recipe

Yatsuhashi, Cinnamon sweets from Kyoto

maki — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:43:11 +0200

Just about anyone who takes a trip to the historical city of Kyoto goes home bearing a box of yatsuhashi　（八つ橋）, a small delicate sweet that is flavored with nikki or cinnamon. While I am not from Kyoto, I get a fit of nostalgia for yatsuhashi on occasion. Fortunately they aren’t that hard to make at home.

Yatsuhashi, which means ‘eight bridges’, come in two basic forms: nama or ‘raw’ yatsuhashi which are soft, and yaki yatsuhashi which are hard and cookie like. Nama yatsuhashi, pictured below, are soft, thin squares of cinnamon scented mochi (sticky rice) dough, folded into a triangle with a filling of sweet azuki bean paste (tsubuan).

Like other mochi-based sweets, yatsuhashi are totally gluten-free, so if you are gluten intolerant you might want to try these out. They also happen to be more or less fat free and vegan too. (They are definitely not sugar-free though!)

Really traditional yatushashi calls for nikki sui or cinnamon water, but ground cinnamon is much easier to get a hold of so that’s what I’ve used here. I have also used natural or raw cane sugar for additional flavor.

Some notes about this recipe

You might hate me for this if you are in the U.S., but as a departure from my usual practive I’m only giving you metric weight measurements here. Because so little of each ingredient is needed, accuracy is very important. Fortunately most modern scales can switch from metric to imperial measurements and vice versa, and a good scale is really a good thing to have if you do any kind of baking, not to mention portion control!_

I’ve given two dough recipes here. One uses mochiko or sweet/glutinous rice flour only. Mochiko or the Chinese equivalent which is usually labeled “glutinous rice flour” seems to be quite widely available at Asian grocery stores and health food stores. Most Japanese recipes for yatsuhashi call for a mixture of medium-grain rice flour (joushinko) and sweet rice flour, but when I used this mixture for mitarashi dango I got a lot of comments and emails that it was hard to get the joushinko. Note that the amount of water is a bit different when you use 100% mochiko vs. a mix of mochiko and joushinko.

Recipe: Nama Yatsuhashi

This amount of dough makes about 12 small yatsuhashi, or a batch of baked yatsuhashi. For maximum cinnamon flavor, make sure to use fresh cinnamon powder!

Dough - Mochiko or glutinous rice flour only version:

100g mochiko or glutinous rice flour
60g raw cane sugar or light brown sugar (in Japan use wasanontou （和三温糖）)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
85g (85cc) water

Dough - Mochiko and joushinko mixture version:

40g joushinko
60g mochiko
60g raw cane sugar or light brown sugar (in Japan use wasanontou （和三温糖）)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
95g (95cc) water

Other ingredients:

3 Tbs. kinako (ground toasted soybeans)
1 Tbs. ground cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling
3-4 Tbs. tsubuan or other filling (see notes below for suggestions). You can make your own tsubuan, or buy cans or bags at a Japanese grocery store.

Measure your ingredients accurately!

Mix the dry ingredients together well with chopsticks or a fork, add the water and mix very well. It will be rather loose and sludgy.

Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Take out and mix well again - most of the moisture would have been absorbed.

Put back in the microwave and cook on HIGH for 1 minute 30 seconds. Take out and mix again. At this stage it will form a rough ball and more or less clear the sides of the bowl.

Spread a large piece of heat-proof plastic wrap (like Saran Wrap) on your working surface, and turn the dough out on it.

Wrap the dough up in the plastic.

Knead the dough several times, using the plastic wrap as a heat barrier and to prevent sticking between you, the working surface and the dough. This kneading is very important to ensure the dough is smooth and pliable. You may have to open the plastic wrap and re-shift the dough a few times. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth and shiny.

The dough here is almost ready - it just needs a few more kneading turns to make it totally smooth.

Mix the 3 Tbs. of kinako and 1 Tbs. of cinnamon, and use this as the dusting ‘flour’ to roll out the dough as thinly as possible. It helps to use more plastic wrap to prevent sticking here. If you have trouble getting it thin enough, try dividing the dough and rolling out smaller pieces.

Cut the dough into 10 to 12 squares. Wet two sides, fill with about 1/2 tsp. of filling, fold up into a triangle and press hard to seal. I then like to coat them again in the kinako-cinnamon powder mix, and dust on extra cinnamon to serve, but this is optional.

