by : Reiko Sweets

Turmeric Anise Sesame Cookies
ターメリックアニス胡麻クッキー

I recently had turmeric cake from a Lebanese deli, called Zakia Deli, and I fell in love with the flavor combination: turmeric, anise, and sesame seeds.

These turned out great.

Crunchy outside, chewy inside, and super flavorful!!

At our house, I’m the one who typically go wild about exotic spices, but it was my husband who raved about these cookies!

Turmeric Anise Sesame Cookies; adapted from Ms. Isa Chandra’s recipe – makes about a dozen

1/4 brown sugar
1/4 white sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/8 cup soy milk
1/2 tablespoon tapioca flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
turmeric powder
ground star anise
sesame seeds

1. Combine and mix all the ingredients except for sesame seeds.
2. Roll the dough into balls and flatten them. Sprinkle sesame seeds and press them.
3. Bake in the oven at 350F for about 8 minutes.

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Noodles/Pasta

Homemade Pasta
ホームメードパスタ

This was something I had wanted to try for a while, and I thought this long weekend would be perfect to do so.

Homemade pasta!

I have made homemade pasta using eggs in the past, but this time my goal was to make tasty pasta without using eggs.

I did some research and studied several different eggless pasta recipes.

Well, eggless pasta is very simple.

Basically flour, salt (or no salt), water, and olive oil (or not).

It sounds okay, but I also wanted to come up with an idea where I could add some richness that is found in egg pasta.

Since I use garbanzo flour a lot for my “egg” dishes, I decided to add some garbanzo flour to my dough.

I used to have a pasta machine, but when I looked for it, I couldn’t find it!!

So I decided to do the whole process by hand.

The dough was very easy to handle, and it was actually a lot of fun.

The pasta turned out wonderful!

Love the taste and texture, both.

And the look.

I wanted to serve it very simply because I wanted to showcase the pasta itself.

I cooked garlic in olive oil first, added freshly cooked pasta, sprinkled crushed red pepper and chopped Italian parsley, and then added some butter at the end.

SCRUMPTIOUS!

Whenever I make pasta, I ask myself why I don’t do this more often.

Homemade Pasta – makes four servings

1.5 cup all purpose flour
0.5 cup garbanzo bean flour
a pinch of salt
0.5 cup warm water (to begin with, but I usually add some more)

1. Mix all together. Knead for about 10 minutes. Make a ball. Cover and let it rest for about 15 minutes. Flatten and cut.
2. Cook in boiling water for about 3 minutes.

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Bread, Breakfast

Earth Lover’s Bagels
Earth Lover’s ベーグル三種

A long weekend means more time in the kitchen.

More time in the kitchen means that I can be a bit more adventurous.

I was not a huge bagel fan, but that changed when I made some myself at home.

Homemade bagels are just wonderful, and once you experience it, there is no going back to the store-bought ones.

There is just no comparison.

This time I wanted to give some bright colors, and I was ecstatic that they looked just as I had hoped.

This picture (above) is before cooking/baking.

I was worried that they might lose the bright color during the cooking/baking process, but fortunately that didn’t happen.

These colors are all from natural things.

Absolutely no artificial colors.

Dark pink: Beet.

Yellow: Turmeric.

Green: Parsley.

Freshly made vegan butter.

Super creamy!

I loved that these bagels have not only the color but also the flavor from the unique ingredient.

DELICIOUS!!

Can’t wait to make sandwiches with these guys.

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Sweets

Flourless Mocha Cake
濃厚モカケーキ

 

When non-vegan friend invites us to her house for home-made vegan dinner, I make sure I bring the dessert that will surely please her.

I know she likes chocolate, and based on my dining experience with her, I don’t think she particularly likes anything flour-dense.

So I thought flourless chocolate cake would be a good choice, and I found a perfect recipe!

I’ve made several things with Amy’s recipes, and I’ve never been disappointed.

And this was not an exception!

I used strong home-brewed coffee and brandy to add some mocha flavor.

It turned out delicious!!

I served it with vanilla soy ice cream.

We also tried it with roasted nuts, and that was awesome too!

Did our non-vegan friend like it?

Oh yes, she did!!

