food

The Taste of Autumn

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What is ‘Autumn’ for you?

Autumn in Japanese is ‘Aki‘ and written as ‘秋‘. The character is made from two parts. The left part shows what it is connected to and in this case ‘禾 (Nogi-hen)’ means the character is something to do with ‘Crop’. The right part is ‘火 (Hi)’ which means ‘Fire’. So by combining two parts together the character means ‘Drying Crop (by Fire)’. Japan has a culture of growing rice plants for many many years and we harvest it in Autumn. Traditionally we dried cut plants by hanging it in the field for weeks before threshing grains so it does make sense that Autumn is the time for ‘Drying Crop’ before a cold winter comes.

In Japan Autumn is described in several ways. We say Autumn is for Harvesting. Autumn is for Reading Books, Autumn is for Arts & Excercise. However, the most important thing about Autumn and we should never ever forget is that Autumn is for ‘Taste’ and ‘Appetite’.

kuri matsutake

The Taste of Autumn – ’Matsutake’ mushroom and ‘Kuri’ chestnuts

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Bento on ‘Respect for the Aged Day (敬老の日)’　

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Keiro Bento

The 21st of September was ‘Respect for the Aged Day (敬老の日)’ this year in Japan. It was one of the National Holidays for showing our respect and care for elderly people.

Bento on ‘Respect for the Aged Day (敬老の日)’

We ordered some Bento from a well known restaurant for my mother on ‘Respect for the Aged Day (敬老の日)’. The Bento was particularly planned for elderly people with the idea of  1. Easy to eat  2. with good source of various nutrients and  3. of course it had to be good quality food. We made a clear soup called ‘O-suimono‘ to go with it.

Keiro Bento 2

The ingredients and decoration was made in an Autumn theme. The amount of food was just enough ‘Hara Hachibunme (腹八分目）’ (‘Hara’=stomach, ‘Hachibunme’=80%) for us. It means moderate eating up to 80 percent in stomach is the key for a healthy life.

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Do you know Today is ‘TOFU’ Day?

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Today is ‘TOFU’ Day

Why?

Today is the 2nd of October. In Japan month comes before date so today’s date is the 10th month (October) and the 2nd day. In Japan we have several ways in reading number. We read ‘10’ as ‘To(u)’ and ‘2’ as ‘Fu’ in some reading. By connecting both it becomes ‘To-Fu’. That is why it is ‘TOFU’ Day today. You got it? It is a silly pun playing on words but it’s good to remind people about certain foods & things and make people appreciate what we have.  🙂

The End of Summer and Okra

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Okra6

I am in Japan now. Because of some technical issue (I don’t mean Japan is technically behind though) I have not been able to post as often as I would want to do.

“Autumnal Equinox Day (秋分の日)”

The 23rd of September was our national holiday “Autumnal Equinox Day (秋分の日)”. After this day the length of the daytime gets shorter than the nighttime day by day so this was officially the end of summer.

Still it is quite hot and humid here. The daytime temperature now is just below 30°C so it is almost the same as the hottest summer day in London.

In the garden Okra is still flowering and we can harvest some. Okra is one of the vegetables I wanted to grow in London and gave up after trying for a few years. It does sprout and gets cotyledons – the first leaves but … never reaches to the point having true leaves. So, I am happy to see the plant growing here. It’s been a bit late but some Peanuts plants are also growing in the garden here. I am looking forward to harvesting home-grown Peanuts sometime soon.

My Very First Purple Kale Smoothie

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‘Drinking Kale? That must be awful!’ That was what I was thinking until two days ago.

I have a food processor but did not own a juicer/smoothie maker until recently so I never tried making a smoothie before. A small glass of freshly squeezed orange juice first thing in morning is just good enough to me and I have never particularly wanted having a smoothie before. However, since I started my blog I have been reading posts about a smoothie on fellow bloggers. I was convinced that a Kale Smoothie is easy to make, good for health and also delicious!

When the juice maker came to my house I thought ‘Hmmm, I’ve got some organic Purple Kale in my fridge and also some fruit. I have a blender now … Why not try making a some smoothie with Purple KALE?’.

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Blackberry Cup Cakes

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Blackberry Cup Cakes 2

It has been Blackberry season in England. It is good to eat seasonal food. That is Macrobiotic Diet. I am very disappointed that I managed picking them only once this season … 😦 It is nearly the end of the season now so it is very unlikely that I could get any more decent berries …

Blackberries

During the season in almost every year I make a tart with Blackberries, except for this year. But this year I made cup cakes with them instead. I have to say it was rather successful! I am annoyed that I could not make the tart but I am happy about these cup cakes so that I am sharing the recipe here with you.

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The Walk along Cray Riverway & the Picnic

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River Cray

Definitely summer has gone away from England. Each time we have some rain the air is getting colder and wetter. Autumn is here now and then … ‘Winter is coming’ … Huh? Are you from Winterfell?

Jon-Snow-In-Game-Of-Thrones( ↑ Don’t mention the thing not everybody understands! 😦 )

However, the Saturday two weeks ago had great weather. As it could have been the last nice day to go out, we did not want to miss the chance. We packed our ‘Bento’ Lunch box and left home for a walk.

PubThis time our destination was ‘Cray Riverway’. There was a little walk from the station to the path. We had to ask the direction twice including the landlord of this little pub. I liked the interior of the pub. Very authentic.

Pub ceiling　　

Shortly after leaving the pub we found the entrance to the Riverway which was a small river that went through dense woodland.

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Tai-Yaki & Half-Moon-Yaki            (たい焼き＆半月焼き)

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Taiyaki in the sea

So my fist post after ‘How to Make Tsubu-An’ is ‘Tai-Yaki’. It is one of the most popular street foods in Japan. The name ‘Tai’ means ‘Sea Bream’ and ‘Yaki’ means ‘something baked or grilled’ in Japanese. Although it is called ‘Tai/Bream’ it has sweet filling, which is normally bean paste, and not having any fish at all. It is just a fish shaped sweet.

It is a waffle like sweet filled with traditionally ‘Tsubu-An‘ centre. Recently people started using some new fillings but Tsubu-An is still the most popular one. That is just because it is the best combination & simply delicious.

Tai-yaki inside

Tai-yaki with Tsubu-An & ‘Shiratama (mochi)’ filling

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How to Make Tsubu-An (Anko)

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Tsubuan on Plate

Hooray! I can finally post ‘How to Make Tsubu-An’ here, so after this post I will be able to start making more Japanese Sweets and post on this blog.

As I mentioned before ‘An’ (or ’Anko’, they are same thing) is the main component of Japanese Sweets. It is normally a sweet paste made of beans. There are mainly three types of An (Anko) used for Japanese Sweets and they are ‘Tsubu-An’, ‘Koshi-An’ and ‘Shiro-An’.

  • Tsubu-An ; Made of Azuki beans
  • Koshi-An ; Made of Azuki beans, sieved and skins removed
  • Shiro-An  ; Made of white beans, skinned and sieved

Azuki

‘Tsubu-An’ has Azuki bean’s skin left and not sieved so it’s got more of a coarse texture among all the other ‘Anko’. And maybe because of this coarseness it is tended to be used for more casual Sweets. It needs less procedure to make Tsubu-An but that is not the reason I make this type more often. I like Tsubu-An’s texture the most. It is very versatile. If you are interested in making Japanese Sweets, Tsubu-An making is the great place to start.

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