helenjp

I guess it's just too hard to add most things to noodles without having them fall apart. I bought some purple sweet potato somen recently, so I'll be curious to see how that works. The pink noodles are very pretty though - wouldn't they look good with pale green wasabi noodles...

Thanks for your blog, have a good rest, and all the best for class tomorrow!

smoked black cardamom/cardamon...this is something I have a bit of difficulty in deciding how much to use without overpowering the final dish (though it seems to be the smokiness that is the problem)

I stumbled on the Korean TV drama Dae Jang Geum, known in Japanese as Changgum no Chikai (Changgum's Promise). The season is about to finish, and I think it may have been shown on Japanese TV once before without me noticing , but as it screens at 11pm on Friday nights, NHK 1, I can actually get to watch it! The cooking scenes tend to show ingredients being carried here or there, or pot-lids being lifted, rather than hands-dirty stuff, but there is plenty of interesting discussion to flesh it out! Any other favorites?

Thanks Abra! On reflection, I think most of the problem would have been the difference in NZ and US flour - our flour is much, much weaker, and absorbs much less liquid, even from butter, but neither my mother nor I would have realized that, since we'd never used any other type of flour. I will definitely try again...

I agree - dessertspoon/10ml. My grandmother's recipes and recipe books often used to include "dsp" for dessertspoon.

I'm really delighted to see this! I inherited a '50s spritz press from my mother, who got hold of it as a great American novelty and never mastered it (I don't EVER remember her using it). I admit, I'm not confident with it either - totally unsure about what texture/level of firmness the raw dough should be as it goes into the press. Do you think melting the butter is the way to go? Gotta try this again, as kids' spring vacation approaches...

If it's any consolation, I burned out my deLonghi stand mixer, although I thought I was being extremely careful with it. I've taken to pulling out a drawer and putting a chopping board over it to give me somewhere to put my hand mixer down midway.

Come to think of it, I've never seen shiro-kikurage fresh either. Cauliflower fungus - I see a recipe which combines it with lobster. It may be a good match for things with a very strong "umami" flavor of their own.

OK, I see that the mark that looks like a ferret doing parallel bar work is actually a "double tray with convection" symbol! That's a really useful option - I miss the fact that my current oven has only one tray, especially as the top tray is so close to the top of the oven that it won't take casserole dishes or cakes. My Toshiba is a toughie, but not the most baking-friendly. P.S. And what about the hand mixer? I've bought and inherited various Japanese ones, but the Braun Multimix M880 I have now is tmuch better than any of them.

Definitely bechamel fritters = Japanese version of cream croquettes! Thanks for the description, Rochelle.

Can you tell more about the bechamel fritters please? They sound rather like the cream croquettes I made recenlty, which also starts with a bechamel. Curious to know more...

I think you're doing your students a big favor actually demo'ing stock-making in class. Especially when I think about how much that stockpot must weigh! Sorry about the sweet potato advice, I totally forgot that you have different sweet potatoes. You'd need some considerable muscle to mash a roasted sweet potato here! I second the steaming advice though.

FOr mashing, steam is best, boil 2nd best. Steam whole; for boiling soak in water for a while (couple hours) first - the color when cooked will be much brighter.

Susan, no Sevilles here, but Japan has a wide variety of citrus at this time of year. I use them all but come to think of it, even the sour ones are eaten out of hand here, so I will try as your link suggests and cut the sugar to 2 fruit: 0.75 sugar.

