Chocolate and Whipped Cream Cake

Referred to http://cookpad.com/recipe/1589335

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