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…
I never gave much thoughts to it, but when you think about it, there are many egg dishes that I used to enjoy.
Since I can now make beautiful egg yolks, I decided to make one of my all-time-favorite pasta dishes, Carbonara!
Homemade vegan “smoked bacon” was generously added.
And then finished with a sprinkle of vegan nutty Parm.
YUM!!
This is something I wanted to try for a while.
Shokupan Pullman loaf bread, but with brown sugar color and flavor.
It looks, smells, and tastes amazing.
Toast and butter.
Makes a perfect brakfast.
By Friday morning I usually have a pretty solid list of dishes I want to make for each weekend.
This was not on my list, but I had strong craving for Yakisoba (with cheese), and I had to make it.
My favorite vegan kimchi.
Looking at these pictures make me want to eat this again.
Perfectly cheesy.
In the U.S. pumpkin comes to everyone’s mind as a fall food.
It’s a little different in Japan.
For this curry I decided to showcase some of the foods that represent fall in Japan.
This is king mushroom, but any mushroom is considered a fall food in Japan.
Chestnut is another popular fall food.
And Satsuma sweet potato.
The Satsuma potato is delicious when simply roasted (and buttered) as well.
My husband made a plan to see his mother the other day when I was baking these.
She always offers things from her backyard, and this time she was going to bring us fresh tomatoes.
So I asked my husband to take some of these for her.
My mother-in-law called later and told me she liked them, and that made my day!
These madeleines are not only pretty but also the perfect size, especially for a gift.
Fall arrived quickly before I was ready to let summer go.
People moved on to pumpkin food.
And here I am.
Posting a peach galette.
But that’s okay.
I’ll eventually get to the pumpkin, but for now I enjoy my delicious peach galette and pretend that fall is not here yet…
I brushed a generous amount of peach whisky syrup on the peaches when the galette was right out of the oven.
So good.
The dark bits you see both in the crust and filling are date sugar.
I’ve been using date sugar for baking lately, and I’m really liking it.
