Spinach Falafel Wraps and Gorgeous Shiitake


This is as simple as it sounds, and even more delicious. My aforementioned evil oven doesn't get any hotter than 250C (480F) which puts a damper on my naan and pita baking. I was a bit short of time a few weeks back, possibly due to the fact that I spent hours baking bread and cake... Anyways, I needed to feed J and myself, and was craving some chickpea love.

Follow your favorite falafel recipe. Everyone's quite particular about how they like their falafel. And honestly, with my lack of a deep frying pot, mine come out looking a bit worse for wear. Good but sloppy.

Mix up some Israeli salad.

• 1-2 grated small cucumbers
• 1-2 grated carrots
• 1/4 cup Italian parsley
• a dash of olive oil
• a dash of lemon juice
• 1/2 cup diced tomato (optional)

Make a small bowl of tahini.

• 1/3 cup sesame paste
• 1/4 cup water or yogurt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• lemon juice to taste

Make sure to get large leaf spinach, and rinse off all the grit. Using the large raw leaves, you really have a strong base for the falafel. Give it a shot instead of the fresh pita next time. Don't worry, if you really love the pita, just try shoving some fresh spinach in there.



Before our grand falafel evening, we spent the afternoon with some good friends out in the country. They set a few of us loose in the shiitake patch behind their house. Look at these beauties!

Irish Soda Bread


Nearly every year, when I was growing up, my mom prepared this bread for St. Patrick's Day. I recall demanding it more often, but I can't remember if she caved-in to my demands or not.

When I started playing in the kitchen routinely, this was one of the first recipes that I hunted through her recipe box for. When I lived in England, I found that Mark's & Spencer sold a soda bread that satisfied my needs similarly, but it wasn't quite right. This recipe is the quintessential soda bread for me, partly because of the twist that my mom put on it.

Normal soda breads call for the addition of caraway seeds and raisins, but my mom added orange zest and orange extract instead. Sometimes I make a simple orange glaze to go on the top of the bread. I have brought a loaf to school a few times and shared it with my students. It received the high school student seal of approval.

Irish soda bread

• 3 ½ to 4 cups unbleached flour (or use 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour plus 1 cup unbleached)
• ½ to ¾ cup raw or brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk (or regular milk soured with 1 teaspoon vinegar)
• ½ cup golden raisins or currants (optional)
  
• 1-2 teaspoon dried caraway seeds (optional)
• *1 teaspoon orange extract (alternate version)
  
• *2 teaspoon orange zest (alternate version)

1. Preheat oven to 375F/190C
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. Cut the butter into the flour mixture, using two knives or a pastry cutter, until crumbly.
4. Add egg and buttermilk (*extract and zest if making orange version). Mix until moistened. The dough will be stiff. Add raisins or currants and caraway seeds, working into the dough.
5. Form into a round loaf on a greased baking sheet, adding more flour as necessary. Use a knife to cut a spiral or cross on the top, if you wish.
6. Bake one hour. Best served warm, and eaten the same day you bake it.

The past few times that I have made the bread, it hasn't risen appropriately (evil oven perhaps?), so I made a few adjustments to the recipe, and am proud to say that this bread rose like a dream. Also, this time, due to J's insistence, I left out most of the orange (no zest, just a bit of extract) and added the caraway seeds. Oh, he was right. They really did add a new dimension to the bread, and I didn't find myself missing the orange at all. Perhaps next year, I will just have to make both.

Carrot Cake!


Having been logging my calories for the past few months, and actually seeing some lasting results, I decided to splurge a bit. Running through the list of desserts that I have successfully prepared before, nothing sounded right for the particular urge I was feeling. Also, the limited ingredients that I have on hand in Japan stifle my creativity sometimes.

The trick here is tweaking the recipes enough so that a single meal or cake doesn't cost as much as your rent. That usually means cutting back on the butter, the nuts, and many special ingredients that you wouldn't think would cost so much (powdered sugar, seriously how are you that expensive?) Fortunately, J and I brought two massive bags of nuts (walnuts and pecans, respectively) back from the US in January. I also had a bag of carrots on-hand. So, I decided to try my hand at creating a delicious and not 'overwhelmingly bad for us' carrot cake.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
  
• ¾ cups canola oil
  
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
  
• 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  
• 3 cups grated carrots
  
• ½ cup chopped pineapple
  
• 1 cup pecans chopped

Icing

• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 8 ounces (one package) cream cheese, softened
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (to top)
  

*I would probably swap the pecans and walnuts (inside to outside) next time

Mix the wet ingredients together, then add into the dried. Fold in carrots, pineapple, and finally nuts. Pour into greased baking tray or cake pans. I baked at 180C for about 50 minutes, but the time will vary depending on your oven, because my oven is a bit of a monster. The icing was mixed and applied after the cake cooled, then the nuts were placed haphazardly on top.

The recipe requires some fiddling, as it came out really moist and dense. J mocked the sound of a piece dropping onto a serving plate. PLOP! It was delicious, but not perfect. This recipe is going in the "needs adjustments" file, but for a first attempt, I'd say it was a success.

Black Beans and Rice Cooker Magic

I was brave this Sunday. I tossed 2 1/2 cups of rinsed dried black beans into my rice cooker with two bay leaves and a chopped clove of garlic. 5 cups of water and one sleep later... the beginnings of an awesome soup.