Green tea is the perfect accompaniment to these.

Filling notes

If you can’t get or make tsubuan, you can try:

Sweet white bean paste
Nutella - this really fits!
Peanut butter mixed with a little sugar
Apricot jam

If filling the dough doesn’t work, you can just spread the filling of your choice on top of a flat piece and pop it in your mouth.

Baked yatsuhashi cookies

You can use the dough to make little cinnamon flavored cookies that are, of course, gluten and fat free.

Just cut the thinly rolled out dough into squares, or fancy shapes with cookie cutters.

Bake in a 170°C/335°F oven for 15 minutes, then turn the heat off and leave the cookies in there for an additional 15 minutes. The cookies may or may not puff up, but either way they will be very crispy. You can optionally sprinkle them with additional cinnamon or cinnamon sugar while still warm.

New potatoes with sweet-spicy miso

maki — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:29:14 +0200

Here is another great way to enjoy new potatoes. It’s almost as simple to make as new potatoes with soy sauce and butter, though it uses a few more ingredients. Boiled whole new potatoes are panfried in a little sesame oil, then coated in a sticky sweet-salty-spicy miso sauce. The strong flavors of the miso sauce really go well with the blandness of the potatoes.

Recipe: New potatoes with sweet-spicy miso

About 500g / 1 lb tiny organic new potatoes, washed and unpeeled
1 Tbs. sesame oil
2 Tbs. miso, preferably red miso, but any miso will do
1 Tbs. kochujang (Spicy Korean bean paste, available at Korean or Japanese markets)
3 Tbs. raw cane sugar or light brown sugar (or if you have neither, regular white sugar will do)
1 large garlic clove, grated
1 piece (about twice the size of the garlic clove) fresh ginger, grated
Chopped green onions for garnish

Boil the potatoes in their skins until they are tender (if you poke one with a knife point or skewer, it goes through easily).

Heat up a large frying pan. Heat up the sesame oil. Add the potatoes, and pan-fry them until they turn brown and crispy.

In the meantime, combine the miso, kochujang, sugar, grated garlic and ginger in a bowl with enough water to make it into a smooth, loose paste, about the consistency of ketchup. (I use a microplane to grate the garlic and ginger.)

Add the paste to the hot pan and toss the potatoes around rapidly to coat them well. The water will evaporate and the sauce will turn very sticky. Take off the the heat before the miso burns.

Serve sprinkled with lots of chopped green onions.

This is a very rich and strongly flavored dish, almost a meal unto itself. In Japan it would be a side dish, eaten with rice and soup and a couple more dishes such as grilled fish or meat plus pickles or salad, etc. You could serve these as a side dish as part of a Western style meal. It’s a great vegan dish - you could add some pan-fried tofu or seitan or something to go with it.

It’s also very nice in bento, but I do prefer it when it’s still hot from the pan.

For a non-spicy version, omit the kochujang and increase the miso to 3 tablespoons. This non-spicy version would be more traditionally Japanese, but I like a bit of heat to cut through the sweetness.

Corn on the cob with butter and soy sauce

maki — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:32:50 +0200

I have to admit that I’ve been quite taken aback by how popular the new potatoes with butter and soy sauce recipe has been. Butter and soy sauce are so familiar to me as a tasty combination that I hadn’t quite realized that it would be new and exciting to a lot of people.

Anyway, here’s another extremely simple yet delicious way of using this magic combination on another summer vegetable - sweet corn. Here in Europe, eating corn on the cob is a relatively new custom imported from the U.S. - corn around here is either dried and ground up (as polenta and so on), or used as animal feed. So it’s not always possible to buy great, very fresh sweet corn. This treatment can perk up even an ordinary supermarket-bought corn on the cob, and will really shine with corn that you’ve just picked from your own garden.

Corn on the cob with butter and soy sauce

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 360°F.

Unhusk and de-silk the corn.

For every ear of corn, use about 1 to 2 Tbs. of unsalted butter. Soften the butter, and smear it all over the corn, so that it goes into all the crevices.

Wrap each ear of corn in a large piece of kitchen parchment paper (aluminum foil will work too), twisted each end tightly as if you were wrapping up a big piece of candy. Place the wrapped corn on a baking sheet. Make a small opening in one seam and pour in about 2-3 tsp. or so of soy sauce, and roll the corn around a bit to distribute the soy sauce.

