Trying Japanese Recipes

Dear Readers,

If you follow my Instagram account, you would see a sudden surge of food pictures.  I am trying to find new ways to add more vegetables to my diet so I tried to cook Japanese dishes.

It is really fun to discover new spices and ways of cooking!  Now I am addicted to the Japanese grocery store!  I can't read Japanese but the people working in the store are always very nice and they showed me where to find the food I was looking for!

At first I was a little afraid to see so many unfamiliar ingredients, sauce, and vegetables I have never heard of.  But the following websites were really helpful!  And their videos are really well-done and easy to follow.

Just One Cookbook by Namiko Chen 

Blog

Youtube Channel

Ochikeron by Ami Nishimura

Blog

Youtube Channel

These are my favorite go-to bloggers for learning about Japanese cuisine.  Their instructions are in English and their recipes are delicious!

I sometimes have to change the recipes slightly because of my diet restrictions.  In general, I would modify the recipes to use leaner meat cuts, less fat and less salt.

Below are some of the meals I cooked.  I didn't take picture of every single recipe I tried though.  Sometimes it's a miss and sometimes it's a hit!  It's all part of learning so I don't expect to like every new recipes!   

Do you eat Japanese food?  Would you try to cook them at home?

Soba noodles and Tsuyu soup base

Green tea soba buckwheat noodles with grated daikon, wasabi, scallions and tsuyu dipping sauce

Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) lots of cabbage in this!

Teriyaki chicken and shiro miso soup

Takoyaki (octopus balls)

Tamagoyaki (japanese omelette), steamed brocoli, fried okra, roasted seaweed, miso soup

Tempura shrimps and green beans with tsuyu dipping sauce

Japanese Beef Curry

Dear Readers,

I love Japanese Beef Curry but I have never cooked it myself.  It's apparently a staple in Japanese cuisine and it's like the comfort food by excellence loved by kids and adults alike.

So popular that Re-ment has created many incarnations of this fabulous dish!  Here below is only a few of them!  (yes, there are even more curry miniatures! O_O)

Re-ment Curry Pot from the "Is Dinner Ready?" Collection

Re-ment Curry Plate from the Strawberry and Bean Collection

Re-ment Curry Pot from the Hello Kitty Kitchenware Collection

Re-ment Curry Plate from the Hello Kitty My Meals Collection

Re-ment Curry and Rice from the Doraemon Collection

Re-ment Hawaiian Curry Meal from the Airplane Meals Collection

Aren't those awesome miniatures?  I especially like the Hello Kitty Curry Pot and Plate!  What's your favorite?

All these photos were making me crave for a sweet Japanese curry plate with steamy hot white rice... so I decided to cook some!  It was a lot easier than I thought.  I used the recipe from this website: Japanese Cooking 101.

The recipe says to let it simmer for 45 minutes but I think 1 hour would make the meat more tender.  I also used a pre-packaged curry paste from S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix which I found in a Korean grocery store (although I bet you can find it in the International Food section of any grocery store as well).  

It comes in four different level of "hotness" : 

1. Mild
2. Medium Hot
3. Hot
4. Extra Hot

I don't mind eating spicy food but I wanted the kids to try it out so Mild was the safest option.

Well it was a success!  All the children loved it, even my super picky boy!   

I will probably try to be more adventurous next time and make my own curry roux from scratch instead of using the pre-packaged one.  I will also try to substitute the beef with chicken or tofu to make a change :)

Do you like curry? 

Sunday Brunch

Dear Readers,

The weather was gloriously warm for two days and then suddenly it got cold again on Sunday afternoon.  It will be near freezing again tonight.  No wonder everybody gets sick over and over again with these abrupt changes in temperature! 

But we did get sunny skies and enjoyed a lovely Sunday brunch outside.  The kids played ball in the yard and baby had fun watching them and running everywhere.  Much alike the Mouse Family in the picture below (but we unfortunately had less sweets than they did).

