Warabo Mochi

I am craving for some Japanese Dessert one day. I want to try something real easy to make. And I found this Warabo Mochi recipe. It is so easy to make and it only takes about an hour or so get it set for serving. This can be a last minute dessert idea for dinner party.

Ingredients 

¾ cup (100 g) Warabi Mochiko or Warabiko (bracken starch) 

 ⅓ to ½ cup (80-­100 g) granulated sugar

1 ¾ cup (400 ml) water 

Warabi Mochiko (Found in Japanese Supermarket)

Toppings 

¼ cup (30 g) kinako (soybean flour) kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup) 

Kuromitsu

Kinako 

Instructions:

1. Prepare all ingredients and sprinkle some kinako on a baking sheet. 2. In a medium saucepan, combine the Warabi Mochiko, sugar, and water. Mix all together. 3. Heat the mixture over medium heat until it starts to boil. 4. Then reduce the heat. Using a wooden spatula, stir (more like beat) constantly and vigorously for      10 minutes, or until the mixture is thick and evenly translucent. It’s quite a workout but be patient, 

    it’ll transform to clear color! 5. Remove the mochi from the heat and transfer to a baking sheet that’s covered with kinako 

   (soybean flour). Sprinkle more kinako on top and let it cool in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. 6. Once it’s cooled, take it out from the refrigerator and slice into ¾ inch cubes. Toss the warabi 

    mochi with kinako and serve on the plate. If you like, pour the Kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup) 

    over the Warabi mochi and enjoy. 7. You can save warabi mochi at room temperature for

   1-­2 days. If you keep in the refrigerator warabi mochi gets hard and becomes white color. 

   Warabi mochi is tastier if you refrigerate for 20 - ­30 mins before you eat. 

   If you use real warabi starch, it lasts only for a day and must be enjoyed soon. 

  If warabi starch is mixed with other starch, it lasts longer, but the color is not as clear.

Recipe source:justonecookbook.com

Pistachio Cream Mille Crêpe Cake 開心果千層薄餅蛋糕

Pistachio is one of my favourite nuts of all. Recently I saw lots of posts about Mille Crepe Cake that sold in stores. Most of them are vanilla, coffee, matcha, chocolate flavours etc. I feel bored about that and it always costs $5-6 per piece (So expensive). I would rather make one myself at home. Choose a special cream filling flavour. I decided to try the Pistachio custard cream and I think it will taste great! 

And of course, nuts are always expensive here in Canada. For this cake the cost of Pistachio is already ~$10. I bought raw Shelled Pistachio and I roasted them at home. I add water and grind the roasted pistachio to make a paste for cream filling. And the aroma of roasted pistachio stayed in my house for the whole day! 

For the 22 layers of crepes, it took my around 45mins to finish making them by using Salton Crepe Maker. And it took about half a day to finish this cake including chilling time and so. My friends love it very much and my husband is urging me to make it again. :P

Recipe adapted from: lovecommacake.com

For the crêpes: (make around 20-23 6" crepes)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/3 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped +30g butter

butter for the skillet

For the pistachio pastry cream:
3 large egg yolks
6 tablespoons pistachio paste (I use about 1/2 cup of roasted pistachio + water)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 milk
1 cup of cream, whipped to soft peaks

1. Make the batter: In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together eggs, and milk. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the milk mixture. Gently whisk the center of the milk mixture, grabbing the flour around the edges, little by little, until it is all combined. Go slowly to avoid lumps. Whisk in vanilla seeds. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2. Make the pistachio pastry cream: In a large, heavy pot, whisk together egg yolks, pistachio paste, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly whisk in milk to combine. Set the pot over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick. You should be able to draw a line through the custard on the back of your spoon and have it hold. Do not let the mixture boil. Transfer pastry cream to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Cool completely.

3. Make the crêpes: Heat a little butter in a 10-inch nonstick pan over medium heat. Add 1/4 cup crêpe batter to the center and quickly swirl the pan to spread the batter to an even thickness. Cook until very lightly golden and set on one side, about 30 seconds. Using an offset spatula, pick up the edge of the crêpe and flip it. The best way to do this is with your fingers. It's hot but if you work fast you won't burn yourself. Cook until light golden brown on the other side, another 30 seconds. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Continue with the rest of the batter. You should have about 15. You can stack the crêpes once they're cool but spread them out until then.

This is my Salton Crepe Maker, it saved me lots of time ti make 22 crepes. It can maintain the consistency of the thickness of every crepes. 

4. Fold whipped cream into chilled pastry cream. Lay one crêpe on a cake platter or plate. Spread 1/4 cup pistachio cream on crêpe and then top with another. Keep going until you run out both. Make sure to finish with a pretty one! Wrap it up and chill it for at least 4 hours.

                                                

                                          Roast Raw Shelled Pistachio. Roasted it at 375F for 10-15 minutes 

Korean Army Stew (Budae Jjigae) 部隊鍋

Budaejjigae (Wikipedia): 

Budae jjigae (Korean pronunciation: [pudɛ tɕ͈iɡɛ]; literally "army (military) base stew" or "troop stew") is a type of jjigae (a thick Korean soup similar to a Western stew). Soon after the Korean War, food was scarce in Seoul, South Korea. Some people made use of surplus foods from U.S. military bases around the Uijeongbu area, Pyeongtaek area (also called Songtan)^[1] or Munsan area, such as hot dogs, Spam, or ham, and incorporated them into a traditional spicy soup flavored with gochujang (red chili paste) and kimchi.

Budae jjigae is still popular in South Korea. The dish often incorporates such modern ingredients as instant noodles and sliced American cheese. Other ingredients may include ground beef, sliced sausages, baked beans, minari, onions, green onions, tteok, tofu, chili peppers, macaroni, garlic, mushrooms, and other vegetables in season.

This year Christmas time in Vancouver, we had couple of snow fall and weather is relatively cold throughout these couple of weeks. We always love to ask friends to come for hotpot dinner in the weekend. We did so many times and we will need some special kind of hotpot to make the dinner more fun! We want to try this Korean Trooper Pot for so long. It is an expensive pot that can serve over 8 adult guests. Beside this pot, we also had seafood steam pot. We had 2 crabs, 2 lbs of Clams and 2 lbs of mussels. Other than that is this Korean HotPot. We served 5 noodles with cheese on every noodle that we put into the pot. There are veggies at the bottom so we have veggies and meat to serve with the noodle. And the soup base is so strong and good. Tips: Remember to add the Noodle Soup Powder that comes with the noodle to to pot. It enhances the flavour. As for the soup base, I use Beef stock + Kimchi+Red Pepper Paste.