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!!

Simple Rolled-Cake

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.

Sugar Donut Balls

(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)

1st Birthday Cake for 13 Babies

This is a birthday cake for 13 babies who is turning 1-year-old this month.

Haha, I was bit nervous about writing 13 names on top of the cake – what if the 13th name can’t fit in the space?  What if I make a mistake on the spell? …. I only had one chance to do it, and I’m so glad that all the names fit perfectly!

2 different colours on right and left for boys and girls as requested.

The cake with filled with fresh fruits and whipped cream.

13 babies…. the party must had been gorgeous 🙂

Chocolate Cake with Fruits and Ganache

A special order from my friend for her son’s birthday.  Chocolate cake with lots of fresh fruits!

I used chocolate sponge and whipped cocoa cream, topped with handmade ganache 🙂

The side of the cake is covered with white chocolate.

… I think I over-whipped the cream a little :I

It was a birthday party for 2 boys (similar birthdays so they combined the party together) and boys love Thomas, so I made a small Thomas the Tank using chocolate.  Does it look like Thomas the Tank??

Boys were happy, and it all matters 😉

Food Idea for Babies

Finally….  Yes, finally I’ve done it.  I wrote about it earlier that it’d take some time, and it did :p

Food idea for babies from 5 months to 18 months of age – My Baby Ate What?

There’re not many dish items yet, but I will add bit by bit in future!

Categorised according to the stage.

The link is on the side bar – just scroll down and you will find it 🙂

Hope someone enjoys it!

Dry Curry Soboro – OmuRice Style

The title might have confused you….   the dish looks like this  ↑↑↑

Juicy dry pork curry over steamed rice with fluffy thin omelet.

Serve it on a large plate then people can dig in….   Great for kids party too.

Make omelet fluffy – not over-cook it.  Soft and runny egg goes well with curry 🙂

I used zucchini, but you can use broccoli, capsicum, peas, or eggplant instead.

<Dry Curry Soboro> serves 3~4 people

• Pork Mince 500g
• Onion 1/2
• Carrot 1
• Zucchini 1/4
• Ginger & Garlic, minced, 1 tsp each
• Soy Sauce 1 tsp
• Mild Indian Curry Powder 1/2 tsp  (adjust to  your liking)
• Oyster Sauce 1 tbs
• Tomato Sauce 1 tbs
• Salt & Pepper (optional)
• 3 Eggs
• Milk 1 tbs
• Steamed Rice (to serve)

a

1. Chop onion, carrot and zucchini.
2. Heat a frying pan and add oil.  Saute onion, carrot, ginger and garlic for a couple of minutes.  Add pork and zucchini.  Pour soy sauce over the meat, and cook until the colour of the meat starts to change.
3. Add curry powder, oyster sauce, tomato sauce and 1 tablespoon of water.  Simmer until the liquid is almost gone and all the juice is absorbed.  Set aside.
4. Heat a wide frying pan with oil.  Beat egg lightly with milk, and pour into the pan to make soft omelet.
5. To serve :  Scoop some steamed rice (hot) on a large serving plate.  Place the omelet on top of the rice, and scatter the dry curry over.  Serve immediately while hot.

a

Happy Birthday Cake

Another birthday cake I made last week 🙂

Lots of fruits – especially strawberries.  They are in season now and super sweet!

I should have asked beforehand if I should use peanuts…. It was my big big mistake 🙁  I should be more careful of what I use on my cake.  (I’m sorry…  :(((  )  I hope everything was fine….!!

Decoration.  This is my favourite part of cake making.

Tada!!

Teriyaki Chicken Tsukune

Tsukune is a Japanese chicken meatball most often cooked yakitori style (but can be fried or baked) and sometimes covered in a sweet soy sauce.  I often make them grilled in a frying pan as it’s the easiest method.  From grilling till covering the sauce can be done in one pan, so not many washing afterwards :p

I love the smell of caramelised sauce.  You must have steamed rice with it!  You can alter the 1/3 of chicken with mashed tofu for a healthier option.

I added chopped spinach, but spinach is not a common ingredient to tsukune. I just did it to boost my iron intake :p  Chopped water chestnuts or bamboo shoots give crunchy texture.  Adding finely chopped carrot, spring onion, or/and shiitake makes tsukune more nutritious.

<Chicken Tsukune>  serves 4

• Chicken Mince 400g
• Onion 1, medium
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp chopped Spinach (optional)

Pork Gyoza

Gyoza – although it originally came from China, I believe gyoza has became one of the most eaten food in Japan.  It’s became part of “Japanese food” now.  You’ll find it on menu at most Japanese restaurants in Perth as well.  In Japan you’ll find it everywhere, even in convenience stores.

Packs of frozen gyoza are available at Asian grocery shops in Perth, but they are mostly from China.  I don’t see much difference, but I personally prefer making them by myself as it’s much cheaper and more safe – you know what’s inside. 🙂

I usually use store-bought gyoza skin, but this time I made everything from scratch.  Making gyoza skin is quite easy, though I found it hard if you have a child/children around you in the kitchen nagging to go outside to play.

