Rectangle Cheesecake

I was invited to a birthday party, so asked the birthday person what she would like for her birthday cake since I've decided to bake one as her birthday gift.

Right away, my friend said "cheesecake"!!! She wanted a simple, no flavor added baked cheesecake. In order to add a giftlike looking to the cake, I made some gum paste flowers and leaves in addition to the usual chocolate plate.

Also, instead of making a usual round cake, I used the rectangle tart mold so it will be easier to serve the guests at the party.

Here is how it looks in whole.

The image of my friend's color is spring green, so I made the cake board with the pretty colored papers, and the flowers were made with the matching colors.

Instead of baking the cake over the common graham cracker base, I used some tart dough. This actually tasted pretty good, and my friend and the other guests really enjoyed it. When I served the cake, I plated it with some raspberry cream and people liked it as well.

However, I found out that the gumpaste flower does melt a little from the moisture of the cake, so I should try other methods in the future.

It always makes me happy to see other people smile when they put my pastries into their mouth and taste them. This turned out to be my happy day, too! Happy Birthday Friend!!!

Stories of Persimmons

A bag full of freshly picked persimmons arrived from my friend's co-worker's percimmon tree.
For some reason, I had an image that percimmon is a Japanese fruit, but it actually originates in China. Nowadays, persimmons are very popular in Korea as well, so you can find large, tasty percimmons at most Asian supermarkets.

There are two kinds of percimmons, sweet ones and bitter ones. It has something to do with the tannin, but not sure about the detail. The bitter ones are too bitter to eat as is, but my grandmother used to air them outside under the roof, and after a while, the percimmons dry out covered with white powders, and that is the sign that the bitter percimmons have turned into sweet dried fruits.

Of course, the ones I received this time were the sweet ones with less seeds, so all I had to do was to peel and eat!

There used to be a small park with percimmon tree next to my parents' house in Japan, and every fall, my brother and I used to pick them. The funny thing was, every year, the percimmons took turns in taste, sweet and bitter. For example, if they were sweet this year, they would be bitter next year. I'm not sure if that's an usual thing for percimmon trees to do, but we were surely disappointed in bitter years.

The sad thing is, the park is now gone, and a large apartment building is standing after where the percimmon tree was. Memory...

Here is the picture of percimmon tart I made earlier this year. Fresh ripened percimmon flesh over creme parissier filled tart shell. Maybe I should make one before Aibo-kun and I finish eating up all the percimmons!

Chestnut Rice ~ Kuri Gohan ~

As I planned the other day, I got more chestnuts, and instead of making more "shibukawani", I've decided to cook chestnut rice this time.

After returning home, I boiled the chestnuts for a few minuts, and let it soke until the water was cool enough to put your fingers in. This process will let the outer skin soften and makes it easier to peel.

When I just started peeling them, Aibo-kun got home earlier than expected with hungry stomach, but I really felt like eating the chestnut rice, and in order to prep dinner, had to finish peeling them.

Finally the peeling was done, and time to cook the rice! Washed the rice, added sake, soy sauce, and salt to add flavor, and cooked the same way as I usually cook my rice, in my favorite "Le Creuset" pot.

While waiting for the rice to cook, I prepped other side dishes like vegetables and soup.

Good quality "Tarako" (salted cod roe) was in my fridge, so I added some to our dish as well.

Then finally!!! Our dinner time has arrived.

Introducing a traditional Japanese dish, "Kuri Gohan" (chestnut rice).

Chestnuts kind of taste like Japanese yellow sweet potato (not yam), but has its own crunchiness remaining in this dish. It turned out so well, and Aibo-kun was so pleased, I should make it again before the chestnuts disappear from the store.

Debut in Korean Town

LA is a very international city, and for a foodie like me, it is very exciting because there are more variety of cuisines to choose from. I've tried Little Saigon, Little India, Little Taiwan (not sure if people really call it so) since moved to LA, but wanted to try out more.

This time, Aibo-kun and I got to explore Korean Town for the first time. Thanks to one of our friends whose parents are Japanese and Korean, we had a great first experience! It was amazing to see him order in Korean language. He speaks English, Japanese, and Korean perfectly, and both Aibo-kun and I were so impressed.

He took us to this restaurant that serves Pork Korean BBQ. According to him, pork is wallet friendly, tasty, and high in nutrient, so it is a very popular meal amoung young people.

