Deco Shiratama dango mochi balls

 I think a lot of Japanese women like to make everything cute.....
Cute bento, cute cread..... and cute mochi!!
Have you seen little white mochi balls in Japanese sweets? It's called Shiratama Dango and often eaten with sweet red bean paste and fruits.

Making cute shiratama dango is very popular in Japan now.
It's super easy to make and fun!
Valentine is coming soon, so I made it look like my husband and me<3

Shiratama dango is usually made with shiratama powder.
However it's a little expensive here in the U.S., so I made with mochi powder.
Not as smooth as the ones made with shiratama powder, but it's still good.

The key ingredients for making deco shiratama dango is silken tofu,
Mixing tofu and mochi powder makes it easy to shape !
It's fun to make with kids;)


Shiratama Dango

50g mochi powder
45~55g Silken Tofu
1/2tbs  Sugar

Coloring
Black- sesame paste
Blown- Cocoa powder
Beige- Kinako (Japanese soy bean powder)
Pink- Dried strawberries, ground


1. Mix mochi powder, sugar  and 45g tofu. Add more tofu until you can form a ball.
2. Dived the ball into the number of colors you want to make.
3. Color each balls. Just add the coloring (see above) little by little until you get the color you like.
4. Shape the dango. (I draw mouth after cooked with a toothpick and black sesame paste)

5. Boil water in a pot and put the shiratama dango. Cook until they start to float. ( about a couple of mins)
5. Transfer to ice water and cool.

Quick Apple Pie

Who says you need nice pie crust to make yummy apple pie?? Not me!
All you need is the filling and....GYOZA SKIN!
You can make it with your frying pan. Can't be easier!


For the filling (for about 10 pies)
1 apple
1/4cup sugar
1TBS lemon juice
Cinnamon

Cut apple into small pieces.
Mix all the ingredients and stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
Bring it to a boil.
Let it cool.

For the pie
The apple filling
20 gyoza skins
Almond oil

Place the filling on the gyoza skin. (double wrap)
Roll it up.
Fry with almond oil.

Mitarashi Dango

Mitarashi dango is one of Japanese traditional sweets.
Dango is a Japanese chewy and bouncy dumpling made from rice flour, related to mochi.
The caramel colored sauce is called mitarashi and made from soy sauce, sugar and starch. This sweet but savory sauce is perfect with dango. It's similar to the taste of teriyaki sauce.

You need special rice flour(mochiko) to make dango.
But today I'm introducing how to make dango with more familiar ingredient, RICE!
And it's much easier to make it than using rice flour.

For the dango
1cup Cooked rice ( I used brown rice)
2tbs Potato starch

For the mitarashi sauce
3tbs Soy sauce
80g Sugar
100cc Water
1tbs Potato starch


Mix together rice and potato starch to make dango.
Knead until it form a ball.
Divide the dough into 6 balls.
Cook in boiling water until it comes floating to the surface.
Place into cold water.
Put the dango on skewers.
Grill the skewered dangos on a grill until slightly grill-marked.

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a small pan.
Cook until it gets thickened.
Pour the sauce over the dango.

Kyotofu's Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes

4/23 was my boss's 40th birthday, so I decided to make 40 cupcakes for his birthday party. I was browsing recipes online for something new to try, when I came across this Kyotofu's chocolate souffle cupcake.
It won New York Magazine's best cupcake award in 2007:"Imperceptibly enriched with soy milk, tofu, and just enough miso to give it a slight, delectable tang."

Kyotofu is a Japanese dessert bar in NY.
New York Magazine say;"with its focus on the flavors of Japan and the gracefully subtle incorporation of soy into eleven out of the fifteen items on its short menu, Kyotofu is making its own distinctive mark on an increasingly crowded postprandial market."
Zagat says Kyotofu is one of the best Japanese restaurants in the US.


Here is the recipe courtesy of New York Magazine;
Ingredients
2 cups dark chocolate (preferably Valrhona pellets, 64 percent)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon white miso
3 eggs
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup Japanese bread flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder (preferably Valrhona)
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup silken tofu
1/4 cup soy milk, unsweetened (preferably Vitasoy)


Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
(1) Melt chocolate, butter, and miso in double boiler over low heat, stirring occasionally. When only small lumps remain, remove from heat and stir until completely smooth. Whip eggs until they reach “ribbon stage,” then pour chocolate mixture into mixing bowl with the eggs, varying the mixing speed to incorporate chocolate.
(2) Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, mixing together with hands or a whisk. Fold the dry ingredients into the chocolate, mixing until fully incorporated. Add tofu and soy milk slowly, mixing until fully incorporated.
(3) Scoop batter almost to the top of 24 wax-lined mini–panettone cups arranged on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, rotating tray halfway through, until center springs back when touched. Dust with confectioners’ sugar if desired.
(Published 2009)

Strawberry Chocolate Tofu Daifuku

Happy girls's day!!!!
3/3 is a girl's day in Japan.
Find out more in this article.

