Crepes for breakfast~Victoria-san's recipe~

Back from Okinawa. Autumn has already come in Tokyo. Very cold and I might catch a cold. Have sore throat. :(

By the way, one of my followers, Victoria-san taught me how to make crepes!

The crepe I had in Paris more than 10 years ago was really genuine and beautiful.

Victoria-san's crepe reminds me the taste in Paris!

We enjoyed the crepe with my home made fruits jam(rhubarb, plum and orange) for breakfast.

Thanks, Victoria-san!! You're right! Rhum liqueur gave awesome flavour for crepes.

Sugar + Lemon juice was also fantastic;)

Here's her recipe. I strongly recommend for you to try it! Crepe is more right and comfortable for your breakfast rather than having pancakes.

Ingredients

-250g of flour

-4 eggs

-1/2 liter of milk

-1 pinch of salt

-50 g of butter

and for a little extra taste 1 spoon of rhum. It will give an amazing flavour to the crepes.

Prepare the mixture, put flour, butter and salt together. Add the eggs one by one and finish with the milk gradually.

It needs to be not too thick and not too liquid.

Butter a small frying/flat pan, serve a spoon full, spread it all in the pan. Once it starts being cooked flip it over.

Then once it's fully cooked you can just enjoy them!! Spread with a little bit of sugar and lemon juice, it's yummy!!

Taro's rate:★★★★★

He likes crepes with rhubarb jam the best.
Thanks again, Victoria-san! :-)

Goya Champuru~Stir fried bitter melon~

We stayed at a serviced apartment so that I was able to cook. As for the first two days, the typhoon attacked Miyako-jima, we had to stay at a hotel.

At that time, I cooked "Goya Champuru" .

Goya Champuru is one of the typical Okinawa food.

Sliced goya and season salt and squeese them and drain from water. Stir Goya, Tofu(bean curd), Spam(lunchon meat) and any vegetables you like plus scrambled egg. Season S&P, a little bit soy sauce and Katsuo bushi (dried bonito flakes). That's all. Easy, healthy and yummy:)

Found youtube video which helps you how to make "goya champuru"in detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp-a5y8rY28&feature=player_embedded

For your reference.

Tebichi Soba（noodles w/braised pettitoes)

Had belated summer vacation last week. We went to Miyako-jima where is southern island in Okinawa, Japan.

They have their own food culture. The photo above is called "Tebichi-soba"which is a sort of Udon(but slightly different from it)and "Tebichi" means pettitoes.

The soup is made up of Katsuo(bonito) broth called "Dashi". Very tasty.

During the trip, Taro had this everyday! Yes, everyday. I was wondering why he never fed up with it. He really loves both noodle and soup. (he never ate tebichi at all.)

This noodle would be the first reminiscence about his food trip. ;)

Jungle Plate~Grilled Ram~

It took less than 30 minutes for us to finish eating this plate.

Each meal had different taste but yoghurt sauce made them complete in harmony.

Besides the sauce, kaori spice for ram is also the key to be a fantastic jungle plate. ;)

Tonight Menu

-Grilled ram with yoghurt sauce

-sauteed mushroom and eggplant

-potato cake with vegetable ragu sauce

-green salad

~yoghurt sauce~ I guess it's famous for Turkish food.

-Add grated garlic and one teaspoon of salt in the yoghurt and mix together.

~kaori spice~

all spice, paprika, fennel seed, coriander seed and cumin seed -all are powder type.

(the amount of spice are up to you, but cumin seed should be the main taste. )

Dry Curry

Am not sure "Dry Curry" is Japanese-English or not. Probably this sort of curry might be called "Keema Curry." Minced beef, lots of vegetables in there. I added dried raison, pumpkins and lots of vegetables as Taro is willing to eat them. Spicy but very sweet taste.

As for the rice, I chosed brown rice and served with Edamame.

For curry, brown rice is much more matching rather than white one.

Taro's rate:★★★★★

He really ate a LOT.

Potato Cake

This is also referred from Kotokoto Pasta's recipe.

I like the appearance. That's a cake! Very cute.

Mush potatoes, 2 eggs, Parmigiano Leggiano cheese and white sauce. Mix together. Bake it to 180℃ for 35 minutes.

It's suitable for baby food. For adult, it's good as a garnish when we eat some meat.

Taro's rate:★★

It was too plain for him. He might need more punch taste. He is no longer a baby now.

Spinach and Ricotta cheese Gnocchi

Made ricotta cheese and spinach gnocchi from scratch. I used to make it quite often when Taro was a baby. It has been a year since I made it last probably.

In Japan, Ricotta cheese is super expensive, so I made it from fresh milk. It's easy. The method is same as making cottage cheese. Boil one litre milk, one lemon juice and a pinch of salt with high heat. When it gets boiling and the milk has clabbered. You should see the curd and the waterly liquid at the top of the milk pan, which is whey. Strain from the whey. Then the cottage cheese has done!

As my Italian cooking teacher said, the difference between ricotta and cottage is that the amount of fat. Ricotta has more rich and thick.

Ingredients

-1bunch of spinach-boiled and shredded.

-200g ricotta cheese

-2 egg yolk

-4 table spoon Parmigiano Leggiano

-180g 00 flour or LysD'or

See this link.( The Westin ads are really annoying though...) This is slightly different from my recipe, but the procedure is almost all the same.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spinach-and-Ricotta-Gnocchi-103453

It can be stored at a freezer for a month.

If only you make it before hand when you're free, It would help you when you're busy on weekdays. :)

Sautéed Chicken breas with lemon sauce

flour the chicken breast and season S&P. Sauteed them with olive oil. Pour white wine (100cc) and braised 5 minutes. Add lemon juice. That's all!

