shinju

I think there are different styles of kari kari ume. What I referred to as kari kari ume is ume that gets salt treatment. The ones you are asking about is the sweeter ume boshi that's closer to dried sweetened fruit. I love them too and I know the brand you are talking about. And you are right, it is called kari kari ume too. I've seen some Japanese recipes where ume is treated with sugar only but I've not tried that method. If I find a method of making the style of Tomuguchi brand, I'll post here. It's definitely dried and sugar or sugar substitute treated.

In my neighborhood in California you can purchase myoga but it has to be in season for Japanese markets to carry it. I usually start seeing in mid summer to September. I grow myoga in my garden too but my harvest is usually around late August. If you can find Japanese market nearby (perhaps in NYC), I think you may be able to find it in summer months.

No difference between naga negi and negi. Some people call them negi and others naga negi.

Thank you for these explanations. Is there a Chinese name for the flat, linguine type egg and wheat noodle? I'm beginning to feel that there are several mistakes in her book. For example her use of the word la mian. Now I'm beginning to wonder if la mian is used for both egg/wheat and all wheat noodle. She uses the term to describe the egg noodle.

Can you also provide Chinese character for the bao part? Thanks.

Please help me understand mian bao. According to C Trang of "Noodles Every Day" it is linguine like Chinese egg noodle. However, when I google I get some bun types showing up. Which is it?Thank you!

Pate? Sounds different.

Although not from seeds, but I have yuzu tree that is producing finally in my Silicon Valley area backyard full of other fruit trees. I had a heck of a time trying to locate this tree (now I can't even remember where I ordered), but I planted the tree about 2-3 seasons ago. I figured it would do well here because I have Meyers lemon, Bearss/Tahitian lime, mandarin oranges, Eureka lime and calamansi growing really well. From seeds, I was able to get enough vines from Japanese kyoho (is that the name? now I can't remember ) which produces really well here.

Wondering if anyone made better progress with kasutera recipes? Love to hear them!

My tiny yuzu tree which was planted about 1 1/2 in Northern CA has finally started to produce. Gave me 2 small yuzu It's a start nonetheless. Surprisingly these yuzu were not very juicy.

Helen, I appreciate you providing a recipe you have actually used to make ramen noodle. Were you happy with your results? I ask this question because although soba is certainly much better when homemade (at least to me), I don't necessarily find homemade spaghetti or udon any better than those available commercially. But, I am very interested in trying my hand in making ramen because it's not easy finding quality ramen noodle here in the US that I like.

Sanrenso - that tune takes me back to my youth. Yogurt kasutera sounds very interesting. I wish I had Bunmeido kasutera that I can do some serious comparison too. Jumanggy - thanks for the video and another good lead. Within a week, I plan on testing that recipe as well. Mary Elizabeth - I have Nijiya within 5 minutes drive in Mountain View. How was that one? I've purchased several at Nijiya in the past and have been disappointed. Don't remember the brands I purchased, but they seemed really dried out. Are you happy with your purchase? Last night I started my first kasutera. And, wouldn't you know it, I also made the same mistake by not oiling the pan that goes on top. I thought it would not touch, but I was wrong. My batter was quite thick going in after whipping for 6 minutes - I may back off on that a bit to make the batter thinner. The taste of was right on, not too eggy and not too honey-like. But, the 35-40 minutes in my oven was too long. I need to decrease the timing. It was bit too dry for my taste, but the texture was quite appealing. It was a little chewy - dense but light at the same time. I would like to see finer texture though. Still needs some tweaking due to my lack of technique and my oven that seems to overbake at times. I used 9 x 9 x 2 in square pan and it was too big for this recipe. Kasutera ended up being a little over 1 inch high. I also inverted the cake after it finished baking before covering it with plastic. The bottom is where it hit the top pan - so not much darkness there.

I looked at this recipe and it's quite similar to the one I'm testing tonight. Mine uses 4 eggs, 100 gram soft flour, 110 gram sugar, 2 T honey, and 1 1/2 T warm water. This ones does not separate the eggs, but whip for 5 minutes and and add honey and water. Combine flour in thirds mixing. Temperature originally at 180 degrees for first 7 minutes. Remove and cover with pan, reduce to 170 degrees for for 35 to 40 minutes. After removing from pan with cookie sheets, cover completely with plastic wrap and plastic for 12 hours. We will see how this ones goes. I'm using a square pan lined with baking sheets.

Oh, good, please try it and let us know so that perhaps we can make the perfect kasutera. I have one baking as we speak and will post the results tomorrow after it sits in the plastic overnight.