Bake for 15 minutes, then turn over. Bake an additional 15-20 minutes.

Serve each ear of corn on a big plate, wrapper and all. Each person opens up the paper to eat the corn. Here’s how a wrapped one looks next to a partially unwrapped one.

The butter will have penetrated into the corn kernels, while the soy sauce adds a great salty-yummy flavor. (You can dip the corn as you eat it in any residual soy sauce in the paper.)

Steamed eggplants (aubergines) with spicy peanut sauce

maki — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:44:48 +0200

[From the archives: This eggplant/aubergine dish is really nice served cold, though it can be served warm too. It doesn’t heat up the kitchen since it’s made in the microwave (yes, the microwave, and it works great!) so it’s great to make on a steamy hot summer evening, with in-season eggplant. Originally published July 2007.]

Here is another summer dish. I love eggplants (aubergines), but cooking them without using a lot of oil can be a bit tricky. I read about this method of steam-cooking eggplants in the microwave in a Japanese magazine some time ago, and ever since it’s one of my favorite ways of preparing these rather spongy vegetables - they’re done in just 5 minutes without heating up the kitchen, which is hard to beat on a hot summer’s day. The whole dish takes less than 10 minutes to prepare.

Here they are served cold with a spicy peanut sauce, which makes it a very nice vegetarian/vegan main dish. Serve with rice or cold noodles.

Microwave-steamed eggplants (aubergines) with spicy peanut sauce

This makes two servings as a side dish, or one main vegan dish.

4 slim Asian style eggplants (aubergines)
2 Tbs. chunky style peanut butter (or more if you want it very peanutty)
1 1/2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. mirin
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. red chili paste (Korean chili paste, or Harisa. If you don’t have chili paste you can add some dry chili powder)

Peel the eggplants with a vegetable peeler. Take off the tops. Wrap each one loosely in microwave-safe plastic wrap and place in a circular pattern around the edges of a round plate. Place the plate in the microwave on the rotating plate and microwave on high for about 5 minutes. (If you don’t have a rotating plate in your microwave, nuke on high for 2 1/2 minutes, then turn the plate about halfway and nuke for an additional 2 1/2 minutes.)

In the meantime, mix together the rest of the ingredients in a small pan; bring to a simmer to dissolve the sugar and amalgamate everything, then let cool. Make ready a large bowl of cold water.

Once the eggplants are soft, carefully drop them, plastic and all, into the bowl of cold water so they rapidly cool. Take them out of the water and take off the plastic; drain the eggplants if necessary.

Cut them on the diagonal into bitesize pieces and arrange them on a plate with some green garnish (here I’ve used shiso leaves). If you’ve made them in advance, chill in the refrigerator until it’s time to eat.

To serve, spoon the peanut sauce over the eggplant. Mix well with the sauce to eat.

Notes

The microwave steaming method works best with slim Asian style eggplants, but you can use the big Western style ones too - just cut them up into large cubes, and adjust the microwaving time.
The eggplants are peeled because the skins turn rather dark and grey-looking when steamed like this. The peel can be used in another dish if you want to be frugal.

Chilled wintermelon and shrimp soup

maki — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:12:31 +0200

These days, the house generally looks like a warzone because of the packing, and I am not in the mood for involved cooking. So I’m making very simple bentos, and mostly one-dish/one-pot type of things for dinner. A great one-pot meal is soup of course, but it is also summer, when we aren’t always in the mood for a steaming hot bowlful.

The answer is chilled soup that can be made ahead and just taken out at dinnertime. This one is really easy to make too, which is a big plus. Winter melon has a inherently cooling quality according to old (Chinese) medicine, so this is really nice to have on a warm evening.

A bit about wintermelon

The name wintermelon (in Japanese tougan 冬瓜) is a little misleading, because it may seem that it’s a melon that is only in season in winter. It actually ripens in hot weather in temperate zones (it can be grown year round in hotter areas), but the hard, waxy outer skin allows it to be kept in a cool place for a long time, so that it can be eaten in the winter months. I think it’s most suitable for eating in the warm months, because it’s watery and very subtle in flavor, with a crisp texture that is retained even after cooking (though cooking it for a very long time will make it soft).

