Cerebrating Birthday, Starting New Painting

Baked a pumpkin pudding for my husband birthday.
This is the most favorite dessert of him!
I used to bake cakes, pies, and cookies very often for the first few years of marriage, but not anymore, since we both were putting on weight...　;-)　
Anyway, this is his birthday, so some treat for him.

yummy??
おいしそうですか？

I always try not let my housework eat into my studio hours , so I started cooking as early as 7:00 this morning (!) right after my husband headed off to work.
Getting in time at 9:00 AM, started studio work.
Listening internet radio I come to know recently, I just continued to paint until lunch break.

夫の誕生日のために好物のカボチャプリンを焼きました。
新婚の頃はケーキやらクッキーやらやたら焼いたものですが、二人とも太るようになって、最近ではたまにしか作りません（＾＾）
しかしまあ、今回は誕生日ということでお祝いです。
時間的に家事がアトリエでの仕事に食い込まないようにしているので、今日は夫が出かけたすぐ後の7時から作り始めました！
なんとか9時に間に合って作業開始。最近知ったインターネットラジオを聞きながら、昼休みまでひたすら描き続けました。

Oyster Day

Released from all the chores (including filing of tax return), I and my husband went to out for oyster for Saturday brunch. We live in a local city close to the sea, so there are many oyster bars where serve fresh oysters only between January and March. My husband made some research on the oyster bars while I was hardly pressed with those miscellaneous stuff. Oysters are my favorite winter food. I used to enjoy oyster festival when I lived in Oyster Bay in NY.

The oyster bar he chose was more like a cabin than a fancy restaurant. But people are waiting in line. Seems like to run by fishermen.

Inside of the restaurant is not very sophisticated but filled with people enjoying food and good smell of fresh oysters barbecued on each of their table.

oysters in shell and skewered devil fish (left)

Guests are supposed to grill oysters and other seafood on the wire net by themselves. They are given gloves, opening knife, and tongs (and even garbage bucket ) for barbecuing. This is very entertaining and fun to look at the oysters are opening.

yummy!

fried oyster with tartar sauce

Eating good food is always fun. I think having meals, wherever you live, whatever you eat, or whomever you are with, is the most important part of life. We eat to live. So I want to enjoy everyday meals as much as I can. Well...maybe you think this is just a excuse not to feel guilty to be a foodie. Yes maybe. Thinking such, I and my husband dropped by a pastry shop for dessert on the way back to home.   

Mt. Fuji or Rocky Mt.?

I went to a pastry shop in my neighbor yesterday to buy my favorite pie.

This pastry named "fresh cream pie" is the best selling item in the shop, which is usually sold out in the morning.  Not good looking, but the pie is filled with beautiful custard cream on piecrust and also covered with some layers of the same piecrust piled up like a mountain.
This pie may not be appropriate to serve to guests, because eating this is not very easy and elegant; You have to break down the mountain and pick up the cream with a piece of piecrust.　Your fingers get dipped into the custard cream and it forces you to lick your fingers all the time....

However, It is a bliss ! I and my husband enjoy to eat this way. Hamburger, fried chicken, raw oyster on shell, or chocolate eclair etc. should be eaten without fork and knife. Sushi also taste better without chopsticks ( I use ones when I eat out, though..).  Eating wild is a secret joy only between families.

Winter Vegetable in Japan

Daikon, Japanese radish is the most popular winter vegetable in Japan.

During long winter, we eat various daikon dishes very often. There are zillions of recipes for daikon.
One of the easiest but with the highest vitamin nutritious value is to grate daikon and serve raw with soy sauce and lemon. Actually I love it most.
Upper section close to leaves tastes sweeter and bottom section close to the roots is usually bitter but stiff.  Therefore, upper part can be eaten raw such as grated or salad (as well as cooked), and bottom part are usually cooked in soup, or grilled on pan.   
In old days  (or maybe still now in countryside), people hang shredded daikon outside in winter time to make freeze dried daikon.

