CT Side-B – Unexpected greatness on the other side of the culinary world

Plant-Based GF Cream Puffs with Matcha Pastry Cream, Coconut Whipped Cream, and Sweet Azuki 卵・乳製品・小麦粉不使用、シュークリーム、抹茶カスタード餡ホイップクリーム入り

A famous cookbook author in Japan, Harumi Kurihara, said in one of her cookbooks that home cooking is like a soap opera.

One thing leads to the next, and it’s always continuous.

I totally understand it.

One of the major reasons I made these was simply because I had custard cream (or pastry cream) left from the cake ↓

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2022/11/26/raspberry-lemon-cake

and the Taiyaki ↓

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2022/11/26/taiyaki-stuffed-with-custard-cream-and-sweet-azuki-beans-overstuffied-ones-are-the-best

I also had extra sweet Azuki beans from making the Taiyaki, too.

I added add Matcha to the pastry cream, and that, sweet Azuki, and whipped coconut cream were used as the filling for these puffs.

The puff recipe is from one of Yuko Shirasaki’s cookbooks called “Heta Oyatsu (in Japanese)”.

I bought the book only because I wanted to try this one recipe.

I have actually tried a few other recipes from the book, but I still think it was worth buying the book even just for this one recipe!

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November 29, 2022

by : Reiko Bread, Gluten Free, Japanese Food, Salad, Soup/Stew, Uncategorized

V/GF Curried Cabbage Bread, with Japanese Oden Stew and Shungiku Apple Salad
ちゃちゃっとできちゃうカレーキャベツパン、そして、おでん、春菊りんごサラダでワンプレート

This bread is so easy and quick to make.

But it’s also so tasty!

That means I make it a lot.

This is the same bread as this one (below), with different fillings.

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2022/11/14/v-gf-tomato-onion-corn-basil-bread

This time I added curried cabbage, peas, and curried mayo.

It turned out great!

I put together a one-plate meal with the bread for lunch.

This is Japanese style stew called Oden.

The main base is Kombu stock and soy-sauce.

It’s an ultimate comfort food for me this time of the year.

This Shungiku apple salad was super refreshing.

I was happy that this plate turned out to be a not only tasty but healthy meal with lots of veggies!

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November 27, 2022

by : Reiko Japanese Food, Sweets

Taiyaki, Stuffed with Custard Cream and Sweet Azuki Beans; overstuffied ones are the best.
カスタード餡両方入りたい焼き：ちょっと中身入れすぎぐらいが美味い

I thoroughly enjoyed the Thanksgiving meals, but now I’m ready for something totally different.

I haven’t made Taiyaki, or stuffed Japanese cake, for a while, and I knew it was time to make some.

One of the reasons I wanted to make Taiyaki was that I had some leftover custard cream, and I thought it would be perfect to fill the fish.

Making Taiyaki is a tricky job.

You want to make sure there is enough filling inside, but you don’t want it to spill.

You want the fish to have a nice color, but you don’t want it to burn.

Taiyaki is traditionally filled with sweet Azuki beans, but today you will find so many unique fillings.

My favorites are Azuki and custard cream, so I decided to use them both.

Why not, right?

These were so delicious!!

These guys were a bit overfilled.

They may not be ideal for selling, but I don’t mind them at all because a lot of filling is always good.

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November 26, 2022

by : Reiko Sweets

Raspberry Lemon Cake
ラズベリーレモンケーキ

For the Thanksgiving dessert we didn’t have a pie.

We had a cake instead.

When I made my husband’s belated birthday cake last week

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2022/11/18/belated-birthday-lemon-cake

I had extra cake sponge and I froze it for a later use.

I also had some extra lemon curd, so it was perfect.

This is very similar to his birthday cake, but this time I came up with a new way to make frosting.

I’ve never been a big basic frosting (butter and powdered sugar) fan.

The amount of powdered sugar that goes in horrifies me and I don’t care for the harsh powdered sugar taste.

This time I made vegan custard cream first, and added vegan butter and some powdered sugar, way less than typically used.

It turned out great!

It’s creamy, buttery, and sweet, but not overly sweet.

I think this is how I’m going to make frosting (or butter cream) from now on.

