VERY JAPANESE CAKE - Matcha –Black Sesame Mousse Cake

Ever since I started baking home-made cakes for friends' birthday, matching the right cake with the right person is getting more challenging these days as I have started to running out of ideas. For my friend Eliz's birthday last month, we decided to throw her a surprise party with a Japanese sashimi theme. Going along that theme, I wanted to bake a Japanese flavor cake with Japanese ingredients. And usually the first cake came to mind is my favorite matcha red bean mousse cake! In the past years, I made this cake so many times that I kind of bored myself from making. So this time I wanted to make something new. I surfed the web a bit and found this VERY Japanese cake - Matcha Black Sesame Mousse Cake combining 2 of my favorite flavors together. I knew right away this is the cake I wanted to bake and perfect.

This cake reminds me of my trips to Japan and my love for Japanese pastries. I can't wait to share!

Black sesame cake
Ingredients
• 1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
• 2 table spoons back sesame paste
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ cup, plus 2 tablespoons canned unsweetened coconut milk
Procedures
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350F.
2. Grease one 8-inch round cake pan, line bottom with parchment paper, duct cake pan with flour, and tap out excess.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.
4. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until they are fragrant, about two minutes. Grind (or pound) the toasted black sesame seeds in a spice grinder until they are the texture of damp sand. Combine grounded sesame seeds, sesame paste, eggs and vanilla in a 1 cup measuring cup, stir to combine, set aside.
5. In a bowl of standing mixture (or use a hand-mixer), beat butter and sugar on medium-low speed until sugar is moistened, about 30 sec. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, add sesame mixture (from step 4) in two additions, beat until combined.
6. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with coconut milk (in 2 additions), beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Remove bowl from mixture, stir batter by hand with a rubber spatula to ensure there are no streak of flour left on the bottom of the bowl. Pour batter and spread evenly in the prepared cake pan.
7. Bake cake until toothpick inserted into center of the cake comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes. Cool cake and slice cake horizontally in half into 2 even layers.

Matcha Mousse
Ingredients
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/3 cup (2 oz) granulated sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ cup coconut milk, plus 2 tablespoon
• 2 tablespoon water, 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon matcha powder
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ¾ cup (14 oz) heavy cream, divided
• 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
Procedures
1. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and salt until smooth and fully combined, set aside.
2. Combine 2 tablespoons coconut milk and water in a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over top and let bloom for 5 minutes, then steam it over boiling water (about 2 minutes). Combine water with matcha powder in a separate small bowl, stir to combine, set aside.
3. Add ½ cup of coconut milk and ¾ cup heavy cream to a medium saucepan and bring to simmer. Remove from heat, in a steady stream, pour into yolk mixture; whisk constantly to prevent curdling. Pour mixture back into saucepan, and cook over medium heat until mixture has thicken and coasts the back of a spoon, stirring constantly.
4. Remove pan from heat and stir in gelatin mixture until dissolved. Stir in matcha mixture and vanilla until incorporated. Pour matcha cream through fine-mesh strainer into nonreactive bowl. Cover surface directly with plastic wrap and let cool (refrigerate if making ahead).
5. With a hand-mixture, whish remaining 1 cup heavy cream and superfine sugar to soft peak. Gently fold whipped cream into matcha cream until incorporated with no white streaks.

White sesame mousse
Ingredients
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/3 cup (2oz) granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons sesame paste or tahini (I used tahini)
• 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¾ cup whole milk (I used 2% milk)
• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ¾ (14 oz) heavy cream, divided
• 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
Procedures
1. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, sesame paste (or tahini) and salt until smooth and fully combined.
2. Combine 2 tablespoons coconut milk and water in a small bowl, sprinkle with gelatin over top and let bloom for 5 minutes, then steam it over boiling water (about 2 minutes).
3. Add ¾ cup of milk and ¾ heavy cream to a medium saucepan and bring to simmer. Remove from heat, in a steady stream, pour into egg yolk mixture in step 2; whisk constantly to prevent curdling. Pour mixture back into a saucepan, and cook over medium heat until mixture has thickened and coats the back of a spoon, stirring constantly.
4. Remove pan from heat and stir in gelatin mixture until dissolved. Stir in vanilla until incorporated. Pour sesame cream through fine-mesh strainer into a bowl. Cover surface directly with plastic wrap and let cool (refrigerate if making ahead).
5. With a hand-mixture, whish remaining 1 cup heavy cream and superfine sugar to soft peak. Gently fold whipped cream into matcha cream until incorporated with no white streaks.

