A night to celebrate and share

Today is kind of a special day for me because....it`s my birthday!
For my birthday this year, we had an almost spontaneous celebratory dinner at Higashiyama BBQ （ひがしやま焼肉) and we really enjoyed our whole evening there!

We ordered this Korean namul or vegetable dish that consisted of gosari (bracken fern stem), bean sprout, spinach, and julienned daikon.

And of course, the Star of the night: the beef.

The beef was incredibly tender, but the beef tongue, which appeared on the picture above as small chunks, were a big hit too!

It`s amazing to see how health-conscious my husband is becoming now as he only ordered the small portion of rice (same like me!) and had a small amount of beef. By small I mean like 3 thin pieces of beef and 5 small chunks of tongue. We were in a BBQ restaurant and that`s all the meat we had!

Other than the health-concerned reason, though, we actually reserved some space for the next treat: Korean seafood and garlic chives (nira) pancake or usually called as chijimi in Japan. There were like 9 pieces of it and we started getting full before finishing the last 2 pieces.

Now, for the birthday girl me, the restaurant provided this dessert for free! Judging from the picture on the menu, the regular size of the dessert is probably 2 or 3 times bigger than this. Since it was only two of us, I specifically asked them to make it smaller and I was glad that I did because this was the right amount for us! What`s inside? Roll cakes, ice cream-filled cream puff, marshmallows, frozen fruits, whipped cream, and strawberry syrup. Saying those words makes me feel guilty, but under the name of annual celebration, we enjoyed them a lot. 

Other than being free, it came with sparklers too!! I think both of us were so excited to see the sparklers on the dessert that we shamelessly kept saying "COOL!" when it was served on our table. It turned out that we got to get photographed with this dessert+sparklers by the waiter as a birthday present from the restaurant. Free dessert and a photograph. Double cool, right?!

So this is the birthday present to bring home! A birthday card with a postcard-sized photograph of us and the dessert. Thank you!!

Just a little introduction for those who are not familiar with Japanese calendar, in Japan, in addition to the regular calendar system, another year-naming system based on the year number of a Japanese imperial reign or era is commonly used in daily life. Currently, we are in the 24th year of Heisei era. So, as shown above, my birthday this year is written as:

平成２４年(Heisei era-year 24, meaning year 2012) 

６月(month 6, meaning June) 

２２日(day 22)

Finally we left the restaurant feeling very full and happy! Next, before heading home, we strolled around a bit near the Sendai station to play with the night shots. The weather was good, the wind was almost absent, and the sky...oh...just look at the sky!

 

Here is a picture taken by my husband. No matter how many times I came here (and I`ve been living in this city for 7 years!), I`m always amazed with this fantastic view of taxis lining super-neatly! If you come visit Sendai Station, you really have to see this spot yourself, although it`s probably hard to miss as the location is pretty much right in front of the station. 

What a wonderful night we had! Now I`m a year older and happier. And hopefully healthier.

Pineapple banana frozen yogurt and coffee ice cream

A while ago after I saw the gorgeous shots of strawberry cheesecake ice cream by Nami of Just One Cookbook, I couldn`t stop thinking about getting myself an ice cream maker. Although I`m usually more into frozen yogurt than ice cream, the idea of making such desserts at home sounds terrific to me. And hellooo...summer is so close already!

I`m really glad that Nami also gave the Amazon link for her ice cream maker because I was totally clueless about any ice cream maker. Although it turned out that the one that I wanted isn`t available here and there is a 100 USD shipping charge if I purchase it from Amazon US (unbelievable, right?!), I decided to purchase the older version of the Cuisinart ice cream maker through Amazon Japan and my new toy is here now! Yeehaaa!

My first ever homemade ice cream was blueberry ice cream using the recipe that came with the manual. The recipe was a quick and simple one as it doesn`t involve any cooking. Just chill the ingredients and churn them altogether in the freezer bowl. I`m also a bit hesitant about including eggs in making ice creams, so I decided to make no-cook and eggless ice creams. Using this method, my blueberry ice cream turned out okay for a starting point and I`m so excited to learn and create more. 

My second product is this coffee ice cream, which is still no-cook and eggless version. I also used decaffeinated instant coffee as I don`t want to stay awake all night after devouring it. I was initially worried about the texture of ice cream because I omit the eggs and the cooking process, but the result was still pretty much satisfying. My husband and I super lllllove this ice cream both for the taste and texture and I had to keep an eye on him because otherwise he would easily finish the whole batch I made. I guess I don`t need to go to Baskin-Robbins for a cup of coffee ice cream anymore!

