2013 Oshogatsu ni O-inari san (Sweet Sushi - Inarizushi)

Ingredients:
Makes 10 Inarizushi

*Sushi rice*

• 2 rice-cups rice (about 100 grams/cup)
• Water for rice equivalent to the number of the rice-cup (when using California-or US-produced rice) - the amount more than enough
• 100 ml sushi vinegar + 3 tbs granulated sugar (add 140 cc first and adjust)
• A pinch of salt
• 2/3 small thin carrot (about 30 grams), thinly sliced
• 1/8 regular-sized burdock (about 30 grams), thinly sliced
• Some lotus root and shiitake (optional), thinly sliced

*Sweet soy-sauce and dashi water*
  (Needed to simmer the sushi vegetables)

• About 150 - 200 ml water
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• Some dashi powder
• 1/2 tbs sugar

*Prepared Inari-age (sweet fried tofu, the wrapping part)* - Easy and recommended!
  Non-prepared frozen Inari-age needs to be simmered in the below sauce.
  For 5 big square Inari-age:

• 200 ml water
• 5 tbs sugar
• 4 tbs soy sauce

1. Set the rice in the rice cooker.
2. Microwave sushi vinegar for about 20 -30 seconds and melt in sugar.
3. If you have prepared inari-age, just drain it by gently squeezing them and that's it! (recommended). If you have frozen inari-age (not prepared), simmer them in water in a saucepan at medium to low heat, say sauce and sugar and take them out when they absorb the sauce that should be half-way gone by the time they're ready. Drain lightly squeezing them (I know it's hot so wait for a while until you can touch them!) and cut the square shaped inari-age in half triangularly and open the pocket by hand where the rice will be put into later.
4. Slice thinly all the vegetables and simmer them in *Sweet soy-sauce and dashi wate* for about 2 minutes.
5. When the rice is cooked, immediately move the rice into a big bowl and add the vegetables and the sushi vinegar to mix them well while the rice is hot. This way, the rice absorbs the vinegar the best. Cover the rice in a bowl with a wet towel while it cools down to keep it moist.
6. Take some sushi in one hand and put it into a triangle inariage pocket and wrap it nicely.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

Ingredients:
2 packages of strawberries (1lb = 450 gram x 2)
1 & 1/4 cups of granulated sugar
1 large lemon zest & juice

1. Use a medium-sized pot (bigger than 3-quart pot) and melt lemon zest & juice and sugar well over low heat (about 5 minutes). (If the pot is too small, it's hard to release the strawberries' juice and thicken well.) 
2. Cut strawberries in haf and cook over low-medium heat for about 20 -25 minutes.
3. It's ready when a drop of the juice isn't runny on a cold plate. (You may think it's too liquidy when jam is heated but remember it thickens more when chilled in the fridge later. So, it is ready when you think not. Don't over cook!)

We liked this jam because it's not too sweet like store-sold jam and taste the fresh strawberries on bread. They are tasty on crackers or in yogurt.

Adapted from my favorite Ina Garden's recipe "Fresh Strawberry Jam"

O-zooni! (Mochi Soup)

Ingredients (not exact but can be adapted to your preferences):
Serves 2- 3 people

• 70 grams Japanese radish (about 1/8 of a long radish)
• 40 grams carrot
• Some shungiku garland chrysanthemum or napa cabbage (optional)
• 5 small dried shitake
• 2 kiri-mochi

*Soup Flavor*

• Soy sauce
• Salt
• Mirin
• Sake
• 600 - 650 ml dashi water - Mixture of water and dashi powder (organic is recommended)
• 3 inches of dried kelp

1. Soak dried shitake in water in a small bowl.
2. Put water, dried kelp, shitake (softened after drained) radish and carrot in a pot at a high-medium heat.
3. When it simmers, add shungiku to cook them for another couple of minutes.
4. Take out the kelp from the soup and flavor the soup with *Soup Flavor*.
5. Microwave kiri-mochi in a little water in a bowl (about 40 seconds/mochi with water covering half the mochi) and put the mochi in the simmering soup for about 10 - 15 seconds and serve.

