk and Honey

I think this place is perfect for someone who wants to have a nice breakfast, or a relaxing coffee time in the afternoon.   I found that the menu at Milk and Honey sounds pretty good  I was always thinking that lots of cafes around Perth have very similar menus, very basic ones (bacon + egg, eggs benedict etc) but I feel like eating something different sometimes!  According to the menu at Milk and Honey, they have some basic menus such as Bacon and Egg, Croissants and Big Brekkie (at Milk and Honey it’s called “The Big One”) as well as .. ↓↓↓ 

Fremantle Chocolate Factory

When my partner and I were riding around Fremantle the other day, we decided to drop by this factory and have a look around.  Although this place opens 7 days a week, and has been advertising on one of Japanese news magazines in Perth, it was my first time going there.  

While we were parking our vespa, I saw few Japanese people (I could tell!) going towards this factory.   Hmm seems that the advertising on the Japanese magazine is really effective, otherwise this place is hard to be found and no one would realize there is a chocolate factory in Fremantle – especially tourists. (‘x’)

As we entered the factory I saw Japanese news magazines on a rack, and a sign board on the wall written in Japanese!  Wow lots of Japanese people must come here often.

They sell chocolate with a wide variety of flavors, and the packaging has a logo of “Chocolate Factory Fremantle”, so they make great souvenirs.  There are free tasting chocolate (milk, dark and white), and I tasted white chocolate buttons.  They are pretty sweet.

What I found interesting is that they also sells some molded chocolate : shaped into some animals, gift basket etc.  I thought they are really cute, and I almost bought a treasure box shaped chocolate.  Then I realized “wait, who am I gonna give this to??  I can’t bring it to Japan as it might melt (as it is hot in Japan), and partner’s parents can’t have lots of sugar.”  It would be a good gift if you have someone who loves chocolate.

They also sell some handmade fudge delivered from Margaret River Fudge Factory as well as Morish Nuts products.

You can see inside of factory through windows.

Home Made Asian Sweets

My mother-in-law (M) cooks everyday.  She sometimes cook Indonesian sweets for us and they are really nice.  Since the parents came to Perth I haven’t cooked any food at home. :p   She is always in the kitchen doing something, so there is no space for me!

Here are some of Indonesian sweets she made…

<Ketan Hitam>

Ketan = glutinous rice, hitam = black in Indonesian (according to M)

If you browse on internet you’ll see various forms of this dish, but M always make like this ↓↓↓

Like porridge.

On the photo it looks like azuki beans, but the texture is totally different.  This black rice is very chewy and juicy.  I love the texture!

• 400g black glutinous rice
• 1300ml water
• 2 pandan leaves
• 125ml palm sugar syrup (dissolve palm sugar with hot water)

You can buy a small packet of black glutinous rice from Asian grocery shops.

1. Wash rice.  Soak the rice in water for few hours (to soften up).
2. Place rice in a sauce pan with water and pandan leaves.  Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low.  Cook for about 40 minutes.  You’ll need to stir constantly.
3. Add palm sugar syrup, and stir until the liquid almost evaporates.  Add a pinch of salt.
4. Remove from the heat and let it cool down.

They usually eat this Ketan Hitam with coconut milk.

<Biji Salak>

This is also a chewy sweet ♪

• sweet potatoes
• tapioca flour
• palm sugar syrup

1. Steam (or microwave) sweet potatoes.  (as much as you like)  Mash up.
2. Add tapioca flour, 1 tbs at a time, and mix well.  Continue until you can roll up the mixture into a long stick shape.  Chop up  into 2~3 cm length.
3. Boil water in a sauce pan, and add the sweet potato dumplings.  (not too much at a time)  Once the dumplings float to the surface, scoop them out.
4. Serve with palm sugar syrup.  (and coconut milk)

They are very easy to make, but to me they are “foreign food”.  In Japan we don’t eat coconut milk/cream (now maybe they do) as well as palm sugar, tapioca flour etc.  These food are all foreign things in Japan, and the food contained these ingredients are called “Asian food”.  Japanese food is pretty different from other “Asian” food.  :)

News From Japan

I talked to my brother over skype on Saturday night asking how the things are going and what’s new in Japan.  Then, he told me about the climate…

Japan has 4 seasons: spring (Mar~May), summer (June~Aug), autumn (Sep~Nov), and winter (Dec~Feb).  Usually June is the rainy season, and after it finish summer comes.  Around August the winds start to get cool and there’re typhoons around September. (typhoons indicate “it’s the end of summer)  And, around October the trees and mountains start to change its color to yellow, orange and red.  (autumn)  You get to see dragonflies, and hear some autumn insects singing.  Around the end of November ~ December the air gets cold and cold, and some places have snow.  March, you can see some buds on the ground and notice the sky is getting blue.  That’s what I know about a whole year in Japan.

So, in September I was expecting to see beautiful autumn color mountains and eat lots and lots of autumn food…  until I talked to my brother (>0<)

My bro told me that this year has been really weird.  The rainy season just finished few weeks ago (usually it’s supposed to finish around June~July) and now it is the middle of summer!  So, it’s like one month behind…  Oh no, when we go there it’s gonna be really hot and humid   I asked him if we need some jackets or coats just in case, and he said “are you crazy?” :p

… I hope I can still eat nice food there.  I’m sure I’ll be eating lots of soft serves and snow cones!  Maybe I can just wear yukata (casual kimono-like summer wear) and walk around the lake and rivers

And, a bad news (T_T).  I sent an inquiry email to Softbank (a Japanese mobile company) asking if I could rent a 3G SIM card and use it on iphone/3GS.  (I wrote about this on here.)  They said that 3G SIM card rental service for iphones is only available at Narita airport (Tokyo) at the moment…   Whaaat (>0<)  So, I can’t get SIM card rental service at Kansai airport!  Hmm…  

Now I’m thinking to buy a pre-paid mobile in Japan.  Having a pre-paid mobile in Japan is really unusual thing…  My friend, who also had a same issue as me, went back to Japan to stay for just 3 months.  She needed a mobile, but didn’t want to buy on contract.  (in Japan mobiles are usually sold on contact bases)  She went to Softbank to buy a prepaid mobile, then the shop staff asked her many times “are you sure you want to get a pre-paid mobile?!  We have a low cost plan here.”  …

These days prepaid mobiles are only available from limited companies.   Even Docomo stopped selling prepaid mobiles in 2005.  Prepaid mobiles are not popular in Japan, but i guess I will need to buy one (phone itself costs about 5000 yen).  It is really really inconvenient being in Japan without a mobile.