Anmitsu - Japanese dessert

Dear bed,

You're so warm and toasty, and I almost wish you weren't this comfy making it so hard for me to get up in the morning.

Dear rain,
Please can you re-think your forecasted long stay this week?

Dear pizza delivery boy,

Please don't deliver anymore pizzas to my place. *burp*

Dear treadmill,

You make me sweaty and my heart beat faster than anything else. And you challenge me like no-one does. That's why I like you. 

Dear friend,

Thank you for your 'surprise'. Now I can watch Ugly Betty and The Mentalist whenever I want!

Dear poodle in cooking with dog,
Your hair is slightly wonky at times but I admire your patience and self control whilst your owner is cooking.

Dear Australian winter,

Your baldness (on trees) is starting to appeal to me. I also like how I can turn up my heater and eat summertime desserts when you're around too. 

Have you seen the youtube cooking videos: cooking with dog? 

I've been a fan for a while now. Not just because I am fascinated by a sleepy poodle who sits by the stove like a rock, but I adore all the mouth-watering Japanese dishes featured on this channel.

So remember how I was sick a few weeks back? I watched the clip for Fruit Cream Anmitsu then and it immediately took me back to my unforgettable Japan trip (where I had anmitsu every single day) and I wanted to recover from the flu faster than anything else. (Talk about the most effective 'medication'!)

Anmitsu is a popular Japanese dessert made of small cubes of agar agar in a brown sugar syrup. It is also served with sweetened red bean paste, pieces of gyuhi (mochi-like sweets) and a scoop of ice-cream. Oh and decorated with seasonal fruits too. Yummo!

Ok, wanna see how it's made?

First you'll need to make some agar agar. Not flavoured or sweetened. Simple as!

Then dice them up into dainty fine cubes...so translucent that it's almost like they're invisible!

To make the kuromitsu (Japanese sugar syrup) to go with the agar agar, you'll need to melt some dark brown or muscovado sugar with corn syrup.

Pour it onto the agar agar...

To make the gyuhi (which is a type of traditional Japanese mochi), get some glutinous rice flour in either powdered form or granules...

...add a bit water to the rice flour and heat it up and eventually you'll get something like this...

To prevent the glutinous rice flour mixture sticking to everything else, you'll need to dust some potato starch all over!

Then you make some anko - sweet red bean paste (just because red beans and green tea ice-cream are a match made in heaven!) If you don't have time, just buy them canned (sweetened) at your local Asian grocery store. Recipe (or rather, another youtube video with the poodle) for anko can be found here.

Then it's just a matter of slicing up the oranges wedges and strawberries...and adding a scoop of the green tea ice-cream! You might want to use an ice-cream scoop for this. Sadly I don't own one. I wonder why? Definitely not because I eat ice-cream out of the box! How unladylike!

If you generally love Japanese desserts and can never get enough of the red bean and matcha (green tea) combination, I think you might totally adore this...even on a cold winter's day :)

Fruit Cream Anmitsu

From Cooking with Dog

Serves 3

• 4g/0.141 oz Agar Powder
• 500ml Water (2.11 us cup)
• 1 tbsp Mizuame - Thick Starch Syrup (I used light corn syrup)
• 100g Kurozato - Muscovado or Unrefined Brown Sugar (3.53 oz)
• 70ml Water (2.37 fl oz)
• 30g Shiratamako - Glutinous Rice Flour (1.06 oz)
• 50g Sugar (1.76 oz)
• 60ml Water
• Potato Starch
• 3 Strawberries
• 3 Navel Orange wedges
• 3 tbsp Anko - Sweet Red Bean Paste (buy canned or recipe here.)
• 3 scoops of Matcha Ice Cream (I bought mine but you can make it using this recipe)
• 20-30 Boiled Aka Endomame - Red Endo Beans (I omitted this).

The simple instructions for the recipe can be found from the linked videos! :)

Watch them! They're kinda...cute?! 

Might also make you want to get a dog to cook with too!

Have a blessed week ahead :)

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Heidi's Oat Cakes

Dear sweet old elegant lady at the park,

I'm glad our paths crossed today. 