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Japanese Food, Noodles/Pasta, Soup/Stew

Green Fox Soba Soup
緑のきつね蕎麦

Soba noodle soup is one of my favorite lunch dishes.

Growing up in Japan, I ate a lot of noodle soup for lunch.

One of the reasons was that I was a huge noodle fan, but when I was old enough to use the stove, noodle soup was one of the easiest to make myself.

You may be wondering why it’s named Fox.

When you add this fried soy bean curd, we call it Fox (or Kitsune in Japanese).

They say it is because Fried bean curd is fox’s favorite food or/and it has the color of fox’s fur.

You cook the curd in soy sauce based sweet broth first before adding to the soup.

And green comes from this beautiful seaweed, called “Aosa.”

My sister recently visited us from Japan, and she brought it for me.

It’s dried seaweed, and it’s crunchy as it is, but when you add it to soup, it quickly becomes softened and you can enjoy a different texture.

I like mine with a sprinkle of this Japanese spice called “Shichimi.”

Ultimate comfort food for sure!

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Sandwiches

ABC-TL Sandwich
ABC-TL サンドイッチ

Do you like BLT Sandwich?

How about ABC Sandwich?

A: Avocado.

B: Beet.

C: Cucumber.

Well, it already sounds good, right?

But when you add a hyphen, it gets even better!

T: Tempeh.

L: Lettuce.

For this sandwich, I decided to use a little unconventional bread.

This is homemade purple potato swirl Pullman with black beans.

What do you think?

I actually liked the beautiful pink color of the bread, with everything else, colorful.

Well I enjoyed it.

This is definitely my kind of sandwich!

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Breakfast

Matcha Yogurt Rice Flour Muffins
抹茶ヨーグルト米粉マフィン

I don’t always have yogurt in my fridge.

So when I happened to have some, I wanted to use it for my muffins.

These muffins were made with rice flour (which I’ve been having fun experimenting with lately), and the texture is definitely different from those made with wheat flour.

It’s hard to describe, but rice flour seems to make them delicate and moist.

The yogurt also probably contributed to the moist texture.

Very happy with the result.

Matcha Yogurt Rice Flour Muffins with Black Beans　- Makes 6

130g yogurt
20g sugar
20g canola oil
100g rice flour
5g baking power
about 1 teaspoon Mathca powder
about 1/3-1/2 cup black beans from a can; rinsed and dried

Bake at 355F for about 15 minutes.
*These muffins were created purposely not to be very sweet and are not eaten as “sweets.” These are great with butter for breakfast.

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Soup/Stew

Almond Butter Curry
アーモンドバターカレー

When we were in Chicago several weeks ago I had Almond Butter Curry at one of the restaurants.

I had eaten peanut butter curry before, but almond was new.

It was delicious, and I wanted to re-create it.

You can basically add any meat or vegetables, but I just got this soy curls and thought it would be perfect.

These were easy to prepare, as it only takes 10 minutes to bring them to life (by soaking in water).

After that you can sautee it, and it browns quickly.

Almond Butter Curry: canola oil, garlic ginger, yellow peppers, water, curry powder, bay leaves, almond butter, sugar, Jerk seasoning paste, pepita salsa, Louisiana hot sauce, salt, pepper, sautéed soy curls, garbanzo beans, parsley

The curry was served with cranberry couscous, arugula, and rhubarb pickles.

Happy with the result.

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Breakfast, Sweets

Paris Scones
パリ・スコーン

Do you want to know why these are named “Paris Scones”?

I’m a big fan of Harney & Sons tea.

Delicious blends.

And the tins!

I don’t know what to do with it, but I’m keeping this tin after I finish the tea.

When I first saw this, I was intrigued.

It just says “Paris”.

What does “Paris” tea taste like???

When I opened the tin, it was Paris.

I’ve been to Paris only once and it was a long time ago.

But if someone told me that this is what Paris smells like, I would believe it.

It’s sweet, handsome, and sophisticated.

These may not be the typical words to describe a smell, but they came to my mind first.

The tea was delicious, but I thought it would make wonderful scones.

And I was right.

The combination of the Paris tea and freeze-dried blueberries was as amazing as I had hoped it would be.

I quickly made V butter because I wanted to make sure I had fresh butter when the scones were ready.

Love, love, love.

I love you, Paris.

Leave a comment