Notice the beautiful cakes and pastries you see on the Mouse Family's table!  They are presents from Jennifer from PLUSHPUSSYCAT Blog! 

My weekend started pleasantly with a package from Jennifer.  She has sent me one of her beautiful postcard!  In her package was also the miniature pastries and cakes, a Micro Lalaloopsy and gorgeous white and pink roses!   

I love sweets and this is maybe why I love miniature sweets too :D  I think they are in perfect scale with the Calico Critters/Sylvananian Families!  I took some other pictures with other dolls which I will show you later this week.

The flowers will be used for my Licca and other bigger dolls.  And I have just the vase to display them!

I was quite excited about the Micro Lalaloopsy because it's my first one!  I never bought it in this size!!!  I was going to paint the mini doll but my daughter liked it so much that I let her have it for now. My girl seems to have a thing for miniature...

Thank you dear Jennifer!  Your presents gave me a boost and I started setting up display scenes for my Sylvanian Families again :)  

I hope the warm weather will return soon and I won't feel so sluggish, sick and exhausted anymore.

I wish you all the positive energy and good weather for this week.

Hugs xoxoxo

Orcara - Street Snacks and Giveaway

Today I will be showing you another Orcara Miniature Collection: The Snack Shops / Street Snacks Collection!   It has many items that are popular street food in East Asia.  As usual, they are highly details and have all kind of cool inserts you can remove from the containers.

Bubble Tea
If you haven't tried Bubble Tea or Tapioca Tea, you should! It's so yummy!

Fruit Smoothie

BBQ Skewers

Hot Dogs

Soda Dispenser

Popcorn Machine

Beef Offal
I am not a fan of beef tripe so I'll pass on this LOL

Takoyaki
I was super excited to get this set because takoyaki is one of my favorite Japanese snack food!  It's basically little chunks of octopus in a ball of dough (chewy in the inside, crunchy on the outside).

This is also the GIVEAWAY PRIZE!!!

This is what a full-size takoyaki pan looks like (it's my own).

A few months ago, I posted on Instagram the first batch of takoyaki I made with that pan :)  It turned out just fine and super yummy delicious!

If you have never tried Takoyaki, you are missing out!  It's seriously the most awesome street food ever!  If you want to learn how to make them, you can rely on the very instructive video below  :)   They show the right ingredients and steps.  Or you can do like me and save a few steps by buying an already prepared batter!

To win the miniature Orcara miniature tayokaki set, please follow my blog and leave a comment to this post.  You can link this post in your blog but it's not necessary.

The photo I show you above is my own open set but the winner will receive a brand new set within the sealed bag.   The deadline is September 30th, 2013 at midnight CET.

Good luck to everybody :)

EDIT: THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!

Orcara - Story of Cakes

I am very excited to show you today the The Story of Cakes Miniature Collection from Orcara! Of all the Orcara miniature collection, it is my favorite.   I think it's probably because I am biased toward sweets and cakes but truly these are beautiful miniatures.

Front cover of the individual box

Back cover of the individual box

Complete Set Box

Now to the miniature cakes.  They look AMAZING!   Each set is so detailed and the colors, texture, and accompanying containers and cake stands are beautiful and well made!

Heart Cookie Cake

Citrus Strawberry

Ice Cream Dessert

Chocolate & Pocky

Valentine Delicacy

Fancy Chocolates

Fresh Fruit Cocktail

Fruit of the Forest

I can't get over how cute and beautiful these miniatures are! I wanted to show this to you for quite some time but I had to wait for some Barbie furniture in order to showcase the cakes properly!  Here below is the Barbie Bake Shop and Cafe.  I didn't add any other miniature except the Orcara cakes so you can see what it looks like in a bakery setting. 

And here below are my Licca dolls in the bake shop.  They are only 9 inches tall so barbie dolls at 11 inches tall would tower over the yellow top counter.   But I like my little girls here because they are supposed to be children anyway so their size is appropriate for Barbie furniture. 

Don't you think the cakes look so beautiful displayed in a bake shop?