After having nonstop sugary and creamy days, for my next trial, I made frozen yogurt using pineapple and banana. The idea is to use as many fruits as possible and borrow their natural sweetness for the dessert. For the fruit, I initially intended to use pineapple only, but then I thought that I needed something to give more thickness in the mixture and that led me to include banana.

So this is where I have the pineapple and banana cut into chunks and I was ready to puree them until.....

I remembered that I forgot something. The yogurt. So typical me.

After everything has turned into this pale yellow smoothie texture, I tasted it and decided to add a few tablespoons of honey. Sweet and sour. I`m happy now.

So I did still add more sweetener here, but comparing it to how much sugar I used for my previous ice creams makes me feel better.

Here it comes my magic bowl!

I set the mixing paddle in the freezer bowl, which had been kept in freezer overnight, put the lid on, turn the machine on, and pour the puree through the spout. 

I set my timer for 30 minutes and let the magic happens. 

While waiting for that,  I chop some of the pineapple chunks that I have reserved.

After 20 mins or so, the puree thickened up and started to reach the top of the paddle. How exciting is this!

The frozen yogurt turned thicker and thicker and before I turned off the machine, I sprinkled in the chopped pineapple and churned it for another 5 minutes.

Voilà! It`s done! The mixture might seem too gooey at this step, but after another hour in the freezer (not the bowl), it set nicely.

Oh, I`m totally in love with my ice cream maker. 

I`m not sure if I`ve ever tried sorbet, or at least a decent one before, but this dessert looks more like sorbet than frozen yogurt to me, especially if I compare it to Golden Spoons` products. I`m not sure why, but probably the absence of milk or double cream in it have something to do with that. And speaking of sorbet, the day when I made this dessert and finished my photo-work, I found that Nami has posted her pineapple sorbet with banana too! Maybe the weather has made us think of exactly the same fruits :D

 なみさんへ：同じようなデザートを作っちゃって、すみません！

I apologize for the wilted look of the mint leaves, but I hope it doesn`t suck out all the sunshinyness of the dessert. A verdict on the taste, next time I probably will use less banana for this as the banana turned out to have very strong aroma that almost overpower the pineapple. But all in all, the result made me smile from ear to ear!

Print recipe

PINEAPPLE BANANA FROZEN YOGURT

Makes approximately 1 liter

Ingredients:

1 pineapple, cored and cut into chunks 

Reserve some of the pineapple chunks and chop up

2 banana (or less), cut into chunks 

400 g plain yogurt (I used non-fat)

4 Tbs honey

Method:

1. Puree all the ingredients and chill the puree in refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

2. Churn the puree in an ice cream maker according to the manual for 30 minutes or until the puree has thickened up.

3. Five minutes before stopping the churning process, add the reserved pineapple to the frozen yogurt.

4. Transfer everything to a freezing container and keep it in the freezer for another 2-3 hours.

Print recipe

COFFEE ICE CREAM

Makes approximately 1 liter

Ingredients:

400 ml double cream

200 ml milk

150 g sugar

3 Tbs decaffeinated instant coffee

1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. Chill all the liquid ingredients in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

2. Dissolve instant coffee with some part of the milk. 

3. Churn all the ingredients, including the dissolved instant coffee, in an ice cream maker according to the manual for 30 minutes or until the mixture has thickened up.

4. Transfer everything to a freezing container and keep it in the freezer for another 2-3 hours.

Ketupat sayur (spicy vegetable soup with rice cake)

It was a cold Sunday night when my husband and I were craving for a bowl of spicy soup and we ended up drooling over our imagination of a bowl of spicy vegetable soup with rice cake pieces underneath. That dish is called "ketupat sayur" or "lontong sayur" in Indonesia and you can read about the ketupat/lontong description, including how to make the rice cake using a very simple trick, in my post here. I realized that although I`ve made several dishes served with the rice cake, ketupat/lontong sayur wasn`t among of them. So I made them the next night and next thing I knew, each of us was holding a bowl of it devouring all the goodness. As my rice cake was rather in rectangular (ketupat) pieces than cylindrical (lontong) ones, I decided to call this dish as ketupat sayur, even though the rice cake wasn`t an original ketupat rice cake and the soup contained quite different vegetables.