Sadly, I was so excited about presenting J with the pretty bowl of soup and cornbread, that I neglected to take a photo. He assured me that it was photogenic. Next time! But till then, here's the recipe.

(finger numbingly good) Black Bean Soup

2 1/2 cups dried black beans (obviously more after re-hydration)
1 clove of garlic roughly chopped
1-2 bay leaves (I have a bundle in my freezer from my veggie dealer, and need to use them up)
2 small/medium red onions chopped
1 decently sized red bell pepper chopped
2-3 cloves garlic (yes more garlic, ALWAYS more garlic) minced
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of one lime
handful of cilantro/coriander
1-3 chilis diced (I used what we had available at our local Brazilian store, and am not sure what kind they were... made my finger go numb for a bit, so I take it they mean business)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Pop the first 3 ingredients and 5 cups of water into your rice cooker. All I did was hit "cook" and let things roll until I got up the next morning. Make sure to prep well in advance if you are cooking this the same day!

2. Add olive oil, onion, garlic, pepper, and cumin to pan and cook till onions start to brown slightly. Be careful not to burn the cumin on the edges of the pan (coat well with oil before adding it).

3. Transfer the pan love into a large bowl and toss in the chili, lime juice, and cilantro/coriander, followed by about 1 cup of the beans.

4. Mix well with submersion blender (if available) or transfer batches into food processor/blender first, then into a large bowl. Continue till all the beans are mixed (unless you like your soup to be lumpy and beany... your call).

5. Now is the time to add your salt and pepper to taste. You could add a few tomatoes here, to thin out the soup without losing flavor, or you could add a cup or two of hot water with veg bullion or possibly a bit of soy milk. I opted for a thick soup and left it as is.

This soup is delicious over fresh cornbread*, and perhaps a dollop of sour cream (vegan or otherwise), if you are feeling naughty.

*I initially followed a cornbread recipe in my ancient vegetarian cookbook that called for 4 eggs (I was astounded by the amount of eggs, but figured the cookbook knew better than I did). The first batch came out of the oven smelling raunch. Probably because I am not a huge egg fan. J dutifully tasted it and threw it away (it was unsalvageable, despite my initial mottainai leanings), whilst I whipped up PPK's tried and true vegan cornbread with the minor adjustment of nixing the syrup. Soooo much better than eggy goo!

Changes



It's the middle of winter now, in sort of melty/snowy Takaoka. I realize that I haven't updated in a very long time. The usual list of excuses are known "I was busy" "I had to study" "I couldn't be bothered to upload new photos and therefore had nothing interesting to share in this format." "I was sucked into the election news" etc

The truth is, life took priority over the virtual. That, I feel, is the most valid of excuses, so I am sticking with it.

Quick re-cap of what has happened during and since August:

• Had an art adventure on Naoshima.
  

Kusama Yayoi's red and black "pumpkin" on Naoshima

• My sister and brother-in-law came to visit Japan. It was a 2-week whirlwind. Kyoto, Nara, Toyama, takayama, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Osaka, Tokyo, Nikko, and they managed to squeeze in a quick swing by Himeji.

Beth and Brenndan in Nikko

• Climbed Hakusan finally. It really is a beautiful mountain, especially in the early fall. Please note my ever-stylish soccer socks.
  

stripey!

• Had a crazy camping trip to Noto. There were marshmallows, native art, and more Thai-jin than we ever expected. J also discovered a scary trilobite critter, if anyone knows what it is, please enlighten us!
  

This cultural park had a great rolly-slide. Too bad it was covered in rotten cherries.

The mysterious trilobite creature...

I am a chicken on slippery rocks when drunk on wine in the dark.

• Went to Hida and Takayama in search of a wooden Godzilla sculpture I once saw.

aforementioned Godzilla

Hida warehouse and fall leaves

just some koi

J and his new friend tanuki-chan

• Studied my ass off for JLPT's 2kyu test only to be turned away from the testing site because I didn't open my envelope beforehand to realize I had been bumped to Kanazawa. Complete failure on my part.

• Cracked my laptops LCD screen, so now I have a thrillingly annoying "black bubble" effect going on. I am too cheap to just buy a new computer.

• Took the Shin Nihonkai Ferry to Hokkaido, was great fun (we think we saw a seal off the coast, too)! Spent Christmas in Sapporo and New Year's in Niseko on the slopes.

outside of the Sapporo beer garden

inside

J drawing kanji in the sand along the shore east of Otaru

• Had a PA seminar in Tokyo, so brought J along for the weekend and visited old friends and a professor who was very giving of his time.

• Spent the night in a tiny little minshuku in Toga. Had an amazing ungroomed first day of powder, followed by a mediocre yet fun 2nd day of groomed slopes.

• Practiced my cooking A LOT in the past 6 months. Homemade muffins, cupcakes, breads, pita, tortillas, pies, various lasagnas, mousakkas, hummus, soups, and curries. It's been a fattening time!

• Watched all the snow melt in 20C weather last week, and am now crossing my fingers that the temp will continue to drop.

I am going to fiddle with posting some recipes on here, and see if that lures me to the computer more often.

Till next time...