July’s Washoku Warriors challenge was to make one of two dishes: Hiyashi Chuka (Chilled Chinese Noodle Salad) or Somen (Thin Noodles on Ice). I chose to make the hiyashi chuka because it was very flexible and came together in just a few minutes.

The recipe had two different dressing recipes and I chose the one that required no prep time and had the least amount of ingredients. I added a little more sugar and a little less sesame oil for personal preference. Next time, I would add a splash of plum vinegar or citrus juice to brighten the dressing a tad. The original garnishes called for were red pickled ginger, tomato, cucumber, shitake mushrooms, egg, ham, and sesame seeds.

I wanted to keep with the color scheme, so replaced the tomato with red pepper and switched out sesame seeds with flax seeds and some black sesame seeds. I omitted the ‘shrooms since I don’t care for them, and replaced the red pickled ginger (beni shoga) with regular pickled ginger. I also don’t care for cucumbers so next time I’ll replace it with zucchini. I don’t really like sesame oil, so I was very worried about adding it into the dressing. In the end, I was surprised that the smell of sesame was so strong, but the taste was just right!

This dish came together so quickly, yet was satisfying and light–there will definitely be a “next time” for this.
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A new Whole Foods opened near me recently. As part of their opening promotions, they invited Facebook users, Twitter-ers, and e-mail subscribers to take part in a “Rate the Recipe Challenge”. We were asked to visit their online Recipe section and pick a recipe that hadn’t been rated yet. After we submitted our recipes, we were given a $20 gift card to purchase ingredients and the promise of another $10 gift card as incentive to complete the challenge.

It was hard to decide on just one recipe to choose, but I ended up picking Almond French Toast. This recipe was french toast with a twist, it’s egg and dairy free! My review follows below.

One of my favorite foods of all time is french toast, and the best part is the spongy, eggy taste of the center paired with the crisp and sweet outside. This recipe came together very quickly and really delivered on the “french toast” experience. The protein and texture of the eggs are replaced with the almond butter and tofu, and the milk is replaced with almond milk. The batter for the last few slices in the batch had a more paste-like texture that sticks to the bread , but if you’re not afraid of getting your hands dirty, just wipe the bread down a bit between your fingers and this problem is solved. The bread is also a little dry because there is less liquid in this batter so it would pair great with some yogurt or extra syrup.

The best part of this dish was definitely the toasted almonds. I thought that topping the french toast with almonds wouldn’t taste good, but toasting them beforehand gives a wonderful crunch and brings out the natural sweetness of the nuts while providing a strong textural contrast.

The main ingredient in all french toast dishes is the bread, so this recipe can go all sorts of different ways depending on the type of bread you use. I made one batch using some whole grain bread and another batch using challah bread. I liked the challah bread better because it had a crispier outside and the lighter center of the bread soaked up the mixture better, but it really comes down to personal preference (and if you’re making an egg-free recipe, you should probably use an egg-free bread). The egg-free, whole wheat batch was served with some bananas drizzled with brown sugar syrup on the side while the challah batch was served with a smear of chocolate-hazelnut spread between slices.

This is a great recipe for those that love french toast, but can’t have it the traditional way due to dietary restrictions. This could be seen as a bit expensive to make if you didn’t have any of the ingredients, but most people have at least some of them. Also, this would be a great opportunity to utilize the “make your own nut butter” and bulk food sections at Whole Foods since this recipe only calls for a little of each ingredient.

Olga of Mango & Tomato is is hosting a recipe contest for her 2 year blog-iversary that requires the use of mangoes and tomatoes in a dish. We were only required to make one item, but I couldn’t calm my imagination and decided on three different dishes.

Mango Bloody Mary
spicy tomato puree with mango juice, absolut peppar, mint and mango garnish

Spicy & Sweet Fish Fajitas
grilled red chile tortilla topped with tomato and mango fried rice, grilled mahi mahi, and mango & black bean salsa

Tomato Petit Fours with Mango Glaze
tomato cakes with a touch of cocoa powder drizzled with a sweet mango glaze and kinako-cinnamon

Most of these things were basically just assembled versions of the descriptions. The most successful were the fajitas and the petit fours. I took this opportunity to try a bloody mary for the first time (and use up some absolut peppar) and I did not like it. 2 parts tomato mixture, 1 part mango juice, 1 part absolut, and the drink was still too tomato-y! Some people like drinking tomato juice but I cannot stand it.

