by : Reiko Japanese Food, Sandwiches

Sweet Bean Butter Sakura Sandwich
あんバター桜コッペパン

Sweet bean and butter sandwich.

This combination of sweet beans and butter may sound odd to many westerners, but it’s extremely popular in Japan.

A few weeks ago I showed you how to make sweet beans using canned beans.

This is so easy to make.

At that time I used black beans, but this time I decided to use dark red kidney beans.

I made this the same way as I did with the black beans.

You squeeze the extra liquid using a cloth; make sure the beans are quite dry at this stage.

Then add sugar and a little salt and cook until it achieves the texture you prefer.

This turned out great.

It’s pretty close to the traditional Japanese sweet red beans which are made of Azuki beans.

Homemade bread, homemade vegan butter, sweet beans, and salted sakura cherry flowers.

Pretty and tasty!

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Noodles/Pasta, Soup/Stew

Curry Udon with Asparagus Tempura
アスパラガス天ぷらカレーうどん

When I make curry for dinner, the next day’s lunch has to be curry udon.

That’s an unwritten rule at my house, but I religiously follow it.

I thought tempura would be a nice addition to it and decided to make some with asparagus.

I always make my tempura batter from scratch (all purpose flour, baking powder, cold water, salt), but of course I never measure the ingredients.

So it turns out different every time.

This time it turned out PERFECT!

Tempura is not the same as fritter, and it should be super light, just like this one you see in these pictures!

I’m so proud of this.

(I should have written down how I made this batter…)

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Noodles/Pasta, Soup/Stew

Natto Green Chile Soba
納豆グリーンチリ蕎麦

I usually have a lot of energy on weekends (lol).

It takes me forever to get out of bed usually, but I’m wide awake at 5:00 a.m. when I don’t go to the office.

But today my energy was a bit low, and I was kind of lazy.

A good thing is that I never lose appetite even on a day like this.

I was in a mood for soba soup for lunch.

So, this is what I ended up with.

Soba noodles, Kombu-soy sauce based soup, Natto, and green chile.

Yes, the green chile is an outsider here, but I really enjoyed the fresh spiciness in the soup.

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Soup/Stew

Dad’s Miso Soup (Sakekasu Miso Soup)
父の味噌汁（酒粕味噌汁）

When we stayed at my parents’ house during our recent vacation in Japan, my parents were so supportive of our diet.

My mom and I did the grocery shopping together, cooked together, and may parents ate the same thing we did for dinner every night.

They are awesome.

My mom wanted to learn about vegan cooking/baking, and I learned something new from them too.

Apparently, my father likes sakekasu.

He likes it so much that he puts it in his miso soup every night.

They were not sure how we would react to Sakekasu, but we were instantly hooked!

It gives such interesting and rich flavor to the soup.

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Rice/Grains

Natto Arugula Fried Rice with Balsamic Glaze
納豆ルッコラ炒飯、バルサミコだれ添え

I grew up in Japan, so when it comes to rice, I like Japanese rice, which some people call “sticky rice,” mostly because it’s familiar to me.

But we keep other types of rice in our pantry as well.

One of them is Basmati brown rice.

It’s not for sushi but great for fried rice.

Basmati brown rice was fried with Natto, and then served with fresh arugula, sliced radish, and sweet Balsamic glaze.

I usually like my Natto with soy sauce, but it was delicious with balsamic as well!

That’s why I like trying new things.

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by : Reiko Bread, Breakfast, Japanese Food

Sweet Black Bean and Butter Toast
黒餡で小倉トースト風

Sweet bean and butter toast is one of the specialties in Nagoya, where I’m from.

It’s super easy to make if you have sweet beans prepared.

Place sweet beans (usually Azuki, but this time I used black beans) and butter on a toast.

That’s it.

My Shoku-pan, Japanese Pullman loaf, was perfect for this.

And I just freshly made vegan butter as well.

You can of course dress it up with fruit or jam like this.

I topped it off with lingonberry jam.

The crispy/soft toast, sweet beans, fatty and slightly salty butter, and tart jam together.

It’s heavenly good.

But of course, you can keep it basic, like this too.

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by : Reiko Bread, Japanese Food

Sweet Black Bean Buns and Raspberry Bean Buns
黒餡酒粕パンとラズベリー餡酒粕パン

When I made the sweet beans (previous post), I knew I wanted to make stuffed buns with them as filling.

I made ones with the sweet black bean smooth paste, and the others with the raspberry bean paste.

Some sake-kasu (sake lees) was added to the buns, which gave the bread subtle yet interesting flavor and also made the buns soft and light.

Sweet black bean bun.

Raspberry bean bun.

They were both so good!

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by : Reiko Beans/Lentils, Japanese Food, Sweets

Sweet Bean Paste
米国で即席！粒あん、こしあん、白あん、変わり餡

Sweet bean paste is very popular in Japan.

Using beans for dessert/sweets may sound strange to Westerners, but it’s something many Japanese people who live outside Japan crave.

There are three main types of sweet bean paste.

One is “Tsubuan.”

It’s typically made of Azuki beans.

It’s the chunky type, and you keep the beans mostly intact.

Today you can find dried Azuki beans at many Co-op stores in the U.S., so I could make it myself if I really wanted to (it’s not difficult but time-consuming), or I could also buy premade one at Asian grocery stores.

But the other day I asked myself, “isn’t there a different way to make sweet beans that makes better sense to someone like myself who lives outside Japan?”

Why not using an ingredient which is easy to come by in the U.S.

So I decided to use canned black beans.

I drained the beans, removed the excess liquid as much as I could by folding the beans with a few paper towels and pressing them, added sugar and a little salt, and cooked.

A good thing about it is that I can control the amount of sugar.

Here is the “Tsubuan” I made with the black beans.

If you really love the Azuki taste, or if you are teaching someone traditional Japanese cuisine, you should definitely use Azuki.

But for me this black bean version completely satisfies my craving, and it’s so (ridiculously) easy to make.

This is “Koshian.”

Traditionally, again it’s made of Azuki beans.

Here is my black bean version.

Koshian is the smooth-type.

I just used my hand blender and made it into paste.

Another main sweet bean paste popular in Japan is called “Shiroan.”

It’s made of white beans.

For this I used canned butter beans.

How to make it is the same as the “Koshian” version.

I drained the beans, removed excess liquid, added sugar and a little salt, cooked, and made it into paste with a hand blender.

Shiroan is versatile, and you can add different flavors and colors.

Here is something I created by adding raspberry powder.

This raspberry Shiroan is sweet but slightly tart.

Again, these are NOT how to make traditional Japanese sweet beans/bean paste but super easy ways to satisfy my craving.

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