Okonomiyaki Sauce

BigOven:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Ketchup
• 1 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoon Sake
• 1 teaspoon Soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons Brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon Mirin
• 1/8 teaspoon Ginger ground, in a jar
• 1 teaspoon Honey

Preparation

Combine all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer for about a minute, stirring constantly.

If it's too tangy, add more honey/sugar.

If it's too sweet, add a splash more soy sauce.

Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Custard Puffs

Huge hit with my colleagues! Or maybe they were just being nice or very hungry.

I think I was a bit impatient and didn't really let the custard thicken, I also injected a lot of custard...maybe too much, if there is such a thing.

I followed Happyhomemaker88 recipe, except I piped out the shells and injected the custard. I'll have to post a picture of the gadget I used, but it was very inexpensive.

My mum also has a similar recipe in one of her cookbooks, under choux pastry. I guess this is what they call it, sounds fancy but its simple to make - if I can, you can!

CREAM PUFFS WITH CUSTARD FILLING

Pastry -

250 ml (1 cup) water
150 gm (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
125 gm (1 cup) all purpose flour
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt (reduce or omit if using salted butter or margarine)

Method -

1) Heat water, salt and butter to a rolling boil; reduce heat. Tip in the flour and stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms into a ball, about 1 minute.

2) Remove from heat. Add in the eggs, one at a time, while beating until dough mixture is smooth.

3) Heat oven to 200 degrees Celcius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

4) Use rounded teaspoonfuls (to tablespoonfuls, depending on the size you like) or a piping bag to make mounds of dough set about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

5) Bake puffs until they are puffed and golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Cool.

6) Slit each puff halfway and put in the custard filling (recipe below).

Custard Filling :-

3 egg yolks

200 gm sugar (slightly less than 1 cup)( - or adjust the amount to your preference )

750 cc or ml milk (3 cups)

20 gm flour (1 1/2 tbsps)

20 gm cornstarch (1 1/2 tbsps) (or flour + cornstarch = 1/6 cup)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1) Beat yolk and sugar until white. Pour in milk bit by bit while mixing until sugar is melted.

2) Put in flour, cornstarch, vanilla and mix until smooth.

3) Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils and is thick.

4) Cool before putting into puffs.

There may seem to be many steps to follow here but really, this recipe is very easy and the yummy taste is well worth the effort! Hope you like the taste!

Bon Appetit!

In all the excitement of making them I forgot to take a picture, next time I will try to picture-document the process.

Healthy Oatmeal cookies

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies (with Honey)

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour (a pinch more depending on the moisture of the mix)
• 1 1/2 cups of Large Flake Rolled Oats (smaller flake is ok too)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp Cinnamon (I actually use about 3 Tbsp--got to love cinnamon)
• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg (optional)

Wet ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup oil (corn, grapeseed or olive) * you can also use some applesauce to replace some of the oil if you wish*
• 1 Tablespoon Molasses
• 1 egg (beat with 1 Tbsp Water)
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Yummy ingredients

• 1/2 cup raisins (1 cup for my Dad's batch)
• 1/2 cup walnuts (more for my Dad's)!!

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.
2. In a medium bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together. Hint: when measuring out the honey, spray the measuring cup with oil or baking spray--your honey won't stick).
3. Mix the wet stuff with the dry stuff. Add the raisins and walnuts and mix. If the mixture seems too wet, add a bit of flour. If it isn't binding together very well, you may wish to add an egg white.
4. COOL the mix for 20 minutes in the fridge.
5. Preheat the oven to 335 degrees (lower temperature due to the honey in the recipe which will burn more easily).
6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto your baking sheet (I recommend lining the baking sheet with parchment paper). Press down with a fork to ensure even cooking.
7. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until golden on the bottom of the cookie. The cookies freeze very well and make a great snack! Enjoy.

Wafu Sesame Salad Dressing

Wafu dressing is a vinaigrette-type salad dressing based on soy sauce.
- Wikipedia

Ingredients:

* 3 tbsps rice wine vinegar
* 1 tbsp sesame oil
* 1 tbsp soy sauce
* 1 tsp sugar
* 1 tsp ground white sesame seeds

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients other than oil in a bowl. Add oil gradually into a bowl and mix well. Makes 2 servings.

Carrot Cake

The original recipe found on yahoo.

*Cake Part:
[A]
3 cups Grated carrots
1 cup Chopped Pecans

[B]
4 eggs
2 cups soft brown sugar

1 1/4 cup grapeseed or vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

[c]
2 cups Wholemeal flour
2 tsp. Baking powder
2 tsp. Baking soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Cake instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease and flour 9" pan

[A]
2. Grate carrots and chop pecans.

[B]
3. Beat the eggs and mix in the sugar. Add oil and vanilla essence, beat for a couple of minutes more.

[C]
3. Combine ingredients in [C] - sieve into mixture.
Add in the grated carrots and pecans.

4. Pour into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes
Or until a chopstick inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes and turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.

*Frosting Part
1/2 cup Butter, softended and unsalted
1 cup Cream Cheese
1/4 cup Icing sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla essence
Lemon zest and a sprinke of nuts (optional)

Frosting instructions:
1. Combine all ingredients for frosting, and mix until it is smooth and creamy.
You can add in some chopped pecans.

Frost the cooled cake, and eat :)

Additional info for the perfect carrot cake:

Carrot cake doesn't use too much butter, mostly oils. Olive oil is too heavy for this cake so use a vegetable oil. Try grapeseed oil, it has a nice nutty flavor.

Some recipes use all-purpose flour, I prefer the wholemeal - also very healthy!

If you like you can substitute the sugar with honey.

Complimentary cake additions: add zest from lemon or orange to make the cake more tangy.

Desiccated coconut - to give it a nice flavour and texture.

Instead of pecans use walnuts, or mix them together.

Some like to add in pineapple to add to the moisture of the cake. You can read from the list of recipes in the yahoo link I provided earlier, that a lady used zuccini and it turned out much better than her original recipe.

Spam Musubi

Photo Credit: ukumillion.com

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