From one pizza dough to many to taste :) Nom nom nom

From the no knead pizza dough, today I baked my first bread (I baked many breads with my mom when I was little, but this is what I baked all by myself).  I usually have Rye or Vollkorn (brown) bread like this: for more Vitamin B, mineral, and fiber. 

After 1to 2 months I moved to Germany, I almost became anorexia. If I could think of the cause, it might've been that I had no friends, couldn't communicate with others for the language, got hungry from study but the food didn't satisfy me (completely different from Japanese healthy food...), and "I don't want to be fat.". The struggle of hunger and trying to stay thin to continue fashion/outfit blog. 

When I was about to "fall" (start to suffer from anorexia), I consulted with a person (food/nutrition professor) about my problem and she recommended me to buy Vollkorn or Rye bread that contains LOTS of vitamin B and mineral that help people on diet (≠ to be skinny; = to be healthy). And she told me to make 30 times of chewing at each bite. 
How lucky I am. I'm in Germany and they have loads of Vollkorn bread everywhere.
It saved me. I should say it really saved my life. If you had ever suffered from anorexia, you know how terrible and hard it feels. 
So, I started to get better about..since January (the end of December) and my appetite has got fallen off in a healthy, better way and I don't have the horrible desire for eating at all. anymore. :)

But now, I don't have my bread. :D And I've just learned to make easy pizza dough. So I needed to take advantage of it! 
Oh man, how fabulous handmade bread is! The word "FLAVORFUL" must be used for this bread. 
Nice, nice, nice smell of yeast and wheat. Warm, steamy slices melt the butter....oh my god. YUMMY.
Don't put jam, nutella even if you love really bad, or anything like that on it. Enjoy, taste it, and sigh.
Trust me, you'll love it. 
I baked my bread for 25 minutes at 200℃(400°F), checking the bread surface getting brown. 
Would you give it a try? 








Or simply put butter on it? それともシンプルにバターでおいしく:)



What would you have time? どう食べる? :)


Enjoy!
xoxo
M

American Cherry Pie アメリカンチェリーパイ

My kitchen was full of American Cherry smell from the oven. How nice and much it made me excited to bite.  
Since today, 31st March, Easter/Spring break has started. I finished A1 exam which is first level of German language and a test for non-German people and our teacher gave us the result, though we'll receive the official form after Easter, that wasn't bad: 90/100. It's been 4 months since I started to learn German language and now I am able to express what I want to say. There's still much much long to go but I'm growing everyday :) 

We were going to have a party at school before Easter break started but it wasn't officially announced and I missed the chance last Thursday to ask our teacher if we'd make a party on Friday. But my Italian friend backed pizza for me (how sweet she is!). 
"We won't have a party but I'll bake a pizza for you, meggy :) (in German) " she said. 
This is my reason to bake this American Cherry pie :) 
The recipe I used: HERE

*Chill flour, butter, and a large bowl for 2 hours. (I put them in the fridge before I went to bed and made the pie next morning) 
薄力粉、バター、ボウルは2時間程度冷蔵庫で冷やしておく。(私は前夜に冷蔵庫に入れて翌朝パイ作りしました。)

Watch his video to make proper shortcrust for this pie. (パイ生地作りのビデオ)



INGREDIENTS
-------Shortcrust パイ生地-------
400g Flour, chilled (冷やしておいた薄力粉 400g)
200g Butter, chilled & cut into cubes (冷やしておいたバター 200g サイコロ状に切る)
1 pinch of salt (塩ひとつまみ)
Just under 100ml cold Water (冷水 100ml 全部使い切らなくても大丈夫)

--------Filling ソース--------
240g bottled sweetened American Cherry, or blueberry, strawberry etc.. (ビン詰めのアメリカンチェリー240g  ブルーベリー、イチゴ等でもok)
1 Tablespoon fresh Lemon juice (レモン汁大さじ1)
2 Tablespoon/20g flour (薄力粉 大さじ2 (山盛りにしなくていい))