Winter melon has a pale green, shiny smooth skin, and is quite big. (Be sure it’s smooth skinned - the dark green crinkly ones you may see sold nearby are bitter melon (also called goya, in Japanese nigauri にが瓜) and are treated quite differently.) You see them anywhere from around 10-15 cm / 4-6 inches in diameter on up. If you buy a whole one, you can keep it in a cool cellar until you decide to use it. You can also buy cut portions, which may be a more convenient for a small family or if you don’t want to commit to one huge fruit.

When you cut into it, it looks like this.

The inner part with the seeds is fluffy and inedible (like the innards of a pumpkin, to which it is related), so you need to scoop it out. The skin is really quite tough, so be careful when peeling it.

In Japanese cooking, winter melon is usually cut into bite size squares and parboiled for about 10 minutes in plain water, before being stewed, used in soups, stir-fried, and so on.

Recipe: Chilled wintermelon and shrimp soup

2 cups of parboiled wintermelon cubes
5 cups dashi stock, vegan dashi stock or chicken stock (yes you can use water and granules or a stock cube - I do myself when I’m in a hurry)
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. mirin or sherry
1 Tbs. kurosu (black vinegar) or balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. fresh ginger juice (grate some fresh ginger and squeeze out the juice)
200 g / about 7 oz. fresh shrimp, shelled and deveined
Salt
Green garnish (here I have used edamame and green onion tops from the garden)

If you haven’t already, peel, de-seed and cut up the wintermelon into cubes about 1 inch / 2 cm big. Put them in a pot of water, bring up to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes. Drain.

Put the wintermelon in a pot with the dashi, soy sauce and mirin. Bring up to a boil, then simmer slowly for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, peel and devein the shrimp, and cup up into chunks (or use small shrimp). Add the shrimp to the soup. Simmer a couple of minutes, and add the ginger juice and vinegar. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Take the pot off the heat, and transfer the contents to a bowl or other refrigerator-appropriate container. Let cool down to room temperature cover tightly with plastic film or a lid and chill until ice cold. (You can put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes before serving to make sure it’s really cold.)

Serve garnished with some edamame, green onions, etc. on top.

The soup keeps in the refrigerator for a couple of days. To make it a complete one-bowl meal, add some cooked and well rinsed somen or soba noodles, a bit more soy sauce, and a lot of green onions on top.

Vegan version

Use a vegetable stock or vegan dashi stock, and blanched (boiling water poured over and drained) tofu cubes instead of the shrimp. You may need to add a bit more soy sauce to compensate for the blandness of the tofu.

Other variations

Try cut up chicken breast instead of the shrimp
Add some cut up tomatoes and a bit more vinegar
Scoop out the wintermelon and shrimp, thicken about 1 cup of the soup with 1-2 Tbs. cornstarch, and pour over as a sauce. This is called ankake.
Gelify the soup with gelatin or agar-agar for an interesting savory jelly

Tamago dofu: Cold savory egg custard

maki — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:17:35 +0200

Previously, I explained how some dishes that are not tofu are called -tofu, because of the shape, texture or both. This is the case with tamago dofu　（卵豆腐） , a smooth savory egg custard that’s served cold.

You can make it in a square mold, to make it look tofu-like. But I prefer to keep it a lot simpler by cooking the tamago dofu in the serving container it will be served in. This can be anything as long as it’s heat-proof. Here I have used some sturdy glass cups made of pressed glass, but I’ve also used little pudding molds, tiny glass bowls made for holding ingredients while you’re cooking, and even coffee cups.

There are very few ingredients in a tamago dofu: dashi or soup stock, eggs, and a few flavorings. Because of this, each component should be of top quality, because you’ll taste each one quite clearly. Traditionally the soup component is dashi, but I don’t really like the fish flavor of dashi when it’s cold. So I prefer to make a simple vegetable stock instead.

Tamago dofu should be served ice cold. It’s a great appetizer for a summer meal, or an interesting and soothing snack. I have been guilty of making 4 cups and ‘hiding’ them so I can eat them all by myself.

Recipe: Tamago dofu in a cup

Makes 4 servings of about 3/4 cups each

For the vegetable stock:

1 medium onion
1 celery stalk
1 small fennel bulb
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
1 bay leaf
1 piece of fresh ginger, about 1 inch / 2 cm square
1 piece of kombu seaweed about 15-20 cm / 6-7 inches long

Chop up the vegetables roughly. Put everything in a pot, and add enough cold water to cover. Bring up to a boil them simmer slowly for about 20 minutes. Strain out the vegetables. (This makes more stock than you will need for the recipe; use the rest in a soup, stew, etc.)

