Green tea and fish = delish!

I dabbled a little in the kitchen tonight. Ben wanted something seafood-y. I obliged. It's quick and easy to cook and generally quite tasty. The only downside is the price of seafood in Australia; but that is a completely different story. Anyway, I thought that I might as well share the little recipe tweak I came up with so that other fish-om-nom lovers can enjoy too.

Green tea-infused honey-soy salmon

You will need:

2x 160g salmon (I like skin-on for the crispness)

1/4cup soy sauce

2Tbs sake

3Tbs honey

1tsp sesame oil

1tsp green tea powder

What you need to do:

First off, you are going to want to consider the proximity of your smoke detector to your stove-top. If you think that this may be too close, I hope you have the fire department and police on speed-dial so you can continuously inform them about your "faulty" detector. OR!! You can get some rice-bran oil for cooking because is creates less smoke while cooking at high temperatures... I'd choose the latter. I speak from experience... Our smoke detector enjoys telling my neighbourhood that I am, indeed, cooking with oil.

1. So, add some rice-bran oil into a pan and turn on the heat. Get the oil to cover the base of the pan nicely before you place anything in there. When you tilt the pan to coat the surface, the oil will "run a little like water" - that's when you know its hot enough, that and the ssssSSSSSSSSsssssssssss noise you may start hearing. Add the salmon, skin-side down. Cook on high-medium heat for 1 minute. Turn the heat to medium.

 

2. In the meantime, combine the other ingredients into a small pouring jug. Mix well to combine and keep nearby. Turn the salmon over and cook on medium-low heat. I prefer my salmon to be really pink to near-raw when I cook. If you prefer it well and truly dead, cook for longer than 2 minutes. This will all depend on the thickness of the salmon you have but if you get the 160g cutlets then 2 minutes is plenty.

Green tea powder

Nothing to look at, but it'll taste really good!

3. Take salmon off the pan, onto a plate and cover to keep warm. Pour or wipe (carefully) some of the oil out of the pan then add the green tea mixture. It'll bubble and sizzle for a little, keep stirring it and it should thicken just a little. Add your salmon to the pan and coat it in the sauce. Plate up the salmon and pour the remaining green tea sauce over the salmon and any accompaniments you're having with it (I have some cooked ramen noodles and steamed greens).

It's messy. I don't care. I'm hungry!

Itadakimasu!

Enjoy!

My current craving is WAGASHI

Wagashi: a traditional Japanese confectionery
generally made with natural plant-based ingredients

They are almost too pretty and intricate to eat. I remember having wagashi at a Japanese tea ceremony in Toyoda, Japan (in 2004). A long time has passed since then. It was a really wonderful experience, and I've never been able to rid myself of the craving for red bean wagashi.

Toraya Confectionery has the most amazing-looking range of wagashi, in my opinion! They have been running since before the 1600's. I'd recommend giving them a look. The attention to detail is simply spectacular!

But if you're wanting to make your own at home, have a look at the blog, My Wagashi Chronicles, by dosankodebbie. She is quite brilliant and readily makes the art of wagashi creation available for the rest of us.

Velvety Goodness

Ok, I've been asked by a few people for my Red Velvet Cake recipe. I'm caving in and supplying it :D

You will need:

125g softened butter
330g sugar
3 eggs
300g SR flour
290ml buttermilk
3tsp cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
1tsp apple cider vinegar
1tsp vanilla extract
2tbs red food colouring

1) Grease (or line with cupcake paper cups) a muffin/cupcake tray OR cake tin (20cm diameter). Preheat oven to 170deg. C.
2) Cream the softened butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. It should look light and fluffy. While still beating, add one egg at a time. Beat well. Add the cocoa and red food colouring.
3) Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add half the buttermilk and half the flour mix to the red batter; mix. Add the rest of the buttermilk and flour.
4) Throw in a pinch of salt; fold in the vanilla and combine the apple cider vinegar into the cake batter. Now you can pour in even, but generous, amounts of batter into the cupcake tin or cake tin.
5) Place it in the oven for 30 mins. Cool.

Cream cheese Icing
(just as important as the cake recipe)

500g softened, philli cream cheese
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
50g softened butter
1tsp vanilla

1) Making sure you don't over-mix, combine all "wet" ingredients in a bowl, then add the icing sugar. The mixture will be deliciously thick: trust me, if it's too runny it will RUIN YOUR LIFE!
2) Spoon into a piping bag and squeeze over the cooled cupcakes/cake!

EAT!!

These boots are made for nomming...

I baked vanilla "shoe" cupcakes for Kass' birthday (albeit a week late). I decided to surprise her with them when she got home from work... the squeal was mind-shattering! I got the idea from a random Google search of "shoe cakes"... Kass loves shoes; her collection rivals Imelda Marcos!! (haha... not that bad, otherwise we'd need another house just for her shoes :|).

This image sent me to a wonderful blog, Hoosier Homemade, which after subscribing to the vast range of helpful and inspiring newsletters, I received the information I required to make my own edible mini shoe replicas!

Here's my version:

Cake! Anyone?

There are cakes...


... and then there are CAKES!

Fossil digging... did I hear a chorus of "YAY!"

Armadillo cake of awesome!

There just aren't enough miniture scale models of LotR cakes around anymore

Mmmm calamari cake

This tiger is too pretty to eat

And of course, the gore of the Halloween cake... yum!

... but then there is ... well... this:

Ever wanted to eat a child? Now you can, in cake form.