The fajitas were juicy, crispy, and acidic. The rice used some tomato soup, diced tomato, and diced mango. I crisped up the bottom before combining all the ingredients, which was a great textural contrast. I’m sure everyone has their own fried rice and salsa recipes, so I’ll leave that up to you. Mango salsa is one of my favorite things to eat, but I thought it was a predictable use of the ingredients so I tried to make a dessert. I was thinking about making a granita or sorbet duo using the mango and tomato, or even a tomato macaron with mango filling, but my laziness got the best of me and I chose to do a cake. I’ve heard of a tomato-soup cake before, so I adapted a recipe for donuts to be used for cake and subbed the milk for tomato soup. The result was spicy, savory, and paired well with sweet, sticky glaze I drizzled over the mini-cakes. The glaze came together easily and is an adaptation of a glaze I make when whipping up traditional petit fours.

Tomato Petit Fours with Mango Glaze

• 1¼ cups cake flour, sifted
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1¼ tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg and/or cinnamon
• dash salt
• ½ cup tomato soup
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1½ tbsp. butter, melted
• ½ c. powdered sugar
• 3-6 tbsp. mango juice
• 1-2 drops vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425°F. Sift together flour, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Add egg and butter, stir until combined. Measure out soup, whisk in baking powder until frothy. Fold into mixture. Cook 2tbsp portions of batter, either in squares or circles (you can do this in liners or pans, whatever you have laying around. I used a brownie bites pan). Bake around 8 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched. Let cool for 4–5 minutes.

While the cakes are cooling, combine the mango juice and sugar. Add a little at a time until you get the consistency you want, it should be thin enough to be drizzled or poured. When you’ve reached the desired consistency, add a dash of vanilla and stir.

Assemble the cakes, drizzle glaze, and sprinkle with cocoa powder and/or kinako-cinnamon mixture. Top with diced mango and tomato and mint leaf.

p.s. look at the snazzy header I designed for mango & tomato! Olga was nice enough to come to my apartment and teach a friend and me a knife skills class in April, so we worked on a mini-face lift for her site~

After seeing a recipe for mini bread pudding using leftover challah bread on Mango & Tomato, I decided to try my hand at it. I chose to go the savory route since I wanted to be able to eat these as snacks or pack in my lunches. I also didn’t have any of the sweet ingredients on hand, and took this opportunity to make a nokorimono (leftover) dish!

I mixed all the ingredients together and let them mingle in the fridge overnight before popping them in the oven the following day. I chose to bake them in muffin liners so they’d release from the pan effortlessly and would be easy to transport.

makes ~10 mini bread puddings

• leftover challah bread
• diced tomato
• parmesan cheese
• chopped savory marcona almonds (made by my friend, Stephanie)
• flax seeds
• ground black sesame seeds
• milk
• eggs
• soy sauce
• turkey

Cut or pull the challah bread apart into manageable pieces. The ingredient amounts will depend on the amount of bread you have. Mix eggs, milk, sesame seeds, and soy sauce into a bowl and combine. Add tomato, cheese, almonds, flax seeds, and torn turkey into another bowl. Toss with hands to combine. Pour liquid mixture over bread mixture, combine with hands. Line muffin pan with liners, fill cups 75-90% full, sprinkle with more cheese on top. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, or until the “puddings” are done to your likeness. You can bake a little longer if you don’t like having spongey bottoms to the puddings.

I brought these over to my house for memorial day weekend and got my sister to try one~ They taste pretty good and can be considered one of those “freezer stash” items to keep for rainy days, or nice picnic lunches. The small, individual size lends itself to sharing, but you could definitely cook this mixture in a pan and serve it up family-style!

I was lacking herbs in the kitchen and think some dill, parsley, or even some spinach would work well in this dish.

May’s Washoku Warriors challenge was to come up with a an original Wa (harmony) parfait based on the Zensai Parfait in Andoh’s book (p. 301) with 2 or more of the following: chunky bean jam, citrusy miso, brown sugar syrup, nutty miso (sweetened with ½ tsp sugar), and/or kinako mixed with cinnamon.

