I am sure many of your have eaten Castella as snacks during tea time in Japan. Or maybe if you haven’t been to Japan, I am sure many of you have eaten a sponge cake. It is essentially the same thing, a castella and a sponge cake. So, I am going to share with you a recipe on how to make sponge cake or, as the Japanese calls it, Castella, a beloved cake that came to the shores of Japan via the Portuguese. You will need to read up on the history of how castella became a favorite in Japan because I only know how to make it :P

Castella is a very light and fluffy cake, that is really delightful to eat. A true castella, do not use ANY baking powder or baking soda because it depends on the eggs as a leavening agent. You can use any flavoring to make your cake but I rather like the simple taste of vanilla and a nice strawberry filling in the middle.

Vanilla Sponge Cake:
8 eggs, separate the yolks and whites into two bowls
190gram/6.7 oz of sugar
95 grams/3.3 oz flour
55 grams/ 2 oz cornflour
45 grams/ 1.6 oz butter, melted
1 vanilla pod, beans scraped out

Method:
Preheat your oven to 350 F.

1. Beat your yolks with an electric beater for 1 minute and add 1/3 of the sugar and the vanilla beans in. Beat for another 4-5 minutes until the yolks double in size and looks a pale yellow. Set aside.

2. Wash your electric beater’s whisk properly. A drop of the yolk is all it takes to sabotage the whole cake because your egg whites would not be able to rise to stiff peaks, which is essential for your sponge cake. Once your whisks are washed, re-attach and start beating your egg whites for 30 seconds first to get them “warmed”up.

3. Add the remaining of the sugar bit by bit as you beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. It must be stiff peaks, as shown in the picture.

4. Now you can combine the yolks and the whites together. Pour the yolks into the egg whites and with a spatula, gently fold the mixture until well incorporated. Do not over mix, as soon as you see that both yolks and whites are combined, move on to the next step.

5. Add your corn flour and flour through a sift into the batter. Fold the mixture to combine again, very gently. Once that is done, add your melted butter in and combine again.

Pour the mixture into a 11 inch baking pan (I used a 9-inch spring form pan, so I filled it up 3/4 of the pan and pour the rest of the batter into little ramekins) and bake for 30 minutes. Test with skewers to check if the cake is done, if not, bake for another 5 minutes and check again.

Let the sponge cake cool before trying to get it out of the pan.

Meanwhile, make your strawberry jelly, which essentially strawberry jam. All you need is 250grams of fresh strawberries and 25 gram sugar. Put the two ingredients together in a pot and mash it up with your hands or with a potato masher. Cook for 30 minutes on medium heat until it becomes a thick red, gloopy jam. Wait for it to cool before using it to fill the cake.

To fill the cake, use a very sharp knife and cut the cake into halves horizontally. Spread the strawberry jelly on the bottom layer of the cake and place the top layer after. Chill for 30-45 minutes before serving with a sprinkle of icing sugar.

via A Series of Kitchen Experiments

Takoyaki is not really hard to do, you just need the special moulds and you’ll be ready to make your own version of takoyakis (or any -yakis, for that matter). The key ingredient in making a good flavorful takoyaki is of course the batter. The batter is the matter in this case as even in the largest takoyakis, the takos/ filling only make up for 40% of the ball.

As most of you living in Japan would know, takoyaki is very much Japanese not only for it’s name but also its taste. A distinctly Japanese taste that you can only get from dashi stock. So the key in making a good batter is to make good dashi stock – feel free to get pre-made packet stocks. Understandably, they are more convenient but personally, stocks are easy to prepare and are multi-purpose. I would suggest making your own and season it to your liking. A good dashi stock recipe comes from Just Hungry, the Japanese-International food site that I have raved about. I like the website very much because the author, a Japanese herself, explains each recipe’s background in a very detailed manner. You can be sure that the Japanese recipes you get from her blog are tried-and-true. I have personally made use of her dashi stock recipe – which is simple and flavorful and would recommend that you use this stock in your takoyaki :)

To make takoyaki batter, you will need:

# 1 2/3 cup flour
# 2 1/2 cup dashi stock
# 2 eggs
# 1 teaspoon baking powder

Mix the above ingredients together well.