Assembly
This cake has 4 layers and should be assembled in the following order:
Bottom layer – Black sesame cake
2nd layer – matcha mousse
3rd layer – black sesame cake
4th layer – white sesame mousse
Top – garnish with matcha powder (~2 tablespoons)
Procedures:
1. Using the 9 inch pan, place one black sesame cake layer on the bottom-center, spread matcha mousse evenly on top and side of cake layer. Smooth top with small spatula, cove and refrigerate for 30 min.
2. Remove cake from fridge, center remaining cake layer on top of firm matcha mousse and spread sesame mousse evenly on top and side of cake. Smooth top and refrigerate for 30 min.
3. Remove cake from fridge, decorate cake with matcha powder, black sesame seed (optional) as desired.

Panna Cotta with fresh strawberry mousse

This is another very simple dessert recipe everyone can easily made at home with less than 30 minute of prep work. It tastes almost too good to be believe that it's that easy to make! The fresh strawberry mousse adds a perfect kick to the creamy panna cotta which makes it a perfect summer treat. I made 20 of these to Galeen's baby shower this past weekend and everyone loved it. Happy to share this freshly written recipe with all of you! :)

Panna Cotta
Ingredients: (serves amount 20 panna cotta using the clear container I had in the picture)
• 4 cups heavy cream
• ½ cup (100 gram) sugar (or a little bit less than that)
• 2 teaspoon of vanilla paste or 1 vanilla bean
• 2 packets powder gelatin
• 6 tablespoons cold water

Procedures:
1. Heat the heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla paste.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium-size bowl and let it stand for 5-10 min.
3. Pour the very warm panna cotta mixture from step 1 over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
4. Divide the panna cotta mixture from step 3 into the prepared cups, then chill them until firm, which will take at least 2 hour but then I usually make it the night before.

Strawberry Mousse
Ingredient:
• 200 grams strawberry puree **
• 20 grams sugar
• 4 grams sheet gelatin
• 150 grams heavy cream, soft peak

Procedures:
1. Warm half of the strawberry puree with the sugar. In the meantime, soak the sheet gelatin in ice water. Add the softened gelatin to the warm strawberry puree.
2. Add the rest of the puree and let it cool.
3. Fold in the whipped cream into the puree base. Pour this mousse on top of the panna cotta (after having it chilled in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours) and let it set in the refrigerator.

Strawberry Puree
Ingredients:
• 20 oz fresh strawberry
• 50 gram sugar
• Freshly squeeze lemon juice, optional

Procedures:
1. Put the strawberry and lemon juice into a food processor or blender and process the berries until they are pureed.
2. Pour the puree into a 2 cup measuring cup. You should have about 1 ¼ cups of puree.
3. Add 50 grams of the sugar to start and stir until the sugar dissolved
4. Taste and add more sugar if needed.

Bacon and corn pasta salad with mustard dressing

This is a quick pasta salad perfect for the summer.  It's very easy to put together.  I made this to a friend's party and most people liked it a lot.  

Ingredients

·         1 pound pasta

·         1 table spoon olive oil

·         9 oz mushroom, sliced

·         9 oz bacon, chopped coarsely

·         9 oz baby corn

·         1 medium red onion, chopped coarsely

·         1 large avocado, chopped coarsely

Mustard dressing

·         1 cup bottled Caesar salad dressing

·         1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard

Procedures:

1.      Cook pasta in large saucepan of boiling water until tender, drain.

2.      Meanwhile, heat oil in large frying pan, add mushrooms and bacon; cook, stirring, until beginning to brown. Remove mixture from pan. Add corn to same pan; cook, stirring, until browned lightly all over.

3.      Make mustard dressing

4.      Place pasta, mushroom mixture and corn in large bowl with onion, avocado, parsley and dressing; toss gently.

Chocolate-Almond Genoise Layer Cake with coffee butter cream

This is the birthday cake I made for my dearly god sister's birthday this year. My god sister has been deeply spoiled by me in the past few years being my dessert tasting guinness pig. Now she's more picky on cake than ever - she specifically requested from me not to bake her any green tea red bean favor cake for her birthday as she is tired of it! To make the remaining choices even more limited, she doesn't like any fruity favor cake. So cakes like strawberry shortcake, Chinese style fruit cake, or any type of cake with berries are all out! In researching for a cake she would like, I knew I had to go along the line of chocolates or coffee. This chocolate almond genoise and coffee butter cream layer cake has the best of both favors. It's a hybrid recipe I combined together from two recipes, neither of which I had tried before. But I think after making them and having to receiving good comments, I am confidence that they taste pretty good and more importantly they are not difficult to make.



