Amanatto Green Tea Muffins

Amanatto is a Japanese traditional sweet made of beans such as azuki and snow peas.  The name may remind you of the stinky fermented soy beans, natto, but they are completely unrelated.  The beans are cooked in syrup, dried and then coated with sugar.  To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of these sweet beans.  When I was a kid, my grandparents often kept them in their snack can and offered them to me behind my mother's back, but I always refused.  I would have gladly accepted if they were chocolate or cookies.

My father, however, loves amanatto.  He brought one bag with him on his last visit and left it untouched.  Though I still don't like them much, I didn't want to waste them since they had made such a long journey.  So I used a tactic parents often use to make kids eat more vegetables: incorporate them into something more attractive.  So I put them in muffins.  The green tea muffin base was a perfect match for the sweet beans.  As both my husband and I enjoyed the muffins, one batch wasn't enough, and after the second round, the bag was empty.  More than 20 years later, I found a way to enjoy this Japanese confections.

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Support Japanese Home Cooks! - Daikon Salad

One month has past since the devastating magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.  Right after I saw the news on March 11th, I called my family in Tokyo.  The phone line was down, and that made me nervous and very worried.  When the phone finally rang a few hours later, my aunt picked it up and said, "I thought I was going to die."  Even in Tokyo which is far from the epicenter, the magnitude was close to 6.  More than ten thousand people died, mostly from the monstrous tsunami in northern Japan. Fifteen thousand people are still missing, and more than one hundred fifty thousands are displaced and living in shelters.

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Hiyamugi with Sesame Dipping Sauce

As a Japanese person living in U.S., I tend to be the Japanese food expert among my non-Japanese friends. Rice and miso soup was part of my life, and my knowledge about Japanese food should be much deeper than someone who grew up with burgers and pizzas. However, this turned out not to be true in the blog world. La Fuji Mama, one of my favorite blogs, has a brilliant collection of authentic Japanese recipes. It's easy to tell through her blog that she is an amazing cook and has native-level knowledge of Japanese food. On her recent post, she selected cold Japanese noodles as a topic. There were mouth watering pictures of hiyashi chuka, somen, and soba, and I've been craving for them.

Hiyamugi is probably less known compared to soba or udon. You can think of it as very thin udon or slightly wider somen. That's basically all it is. I just had house-made hiyamugi at Kajitsu, a very nice Japanese restaurant in New York City, and it came with a fabulous sesame dipping sauce. At the restaurant, the sauce making starts with preparing konbu dsahi, seaweed stock. In my version, I took a shortcut and used store bought dashi soy sauce, Japanese soup base. It may not be as delicate as Kajitsu's, but it's quick, easy and creamy yet refreshing. You won't miss a thing!

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Miso Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Miso is one of the most important ingredients in Japanese households along with soy sauce. We do not eat sushi everyday as some non-Japanese people think, but many have miso soup daily.  The custom has been changing as Japan has become more and more westernized.  I used to have miso soup once a day when I lived with my grandparents.  Miso soup was part of every dinner.  My grandparents had to have it also for breakfast, as if they couldn't start the day without it.  Infinitely more westernized than my grandparents, I don't like miso that early in the day.  Instead, I prefer a cup of coffee and a slice of toast.  Having said that, miso soup is still essential for all Japanese.

Miso is not only for miso soup.  It can be used for many other dishes, and one of my favorite ways to use this traditional ingredient is for marinating.  A miso marinade adds depth to the meat.  Generally, sirloin is a good choice for this dish, but for health purposes, I used tenderloin. My husband and I were very satisfied with the results.  We ate the leftovers, cold, the next day, and it was still flavorful. If you are healthy enough to be careless about fat intake, go ahead and use fattier cuts. You know it's going to taste better!  If you are not a pork eater, try this marinade with salmon.  It's good, too!

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Shiraae with Asparagus

Shiraae is a traditional Japanese side dish.  Shiro(a) means white, and ae means mix.  The white part suggests the tofu pesto, and basically everything mixed with this pesto is called shieaae.  This dish is generally served in a small portion, using the vegetables you have at hand, such as spinach, carrots, and string beans.  Some siraae has fruits and seaweeds in it.  There is no rule for what should be mixed with the pesto, but watery vegetables, such as cucumbers and tomatoes, are not the best choices.  The tofu pesto tends to be slightly sweet, and it may be weird for you at first.  If you can appreciate this dish, you are one step closer to being a Japanese food aficionado!

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Tofu with Vegetable Ankake

Many people have told me they don't like tofu because it's tasteless.  Well, I don't blame them.  Good tofu is actually flavorful, packed with the sweetness of soy beans, and hard to find in the U.S.  The packed tofu sold at regular grocery stores is bland.  But this is not always a bad thing.  Soft flavored ingredients can be easily paired with all kinds of foods.  Having said that, some flavors are particularly suited for tofu dishes, and soy sauce flavor is one of them.  Soy sauce is also made of soy beans, so they are related.  No wonder they go well together.

Ankake is a traditional Japanese sauce thickened with potato starch, and soy sauce is often one of the ingredients.  The sauce can be salty, sweet, and/or sour.  It can be plain or it can be prepared with meat, seafood, and/ or vegetables.  This sauce is very versatile.  My vegetable ankake is slightly sweet and made with lots of vegetables, and the potato starch is substituted with corn starch.  Serve as an appetizer or as a light entree.

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