Cherry Blossom Macarons

Hi there all, it's spring time in Australia and I can't helped but be inspired to make some Cherry Blossom Macarons. I have been wanting to make these for quite some time, ever since I got hold of a cherry blossom flavouring last year. Now with the cherry blossoms in bloom, it's the perfect time to do this blogpost.

Now this recipe is a basic French Macaron recipe which I had learned from a Macaron making class. You can adapt this recipe to any flavours and colouring to suit you by flavouring the ganache and as for the shells, you can use any colouring. Do try to use gel or powdered colours as liquid colouring will change the texture of your shell.

One of the secret to a successful macaron making is, that you have to aged the egg whites. This means that you store your eggs whites up to a week in the fridge to liquify it, the breaking down of the albumen does makes a difference, to a pass or fail. :)

Ingredients:

120g liquified egg whites
125g Almond meal
210g pure icing sugar (NOT Icing Mix)
90g caster sugar

1. Pulse gently in a blender, mix icing sugar and almond meal till smooth, do not let it get hot.
2. Then sift. Set aside
3. Beat egg whites to a soft peak then add caster sugar till dissolved
4. Fold thru almond meal mix with meringue
5. Now pipe to a round shape button and tap tray to ensure no air bubbles trap inside.
6. Let it sit for 40 minutes to form skin. 
7. Bake at 130 degrees for about 15 minutes, check your oven, don't bake them too hot, adjust accordingly.

For the purpose of this post, my fillings will be a cherry flavoured ganache

Fillings:

1. Place the white chocolate in a medium bowl. 
2. Bring the cream to a boil over medium-high heat in a small saucepan and pour it over the chocolate. 
3. Allow the mixture to rest for about two minutes, then stir until the mixture is smooth and the white chocolate is completely melted. 
4. Allow to cool for about five minutes, then add a few drops of cherry blossom essence. Cover the bowl with foil and refrigerate it until the mixture thickens.

Taiyaki, fish shaped snacks

I love these Taiyaki snacks, often, you can see these selling like hot cakes in Japan or Korea. There are lots of fillings you can add in  yourTaiyaki, my favourite would be the red bean paste from the azuki beans. You can make the paste yourself or buy a can from your Asian Grocer. Here are some options for taiyaki if you do decide to make some one day.

• Nutella
• Black sesame paste
• Red bean paste
• Peanut butter and jelly ( for the western taste)
• Custard, normal or pandan
• Durian paste
• Sweet potato paste
• Yams

The choices are endless, it's really up to your own individual taste and imagination. Recipe adapted from http://www.justonecookbook.com/taiyaki/

Ingredients:

150 g (about 1¼ cup) cake flour (minus 2Tbsp flour and add 2 Tbsp cornflour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 egg, beaten
200 ml (about ¾ cup) milk
3 Tbsp. granulated sugar
100 g azuki red bean paste, I bought a can from asian grocer
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Method:

1. Combine the flour and baking soda and mix together with a whisk. Add sugar and mix again. 
2. Form the azuki red bean paste into long thin shapes about the size of your taiyaki mould
3. Beat eggs, add the milk, mix well, then add into the dry ingredients a little at a time and mix gently putting the batter through the gaps of the whisk. Mix the batter gently.
4. Wrap the mixture in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest for 1 hour
5. Grease the taiyaki pan lightly with oil and warm it up. Fill the pan halfway up with batter.
6. Add the sweet red bean paste on top
7. Pour more batter over the top to cover the beans. Close the lid of the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes until golden. They're ready to eat whilst they're still hot.

Matcha Aisu (green tea icecream)

Happy New Year all, celebrating the new year with a home made ice cream recipe. If you like green tea, you'll want to bookmark this simple recipe.

For those of who do not know what a Matcha is, it's powdered green tea leaves that has been dried and processed to powder form. It is more concentrated than Sencha. Sencha is just green tea in its normal form, you add it to hot water and drink it like hot tea.

With Matcha, you can drink it, cook it, bake it, it's very user friendly and there are so many recipes on the Internet that you can try and have fun with if you have some Matcha.

After just returning from Japan, more than anything, I am craving Matcha ice cream. It's terrible having to leave that place. I am already planning my next trip but it won't be for some time yet so for today, I am hoping to replicate that wonderful Japanese ice cream.

Recipe below is for 2-4 people or in my case, one :) Alright, I'll share, if I really have to..

Ingredients
• 2 Tbsp Matcha Green Tea Powder
• 2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
• 3 Egg Yolks
• 3/4 cup Milk
• 3/4 cup Double Cream

Method

1. A = Mix 2 Tbsp of sugar with the Matcha powder 
2. B = Mix remainder sugar with yolks
3. Heat milk (do not let boil) 
4. Remove from heat, add A+B to warm milk, mix well till smooth paste.
5. Return to heat, ( do not let boil) mix well to keep smooth
6. Remove from heat, strain mix and leave to cool in fridge
7. Start whipping cream for folding to Matcha mix.
8. Fold whipped cream to Matcha mix when the mix is cold enough.
9. Put in your chilled ice cream bowl container and leave in freezer. No need to churn with ice cream maker. 

Here are some photos from some of the steps.

There you have it, you chill it in the freezer for few hours and voila! Your very own Matcha ice cream ;) I'm going to serve mine in a Japanese bowl with some azuki (red beans). Oishi!  

Autumn Bliss in Japan Part 7 - Tokyo Tower and Meiji Shrine

Hi all, I just want to wrap up the year with my final photo blog post instalment of my Tokyo trip. Ever since I watched the Japanese drama series Tokyo Tower, I had always wanted to visit it.

