Showing posts with label breakfast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breakfast. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Waffled

Peanut Butter French Toast Waffle

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The sounds of the rustling of the newspaper, noise of blender swiveling, butter melting on toast…contentment…Saturdays mornings are my favorite time of day definitely …short but sweet. Many things are planned usually…after breakfast…the grass is getting longer, my husband noticed…perhaps I murmured it too loudly?

On weekdays, rushed breakfast of kefir or vegetable smoothies but on Saturdays my husband is all about carbohydrates. This hearty peanut butter French toast waffle is French, Belgium, international whatever.  Having one of those fills you up until 3 in the afternoon.   Read interesting facts about ‘waffles’ here.

Ingredients and Instructions for 4 waffles (Print Recipe here)

Necessary equipment – Waffle iron, blender or food processor

  • 8 slices of whole-wheat or white bread, crust removed.
  • 8oz of frozen mixed berries, thawed.
  • 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons seedless raspberry preserves
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Pinch of salt
  • 4 Tablespoons of smooth peanut butter
  • Nonstick spray
  1. The night before - Put bread on a baking rack, let stale overnight.DSC_4902
  2. Make berry sauce- Combine the fruit and sugar in a medium sauce pan, bring to boil, stir occasionally, until berries soften about 10 minutes.DSC_4907
  3. Transfer berry mixture to a blender or food processer. Add the raspberry preserves and lemon juice blend until smooth. Note: if you have a hand held mixer, blend directly in the pan – careful for the splat!
  4. Crack eggs into a medium baking dish and whisk lightly. Add milk. sugar, vanilla and salt. Mix well.
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  5. Spread 1 Tablespoon of peanut butter on 4 slices of bread. Top with remaining slices to make 4 sandwiches, flatten slightly. Soak in egg mixture (process #4), 4-5 minutes per side.DSC_4915DSC_4919
  6. Heat waffle maker according to the manufacture’s directions. Spray top and bottom grates with nonstick spray.
  7. Remove sandwiches from the egg mixture and hold it over the baking pan for about 10 seconds so that excess liquid drips back into the  pan.
  8. Place sandwich on the grates. Press down and close completely. Cook until golden brown about 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Serve immediately with Berry sauce
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More fabulous eats…

We have been trying to have a dinner at Nodoguro (means ‘ black throat’ in Japanese), for some time but our schedule prohibited it until now. A pop-up restaurant only open Fridays and Saturdays in borrowed space. IMG_1959My husband with young chef Ryan and local celebrity – Mr.Yoshida, the creator of Yoshida’s Marinade and Cooking sauce was one of the guests.

Ryan studied under some well regarded chefs also apprenticed work in Fukuoka, Japan. He speaks fluent Japanese.The restaurant offers 9 plus courses of creative Japanese cuisine. The dishes are prepared with high quality local produce, and the well developed flavor wowed us throughout the affair – we spooned out chilled charred white turnip, tofu mousse with salmon roe topped with matsutake mushroom shaving…the exciting start.IMG_1943 
Thinly sliced tender flounder. The yuzu paste enhanced the flavor. IMG_1946I adored –scallop, sea urchin and the beans, specks of red water pepper is visually effective and had nice kick.IMG_1947Matsutake clear soup…I feel so lucky!IMG_1950

Other dishes were equally fantastic but I don’t have good photos…the place had low light.

A friend shared her homemade miso paste.DSC_4967
Naturally, I made miso soup with Satsuma sweet potato and radish sprouts…the best miso paste ever!DSC_4969

My husband came through with my request – to make fruit tart for my birthday from scratch. See my other fruits tart recipe hereDSC_4952DSC_4962IMG_1965

In Karuizawa, we had a over $10 per slice fruits tart. I expected my husband to make one just like it and he did an amazing job! I think I must post the recipe in near future…Honey, can you make it again? And next time, don’t forget to take the process pictures…ok?IMG_1880
Nagano purple (tart) – name of large variety seedless grapes have thin skin.

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Having good food like that is a
huge part of our trip…At the end of our holiday, I started get melancholy…how we were fortunate to have that experience but it’s time to say good bye…I think I’m going to cry…(Totoro shop in Old Karuizawa)

 

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

HOT(cake)

Yogurt Pancake with ginger syrup

_DSC0787Is it a craze or what? There is wave of pancake lovers in Japan, mostly in the trendy Harajuku area. Can you believe it? In the midst of a mainstreaming ‘gluten free’ movement in the US, Japanese are discovering ‘gluteus’ pancake? People lined up to get in pancake restaurants like Egg’n Things, Café Kailla (both are from Hawaii), Bills (Sidney, Australia) or Sarabeth’s (New York) for hours. Average waiting time is 1 hour and on the weekend?- Brace yourself for 3 to 4 hours! For inflated price of $15 or $20? If you call pancake ‘hotcake’ you know that you’re out of vogue, right?