BTW, Mary Elizabeth, the dark areas are much more uniform now. The first ones were a lot darker on top that extended inwards than the sides or bottom.

One of the key issue is to cover the cake once it bakes in a plastic for at least 1 night - 12 hours. I'm not sure about the use of milk or oil in kasutera. If milk is used, it should be very minimal. Of the ones being posted by non kasutera makers, I see half use milk and others not. Some do use a bit water, honey, or something similar. The two being posted by kasutera shops, they do not use oil or milk. I have one in mind for trying, and will let you know how mine comes out.

I found this information with one of the kasutera maker's site. It's roughly translated as "kasutera needs to be steam baked to make sure that inside is fully baked. Without the top on the heat cannot penetrate the inside properly and the top gets too hard and will not produce beautiful product." I plan on trying one of the recipes I found online and incorporate some instructions from these sites. Will most likely use a square pan and place a metal cookie sheet on top. Speaking of Bunmeido, here is a picture of Bunmeido's kasutera. Notice how dark the top is, but that darkness does not penetrate that much into the lighter area. Also, notice the texture, it is very uniform.

I was quickly checking Japanese sites for kasutera and found the following one that you may enjoy. They seem to use flatter pan and the batter is quite full going in. As you can see, there is a flat metal on top coming out. http://www.castella.co.jp/castella/castell3.shtml#movie

I found the recipe for Pichet Ong's version. His recipe calls for oil. Is that right? It seems really odd to me to add oil to kasutera.

When you say separate foam method, I assume you are talking about separate yolk and white part? Can you share the recipe you are using? I've tried quite a bit of kasutera recipes over the years and to be honest, I have not been 100% happy with the results. Like you mentioned, too many produce open crumb texture and not fine enough. However, recently I bought a store bought kasutera and I was so disappointed in it so perhaps my standard of perfect kasutera may not be the model kasutera. What I remember from the show (wish I can remember which one it was), but it was closed off with the top on the whole time. I wish I remember how much they filled it, but I don't remember it. They had a huge tub of foam that they scooped into the pan and top on. The texture was quite dense and very fine looking. If I remember anymore I'll post.

Hmmm were they cubed or shredded? It could be Kamja Chorim which is soysauce, sesame oil, a little sugar, garlic, and sesame seeds and the potatoes are stewed. Kamja bokkum which is stir fried potatoes with neutral oil, sesame oil to finish and sesame seeds... ← Thanks for your reply. These were whole new potatoes. Still little chewy inside. It looked either fried whole or baked. Definite taste of sesame oil and seeds. I love how they were still chewy inside and great taste permeated all the way through. You know, they could also have been grilled or even stir fried. Hmmmm.......

These are both the cakes you made? When you say you inverted the cake after 7 minutes, you actually did invert the cake right? This is so interesting - I love it. The one on the left is much taller than the one on the right. Big difference in their tallness. The one on the left seems to have more open crumb texture. How did it taste? I've seen a show of one kasutera maker in Japan and they were using the pullman style bread pan with the top in his shop. I was really surprised at how dark and brown the surface of their kasutera was, but they looked really good.

I picked up already cooked small thin skin potatoes at a Korean grocery store in Sunnyvale, CA called Hankook. These were part of their banchan offerings along with all the kimchi and marinated meats. They really did not look pretty, but I was curious. Not sure if they were fried or baked but they have wonderful firm texture with great potato taste and are coated with sesame oil and sesame seeds. I ate them with hichimi togarashi and wow, they were so good with beer. Can anyone tell me the name of this Korean food? I would like to make them. Thanks!

I'd buy it and send it to you if you wanted. I'd have to find it, though, and that might be a problem! Or you (or I) could order it from the site and have it shipped to my place, then I could ship it to you. You wouldn't even have to order as much, since it could probably be shipped "Small Packet" if the volume isn't too great (weight for small packets is up to 1 or 2 kgs, I think, but there's a size limitation, too). ← Ahh, you are such a sweetheart, Rona. Thank you very much for offering. I know you are a very busy woman and I would not feel right having you go through the trouble of ordering for me. I will be in Japan in September/October again and I'll look for it then.

For drying umeboshi, how many days do you usually dry? I would think that living in California, especially with our dry summer months, drying of umeboshi will be ideal. I have been reluctant to start umeboshi because I was worried about bugs getting on them while they are being dried. We have pretty good number of bugs in our backyard. Is that a concern? Were you going to soak them in straight honey after their drying time? Helen, if you have some time, will you post your recipe for umeboshi - pretty please.