For the tamago dofu:

4 ‘large’ eggs
2 cups / 440 ml vegetable stock or dashi
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1 tsp. salt
grated fresh ginger
parsley leaves for garnish

Equipment needed:

4 heat-proof molds or cups or glasses
a fine meshed sieve, or a tea strainer
a large pan or pot with a tight fitting lid
plastic wrap
a kettle or something to boil water

Boil some water in a kettle while you assemble the tamago dofu. (I use an electric kettle.) You’ll need enough boiling water to come up at least halfway up the cups or molds you’ll be using when placed in the large pan.

Mix the soy sauce and salt into the stock. Taste and add a little more salt if needed (remember when it’s cool the flavors will dissipate a bit).

Beat the eggs with a fork or chopsticks, trying not to make it too foamy. Add 330 ml / 1 1/2 cups of the soup stock to the eggs, and mix thoroughly.

Strain the egg mixture through a fine meshed sieve. This smooths out the texture by getting rid of the bubbles and any bits of unincorporated egg white. You can skip this step if you can’t be bothered - it won’t affect the flavor, though the texture may not be as velvety smooth.

Pour the mixture slowly (so you don’t make any bubbles) into the 4 containers. Cover each with plastic wrap, then punch a few holes in the plastic with a skewer or knife tip. (The plastic prevents water drops from falling into the egg custard, and the holes allow excess steam to escape).

Put the containers into the large pan. Very carefully (don’t splash the water into the custard) pour boiling water into the pan so that the water comes at least halfway up the sides of the containers. Cover the pot with the tight fitting lid. Leave it there for 15 minutes.

At the end, the custard should be fairly firm and the color will have turned pale. It will still be wobbly. Very carefully remove the cups from the pot, take off the plastic film covers and slowly pour the rest of the stock evenly over the top of the custard. This prevents the surface from forming a film. Leave to cool to room temperature, then re-cover each cup with fresh plastic film and cool in the refrigerator until ice cold.

You can make this up to a day in advance. Serve with a little grated ginger and a parsley leaf garnish on top.

Notes

Normally tamago dofu is cooked in a steamer, or steam-cooled in a simmering water bath. Some people also make it in the microwave. For me, using any of these methods makes custard all bubbly and spongy instead of smooth. By leaving it in boiling water as specified the custard cooks all the way through but remains silky smooth. However, this method only works if you’re making individual portions as I am here - if you make a large square of tamago dofu, you will need to add heat.

If you serve this hot with some added ingredients like shrimp, ginko nut, etc. in it and serve it piping hot, it becomes chawanmushi, a classic winter dish.

(Sidenote: Sorry I took an unintended week off from blogging! What with a cold and being buried in boxes all of last week, I totally lost my appetite and my foodblogging mojo. Fortunately both seem to have returned somewhat. The cold is almost gone, though the boxes are multiplying like bunnies.)

New potatoes with butter and soy sauce (Shinjaga shouyu bataa)

maki — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:34:37 +0200

We live in a semi-rural area (well, most areas outside of the cities are semi-rural in Switzerland) and one of the things grown here locally are potatoes. While most farmers like to grow those potatoes until they are quite huge, around this time we can get tiny new potatoes. I love new potatoes - they have a fresh, very slightly mineral-y flavor to them which is quite different from mature potatoes.

If you’re not familiar with new potatoes, try to get organically grown ones. This way you can eat them skin and all - peeling those really tiny potatoes can be a bit of a pain. The skins of fresh new potatoes should pale and very thin.

The easiest thing to do to new potatoes is to simply boil them and eat them with salt, pepper and a little butter or crème fraîche. This Japanese-flavor recipe is almost as easy though. Soy sauce and butter go marvelously well together, and enhance the new potatoes in a very satisfying way. In Japan the new potatoes would be deep-fried to get them crispy, but I’ve oven-baked them instead to cut down somewhat on the fat. (New potatoes in Japanese are called shinjaga （新じゃが）).

Recipe: New potatoes with butter and soy sauce (Shinjaga shouyu bataa)

About 500g / 1 lb tiny organic new potatoes, washed and unpeeled
Salt
2 Tbs. butter (You can use olive oil instead. But, you know, sometimes it just has to be butter.)
1 Tbs. soy sauce
Sansho （山椒）or black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F.

