torakris

Are the strawberry ones daifuku? There is this great store just down my street that has these cafe au lait daifuku that are absolutely addicting. We went strawberry picking last weekend and had htese wonderful strawberry daifuku with fresh cream and perfectly ripe strawberries.

Mon dinner: Grilled aji (sorry forgot the English name of this fish) roasted mushrooms (shiitake, shimeji, button) tossed with watercress and EVOO and lemon juice boiled peas tossed with butter and Maldon sae salt Japanese rice Castella cake for dessert (a gift)

I love mochi too! My favorite ways with the hard mochi (the kind that needs to be softened before eating) is definitely the soy sauce and seaweed version. I also love it toasted and then tossed into a soup bowl. For the soft moch (the freshly made stuff), I love when it is rolled into balls, skewered brushed with a thick gloppy soy type sauce and then grilled. When I lived in the US I bought this every time I went to a Japanese store. Then you can get into the sweet versions, topped with anko (my least favorite) unles it is the silky smooth shiro-an (white anko), I had some a month ago that was flavored with yuzu and was absolutely wonderful. I also love these sprinkled with kinako (toasted soy flour) or topped with the black sesame paste. Check out this site for great info on mochi: http://metropolis.japantoday.com/tokyomini...estoriesinc.htm

Those latkes sound incredible! now to find matzoh in Japan, I had a hard enough time with the duck fat! I did notice that he mentions that duck fat alone was too strong and so he mixed it with oil. Is this just a particular case or should I use a half and half mixture when roasting meats/veggies? Anything duck fat doesn't go with?

Can you? What would you fill it with then?

Sunday we spent 3 hours at a champagne/caviar brunch at a hotel in Tokyo, so no one was really very hungry for dinner. I ate two slices or (purchased) garlic bread the kids had instant curry rice and my husband also had instant curry rice, however his was a new flavor that had gorgonzola cheese in it?! I couldn't even dare to take a bit. way beyond gross!!

I have been on a quest for duck fat for a couple months now and have finally found it! I picked up some duck legs as well, hoping to make a confit. When I came home and looked at the recipe it calls for 2kgs of duck fat! The jar I purchased had something 350g, it would cost me about $50 to get that much duck fat, so my question is: Can you keep reusing it? I am assuming for things like roasted potatoes, there wouldn't be any leftover. (by the way can some one point me in the direction of the thread that talked about roasting potatoes in duck fat?) Let's say I roast a duck and get 2 cups of fat, I then use this fat to make a duck leg confit, can I use the confit fat to roast potatoes, etc.? Also could I add new rendered fat to my old fat? I just found a wonderful supplier of meats in Tokyo, everything from various ducks (American and French), chickens ranging from the size of my palm up to turkeys, pigeons, kangaroo, ostrich, a 12 ft freezer just of lamb, etc, etc They even had my Maladon Sea salt that I have been searching for! Way off topic but I am very excited and can't wait to use my phyllo sheets!

I have just recently discovered popovers and would love to know more about this apple one! Sunday morning breakfast? natto (fermented soybeans) with lots of negi (Japanese onion) and karashi (Japanese mustard) Japanese rice soup my husband made with dried sakura ebi (shrimp), wakame, and tororokonbu lots of iced coffee

The kids were screaming for pizza so : no-cook tomato sauce, black olives and hand shredded mozarella for the kids sauteed wild mushrooms (shiitake, shimeji, enoki) with shaved romano cheese and lots of black pepper for the adults both were quite good

Trust me, this story gets replayed everytime there is a get together. I have a feeling my mother may end up with it printed on her headstone!

My mother has one of the worst stories. It wasn't all that particularly bad it was more the finale to a very bad vacation. I t was late evening and we had just gotten back from the airport after our first (and last ) family airplane trip to Florida. The eight kids (ages 9 mos to 19) were hungry and my mother decided to heat up a frozen pizza. As the pizza was heating up my mother was thanking God the trip was over and we were finally home. The trip hadn't gotten off to a bad start when at 6:00 am in the morning as we where getting ready to leave Cleveland for Florida my mother accidently mailed the airline tickets instead of her Christmas cards. tehn there were the little things, my dad accidentally sitting on his reading glasses and my mother having to read the menu outloud to him at every single meal, my mother leaving her head lights on while we were at Disney World and having to get jumpstarted, twice. The worst part was when she broke her nose trying to run through a sliding glass door (that she thought was open)trying to save a duck (which she thought was her son) from falling into the water. Anyway the timer goes off the pizza is done, my mother opens the door to find the pizza hanging through the racks forming forming a burning cheese glop on the bottom of the oven. My brother rereads the directions on the pizza box and notices that my mom forgot the step where you cook the pizza on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes before transfering it to the rack for the last 5 minutes. She had just placed the frozen pizza directly on the rack.