I chose to assemble:

- koshi an (store bought)
- brown sugar syrup
- nutty miso
- kinako/cinnamon
- cornflakes
- mochi
- 小桜 (sakura branch) candy

I could not find kinako anywhere near where I live, so I bought roasted soybeans (sold as “soynuts”) at Whole Foods and chopped them up in the food processor.

The brown sugar syrup was very easy to make, but I had no patience to wait for it to cool, so it was left out of the parfait.

I made the nutty miso using walnuts, but found it too salty to put in an ice cream parfait. Later, I found out it was because I forgot to add the sugar to make it a “dessert” sauce!

I also chose to use koshi-an I already had on-hand instead of making coarsely ground red bean jam as suggested in the original challenge.

I made these parfaits while a friend was over and set out all the toppings in individual containers so we could make the parfaits お好み-style (okonomi, “as you like”). She had: cinnamon buns ice cream + cornflakes + red bean paste + mochi + kinako/cinnamon mixture. I shared mine with my boyfriend (pictured above) and had: cinnamon buns ice cream + cornflakes + coffee ice cream + mochi + kinako/cinnamon + “sakura branch” candies.

While it was a bit time consuming to assemble or make the ingredients, the recipes all make large quantities so you can make parfaits instantly after the initial work ^_^. All of the ingredients keep for at least a few weeks. This is also a great alternative for those that don’t like Western-style sweets and prefer a more balanced sweet/savory dessert.

April’s Washoku Warriors challenge was Spring. We were given the option of making kajiki maguro no yuuan yaki (梶木鮪の幽庵焼き), spinach steeped in broth — hourensou no ohitashi (菠薐草のお浸し), and/or temple style chowder — unpen-jiru (雲辺汁). I wanted to try the soup, but decided on the easier fish and spinach combination.

There was an interesting story in the book about the fish — the chef chooses the different chinese characters to display on the menu, reflecting his interpretation of the dish. I chose to display the characters that are used in the wikipedia entry for this dish, but there are two other popular uses.

The fish was surprisingly very tasty, and very easy to cook. I was a little wary of this recipe since I don’t like tougher white fish like swordfish and mahi mahi (which I substituted for the swordfish in this recipe because it was less expensive). The quick marinade and high-heat cooking method made the flesh tender and it flaked apart like the fish my dad made when we were growing up. There is also very healthy because I used less than a teaspoon of oil to sear the fish in.

I really wish we had yuzu around where I live, but alas, we don’t. I also didn’t have grapefruit juice to mix with lime and lemon to mimic the flavor of yuzu, but this dish was fine with just lemon and lime. The flavors were simple and bright, but next time I’ll double the citrus amount or cut the soy sauce in half. The end result’s shoyu flavor was a bit too strong for my taste.

The fish was served with ohitashi, rice, and roasted asparagus.

The ohitashi was the least successful part of this dish–probably due to the shortcuts I took in the marinade. I didn’t have soy sauce concentrate on hand for the ohitashi, but wanted to make this dish very quickly so I estimated the ratio of salt to sugar and added some water and instant dashi granules. The result was a little too ocean-y and far too salty. I used the leftover glaze and zest from the fish and mixed it in with the spinach and it became more palatable. Unfortunately, I don’t think the ohitashi is for me, but it may just be my dislike for leafy greens. The bright green color after blanching was very attractive though.

One great positive about this meal is that I was able to make a bento out of the leftovers!

April 21st – Yuuan yaki swordfish; roasted asparagus; spinach ohitashi; kumquats; rice.
Pictured on a Wall-E notebook!

January’s Washoku Warriors challenge was Comfort Food. We were given the option of two recipes: Miso Ramen (味噌ラーメン) or Soy-Glazed Burger (てり焼きバーガー). I initially wanted to make the ramen because I have some miso sitting in my refrigerator, but upon further inspection the recipe seemed a little more intensive and had some ingredients that I didn’t happen to have on hand. Unfortunately, for the past week I’ve been buried under feet of snow so I’ve been limited to what my local organic supermarket has in stock. Plus, burgers are an easy sell to my boyfriend!

