We are at the verge of Autumn

I haven’t written on Umeboss regularly for a long time and I feed bad  I used to write a post almost every day before, but now I don’t seem to be able to find the time to sit back and write what I want to write about.  I don’t want to say it’s something/someone’s fault, it’s just that I’ve been busy doing other stuff.  But I feel bad.

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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WAICC Indonesian Food Fair

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!

Wagamama Subiaco WA

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 

Grilled Miso-Marinated Pork

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.

Cooking for New Year’s Day

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!!