Check Directions......>>>>

Simple Handmade Arrabbiata Sauce 手作りアラビアータソース

Handmade addiction. Now I started to make Arrabbiata sauce and feel my improvement of cooking :) "I've made a pizza dough, pizza cheese in the fridge, olives, smoked bacons.... Oh I don't have tomato sauce that's the most important ingredient!"  Luckily I've bought canned tomato puree a while ago and now it turned arrabbiata sauce. I never made it by myself and always went to grocery stores to get it when I wanted to have pizza, pasta, or soup to skip many processes that Italian mamas do from 0.
I love Barilla. Delicious, flavorful, and nicely amazing promotes other ingredients but still remains its taste....So they're always not cheap. This was the problem for me.
I was browsing many recipes for Arrabbiata sauce and concluded this method. I used just basic ingredients that all of you might also have in your kitchen and simply because I didn't have red wine, Italian seasonings, and red pepper flakes. Easy and tasty as always. If you have any tips for cooking, please let me know :)

1 teaspoon olive oil (オリーブオイル大さじ1)
1 large Onion, chopped (Lサイズ玉ねぎ1個 刻む)
4 cloves Garlic, minced  (ニンニク4つ 刻む)
1 tablespoon white Sugar (砂糖大さじ1)
1 tablespoon chopped dried Basil (乾燥バジル大さじ1)
1 tablespoon Lemon juice (レモン汁大さじ1)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (黒こしょう小さじ1/4)
400g peeled and diced Tomato puree (トマト缶400g)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (パセリ大さじ2)

Check Directions......>>>>>

Japanese Original White Stew ホワイトシチュー

White stew is one of Japanese homemade dish which all kids like. This stew method is based on béchamel sauce or let's say milk. I've found the history of the white stew and what has become of it till today on House Foods Corporation
When it started to get popular in Japan, about in 1960 ~, they didn't ever know béchamel sauce and used butter and flour instead just to thicken the soup. You know miso soup, don't you? :) The so-called stew was like miso soup which is slightly seasoned with butter and flour to get easily staffed. 
After WWⅡ, a House Foods' staff tried to make again the stew that he used to have in childhood at school and he found there is a stew in Ireland that looks similar to one he had, which was Irish stew. 
He produced "House Cream Stew" and it enabled people to have a delicious white stew (at the time the package said cream stew) easily at home. 
Now we know we use béchamel sauce or milk and butter to complete the stew but it was such an amazing product and a revolution for home kitchen. So, this is how it's made and become our homemade dish in Japan. Check out House Foods Corporation's website to know what they're like and making. I'd say...it's like maggy or Quakers. :D or? 
Give it a try. Hope you like it :)


5 chicken thighs (or 2 breasts), rinsed and pat dried 
Kosher salt 
Freshly ground black pepper 
3 Tablespoon butter 
1 large onion, sliced 
1/4 cup/50g all-purpose flour 
3 ½ cup/700ml Milk 
2 potatoes, cut into cubes 
1 carrot, cut into random cube
2 bay leaves (I didn't have them so I used oregano)
2 cube vegetable bouillon

[Optional]--------You can add:
Canned corn
Broccoli
Mushrooms
Directions.....>>>

Easy No Knead Pizza Dough こねる作業不要・簡単ピザ生地

Easy simple pizza dough. I was always thinking that making a pizza must be a hard work. Or at least pizza is what I'm supposed to eat at pizzeria. "Handmade pizza couldn't be competitive.." But today I found that was wrong.

This olive oil dough has full of flavor, is so rich, and perfect for pizza and focaccia. When you bake it as a pizza, it gets nicely crispy but not dry out and moist inside. Enjoying even only dough as a focaccia beats other snacks in your rack. This is so good. It'll blow your mind.

Since I came to Germany, when I was in the states as well though, I've got many chances to have pizza.
But hey,... I'm enough. Always too salty, just a hot mess on the crust, I never ever see any savory twist in the dough. Or do I need to taste salt or dried out dough? I truly don't understand why people always go to the pizzeria (maybe we have only the one in this town, or "because everyone goes, which makes them think "this is delicious". bah.).
I am sure I can do better. No go. no no no.