<Gyoza Skin>  makes around 30 ~ 35

• plain flour 150g
• baker’s flour 50g
• boiling water 150cc
• corn flour to dust when kneading/shaping

1. Place flour in a bowl, and pour boiling water.  Stir with chopsticks until it’s cool enough to tough.  Knead for 5 minutes till smooth.  Shape into a ball, and cover with plastic wrap.  Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Roll into a thin dough.  Cut into around 8g pieces, and roll into flat round wraps using a rolling pin.  Dust with corn flour whenever you feel the dough is sticky.

<Gyoza>

• Pork Mince 2oog
• Cabbage 6 leaves
• Onion 1/2
• Minced Ginger 1 tsp
• Minced Garlic 1 tsp
• Oyster Sauce 2 tbs
• Sake (cooking wine) 2 tbs
• Soy Sauce 2 tbs
• Sesame Oil 2 tbs
• Salt & Pepper

1. Chop up cabbage leaves and onion.  Place with other ingredients in a bowl, and mix well using fingers.
2. Take 1 wrapper in the palm of your hand.  Use a spoon to take a small amount of filling and put it in the center of the wrapper.  Dip a finger in the bowl of water and draw a circle around the outer 1/4” of the wrapper so it’s wet all around.  Fold the wrapper in half like a taco.  From the left edge, start sealing the wrapper by placing a pleat about once every ¼”.  Make sure the two sides are sealed by pressing folded pleat tightly against the flat edge.  (how to wrap a gyoza)
3. Heat up a frying pan.  Pour 1 tbs of oil, and place gyoza.  Add 100ml of hot water then place a lid.  Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Obento for Picnic

We are definitely in middle of spring now.  It’s been pretty warm for the last few days – though forecast says it’ll rain again soon.  Time for lots of insects…  (yay…)

Spring makes me feel happy, sleepy, and want to do laundry everyday.  It also makes me want to go out for picnic with Hiro who always wants to get out of the house and play outdoor.

Lunch I made for Hiro the other day….  It’s not only for Hiro, by the way.  He is a big eater but I don’t think his stomach can hold this much food. :p  I made them to share with my friends.

This is one of the things I like about Perth.  In Japan…  well, in my hometown, you can hardly find park or nice place to sit down with kids and have lunch together.  There’re always cars, buildings, and people passing by.  There is park near my kindergarden, but it’s not big and the ground is covered with seaweed for some reason!!  How come?  Is it not seaweed?  Or the area used to be under water or something?  Very weird….  So I don’t want to take my kid there to play. He might try to eat it  🙁

My parents used to take me and my brother to many places for picnic when I was a child.  Near Biwako Lake, some themed parks, and some public park.  You have to drive there and is not really close to my house.  So I definitely think Perth is very family-friendly and great environment for kids.

Mixed sandwiches and omu-rice.  It’s so easy to prepare if you have the ingredients.

For Omu-rice you’ll needs:

• 2 cups of steamed rice (preferably left-over from last night)
•  2 tbs of frozen mixed vegetables
• 2 tbs tuna, canned, drained
• 1 tbs unsalted tomato sauce
• bit of oyster sauce and soy sauce

Stir-fry everything!

Then, make large thin omelet.  Place on the tomato fried-rice.  Draw smily face with tomato sauce!

Molded Onigiri!

I’m so hungry!!

I need rice!!

With onigiri molds, it’s so easy….

I often make onigiri with easy-to-prepare fillings.  They are:

• umeboshi (pickled plum) bought from Asian grocery shops
• tuna mayo
• katsuo
• left-over teriyaki chicken (if I have)

In Japan I use shake (seasoned salmon flake) and konbu (seasoned konbu seaweed).  They are my favourite 🙂

Umeboshi is getting difficult to obtain now.  It’s because, I think, Umeboshi often contains seed.  You can make them if you have fresh ume plums, I think.  You can also make ume-shu (ume liquor) with fresh ume!

Tuna Mayo is easy to make.  You just mix canned tuna with Japanese mayonnaise and a dash of soy sauce.

Katsuo means “bonito”.  Katsuo is a typical filling for onigiri.  When you are busy, just mix bonito flake and soy sauce.  Then you have instant “katsuko” filling!

Oh, if you love cooking Japanese food and have a chance going to Japan, you should get this square frying-pan to make tamago-yaki (Japanese omelet).  There are many variety over there, from cheap ones to expensive ones.  Tamago-yaki is great item for obento.

Ayam Goreng

When I feel like my body is needing “meat”, I often go with chicken rather than beef.  Red meat should contains more iron than white meat, but I don’t really crave for red ones.  Since I came to Australia I became little naughty….  I love occasional KFC now.  I didn’t like it before coming here and I was saying that how people can eat just KFC chicken for dinner.  Now I’ve became one of them.

