Earl grey pound cake

Near the end of September, the weather really started to cool down a lot and perfect for baking as it wouldn't heat up the entire room.

I found this earl grey pound cake recipe on cookpad and improvised it - http://cookpad.com/recipe/3503650

Ingredients:
Flour - 100g
Margarine - 70g (I shall try to reduce it to 60g the next time, to try to reduce the fat content of the cake)
Sugar - 75g
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
Eggs - 2
Tea bag - 1 (I shall try using 2 tea bags the next time too for a stronger flavour)
Milk - 50ml

1. Mix everything together and bake in a 180C oven for 20mins.

At first I was worried about how the cake would turn out as I only have a microwave oven, but it browned really nicely. And I judged how long I should bake the cake according to how nicely it browned. I baked it for about 17mins. 

The cake looked absolutely beautiful from the top, till I peel off the baking sheet to reveal the unbrowned bottom. The cake was baked nicely, just that it didn't have the nice brown colour at the bottom and at the sides because the microwave oven only heats up on top.

So yea....I could't achieve the nice brown crusts that I like on pound cakes, but the taste was good and not too sweet.  It was sooo good that I finished a quater of the cake on the spot!

As I did not seep the tea bags in warm milk before hand, the flavour of the tea was not that pronounced. heehee...my lazy method. Hence, I shall try using 2 tea bags instead the next time. If that doesn't work too, I will seep a tea bag in warm milk  before using the milk.

Unagi in summer

In Japan, somehow unagi is a really popular food in summer. 

Come summer and you can see all the restaurants that don't normally sell eel start serving it on their menu. Then the local supermarket will be selling ready packed eels too.

So we bought one too from Aeon. All we had to do was just reheat it in the microwave.

The verdict?

Yummy~ as good as the ones you can get in the restaurant. 

In Japan, it's very common to get packaged fish stuffs from the supermarket. They're convenient and taste great. But of course, the cost is higher than if you were to prepare the fish yourself.

Yakiniku at home~

Yakiniki is pretty expensive in Tokyo and is much cheaper to prepare at home.

Colleague and I went shopping for meat at Niku no hanamasa in Ikebukuro which supposedly sells meat at a cheaper price. We got these 2 beautiful meat platter - pork neck and beef ue barakarubi (back ribs).

 

Misuji (blade roast or shoulder) which was like the most expensive one that we got! But look at the marbling of the fat~

So here's our yakiniku set up at her place~ we got veg, onion, kimchi, sauces and drinks!

Actually, the meat were good on their own even without any seasonings, especially the Misuji which makes sense because it was the most expensive one. It does take a long time to cook on the grill and literally melts in your mouth!!! The other 2 cuts were delicious too as they had so much fat in them. When you grill them, the fat melts onto the onion and caramelises it! 

A bit too much food for the 2 of us, but we finished everything! Hope to do it again soon~!!!

Home-made laksa shabu-shabu

When my colleague told me that she wanted to have Malaysian laksa, I never imagined it to be this!

I actually googled on where I could find restaurants that served curry laksa in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, she was talking about having shabu-shabu using a curry laksa soup base!!!

We tried searching for Malaysian curry but couldn't find any so we bought Thai red curry instead and made this soup stock for our shabu-shabu~!!!

hahaha.....crab sticks, kinako, enoki, abura age, chikuwa, veg, pork platter and beef platter! Yes, we bought a little too much for 2 people. While I thought that the soup tasted slightly weird and in no way similar to curry laksa, it still tasted ok!

Home-made mizu youkan~

Was asking my japanese colleague one day regarding where I could find kanten powder because I wanted to make some.

Then the next day she came to work with a packet for me! 

I was soo happy that I decided to make some red bean mizu youkan for my colleagues.

It was surprisingly easy to make especially if you live in Japan because the read made red bean paste (without skins) can be easily bought from the local supermarket.

1. Bring to boil 400ml of water, add in 2 tbs of kanten jelly and remove from heat.

2. Add in 400g of skinless red bean paste, while stirring continuously.

3. Pour them into moulds.

4. Place them to cool in the fridge for an hour and Tada~!!!! 

Delicious mizu youkan~!!!! <3

The perfect snack for a hot summer day~

Eating Japan - Frozen food series 1

Every time I go grocery shopping, I would notice all the attractive frozen food items in the freezers and I realised that many housewives actually buys them.

So one day out of curiosity, I bought my first pack of Prawn gratin as below and I was convinced that it was one of the best inventions ever!

1. Meiji Ebi Gratin

This comes in a pack of 3 individual servings. Take one out and heat it up in the microwave and you get something as below~ The sauce was extremely thick and creamy. There's actually a lot of sauce, so you can probably add some steamed vegetables to it and make it a proper meal. That's what I did and the sauce went really well with the vegetables.