The cake layer is created based off a simple Italian genoise sponge cake recipe using almond flour and the chiffron cake technique (beating the egg white separately).

Chocolate genoise
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 cup almond flour
• 6 tablespoon chocolate powder
• ¼ cup all purpose flour
• 4 egg whites, room temperature
• 4 tablespoon white granulated sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease an 11×17(or 12×16) sheet pan with shortening. Line with parchment and grease parchment paper. Set aside.
Combine the 2 whole eggs, confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a bowl. Combine with a hand-held mixer until batter has lightened considerably in color.(Should be a pale yellow.) Add the 1½ tsp. matcha powder and mix on low speed until combined. Set aside.
Whip the egg whites in a clean bowl on low speed until they start to froth. Add the cream of tartar and increase mixer speed, whipping until stiff peaks form. Add the 2 tbsp. granulated sugar and whip for a few seconds longer to incorporate.
Sift the flour over the pale yellow egg mixture, then scoop about ⅓ of the egg whites into the egg mixture and fold together gently with a rubber spatula. Add the remaining egg whites and fold in until uniformly mixed.
Pour the batter into the sheet pan and distribute it evenly with an offset spatula, making the layer as level and smooth as possible. Your batter will be spread very THIN.
Bake for about 8-12 minutes until the cake is just firm. Keep an eye on the cake as it bakes! It will burn easily!
Remove from the oven and turn out cake onto a cooling rack. Remove parchment. Allow to cool slightly. Cut cake into four even pieces.

Coffee butter cream (recipe adopted from Chef Defontaine's popular Paris pastisserie- Le Royale au Cafe)
• ¾ cup (or a bit less) cup sugar
• ½ cup water
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2 ½ sticks unsalted butter (cut into pieces, softened)
• 1 (starbucks) expresso shot (about 2-2.5 tablespoon)

Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a small heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, about 4 minutes. Let the mixture boil for 3 or 4 minutes, until it forms a soft ball (234-240 degree).
Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks with an electric mixer until fluffy.
As soon as the syrup is ready, with the machine running, pour the syrup onto the beaters in a very thin, steady stream until all the syrup is incorporated. Continue to beat until the mixture is fluffy and cooled to room temperature.
Add the butter, 1 or 2 pieces at a time, beating until the mixture is well blended and fluffy. Add the expresso to the butter cream and beat until well blended.

Assemble the cake:
Cut the cake into 4 even pieces
Place the bottom layer on a platter or a piece of card board cut slightly larger than the cake. With a spatula, spread about butter cream (thin layer or a bit thicker depending on one’s taste) on the layer. Gently place the second layer on top, spread another layer of butter cream, repeat to have 4 layers of cake and 4 layer of cream fillings (total of 8 layers).

Butternut Squash Soup

Hi everyone! It’s been a long 4 months since I updated this blog. It’s been a very difficult and busy 4 months at work. My life was literally put to a pause during this period. Hence, this blog as well. Nevertheless, my passion for cooking and baking never died. I still managed to find myself slipping some simple recipes to cook out. It’s true that you will always find time for things you are passionate about.
This soup recipe that I am sharing here it’s a very simple 15 minute recipe that yields a very comforting soup, especially during the winter season. I made it several times during the winter but only have time to post now. Apologies for the delay.
Serving size: 4

Ingredients:
· small butternut squash, about 1.5 pounds, diced (1/2-inch)
· sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (1/2-inch)
· ½ to 1 medium onion, diced
· 3-inch sprig of fresh rosemary
· 2 tbsp butter
· 6 cups vegetable broth
· salt + pepper to taste
· cream (optional)

Procedures:
Melt butter in large pot over medium-high heat. Add vegetables and rosemary and stir to coat. Cover pot and allow veggies to sweat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After 10 minutes, add broth. Bring to a boil then drop heat to moderate simmer. Let soup simmer for an additional 20 minutes, until potatoes and squash are quite tender. Remove rosemary sprig. Using an immersion blender or a regular blender, puree' soup until smooth and creamy. Salt and pepper to taste.
Optional: heavy cream for garnish or add to soup for a more creamy taste.

Skillet Roasted Chicken

Long over-due for cooking new dishes! The last 2 months had been crazy busy for me. I went on a 3.5 week vacation, 1 week for work training, and then took another short trip. Finally I have returned back home for the holidays and had have the luxury to cook again.

This is one of the dishes I cooked for our Christmas dinner this year. This skillet roasted chicken was featured in the front cover of the Bon Appetit magazine which was lent to be from one of my favorite colleagues who was dying to share this with me when he first saw it. This skillet roasted chicken is from the #1 restaurant in the States. With this hype, I gotta try it out right?