To make takoyaki filling, you’ll need:

# 1/2lb octopus, cut into 1cmx1cm cubes, roughly
# 1/4 cup chopped green onion
# 1/4 cup chopped pickled red ginger
# Other filling options: shrimp, crab and eel (you can use meat but to me, takoyaki is all about seafood)

For the topping:
# fried bonito flakes
# shredded nori
# Worcestershire sauce or takoyaki sauce
# mayonnaise

To make takoyaki balls you will need a takoyaki griddle/pan that looks like this:

Takoyaki Pan

But here’s the thing, if you don’t have one and don’t want to invest in one, you can transform your takoyakis into mini okonomiyakis on your non-stick pan. They are as delicious :)

Here’s a video on how to make your own takoyaki like a street vendor, homestyle :)

There is a recipe in this video, you can also use that version. But I have tried that batter above and I give it my thumbs up. :)

A Chinese rice dish in Japanese style:

Pocky has got to be my favorite junk food. Who doesn’t like biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate? It’s a very simple concept that is delicious and addictive. Pocky is a Japanese snack food that I could find in Malaysia. Funny thing is because Pocky sounds like a swear word in Malay, they changed the named to Rocky. The word Pocky sounds like “cunt” in Malay. Hahaha…

Anyway, I have eaten both Rocky and Pocky and for some reason, Rocky tastes like cheap chocolates tainted with too much butter fat while Pocky is chocolate-er…hmm. There are many Pocky flavors but the most common ones I’ve had are chocolate and strawberry. Not a big fan of strawberry flavored snacks because they always tastes like liquid antibiotics. I am not a fan of any berry flavored products, actually. I prefer the fresh flavors of real strawberries and berries to the processed food.

So what if you favorite Japanese snacks of all time?

Check out this pocky ad.

All that melodrama for chocolate sticks. ROFL

After watching the movie Tampopo, I was inspired to make my very own ramen. I didn’t want any instant stuff, I wanted REAL ramen with rich, real broth made from slow simmering chicken bones (or pork bones if you like). The result was an excellent ramen that is both healthy, low in MSG and fulfilling.

You can use ANY toppings on you ramen but I julienne some meat and vegetables to make a medley that rounds off an otherwise plain bowl of noodles.

For my noodles, I used 1 cup of all purpose flour,1 teaspoon salt, 1 egg and 2 tbsp of water. Knead until the dough becomes tough and satiny smooth. This is perhap the most labourious of all throughout the recipe but you will be rewarded with bouncy noodles at the end if you do this. I kneaded my dough for 10-15 mins nonstop. Important: Let the dough rest for 30 minutes before rolling it out thinly. I just ran it through my pasta machine and then cut them with my finest pasta roller on the same machine. Douse a lot of flour on the freshly cut pasta so they don’t clump up together.

For my broth, I laboriously boiled four chicken carcasses with a head of garlic, 1 cup of bonito flakes and a knob of ginger for close to 3 hours. But first, parboil your chicken carcass for 5 minutes first – this is key to getting a very clear broth with no grayish froth while you are boiling your broth. After 3 hours, sieve the carcass garlic and bonito flakes out. This will be your broth base.

To cook and assemble, I heat up a large pot of water, salted, and wait until it boils. While waiting for the water to boil, I took 2 tbsp of miso paste and added it into the broth pot – I stir to dissolve the miso and then season with some soy sauce. The broth is now ready to be used.

To cook and assemble, I heat up a large pot of water, salted, and wait until it boils. While waiting for the water to boil, I took 2 tbsp of miso paste and added it into the broth pot – I stir to dissolve the miso and then season with some soy sauce. The broth is now ready to be used.

