This Kabocha Shokupan turned out to be super soft!
I love the beautiful yellow color inside, too.
I hope you can tell how soft this bread is from this picture.
This is delicious toasted and non-toasted both!
Since I created “Bobby,” my sourdough starter, we’ve been having waffles almost every weekend.
Well, we like waffles (especially this sourdough version), but the major reason is to not waste discard.
So every weekend I try to make waffle plate slightly differently so that we don’t feel like we are eating waffle “again.”
A few days ago I bought this Kabocha, and I thought it would be fun to use it for my waffle meal somehow.
Also I was lucky to find a few slices of this awesome vegan braised “pork” in the freezer to use up.
Sourdough waffles.
Vegan braised “pork,” or I should call it vegan Canadian “bacon.”
Curried Kabocha salad.
Fresh arugula.
Maple syrup.
I piled them all up to get the height.
I like dishes that are tall.
The last few days have been quite warm, but I know, you know, and at this point, everybody knows, that fall is here.
It’s the pumpkin/squash season.
Kabocha is one of my favorite types of squash.
Freshly cooked pasta.
Creamy and cheesy Kabocha sauce with a hint of Kimchi.
Orange lentils.
A generous sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper.
Hearty and Delicious!
Banana bread has always been a mystery to me.
It’s called “bread,” but it always tasted like dessert.
So I hesitated to eat it for a meal.
Since I liked the idea of using banana for bread, I decided to make banana bread which is not overly sweet.
I did not want to add extra sweetness to my banana bread.
The only sweetness I wanted was the natural sweetness from the bananas.
Of course it was going to be vegan.
That was given.
But I thought it would be fun to make it gluten-free as well.
I was so happy with how it turned out.
Another thing I wanted for this banana bread to have was a height.
Many banana breads are baked in a large pan and they are rather short.
I wanted mine to be tall, and the use of this pan achieved it.
I was too excited to wait for the bread to be completely cool.
Who could when your kitchen smells this good?!
Crispy outside, moist and hearty inside, and not too sweet, but super flavorful.
This was exactly the banana bread I have wanted for so many years.
I’m so pleased that I will leave the recipe here.
Vegan Gluten-Free No-Extra-Sugar-Added Cardamom Banana Bread
3 ripe bananas (medium)
1 tablespoon flax meal
2.5 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon banana liqueur
3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
3/4 cup soy milk
1/2 teaspoon or more ground cardamom
1 1/4 almond meal
1 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 1/3 oats
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
- Combine and mix everything together. Pour the batter into a pan lined with parchment paper. Bake in 350F oven for one hour or until cooked through.
Now this banana bread is perfect for breakfast.
Toasted and buttered.
YUM!!
It was supposed to be Mathca “Swirl” Shokupan, but the final result did not show the swirl well.
The Matcha part looks rather like a monster, so I decided to name this Monster Shokupan.
Other than the design inside, this bread turned out great!
It definitely satisfies my craving for the Matcha flavor.
Onigirazu rice sandwich is fun to make and fun to eat.
The fillings were vegan braised “pork”, vegan omelet (made of tofu and chickpea flour), and spinach.
Served with small salad, pickles, and a bowl of miso soup.
A perfect lunch for me.
Japanese Pullman bread called Shokupan is a simple bread.
Despite that (or because of that), little things do matter.
For the longest time I thought milk instead of water results in softer bread, but apparently that is not the case.
This is the first time I used water instead of milk.
And it turned out great!
Cardamom is one of my favorite spices, but I often forget about it.
Yesterday we visited our favorite Swedish bakery.
It’s a bit away from our house, but whenever we are in that area we like to visit them.
They are not a vegan bakery, but they usually have a few vegan items.
One of the vegan treats they had yesterday was cardamom oatmeal cookie, and it was delicious!
So that inspiration was reflected on our breakfast this morning.
These are cardamom oatmeal sourdough waffles.
When waffle itself is this flavorful, I skip syrup and enjoy it just with vegan butter.
The supporting actors were scrambled turmeric tofu, Southwest coleslaw, tomato slices, and garlic tomato soup.
Happy Sunday everyone.
Loco Moco is a popular Hawaiian dish.
I’ve been to Hawaii (where we were married!) once, but I didn’t have a chance to try it.
You don’t see it much outside Hawaii, and I totally forgot about it.
Well, until my recent obsession with vegan eggs.
Loco Moco mainly consists of rice, hamburger with sauce, and a fried egg.
I decided to go with my tofu burger this time.
And of course, the (vegan) egg.
This definitely completes the look.
We’ve been talking about going back to Hawaii recently, and it’s on our list for this winter vacation.
We’ll see how things go, but I’m not too optimistic at this point (sigh)…
I found an interesting cookie recipe that calls for bread starter made of yeast naturally created by fruit.
This method (creating yeast from fruit) is quite popular in Japan, and Several months ago I finally made mine.
However, for some reason I misunderstood the recipe, and I used the original liquid instead of the starter.
I didn’t realize the mistake until the dough was ready to be sliced and baked.
So I decided to go ahead and bake it, but I was preparing for a major failure.
They actually turned out fine.
They looked like cookies and tasted like cookies.
These cookies did have a subtle but unique flavor that reminded me of the original liquid (which smells like sweet wine).
Interesting…
