sanrensho

Make bread or naan. I've made this sourdough bread and was pleased with the results: http://i12etu.com/2008/02/tangy-yogurt-bread.html

I'm not sure if your comment was specifically directed at dougw, but I use a 1:1 ratio (by weight) for a 100% hydration starter. As Jackal suggests, I also refrigerate my starter. If I need to build up starter for baking, then I take out some starter from the fridge, add flour/water and leave overnight, and use that as my refreshed starter. (If I have some left over after baking, I throw that into the fridge with the other starter.) When my refrigerated starter runs low, typically after 2-3 week, I just build up the starter again using the above method, then put it back in the fridge again. I can't remember the last time I had to throw out starter.

I would place it even earlier than that. I have recipe clippings from my mom's Japanese fashion/homemaker magazines from the 70s (Missessu or "Mrs" magazine), and they are full of tart, gateaux and other French cake recipes.

If you're interested, we also have a thread dedicated to making shokupan here.

I enjoy the show a lot. I see his emphasis on good, honest ingredients and simple technique as the antithesis of the "shortcut" approach that seems to permeate some programs. But my wife always says the same thing when she sees Oliver's programs: "They must hate cleaning up after that guy."

I believe the English (North American) equivalent for kata-roosu is "chuck." I'm not a huge meat eater, but I associate "roast" with a large cut that is used for roasting (prime rib, etc.). I think it would be called "thin-sliced" or "stir-fry" chuck here. The U.S. Meat Export Federation has a good chart showing US cuts (in katakana) here. I also found this chart of equivalents to be useful. According to the latter chart, sankaku-bara would be "chuck rib."

This is called "hooch" and is normal after the starter has been sitting for awhile. You don't need to drain it, just mix in as necessary. Just keep feeding as you normally would. I have never drained the hooch.

Add me to the list of people enjoying this blog. I haven't been a resident of Japan since 1999. Smallworld, what kind of changes have occurred since you started living there, with respect to the purchase and availability of food? Do you think people are eating differently at home, compared to when you first moved there?

This is about as convincing an argument as I have ever read. I will now pledge to buy chicken feet whenever I have the opportunity. My two girls will get a kick out of it.

How about doing the oreos but with new, adventurous or Island flavors? If they prove to be popular, you can introduce them at your shop.

Sounds like just a slopping way of saying, "Saute in olive oil and deglaze in white wine."

Has anyone tried the Haupia cake by Roy Yamaguchi? Is it any good? http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/haupiacake.htm

I wonder if you could do something like a hybrid between the mentaiko spaghetti I referred to and a carbonara. Break open the egg sacks (optionally brine in sake/salt/sugar/soy sauce first) and mix with a bit of cream and grated parmesan or pecorino. Maybe an egg yolk or two to help bind the sauce to the pasta. Toss this with drained spaghetti, letting the yolks and roe cook just with the residual heat from the pasta. Mentaiko spaghetti is traditionally topped with a chiffonade of shiso (or use basil) and nori. Mind you, I've never done this before, but maybe it will give you some ideas.

Thanks, I have been looking up recipes for shuijianbao and it appears to be even easier than baozi--fewer concerns about sticking and less room needed for steaming. I think I will be trying it soon. The baozi dough recipe I tried uses equal amounts of baking powder and yeast. I liked the chewiness but the yeast flavor was a bit strong.

The first thought that comes to mind is some kind of shiroan enrobed with tempered white chocolate. Or even a baked or steamed manju covered, again enrobed with white chocolate. Needless to say, I am a big fan of white chocolate. *Edited to add: Maybe a semi-preserved and semi-dehydrated strawberry or peeled kyoho grape center in the shiroan? Obviously, the treats would need to be eaten relatively quickly in that case. I may have to try this myself!

I wonder if you could make something similar to the Japanese delicacy mentaiko, which is usually made with pollock roe (and is expensive to boot!). Mentaiko, and its spicier cousin, karashi mentaiko, makes for a wonderful spaghetti sauce.

Introducing steam would be helpful for oven spring, but since that doesn't seem to be a problem, I don't see the need for it!

Wow, that is some tremendous oven spring you've got there! How did you bake it?

Does anybody else make these (shui jian bao) at home? I successfully made a batch of bao zi yesterday and want to try pan frying some. Do I just steam them for the same amount of time before pan frying? Is steam (water) ever introduced when pan frying these buns--as in pot stickers?

I want to live where Tri2Cook lives. Seriously, though, I enjoy chanterelle, matsutake (pine) and porcini mushrooms among wild-picked varieties. Among cultured varieties, we eat a lot of shiitake, enoki and hiratake or maitake. From a price/availability perspective, if I had to pick one mushroom as an everyday cooking variety, I would choose fresh shiitake.

I find that some amount of sludge is inevitable with a French press, even if I have my roaster grind it for me for French press. For me it's an "either or" situation--I'd rather have sludgeless coffee via mokka pot, drip or Vietnamese filter, or embrace the sludge with Turkish coffee. At the moment, French press is my least favorite method of making coffee at home.

I actually think the no-knead breads are easier--no-brainers in fact. So I would encourage you to jump right in. If your library has it, you might look into borrowing a book called "No Need to Knead" (out of print).

I think you're right, but most of the Japanese recipes I found for "peanut butter" refer to a mixture of peanuts, butter/margarine and sugar/maple syrup. Which is peanut cream, no?

Whoah, nobody accused you of anything. Notice the quotes around the word "weird" (your words). All I'm saying is that it might not be half bad. Let us know if you try it. I won't have a chance to try any commercial Japanese pb for another couple of months, so I'm tempted to have a go at this--minus the egg yolk. Helen, what do you think of the commercial Japanese peanut butters, compared with a US brand like Skippy's? Kris, you must have some thoughts on this. The addition of sugar doesn't bother me at all, since it's normal in my household to spread a little honey with our peanut butter (not big pbj fans).

Interesting. It's been years and years since I had any Japanese peanut butter, but a quick search for Japanese recipes indicates that most call for butter/margarine and sugar, but not yolks. Literally, peanuts + butter = (Japanese) peanut butter. It makes me wonder if Japanese peanut butter morphed into a butter-based paste due to a transliteration issue. Although the recipe may seem "weird," it isn't necessarily bad if the results taste good.