We’re off to Japan again! This year’s trip, my first in autumn, promises to be the most fun yet.
Jon Tangrice and corn recipe (corn maze-gohan)
What to do if you love white carbs, but still want your food to look interesting? Bread-lovers have rustic multigrain baguettes to scatter across their flour-smudged blue linen tablecloths… but what about rice-lovers?
Enter mixed rice. It’s a lot quicker than homemade sourdough and much more colourful. [Read more…] about rice and corn recipe (corn maze-gohan)
haiku of the month 08.2018
lean willows
the hungry heron barely
wets his feet
OZEKI junmai sake: an unexpected supermarket review
This is the story of how I accidentally encountered ‘Quality OZEKI Sake’, a.k.a. OZEKI Junmai Sake.
Recently, I’ve been using a lot of sake in my cooking. It adds a sweet, umami rice note to simmered dishes and deglazes frying pans with a delicious waft of aroma. It’s indispensable for a great pork shogayaki.
Sake is mostly known as a drink, of course. But the stuff you can find in the ‘Asian Food’ section (near the mango juice, oyster sauce, ghee, and kimchi ramyeon) is usually not drinkable. In fact, it is probably less a true sake than a seasoning liquid with added salt, vinegar and distilled alcohol. This is no less fine to cook with!
Cheap cooking sake was precisely what I was looking for when rushing up and down my local Morrisons last night. To my initial dismay, I found only this bottle, priced at a disheartening £5.
[Read more…] about OZEKI junmai sake: an unexpected supermarket review
matcha sponge cake recipe
A vibrant matcha sponge cake or quatre-quarts, served in fingers. Matcha gives this simple sponge cake a bright colour and not-too-sweet flavour; beaten egg whites make it extra light. Easy to make and simple to serve, matcha sponge cake makes an elegant but unfussy afternoon treat.