Trying to save some money, I usually make fried chicken by myself.  They are not exactly KFC, but they are at least meat.  There are cheap mixed chicken pieces available from IGA near my house, though they need to be trimmed and washed before cooking.   Sometimes I make karaage or oven-roasted chicken with these meat, but tonight I made Ayam Goreng – Indonesian style fried chicken.

Although I wish I can, I don’t cook Ayam Goreng from scratch.  I use store-bought seasoning.  Different from karaage, Ayam Goreng is cooked in marinade before being deep-fried.  So you are basically frying cooked chicken.  Because the meat has been cooked through, you’ll just need a short time to deep-fry.   The oil should be very hot to give the crunchiness and golden colour.

How do you eat it?  I’m not an Indonesian who knows Ayam Goreng very well, but I know how I like to eat it.  I usually eat with steamed rice, some vegetables, boiled egg and sambal (chilli sauce).  I love sambal terasi with Ayam Goreng :-q

It’s got prawn or something?  I’m addicted to this distinct smell!

Birthday Party – Japan Themed!-

We visited my friend’s house for her elder son’s 3rd birthday party!

I’m surprised that not many people (even Indonesian people!) don’t know this Japanese cartoon character “Anpan-man”.  Anpan-man is super popular in Japan now.  Everywhere you go, you’ll see this face.  All my friends here who have children have at least one Anpan-man good at home.  So do I.  On my last homecoming trip I felt like I had to buy Anpan-man goods as they’re everywhere.

Above foods are chirashi-zushi (scattered sushi) with Anpan-man face, omu-rice with Anpan-man face, potato salads, and gyoza.

Here is another Anpan-man.  They are actual anpan (buns filled with sweet red bean paste).  The faces are so cute!  Everything was handmade.

Hiro got one too.

Birthday cake was tiramisu.  With Anpan-man face on it.

After blowing the candles, the birthday boy did this “traditional Japanese ceremony” thingy – breaking the lid of sake container.  I thought there’d be toys or lollies inside as this was a child’s birthday party, but the inside was filled with real sake.  It was for adults.

Food was amazing.  Mum did a great job!

Oden with Ginger

Here is the real winter warmer – Oden with dipping sauce of ginger.

Oden, a Japanese dish of winter casserole, is usually eaten with karashi (Japanese mustard).  It is the very common and typical condiment for Oden.  Everywhere you go, an izakaya or a convenience store, Oden is served with a dash of karashi on the side.

But one of my friend from Himeji (a city in Hyogo prefecture) introduced me a new condiment – gingered soy sauce!

I’d never tried the combination before, but I immediately knew ginger would go great with oden.  Oden and ginger….  how clever!  It’s the best dish to warm up your body in cold days.

For for Oden, common ingredients are :  Egg, Konnyaku, Daikon, Gyu-suji (beef tendon), Nerimono (basically fishcakes, but many varieties : e.g. chikuwa, hanpen, gobo-maki etc), Atsuage (thick deep-fried tofu), and Potato.  Some people add other things too.

This time I used egg, daikon, konnyaku, tofu, and gobo-maki.  I can’t get good nerimono here in Perth.  Some Asian grocery shops sell “oden set” (mixed nerimono) in freezer section, but I find it quite expensive.

<Oden>

• Water 6 cups
• Sake (cooking wine) 1/4 cup
• Soy Sauce 4 tbs
• Mirin (sweet cooking wine) 2 tbs
• Dashi Konbu seaweed 15cm
• Ingredients (I used 4 Eggs, 4 Potatos, 1 Konnyaku sheet, 4 Gobo-maki, 500g Tofu, & 1 Daikon radish.)
• Ginger 1 knob + Soy Sauce

1. Place Dashi Konbu in 6 cups of water in a large pot, and leave for around 2 hours.
2. Prepare ingredients : boil eggs, peel and cut daikon etc.  I don’t cut potato but you can if you prefer so.
3. Place daikon & potato in the water with konbu, and turn on the heat.  Bring to gentle simmer – do not boil.  Remove konbu.
4. Add sake, soy sauce, and mirin.  Add eggs, konnyaku, tofu & gobo-maki.  Simmer for 30minutes +.  ( I simmered few hours)

Once you turn off the heat, leave the oden for around 2 hours (or more), then warm up again before serving.  Ingredients in oden soak up the flavour when they cool down.  Let everything soak up all the flavor.

Serve with grated ginger + soy sauce.

Tako Su

Obon has finished….!  Obon is one of holiday season in Japan where people go back to their hometown and pray for ancestors.  During Obon you are not supposed to kill any living creature (including a fly) because it may be your ancestor visiting you in a form of the creature.  I feel so bad now because I forgot about Obon and killed a small spider 2 days ago.  It’s hard to remember these things while living in Perth.  😐

Above photo is marinated octopus, cucumber and wakame seaweed in vinegar sauce.  I call it tako-to-kyuri-to-wakame-no-sunomono, but I think you can just call it tako-su.  It’s typical summer salad (or should I say side dish) in Japan.