Poor actor/actress are called "Ham Actor" in English and  "Daikon Yakusha" in Japanese.
Yakusha means actor/actress. The reason that the term of daikon is applied to poorness of performance is because no one will ever get sick to eat daikon. (In Japanese, not to get sick by food poisoning and not to become hit have the same pronunciation as "Ataranai".)

"Cut daikon by Masamune" is another Japanese proverb, meaning giving a crappy job to a talented person. (Masamune is one of the most noted samurai sword in Kamakura period in Japan.) I do not think daikon is crappy vegetable, though.

Daikon is inextricable part of Japanese life.

Made In High School

I bought a canned Buta-Miso,ground pork seasoned with miso.
Buta-Miso were originally made as preservative food in Kagoshima prefecture, but were gradually sold as souvenirs.
I bought two kinds of them; One (I ate up already) was in a fancy bottle and made by a food company. Another was filled in a cheap can and made by, surprisingly, high school students and it tastes better !!!

From about a decade ago, some Japanese high schools started to put more effort into operating restaurant or selling food items by their students.　Those high schools have courses for students who want to be chef and sometimes invite professional chefs to teach class.
From basics to highly sophisticated techniques, those student are hammered into by the chefs. They are also taught the food business and management as well. Therefore, selling whatever they made is a part of their course. One restaurant named "Mago-no-Mise" (meaning "restaurant by grandchildren") operated by Soka High School in Mie prefecture is getting too popular that all menus are sold out in the morning hours. In most cases, high school made food are safe, less expensive, and good taste. Good for everybody!


Buta-Miso itself is not difficult to cook.
In fly pan, first stir minced ginger (2 table spoon) with some vegetable oil.
Then add ground pork (or minced pork, 150g), sugar (100g), minced onion (half), miso(250g), graded onion (1 table spoon), and sesame seeds (2 table spoon). Stir until pork is cooked.
If you have Mirin (sweet sake) , add 1 table spoon.
Best much with rice but also good as dip sauce for vegetable sticks.

Mystery of Japanese Cooking

One of the most popular dishes for New Years Holidays is cooked black beans.
People eat these black beans ( in Japanese "Kuro-mame") wishing　healthy life (mame means healthy in old Japanese) in coming year. So I also cook these black beans every year.

There are many recipes for cooking black beans, and Japanese black beans usually comes into the form of dried beans, therefore in most cases cooking it takes 2-3 days.


On the night of the first day,
1. wash the dried black beans (400 grams)
2. boil cooking liquid consisting of water (14 cups), sugar (300grams),  soy-sauce(1/3 cup), salt(1/2 table spoon), baking soda(1 table spoon) AND....

I use artist quality iron nails which I use for stretching canvases!

RUSTED NAILS! 
This is essential ingredient in this cooking. If you do not have ones, you can make them instantly by spraying small amount of vinegar on  nails and leave them 3 days. Rust on iron nails (actually tannin included in them) make the beans very black like velvet.
Without the rusted nails, the cooking liquid is just pale color and the beans will ended up with ugly brown.　You must wash the nails lightly and wrap and tie them together with white cloth or thick paper towels so that the nails does not get scattered.

cooking liquid without rusted nails

Now you are ready put the black beans into the boiled liquid. Stop heating right after adding the beans. (Do not cook them now !)

3. Leave the pot overnight.

In the morning on the second day, you start cooking.
4. Cook the bean until the liquid is boiling again.
5. Take bubbles and scums on the surface
6. Add 1/2 cup of water to stop boiling
7. Cook at lowest heat for 6-7 hours, make sure that the beans are　always immersed in the liquid. If the liquid is not enough, you can add 1/2 cup of water　at a time.
8. Stop heating and leave the pot overnight so that the beans absorb the liquid.

You are done!

In the morning of the third day, you will find the very beautiful black beans ready to eat.
7 days in fridge. (or cold place is OK, since it contains lots of sugar.)