I know Japanese perfectionism. And I know their amazing pizza in Tokyo. And I grew up with our the perfectionism spirit that we always seek for perfection or the better in any kinds of subject. Nothing can be perfect, of course but the style, you know.
Even if an Italian guy runs his pizzeria and people here say it's Italian, original, unbeatable pizza, un-tasty is un-tasty. They should come to Tokyo and learn what we have.
Millions of foreigners live in Tokyo and go to Italian, French, Chinese, Korean, Vietnam etc restaurant which Japanese run. But still they go there simply because it's delicious and all these restaurants are admitted by non-Japanese people. And again, I grew up in the environment. So I don't get satisfied at all with non-German food like Italian which I had in Japan.

I needed real good pizza dough and good pizza. And this dough is it!

[Makes 2 Medium size (world wide Medium size.) Pizza doughs]
2 cups/400g All-pupose flour (薄力粉 400g)
7g dry yeast (ドライイースト 7g)
1 Tablespoon Sugar (砂糖 大さじ1)
2 pinches Salt (塩 ふたつまみ)
2 Tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil (エキストラバージンオリーブオイル 大さじ2)
250ml Warm water (not lukewarm) (熱すぎずぬるすぎないお湯 250ml)
Directions....>>>

Chewy Gooey Brown Sugar Ginger Cookies しっとりジンジャークッキー


I did it. I finally did it. I jumped for happiness in the kitchen. Why? My cookies are perfectly CHEWY & GOOEY.
I've baked cookies over and over and over ....and never become chewy at all until today. Hundreds of times of baking cookies is now rewarded. Honestly I almost cried simply because I was happy for the success. There are already trillions of American mamas succeeded in baking chewy cookies out there and this really isn't a surprising thing to them but..... AH. I am just happy. And, delicious. Crispy out & REAL gooeyness is perfectly remained in.
I can't think of words to describe this feeling (yes, maybe this sounds like I succeeded in making sunny side up egg but you know how it feels if you've achieved something you wanted from long work. Totally like that.) 'cause...I've read loads of chewy cookie recipes and tried them all and I never made it.
Chewy cookies are completely different from normal crispy ones, ice-box ones, Sablé, etc. I would really like YOU to try some now :) Pictures tell you more than words.

The recipe I used: here

1 ¾ cups/350g plus 2 Tablespoon all-purpose flour (薄力粉350g+30g)
1 ½ tsp/10g ground ginger (おろした生姜10g)
1/3 teaspoon baking soda (ベーキングソーダ小さじ1/3)
1 pinch salt (塩ひとつまみ)
2/3 cup/133g unsalted butter, at room temperature (無塩バター室温 133g)
1 1/3 cups/265g packed dark brown sugar (ブラウンシュガー265g)
1 large egg, at room temperature (Lサイズ卵1個 室温)
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature (Lサイズ黄身 室温)
1 teaspoon fancy molasses (ハチミツ小さじ1)
1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract (バニラエッセンス小さじ1.5)

For rolling コーティング:
½  cup/100g granulated sugar  (グラニュー糖100g)


Direction.....>>> 作り方.....>>>

Protein Apple Sour Salad

Pretty Spring salad is here. I made cookies and had 1 egg white left in my fridge.
And I thought "I don't want to just waste it in the sink but too little to make meringue cookies" What would it be like if mixed in salad? And I grabbed whatever veggies I found in the fridge drawer and sliced up apples. How easy and tasty!
Chilled apples are crisp, fresh vegetables are dancing with feta (really), and egg white has a unique texture with smoothness and elasticity. It's a pop in your mouth.
Would you try this salad? You'd like it :)

[INGREDIENTS 材料]
1/3 Carrot, cut into sticks (にんじん1/3 小さめのスティック状に切る)
1/3 Apple, sliced thinly (リンゴ1/3 薄くスライスする)
1 Tomato, remove seeds & cut into cubes (トマト1個 種を除いて1cm大に切る)
4~5 layers Lettuce, kale, or your favorite leaves, cut 1 inch/2.5cm size (サラダ菜など好きな葉っぱ4~5枚2.5cm大に切る)
±50g Feta cheese, cut into cubes (フェタチーズ50g 1cm大に切る お好みで量を調節)
1 Egg white (卵の白身)

[DRESSING ドレッシング]
150ml Extra virgin olive oil (エキストラバージンオリーブオイル)
2 teaspoon soy sauce (醤油小さじ2)
2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (レモン汁小さじ2)
Salt & freshly grated Black petter, to taste (塩・黒こしょう適量)
1/3 teaspoon dried Oregano (乾燥オレガノ小さじ1/3)
1/3 teaspoon Sesame (白ごま小さじ1/3)
1/4 teaspoon dried Basilicum (乾燥バジル小さじ1/4)