I halved the recipe and though the burgers were a little on the large side, there was some left over for bento! I did add a little bit too much onion and didn’t mince it finely enough. Other than that, I would have mixed the miso a little bit more into the meat before making patties.

• drizzles of vegetable oil
• 1/2 of a small yellow onion, finely minced
• 1 tbsp sake
• 3/4 lb ground beef
• 1/4 cup panko
• 2 tbsp beaten egg (about 1 large egg)
• 1 tsp miso
• 1 tbps sugar
• 1/2 tbsp hot water
• 1.5 tbsp soy sauce

Heat a drizzle of oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion and sauté until wilted and slightly aromatic but not browned. Add 1 /2 tbsp of sake and deglaze the pan, scraping up any browned bits. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the onion to cool to room temperature.

As the onions cool, combine the beef, panko, egg, and miso into a separate bowl. Add the cooled onion and knead until evenly distributed. Divide into equal portions and form patty shape.

Drizzle some more oil into the previously used skillet and place over medium heat. When hot, add the patties and sear on the first side until browned (about 1 minute). Flip and sear the second side, pressing to flatten. Lower the heat, add 1/2 tablespoon of sake, cover, and cook for 8-10 minutes (medium to medium well).

While the burgers are cooking, mix sugar and hot water until combined. Then add soy sauce. Return skillet to high heat, add sauce and move pan around until burgers are evenly covered. Flip the burgers once after a minute to make sure they are evenly glazed.

Plate when still hot, as you like. I chose to eat it open face on half of a bagel with some lettuce. Traditionally, it’s served more similar to loco moco style, with rice and the extra sauce served over it.

I really liked the miso in the recipe, but the large amount of onion in the burger made it taste more like meatloaf. I also chose not to put the extra sauce on the patty since I could see all the fat and grease from the meat in it. Not sure if I’ll ever make this recipe again, but it’s an interesting take on the standard hamburger. Since it’s cooked in a covered skillet, it keeps all of it’s juices.

My sister and I are huge fans of a local Korean bakery, Shilla Patisserie. There are many locations around where we live, so we often either meet their or stop by whenever we’re in the neighborhood. My family often purchases one of Shilla’s delicious and beautiful cakes for family get-togethers. One of these type of cakes is called “Roll Cake”. I recently purchased a book called くるくるロールケーキ Kuru Kuru Roll Cake from Kinokuniya in New York City. Kuru kuru means to spin or wind up, which is appropriate because the cross-section of a roll cake looks similar to a lollipop or pinwheel.

Even though my sister’s birthday is in December, she often celebrates her birthday later so that family and friends are back from vacation.I wanted to try to make a Shilla-style cake using the book I recently purchased. If I messed up, I could always just stop by the bakery on the way and pick up a real cake, right?

Unfortunately, I totally forgot that I didn’t have the special 30cmx30cm pan, Japanese super-fine sugar, a kitchen scale, and the types of eggs I had would probably be too big. These are some of the many problems that arise when cooking recipes from other countries. I also had to translate this recipe. Let’s be honest–I’m not familiar with Japanese kitchen vocabulary at all!

Here is my version of the simple Strawberry Roll Cake with substitutions/conversions below.

Sponge

• 5 egg yolks
• 4 egg whites
• 40g butter
  • 2 2/3 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 40g Low Viscosity Wheat Flour (薄力粉)
  • 8 1/2 tsp all-purpose flour
• 90g white superior soft sugar (上白糖)
  • processed 19 teaspoons granulated sugar in food processor

Cream

• 200ml fresh cream
  • 200 ml heavy whipping cream
• 20g icing sugar
  • 4 1/4 teaspoon powdered sugar

Combine egg yolks and 20g(4 1/4 teaspoon) of granulated sugar. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites and remaining granulated sugar until it forms stiff peaks like a meringue. Add the yolk mixture to the whites, combining gently. Sift the flour in, mixing from the bottom to the top to make sure everything is incorporated. Add the melted butter and mix thoroughly using a rubber spatula. Make sure there are no bubbles in the batter. Add batter to a pan lined with two layers of parchment paper with slits cut in the corners so it lays flat. Smooth out the batter with a card, bake @ 200 degrees Celsius (392 f) for 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

For the cream, put the beater and bowl in the refrigerator until cold. Add the cream and sugar, beat for 6-8 minutes until thick. If you beat too long, it’ll turn into butter, so be careful!