You were on your afternoon stroll when you saw me taking photos of flowers (roses, specifically), because that's what I do when I need to clear my head.

You must've been intrigued as you walked over and struck up a conversation with me. Am I a high school student, you asked. I didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or as a sign to consider a wardrobe makeover. For the sake of my wallet, I picked the former.

You adore roses, you said. Especially ones so dark, rich and deep in colour, because they have the best smelling perfume in the world. You walked over to a naked patch of the garden where only 1 red rose still stands, the rest all stems and thorns - a consequence of this unforgiving winter. This is undoubtedly the best patch during blooming seasons and you said you could never walk past without dipping your nose into them all. Your eyes twinkled then!

Store bought roses are just not the same, they lack in real rose scents. I nodded in agreement.

So it turned out we have a few things in common. Well, for one, we are both terrible gardeners but we love strolling in the park to appreciate the hard work of other gardeners!

Then you told me to wait. What for?

Wait until the summertime when everything will be back to normal again. The richly perfumed flowers will fill the entire garden and it'll be so fragrant that just one sniff is like drowning in a glass of red wine, in your own words.

(I will remember to check there are no insects/bees hiding inside the roses before I smell - thanks for the heads up.)

It seems a long way away, summer, doesn't it? Especially on days when we're bundled up from head to toes and still feeling like popsicles. But experiences from previous years comfort us - it'll come before we know it.

So I told you that I will wait with happy anticipation.

I don't know if our paths will cross again. If they do, I will definitely bring you a tray of these flaxseed oat cakes one day. I just have a strong feeling that you'd totally dig this wonderfully fragrant and healthy (bonus!) treat as I have! 

Thanks for being part of my life today.

Yours sincerely,

The 'high-schooler' with the camera.

This recipe is from Heidi's new cookbook Super Natural Everyday (I've doggy-eared so many pages!). These oat cakes are on the dense/heavy side, really moist and filled with chunky bits of walnuts and deliciously scented by the coconut oil and maple syrup. They are filling too, in a good way of course :) These will be making many many more appearances in my kitchen for sure, and I hope yours too.

Oat Cakes (oats, flax seeds, walnuts)
From Super Natural Everyday via 5 Second Rule

Makes 12 oat cakes

• 3 cups / 10.5 oz / 300 g rolled oats
• 2 cups / 8 oz / 225 g spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
• 2 teaspoons fine-grain sea salt
• 1/4 cup / 1.5 oz / 45 g flax seeds
• 3/4 cup / 3 oz / 85 g chopped walnuts, lightly toasted
• 1/3 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g extra-virgin coconut oil
• 1/3 cup / 3 oz / 85 g unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup / 180 ml maple syrup
• 1/2 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g natural cane sugar (I omitted this as the maple syrup is already really sweet)
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F / 160°C with a rack in the top third of the oven. Butter a standard 12-cup muffin pan.

2. Combine the oats, flour, baking powder, salt, flax seeds, and walnuts in a large mixing bowl.

3. In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine the coconut oil, butter, maple syrup, and sugar and slowly melt together. Stir just until the butter melts and sugar has dissolved, but don’t let the mixture get too hot. You don’t want it to cook the eggs on contact in the next step.

4. Pour the coconut oil mixture over the oat mixture. Stir a bit with a fork, add the eggs, and stir again until everything comes together into a wet dough. Spoon the dough into the muffin cups, nearly filling them.

5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges of each oatcake are deeply golden. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for a couple minutes. Then, run a knife around the edges of the cakes and tip them out onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*

I've finally gotten around to numbering each of the eligible entries for the Baker's Delight Challenge!

(Terribly late I know!)

The 3 winners are:

hy

2 fit and fun gals

Anh

Will email you all soon :)

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Hope you smile today and come across nice people in your path too this week!

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Coriander (Cilantro) Meatballs

Before anything else, I just want to say this was the reason why I gave up eating lamb for a long period in my life:

We were on a family trip in Rotorua (New Zealand!) at some sheep farm and there happened to be a  bottle feeding session for the lambs.

