In Japan, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving Day the way it is celebrated in North America. I usually don't feel either need or urge to eat turkey this time of the year for that reason, but I just happened to crave it this year :)
So I made no-duck turducken roulade, or should I call it turcken roulade? Brined chicken thighs wrapped in turkey breasts, roasted in the oven. Served with carrots, potatoes and brussels sprouts.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Mrs. S graciously shared a shiso plant with me - actually two; the green one and the purple one. I love, love, LOVE shiso!!
I had some well-ripened tomatoes, so I made this insalata caprese look-alike. Drained medium-firm tofu instead of sliced buffalo mozzarella, shiso leaves instead of basil, and seasoned with soy sauce and rice vinegar for a Japanese touch :)
This zucchini-parmesan loaf I baked on March 28 is still moist and yummy as of April 2.
The recipe can be found here at Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. I added a pinch of cayenne pepper, which I think worked out pretty well.
A 3-1/2-inch pie dish from Yokoyaya made its debut today! Pie crust was prepared the night before using leftover dough from the teeny tiny apple pies. In egg/cream mixture are bacon, peas & carrots, green onions and cheddar cheese.
A perfect bite-sized slice of quiche :)
Winter has come! This is one of the dishes perfect for a cold winter night. Leaves of Napa cabbage and ground beef are layered alternatingly à la mille feuille.
The sauce is seasoned with soy sauce and dashi. I love the "warmth" given by the thickened sauce.
My friend V kindly shared several quinces with me. (Thanks, V!) This is my first time in the kitchen with quinces - part I: savoury. I tried this recipe I stumbled upon online a little while ago.
It was very tasty!! A bed of couscous plays a supporting role really well here.
The dish is supposed to be "pretty darn hot", but I didn't find it so at all. My tolerance for spicy food might have changed a bit lately... wonder why?
"D" as in Deconstructed (breaking down a dish into its essential components, then serving the parts as a whole) and/or Donburi.
Cucumber, imitation crab, avocado, nori, and toasted white sesame seeds on sushi rice.
Roma tomatoes were on sale, which urged me to try this simple yet wonderful recipe. I might have given them more than a few twists of black pepper, but they still taste great. I've been fighting temptation to eat them all at once.
Fresh salmon roe from Steveston, processed and salt-pickled by me. These beautiful gems are safely stored in the fridge...
For the pre-holiday last day at school, I made 16 of these phyllo triangles with Japanese-style pork curry inside... Unfortunately, however, they never made it. They were waiting for me to come home in the freezer. Oh well.
I cooked three-course meal for my friends, UW & MT. Here's a photo of "salmon en croute" avec "ratatouille" :) I didn't make my own puff pastry dough... Shame on me! *LOL*
Here's today's main feature: soufflé orange... sans grand marnier. It was supposed to be "au", not "sans" but we had a surprise guest who can't have any alcohol, so I made a small change to the recipe. The souffles puffed up quite nicely, which made me very happy - and relieved. (Huge thanks to GP for being my guinea pig the other day!)
We made some fancy braided breads at school. Braiding bread dough strands is fun but quite hard and confusing...
Thanks Lydia for taking these photos for me!
This week for me at school was all about puff pastry. I made turnovers, strudels, sausage rolls, etc... and cheese straws.
Lots of grated cheddar cheese between puff layers. Parmesan cheese/paprika mixture made these cheese straws look kinda like Christmas candy canes :)