It is hard to find octopus legs in Perth, but in Japan we eat it very often.  If you go to kaiten sushi bar you’ll see octopus sushi, which is a nigiri sushi with a slice of cooked octopus leg.  Octopus leg is always available at supermarket too.   It is usually sold cooked though.  I don’t get to see raw octopus legs much over there unless I go to a fish market.

I think octopus legs are kind of gross food here?  That’s why I can’t buy it from any grocery shops?  Most Asian grocery shops don’t sell it too.  I usually buy it from seafood shops.

<Tako Su>

• Octopus Leg (cooked) 100g
• Cucumber 1
• Wakame seaweed (dry) 1 tbs
• White Wine Vinegar 2 tbs
• Sugar 1 tbs
• Soy Sauce 1 tsp
• Ginger 1 slice

1. Soak wakame in water until soften, and drain well.
2. Slice cucumber thinly. (or thick if you prefer crunchy texture)  Slice cooked octopus leg.  Slice ginger into long matchsticks.
3. Mix vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and ginger.
4. Marinate octopus, cucumber and wakame in the dressing in the fridge for 1 hour or more before serving.

IKEA Food for FREE!

I’m quite surprised to know that not many people are aware of IKEA’s current promotion – “I could eat an armchair” where the amount you spend at IKEA restaurant will be taken off your store purchase. (term & condition)  This offer ends this Friday, so if you are interested then rush to IKEA!!

I actually didn’t have anything particularly that I wanted to buy, but since sister-in-law is here from Jakarta we took her to IKEA for lunch yesterday.  We ate around $33 worth food, and got $33 worth IKEA items for free!

It’s not only IKEA, but many shops in Perth are starting Sunday trading from next week.  Perth is changing.  I remember when I came here in 2003….  I had a huge culture shock when I found out shops are closed on Sunday.  For me, weekends are the time people go shopping!

Hmmm…. by the way, I’ve already started shopping from Japanese online shops….  I’m gonna ask my dad to bring them to Bali then I can take them home here in Perth.  (thank you, dad)  I wasn’t gonna buy many things, but it’s so hard….  There are so many things that I want to buy from Japan!!  On my last homecoming trip to Japan, we had total of 50kg allowance for check-in luggage, but we had to leave half of what we bought there because our luggage were already over 50kg.  So, imagine how many things we bought during our stay there….  It’s crazy.

It’s kinda shame that there is no Daiso in Bali.  Well, but we are not going to Bali for shopping.  We are going there to RELAX and EAT 🙂  I can’t wait!

Thank You Everyone!

First, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who messaged me through this blog and email.  I feel much better and strong knowing that I’m not alone and there are people who read my blog from many countries.  It’s kinda amazing feeling.

🙂

I’m gonna write about an amazing food I had last night.  This is banana-cheese-pastry thingy (I don’t know the proper name!) that my sister-in-law brought from Indonesia.  It’s so yummmmmyyyy.  It’s from Bandung city (in Indonesia), she said.  It’s got a whole banana and cheese inside, kind of melty, and doughy throughout with crispy pastry on outside.  I don’t know how to explain the taste, but it’s somewhere between sweet and savoury.  Very interesting.

There are many food in the world that I haven’t met.  I do want to go to many countries and try these things out someday.

Oh, I’m actually going to Bali in November this year.  Believe it or not, it will be my first trip to Bali!  Even though I have an Indonesian husband, I’ve never been outside Denpasar airport.  Actually, my husband has also never been to Bali before!  Haha.  So it will be our first Bali experience.

Going to Bali is kind of the thing that I can look up to.  It had been a rough idea of me and my dad who is in Japan, but  now we are booking air tickets and accommodation in Bali.  My husband, Hiro, and I are meeting my dad in Bali who will fly from Japan by himself.  It will be great holiday for all of us.

What I want to do in Bali – I’m not pretty sure about it yet, as I have no idea what Bali is like, but I think we’ll get massage and eat lots of local food.  Near the beach, probably.  I can’t wait to take my dad to eat Indonesian food.  I’m sure he will love it!

Chocolate Cake

decorated Chocolate cake 🙂

Layers of cocoa sponge with freshly whipped chocolate cream and rich ganache, covered with whipped chocolate cream and topped with fruits and ganache balls.

I like making cake with lots of fresh fruits 🙂

Garnished mint leaves are from my garden.

Happy birthday 〜！！

Kayaku Gohan

As you may know, Japanese people eat lot of rice.  Nowadays they don’t eat as much as they used to, but rice is still a must-have food for most people there.

I was raised in a typical Japanese family who eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  My grand parents had rice fields (now my dad’s inherited them), so rice was always there in the kitchen.  Because of that, I also became a person who needs to eat rice everyday – at least once a day.  Otherwise my body doesn’t feel right.