Lunch of the Day

This is not a food blog. But I write about food a lot; I am FOODIE.
I think most artists love to cook and eat as much as to paint.
Our fascination is always diredted to anything beautiful, whether it is eatable or not. However, my lunch is pretty much plain and frugal in preparetion for dinner.

lunch of the day

Today's lunch is one sweet potato, one mandarin orange, and milk tea.
You may say that I should take some protein. Yes, maybe.
But until 70 years ago, Japanese took proper nutrition mostly from rice only and they live long (longest in fact) ! So I do not worry too much.

During this busy season, I enjoy watching populare Japanese cooking TV show "Kewpie's Three Minutes Cooking".



This program has been broadcasted every day since 1963 and made the Guinness Book of Records as the world's longest running TV cooking program.
I usually work at my studio in the morning and stop working just before the program and watch while preparing lunch.
Isn't it a happy routine?

Uncompromisable Battle on Sukiyaki

There is a big discussion on Sukiyaki between west and east in Japan.
Easterners such as Tokyo people use a kind of soy sauce based broth called "warishita" and COOK beef and vegetables in that broth.
On the other hand, westerners, represented by people in Osaka, Kyoto and Nara, say that Sukiyaki historically means "grill on plow", so strongly believe that beef strips which is main ingredient of Sukiyaki dish should be "grilled" with soy sauce and sugar on iron pan.
Me? As one originated from Osaka, I will say it loud;
"you should grill beef! Period!".
It is peaceful battle anyway.

This is traditional (I think) recipe of Sukiyaki.
First, you should grill (or stir) beef on the iron pan with soy sauce(2 table spoon) and sugar(one table spoon). No water added.

Raw egg is an option. You can dip the beef into it to make the dish milder taste.

After you ate beef, THEN you can add vegetables to the pan where now all the beef juice seasoned by soy sauce and sugar are left. Vegetables contain enough water, so you do not have to add any water unless the pan gets burned.
Ingredient can be spinach, green onion, leek, tohu, sitake mashroom, etc. and my recommendation is konjac noodle. You can finalize Sukiyaki with Udon. Try it!

Secret Ingredient

Right bottle is fish powder and the left one is Yuzu Kosho. I use them routinely for my cooking. Fish powder is mainly for making broth or soup stock such as miso-soup, but you can use it for anything as you use permesan cheese.  Just sprinkle on food when you want some sort of flavor.It is simply small fishes reduced into powder, so is very healthy way to take necessary calcium. ( not so fishy taste, I think.)
Yuzu, as some of you may know, is a type of Japanese citron and Yuzu Kosho literally means Yuzu & black pepper. However, it actually does not contain black pepper. It is made of red pepper and Japanese citron and matured together a while. Like Wasabi, it goes great with beef, pork and chicken. When I do not have enough time to cook, I just saute beef　steak (or boil paper-thin sliced pork) with solt & pepper on a pan and serve with Yuzu Kosho. Great dinner for busy person!

My Favorite Japanese Sweets

I love any kind of sweets.

This is Japanese sweet rice ball, Ohagi. Ohagi is steamed sticky rice filled with sweet bean paste and covered with soybean flour. This is generally for spring equinox, but is sold anytime of the year in most of Japanese supermarket. 

How does it taste? Imagine that, in a mashed potato, you fill with very sweet chunky peanut butter, and finish with a light dusting of cocoa powder. 

Sounds yummy? I usually buy ones, but in case you want to cook it by yourself; 

http://japanesefood.about.com/od/rice/r/ohagi.htm 

Love to Ramen

I and my husband enjoy food. During the weekdays, I cook and he dishes. On the weekend, he cooks and dishes. ( Is that fair??) My husband loves ramen and it is one of his most favorite food he cooks.

For those who are crazy about ramen like him, IMO, ramen is not just a food. It is a "do", a way of life, like some Japanese martial art such as Judo or Kendo; something worth to pursue in your whole life! It is so funny that we even have ramen critics here in Japan.