1: In a small bowl, prepare cold water with ice cubes, set aside. Boil water in a small pot and pour egg white in it. Let it spread out in the water using a fork, just 1 stir to spread it out. When it's completely solidified, drain and put them into the cold water. Remove from the water when egg whites are completely cooled.
小さいボウルに冷たい水を入れ用意しておく。
小さい鍋に水を沸騰させ卵の白身を入れフォークで白身を広げる(1回でok!)。固まったらザルに開けて冷たい水に開ける。完全に冷えたら水を切る。


2: In a medium-large bowl, combine salad ingredients. Tear egg whites to pieces with hands and sprinkle over it.
ボウルに切った野菜を混ぜる。茹でた白身を手でちぎって具材の上に散らす。

3: Mix dressing ingredients. Pour 2 tablespoons of it over the salad per portion.
ドレッシングの材料を混ぜる。1人あたり大さじ2くらいをかけて召し上がれ♫

xoxo
M

I'm a rabbit...Yummy Spinach Gratin. ほうれん草グラタン

Wednesday evening, we had spinach. Mad amount of spinach. It made me feel I feed on plants because I never had this amount of spinach till this day in my life and as a main dish.
At least, we (Japanese) don't eat spinach as much as German people do.  It never shows up on the big plate like here; sits in a teeny tiny dish included in appetizer just to balance & color up the whole meals.
Food is simply interesting. It always change its style in each countries.
When I was looking through a food catalog with John one day and I found Grünkohlgericht which is kale or spinach sautéed with potatoes and sausage.
I asked him "Which meat (or main dish) do you eat with this? Chicken?" I completely thought it's just a side dish served in a small dish.
"No, we eat this as main dish" he said. "WTH. you guys are horse? LOL it's just leaves.." No no no....how could this be main dish while you guys eat huge Schnitzel fried in over over used oil without salad. it's sort of ironic isn't it? :D
As for me, it's just fun to try a large amount of spinach, of course with much salad and miso soup. :)
And it was good. I actually used 2 pounds spinach, not 3 and found 3 pounds would be better. 2 lb spinach seems a lot but once it's defrosted and squeezed, it gets so small in the oven dish.
I recommend you to prepare 3 lb.

3 lb (1362g) frozen chopped Spinach, defrosted (冷凍のほうれん草 (日本に無いかも))
2 Tablespoons/30g unsalted Butter (無塩バター)
1 Onion, chopped (Lサイズ玉ねぎ 刻む)
30g All-purpose flour (薄力粉)
1/4 teaspoon powder Nutmeg (ナツメグ小さじ1/4)
2 cups/400ml Milk (牛乳)
80g Parmesan cheese (パルメザンチーズ)
Salt & black petter to taste (塩・胡椒適量)
Pizza cheese for topping (ピザ用チーズ トッピング用に少量)

Directon...>>

Greek Salad. Simple, colorful, healthy, delicious ギリシャサラダ

I want SLR so bad. Whichever Canon or Nikon. Simply, madly, sincerely want it. 
You have no idea how much I wished to have it to take photos of this salad. My camera doesn't satisfy me to capture the best aspect of the object, to blur the background of it, and boost/highlight the details of it. Blurring the background is, I think, the most important part of photographing, especially when it comes to food. 
As long as you (yes, me) want to make posts of recipes of your cooking and direct steps with the photos, these should be very good quality for the performance to attract people, which I can't do well yet. *sigh* Only the price of SLR concerns me. If you have a cooking blog and had the same problem I have, you know how it feels.

