Japanese Sweet Potato French Toast

2cups Orange juice
1 Japanese sweet potato
Sugar
Cinnamon
Breads

Blend orange juice, sweet potato, cinnamon in blender and pour mixture into a wide dish. Dip bread slices into the mix, coating both sides. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon and fry in medium-hot skillet until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup.

Raw Pecan Crusted Cashew Creme Tart

Made with only nuts and dried fruit. Very natural, simple but yummy tart!
Recipe adapted from Whole Living.

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.

Vegan cupcake with Cashew frosting

I found a post about the vegan frosting made from cashews on a food blog, Roost and it sounded very interesting! What a clever idea.
I gave it a try and it turned out very good. It's a good alternative to buttercreme.
I followed the recipe below, but replaced coconut oil with Tahini.

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The cashew cream (The recipe from Roost)

2 cups raw cashews, soaked for 3 hours, drained and rinsed
juice from 3 lemons
4 dates, pits removed
1 TBS coconut oil (this does not need to be warmed just scoop it right out of the jar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
orange juice

Place all ingredients in a high speed blender (a rinky dink blender will not do the trick!) and blend until you have a very smooth consistency. Add more OJ if you need to thin it out.

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Since the frosting is vegan, I wanted to make some kind of vegan cupcakes.
I was browsing around for it and found this interesting cupcake recipe on a Japanese website!
This recipe requires no egg, no milk(even soy milk)........ but the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar to increase the volume!!
I've used this reaction for cleaning......
When those two are combined, it starts bubbling up and breaks down stains.
Well you might say "Seriously? Vinegar for cupcakes?".
But trust me! It doesn't taste vinegar at all.
I changed some ingredients of the original recipe to make it healthier.

Vegan cupcakes

100g Whole what flour
3TBS Cocoa powder
3TBS Brown sugar
1.5tsp Baking Powder
1/2tsp Baking Soda
2TBS Oil
110cc Water
2.5TBS Vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F.
Combine dry ingredients.
Add wet ingredients except vinegar and mix well.
Add vinegar and mix quickly.
Bake for about 25mins.

*Don't try to make many at a time.. You might not be able to get the volume you want.
The softest cupcake I've ever had! Enjoy:)

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.

Mickey and Minnie onigiri (rice balls)

Found a great onigiri idea on one of my favorite Japanese bento blogs!
You need crab meat to make clothes of Mickey and Minnie.
It's really easy!
You can find the pictures of each direction at http://ameblo.jp/kaerenmama/entry-10873988142.html.

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)

Sushi Cake!

Made a sushi cake for my friend's birthday party.

8inch sushi cake

3cup sushi rice
*5tbs vinegar
*4tbs agave (You can use sugar instead)
*1tbs salt
*1.2inch ish Dried Kombu(edible kelp) optional

Prepare sushi vinegar. Mix all the * ingredients well and let it cool in a fridge over night.
Add the sushi vinegar to hot steamed rice and mix well.

Cover the mold with plastic wrap.
Fill the mold with the half amount of sushi rice. Place plastic wrap on and press the rice.
Spread the avocado salad and put another half of sushi rice over the avocado and press the rice using plastic wrap.
Remove plastic wrap and unmold. ( the bottom-side up)
Garnish the cake.


★recommended ingredients for garnish
salmon sashimi (Roll up 2 slices of the sashimi together to make a salmon rose)
crab meat
tomatoes
egg
shrimp
avocado
okura

I used avocado and crab meat mixed with my favorite creamy tofu savory sauce from the vegetarian restaurant in Hermosa Beach, The Spot.
The recipe is here:http://www.food.com/recipe/creamy-tofu-savory-sauce-277729

Love this sauce! So good with brown rice and steamed vegetables.

Also, I put some pickled onions under the salmon roses, like Salmon carpaccio.
The pickles recipe is here:http://taste-of-japan.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-favorite-pickles.html