I have never really roasted a whole chicken at home before. It always seems like roasting a whole chicken is a very troublesome process which involving preparing the whole chicken all the way to cleaning up the oven after all the splattering of the chicken oil. This recipe is a bit different than others I have looked at before. The key to this dish is prepoaching the chicken in an immersion circulator: cooking the chicken sous vide (French for “under vacuum”). This restaurant technique locks in moisture and keeps the food in contact with flavor-boosting seasonings. The vacuum-sealed item (usually protein) is poached in a bag at a low, controlled temperature that ensures optimum doneness. So the trick to this recipe is the “hot-water baths” used before the chicken is placed into the oven. Since most home cook at home don’t have a immersion circulator, this recipe teaches us a home-cook friendly method to get an almost-perfect vacuum inside an everyday resealable plastic bag (please look at the step 4 below to show you how).

Ingredients

· 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

· 3 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives

· 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme

· 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh Chervil (I actually skipped this one as I couldn’t find it in the super market)

· 1 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

· 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh tarragon

· 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

· 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest

· ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

· 1 (2-3lbs) chicken, halved

· 2 ½ tsp. kosher salt

Procedures

1. Whisk 1/3 cup oil oil, 1 Tbsp. chives and next 7 ingredients in a medium bowl.

2. Divide marinade between 2 (gallon-size) resealable plastic freezer bags.

3. Season chicken with 2 ½ tsp. salt, place 1 chicken half in each bag. Seal bag, release excess air, chill overnight.

4. Place bags side by side in a large pot. Add cold water to cover by 2’’. Heat water over medium heat until an instant-read thermometer registers 150 degree.

5. Turn off heat, cover, and poach chicken for 50 minutes.

6. Transfer bags to a large bowl of ice water to cool, about 15 minutes. Remove the chicken from bags; pat dry.

7. Preheat oven to 450 degree.

8. Heat vegetable oil in a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. Add chicken halves, skin side down, so chicken sits against sides of pan. Cook, moving chicken occasionally for even cooking, until skin is browned all over. Flip chicken and transfer skillet to oven. (note that I skipped this instead as I didn’t want to get the kitchen all smoky. As a result, I had to leave my chicken in the over longer (about 28 minute in the oven instead of 15 minutes)

9. Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thight registers 165 degree, about 15 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Again, since I skip the skillet procedure, I had to leave my chicken in the oven to cook longer. I first tried 20 minute and the chicken was still a bit red in the inside and not too brown on the outside so I let it cooked for another 8 minute then it turn out almost perfect – got a nice brown coding outside and still very juicy inside the meat. I think the poaching procedures works very well on the chicken in order to give it moisture and tenderness. So the extra pre-poaching step here it’s actually worth a try!

Oxtail stew in tomato red wine sauce 西班牙牛尾煲

Another one of my favorite dishes to cook. I usually make this dish when I am hosting dinner parties at home since it is well liked by most of my friends. It goes well with almost everything: pasta, rice, garlic bread....etc. It is also a good winter dish for thanksgiving dinner/X'mas dinner too. Who doesn't like oxtails right? This dish calls for a lot of ingredients. But don't let this overwhelm you! It's actually not hard to make. It just takes sometime because it's oxtail takes hours to cook to tender and fall off the bone.

Ingredient:

-2lbs Oxtail
-1 medium onion, diced
-2 medium carrorts, diced
-3 celery stalk, diced
-3 baking potato
-15oz of canned diced tomatoes (use fresh only at peak season)
-2 tbsps miced garlic
-2-3 medium bay leaves
-1 small bunch parsley, chopped (optional)
-2 cups red wine (dry red wine)
-1 can beef stock
-1 canned tomato paste
-1 tin water
-salt and pepper
-sugar to taste
-four for dusting
-oil for frying

Procedures - let the fun begins....

1. Season the oxtail with salt and pepper and then dust with flour


2. heat a large pan or casserole that will later hold all the meat, heat and fry the oxtail in batches until well browned. Remove and set aside


3. add a little more oil to the pan/casserole, add the onion, carrorts, celery and potato. Fry over medium heat for 2 minute, add in the garlic and bay leaves, fry for another 5 minute, stirring continuously so not to burn


4. Remove the potato from the pan and return the oxtail from step 2, add the wine, tomatoes, and broth, water, and season with salt, pepper and sugar to taste


5. Bring to boil, cover and place in the preheated over (350 degree). Cook for 2 1/2-3 hours or until the meat is very tender and starts to fall off the bone. If you do not want to use over, you can use stove instead.