Hai, I made Greek style salad. and I ate it.
So eye-popping, healthy, easy, many ingredients to enjoy, and beautiful. 
Need to say more? well, I'm addicted :)

[DRESSING ドレッシング]
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (エキストラバージンオリーブオイル 大さじ2)
1½ tablespoons lemon juice (レモン汁 大さじ1.5)
1 clove garlic—minced (ニンニク1片 刻む)
½ teaspoon dried oregano (乾燥オレガノ 小さじ½)
¼ teaspoon sea salt (塩 適量)
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, and extra for garnish (黒胡椒 適量)

[INGREDIENTS 材料]
3 tomatoes, remove seeds & cut into wedges (トマト 種を取り除く& 1cm大に切る)
⅓ red onion, sliced thinly (紫玉ねぎ 薄くスライス) * mines are small cubes
½ cucumber, remove seeds & cut into chunks (きゅうり 種を取り除く& 1cm大に切る)
120g (4 oz) feta cheese—cut into small cubes (フェタチーズ 1cm大に切る)
16 kalamata olives (種無しのオリーブの実)

Direction....>>

Vinegar and rosemary chicken


I guess it's time to make something different flavor or to refreshen ordinary cooking and this:
vinegar-ed chicken thighs flavored with rosemary. This was completely new/refreshing dish (as long as I've cooked till today) and became one of our favorites.
The meat got tender in the vinegar and the combination of rosemary and sautéed garlic is simply fantastic.
It's been 5 months since I officially started to cook in Germany (I almost never did in Japan.) and I still don't feel I'm a good cook.. I don't feel any practical recipes got settled in my brain yet and if I'm ever asked to cook right here, I couldn't think of anything nice to make.
But I've learned from what I've been doing that the motivation to cook is to see someone's smile from my cooking. Seeing "Oh delicious."-face and having compliments are always a strong energy that keeps me in it. What I taste isn't so important. What is important for me is if my cook can please him.
What motivates you to cook? :)

1 pound/ 500g chicken thighs in pieces, with skin (鶏もも・皮付き)
4 cloves garlic, sliced (ニンニク4片薄くスライス)
2 branches of rosemary (ローズマリー2房)
120ml + 80ml apple vinegar (リンゴ酢) *
extra virgin olive oil (エキストラバージンオリーブオイル)
salt and pepper (塩こしょう適量)


* I soaked chickens overnight in the 120ml vinegar to make them more tender. 80ml is for cooking.
120mlのリンゴ酢に一晩鶏ももを漬ける(柔らかくするため)。80mlは調理時用。


Direction.....>>>

Shortcut Cinnamon Rolls #1 ショートカット(簡単) シナモンロール


I couldn't forget the taste of cinnamon rolls that I had in the states some years ago. 
I would love to be able to make it by myself but I'm too lazy to ferment the dough and other to wait till I can finally eat. Then I found a couple of shortcut recipes for cinnamon rolls. 
The first one I tried today, Saturday night alone in the kitchen, John had a flight to Japan, was one without sugar graze. It maybe took me about 1 hour. Real short, easy, and yet delicious and flavorful. 
With these easy cinnamon rolls recipes, why would I make other ones that take hours and hours? 
As delicious as original ones, makes family smile, addictive, that's pretty much good enough for me. 
In the original recipe that I used this time didn't have precise measure/quantity of each ingredients by using all "tablespoons", "teaspoons". So I wrote down exact how much I measured, which might help you see quicker. 
How many grams of 1 Tablespoon and teaspoon by the way? The measure of 1 Tablespoon of sugar and 1 Tablespoon of milk are different, right? I have no idea how they define 1 spoon of powder ingredients and liquid ones. You too? We're friends.

The recipe I used; here

Ingredients: 
150g whole wheat flour (強力粉の全粒粉)
150g all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting (薄力粉)
17g baking powder (ベーキングパウダー)
45g granulated sugar (グラニュー糖)
1 pinch sea salt (塩ひとつまみ)
3g cinnamon (シナモン)
30g cold butter (冷たいバター)
150ml milk (牛乳)
3ml apple vinegar (リンゴ酢) 

Filling:  
30g brown sugar (ブラウンシュガー)
5g cinnamon (シナモン)
20g melted butter (溶かしたバター)

Direction....>>>

Macadamia nuts Banana Ice cream! マカダミアバナナアイス!