Let`s cook now!

First thing to do is gather all the spices you have at home and I`m half kidding saying that. 

You can see the spices I used in the list I provide at the end of this post, but you certainly can experiment with your favorite spices. I also love adding dried shrimp or shrimp paste to this kind of spicy food. If you are not big with the "stinkiness" of the shrimp paste, then I recommend you to use the dried shrimp instead as it gives a much milder shrimpy aroma. 

Last year me would have blitz all these spices in a food processor until they turned into paste, but this year me is lazy and happy enough with the chop-chop work.

Next, heat oil in a pot and cook all the spices in the list and add the shrimp too until oh-so-good smell fills the whole kitchen.

After the solid, here comes the liquid. I use coconut milk powder dissolved with water, but you can also add chicken or beef stock for more flavor. One thing to consider with the liquid volume is you`d better add the coconut milk to fill only one third to half of the pot because you need to leave some space for vegetables later. If you need to, you can add the coconut milk or water again later after all the vegetables are in.

Stir and adjust the taste. For seasoning, I use fish sauce, brown sugar, salt, and pepper.

By the way, to make this dish as a vegan diet, just omit the dried shrimp/shrimp paste and fish sauce and use water instead of chicken/beef stock.

Veggie time!

I always use pre-packaged boiled bamboo shoots, so what I do is just wash and chop them.

For the 1000th time, I`m sorry to show you this shimeji mushroom again. Since I have lived here, I just don`t know how to live without it. Or any mushrooms, as a matter of fact.

Stir and simmer for about 15 minutes while adjusting the taste if necessary. 

After you`re done adjusting the soup taste, last thing to add is bean sprouts. Since the sprouts are very quick to cook, just turn off the heat, and put a lid on for 10 minutes to let the sprouts cook with the heat and steam.

Although I haven`t had the original ketupat sayur for certainly a long time, I still can remember how it tasted and adding these bean sprouts in the ketupat sayur dish really gave me a whole new pleasant experience.

Alright, the vegetable soup is done and now is time to arrange the dish.

What you need for ketupat sayur other then the vegetable soup is rice cake. My husband is always in charge with the rice cake making. So here`s the rice cake he`s made by pressing hot steamed rice in a tupper bowl lined with cling wrap and let cool for a while.

Cut the rice cakes, place them in a bowl, and add fried tofu strips. Please remember that this rice cake is basically a compact version of regular cooked rice, so although the rice cake pieces in the bowl seems not enough, it`s actually very fulfilling.

You can add the fried tofu in the soup instead, but I personally prefer this way.

Next thing to do is ladle the soup over and garnish with green onion and fried onion. I don`t have fried onion in hand, but I really wish I had.

It`s spicy, red, full of vegetables, and fulfilling. You certainly can serve the soup with regular cooked rice or even noodles, but in my opinion, the nice compact consistency of the rice cake brings a different texture to the whole dish.

I hope you will give this a try and love it too!

Have a nice weekend!

Print recipe

KETUPAT SAYUR (spicy vegetable curry with rice cake)

Serves 3-4 persons

Ingredients:

Spices

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

3 chili

4 Tbs chili powder 

1 Tbs grated ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1 tsp cardamom

3 star anise

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 Tbs dried shrimps

1 Tbs fish sauce

500 ml coconut milk (or 1 cup coconut powder dissolved in 2 cups water or chicken/beef stock)

3 cups bamboo shoots, chopped

2 cups shimeji mushroom

3 cups bean sprouts

1 tsp brown sugar

Salt

Pepper

Fried tofu strips for garnish

Chopped green onion for garnish

Fried onion (recommended, but not shown here)

Cooked rice for rice cake (check out the method here)

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pot and cook all the spices until fragrant.

2. Stir in coconut milk.

3. Add chopped bamboo shoots and shimeji mushroom to the pot.

4. Season with brown sugar, salt, and pepper and let simmer for about 15 mins with occasional stirring..

5. Add bean sprouts to the pot, turn off the heat, and put a lid for about 10 mins to let the sprouts cook.

To serve with rice cake

1. Cut the rice cake into desirable shapes and arrange the pieces on a bowl.

2. Add fried tofu strips to the bowl, pour over the soup, and garnish with chopped green onion and fried onion.