Put the potatoes in a pan with water to cover; add salt (the water should taste almost as salty as sea water). Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes. (Do this while the oven is heating up.)

Drain the potatoes. Melt the butter in the same pan and add the soy sauce. Mix the potatoes and butter-soy sauce well, and put onto a baking sheet.

Roast for 25 to 30 minutes unti the potatoes are browned and cooked through. Serve warm or at room temperature sprinkled with a little sansho/sanshou pepper (available at Japanese grocery stores) or black pepper.

Want more butter + soy sauce?

Try corn on the cob with butter and soy sauce…delicious!

Red, White and Blue Dessert

maki — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:48:36 +0200

(From the archives. If you’re planning a big Fourth of July party, consider this very colorful, cool dessert, which I made for a party 2 years ago. There are a lot of steps involved, but you can cut corners with storebought meringue and sugar cookies if you prefer.)

I love outdoor parties (except for the bugs!), especially when it means a barbeque. July the 4th barbeque parties are the best, and I miss them sorely when I am not in the U.S. This year though, we are going to have a July the 4th party on Sunday (since the 4th is not a holiday here), complete with grilled hamburgers, wurst, and chicken. Someone else is going to do all that grilling, so I am making the dessert.

A good dessert for a barbeque party is ideally something that you can make in advance - or at least, make most of it in advance and then just assemble it before serving. Ice cream or other frozen desserts fit the bill, but I wanted to do something a bit different. Since this is a July the 4th party, even if it will be a bit early, I needed to have something that looked all-American. And what’s more American than the flag? I think that the two nations most obsessed with their national flags are the Swiss and the Americans, so I’m sure my Swiss friends will appreciate the symbolism of red, white and blue.

Right now, local strawberries are in full season and really delicious. So that’s the red. The only edible blue I can think of short of using food coloring is blueberry, so though they are a bit early they had to do. And the white? Whipped cream and meringue. I even added a few star shaped cookies, made from a typically Swiss cookie recipe.

This red, white and blue bowl of fruity creamy goodness is a variation of a very English dessert called Eton mess. Eton mess is crushed strawberries and meringue folded together with whipped cream, and originated at the famous public school of that name where Prince William and (as far as I know) all royal family boys went to. I didn’t crush the strawberries - I sliced the big ones and left the little ones whole. I also gave them my favorite treatment: a short marinade in balsamic vinegar and a bit of sugar, which really seems to bring out the soul of the strawberry. Instead of dark balsamic though, I used white balsamic vinegar, which is mild, sweet and colorless. This left the redness of the strawberries without darkening it as the regular dark brown balsamic does. (If you can’t find white balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar is a good substitute.) Finally, instead of all whipped cream I used half whipped cream and half creme fraiche, just for a bit of added tartness and depth.

The most time consuming part of this is making the meringues. I’ve given a recipe for them which is easy to do if you have an electric beater. If you can find readymade meringues though, by all means use those.

The cookies are a type that is very popular in Switzerland called Mailander. I guess that means they originally come from Milan (Mailand is German for Milan), but they seem to be a part of Swiss culture now. They’re usually just served around Christmas, cut into little shapes. Here I have cut out tiny little stars and sprinkled them with sugar to give them sparkle. The cookies are so delicate that they crumble into the creamy, fruity, delicious mess.

The meringues and the Mailander cookies can be made way in advance (up to a week) of when you intend to make this. Here’s a rough schedule:

Day before or earlier: Make the meringues and the cookies, using the same eggs.
Night before: Prepare the strawberries and let them macerate in the balsamic vinegar.
1 hour before serving: Wash the blueberries and whip the heavy cream. Put them in the refrigerator.
Just before serving: Assemble.

The one I made and took a picture of is the rehearsal for the actual party - and of course, the model for this article! It’s not too sweet, and is really nice to eat. Don’t ask about the calorie content though…

Red, White and Blue Mess for July 4th

1 small carton of ripe strawberries
2 Tbs. granulated sugar
2 tsp. white balsamic vinegar or rice vinegar
1 small carton of blueberries
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 carton creme fraiche
2 Tbs. powdered (icing) sugar
About 3 cups of roughly crushed meringues
Cookies for garnish

Wash and hull the strawberries. Slice the big ones and leave the small ones whole. Put in a bowl with the vinegar and sugar and mix. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form, then whip in the sugar. Fold in the creme fraiche.

Drain the strawberries, reserving the liquid.