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November 26, 2022

by : Reiko Bread, Gluten Free, Main Dish

2022 Thanksgiving
２０２２年感謝祭（サンクスギビング）

This year my mother-in-law came to join us for the Thanksgiving meal.

Some of the dishes were typical Thanksgiving ones, and others were not.

I wanted our meal to be tasty but not too heavy.

I like to have enough veggies to fill about a half of my plate.

I could skip mashed potatoes, but it is my husband’s favorite, so it has to be on the table.

I made garlic mashed potatoes.

The garlic adds extra flavor, so it doesn’t need too much butter.

The past several years I’ve made vegan roast from scratch, but this year we decided to try the Fieldroast’s product called Celebration Roast.

My husband even cooked it for me in the oven, and it turned out great.

It came with gravy, so the whole meal prep was super easy for me this year.

(I did not do a good job with adjusting my November work schedule this year, so I had to work long hours the day before…)

Vegan/gluten-free oatmeal rolls with Italian herbs.

We enjoyed the meal very much.

My mother-in-law, who is not vegan, is really awesome, and as usual she tried everything we served and even told us that she liked everything.

For the dessert, well, we didn’t have a pie.

Come back to see my next post to find out what we had instead.

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November 25, 2022

by : Reiko Bread, Gluten Free

V/GF Boule
かっこいい！米粉カンパーニュ

Who knew you could make such handsome bread gluten-free?!

I recently bought this book from Japan.

This book teaches you how to bake vegan/gluten-free bread with the use of a Staub pot.

The book arrived a few weeks ago, and I wanted to try a recipe as soon as I got it, but I couldn’t.

Unfortunately, I had to wait until this weekend.

That reason why I had to wait was because I didn’t have a proofing basket, and I needed to order one.

I had never used one before.

Using a proofing basked was recommended in the book.

I thought I could make bread without a basket, but the main reason I wanted to use it was to add the ring design.

I did use the basket, but the design was so subtle on the final result.

I don’t know why, but the bread still looked amazing!

(Nex time I may push the dough down a bit.)

I liked the crust, but I liked the inside even better!

It was exactly how I wanted it to be.

It’s far from being dense, which I was afraid it was going to be.

I think the key was NOT to knead/mix the dough much.

The book specifies the brand of rice flour.

I can’t get the specified Japanese brand product, so I used the Thai rice flour I usually use.

From my experience of using this particular flour I adjusted the amount of some ingredients, but it worked very well.

Delicious!!

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November 20, 2022

by : Reiko Japanese Food, Leaf Vegetables, Rice/Grains, Soup/Stew, Tofu

Nabe Hot Pot – Miso
味噌豆乳鍋

Nabe, hot pot, is the ultimate winter comfort food in Japan.

You can add pretty much anything, from meat, fish, seafood, to vegetables.

But these you see here are some of my favorites.

It’s sold as “Tongo” at the local Asian grocery store, but we call it “shungiku”.

It’s one of my favorite things to add to Nabe.

It has a fresh mustard-like flavor, and I absolutely love it.

I’m not a chef, but I do enjoy making these 3-D carrot flowers.

I found them at the Asian grocery store too.

They were not only adorable but also delicious.

We’ve recently started adding fish back into our diet.

It probably consists of 5 % of what we eat.

We really enjoyed this meal.

It’s nice to sit at the dining table and share a meal like this, which Nabe requires you to do.

At the end, you add some kind of carbs, rice, noodles, which is almost obligatory.

The soup is delicious, and the rice (or noodles) soak it up.

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November 19, 2022

by : Reiko Sweets

Belated Birthday Lemon Cake
半年遅れの誕生日レモンケーキ

Happy Birthday, Honey!

Well, it’s a half year late because his birthday was in July.

Then why are we having a birthday cake now in December?

Well, around that time of his birthday, we were both avoiding eating sugar as much as we could, and he told me that he did not want his birthday cake.

It’s customary at our house that I make his birthday cake, and he orders my birthday cake from a professional cake maker.

About a week ago, we decided that it was time to order my birthday cake for next month.

I was so excited, and once I put together the idea of what kind of cake I wanted this year and the order was put in, my husband turned to me and said he wanted his birthday cake too,

I didn’t see it coming, but since he didn’t get his cake this year, I agreed to make him a cake before my birthday.