6. add in the remaining potato during the last hour and let it cook for 1 hour.
   
   
   
   

Baked Mochi Cake 焗年糕

I had this baked mochi cake (or rice cake) from Rachel's place. It's tasted so comforting that I immediately fell in love with it at first bite! Thanks Rachel for sharing this yummy rice cake recipe with me. It's very easy to make. The preparation takes less than 20 min w/o the baking time. I thought this would be a good recipe to share :)

Ingredients:
Butter: 1 cube
Egg: 5 large eggs
Milk: 3 cups (i used 1% milk)
Baking Powder: 2 teaspoon
Sugar: 1 cup
Rice flour: 1 box of Mochiko rice flour (can find in most Asian market, i.e Ranch 99)
Red Bean: 1 can

Procedures:

1. Warm up milk in the pan with sliced butter, turn off the heat when it gets luke warm.



2. With electric mixer, mix eggs well. Add in the sugar and baking powder. Mix well until creamy



3. Pour the milk and butter mixture (from step 1) to step 2 and mix well.



4. Add rice flour, little by little, to the above mixture.



5. butter a cake pan (~8'')or a glass pan, spread the red bean over the bottom of the pan, and pour in the batter



6. Pre-heat over at 350, bake for about 1 hour

Miso Glazed Black Cod 西京燒銀鱈魚

I first saw this miso black cod recipe from one of my favorite food blogs I followed. I had always loved black cod. Love its silky texture and dedicated favor. Until I came across with this recipe, I never knew that black cod could go so well with miso! And neither did I know that this is a famous Japanese dish serve in most fancy Japanese restaurant as a delicacy. I fell in love with black cod with miso since the first time I made it at home. While this recipe is not too hard to make at home, ordering it at Japanese restaurants here in California is quite expensive. Until Masha asked me for the recipe a few month ago, i never thought I would want to share it here. I guess a lot of people would be interested in making this at home too. So here you go..especially dedicated to Masha...

Ingredients:
2-3 black cod fillets (about 1 lb)
For the marinate:
1/4 cup sake
1/4 cup mirin
5 tablespoons white miso paste
3 tablespoons sugar (or taste to make it right)

Note: this marinate base sauce is a keeper. It goes well with a lot of white fish such as chilean sea bass.

Procedures:

1) Mix the marinate ingredients in a small pot over low heat and bring it to boil, then set aside to cool down
2) Pat the fish fillets dry with paper towels and put them into the plastic container/plate with the marinate. (note that I marinate should be enough to cover the fish fillets). Cover the lid or with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 48 hours
3) Pre heat oven to 400 degree F. Move the oven rack to the second position from the top. Scrape any extra miso sauce off the fillets and place them on a rack on top of a baking sheet, skin side down. Bake for about 15-18 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillet
4) Then turn the broiler onto the “high” setting, put the pan under the broiler and broil until the Black Cod is golden brown on the top side. Flip the fillets skin-side up and continue broiling until the skin is lightly charred and crisp. If you have thicker fillets, insert a fork into the thickest part of the fillet to see if it’s cooked. The meat should be opaque and come apart readily. Cook for about 5 minute and the fillet is done.
5) With the remaining miso sauce, we can heat up to thicken to use for plating. We can use this sauce to garnish the fish when done and/or add a few drops to the side vegetables (e.g. bak choy). It tastes great!

Note: I like my miso cod more intense with the flavor of sake and miso so I would normally add more miso (like 1 more table spoon) to the marinate but that’s just a personal preference. Instead of using sugar, you can also replace it with honey too which makes it more caramelized when broiled.

Red Bean Mochi 豆沙糯米糍

Mochi, which is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice flour, is one of my family's favorite delicacies. My dad is a huge fan of glutinous flour and sweets. This little Japanese delicacy with the combination of glutinous rice flour and sweet red bean paste makes the perfect all year round prominent snack in my house. My mom almost makes it every other week, if not every week! Hence, this recipe I am sharing here is adapted from my mom's original recipe:

Ingredient
(note: makes about 20 mochi)
Glutinous rice flour: 1 Pack or 16oz
Water : 1 1/3 cup
Coconut milk: 1 can
Sugar: ¾ cup
Oi: 2 table spoon
red bean paste: 1 pack