Flip the cake over and remove the parchment paper carefully. Spread cream on with knife and fill with desired fruit slices. Roll 90 degrees (I rolled mine tighter, so it was really skinny!) using parchment paper on the outside. Once it’s rolled, keep rolled in the parchment paper for at least 30 minutes before cutting into slices.

I topped the cake with homemade dulce de leche and some toasted coconut. Toasted coconut marshmallows lined the side with milk tea pocky, some panda picks, and a bear-shaped marshmallow! (My sister’s nickname is “Bear” and one of her favorite animals are pandas) It tasted very good, but I don’t know yet if it was quite worth the effort. Granted, most of the effort went into translating and converting measurements. Now that I have a kitchen scale, it should much easier, right?

Unfortunately, due to the snow, her party was canceled! This cake won’t keep for long because of the cream in it, so I drove it out to her the night of her would-be-party so my family could enjoy it. I took a slice for myself and placed it in my French Postcard bento–that’s two slices I got to take because I had to make sure it tasted good before decorating it ^_^

I was snowed in this weekend (still snowed in actually!), and didn’t have a chance to eat the bananas I had picked up for on-the-go breakfasts. They were looking awfully brown, so I decided to make banana muffins! This was a great recipe because it used up the last of my cream cheese, butter, and of course, bananas.

A quick search through my Google Reader yielded many results, but I don’t have a loaf pan and I didn’t have any whole or buttermilk on hand. I also didn’t have any nuts, so I subbed the cup of nuts in the recipe below with an extra banana.

Adapted from The Sweetest Kitchen
Makes 12-15 muffins

• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• ~1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 or 3 bananas)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg, beating well.  Beat in bananas and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture.

Transfer to a muffin tin with liners. Bake at 350F for 22 minutes for regular muffins, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

December’s Washoku Warriors challenge was New Years (O-Shougatsu). We were given the option of three recipes: New Year’s Salad (紅白なます), Fiery Parsnips (きんぴら), and “Smashed” Burdock (たたき牛蒡). I chose to do the first two because the process for the gobou seemed a bit time consuming in comparison to the others.

I made the kinpira for my family’s New Year celebration on January 1 (more on this later). Everything seemed to be going really well and looked like it might even taste good, until I added in the soy sauce. Right when the soy sauce hit the pan, it caramelized and made the whole pan give off a burnt smell. The parnips tasted fine themselves, with a nice root-y flavor, but I couldn’t get over that burnt smell.

I just made the namasu and I love it! The recipe is very easy and it’s a dish that most everyone will like. The fruit in this salad mixes with the “dressing” (or pickling sauce) and gives it a nice pleasant sweetness that reminds me more of dessert than an appetizer salad. I will definitely make this again because it doesn’t have many ingredients and it only takes a few minutes to make. This makes a great accompaniment to a meal or a nice, healthy bento-filler.

I’m glad that I finally found a recipe from Washoku that I absolutely love and it has common ingredients and is very easy to make!

Kohaku Namasu (New Year’s Salad)

• ~3.5 inches of daikon, shredded (yield ~7oz)
• ~1 inch of carrot, shredded (yield ~2oz)
• two measurements of 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. Sweet and Sour mixture
  • 1/4 c. plum vinegar, 2 tbsp each of sugar, dashi, and water
• 1 small dried apricot (or fruit of choice), shredded
• 1/2 tsp. yuzu peel or lemon zest

Peel and slice the vegetables. Put the carrot and daikon in separate bowls, sprinkle with 1/4 tsp. of salt each. Allow to sweat for 2-3 minutes and then press between fingers, gradually increasing pressure. Rinse briefly with cold water and drain all liquid. Combine vegetables and fruit and toss to combine. Drizzle the sweet and sour mixture over top, gently toss, and let sit at room temperature for at least an hour.

This salad is full of vitamins and is said to bring good luck because red and white are auspicious colors (red carrots grow in areas of Japan around the time this dish would be made). Kohaku Namasu actually means “red-white” and “(vegetables) pickled in vinegar”. The strands of vegetables also look like ribbons, which connote prosperity, but also longevity!