Here in Perth, Japanese rice is so expensive.  They are available at Nippon Food and other Asian grocery shops, but I’ve only bought a discounted bag with broken packaging before.  I usually just use Sunrice medium grain rice.  It’s cheap and ok.  I sometimes mix mochi-gome (mochi rice = sticky rice) to the medium grain when cooking so that the rice becomes more like Japanese rice; sticks together. I like the mochi-mochi texture.

Kayaku-gohan is steamed rice with various ingredients and seasoning cooked together.  I must say it’s one of my favourite food.  I can go several bowls at once!

You can find abura-age (fried bean-curd) in freezer section at Asian grocery shops.  Konnyaku is usually in the fridge, or sometimes sold at room temperature on the shelves.

<Kayaku Gohan>

• Rice medium grain 3 cups
• Mochi Rice (sticky rice) 1/2 cup
• Chicken Thigh 50g
• Carrot, small 1
• Konnyaku 1/2 pack
• Abura-age 1/2 sheet
• Shiitake mushroom, dried 2 〜3
• Ginger 1 small block (about 10g)
• Soy Sauce 2 tbs
• Sake 1 tbs
• Mirin 1 tbs

1. Soak dried shiitake in 1/4 cup of water for 30 minutes.  Keep the shiitake water.
2. Slice chicken, carrot, konnyaku, abura-age, shiitake, and ginger into small pieces.
3. Place them in a sauce pan with the shiitake water, another 3/4 cup water (so 1 cup total), soy sauce, sake and mirin.   Bring to gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes over low heat.  Leave to cool.
4. Place washed and drained rice into a rice cooker.  Level the surface. Scoop the chicken and vegetables and place on top of rice – level surface – to cover the rice.  Add the stock from “3” to the rice cooker.
5. Add more water to adjust : I always use my finger to measure the water amount when cooking rice.  Place your index finger 90° to the rice, and add water up till the first line on your index finger.
6. Turn on the rice cooker.  When rice is cooked, leave at least 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Baby Food Recipes

I’ve been writing this website My Baby Are What since Hiro started eating solid.  Before I fell pregnant I didn’t really have any interest in kids and babies –  I didn’t even like them much 🙁  But now everything changed including the way I see and feel about other babies and kids.  When I was a teenager some of my friends already had babies, but I really had no idea how to treat and talk to these little people when I visited.  Should I speak in a baby language, or should I just speak as I speak to adults?  How to play with babies?  What do I do?!  What I could do was just to keep staring at babies with a smile – and that made both babies and me tired and uncomfortable.

Now, I don’t say babies and kids are my top interest, but I like watching them play and know how to (try to) communicate with them. Thanks to Hiro. 🙂

Hiro loves eating.  He wants to eat all the time.  Because he asks for food so often, I had to consult with community nurse about it.  He is not fat, but I’m afraid he’ll be like a giant pig if he continue eating like this.    But, his attitude towards food makes me feel it worths to cook for him every day.

Now, I’ve stopped writing on MyBabyAteWhat and am combining it with this Umeboss.  I will post recipes of baby’s food with more photos here.

It may take a while till I upload all the recipes because I can’t be in front of computer so often, but once I do I hope you enjoy reading them!

Birthday Cakes

It’s been a little busy week for me – making birthday cakes 🙂

For birthday cake, I always make the same one; sponge with freshly whipped cream and lots of fresh fruits.  That’s my favourite cake in Japan, and people who ask me to make cakes seem to be the same.

Strawberries are getting cheap here as spring approaches.  I love the combination of strawberries and cream!

This is the another one I made last week.  Pink-themed cake 🙂

I mixed strawberry jam and fresh strawberries to the cream when I whipped.  It tasted fantastic and sweet so I didn’t need to add sugar to it.

Yum yum…..  I made extra for myself, and that’s a real treat for my tired body and brain 😀

Hijiki Nimono

This is a very classic Japanese dish; hijiki-no-nimono (stewed hijiki with vegetables and fried bean-curd)  which is often used to fill bento box as well.  Hijiki is a type of seaweed and is good for skin and hair – very healthy!  Unfortunately hijiki is not available at stores in Perth because of Australian import laws, so you will have to bring it from Japan by yourself (import non-commercially is currently allowed).  If you have a friend who is flying to Japan then you can ask him/her 🙂

Hijiki-no-nimono can have any ingredients – but I usually cook with carrot, konnyaku, aburaage (fried bean-curd), chicken thigh and chikuwa (fish-cake).  You can also add soy beans or/and snake beans.  Since I didn’t have chikuwa in my fridge, I cooked without it.

You can find abura-age and chikuwa in freezer section at Asian grocery shop.  Konnyaku is usually in the fridge, or sometimes sold at room temperature on the shelves.