A lot of friends had asked me what exactly is glutinous flour and where can you find it in the store. So I thought I would just show you guys pictures of what it looks like to make it easier to find. From left to right, they are: glutinous rice flour, coconut milk, and red bean paste. All can be found in any aisan market.
Procedures:
1. Combine glutinous rice flour and sugar together
2. Slowly add in the coconut milk and; mix until smooth
3. Prepare a glass shallow plate, brush with oil
4. Pour the mixture from step 2) onto the greased glass plate, steam over high heat with cover for 30 minutes. (hint: use a chopstick to test if the flour is fully cooked. If not much flour mixture stick to the chopstick, it’s done)
5. While the mixture is steaming, in a separate bowl pour 4 table spoons of glutinous rice flour and microwave it for 1 minute. This is for dusting the mocha at the end.
6. Transfer the cooked flour mixture (or the dough) to a greased surface and cut into small pieces using a plastic knife (depending on the size of the mochi you want to make, I usually cut into pieces a bit smaller than the size of a ping pong ball).
7. Note: the cooked dough is super sticky, so make sure you work with a pair of food gloves. Take one piece of the dough, stretch it gently so it will be large enough to envelop the red bean paste, and place it on the palm of your hand, then fold the edge to seal the mochi, lightly roll it into a ball shape using both palms, then coat it with cooked flour (or desiccated coconut).

Salmon Rillettes/Salmon Spread

I love salmon (period)! Salmon it's one of my favorite type of fish. I heart it both raw and cooked, regular and smoke. This pretty pink fish not only trigger my taste bugs it also triggers those fond memories of my Berkeley life - the life with my favorite ladies (Ca, Joyce and Galeen). why? because it was one of our favorite dishes on the dinner table. It's one of those stable items on the weekly Costco run must buy list. We brought it to our dinner table at least once a week and never got tired of it because we invented so many different ways to cook it (i.e. grilled salmon filet, salmon tofu stew, etc)......enough of history...so I was actually going to share this newly found favorite salmon recipe which I tried out last night. This dish is super easy to make and it tastes fabulous. It liternally take less than 15 minutes! It's a great dish to serve as appetizers before a dinner party. And it can also be made a couple of days in advance!

Ingredients
· 8 ounce (250 g) piece of salmon, preferably wild, bones removed
· Salt
· 5 tablespoons (75 g) unsalted butter
· 1 tablespoon olive oil
· 1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
· 2 tablespoons chopped chives
· 4 ounces (125 g) smoked salmon, cut into thin strips, then cut into ½-inch (2 cm) pieces
· ¼ teaspoon chili powder or smoke paprika (I use pimente d’Espelette) or a few turns of freshly-ground white pepper

Procedures
1. Season the salmon on both sides lightly with a bit of salt. Steam in a steamer basket until just cooked, about 8 minutes.
1. Once cooked, remove from heat and let cool.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, mash together with a fork the butter and the olive oil until very smooth. [Note: This is très important; otherwise there’ll be big chunks of butter in the finished rillettes.]
3. cut smoked salmon into small little pieces
4. Stir in the lemon juice, then the chopped chives and smoked salmon.
5. Remove the skin from the salmon and flake the cooked salmon over the mixture, then fold the pieces of salmon into the rillette mixture along with the chili powder.
6. Season with salt, if necessary.
7. Scrape into a serving dish, cover, and chill for at least two hours. Let come to room temperature before serving.

The spread can be eatten with either toasted bagguet or cracker. I personally like it better with cracker.

Dining Out - Hawaii Edition II

What I noticed in Hawaii which is not here in the bay area (sad) is the series of authentic Japanese noodle/udon houses. We would randomly run into some very traditional small noodle house while we were walking! This udon house – Warukame had caught my eyes as we passed by during our first day there since nearby our hotel. Then every day we walked by there is a long line out the door. I begged my travel buddy to try this with me almost everyday. She said she’s not a noodle person and ignored my request. I vouched to try this before I left Hawaii and finally got the chance on my last day in Hawaii alone.

Hawaii Food Series #2: Warukame Udon

So what is so special about this place. First of all, the udon was freshly made in-house! You can actually see them making the udon from scratch, boiled, and prepared right in from of you. I noticed that all their udon ingredients (e.g. flours) were from Japan. Second of all, this restaurant is cafeteria style dinning. You get to custom order your udon, with the type of broth, meat, etc. and then you pick if you want any sides which are mainly tempura.