The moment my lamb latched on to the milk bottle, my maternal instinct (can you be too young to have these instincts?) kicked in and I wanted to take Mary it home and look after the lamb for the rest of its life. After I was told that this was not a possibility, I swore that I'd never eat lamb ever again right there and then as my parents dragged me out of the farm.

Well today...this may sound terrible after that story but I now eat lamb (that's another story...) I especially love lamb cutlets! Hmmmm. But I'd never cooked it at home...until now.

What made me take this umm 'brave' step forward?

A few months ago I became involved in the Stephane Reynaud's 365 challenge initiated by publisher Murdoch books. The aim of the challenge is invite all keen cooks to help them cook through the book: 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat  (one recipe for each day of the year!)

(On a side note, I got to say I quite like this cookbook. There are photos for every single recipe - yes all 365 of them, and I have cooked through several other recipes in there which turned out great.)

For my involvement I picked to cook Coriander (Cilantro) Meatballs - just because it would be nice to finally feature the ingredient my blog is named after in this space!

Hey look, say hi to green cilantro everyone:

However it only occurred to me as I setting out the ingredients for this dish that these meatballs are actually made of leftover leg of lamb! And I had thought they were ordinary meatballs! Since in my home we hardly ever have lamb of any sorts leftover so I got to roast a leg of lamb for the first time in my life too :) 

After the leg is roasted, the rest is super simple - just blitzing together the lamb leg, a bunch of coriander, eschalots, chives, bread (I didn't have white sandwich bread so I had to use seeded wholemeal), cream, eggs, and some cumin. And you're pretty much set.

Oh and after you roll the mixture into balls with your palms, you then need to greet your guests with unwashed hands (as instructed in the recipe by cheeky Stéphane!)

The sauce around the meatballs is a simple combination of tomatoes (I used canned), capsicums and white wine.

Couldn't resist eating one...

The verdict? These meatballs are so tender and as you bite into it the flavours of the coriander and cumin comes through beautifully complimented (but not overpowered) by the simple tomato sauce. It is a bit like a warm and comforting hug on a cold (and sick) day.

I can't wait to try more of Stéphane's recipes - I find that they're easy to follow and whip up, and so tasty too! You'll be seeing more of them in this space, that's for sure!

Coriander Meatballs
Serves 6 (I halved the recipe)

• 3 French shallots (eschalots)
• 1 bunch of coriander (cilantro!)
• 500g (1lb 2oz) left over roast lamb leg
• 200mL (7fl oz) pouring (whipping) cream
• 100g (3 1/2 oz) soft white sandwich bread (I used seeded wholewheat)
• 1 tbsl cumin
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 bunch of chives, snipped
• salt and pepper
• 1 red capsicum (pepper)
• 1 green capsicum (pepper)
•  2 tomatoes (I used 1 canned diced tomatoes)
• 250mL (9 fl oz/1cup) white wine

1. Preheat the oven to 160C (315 F)

2. Peel and slice the shallots.

3. Pick the coriander leaves. Process the leftover lamb with the cream, bread, coriander and cumin. Add the eggs, shallots and chives, then season.

4. Make meatballs (by rubbing dry hands with flour, take a tbsp of mixture and roll it between the palms of your hands), place them into a gratin dish.

5. Dice the capsicums and tomatoes, place them around the meatballs, add the wine.

6. Bake for 30 minutes.

And in case you're wondering, I still find lambs very cute and wouldn't mind having one as a pet.

I hope you have a blessed day :)

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Black Rice with Edamame Beans

In the past 48 hours I...

...went through a whole packet of lemsip and strepsils.

...probably looked like a crazy lady with dirty hair sticking out in every directions, 2 pairs of socks (at least they were matching!), and layers of baggy clothes that somehow stretch bigger year after year. Oh and a red nose + a box of tissue tucked under my arms where ever I went.

...wondered when I would feel like a functional and useful human being again.

...browsed through every top 20s of each genre on iTune in bed.

...captured the amazing colours of the sky outside my window.

...received 2 cards from 2 special friends - both have sent me birthday cards every year without fail since we were 9 - definitely brightened up this bedridden girl's day!

...tried to entertain myself at home:

...was sad to have to have to drop out of lunch (at Quay!) - something I've looked forward to for so long.

