Hiroyuki

I forgot to mention Millser, a small-sized blender, which I used to make some mayo the other day. http://www.millser.com/index.html

Great post and excellent photos. I'm curious, is it customary to tip when you sit at the counter at a Japanese restraurant?

What I learned from a TV show years ago is that the matsutake in Japan, China, and Korea are of the same species while those in North America are not. For reference, Canadian matsutake are like these. http://www.rakuten.co.jp/chokuhan/301498/542298/ And Japanese http://esearch.rakuten.co.jp/rms/sd/esearc...BE%BE%C2%FB&x=0 I can buy Canadian matsutake for about 680 yen ($6.50) per two or three pieces in the fall even in my small rural town. Japanese matsutake are quite expensive. Really good ones cost 20,000 to 30,000 yen ($190 to $280)per piece. As I mentioned in the mushroom thread, there is a well-known phrase in Japan: Kaori (or nioi) matsutake aji shimeji This refers to the fact that the matsutake is the best in terms of aroma and the hon shimeji is the best in terms of taste. I can never dream of putting matsutake in sukiyaki... EDITED to add US prices

Not interesting or innovative, but I find these items quite useful: I bought them all at the 100-yen shop.

Akiko, Here is a very simple recipe (Japanese only) with pancake mix. Just prepare pancake batter and put it in the rice cooker. But here is one caution: Not all rice cookers are suitable for making cakes. If the cooker turns off in the middle of cooking, just give it up. From here: http://allabout.co.jp/gourmet/cookingabc/c...220a/index5.htm (Japanese only) According to this (Japanese only), a person broke his/her cooker at the third attempt .

For my first attempt ever, I used chicken breasts (550 g in total). I cut them into manageable chunks of about 1 x 1 inch and put half of them in a Ziploc bag for vacuum cooking. I pan-fried the other half with no oil for comparison. After one hour, I transferred the contents of the bag to a plate. They looked like a single lump. I separated them. Right-hand side: Vacuum cooked Left-hand side: Pan-fried (Sorry for the photo. We ate most of them before I could take a picture!) Conclusions: The vacuum-cooked chicken was a little bit tenderer than pan-fried, but there was no major difference in taste. I confirmed one great advantage of vacuum cooking - no shrinkage. I think this method is worth trying. For my second attempt, I will use beef! Thanks for the tip. I sucked the air out with a straw while submerging the bag.

Sometimes you guys really make me speechless... Sounds like yours is in the Kansai style, doesn't it?

I still cannot determine what exactly you are referring to. Is it something like this? (Scroll down and look at the first two photos.)

How about this one? http://www.ajiwai.com/otoko/make/hosi_fr.htm (Japanese only)

Oh, yes, I know. My wife has made a sponge cake in a rice cooker only once. It was more like mushi pan (streamed bun)...

Right! You have a good memory! *** Hoshi imo (dried sweet potatoes) Do you like hoshi imo? I do. But my father says that he never wants to eat them again because he had too many of them when he was a kid. *** Today, we have had the first snow of the season here in Shiozawa! It's still snowing!

Hiroyuki, Why do you buy Kabocha before the winter solstice? And wait a minute. Isn't winter solstice the day that is the shortest in the year? Isn't that actually the 22nd this year? If I'm right, you can buy some Kabocha today! But not before you explain why! ← I have just confirmed with the calendar that the winter solstice falls on today, December 21, this year. And, you don't know?? It is quite customary to eat kabocha on the winter solstice and put some yuzu in the bathtub. And, I don't want to go shopping just to buy some kabocha...

I've been waiting for someone like you. Of course, I will try that method too.

I can't give you a definitive answer. The TV show does not specify the degree of vacuum to be attained. According to the link I provided above, the important thing to remember is to make sure that the meat is in direct contact with the bag.

I know what you are talking about, but according to the TV show, the ideal temperature for meat and seafood is 60 to 70 C (140 to 158 F) and the rice cooker in "keep warm" mode keeps the temperature at around 70 C (158 F). So, if you pour water of 60 to 70 C into the rice cooker, I guess you can maintain the water at around 70 C constantly. Anyway, there is only one way to find out. I need to buy a thermometer first.

Today is the winter solstice, and I forgot to buy some kabocha yesterday!

OK, guys, I'm willing to become your guinea pig. But I will probably switch from beef to chicken or pork for the first try because beef is soooo expensive in Japan.

Thank your for your two replies, esvoboda. So, you mean you have actually tried vacuum cooking with a rice cooker??

The Dec. 20 edition of Hanamaru Market (Japanese only) featured vacuum cooking with a rice cooker with a keep warm function. I think I'll try this method to make roast beef as one of New Year dishes (osechi) and report on the outcome. In the meantime, anyone interested is encouraged to try this method before I do. The following are rough translations of two of the recipes presented in the TV show: 1. The simplest recipe: Ingredients: 200 g chicken Salt and pepper 1. Rinse chicken with water (or with sake (Japanese rice wine) to get rid of the smell). 2. Drain and cut into manageable chunks, then season with salt and pepper. 3. Put them in a Ziploc bag, put a straw in, and seal the bag. Suck air out of the bag. Remove the straw, taking care not to let air in, and seal the bag. 4. Put 2 cups (i.e., 400 cc) of hot water of 60 to 70 degrees centigrade (140 to 158 deg. Fahrenheit) in the rice cooker and put the bag in. 5. Put the lid on, press the keep warm button to heat for 50 minutes. 2. Roast beef Ingredients for 2 servings 200 g beef Black pepper Salt 1/2 clove garlic 1. Sprinkle salt and pepper on beef. 2. Put the beef in a Ziploc bag and add garlic. 3. Suck air out with a straw. 4. Put water of 60 to 70 degrees centigrade in the rice cooker, put the bag, and press the keep warm button. 5) Leave it for 40 to 50 minutes.

I bought a cheap but powerful tool today. We're in the mood for cake making!

According to this survey, 72.6% of the respondents eat a Christmas cake on Christmas. Christmas provides a good excuse for easting cakes, doesn't it? Last Saturday (Dec. 18), Saturday Night Chubaw featured a Christmas chocolate cake. Unfortunately, as of today (Dec. 20), the English version of the site has not yet listed it.

though this may seem ridiculously obvious (mash boiled and peeled chestnuts?) do detail how you are making this. i, for one, would love to know... (and the chestnut cake too!) ← I'm sure you don't want to know... My parents have several chestnut trees in one of their fields and send us a lot of chestnusts in the fall, often peeled and boiled previously by my mother. I just mashed such chestnuts, adding some sugar and margarine (not unsalted butter ). I left some of the chestnuts un-mashed for use as decorations.

I made miso soup with mizuna and aburaage for supper this evening. My wife and I both laughed when our son suddenly said, "Shakishaki shite umai!" (I'm not lying; he said that in so many words.) Shakishaki is hard to translate -- fresh and crunchy?

Where do you see this written? ← The sugar content is indicated right at the point of purchase. Not in the supermarkets in your area?

These days, I often see mikan with a sugar content of 10 for sale at a local supermarket. I find these mikan good enough for me. I think mikan with a sugar content of 12, 13, or greater are so sweet that I can't eat many of them. More than 30 years ago, when I was a kid, mikan were the only fruit we had in the winter. We used to buy them in boxes and had tens of them while warming ourselves in the kotatsu until our hands turned yellow. Up to two or three years ago, my wife and I used to buy mikan in boxes, but now we usually buy them in bags because we just can't consume all the mikan in a box before they turn moldy.