Sorbetti

Watermelon Sorbet

Trying to rescue the watermelon which…you know…tastes not all that great, from going into the compost bin directly is such a toss up. Since the watermelon needs a bit of sweetness, I added honey and lemon juice then put in the freezer…Wowzer! Watermelon Sorbet!

Over zealoused, I add tomato puree to the watermelon because I thought we need to eat more vegetables…that was not a very smart move…My husband gave me a strong H word which rhymes with ‘ate’. I conceded, it’s a little tomatoey, this and chocolate chips don’t mix. Hey you never know until you try it, right?

Ingredients and Instructions for Watermelon sorbet (Print Recipe Here)
Watermelon and friends portrait – Cheese! I mean veggies!

• Watermelon (seedless preferred) meat (200g to 400g)
• 2 to 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
• Honey to taste
• Handful of mini chocolate chips 

1. Remove seeds from watermelon if not seedless, cut in cubes then put in a blender to puree. Add lemon juice and honey and give another run to mix. Pour in a metal tray and transfer to freezer.
2. Whip with fork after an hour in the freezer while it is not yet frozen solid. Do this a couple more times every hour until it reaches the desired hardness. Add chocolate chips at the last mix.

In case you want to try Watermelon and Tomato Sorbet version

Above ingredients and plus -

• 2-4 tomatoes – stem removed, peeled (cook in boiling water for 1 minute then plunge in ice cold water, skin should come right off), cut in chunks.
• Salt about 1 teaspoon

A.  Sprinkle salt on cut tomatoes. Place on sieve with a bowl underneath to drain juice from tomatoes for 20 to 30 minutes.

B.  Add to the process # 1 above and follow the instructions.

Another watermelon recipe we love -The watermelon and chocolate mint (from my garden) salad recipe I borrowed from Chow and Chatter blog. Very effective and this is worth repeating.

Also Fruits Enzyme Extract added to watermelon smoothies was a hit! 

A group of friends gathered for Paella meal (paella valenciana) –  hosted by a couple recently returned from their missionary service in Barcelona, Spain.
The official paella pan they transported from Spain, isn’t that neat? It was muy delicioso! Muchas Gracias!

The spectacular sunset scene was a nice closing of an enjoyable evening.

Last Saturday - We usually participate in the Annual Neighborhood Garage Sale but we didn't this year. It was more fun to go treasure hunting house to house.
Lucky to find Portland born artist  Mike Smith’s  framed prints for $3 each, a $2 basket and a DVD for a dollar!
It’s time to re-decorate the Grandkids room?

Mash

Baked Sweet Potato

Strolling up the hilly Gerbera Street in Jiyuugaoka (自由が丘) for 10 minutes, a pastry shop Mont St. Clair was in our view. It was a tad smaller than I imagined but that in no way squashed my anticipation of what I was sure would be an amazing array of pastries to see. That was June of 2009. My voracious appetite to discover pastry shops drove me to this store. My husband was a willing partner in this search. 

Hironobu Tsujiguchi (辻口博啓) operates this store and twelve others. He was born in Ishikawa prefecture, the son of the owner of a Japanese pastry shop Beniya (紅屋). He could have followed in his father’s foot steps if not for a strawberry shortcake he had for the first time at his friend’s birthday party. His training  to become a pastry chef started right after graduating from high school. He won numerous and prestigious awards. He appeared on many variety/talk television shows – he beat iron chef Masahiko Kobe in Iron Chef in February of 1999, secret ingredient – Banana! He teaches Super Sweet cooking School on line as well as on-site in Jiyuugaoka. I’m short on space to list all his accomplishments though, I have to mention that in 2004, he opened a Japanese pastry shop ‘Waraku Beniya’ (和楽紅屋) to revive his father’s store which folded in 1985.

Sweet Potato is a familiar sweet to Japanese. I have not yet seen it in the US market. I followed his method almost entirely from his cook book ‘Sweets Done Right’ (ちゃんと作れるスイーツ). The only difference is that I mashed sweet potato all the way then strained it through the mesh to make it ultra creamy. Anyway, that’s how I dealt with the sweet potato that was getting new shoots.

Ingredients and instruction. Make approximately 8-2inch cups.

Equipment: food scale, sieve, 8-2inch diameter (Wilton) party cups or 4, 2-1/2inch cups (available in craft store). Pastry brush

• Sweet potato 400g cook and peel skin. I wrapped in foil and put in the oven for about 1-1/2 hour. You could also steam whole then peel the skin. Roughly mash it while it’s hot.
  