...hoped that somebody would cook something delicious for me and feed it to me in bed while I watch a movie but realised that's not going to happen ;)

...discovered the only vegetable supply I have at home is in the frozen form. 

At times of sickness, it's only appropriate to load your body up with something nourishing...like, black rice! And yes, my frozen vege supply - edamame beans.

So have you tried cooking black rice before?

Things I found out:

- It stains (lucky I had my baggy sick clothes on)! Once cooked, it turns into a dark burgundy colour. Prettty!

- It hold its shape well after cooked and is pleasantly chewy. 

- It's packed with nutrition - low in sugar, high in fibre and plant compounds. 

- It's is also known as 'forbidden rice' because originally in China, only the nobles were allowed to eat it! I'm glad I'm a woman of today.

- Apparently, "just a spoonful of black rice bran contains more health promoting anthocyanin antioxidants than are found in a spoonful of blueberries, but with less sugar, and more fibre and vitamin E antioxidants." Source here.

  

Anyways, I decided to cook the black rice with loads of onions and garlic in chicken stock, topped generously with those healthful edamame beans. I've made this a few times in the past (the photos are from my previous attempts) and I love how a simple bowl like this never fails to make me feel good afterwards.

While I'm still a sick mess (and quite a sight too) at the moment, but I have a feeling the next 48 hours might just turn for the better :)

Black Rice with Edamame Beans

• 1 cup black rice
• ~2 cups homemade chicken stock (or you can use water or vegetable stock)
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 6 cloves garlic, whole (if you don't like garlic, don't add it!)
• 1-2 tbsp soy sauce 
• 1/2 cup edamame beans

1. Rinse the rice.

2. Heat a bit of of oil in a pan and cook the garlic and onion until almost translucent.

3. Add the rinsed rice and cook for around 1 minute.

4. Add the chicken stock as well as the soy sauce and bring to boil. 

5. At this stage, I transfer the rice into my rice cooker and let it cook. But you can also reduce heat to a simmer and cover - cook for 30 minutes.

6. Finally, take the beans out of the defrosted pods and add generously over a bed of flavoursome black rice!

I wish you a lovely weekend ahead :) 

Stay warm (or cool if you're on the other hemisphere).

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It is half way through the week and I...

...have been cooking with whatever left overs I have in my fridge. It's clean-up fridge week!

...realised I need to stop borrowing books from the library when I have a bookshelf full of untouched books. Oh, and found out I owe the library something like $17 in late fees. How'd that happen? (and I'm sorry if you've been trying to borrow what I had out.)

...am finally taking 1 step forward! For the longest time I've been stuck at the 2 steps back stage! Praise God!

...don't know if you'd believe me, but I woke up in the middle of the night and figured out what EVOO stands for. For the longest time I thought it was some branded salad dressing that people use in the U.S. Or that it was something like POM juice. (Are we still friends?) I guess I never really gave it much thought. Then at ~3am Tuesday, I opened my eyes in the dark with the thoughts:  'EVOO...Extra Virgin Olive Oil? Noooooo.' *pinches self and questions sanity*. This confirms that my brain is overactive and works while I'm asleep. Hmmm, I just wish it thinks about something more meaningful and useful!

Anyways, there's not really a recipe today. 

But I want to share with you what I had for lunch yesterday using the leftovers, because sandwiches are kind of pretty to photograph. 

Here goes:

1. Mix chopped chives with cream cheese. Spread over a piece of bread.

2. Resist eating the sandwich as it is.

3. Convince yourself that mint has a place in this meal too. Don't over-wash them as I did! 

4. Slice half an avocado and place on top!

5. Generously place the smoked salmon over the sandwich. I'm sure chicken would be yummy too.

6. Place another slice of bread on top to finish up.

7. Slice and enjoy the quickest lunch.

I'm off to make a salad now, with some EVOO of course ;)

I feel like we're finally on the same page now. Me and you.

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Oatmeal Raisin Spelt Cookies

I love watching the sunset. But the truth is I don't make the effort to see very many of it each year.

My last trip to Taiwan (my hometown) me and some friends made a trip to a scenic spot just to say farewell to the sun.