In a large bowl, put in half the blueberries and strawberries, the cream mixture and the crushed meringue, and rapidly fold together with a large spoon. Put into a glass serving bowl and put the rest of the fruit on top. Drizzle with the reserved strawberry liquid. Decorate the top with the cookies.

Serve immediately.

Meringue Kisses

3 egg whites
3/4 cup granulated (or castor, or superfine) sugar
A pinch of cream of tartar (optional: I find I don’t really need this)

Equipment needed:

electric egg beater/mixer. Whipping meringues by hand may be a rite of passage in a fine French restaurant but not for a warm summer day in a home kitchen.
a plastic bag
scissors
baking sheet
parchment paper
mixing bowl, spatula, etc.

Preheat the oven to 120°C/250°F.

Line two baking sheets with silicon baking pads or parchment paper.

With an electric mixer/beater, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add the sugar a spoonful at a time, whipping all the time, until the whole thing is shiny and very stiff.

Put the meringue into a plastic ziplock bag, and squeeze the mix towards one corner. Cut off the corner with scissors to make a small hole. Pipe out the mixture into little mounds onto the baking sheets. (You can also make the little mounds with two spoons, but I find the bag method way faster.)

Bake for 40 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave there for an additional 5-10 minutes. Take out and let cool.

This will make more meringues than you need for the mess, but meringue kisses are great just as cookies.

Lemony Mailander Cookies

225g / 8 oz. unsalted butter
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbs. lemon juice
2 Tbs. grated lemon zest
2 1/2 cups plain white regular flour (all-purpose)
Extra granulated sugar (or if you can find it, decorating sugar is nice; it’s more sparkly than granulated.)

Equipment needed:

baking sheets
rolling pin
silicon baking pads or parchment paper
small star shape cookie cutter
mixing bowl, spatula, etc.

Note: I do this in a food processor - it mixes up in no time. You can mix by hand too.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks and mix. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest.

Add the flour gradually and mix until a soft dough forms. (If using a food processor, pulse to mix.)

Put the dough into a plastic bag and chill until firm.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F. Line two baking sheets with silicon baking pads or parchment paper.

Roll out the dough to about 1/4cm / 1/8th inch thick (or fairly thin..it’s not an exact science!) on a lightly floured surface. Working as fast as you can, cut out your star shapes and put on the baking sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes or until very lightly browned. Take them out and sprinkle with the sugar. Let cool.

This will make a lot more cookies than you need for the garnish - just pass out the rest, they are sure to disappear. Or, keep them for yourself to enjoy later.

Strawberries, tsubuan, ice cream

maki — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:31:44 +0200

There are some food combinations that you think just shouldn’t belong together, but do so well. Strawberries with sweet beans? Surely not, you think, until you taste an ichigo daifuku - a strawberry wrapped in some azuki an and thin gyuuhi, a dough made of rice. I’ve had ichigo daifuku on my mind lately but have been too lazy to make the dumplings. This is a very easy alternative. Arguably it’s even better.

You need some tsubuan, sweet azuki beans that have been roughly mashed. I recommend my not-so-sweet tsubuan, which is easy to make in batches; extras can be frozen. Or use storebought—you can find it at Japanese groceries.

You also need some ripe strawberries, which are in season now around here, marinating them in balsamic vinegar.

Put about 2 tablespoons of tsubuan in a bowl, and top with about 4 (or more) spoonfuls of sliced strawberries, with plenty of the syrup that it’s in. Top with a little, or a lot, of vanilla ice cream, made with soy milk or cow’s milk, whichever you prefer. (In this case I prefer a soymilk ice cream, which seems to fit better.) Let the ice cream melt over everything while you eat.

It’s a cool yet quite filling snack for a warm day.

Mugicha (barley tea) is the flavor of summer in Japan

maki — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:14:08 +0200

From the archives: We’ve had a really cold spring so far, but the weather has finally warmed up and I’ve started to make mugicha again. Here is a slightly updated article about mugicha, or toasted barley tea, my favorite non-alcoholic summer drink. Originally published on May 10, 2007.

When we were growing up, my mother frowned upon most sugary drinks for us kids. So things like sodas were generally not stocked in the house - an ice-filled cup of Coke was a great treat whenever we went out to eat. Things like Calpis, or when we lived in the U.S. Kool-Aid, were strictly rationed. The cool drink we always had in the refrigerator was mugicha, or barley tea. Even when we lived in White Plains, New York, there were always a couple of jugs of mugicha in the large American refrigerator.