Yes, yes, great link! There's SO much to read there, so many answers to questions that have lain for years in the back of my mind! Jeniac, this is the recipe that I use, form a Japanese book written by a Korean woman - it's by far the most detailed Korean cookbook I own. I've made it without the squid, as my kimchi-loving husband wasn't too keen on the idea in our warmer southern climate. At time I couldn't find fermented krill paste locally either, and the original recipe shows some signs of simplification, but even so, it has a much fuller taste than the average bought kimchi, and isn't hard to make if you have made pickles. However, if you don't use the squid or the fermented krill, you should add a little more salt - about 1 tab. Chinese-cabbage Kimchi 4 kg chinese cabbage (hakusai in Japanese) 300ml coarse pickling salt 1.5kg giant radish (daikon in Japanese) 6 tab chili powder (get it from a Korean grocery - the average grocery stuff has no taste) 1 regular onion 1 bunch water celery (oenanthe javanica, seri in Japanese, don't know what it is in Korean) 1 squid 1 tab Korean fish sauce (or Japanese shottsuru, Thai nam pla etc if you absolutely can't find the Korean one) MIX A: 2.5 tabs finely grated garlic, 1.5 tabs finely grated ginger root, 2 long onions finely shredded (naga-negi in Japanese), 5 tabs chili powder (medium grind, I think), 1/3 c of fermented krill or other fermented seafood paste, 1/3 cup Korean fish sauce, 2.5 tab salt, 30g tiny dried shrimp (the flat pink papery ones called "sakura-ebi in Japanese" ), 2 tab sugar 200 ml Japanese dashi stock (Make this from katsuo flakes and konbu) 1 tsp coarse pickling salt. Prepare cabbage: Make a deep cross-cut in the root end of the cabbages. Pull apart with your hands. Make another cut and pull in half again if the pieces are really huge. Put to soak in 10 cups of water with 1 cup of the measured salt dissolved in it. Rub the remaining half cup into the thickest white stem portions. Weight so that the cabbage is completely underwater, cover lightly, and leave overnight. Next day, drain, pull off the toughest outer leaf or two on each chunk, and set aside. Radish and squid: Wash the radish, cut into 2-3 inch lengths, slice and shred...or use a coarse grater. Sprinkle over the 6 tab chili powder. Add the finely shredded regular onion, the water celery (trim roots, cut into 2 inch lengths). Use a big bowl. Separately, gut squid, peel membrane, remove quill, and cut into shreds, pour the 1 tab fish sauce over. To complete: Mix all A ingredients into radish. Add onion and squid. Take chinese cabbage, and stuff the mixture between each leaf (without separating from the base, though it's not too crucial). Make sure there is no air trapped. Place into clean container, and pack down firmly. Pack the rough outer leaves on the top. Combine liquid remaining in bowl of stuffing ingredients with the dashi stock, add salt (more if you didn't use the fermented krill paste), pour over. I then cover the surface with plastic wrap, forcing out bubbles, weight with a clean, rustproof weight, and tie a clean cloth over the top plus a loose plastic bag. Now place in a cool place with even temperatures - ideally, about 45degF, 7-8degC for 5-6 days. Take out 1-2 bunches to serve and keep in the fridge, replace the outer leaves and coverings (clean if necessary). Serious kimchi makers have a "kimchi fridge" - a small beer fridge in the garage, for example. This allows them to make kimchi year round, but really, fall or winter is the best time. One reason why people add a tiny amount of sugar is that unless you are using chinese cabbage harvested after the frost, it won't be as sweet.

But there's built-in compensation! Unless you go round leaving hard evidence in foodblogs, your pregnancy brain-drain will *also* wipe all humiliating memories of pregnancy stupor from your post-pregnant memory!

Today's bento - miso-ni made with a light rather than a dark miso: pork, burdock, long onion, and mibu-na greens. Rice with miso-pickles, including young ginger pickled in miso, and tiny umeboshi. If you have the chance to make them, the tiny ume that are usually pickled crunchy-style make great umeboshi for kids and lunchboxes if pickled as for regular umeboshi - they turn out much milder in flavor.

Your loss is our gain - we look forward to seeing you on the Bento thread! I'm in for school bento too...

Come on, you guys, you haven't seen a Japanese home economics classroom. THey look like the science labs...and they look like Frankenstein's B Lab. The wooden workbenches topped with wavy chrome sheets are bolted to the floor, and have been there since they were installed several decades ago. The square wooden stools have leg extensions and substitutions bolted on to them, and are all slightly different conformations of plywood and raw lumber. The floors are mostly lino-tiled, and the tiles that peel off the concrete floors are stacked neatly at one side of the classroom so people don't trip on them...I would love to be in a bright orange MacDonalds play area school kitchen every year preparing the school bazaar eats! I agree with the "freeze in advance" advice for packed lunches! Also, if the low-carb thing is getting old, what about a lunch thermos? Straight from freezer to microwave to thermos - does that sound good? (Check the bento threads on the Japan Forum, google Zojirushi Mr. Bento Lunch Jar, or thermos lunch jar...).

Quick survey of my boys reveals the popularity rankings. Fish and chips. Of course. Spring rolls. Battered mussels and oysters. Most of our local F&C shops are run by recent-immigrant Chinese families. They certainly do a better job with batter than the average Bruce.

I was just about to make some marmalade, when it occurs to me that I might make a low-sugar version to keep in the refrigerator (husband loves marmalade, but finds it a bit sweet when it is made to last over the hot, humid, monsoon season in Japan). Do you have any idea how far you can reduce the sugar content and still get a reasonable set? (Doesn't matter if it's a tad runny, as keeping it in the fridge firms it up a little).

Welcome, Hiro, and hope you enjoy eGullet!

I'm all for mash, and second the recommendation to take a look at Chufi's Dutch cooking thread. Eating rice with most meals makes me long to serve mash in silver dishes, to the sound of harps and trumpets! * Mash with swedes or spring turnips, mash with sharp spring tastes like watercress, mash with apples... * Mash rolled up in slices of beef * Mash piled onto pork medallions, or firm fish pieces and grilled, with or without cheese or other topping Congratulations on your anticipated baby. You won't have any trouble knowing whether he or she is musical...musical kids start to sing and hum tunes before they can talk. Unfortunately they don't come with an inborn desire to practice scales or learn the names of chord inversions...

Great to see you blogging!