Homemade Umeshu

Homemade Umeshu

Monday, 15 June 2009

This year's ume (Japanese plum) has arrived and it's making umeshu time! We can get good ume for making umeshu only at this time of year - we use unripe green ones for this and they need to be really fresh. Oh they smell beautiful.
Normally Umeshu is made with shochu or sake, but I love using brandy. This is my third year of making "brandy umeshu" - it's the best!

After about 10 hours, rock sugar start to melt and it looks like this.

And after a year (of waiting and tasting), this! Look how they've gone so smaller and wrinkly, all the good stuff has come out. They don't really look so beautiful now... I probably should have taken the ume out sooner but anyway.

They say you can start drinking it after 3 months, but I wait at least for 6 months. When it's over a year old, it gets really good :) I always try to keep them for years but it's hard to resist and my 3-year-old umeshu is almost gone.... Can't wait till December to try my new umeshu now!!!Check Umeshu on Wikipedia, and here is a really good all-you-need-to-know-about-umeshu post.

Comments: 20

Ukatama : Genmai Shokudo

Ukatama : Genmai Shokudo

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

The summer issue of the food lifestyle magazine Ukatama うかたま is featuring "genmai玄米" -brown rice. To us Japanese, rice is something we can't live without. We eat rice everyday, sometimes 3 times a day - for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's mostly white rice we eat, but it's becoming very "in" to eat brown rice these days. And of course it's good for you. There are so many recipes for brown rice meals in this issue of Ukatama and is very inspiring too.

And .....an exciting news! I won a surprise prize for Hello Greenie! It's World Environment Day! Special Hello Sandwich Eco Giveaway! from lovely Ebony! from Sydney! Yay! I will tell you more about it when I receive my special gift ;)

Comments: 15

Noda Horo : All Purpose All-time favourite enamel kitchen goods

Noda Horo : All Purpose All-time favourite enamel kitchen goods

Monday, 18 May 2009

My Noda Horo Collection (so far).
This is my favourite new book by Mrs Noda who married Mr Noda of "NODA HORO" the company who's been producing excellent enamel kitchen goods for over 70 years in Japan.
"Horo" (=enamel) kitchen goods would have been seen a lot in anyone's kitchen in my grandmother's time in Japan but when the modern technology made its appearance, people started to replace them to plastics and other things. Good on NODA HORO to have kept making them to this day, people are starting to realise the goodnesses of horo; long lasting, doesn't produce environmental toxins, keeps food fresh for long and away from germs, strong for salt and acid (good for long-term keeping eg jams and pickles), heat efficient and so on! But the best thing I'd say is that you can heat the container directly on the stove after taking it out from the fridge straight away! (I've ordered this for stocking/reheating dashi. would be good for soups too.)

Their "White Series" is just great!

一生つきあいたい万能キッチン道具「野田琺瑯」の本。 (MARBLE BOOKS) (link to amazon japan)

Comments: 15

Everyday Miso Soup

Everyday Miso Soup

Saturday, 9 May 2009

"Onion and Ginger" - my favourite. Miso soup is one of the most essential things in a Japanese cuisine, we have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner... can be for anytime, with other things of course. If you're familiar with Japanese cooking you might think "a recepi book just for miso soup!?" like I did when I first saw this book a few years ago, but no this book has been one of my favourites in my kitchen! You don't really need a "recipe" to make miso soup, but this book has got 100 miso soup recipes and has so many different ideas which you would never have heard of or thought of for miso soup ingredients. I just open this book while checking what's in my fridge for inspiration. I know many of the ingredients for Japanese cooking can be difficult to get outside Japan, but there are many non-traditional miso soup ideas (such as "pumpkin and cheese" and "corn, milk and butter") and you probably don't need to be able to read Japanese for this one so I thought I might put it up here.

The secret is to mix 2 different types of miso paste.
"Dashi" (broth) is very important too, but for a start you can get the powdered dashi which was very easy to find in any supermarket in Melbourne so I think it would be in many other cities too.

Everyday Miso Soup 100 by Kazuo Hida
毎日のみそ汁１００　飛田 和緒

Comments: 9

Cooks Dry Measure from LABOUR AND WAIT

Cooks Dry Measure from LABOUR AND WAIT

Monday, 16 March 2009

This Cooks Dry Measure from LABOUR AND WAIT is my all time favourite.
Great design, just very simple and has got all you need for measuring ingredient.



LABOUR AND WAIT comes from London, we have a shop that sell some stuff from them in Tokyo, but not enough. I can't wait till I walk into their shop in London - looks perfect!

Comments: 0