I like pancakes, yes but…are we in the Magic Kingdom?… is this the line for ‘Star Wars Adventure?’ I sure hate slow eaters.

The pancake I’m introducing is Harumi Kurihara’s yogurt pancake. Light and fluffy, this is a cinch to make, pan- cakewalk recipe and I adore the 5 inch egg pan I used for these hotcakes… oops! It’s hard to stay on the bandwagon.

Ingredients and instructions for ginger syrup

  • Ginger roots about 200g clean and thinly sliced_DSC0406
  • Sugar Sanonto (三温糖) is preferred –500g
  • Water 2 cups
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  1. Bring sugar and water to boil.
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  2. Drop in sliced ginger and cook for 30 minutes to 1 hour at low heat._DSC0423
  3. Add cinnamon sticks and simmer for 30 minutes or longer._DSC0425
  4. Cool completely and strain thru fine mesh._DSC0427 
  5. Pour into a clean glass bottle. Keep in the refrigerator. Also nice; Dilute with water or club soda to make a drink.
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Ingredients and instructions for 10 5-inch diameter pancakes

  • Plain yogurt 1 cup. Place paper towel on sieve to extract liquid from yogurt for 1 hour.
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  • 4 large eggs separate white and yolk
  • Sugar 60 g
  • Milk 1/2 cup
  • Weak power flour or cake flour 200 g. Sift with baking powder below.
  • Baking Powder 2 teaspoons
  • Salad oil or butter
  1. Put egg yolk and 1/3rd of sugar (20 g) in a large bowl and whisk for 2 to 3 minutes.
  2. Add prepared yogurt and milk and mix well. Set aside._DSC0436
  3. Beat egg white till stiff peak (but not dry) with rest of sugar (40g) Set aside.
  4. Add sifted flour and baking powder to the egg yolk mixture (step #2) and combine with whisk.
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  5. Change the whisk to a rubber spatula, Add egg white into egg flour mixture and fold it in. Do not over mix.
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  6. Heat oil or melt butter in non-stick skillet at medium-low heat. Scoop 1 ladle full of batter onto the skillet and cook until golden brown or the holes in the pancake stabilize then flip to cook the other side.About 2 minutes each.
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  7. Serve with ginger syrup or maple syrup._DSC0791

So nice to see my brother-in-law and his family visiting from Utah last week. _DSC0764_DSC0770_DSC0772We tried to do as many fun things as possible including fix his car. Took them nearly 20 hours to drive up here so a little tender care was needed._DSC0729In Down Town Portland…We all wanted to have VooDoo doughnuts but….DSCN2374We don’t want to wait for 2 hours. I don’t get how in the world people can wait 4 hours for pancakes either.DSCN2375I feel like I’m already weird…probably I am.DSCN2373I had this for lunch at a food cart just because it was featured in bon appetite! It was huge. I should have ordered just half a sandwich.DSCN2368

We persuaded him to try to knock down the blocks at city’s 13th annual ‘Fun In the Park’. Almost! Missed! Not even close!DSCN2388Hey, look! Someone selling U of O caps and other crochet arts. Doesn’t that dish cloth look like one I made before?
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This is cute! Matsuri (festival) staple water balloon YO-YO for 1 dollar!DSCN2387

The snake handler – the double wide snake looks so heavy. Kids are totally fascinated with reptile and sit in the from row. I just zoomed in.
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Hello there! Here’s looking at you baby! DSCN2377

The Country Singer was an American Idol contestant. Sounds good!DSCN2398

I couldn't participate in the cul-de sac garage sale because of company but last garage sale, she and her daughter put up signs around block and put a notice in Craigslist and all that to help me out. Very nice people indeed._DSC0732Isn’t this unique? I thought so; a lawn ornament of some sort. Originally $200_DSC0735These sellers (my next door neighbor) – forget about pricing each item, everything is $1. Smart! _DSC0736Their beautiful flower scape._DSC0738K-9 customer was just a looker, didn’t buy nothin._DSC0747Checking in neighbor’s yard for cut flowers.._DSC0745Glorious dahlias! _DSC0743_DSC0741It was fun to arrange in my new vase._DSC0754Sierra Rich(?) peaches and black berries I bought at the Lake Oswego Saturday Market were really nice! I made fruit tart for a dinner invite last Sunday.DSCN2413Strawberry chocolate mochi were a souvenir from Japan. My neighbor just got back from the trip and I’m totally yaki-mochi (jealous). _DSC0705Almond in an antique mason jar is gift from my brother-in-law._DSC0726Thanks bro, sis, goofy nephews and niece!DSCN2423