Mugicha is traditionally made by briefly simmering roasted barley grains. It has a toasty taste, with slight bitter undertones, but much less so than tea made from tea leaves. To me, it’s much more refreshing to drink than plain water.

My anti-sugar mother always made sugarless mugicha, but my younger self craved the sweetened mugicha that most of my friends’ mothers seemed to make. I always begged my mother to make sweet mugicha, but she always refused. Some day, when I am the one making mugicha, I’ll put all the sugar I want in it, I used to think. So, when I reached my teen years, and my mother was back working full time, I used to pour rivers of sugar into the mugicha. My little sisters loved it. I’m not sure if it made them more hyper than usual, though I have vague memories of my younger sister sitting on my head when she got bored.

Now that I am nominally an adult, I much prefer unsweetened mugicha. I’m growing more like my mother as I get older, a rather scary thought.

How to make mugicha

You can buy mugicha in three formats. The most traditional kind is just loose barley grains that have been roasted to a deep, dark brown. The second, and most popular are mugicha tea bags meant for cold brewing. Then there are ‘hybrid’ type tea bags, which can be simmered or cold brewed.

Simmering makes the most robust tasting and dark mugicha. To make mugicha this way, bring water up to a boil, throw in the loose grains or a tea bag, lower the heat and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Turn the heat off and let cool in the pan to room temperature, then strain and chill in the fridge. Allow one tea bag or 2-3 tablespoons of loose grains per liter (about a quart) of water.

Cold brewing is so convenient though that I tend to make mugicha this way most of the time. It’s lighter in color and taste, but refreshing to drink nonetheless. Just put a mugicha tea bag in a jug of cold water and put it in the fridge; when it’s nicely chilled, the tea is ready. You can also brew it in the sun, like sun tea, if you prefer.

As I’ve noted above, mugicha can be sweetened or unsweetened, to your taste.

Health benefits of mugicha

Many people in Japan believe that mugicha helps to cleanse the body. There have been studies done that may indicate that it helps to reduce stress and so on. I sort of tend to think that the rehydration factor plays a large part in this but it doesn’t hurt anyway. Mugicha is naturally caffeine free.

One word of warning though - mugicha could be an acquired taste. The Resident Guy (who is not Japanese) for instance can’t stand it - he says it tastes like hay to him. (He prefers fermented barley drinks (that’d be beer).)

Since barley does contain gluten, gluten-sensitive people should probably avoid mugicha. (I am not sure how much gluten is released into the water during the brewing process, but it may be better to be on the safe side if you have serious allergy issues.)

Buying and storing mugicha

Mugicha (or boricha as it’s called in Korean) can be purchased at any Japanese or Korean grocery store, though some may only stock it in the warm months.

The one thing to watch for is freshness - since it uses whole barley grains, it can turn rancid. Once I open one of the foil packs, I put it in a plastic bag and use it up as soon as possible. Any left over is stored in the freezer. I try to use up any opened packs before the summer is over.

For U.S. readers: The reliable Uwajimaya sells House (that’s a manufacturer called House, not Uwajimaya’s ‘house brand’) brand cold brew type mugicha and simmering type mugicha via Amazon. You can also get mugicha that’s been blended with regular tea and/or other herbs with various health or weight loss claims on them. For UK/Europe: Japan Centre stocks the House cold brew type. And elsewhere, you can order cold brew type tea bags from J-List, who ships worldwide.

You can buy bottled mugicha too, even a Hello Kitty one. You may want to try a bottle of mugicha first to see if you like the flavor, before going for the tea bags.

recipe

Yatsuhashi, Cinnamon sweets from Kyoto

Some notes about this recipe

Recipe: Nama Yatsuhashi

Filling notes

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Recipe: New potatoes with sweet-spicy miso

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A bit about wintermelon

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Vegan version

Other variations

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See also

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Recipe: New potatoes with butter and soy sauce (Shinjaga shouyu bataa)

Want more butter + soy sauce?

Red, White and Blue Dessert

Red, White and Blue Mess for July 4th

Meringue Kisses

Lemony Mailander Cookies

Strawberries, tsubuan, ice cream

Mugicha (barley tea) is the flavor of summer in Japan

How to make mugicha

Health benefits of mugicha

Buying and storing mugicha