It’s a great accompaniment to steamed rice 🙂

Here is the recipe :

<Hijiki-no-Nimono>

• Dried Hijiki 17g
• Chicken Thigh 50g (no bone. with or without skin)
• Carrot 1 (medium)
• Konnyaku (black) about 90g (I used 1/2 of normal packet)
• Aburage 1/2 sheet
• Soy Sauce 1 tbs
• Sake (cooking wine) 1 tbs
• Mirin (sweet cooking wine) 1 tbs
• Dashi Powder 1 pinch

1. Soak dried hijiki in cold water for at least 30 minutes.  Drain.
2. Cut chicken into small pieces.  Slice carrot, konnyaku and abura-age.
3. Place all the ingredients in a pot.  Turn on the fire and bring to gentle boil.  Turn down the heat and simmer with lid on for about 10 minutes.
4. Serve with steamed rice 🙂

Ginger Chicken

Ginger chicken – I used chicken thigh and marinated in teriyaki-style ginger sauce before grilling.

What you need to be careful when grilling marinated meat is that it burns easily.  And especially for chicken, you don’t want the meat burnt and black but the inside remains uncooked.  I heat up the frying-pan then turn down just before cooking the chicken.  Cook over low heat – because the pan was hot, the bottom of the meat should have nice-looking colour.  Then flip it over.  Cook over low heat again for few minutes, then add little amount of water.  By adding water, the chicken will be surely cooked through.  The full recipe is below ↓

The meat is soft and juicy!  This dish isn’t a saucy one, but because it’s been marinated the flavour is inside the meat.

The bed of cabbage laying beneath the chicken is also cooked in the teriyaki-style sauce, so you pick a piece of chicken with little amount of flavour-soaked cabbage, then enjoy all together.

Here is the recipe;

<Ginger Chicken>

• Chicken Thigh 2 fillets
• Cabbage Leaves 2 leaves
• Soy Sauce 1 tbs
• Sake (cooking wine) 1 tbs
• Crushed Ginger 1 tsp
• sesame seeds to sprinkle (optional)

1. Place chicken fillets in a container or a plastic bag. Add soy sauce, sake and ginger to it, and rub gently.  Leave in the fridge for 2 hours or so (or you can leave it overnight – it’s ok)
2. Drain chicken (keep the marinade).
3. Heat up a frying pan over high heat.  Add oil, then turn down to low.  Place chicken and grill until the bottom is coloured.
4. Flip it over.  Cook over low heat for 3 – 4 minutes.  Add 1 table spoon of water, then cook until the water is gone.
5. Remove the chicken and place on a chopping board.  (keep the frying pan)
6. Slice up the cabbage leaves.  Place the cabbage & remained marinade sauce into the frying pan, and cook until the cabbage is soft.
7. Slice the chicken.
8. Spread the cabbage on a plate, then arrange the chicken on top.  Pour the sauce (from the pan) over.  Serve with steamed rice.

Feel Like Japanese Tonight

It’s sometimes hard to cook what I want to eat everyday.  D is such a nice husband and likes to help me cooking dinner, but his choice of food is quite different from what I want,,, most of the time :-p  He’s been into hash brown wrap with bacon and egg, and we had that for lunch today.  Since I had time to cook today as Hiro had 2 naps during the day, I made some Japanese food for dinner. 😀

The mail dish is this ginger chicken (recipe) – I used chicken thigh and marinated in the sauce before grilling. It’s served on a bed of simmered cabbage which is also cooked in the teriyaki-style sauce.

This is one of my favourite dish – simmered hijiki seaweed with chicken and vegetables (recipe).  It’s shame that you can’t get hijiki from shops in Perth as it’s not permitted to import commercially 🙁  You need to import by yourself from Japan!  I still have 2 more packets which I brought from Japan in Feb this year.

It’s a typical nimono (simmered dish), but hijiki is great for your skin and hair and is very healthy.  I made it with chicken, carrot, konnyaku and abura-age (deep-fried bean curd), but you can also add soy beans and/or snake beans.

This is pickled cabbage.  It’s one of the dish my grandma used to make at home.  It’s made with just cabbage and salt, but is a great companion to steamed rice 🙂

I will post recipes of these three dishes …

Rolled Cabbage

Japanese calle it “roll cabbage”, but this dish is basically a ball of hamburg wrapped with cabbage leaves.  This is usually cooked in soup until the cabbage is really soft and almost melts. Sometimes served with variety of sauces such as tomato sauce, teriyaki sauce, and savoury bechamel sauce.

One of the reason I don’t cook this roll-cabbage too often is that it’s bit troublesome to make.  First you need to sautee vegetables then mix with meat.  Cabbage leaves need to be blanched in boiling water first so that it doesn’t rip when wrapping the meat mixture inside.  After all the preparation you will need to then cook the rolled-cabbage in a pot for 2 hours.  (or you can use slow-cooker instead)

But I made them anyway.  I felt like eating rolled cabbage, and I thought Hiro could also eat one.  It takes time, so if you want to make this chose the day you have time to spend in the kitchen.

