Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

After taking mochi cakes out of the plastic package, I left them on a plate to dry them out completely.  It took nine days.  Today I used a small mallet and crumbled them.

Instead of deep-frying them, I tossed mochi pieces with little olive oil and baked in the oven.  The result was great - crisp, golden yet light.

2 ounce mochi pieces (completely dried)

1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil or other cooking oil

Sea salt, freshly ground pepper

Place the rice cake crumbles in a bowl and toss them with the cooking oil.  Place the crumbles on a cookie sheet and bake them in a heated oven (400 degree F) until plump and golden.  Remove the rice cake crumbles from the oven and toss with the sea salt and ground pepper.

Today I unpacked rice cake from the package and prepared rice cake soup, oshiruko. 

This is Buzz showing off how gooey the mochi is.   He says he is happy to keep this ritual just once a year.

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In Japan our people are obsessed with healthy foods in a positive way.  Kuromame’s health benefit - beneficial anthocyanin - is so tempting that some producers came up with a new product - kuromame-cha (black soybean tea).  Now this healthy beverage, which is made by steeping black beans, is as popular as other healthy infusion teas.  The beans for this tea are specially treated that they become soft in hot water in 4 to 5 minutes for a healthy snack.  You can find an online source for you to try.

Kuromame-cha for 1 serving

1 tablespoonful kuromame-cha

In your morning coffee or tea mug add 1 tablespoonful beans and pour in hot water.  Tightly cover the top of the mug with a lid or plastic wrap and steep it for 5 minutes.  Enjoy the tea and the beans as well.

Fresh kuromame just popped out of the shell presents beautiful smooth and shiny appearance.  The shape of the beans is an ordinary, slightly oblong bean-shape like the ones of fresh edamame green soybeans.  But when it is dried, it becomes perfect round shape.  This is magical to me.  Here is teh kuromame recipe.

I cook the beans with my special egg shaped iron ball.  When you do not have this special ball, you can use old nail, but please wrap it up in a cheese cloth, so that you can spot it and remove it without hurting yourself and your family after cooking the beans.  The color of anthocyanin, when it contacts with iron, stabilized and produces appealing dark purple color.

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I am not a vegetarian, but I do love vegetables and fruits.  So, vegetables and fruits occupy 50% of our diet.  The other 50% is consists of protein and wholesome carbohydrate.  Summer is one of the best time to enjoy an extensive variety of vegetables.  And, the most important tip is that you are not eating just a few kinds of vegetables in your salad.  In your preparations you should employ vegetables from all categories, such as

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I enjoy vegetable tempura from time to time…My friend, Suvir Saran (a charming, skilled and successful chef, consultant and cookbook author), told me that his experiences eating tempura at Japanese restaurants have not been satisfactory.  He has found that the dough is…. (more…)

When the hot and sticky summer approaches, Chinese-style restaurants across Japan begin to carry on their menus a special summer ramen noodle dish called hiyashi chuka-soba.   The noodles are served cold with various toppings, and bathed in a refreshing sauce flavored with rice vinegar and sesame oil.  This is one of the dishes which I taught at Battenkill Cooking School in Salem, NY, last Saturday, and everyone LOVE IT! (more…)

Upon receiving my request for my mother’s delicious beef tongue stew recipe my Mom with a help with my sister, Yoko, produced the dish after many years of not making it since I left home.  My Mom had an

excellent excuse to make her beloved beef tongue stew again.  Buzz, my husband, who currently staying in

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My friend, Matt, asked me to do some rice cooking experiment - cooking long grain Indian Basmati rice and medium grain Arborio rice in my high-tech IH. I did all measuring in a plastic measuring cup which comes with a rice cooker.  I rinsed rice (even arborio rice) before adding to the rice cooker, but,…. (more…)

Sumiso is vinegar flavored, mellow-sweet miso sauce.  It goes very well with quickly blanched or even raw ramps which is packed with pleasant garlicky flavor.

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