Healthy Lemony Beet Leaves

Ingredients:

• Beet leaves (about 3 beet leaves)
• 1.5 tbs olive oil
• 2.5 cloves of grated garlic
• 1/4 tsp red pepper
• 1.5 quarter a lemon
• Salt (about 2 pinches = about 1/2 tsp) and pepper (2 pinches)

1. Rinse the beet leaves and put them into boiling water for about 1.5 - 2 minutes.
2. "Shock" the leaves by spooning the leaves out of the boiling water and plunging into ice water.
3. Cut the leaves into thirds.
4. Heat a pan and put olive oil, garlic and red pepper and then add the leaves. (for a minute or two)
5. Squeeze lemon over the leaves and sprinkle salt and pepper and serve.

Adapted from New York Times Sauteed Beet Green With Garlic and Olive Oil

Veggie Minestrone Soup

Ingredients:

• 1.5 tbs olive oil
• 1 small onion minced
• 2 thin small carrots diced
• 1 small potato diced
• 1/4 pepper diced
• Half a celery diced
• 1 small tomato diced (optional)
• 1/8 cup green peas
• Less than 1/4 cup beet stems diced
• 1 & 1/2 cups of (625 ml) consomme water (chicken broth is okay. I use "Oofu dashi" 欧風だし)
• 3/4 cup of tomato puree/sauce (I use "MUIR GLEN Organic Tomato Basil)
• 3/4 tsp salt
• Pinch of pepper

1. Chop all the vegetables and cook onion, carrots and potato with oil in a pot quickly.
2. Add water and consomme powder when it simmers and add pepper and celery and cook them for about 5 - 10 minutes.
3. Flavor the soup with tomato puree/sauce and salt and pepper.
4. Add tomatoes and green peas and cook them all for another 5 minutes or less until vegetables soften and serve.

Carrot & Burdock Beef Rolls

Ingredients:
330-350 grams beef
1 carrot
Half a burdock

*Sauce*
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
2-2.5  tbs grated ginger juice
3-3.5 tbs sugar
3 tbs soy sauce
250 ml water
some drops of sesame oil

1. Simmer carrot and burdock in boiling water until they become half-way soft.
2. Strain carrot and burdock and roll them with shredded beef.
3. Brown the beef rolls by rolling them on a non-stick pan (without oil) and add water (about 500 ml till the water covers more than half the beef rolls) and wait until they simmer.
4. Drain half the water and remove scum and add *sauce*.
5. Simmer the beef rolls in the sauce until they absorb the flavor (about 10-15 minutes)
6. Drop some sesame oil and serve them with sauce.

Beet and Sweet Potato Salad

Beets and Sweet Potato Salad

• 1 medium beet
• 1 medium sweet potato (about 420 - 440 grams)
• some crushed almonds
• some Italian parsley

*Sauce*
2 tbs Greek yogurt or sour cream
1/2 tbs - 3/4 mayonnaise
1-1.5 tbs heavy cream
Salt and pepper

1. Cut off the leaves from the beet and boil it for about 35 minutes (fresh is the best but canned beets will be okay)
2. Cut the sweet potato into big dices and steam it for about 20 - 30 minutes.
3. Mix beet, sweet potato and almonds with *Sauce* and parsley.

It makes the amount for about 4-5 people as a side dish. 

Creamy Spicy Kabocha Soup

Ingredients:

• 560 grams Kabocha, medium size (Japanese pumpkin - sold at Asian grocery stores)
• 3/4 of a medium onion
• 2 tbs butter
• 520 ml chicken broth
• 125 ml heavy cream
• 150 cc milk or less (adjust to the consistency you prefer)

*Spices*

• 1/4 tsp coriander
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (can be added up to 1/4 tsp to your preference)
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1/16 tsp all spice
• 2.5 tsp brown sugar (or less to your preference)
• 1.5 tsp honey
• A pinch of red pepper (optional)

How to make Creamy Spicy Pumpkin Soup:

1. Slice onion and cut the pumpkin skin and dice it into big pieces.. (If you put the whole medium-sized pumpkin in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes and 5 minutes the other side, they'll get soft enough to cut into pieces.) See the picture for how to cut the pumpkin skin.
2. Cook onion in butter in a pot until they become clear, which means cooked well and that makes the soup sweeter, and add pumpkin.
3. Add chicken broth in the pot and simmer it until pumpkin gets completely soft.
4. Use an immersion blender (or a regular blender) to mash onion and pumpkin in soup.
5. Add heavy cream and milk and flavor with *Spices* to make your perfect soup!

Mango Lassi

Mango Lassi for Two:
4 medium ice-cream scoops of European yogurt
6 medium ice-cream scoops of mango sorbet (Ciao Bella is very good!)
A little less than 1 tbs honey
A little less than 1/4 cup water
Some ice cubes

Just mix them all up in a blender and enjoy!

Raspberry and Blackberry Yogurt Mousse Cake

Double Earl Grey Elegance- Earl Grey Rolled Cake with Earl Grey Whipped cream

Homemade Raspberry Jam Flower Cookies

Japanese Souffle Cheesecake

Bavarian Pineapple Upside-up Vanilla Cream

Bavarian vanilla cream:

2 egg yolks

50 grams sugar

250 cc milk

6 grams gelatin + 42 cc water

2/3 vanilla stick (or 2 – 2.5 tsp vanilla extract)

250 cc heavy cream

Pineapple vanilla cake:

3 eggs

A pinch of salt

60 grams sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

45 grams flour

2.5 tbs small dices of pineapple

How to make the pineapple vanilla cake:

Preparation: Line a jelly roll pan with baking paper (I used 15" x 10" x 1" high jelly roll pan but it was too big so controlled the size of the cake by folding the baking paper in the middle of the pan to stop the batter where I wanted and placed something by the paper to support the cake.) You also need some molds like in the picture or removable bottom pans which you want to pour the Bavarian cream into. I guess 7" removable bottom cake pan or circle mold would be good if you want to put all in one. Mine was an 8 cm dome mold and two 5.5 cm x 3 cm high circle molds (right in the picture) and a 15 cm x 3cm high circle molds (left in the picture).

1. Sift flour in a bowl.
2. Separate egg yolk and white. 
3. Beat egg whites and make meringue while slowly adding sugar until it forms stiff peaks.
4. Add egg yolk one by one and vanilla extract.
5. Mix flour into the egg mixture by a spatula.
6. Add pineapples quickly.
7. Pour into the jelly roll pan (about a half inch high) or a removable-bottom cake pan and bake at 355 F for 8 - 10 minutes (if the batter is higher than a half inch, bake longer).
8. If you're using circle molds like in the picture, push the molds into the cake to make the bottom cake in the molds.

How to make the Bavarian vanilla cream:

1. Soak gelatin powder in the water in a small bowl.
2. Heat milk in a pot until it boils with vanilla seeds and stick in it.
3. Mix egg yolk and sugar in a bowl.
4. Pour the boiled milk Very slowly into the bowl of the egg mixture while whisking it quickly.
5. Put all the mixture back into the pot and simmer at a low heat until it thickens a little bit (don't heat it too much too long to avoid getting it lumpy.)
6. Remove from the heat, add the gelatin into the mixture and strain it into a bowl. Put aside and let it cool down (add vanilla extract, if you didn't use vanilla sticks) (mixture 1).
7. Whip heavy cream to soft peak in a separate bowl.
8. When the mixture 1 cools down (at the same temperature as the whipped cream), add the whipped cream into it.
9. Pour the cream into the molds with cake at the bottom and chill it in the fridge for about 1.5-3 hour(s) (depends on how deep the molds are).
10. Decorate the cake with thinly sliced pineapples and raspberry (fresh one not frozen) in the middle.