<Rolled Cabbage>  makes around 20

• cabbage 1 whole
• pork & beef mixed mince (or you can use just pork/beef mince) 400g
• onion 1, medium
• carrot 1/2, medium
• celery stalk 1/3
• unsalted butter 2 tbs
• tomato sauce 1 tbs
• salt 2/3 tsp
• pepper to taste

1. Chop up onion, carrot and celery.
2. Melt butter in a frying pan, and sautee the vegetables with a pinch of salt for 5 minutes over low-medium heat.  Remove from the pan and spread on a flat plate.  Let it cool. (or you can keep them in the fridge until you are ready to cook rolled-cabbage)
3. Remove the core from a whole cabbage.  Boil water in a large, deep pan.  Add a pinch of salt into the water, and place a cabbage.  Cook until the cabbage is well-cooked and soft.  Cabbage leaves should be easily come off.  Place the cabbage leaves into a bowl of iced water.  Repeat with the remaining leaves.  Pat it dry.
4. Place mince meat in a bowl.  Add salt, and mix well.  Add pepper, tomato sauce, and sauteed vegetables.  Mix well.
5. Place a cabbage leaf on a kitchen bench or on a chopping board. Place 1 tablespoon of meat mixture on the cabbage leaf.  Roll up tightly.  You can push the one end towards inside to close up.

Chose a pot that is wide.  Place rolled-cabbage into the pan, ensuring that all of them are nicely and tightly fit inside the pan.  (photo above)  Make sure the end of cabbage leaves are facing bottom.  Pour water to just cover the rolls, and place a lid.  Cook over high-medium heat.

Once it starts to boil, turn down the heat, and simmer for 2 hours over low heat.

*Add more water if needed.

Teriyaki Spam Onigiri

Little onigiri (rice balls) with teriyaki spam.  I made them in nigiri-sushi style.

To be honest, spam is not my favorite meat.  But considering that it is a long-life food and can be always available at the pantry, I’d say it’s very easy snack to prepare anytime you want to eat.

Using spam is cheap too.  I’m saying this because it is actually nicer to use ham steak instead of spam.  Ham’s got better texture and juiciness (to me).  But, ham steak is more expensive than a tin of spam, and again, spam can be available in the pantry anytime.  So here is teriyaki spam onigiri.  If you like spam then this is a perfect snack for you (?!).

The key is the teriyaki sauce.  Caramelize the sauce until spam is shiny!

<Teriyaki Spam Onigiri>  makes around 10 – 12

• Spam 340g tin x 1/2
• Soy sauce 1 tbs
• Mirin 1 tbs
• Steamed rice (cooked & warm) 1.5 ~ 2 cups
• Nori sheet to decorate

1. Slice spam into 5mm thick squares.
2. Spray oil in a frying pan, and grill the spam both sides until coloured.  Remove excess oil with kitchen paper, if there is any.
3. Pour soy sauce & mirin into the pan.  Cook over low-medium heat until the sauce thicken and the spam is shiny.
4. Divide steamed rice into 10 – 12, and shape into flat balls.  Place spam on top of rice, then decorate with nori sheet.

Now they are ready to serve!

Onigiri always goes with Japanese tea.  I accompanied my spam onigiri with hot barley tea.

I served spam onigiri with seafood yakisoba.  D & I love yakisoba!  It’s not as oily as Chinese fried noodle (people say it’s rather dry though 😐 ) and sprinkle of bonito flake (katsuo-bushi) and ao-nori powder gives the final touch 🙂

Pancake Lunch in Bicton

Had a pancake at a little cafe in Bicton Central Shopping Centre.  There are few cafes in this centre, and this one is located outside, just at the corner.  Small one.

My friend had beef burger.  Apparently she comes here with her hubby often to have burger.  I shall try it next time!

Staff was so friendly too.

Baby Food Recipes

Since Hiro started eating finger foods I’ve been enjoying cooking for him more than for myself.  Now, as a one-year-old boy he eats variety of food (although he doesn’t like steamed rice and egg sometimes) 3 times a day + snack.  He loves eating!  I’ve taken him to Miss Maud lunch buffet the other day, and he ate as much as I did – bread, roasted vegetables, fruits, cheese …..  a lot of them.  And I didn’t even need to pay a cent for those food he ate as he is under 4 years of age.

As I note what he eats everyday on mybabyatewhat.com I cook variety of food each day.  Sometimes he doesn’t like the food and I have no idea what to give him instead, but most of the time he enjoys my food.
Here are few recipes of the food he likes : if you happen to have kids you may wanna try them out, I thought 🙂

<Potato Okonomiyaki>

• Cabbage, chopped, 1 tablespoon
• Spinach, chopped, 1/2 teaspoon
• Potato, cut in cubes and soft-boiled, 1 tablespoon
• Egg 1/2

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

2. Lightly spray a small frying pan with oil.  Drop 1 table spoon of mixture into the pan and cook until the bottom is set and colored.  Flip it and cook another side until the hamburg is cooked through.