For Sunday sweets, I made this roasted banana ice cream. It went up to almost 17 degrees outside and the sun was shining all day long. Since we had ripe bananas in the kitchen ruck, and had this nice weather, I thought having the ice cream at the terrace would be a nice treat before new week starts.
Mixing with chunky macadamia nuts was such a joy.
Do you know Baskin Robbins' "Nuts to you"?  I wonder if the menu is limited only in Japan..
the Nuts to you has 5 kinds of chunky nuts in caramel  based-ice cream: Almond, cashew, macadamia, walnuts, peanuts, and pecan. The ice cream is so crazily yummy and if you love nuts, that's for you.
So I put LOTs of macadamia nuts in my ice cream this time, which was (still is) fabulous.
The recipe I used: here The recipe doesn't have nuts and I arranged ingredients within required amount :) It would also turn nice with some liqueur.

You need:
3 ripe banana (熟したバナナ3本)
75g brown sugar (ブラウンシュガー)
2 Tablespoon caster sugar (砂糖 大さじ2)
200ml cream milk, I used 30% fat (ライト生クリーム)
100ml milk (牛乳)
75g cream cheese, I used Philadelphia (クリームチーズ)
1 large egg (卵 1個)
100g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped (マカダミアナッツ)
1.5 teaspoon lemon juice (レモン汁 小さじ1.5)
half teaspoon vanilla extract (バニラエッセンス 小さじ1/2)

Direction....>>

Enchilada! エンチェラーダ!

My first Enchilada. This was amazing Saturday dinner and became my go-to recipe. It was actually easier to make than I expected (green sauce one would be harder though.), so satisfying, many tastes inside, simply great enough to enjoy. Someday I have kids, they'd love this :)
John never had Enchilada before so this was his first one in his life, and he did like it! Yay I got his "thumbs up" :D

Serve 2~3 
1.25lb/500g Chicken breast (鶏むね 500g)
6 sheets Tortilla (handmade) (トルティーヤ6枚 手作り)
1 bottle of your favorite cheese dip
1 stick green onion, chopped (万能ネギ 1本 小口切り)
1 cup/200g pizza cheese (ピザ用チーズ)
1/2~1 cup/100g-200g tomato sauce (トマトソース 耐熱皿の底に敷く用)
1 cup Salsa sauce (サルサソース)
Sour cream for topping (サワークリーム, トッピング用)

Direction....>>>

No-Fried Fish croquette with Siciliano sauce 魚コロッケ シチリアンソースがけ


To avoid meat oil, but still wanting to be satisfied with what I eat,  I decided to make fish croquette. No fry. And I experimented Siciliano pesto from Barilla to make the sauce, which turned out perfect match with this fish croquette. 
I never tried Siciliano pesto until last week and always bought Genovese for safe-going. One night I found Siciliano at a grocery store and immediately grabbed it and tried it with penne pasta. That really was "Oh la la!" new discovery. The reason I went the sauce was I've got a new friend from Sicily in my German language class. New friends expand food variety,...right? This is fantastic.
It's an amazing combination of Ricotta cheese and walnuts. I'm sure I'll try all series of Barilla pesto haha! Now it's my turn to make her try Japanese products :) Tempura? 
You can check the fish dumpling recipe is my past post. Here you see all the process and details about the filling and tomato sauce to serve with. 

You need:
Fish filling, recipe follow (below) (下の魚の材料)
1 cup Bread crumbs (パン粉 適量)
1 cup All-purpose flour for dusting (薄力粉 適量)
1 Egg, beaten (卵一個 溶く)
300g/1 bottled Mushroom, drained (缶又は瓶詰めのマッシュルーム 300g)
1 clove garlic, minced (ニンニク 1片 刻む)
200ml/1 cup Milk (牛乳)
200ml/1 cup Water (水)
 Parsley for topping (パセリ 適量)
Salt & petter to taste (塩こしょう適量)
For the filling コロッケの具: just mix all in a food processor/blender till smooth. ミキサーに全部かける。
Cod (or similar fish) fillets (骨抜きの白身魚) 500g
All-purpose flour (小麦粉) 60g
Salt (塩) ½ tsp
Nutmeg (ナツメグ ひとつまみ) 1 pinch
Dill (ジル 2つまみ) 2 pinches, chopped
Direction.....>>>

