Japanese Food

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.

Remember the Konashi, Japanese sweets, I posted about a week ago?

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2022/11/06/konashi-wagashi

My friend brought almost all the main ingredients for the lesson, and she kindly left things for me that we did not use.

There were…

White bean paste,

Potato paste.

Chestnut paste, and

Azuki paste.

I made a half of the white bean paste pink by adding beet juice, and the other half yellow by adding turmeric.

Also, I added Matcha powder to the potato paste and turned it into green.

There was not a lot of paste.

So, I decided to make mini “Ohagi”.

Ohagi is another type of traditional Japanese sweets.

It’s sticky sweet rice covered with sweet bean paste.

Here is Azuki Sesame.

Chestnut.

Matcha.

Pink Rose.

Turmeric Pecan.

This was a fun one.

I just put together a little bit of every paste that was left.

I’m super happy with how they turned out.

Aren’t these pretty?

I’m fascinated by Japanese sweets (wagashi).

I was not always so.

But in the U.S. I cannot just go to shops and buy them like I would in Japan, so that probably makes it even more special now.

I recently met someone, who works at an upscale Japanese restaurant, and she kindly offered teaching me how to make them.

She even brought the main ingredients that are hard to come by, which I was so grateful for.

Adding the lines was challenging.

Mine was far from perfect, but I really enjoyed this experience.

By the say, these are chrysanthemums, seasonally very appropriate.

We also made these.

They are plum flowers, which is usually made during the spring season, but that’s okay because they are still pretty, and I got to practice making something different.

Inside you’ll find sweet Azuki bean paste.

Let me tell you something.

These are not only pretty but also delicious.

Now I’m motivated to try making these by myself.

Wish me luck!