There are about 6 types of different udon on the menu, cold udon, curry udon, beef, udon, etc. I ordered the kake udon with a soft boiled egg (regular) where they crack the egg in front of you. Then as I proceeded to the tempura/misubi station, I selected the fish cake tempura ($1.25), sweet potato tempura ($1.25), and a spam misubi ($1.75). All of the above came in less than $10! Very reasonable!







kake udon with a soft boiled egg (regular) - The udon is so delicious. It tasted so fresh and had a nice chewy consistency, just like the one I had in Osaka.

fish cake tempura (huge!) and sweet potato tempura - I took my first bite of the tempura and my eyes lit up immediately. This is by far the lightest tempura I’ve had. Crispy and not too heavily battered. Most importantly when I bit into it I didn’t had a mouthful of oil squeezed out.

Gotta have the Misubi while you are in Hawaii. So I ordered 1 to-go for my mid-day snack later.

I really like this place. Everything at Marukame is fresh, good quality and meticulously prepared. A simple restaurant focuses on quality over quantity. And under the budget in Hawaii? This is considered dirt cheap. I wish we have a place like this in the bay area.

Dinging out - Hawaii edition I

I just came back from a 5 days summer trip to Hawaii – Oahu with my dearest roomies. As one of our travel routine/traditions, we go out of our way to find out the best to eat in town. Though we didn’t have as much time (due to our super packed activities schedule) as we wished this time in Hawaii, we managed to seek out a couple of good eats to fit into our schedule. Don’t worry. Good food is meant to share. So I will be sharing them with you guys in the following series of blog posts.

Hawaii food sharing #1 – Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar

As many of you know, Hawaii has a pretty heavy concentration of Japanese descendants. The Japanese in Hawaii are one of the major and most influential ethnic groups in Hawaii. And in recent decades, Hawaii also became one of the top travel destinations of the Japanese. So when visiting Hawaii, Japanese cuisine is a must! Japanese restaurants are ubiquitous, ranging from fresh sashimi to traditional hand-made udon house. The task, hence, to pick out a few good ones to try becomes especially difficult. After some detail researches and recommendation from native Hawaii colleagues we finally narrowed down our list to a few. This Sansei Seafood Restaurant is the 1st one we tried in Hawaii. It’s located in the Waikiki Beach Marriot Resort & Spa. So one would guess the food it toward the fusion range. And it is indeed true. While it serves some of the best quality sashimi on the island, it only showcases a series of creative rolls and main dishes. However, when we first read the menu we thought that the menu was a bit overwhelming from which we could not get a sense of what their specialties were. So we thought we would order a bit of everything to see what is good.

Appetizers – Panko Crusted Ahi Tuna

It says on the menu that this is an award winning dish so we decided to give it a try. Sashimi grade Hawaiian ahi, arugula and spinach wrapped into a sushi roll, panko-crusted, flash-fried and served with Sansei’s mild soy wasabi butter sauce. I’ve never had ahi tuna wrapped with spinach before and fried. Though it was not one of those “Wow” dishes, it was a good combination.

Appetizers -Mango Crab Salad Roll
Sansei’s Asian crab salad, ripe mango, Kula greens and crunchy peanuts wrapped in a mamenori handroll and served with sweet Thai chili vinaigrette. I like this one a lot. The crab was freshly hand-picked and the sweet thai chilli vinaigrette is so refreshing. It was light and fresh which was perfect to eat in the hot weather of Hawaii.

Sashimi – wild king salmon
We ordered this from the daily special menu as we wanted to try out their sashimi. As you can see from the picture, it’s very fatty. The color looks so beautiful and it tasted just like the way it looked – so delicious. It’s one of the best salmon sashimi I’ve ever had. Highly recommended!!

Sashimi – o toro O toro is one of my favorite sashimi, though I normally tried to avoid ordering it because of its rich oil content and price. But since I was traveling with a toro lover, this was a must order! This o-toro did not disappoint us at all. It’s of top quality and melt right in your mouth! Love it

Entre- Hamachi Kama
Another of my favorite Japanese dish. This hamachi kama is much bigger compared to ones I’ve had before. It’s grilled to perfection! Much better prepared than the ones in the bay area. And it's so fresh that I didn't even need the dipping source on the side.

Roll - we thought we would also try out their rolls as well. unfortunately, I forgot the name of it. Basically, it's tuna and salmon sashimi on top of california roll. Nothing fancy, yet it's perfectly prepared as well. Instead of artifical crab meat, it's made with fresh real crab meal. And what I liked the most was that every piece is bit size so I didn't feel like I was only eating rice.

With the two of us, I think we ate way too much. At the end, we were left with no room for dessert. Overall, I thought the quality of the food here is top norch though it's still a bit on the pricey size. I would highly recommend their sashimi!