To celebrate the day, I made strawberry daifuku with tofu and cashew chocolate.
All you need is tofu and potato starch to make mochi. No need to buy mochi flour! Easier and healthier. Potato starch is a very useful ingredient, giving a springy,chewy and glutinous texture like mochi.



For the tofu mochi
1pack silken tofu
1cup potato starch
1/4cup sugar
1tbs(ish) potato starch for dusting

For the filling
strawberries
cashew chocolate creme (recipe below)

1.Add tofu, sugar and potato starch to a blender and blend until smooth.
2.Microwave for about 2 mins. Remove from the microwave and stir. Place back in the microwave for about 1-2 mins. If it looks still raw, heat a little bit more.
3. Coat a cutting board with potato starch.
4. Cut the dough into 4-5 pieces.
5. Roll out a piece of the dough on the cutting board with wet hands.(it's hot so be careful!)
6. wrap the filling and press the edges together.
7. Dust with potato starch.




Cashew chocolate
1cup whole raw cashews
cold water
1tbs cocoa powder
1tbs sugar
1tbs honey

Rinse the cashews very well.
Add cold water to cover them.
Refrigerate for more than 10 hours.
Drain the cashews and place them in a blender with other ingredients and blend until smooth.

savory cupcakes with onion rosemary cakes and goat cheese frosting

Non sweet cupcake!
Found the recipe here.

Blueberry Basil Tofu Goat Cheese Cake

Saw a guy eating a goat cheese blueberry basil pie on Food network yesterday.
It looked so delicious and unique! I had never hear basil cheese cake before.
I got so many dozens of tofu from a client and was wondering what to make with them...so I decided to give it a try with tofu.


For the crust(Easy!)
1cup Pancake mix
3tbs Butter
1tbs Soy Milk

For the filling
1/2pkg Silken Tofu
4oz(1/2pkg) Goat Cheese
3tbs Tahini, Butter or Peanut butter
1/4cup Sugar
1/4cup Lemon Juice
1 Egg
2tbs Dried Basil
1pack Blueberry


Combine all the crust ingredients. If the mixture crumble when you squeeze it together in your hands, add more butter.
Press the mixture into a pie mold.

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Wrap your drained tofu in a few paper towels.Press with something heavy for about 30 mins. Mix all the filling ingredients except blueberries with a blender.
Add blueberries and mix easily.
Spread the filling over the crust.
Bake for about 20-30 mins.
Let it cool and enjoy!

Tofu Nama Chocolate (ganache)

In Japan, women give chocolate to men on Valentine's day.
This article is about Valentine's day in Japan!
http://japanese.about.com/od/japanesecultur1/a/Valentines-Day-In-Japan.htm

Nama chocolate is one of the most popular valentine's chocolate.
Nama means raw in Japan, but it's not raw food. In this case, nama means "melt in your mouth".

I used tofu instead of creme so it's much healthier than regular nama chocolate!


150g chocolate
100g silken tofu
cocoa powder

1.Drain tofu between paper towels with a heavy weight on top for about 1 hour.
2.Add to a blender and blend for about 3mins
3.Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over hot water.
4.Add the tofu using a mesh sieve.
5.Line a container with plastic wrap and pour the chocolate. Refrigerate well.
6.Cut and dust with cocoa powder.

Non Daily Pumpkin Puddings

For caramel source
2tbs sugar
3.5tbs water

1.Place the sugar and water in a souecepan.(dont't stir now)
2.Bring it to a boil and then swirl. Shift this caramel souece into puddings cups and cool it down in a fridge.

For puddings
2tsp agar
1/4 pumpkin
2cups soymilk
1/2cup agave

1.Place pumpkin chunks into water and bring it to a boil.Cook until tender.
2.Remove the pieces and let cool.
3.Push pumokin through a mesh sieve.
4.Add the other ingridients and mix together.
5.Shift 4 into a bowl and bring it to a boil.
6.Place into the pudding cups.