• Butter 80g softened
• Granulated sugar 50g
• Honey 20g
• A pinch of salt
• Egg yolk 30g about 2 eggs. Beat well
• Rum flavoring 1/2 teaspoon or if you are using real rum 6g

1. Put butter and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk well until color gets light and creamy.
   
2. Add honey and continue to whisk
   .
3. Add salt and mix well.
4. Add egg in three parts and continue to whisk.
5. Add rum and mix. Heat oven to 340F at this point.
6. Mash sweet potato with potato masher until it is like paste. Do not over mash if you like some texture. If you prefer smoother texture strain through a sieve.
   
7. Combine mashed sweet potato and butter/egg mixture using a spatula. Do this with a quick and light motion.
8. Fill potato batter into a piping bag with large star tip. Pipe out into each cup - this is optional process - Simply spoon out and use butter knife to make a mount.
   
9. Brush with mixture of 1egg yolk plus 1 tablespoon water for shine.
10. Place filled cups on cookie sheet and bake for 25minutes.Plain looking sweet potato needs some dressing up to do. Here I topped with whipped cream, chopped chestnuts and sprinkled with cinnamon.

 

We participate in beautification of our city park last Saturday. WERK Day is in it’s 13th run. Volunteers were treated to a pancake and omelet breakfast then divided into 5-6 groups for bark dusting, gravel paving in the dog run section or poison ivy and other noxious species removal.Memorial Park is the largest park in our city.

Here is my husband shoveling gravel into the wheel barrow.

City gave each of us the lovely orange t-shirts…and free coupon to Wendy’s.

On the home front, we have our own beautification task to do also. Honey, can I volunteer to take a nap? The golden chain tree in our back yard is in full bloom. The vibrant yellow color lasts only for a week.The enjoyment was shared with bees too.The fig tree looks promising.I’m sure I didn’t plant the strawberry there. Over thriving strawberries delight my husband.

That evening my husband took me to Urban Farmer Steak House in downtown Portland for early Mother’s Day treat. We split the wagyu rib eye steak yet it was still too much! The food was great and  the décor sooo urban chic!

Super moist petit cakes arrived just in time for Mother’s Day from Japan. The gift is from my son and daughter-in-law.

And bouquets from my husband and my daughter.

Striking peony like multi-layered petal roses. Ahhh..nice to be pampered.Thought about my late mother all day… filled with gratitude.

 

Magic Formula

Ginger Honey Lemon

I let out a small scream when I got on the scale the other day. The time has come for me to be on a ‘diet’ plan. Holidays and travel attributed to this awful weight gain. Why aren’t I built like a friend who can eat anything and never gain an ounce? I secretly despise her metabolism. Totally not fair! Totally!

I’m reading a Japanese ‘Dried Ginger’ cook book. Dried ginger is more potent than raw ginger to combat cold, improve metabolism, burn more fat and it is good for skin, wow! That’s what I’ve been waiting for my whole life! I could be lazy, yet still thin and beautiful? The book came with a handy drying net but I think you could dry ginger by other methods.

Day 1 – I cleaned the fresh ginger (新しょうが) and julienned. Then I put it in the drying net, hung it and waited.
As the sun was shining, I hung it outside first. It’s getting very nippy, I brought it inside.Day 2 – While waiting for that to dry, I finished the last of the Tokyo Bananas. You never know when I can have sweets again, right? By the end of the second day, the ginger was shriveled up and ready to make ginger honey lemon. I put the ginger in the food processer to make coarse ginger powder. It was way too noisy, I will just mince with a knife next time.

Ginger honey lemon – makes about 65g

• Lemon 3-4 thinly slice then cut in small pieces
• Dried powdered ginger 10g
• Honey 1/2 cup

Put everything in a small jar or plastic container with lid. Keep in the refrigerator. It is ready for use after 4 hours. I used 1 teaspoon of honey lemon ginger and 3/4 cup of hot water to make ginger tea and put a spoonful on top of plain yogurt, which is great too.

The flavor of dried ginger is more pronounced and bitter than fresh. You should dry bunch because weight of ginger shrink a quite a bit when it’s dry- about 100g of fresh ginger produces approximately 8-9 g. Put the left over dried ginger in freezer for later use, the ginger never gets frozen solid so you could use right away without defrosting.The book came with a few warnings though, consume only 1 teaspoon of dried ginger a day (1-2g), too much ginger may cause heart burn…diar…rhea …..I know there is a catch.

I woke up to a thin blanket of snow…(no, it was a sheet of frost). No school today? Of course not! It’s Saturday!This photo is not well focused yet still interesting I think.Even the spider web got a coating of frost. Brrrr, I need to go inside and have a cup of hot chocolate…I mean ginger honey lemon tea.