Duchess Potatoes 焼き-マッシュポテト 肉料理の付け合せに♡


Welcome to Germany. I met you and how fast I fell in love was such a magic. Duchess Potatoes. Crispy out & creamy inside. Hot. Steamy. Put a lot of sauce on it and bring it to your mouth. How could I describe the feeling of "Mmm....(sigh, from nose.)"? You love it. You do. 
If I have to regret of my first Duchess Potatoes, I should've made them taller, bigger, thicker, and bolder like you can't tell which is the main part. They were tiny like that. 
But for sure they tasted pretty good, healthier than other recipes out there, actually it doesn't taste it that different, does it?, and more potato which is very important. I don't want extra fat, milk, oil to thicken and boost calories and just need nice amount of oil (here it's butter) to promote/back up the ingredients (here it's potato) itself. So I minimized the ingredients to enjoy simple delicious Duchess Potatoes. 
What do you think? :)


  • 910g (2 pounds) potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (ジャガイモ910g 皮を剥いて一口大に切る)
  • Salt & Black pepper (塩 黒胡椒 適量)
  • 30g (2 tablespoon) unsalted butter, soften (バター30g)
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (ナツメグ2つまみ程度)

Direction..>>

Beautiful Handmade Cream Puff (Crispy) シュークリーム(サクッと固め)



Oh sweet load. This was simply gorgeous sweets that I made for the first time. These beauties are just like flours come out for Spring having a little of snow.. Perfect sweets for holiday of new season.
I love a little hard, crispy puffs more than flabby ones because all cream inside comes out when I bite it and it makes a mess in my hands. Do you like that? You don't. So I made hard one.
It's nicely hard enough to hold plenty of cream, crispy enough to bite and enjoy, and it tastes amazing when the cream spreads out in your mouth. :) ohaah! Maybe I don't need much words to spell them out...it makes me hungry again.
Please also check out How to make Pastry cream which I used for these cream puff. I added some rum in the cream. Tastes & smells even better!

50g All-purpose flour (小麦粉) 
1~1.5 Eggs, beaten (卵 1~1.5個)
30g Unsalted butter, softened (無塩バター室温)
60g Milk (牛乳)
2 pinches Sugar (砂糖 2 つまみ)
1 pinch salt (塩 ひとつまみ)
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Peach-Barbecue Chicken!



BABY. Look at that. I made this for Sunday dinner... Coincidentally, as her recipe says she made this for Sunday dinner. I can't find words to describe this amazing chicken babies. The best chicken I have ever made in my entire life. 
Check out the recipe I used here: The Pioneer Woman
How good this was? Come one, as shown. 

In her recipe, whiskey and Worcestershire Sauce were needed but sadly I didn't have both so I skipped Jack Daniel's part and used teriyaki sauce for substitute for Worcestershire Sauce. AND, instead of 12 small whole Chicken Thighs in the recipe, I used 2 big whole Chicken Thighs to bite wildly. joke, just we had them in the freezer. 
You can check out her original recipe, but I also write down all the steps I did with Japanese translation, which might help my friends in Tokyo ;) 

2 whole Chicken Thighs, Bone-in, Skin-on (鶏もも)
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil (オリーブオイル 大さじ2)
2 Tablespoons Butter (バター 大さじ2)
3 small whole Yellow Onion, Diced (Sサイズ玉ねぎ 3つ 刻む)
340g, fluid Barbecue Sauce (アメリカンなBBQソース)
1 jar Peach Preserves (桃ジャム 小さい瓶丸ごと)
100ml (1/2 cup) Water (水)
2 Tablespoons Teriyaki Sauce (Soy sauce would work well too) (照り焼きソース 大さじ2)
4 cloves Garlic, Diced (ニンニク 4片刻む)
3 whole Green Onions, Sliced Thin (万能ネギ適量)
Direction....>>>

How to make Pastry cream カスタードクリーム


The pastry cream recipe I always use and need to keep here to be able to see whenever I make sweets. 
I believe this pastry cream is very orthodox, simple, delicious, the most grocery store-like, and yet more flavorful of each ingredients. With this cream, you can make a fruits tart, cream puffs (about 14~15 puffs), Bavarian cream, Éclair, and Custard Filled Brioches etc. I'll add more sweets recipes. Stay tuned :)