Vegetables, Kimchi, Squid, and Korean pancakes were placed on top of the special table cookware, and slices of pork bellies were grilled in the center.

Besides what's on top of the cookware, cold soup, scallion salad, lettuce, and rice cake sheets were served. When the pork is ready to eat, you can wrap them in either rice cake sheet or lettuce, or even both!

I really enjoyed the taste of the rice cake sheet. Our friend told us that eating with the rice cake sheet was started in the US, then it becamse so popular that someone introduced it in mainland Korea, so now it's a common way to eat in Korea, too. It sounds just like California Roll which was invented in the US and now you can see them in some restaurants in Japan.
At the end, we ordered a single serve of rice, and it was fried with the leftover vegetables and meat with hot Korean miso sauce. That was very tasty, and great way to finish up the meal.

It is a very clean, nice restaurant and we would definately go back with more friends again.

Our debut in Korean Town was a success and can't wait to explore more.

Honey Pig
3400 W 8th St.
LA, CA 90005
Phone: (213)380-0256
Valet Parking next to the restaurant

Pumpkin Tart & Tofu Brownie

Here is another fall item. Pumpkins!!!

I saw sugar pumpkins lining at the farmer's market. They were really cute.

It was before Halloween, and I thought I should make something with these pumpkins.

So in a pastry class, I taught Pumpkin Tart and Tofu Brawnie. Usually punpkins are made into pies, but for this particular filling, I prefered using tart shells rather than pie dough.

Using a few kinds of spice such as cinammon, clove, and freshly ground nutmeg, the tart turned out very aromatic. To add some extra flavor, home made orange marmalade I made earlier this year was added and it matched very well with the other ingredients.

With the left over tart dough, we made them into different fallish shapes using cookie cutters so we could decorade our tasting dishes.

With Tofu Brownie, instead of using cane sugar, I used natural liquid sweetner such as maple syrup and agave nector. There is no butter used in the recipe, so it is healthy and less guiltiness!

This tart is not only for Halloween, but can be served at a Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner as well. Very tasty, fallish sweet for the holiday season. Yummm...

Panna Cotta with Apple and Pomegranite

Aibo-kun (my husband) brought back a nice colored pomegranite from work which one of his co-workers gave him.

I remember when I was a child back in Japan, our neighbor had a pomegranite tree and when fall arrived, they gave some to us. Even though it is not an easy fruit to eat, or really tasty one for a child, I was still excited with the bright red color they have, and the seeds looked like red jewerly to me in those days!

There are different ways to deseed pomegranite, but I think the cleanest way is to break or cut one in quarters, soak them in a bowl filled with water for a little while. Then get the seeds out, and they should come out easily.

You can juice them and make some syrup or jelly, but this time, since I only have one, decided to simply enjoy it as is. Fresh!

I loved the flavor, the aroma, the tartness, and the look.

The next day, I made some vanilla panna cotta topped with caramelized apple. Then I noticed the dessert was missing something... Color!

I opened my fridge, and there they are, the left over pomegranite seeds from the previous day. Perfect natural decorative color.

So, here it is, the vanilla panna cotta with caramelized apple topping with a finishing touch of pomegranite seeds. Yummmm♪

Shibukawa-ni ~ Cooked Chestnut Sweet ~

It's already November, but since the leaves are not colorful nor temperature is dropping enough to wear winter coats in LA, I don't feel like winter is coming up.

However, foodwise, the fruits and vegetables we see at the farmer's market are different from the kinds in summer, so I've decided to make something fallish today.

I bought large good quality chestnuts, peeled the hard shell, boiled them with baking soda for a couples of times, then boiled the batch the third time, and finally cooked them in a syrup made with two kinds of sugar, and rum to add extra flavor.

The most time consuming and difficult part of making this is cleaning the excess fiber and skin without breaking the inner skin of the chestnut. You need patience, but it does take your mind away from everything else, so it is like meditating in a way.

This chestnut sweet is called "Shibukawa-ni" in Japanese. You can eat it by itself, or make chestnut puree out of it, or bake different kinds of cakes using it.

Just thinking of different ways of using "Shibukawa-ni", I may run to the store tomorrow and buy some more chestnuts, so I can try out making different sweets and upload in this blog!