On Saturday we picked strawberry at Greig Farm in Red Hook where we harvested asparagus in May. We picked 8 pound of the fruit to make strawberry jam. Picking of the fruits was fun, but my whole legs and part of my back ache even this Monday morning! from continuous squatting and picking the right ripe fruit for 40 minutes. Big appreciation to people who does this for us as a job. Our last week dinner guest Chris M knows Norman Greig, the owner of the farm. Norman told...
Read MoreTexture is a Big Deciding Factor
Texture is a big deciding factor when people like or dislike certain food item. Azuki bean is an indispensable ingredient to make varieties of wagashi, Japanese sweets. We cook the beans, add sugar and make it into smooth paste (koshi-an) or chunky form (tsubushi-an). The prepared azuki bean has unique characteristics: flavor is sweet and is noticeably beany; color is dark purple, which reminds people of bitter chocolate. By the way, this is not a good thing, though,...
Read MoreCorrection of The Name of Desserts which I Blogged Last December
In December 2012 I have blogged about mochi ice cream and posted the recipes to make mochi sweet. Now I should correct the name of the mochi sweet which I introduced to you. It is not “mochi” sweet but is “gyuhi” sweets – sweets made from shiratamako flour. To make shiratamako flour glutenous rice is rinsed, soaked, ground and dried. The flour comes in fairly large granules. Here is the another trial of my gyuhi sweet – colored...
Read MorePlease Meet with Nicholas Farinola, a Culinary Student at Seacoast School of Technology, New Hampshire.
Nick (Nicholas) studies Culinary Arts at Seacoast School of Technology (SST)(www.seacoasttech.com/culinary-arts.html). The school operates a licensed restaurant, Julia’s, which is open to the public. As a part of the curriculum culinary students at the SST are asked to create a menu that will be used in the following year at Julia’s. The students manage the kitchen and serve their own created dishes to the public for one week. The money raised at Julia’s...
Read MoreUnique Shoyu, Smoked! Yes!
The idea of smoking has been applied to solid food items such as fish, meat and cheese since olden times for the purpose of preservation. The unique flavor developed during the smoking process is so enticing that today smoked foods have become an indispensable part of our culinary lives. Enji Company in Japan challenged the old notions of smoking and invented a smoker that can smoke liquids such as shoyu (soy sauce). This led to the birth of the smoked shoyu, KUNSEI SHOYU....
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