The sunset was incredible. And all around me I could spot people gasping with delight at the sight of the slowly descending sun or people posing for the cameras with the sunset as the backdrop, or couples embracing in silence as they soak in the beauty of it all. Fascinated. Content. Seems like the worries and the grudges of daily life suddenly disappeared for everyone.

And so I wonder what it is about nature which has the power to mesmerize us over and over again? The ever changing colour of the sky, the lofty mountains, the incredible sunrise and sunset....I mean, surely we've seen a number of these in our lifetimes? It's nothing new to be honest - but how does it inexplicably melt the hardest of hearts and calms the most unsettled soul?

As I'm getting older (another birthday this month! Eeek.), it's not hard to notice that my sense of wonder declines. Only the 'new' can amaze me - the latest gadget and what the next superfood is. Tomorrow the new becomes old and yesterday's wonder is not so wonderful anymore. It's all temporary, no?

I'd like to think that I understand a little bit more about life, about people and about God as I mature but sometimes (and often) pride tricks me into thinking that I've seen it all or done it all. That I don't need to go back to the basics or 're-learn' some of the forgotten lessons or be reminded about the familiar Scriptures that I thought I understood.

Afterall, I have a looong list of things to do and who has the time to walk the same walk and what's the point of looking at something I've seen already?

But every once in a while, just like on this recent trip, I do take my time to gaze at God's amazing creation and my hard heart melts, my weariness disappears...and I am humbled by the beauty and wonder of it all, once again.

And in a sort of similar way like the sunset (okay, maybe not quite comparable), there are some of my favourite basic foods that I simply forgot about in the busy-ness of trying all other new and exciting recipes and food combinations.

One of them is my all time favourite oatmeal cookies (yes, they beat choc chip cookies for me!)

This is back to the basics for me. I remember making them growing up. This was the only way I'd have oat back then (how things have changed - now I have oatmeal every morning!)

I'm also beginning to find spelt flour extremely versatile and use it to replace the All Purpose flour completely in many of my bakings.

What is different about this recipe is that the oats are first toasted lightly in the oven so as to deepen the oaty flavour. Hmmmm, delicious. Next time I want to try another recipe soon using oat flour instead of spelt flour. Imagine that, oat + oat flour = oat-ness overload.

I was in a hurry to leave the house after baking these cookies so had to pack them up (in style) as my train ride snack (then took a photo of it, obviously hehe):

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

From Whole Grains Everyday Everyway

• 3 cups old rashioned rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups spelt flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 12 tablespoon (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 1 cup rasins

Makes 2 1/2 dozen 3-inch cookies

Viv's note: I halved the recipe so only made 1 tray.

1. Place one rack in the top third and another in the bottom third, and preheat the oven to 400F (200C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Spread the oats out on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake on the bottom rack for 3 minutes, stir and continue baking until lightly toasted, 1 to 2 more minutes. Set aside to cool. (you can omit this step - but baking the oats deepens the 'oaty' flavour)

3. Reduce the oven temperature to 350F (177C)

4. In a large bowl combine the spelt flour, cinnamon, baking soda, powder and salt. Stir until blended.

5. In a food processor fitted with steel blade, or with an electric mixer, process the brown and white sugars and butter until smooth and fluffy. Add 1 egg and process for about 20 seconds. Add the second egg and vanilla extract and process until the mixture is smooth, about 20 secs more. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until the flour is absorbed. Blend in the toasted oats and the raisins until the oats are all coated with the dough.

6. Drop heaping tablespoonful of the dough onto the parchment lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between the cookies for spreading. Use the back of the spoon or your fingers to gently flatten the cookies roughly into rounds about 1/2-inch thick.

7. Bake on the upper rack until the tops and bottoms are nicely browned and the tops spring back to a very gentle touch, 8 to 10 minutes. Rotate the cookies every 3 mins for even browning. Slide the parchment paper onto a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining batter, relining the cookie sheet with a clean parchment paper and making sure to let the sheet cool between batches.

Store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 10 days.

I hope your week has been nice so far.

Oh, and I finally updated my About me page too. I will be working to complete the other tabs soon.

I hope!

Toodles for now :)

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