Just normal salad. Balsamico vinegar, extravirgin olive oil and S&P.

Taro's rate:★★★★★

Especially he was pleased with chicken! Though I cut it into small sizes so as to have him chew properly, he bit the large one. Eventually he spit out as he couldn't chew and swallow. He has still 14 teeth only.

Otoriyose（お取り寄せ）Gourmet Breakfast

"Kama-age Shirasu"(boiled baby sardin) from Hamano Suisan in Kanagawa, shonan area.

(Their shop is located to near my parent's place.)

http://www.toretate-shonan.com/shops/food/hamano-suisan.html

"Tai-no Sasa-zuke"(marinated red snapper ) From Fukui.

(My father got it at Fukui Antenna shop in Aoyama.)

https://www.wakasa-marukai.co.jp/shop/product/productdetail.aspx?productId=14

"Izu Dofu"(Very special Bean Curd) From Shizuoka.

(Got it at Tokyu Department Store in Shibuya.)

http://www.misakaya.com/index.html

People living in Japan must try these stuff!!!

Even though we live in Tokyo, we are able to try fabulous food from all over the Japan.

We're lucky indeed.

To quest for genuine food leads to develop my cooking skill and inspirations.

Sautéed Sword fish and Deep Fried Nagaimo

Sautéed sword fish and tomatoes + deep fried Nagaimo served with green salad

As for the fish, seasoned with butter, fishsauce and soy sauce with garlic.

minutes soup( chicken broth+ mushroom+green onion+egg+Vinegar)

This is our Monday's dinner. :)

Chilli Oil with Deep fried Garlic and Onion~辣油~

Since I got LOADS of garlic, Jun made original Chili Oil.

In Japan, The chili oil is booming out now. Many makers create original chili oil and some of the goods are out of stock.

Jun is one of the big fans of chili oil.

Unfortunately he is eager for getting the one(Momoya's chili oil), they are always out of stock.

Finally he came up with the idea that he makes original chili oil!

Besides fried garlic and onion,he added dried shrimp, green onion, white sesami and so on.

Various ingredients make it rich and extremely satisfying.

Warning!! It's very dangerous !! We can refill our plate a lot!

Later on, I uproad how to make it.

Zucchini Cake

Adapted from KotokotoPasta's recipe. Since I like moist texture, reduced the amount of all purpose flour and increase the amount of zucchini.

It's not sweet at all. As my cooking teacher said, her family eats this cake as a salad! and eat them with prosciutto/ salami.

Ingredients ( 20cm round shaped cake tin)

- 350g zucchini (peeled and diced)

- 2 eggs

- 50g Parumigiano Leggiano

- 50cc olive oil

- 50cc fresh cream

- 120g all purpose flour

- 1 teaspoon b/p

→shifted

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-pepper if you need

Method

0 Preheat the oven to 180℃

1 Boil zucchini until soften

2 Place eggs, fresh cream, parmigiano, olive oil and S& P into a bowl and mix together.

3 Add flour and bp and fold them.

4 Add zucchini and mix together.

5 Pour the batter into a cake tin.

6 Baked 40 minutes.

Serve 8

Taro's rate: none

He didn't feel like eating it.

Leftovers Spaghetti

For Sunday lunch, I made spaghetti using leftovers for pizza party last night. More than 1o kinds of ingredients in there. The black colour noodle shaped one is called Hijiki(one of sea weed).

We usually use it for Japanese food, but they go with olive oil taste.

This was supposed to be MY plate, but Taro asked for the same plate as we usually serve. He wants to act as same as us. He doesn't want to be regarded as a child.

This time, my parents visited our place. My father was surprised that there're Hijiki in the spaghetti. This meal was beyond his common sense for him. He is typical traditional Japanese indeed.

Frozen Yoghurt

This is the one of my favourite sweets. Serve with a finger biscuit and home-made rhubarb jam.

I like the cardamom's flavour, but it's up to you.

Here is the procedure.

Ingredients

- 200cc fresh cream

- 50g beet sugar

- 300g yoghurt

- 5 seeds of cardamom(taking out the seeds.not ground one)

Method

Put fresh cream and sugar into a large bowl. Whip them. (not too stiff)

Add yoghurt and cardamom.

Pour them into a container. Put them into a freezer until they harden(around 1.5 hour.)

Serve with biscuits/any kind of jam you like.

LOVE PIZZA!!

Taro's friends family visited our place and had a pizza party. We made pizza from scratch and prepared for various kinds of options-olive, anchovi, corn, tuna, bacon, eggplants, zuccini etc.etc. as topping.

For kids, they loved tuna, corn and pineapple. For parents, obviously preferred Margarita.

When we eat pizza, do not think about the calories they have.

A pint of beer, pizza Margarita and chatting. That's the basis of fabulous party;-)

Century year egg Tofu salad～皮蛋豆腐～

Crazy summer in Tokyo. The weather forecaster says that this summer is the hottest since we've started making a meteorological observation ever!!

Last night, I made century year egg Tofu salad. kept it in the fridge and serve them as cold dish.

Chopped ginger, green onion and Myoga(Japanese herb) on Tofu. Sesame oil and soy sauce for dressing.

Century year egg- This is super romantic name, isn't it?! Who named it ?

Grilled Aji fish with grated ginger. Ginger has a power to extinguish the smell of the fish.

Simple, quick and yummy.

Taro's rate:★★★★

He is not good at having century year egg. Fish+Rice- They're the golden combination for him.