In Japan the "white tuna" (albacore) is called binchou maguro it is a very light pink color. Bonito also called skipjack in English is referred to as katsuo in Japanese, this is a very strong tasting oily fish very dark in color, that is most commonly prepared seared on the outside in a dish known as katsuo tataki. binchou maguro looks like this: http://www.inet-shibata.or.jp/~ytoshi/japa...nchoumaguro.jpg

Guess I am in a Japanese mood this week: nikujaga (a very homestyle Japanese dish of beef, potatoes and onions) nappa cabbage and aburage (thin deep fried tofu packets) simmered in a soy dashi broth with lots of ginger tomato salad Japanese rice

These sound like pleurotus eryngii (Also known as King Oyster, Eryngii, King Trumpet, Pleorote du Panicaut, Argonane, Bouligoule, Champignon de Garrigue, Cardoncello, Cardarello). They're actually a kind of oyster mushroom which is why the flavour is so mild. See here. Great work Jinmyo, you sleuthed it out! Took a look and these are definitely the mushrooms we've been seeing. The whole spiel about the texture fits perfectly. Thanks. These eryngii mushrooms are huge in Japan right now. They were introduced about 2 or 3 years ago and they are everywhere now, I really love the texture on these and use them quite a bit. As to shiitake, these are quite confusing over here, they are all referred to as shiitake even though I have seen at least 5 distinct types.

Two of my favorite eggplant recipes call for the same method of roasting/grilling then scraping the flesh out, but this is where the similarities end. Jack Bishop's Spicy Eggplant Fritters with Basil adds garlic, basil, red pepper flakes andcheese to the eggplant, forms them into patties and sautees them in a skillet. On the other side of the world the Grilled Eggplant Salad from Hot Sour Salty Sweet is equally delicious. This recipe combines the egglant with shallots, garlic, chiles, scallions, coriander, mint, lime juice and nampla and is served with cucumber slices for eating the "dip".

Ladybug, I had the same reaction the first time I ever had fish sauce, I even threw the bottle away because I knew I would never touch it again. The first time was in a soup where it didn't have a very strong presence but it was all I could taste, it actually took about 3 or 4 more times before I could get past the smell/taste and know I love it and splash it all over the place. NOT my body however!

I was intoduced to mushrooms quite late in life as my mother hates them. I do remember loving these marinated mushrooms that were always part of my grandmother's antipasto platter. Now I sautee mushrooms and put them everywhere, risotto, pasta, pizza. etc My frienda nd I once made a pizza with sauteed wild mushrooms, goat cheese and topped with arugula when it was pulled out of the oven, best pizza I ever had! I am going to give roasting a try, but soemtimes I just love the bite of a raw white mushroom. I often make a mushroom salad with a lemon and EVOO dressing and shavings of parmasean.

Thank you! Now the next question: Does this refer to the penis of a specific animal or are they all collectively called pizzle?

My friend and I went on a baking spree the other day and made a chocolate and espresso cake from Donna Hay's Flavours. The chocolate cake whish is served warm is topped with a syrup made from espresso and sugar. It was really good but the cake could have used a little more sugar. We also made these incredible raspberry almond bars from Fine Cooking's Holiday Baking issue.

How were the scones? I just got the book and so far have only made a chicken dish and was wondering what to try next. The scones weren't bad. I think I need to learn baking techniqes. I really love "A new way to cook"-- I have made tons of things from it. What chicken dish did you make? Tonight, I made the chickpea and winter squash stew with saffron. I made Chicken with Sherry Vinegar Sauce on pg 338. It was really good and very easy. Make sure you serve it with something like mashed potatoes or even a nice bread so none of that sauce goes to waste.

I think monthly might be a little too hard but every other month would be great.

Was really rushed for time again, but had picked up some absolutely gorgeous swordfish steaks, so: swordfish with a galangal, red chile, soy sauce (from Donna Hay and very good) served over steamed baby bokchoy jasmine rice tomato salad leftover raspberry almond bars (these are absolutely incredible by the way!)

Okay call me the ignorant one, but this has gone to page two and no one else has asked and I absolutely for the life of me figure out what a pizzle is?!! The pictures didn't even help, actually they confused me even more

I just noticed this at my Japan Costco last week. Paged through it but wasn't impressed.

Last night was very Japanese: broiled miso marinated cod bamboo (fresh) and hijiki stirfry miso soup with tofu, wakame, and scallions napa cabbage kimchi (okay, not exactly Japanese) Japanese rice with gomashio a la Jin (I had never made gomashio before, now I will never buy it again!) toasted nori sheets dessert was chocolate espresso cake (Donna Hay's Flavours book) raspberry almond bars (forget the exact name , from the Fine Cooking Holiday baking issue)