It didn't matter that we only got to the Main Observatory as the Special Observatory was closed for maintenance. From Shinjuku, we went on the Tokyo Metro again, this time on the Oedo Line to Akabanebashi. Once there, it was just a five minute walk up the hill from the exit of the subway. It looked pretty awesome from the intersection.

How cute are these little Tokyo Tower lights? They are adorable. I wanted one but it wouldn't have fitted in my suitcase!

Once inside on the main floor, we could see that many people had bought those little wooden card to write down their wishes, hopes and dreams to hang it up. I didn't get one because my dream was already coming true with this trip to Japan. I spend my money on souvenirs instead. My Tokyo Tower soft toy is ever so cute!

You can see Tokyo in 360 degrees, in all directions when you walk around the Main Observatory. In one of my photos, you can see Rainbow Bridge. I imagined a night time view would be pretty spectacular!

Next stop, Meiji Shrine. On our last day we went Harajuku. From the station, we walked to the shrine and then back to Takeshita street for lunch. Just as well we stop there, I found Daiso and went a little berko with buying Japanese stuff. I bought some cutesy Japanese fabric pouches to put my camera lenses in it. Clever, no?

We were lucky enough to see so many Japanese families in traditional outfits visiting the shrine. I love their kimono fabrics. I haven't found any fabric shop yet which was disappointing.

Just after the entrance, a little walk along, we saw the famous sake barrel display. These were donated to the shrine from companies and large corporations. I guessed even big companies need a prayer or two, right?

Along the path, I read and took photos of the storyboard of Empress Shoken. It was quite interesting to read through the boards and I learned that she was truly a Queen of Hearts, loved by her people.

It truly is tranquil here. Emperor Meiji was not wrong. You would not believed that this part of land was still in Tokyo

And how happy was I, standing by those Sake barrels? My Tokyo trip came to an end and so I have to bid Japan, "Sayonara", but I shall return, again and again. After all, I had barely scratched the surface, the wonder of Japan.

Autumn Bliss in Japan Part 6 - Itadakimasu ;)

When I was in Japan, I said "Itadakimasu" lots of times, before my meals. It's like saying grace before you eat, that you humbly received the food with an exclamation of "Let's Eat!!"

I was truly grateful of my being able to visit this wonderful country and to eat the yummiest Japanese food on Earth! In true Japanese settings, you can't get this experience from a Japanese restaurant anywhere else. I ate from street stall, from Gourmet speciality shops and sushi bar and food courts.

Even though I had said it out aloud, in my mind, of course, it would be seconded by a nom nom nom noise! That is how much I appreciated the food there. I hummed after the noms.... it's quite hilarious! Darren would look at me with his horrified look, "Oh God, why is my mum so embarrassing?"



This is the shop at Nakamise Street before the Sensoji Temple. I bought a couple of bags of rice crackers "senbei" here. Definitely much nicer than your average Sakata crackers.

Japan is also vending machine heaven. Every where you go, there is sure to be a vending machine nearby.

Yum!!! Who wants steam buns? There's also freshly made tofu and matcha icecream. Don't even get me started on the Matcha. I was on a permanent Matcha diet. I drank Matcha Frappe, matcha tea, matcha latte, matcha icecream, pancakes with Matcha. I had squid balls with matcha powder flavouring in Arashiyama.

Pretty impressive Ramen for 800 yen, right? I wished I could buy a bowl from the display as a souvenir. Hahahaha. Better catch up to the boy, he has abandoned me as I am being "touristy" again.

These squid paste balls were delicious. OMG! I want some of these for dinner now. I shouldn't have posted this before dinner ;)

I met my Twitter friend Hyuna in Tokyo and we went to a sushi bar in Shinjuku for dinner. It was the best meal ever. I fell in love with Unagi sushi that night. The photo above is two types of green tea, the lighter one is with ground rice, the greener one is just plain matcha. However, there is nothing plain about it. I love matcha tea. I can't get enough of it!

And this is why, someone in Japan, needs to adopt me so I can live there! I am missing out on the best sushi in the world!

And then there was the snacks and the beers, so many different flavour beers and teas, not together of course. And French pastries, Japanese desserts and matcha icecreams... Oh Lordy! It was with a heavy heart and bottom that I had to come home.

Some of my followers on Instagram would have been drooling daily from my uploads. I am sharing a few food photos here. If you like to follow me, I am at:

YummyStuffGoesHere | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Instagram |

Autumn Bliss in Japan Part 5, Golden Pavilion, Kyoto

On our last day in Kyoto, I was panic stricken as I hadn't completed my bucket list for sites in Kyoto. I ended up deciding to go to Golden Pavilion before we head back to Tokyo on the Shinkansen at midday. I was devastated that I couldn't fit in the Inari Shrine at Fushimi. Oh well, I must returned to Kyoto one day. It is truly a must place, to visit.

I think I was even envious of the ducks in the pond. Imagine living here and having that view every day till the end of your life. That would be perfect! I was so sad to leave Kyoto, so many places to go and so little time.

The gardens are beautiful and magical, I wouldn't mind getting lost in here one bit. The autumn colours are so bright and vivid. I just had to pause and reflect on the life and beauty and wonder of Japan. It was just such a contrast, from the rushing madness of Tokyo's city life to the stillness of Kyoto where time just stood still. I have to come back here again.

More info on the Golden Pavilion here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkaku-ji and also on the JNTO website

Here is a Map to Kinkakuji