Now that the water is boiling I tossed in my fresh noodles. It takes only 2 minutes to cook, once they start floating on the surface you can take them out into a serving bowl. Ladle the hot broth onto your soup and garnish with your favorite ingredients. I made some julienne red peppers, green beans, green onions/scallions and vegetarian mock meat as my topping but feel free to use beef, pork, chicken or seafood.

But anyway, I had to ask – What’s your favorite instant ramen?

Mine’s this:

Japanese food is one of my favorites for a reason. Just check out the video and you’ll know why. If i were to list my favorite food, it would be like this:

1. Japanese
2. Italian
3. Indian

Keep in mind that I am Chinese and while I love Chinese food, I only like the ones that comes from my family :)

This is a Japanese inspired dish by Nigella Lawson and to be honest, it is delicious as I have tried it myself,with a little twist. Sake Salmon on rice is a quick and easy meal that you can prepare as soon as you get home from work. It is a great comfort food as well because rice, when cooked properly, is absolutely delicious. For this recipe, I would use calrose or sushi rice. But if you want, you can use any long grain rice you have in your pantry. The star of the show is your protein and your rice is merely your vessel to carry these wonderful flavors into your mouth :)

Do not over cook your salmon. I know that sounds a little silly because you cannot really overcook salmon with its high fat content unless you threw it into the burner and left it there to carbonize. But what I mean by not overcooking the salmon is to still leave it a little raw inside. As such, the freshness of your salmon is imperative to a good Sake Salmon on rice and to your health. The last thing you want is to be running to the toilet after a meal.

So, off with the recipe:

Marinade for the salmon
Wasabi paste
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil or any cooking oil
1 teaspoon of chopped red chillies (optional)
1 tablespoon sake, or two ;)
2 salmon fillets

Sauce for salmon and rice:
1/4 cup sake
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon wasabi paste

Chopped green onions/spring onions to garnish

Cooked rice (enough for two or three)

This recipe serves two to three individuals depending on how hungry you are.

Method:
In a freezer bag, wasabi paste, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, oil, and sake and add the salmon fillets. Leave to marinate for about 15 minutes.

Heat a smooth griddle or nonstick skillet until hot, and cook the salmon fillets for 1 minute on one side then a minute on the other side – you want the salmon to still be raw inside but wrapped with a nice cooked outer layer . Remove the salmon and let them rest for 10 minutes on a wooden board and cover them with a sheet of tin foil for 10 minutes.

Bring the sake to a boil in a tiny little saucepan, like one you might melt butter in, to let the alcohol taste evaporate. Take the pan off the heat and add the other sauce ingredients.

Unwrap the salmon fillets, removing them to a wooden board for carving as you do so. Cut them with a very sharp knife into 1 inch slices.

Arrange the salmon slices on hot rice on 2 plates (or three). Spoon over the sauce, letting it gloss the fish and drip here and there over the rice. Scatter the chopped green onions/spring onions on top.

Simple grub that should take you as long as you need for your rice to cook. And I do mean every word of that :)

The sticky and gooey by nutritious food that is rich in protein and is originally Japanese. You can never find anything like natto anywhere else in the world. A big reason why is the way natto looks, very sticky and very gooey, not at all appetizing and a very pungent smell. But who are we to judge if we eat moldy cheese like Roquefort?

You can make your own natto in your own home. You just need a few simple ingredients and a very clean vessel for the process of fermentation of the soybeans.

Here’s a simple natto recipe you can try at home. You will need to purchase some dried rice straws, which you can find in any asian grocery stores.

For those of you who have seen Tampopo, do yourself a favor and watch it this week.

It is an old Japanese cult movie about food, specifically ramen and how to appreciate good ramen. The movie has a steady foodie cult following over the past years. Watching this movie makes me want to make my own ramen from scratch :)

Watch a clip here: