Coffee and Cream Jello (non caffeinated)

Makes 4 small cups jello:

6 grams gelatin
42 ml water

(A) 400 ml hot water
      2 tsp decaffeinated coffee
      5.5 tsp chikoli coffee
      2 tbs sugar

Syrup:
25 ml water
12.5 gram sugar

Heavy milk to your preference

1. Dissolve gelatin in cold water and wait till it hardens.
2. Mix above (A) and microwave until it gets hot
3. Add in gelatin in (A) and mix well and let it cool before pouring it into cups and make them cool in the fridge.
4. In a small little bowl, make syrup by mixing water and sugar and microwave until sugar completely melts. Let it cool while the jello firms up in the friedge for a couple of hours.
5. When jello is ready, pour some syrup and heavy cream on top and eat it all together.

Referred to:
http://www.nhk.or.jp/kamado/recipe/103.html

http://cookpad.com/recipe/2502141

Summery Ginger Mojito

200 grams ginger
140 grams sugar
20 grams honey
300 ml water
2 cinnamon sticks
7 pieces of clove
1/2 red pepper (1/2 of a small stick or some sprinkle of its spice)
1 & 1/3 lemon juice
Mint leaves as garnish

1. Wash and clean the ginger skin and slice them.
2. Add sugar in the sliced ginger in a bowl and leave it in the fridge for about 20 - 30 minutes (or over night) until water comes out of ginger and sugar.
3. You can skip this step but blending the ginger before heating it in the pot deepened the flavor.
4. Add in all other spices and water except for lemon juice and mint leaves and simmer it over low heat for about 20 minutes.
5. Strain the ginger syrup into a bowl and add lemon juice.
6. Store in the fridge till cool down and serve it with sparkling water (ginger syrup : water = 1 : 4 or to your preference) and mint leaves on top as garnish.
   
   

Carrot & Blood Orange Cupcake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

 

Carrot and Blood Orange Cupcake (9 cupcakes):
(Dry ingredients)
128 grams flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp ginger spice
2/3 of 1/4 tsp nutmeg

(Wet ingredients)
137 ml grapeseed oil
10 ml blood orange juice
160 grams sugar
 (170 grams for very sweet cupcakes, 150 grams for breakfast cupcakes)
2 eggs, medium-size

(Carrots and walnuts)
120 grams shredded carrot
2 grams orange zest
25 grams walnut, cut into small pieces

Cream cheese frosting:
75 ml cream cheese
35 gram powder sugar
1/8 squeezed lemon
45 ml heavy cream
Some vanilla extract

1. Sift the flour and all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix sugar in eggs well in a separate bowl.
3. Add in warm orange juice and melt sugar in eggs and then add in oil well quickly.
4. Add in all the dry ingredients.
5. Mix the shredded carrots, orange zest and walnut in the batter quickly and pour it into the mold.
6. Bake at 180 degrees (Celsius) for 18 minutes and another 4 minutes at 170 degrees.
7. Make cream cheese frosting by mixing cream cheese, sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and whipping heavy cream in a separate bowl (added with vanilla extract) and fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

 

Carrot Soup

1/4 onion, minced
8 grams butter
85 - 90 grams carrot, chopped
1 tbs flour
150 ml chicken stock (water and 1 tsp ofu-dashi/consomme powder)
100 ml milk (add 2 tbs milk or heavy cream next time)
1/16 tsp salt

Kinpira Gobo (Sauteed Burdock Root)

1/4 takanotsume, sliced or 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
2/3 gobo
30 gram carrot
2 tsp white sesame
1/4 tsp sesame oil

Sauce:
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs mirin
1/2 tsp sugar

1. Thinly slice burdock and put it in water in a bowl. Thinly slice carrot and boil in water in pot quickly.
2. In the same pot, heat up the red pepper in oil quickly.
   Cook burdock and carrot until they soften a little bit for about a minute.
3. Add in Sauce and simmer burdock and carrot until the Sauce almost completely evaporate.
4. Add in sesame oil and sesame.

Sesame Spinach

100 gram spinach, boiled for one minute, put in cold water and squeezed to get water out.
2.5 tbs white  sesame, grinded
2 - 3 tsp dashi soy sauce

Tofu and Soy Milk White Cream Gratine with Shimeji and Bacon

 

Soy milk white sauce gratine:

200 ml Soy milk

100 ml milk

50 ml heavy cream

1 tbs Kuzuko (a starch powder), dissolved in water

30 grams onion, sliced

50 grams bacon

80 grams shimrji

300 grams tofu, cut into thin big dices

8 grams bouillon cubes

1.5 of 1/4 tsp salt

a pinch of pepper

1. Cook onion, bacon and shimeji with batter.
2. Add in soy milk, milk and heavy cream and when it simmers, add bouillon, salt and  pepper.
3. Add in Kuzuko, dissolved in water, and wait until it thickens.
4. Add Tofu and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
5. Pour the gratine in a plate and sprinkle cheese on top.
6. Put it in a toaster or oven (220 degrees) to brown the cheese on top.

Soy Milk Pudding with Kuromitsu (Brown Sugar Syrup)

 

Soy Milk Pudding (three cups)

105 ml soy milk

95 ml heavy cream (made from animal/vegetable fat)

1/3 vanilla stick and a few drops of vanilla extract

20 gram sugar

2 gram gelatin + 14 ml cold water

1. Add cold water in gelatin and stir until it dissolves and leave until it hardens.
2. Put soy milk, heavy cream, vanilla seeds and sugar in a pot and simmer it.
3. Turn off the stove right before boiling, add in and mix well the hardened gelatin.
4. Strain the mixture in a bowl with spout and add in vanilla extract.
5. Pour the mixture in cup containers and chill them in the fridge for about 30 minutes or more.

*Different way of adding gelatin: Add gelatin powder into water and mix it well. Microwave it for 30 seconds and add it into the soy milk mixture. Let it cool in the fridge.

Brown Sugar Syrup (Kuromitsu)

35 gram brown sugar

15 gram soft brown sugar

50 ml water (about 3 tsp)

1. Simmer the sugar and water over low heat until it thickens but remove from the stove as soon as it starts to thicken to make smooth syrup. Never mix it until it heats up (makes bubbles) to avoid the sugar from getting solid.
2. Pour the syrup over the pudding when it's ready or make this syrup first before the pudding and pour it at the bottom of each pudding container to be chilled together with pudding.

Strawberry Milk and Vanilla Chiffon Cake

Used the same recipe as the vanilla chiffon cake but with strawberry milk glaze on top.

Strawberry milk glaze:
2 tbs strawberry compote
2tbs milk
1 tsp condensed milk
125 gram powder sugar
3/4 tsp squeezed lemon

Blueberry Smoothie

Ingredients:
100 grams blueberry
180 grams yogurt (sweetened)
60 ml milk
Squeezed lemon

Just blend them all together. How easy and yummy is that!

Napoleon's Crepe with Apple Compote

Yields 8 crepes:

(Crepes)
100 g flour
40 g sugar
2 pinches of salt
2 (100 g) eggs
250 g milk
20 g butter, melted

*Just use milk, not a mixture of water and milk (using some water seems to make good moist pancakes but not for the crepes)

(An apple filling)
2 apples, sliced thick
140 g sugar
Lemon juice from 3/4 lemon
2 vanilla stick

1. For crepes, put flour, sugar and salt in a bowl (dry ingredients). In a separate bowl mix eggs and milk (wet ingredients).
2. Add the above wet ingredients gradually into the dry ingredients and combine melted butter. Cover and chill in the fridge for about an hour.
3. To make the apple filling, simmer apples, lemon juice, sugar and vanilla stick in a pan without a lid on for about 7 - 10 minutes over medium heat.
4. When apples look slightly transparent (but not soft leaving some crunchiness), remove from the heat and strain.
5. Pour crepe batter onto the pan and cook until it browns and turn it over to quickly cook for about 7 - 10 seconds.
6. Spread a crepe and place apples on it and fold it in quarters.

Adjusted from
http://www.nhk.or.jp/kamado/recipe/15.pdf

Homemade Strawberry Jam and Cookies

Strawberry jam:
2 pack strawberries (420 gram)
70 gram - 96 gram granulated sugar (1/2 or 2/3 x 1/3 amount of the strawberries, as you prefer)
1 - 1.5 quarter lemon juice and zest

1. Slice strawberries half
2. Add sugar into strawberries in a bowl and mix them well
3. Wrap the strawberries in a bowl and leave it in the fridge overnight
4. Simmer the strawberries in a middle-sized pot at a low heat for about15 minutes