<Tuna Pumpkin Curry Rice>

• tinned tuna in spring water, drained x 1 tea spoon
• soft cooked pumpkin x 1 ~ 1.5 table spoons
• broccoli x 1 floret
• frozen mixed vegetables (I use corn, peas and capsicum) x 1 tea spoon
• tomato, skinned and seeded x 1 tea spoon

• super tiny amount of mild Indian curry powder
• steamed rice

1. Place tuna, pumpkin, vegetables and curry powder in a sauce pan and add water to just cover the food.  Cook until all the food is cooked and soft.  (add more water if needed)
2. Serve on a bed of steamed rice.

<Salmon Udon Noodle>

• cooked udon noodle, about 1.5 table spoon, cut into small pieces
• salmon, small piece
• 1 broccoli floret
• carrot, small piece
• 1 tsp milk
• 1 tsp mixture of cornflour + water

1. Place salmon, broccoli, carrot in a saucepan, and cover with water.  Bring to gentle simmer, and cook until tender.
2. Add udon noodles and milk to the saucepan.  Simmer.  Add cornflour mixture to thicken.

<Tuna & Pumpkin Sandwiches>

• tinned tuna in spring water, drained x 1 tea spoon
• cooked pumpkin, 1.5 tbs
• 2 slices of bread

1. Mix the tuna and pumpkin.  Spread on 1 slice of bread, and place another slice on top.  Cut off the crust.  Cut into finger size.

<Chicken Meatballs>

• chicken mince x 1 table spoon
• tofu (I use Japanese tofu, either silken or firm) x 1 tbs
• soft cooked pumpkin x 1 tbs
• 1/2 egg
• 1 tsp cornflour (optional)

1. mix all the ingredients, and shape into flat balls.
2. spray oil lightly onto a frying pan, and grill both side until well-cooked.

<Soup with Tofu Dumplings>

• tofu (I use Japanese tofu, either silken or firm) 3 tbs
• plain flour 1 tbs
• cornflour 1 tbs
• chicken mince 1 tsp
• vegetables (brocoli floret, carrot, potato, onion etc)

1. Place chicken mince and vegetables in a saucepan, and fill water to cover the food.
2. Bring to gentle simmer, and cook until vegetables are tender.
3. Mix tofu and flour.
4. While the soup is simmering, scoop 1 tsp of tofu mixture and drop into the simmering soup.  Repeat with remaining tofu mixture.  Cook until the tofu dumplings are cooked.

Soft & Moist Fruits Pound Cake

It’s getting very cold in the morning….!!  Waking up around 5AM and going for a walk around 6AM has been our (me & Hiro) routine for a while now.  This morning I couldn’t stand without a jacket, and my bare foot was so freezing.  It’s amazing Hiro still could manage to fell himself back to sleep in the cold air.  He fells asleep on a stroller when he hadn’t got enough sleep.

Anyway, yesterday was the last day of the term at play group, and it was mostly cleaning & eating for the whole 2 hours.  In between we did egg hunting as Easter is just around the corner.  All mums were asked to bring one dish to the centre and we shared the yummy food.

I made fruits & walnuts cake because it’s the easiest and quickest to make.  Other mums brought some gorgeous food such as salmon sashimi, takoyaki, chicken nuggets and hot cross buns.  I loved them all.

I made this cake with whatever ingredients I had. Actually I have lots of ingredients in my pantry at the moment because of my bagel business.  Thanks to that, I didn’t need to buy anything extra 🙂

The cake turned out moist and soft, just how I like it.  I added walnuts because I like the accent of crunchy texture.  This is the very basic pound cake recipe, but I want to share it with you.

<Fruits Pound Cake>  one standard pound cake mold  /  oven 180℃

• 2 eggs (at room temperature)
• 100g granulated sugar
• 100g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100g butter (at room temperature)
• 2 tbs mixed dry fruits
• 1 tbs crushed walnuts
• 1 tbs frozen cranberries

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1. Cream the butter with a whisk to just soften up.  Butter goes soft within 1 hour outside the fridge in summer, but in winter I recommend to warm it up over warm water bath or in the microwave to speed up the process.  Butter should be very soft.
2. Add sugar, and beat until fluffy and becomes slightly white colour.
3. Beat eggs in a separate container, and add to the butter mixture gradually.  Mix well at each addition.
4. Shift the flour and baking powder into the mixture.  Drop the fruits and nuts onto the flour then shift in using a spatula.  Try not to over mix.
5. Pour the mixture into a lined pound-cake-mold, and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or it springs back when you touch the top surface.
6. Place on a wire rack to cool before slicing.

You can add vanilla extract to enhance the sweetness.  You can alternatively use other nuts instead of walnut such as pistachio or pecan nut.