Pound Cake - the classic recipe

Pound cake has earned its centuries-long popularity. It owes its name to the traditional ingredient - one pound each of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs- which remain essentially the same today. As for all my recipes, I tend to air on the lighter side on sugar and butter. Instead of using all the butter the recipe calls for I used 1/2 cup sour cream in place of 1 stick of butter so that the cake remain airy and rich, not tough a dense. I also cut the sugar by 1/4 as my mom doesn't like it too sweet.

The recipe I have below is the classic recipe. I know no matter how pure and wholly satisfying the original, variations are too tempting to resist. You can feel free to dress up the classic version in creative ways, with sprinkled toppings, adding fruits such as blueberries, and easy glazes and saurces. Since I am making this for my mom's teacher, I am staying conservative to only adding peacan to the classic recipe.

Note that the below recipe makes a delicious tranditional pound cake, and it's also the base for inventive variations. Recipe makes two 5-by-9-inch loaf pans.

Ingredients:
-1 pound (31/4 cups) all-purpose flour
-1 tablespoon coarse salt
-3 stick of softened unsalted butter
-1/2 cup sour cream (non-fat)
-1 1/2 cup of sugar
-1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-9 large egg (room temperature)
-1/2 cup toasted peacan

Procedures:
*Preheat over to 325 degree, butter two 5-by-9-inch loaf pans.
1) Combine the flour and salt in a bowl (see number 2 below)
2) Cream the softened butter, sour cream, and sugar with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, for 8 minutes
3) Scape down sides of bowl, reduce speed to medium and add in the vanilla extract
4) Lightly beat 9 large, room-temperature eggs, and add in 4 additions, mixing thoroughly after each and scraping down sides
5) Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in 4 additions, mixing until just incorporated
6) add in the peacan until incorporated
6) divide batter between pans. Tap on counter to distribute and smooth tops.

Bake until a tester inserted into center of each cake comes out clean, about 65 minutes. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for another 30 minutes before removing from pans.


This is the end product. I didn't use my usual loaf pan because we had to give it to the teachers. So use the paper container I got from Daiso. Still works!

Wood Tavern

WOOD TAVERN is one of my favorite restaurants in this lovely college town – Berkeley. It is one of those restaurants I immediately fell in love with on my first visit and continue to manage to meet my expectation every time. So when I was scratching my head on where to take my mom for her birthday this year, Wood Tavern conveniently came to mind due to its consistency in maintaining quality new American style cuisine.

Wood Tavern offers a limited seasonal menu that rotates every season. I noticed, however, that while other dishes on the menu changes, there is one dish manages to make its way through the seasonal menu every season - the super thick cut pork chop, which is also my favorite dish here. I can't resist to order it every time I spot it on the menu. As I highly recommended this dish, both of my parents ordered this dish.

We started off with the house bread. The bread was decent. But I only had a small piece as I wanted to leave room for the meal


We order two bowl of aparagus soup as appertizers for my parents. I took a few spoonful and it was quite tasty. The cream, while adding to the pretty presentation, also added a nice kick to the soup so it didn't taste too greeny.

Ju 姐 and I order its famous pork belly to share. The pork belly was really tender and yet cripy on the outside with a nice glaze. I especially liked the plums and figs that went with it. It's really refreshing.

this is the famous grilled double-cut pork chop with bacon, corn, potato and masala cream saurce. The summer sweet corn goes so perfectly with the masala source. The sauce was so addicting that I tempted to dipped the bread in there (excuse my blurry picture please)!

Since both my dad and mom ordered my favorite dish, I thought I would try something new this time. I order the shrimp risotto, which turned out to be a nice surprise! The risotto was cook to perfection, al dented and the saurce had the perfect shrimp taste. One of the best shrimp risotto (in white source) I've ever had. Of course, those who knows me, my favorite risotto is still with La Siciliana Trattoria down the street. hehe!

Ju 姐 is a meat lover, so she ordered the grilled rib eye steak. It didn't say how many ounce this thing was on the menu, but from what it looked like..I believe it's at least 8 oz! The quality of the meat was really good

Dad and Mom and Ju Jei.

We order the warm chocolate cake for dessert the birthday cake (i originally meant to bake my mom a birthday cake but didn't have the time as I was in the middle of another S-1 filing :( )

The chocolate cake comes with a freshly home-made mint ice cream. When I said freshly made I really meant it made in house becase I could taste that they use fresh mint leave! I've never liked mint ice cream but this came in a pleasant surprise. I guess now I can't say I don't like mint ice cream.

Overall, the food was amazing as always. What I found out this time around that impressed me it's the dessert. I am sure I will come back for another special occasion..maybe when he comes.