私が一番使うカスタードクリームのレシピ。このクリームが一番オーソドックスで、シンプルでおいしくて、市販の味に近くて、でも素材の香りがしっかり活きてる気がする。
これでフルーツタルト、シュークリーム(14~15個分程度)、ババロア、エクレア、クリームパンが作れるよ♡ これからもスイーツレシピ増やしていくから、チェックしてね ;)
Makes 630g/3 1/5 cup/22oz (630g作れます)
  • Egg yolk (卵黄) 6 M size
  • Granulated sugar (グラニュー糖) 80g
  • Corn starch (コーンスターチ) 40g
  • Milk (牛乳) 2 cup (400cc)
  • Cream (生クリーム) 1/2 cup (100cc)
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Hot & Flavorful Peperoncino. ペペロンチーノ


Have you ever had Peperoncino? You have. But surprisingly John never had one until today I made it for him. Why was it surprising? He's in Germany in his entire life and millions of Italian restaurants are just right there and of course way more chance to have Italian food than me who was in Japan just until very recently. Plus, he's 8 years older. Are you with me? well, I'll make whatever he never has, then he wouldn't surprise me any more ;)
Anyway, I made Peperoncino. The gorgeous smell of garlic and hot red pepper accelerates your hunger. Peperoncino needs very simple ingredients, thus it's not easy. Simplicity is difficulty, I'd say.  Did I do a good job? Don't ask me. It was good but I made it too hot. I could see he was trying to look "ok" but in his mouth it must've been on fire. Sorry. Grab some milk. You're alright.

Serves 2

  • 1~2 cloves garlic (にんにく 1~2片) Thinly sliced.
  • 1 red pepper (鷹の爪 1本) Remove seeds and cut into 2~3 pieces.
  • 4 slices bacon (ベーコン 4枚程度) Cut thin.
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried basil (ドライバジル 適量) 
  • 2 Tablespoon olive oil (オリーブオイル 大2)
  • 1 cube/teaspoon consommé soup (コンソメ 1個) if you have.
  • 1 ladle pasta-boiling water (パスタの茹で汁 お玉1杯) 
  • 1 pinch salt (塩 ひとつまみ)
  • Ground black petter some (粗引き黒コショウ 適量)
  • 200g spaghetti (スパゲティー) Boil 1 minute less than the package says.
  • [If you want to make it mild] Parmesan cheese on top
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Handmade Wan Tan (Wonton) dough and its soup! 手作りワンタン!

Don't I have it? then make it yourself. "Make what I don't have"-This is getting like my motto these days. Since I moved to Germany, I've noticed there are so many food I can't get which I didn't even care when I was in Japan and this has made me miss the food even more. It's strange that once you know it's hard to get, it makes you want it which you didn't care before.
So this time I made Wan-tan (Wonton) and its soup. Do you know it? Do you like it?
What was surprising is handmade wantan is very CHEWY. You can't compare it to ones grocery store has. And what's the most important is, damn ass CHEAP. sorry. and you can eat as much as you want, though you gotta make a lot of course. and I did it. and ate it.
John likes (rather say loves it?) Wan tan soup which my mom used to make and he requested me to make it. I said "But they don't have wan tan wraps!" and I ended up making it by myself , which was fun! You know, he loved mine ;)....

For ingredients, I used hamburg-steak dough which I made before and froze and defrost it. About 100g per 15 wraps. Ingredients & directions are here:

About 15 wraps (I made it twice more and freeze the half rest of it)

  • 30g All-purpose flour (薄力粉)
  • 20g Bread flour (強力粉)
  • 1 pinch of salt (塩 少々)
  • 3~5 Tablespoon Warm water (お湯 大さじ3~大さじ5)
  • Cornstarch for dusting (打ち粉用にコーンスターチ又は片栗粉。)
Filling:
  • 100g ground meat (beef, pork, whatever) (ひき肉)
  • 10 cm (4 inch) green onion (万能ネギ)
  • 1 teaspoon ginger, minced (生姜)
  • 2 teaspoon soy sauce (醤油小さじ2)
  • Salt & pepper to taste (塩こしょう)
  • 1 teaspoon sesame  oil (ごま油) I used olive oil. I didn't have it. I couldn't make that.
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Notes to self: After a breakup

  Fuck it's hard. It has been about 4 weeks since we broke up. I have been working on healing from it. I had never experienced such a pa...