Needless to say, this was extremely delicious because this was what gave me confidence to try other frozen items.

2. Nissei Ebi Shumai

This come is 4 trays of 3 shumai each. Take one tray out, wrap it in cling wrap and microwave it. While it is very convenient, as this was made with minced prawn meat, I didn't really enjoy the texture of it. I prefer shumai with whole prawns in them.

3. TableMark Pumpkin Croquette

Each croquette comes in its own individual tray. You microwave it without any cling wrap. This goes extremely well with rice. I like this in my bento box. The centre pumpkin part was flavourful and the outer portion was very fragrant too due to the sesame seeds. This was so good, I actually bought a second pack!

4. Maruha Nichiro Ebi Tartar Sauce

Another prawn item, but I actually like this better than the shumai. The tartar sauce was delicious and again, very good with rice. Another item that I like having in my bento.

5. Akebono Chicken cutlets with spinach and 4 different types of cheese

I really like all these fried stuff with sauce in them because they keep the meat moist and they go really well with rice. I guess this is not for everyone because the smell of the cheese is pretty strong. If you don't like cheese, you might not enjoy this.

6. Ks meatballs

This comes with 4 individual packets with 3 meatballs and sauce each. This is really convenient as you can microwave the entire pack and then pour it over your rice in the bento or in a separate little container. I like the sauce on my rice because it adds flavour to it.

While these are extremely convenient, I try not to have them too often. I only use them on busy days when I have no time to cook. But I do feel that these are really smart inventions and great for busy working mothers who have to prepare bentos for their husbands and children.

With that said, I am interested to try other frozen items~ :)

Eating Japan - Instant ramen series 1

1. Topvalu kitsune udon

Truthfully, I bought this because it was one of the cheapest instant noodle available on the day I bought it! hahaha......but it turned out to be really good. So good that I've bought it twice now. I like the texture of their smooth and flat udon, which went extremely well with the kitsune~ I also like the fact the the broth was not salty and of a light flavour, so that I get to enjoy the flavour of the kitsune.

2. Topvalu Shoyu Ramen

Bought this because this was one of the promoted ramen when I was grocery shopping one day and no regrets because it was yummy~ The noodles had a nice texture to them and I like that the soup wasn't too salty.

3. Ippei-chan yakisoba

I've seen this on various youtubers' channels before and have always been interested to try it. This came with three different packages inside: yakisoba sauce, furikake and mayonnaise.

Home-cooked Harusame

I spotted this pack of glass noodle while grocery shopping the other day and it immediately caught my attention because it was stated on the package that this is perfect with rice!

The instructions on how to prepare this dish is written behind the package. You can just cook the glass noodles in water for 2 minutes before adding in the sauce and cook for another 3 minutes. Or if you have more ingredients at home, during summer, turn it into a cold noodle salad and in winter, turn it into a hot pot with loads of vegetables.

Here's what you get inside the package. I got mine in medium spicy.

At first I thought of trying it as it is with rice. However, I changed my mind later on because I enjoy glass noodles as it is. So I just added in extra carrots and cabbage to the noodles. This is the what the final dish looked like and it is super delicious! I really enjoyed the taste of the sauce. I might buy this again in the future in another flavour!

Home-made okonomiyaki

 My easy go to dinner whenever there's some left over cabbages at home. It's better you have some meat to go along with it. Sometimes I use bacon and sometimes I use ham, depending on what's available in my fridge.

As for the batter, I just buy a packet of flour that says for okonomiyaki use.

Mix the flour with egg and water, then add them to the cabbages mix.

Heat your pan with some oil and ladle the batter on. When done, you get a nice little pancake as below.

Top it off with your favourite toppings. For mine, I like okonomiyaki sauce with mayo and katsuobushi. Plus some aonori when I have them at home.

Home-cooked gyoza (cheat)

Saw some pre-made gyoza on the freezer section and decided to try it. I bought the brand Nipponman. A pack came with 12 pieces of gyoza, a packed of sauce for the cooked gyoza and a packet of sauce for cooking the gyoza.

So first, I laid out all the gyoza on a hot pan with some oil and then poured in the packet of sauce for cooking the gyoza  in.

 

After several minutes, you get this nice "wings" at the bottom of the pan.

Before serving, I broke them up into individual portions.

And yes....SUCCESS!!! The perfect gyoza~ with a nice brown bottom and crunchy "wings"! :D

Besides looking amazing, it tastes super good too!!!

While I did not make them from scratch, I was still super proud that they came out looking soooo beautiful!