Swedish Tea Cakes

This is a recipe that my family always made together for the holidays every year.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups butter (340 grams)
1 cup brown sugar
3.5 cups sifted flour
2 egg yolks (plus egg whites for dipping)
1 tsp. vanilla
Chopped pecans
Raspberry jam

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add egg yolks, then add flour. Put dough in the refrigerator for a day. Roll in balls the size of a walnut. Dip in slightly beaten egg whites, then roll in pecan nuts. Leave a slight imprint in the top (but not too deep). Put on lower shelf of oven at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 10 minutes. Take out of oven and add raspberry jam. Put back in oven for another 10-15 minutes on middle shelf.

Rice cooker corn bread

Having lived in the south for half of my life, corn bread is something that I occasionally get a craving for. I'm scared to make it in our tiny Japanese oven, because it burns things on top and under-cooks the bottom. So I decided to give it a try in our fancy new rice cooker (a wedding gift!) using the "bake" function.

200 g yellow cornmeal (1.5 cups)
100 g flour (1 cup)
1/2 cup sugar (or 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter – melted

Grease the bowl of the rice cooker. In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, yogurt and milk together. Add to the dry ingredients, stirring only until moist. Drizzle in the butter, stir slightly, and pour the cornbread batter into the greased rice cooker bowl. Put the bowl into the rice cooker and set on "bake." (If your rice cooker doesn't have a "bake" function, just press "cook" like you would for rice and make sure it stays on "cook" for about 40 minutes). Carefully remove the cornbread from the bowl to a plate to cool slightly. Cut cornbread into pieces and serve warm.

Spanakopita!

Spanakopita is not as difficult to make as it looks, but phyllo dough could be difficult to get in Japan.

I got it in a online shop called "The Meat Guy" (what a great name!).

http://www.themeatguy.jp/

Search for "Fillo Pastry".

Make sure to drain spinach after boiling.

The result is crispy outside, creamy and cheesy inside!

Home Made Bread

2 days ago we got this fantastic bread maker and tried to make our very first home made bread with the machine.

The result was amazing and we certainly enjoyed our breakfast of the day with a few slices of freshly baked bread.

Okonomiyaki & Negiyaki

Okonomiyaki(savory pancake with whatever you like in it) is a famous snack food which you can make quite easily. Basically you just mix batter with veggies, meat or seafood of your choice and fry on the not plate. You can even put cheese and mochi (rice cake) in it.

We encountered the best Okonomiyaki when we visited Osaka.That is called Negiyaki(savory spring onion pancake).

They look alike but Negiyaki has such a smooth taste and melts in your mouth.

So I've tried to recreate the taste at home.

Ganmodoki and Daikon Radish Stew

Might not look great in the photo but this was a piece of success that we loved at the dinner.

Ganmodoki is a fried tofu fritter that is soft and absorbs the broth very well when it's boiled.

Once it absorbs the broth, it becomes juicy and succulent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganmodoki

Strawberry Daifuku

Daifuku is a sort of rice cake but it's got stuff inside and my favorite one has a whole strawberry in it. How sweet. There are actually lots of places your can find strawberry daifuku but this one from Yamato-ya (大和や) near Keio Inokashira line Kugayama station is unprecedented.

Google Map

大きな地図で見る

Favorite Spread

My recent hits, Maroon(chestnuts) Cream and 梅(plum) Jam. It's pretty organic and great spread on toasts, pan cakes, etc.