Dorayaki どら焼き

Hey everyone. How are you guys doing? Well, I've been busy with school and it's been crazy. Everyone knows how school is. So, anyway, I've been posting a lot of Japanese recipes lately. It's kind of strange, but still, it's Asian. Anyways, I decided to make dorayaki, because I love red bean paste and cake. It's my absolute bean paste ever. I do like lotus seed paste the best, but it isn't a bean paste. Anyways, red beans are awesome. So, compared to the store bought ones, mines taste a bit different and the texture is different. They're both still quite delicious. Here's a recipe to the dorayaki I made. You can adjust it to suit your tastes. Some of you guys might say it's a bit too sweet, but I like things really sweet. So, here's the recipe. Enjoy.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup water 
• 1/2  tsp baking powder
• red bean paste

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix the eggs and the sugar together. 
2. Mix in the honey. 
3. Then, add the flour and baking powder and mix. Then, slowly add in the water. The batter might be a little thick. You can add a little bit more water if you need to.
4. In a non stick pan/skillet, pour about 1/4 cup of the mixture (or a little less) onto the pan over medium heat, and let it cook until it starts to bubble. Then, flip the cake until it's cooked. Take it off the pan, and cook the rest of the batter this way. 
5. To make the dorayaki, you will need two cakes to make one dorayaki. Take one cake, spread red bean paste over it, and then cover it with another piece of cake. There you go. Enjoy. :) 

Sushi

Hey you guys. It's been a while since I posted a recipe. I've been so busy with school. I have so many AP classes, clubs, and I have journalism too. I created the Healthcare Club at my school just this year. I'm so excited for the club. So, anyways, I decided to make some sushi. Sushi is so yummy. I haven't made it in such a long time that I decided to make some. I know, I already posted a sushi recipe before, but this recipe is a bit different. Also, we didn't have any avocados, but that's okay. I'll make sure to have them next time I make sushi. This sushi I made has imitation crab meat and spam. I can't wait to add different things to the sushi. I really like adding fried shrimp or chicken. It'd be cool to add tofu too. There are so many possibilities of food combinations. So, yeah, anyways, here's a recipe to my sushi. You can add other things too, if you want. Enjoy.

Ingredients


Sushi Rice:

• 4 cups of sushi rice
• water (to cook the rice in)
• 2/3 cup rice vinegar
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tsp salt
• 2 tablespoon Mirin

Fillings (which are optional)

• spam
• imitation crab meat
• avocado
• tofu
• egg
• shrimp

And of course, you need seaweed. 

Directions

1. Put the rice in a rice cooker pot. Rinse it 2 to 3 times.  Fill it up with water until it reaches around the 4 1/2 to 5 cup mark. Cook the rice. 
2. While the rice is cooking, make the sauce for the rice. Mix together the vinegar, sugar, salt and mirin. 
3. Once the rice is done cooking, scoop the rice out into a huge bowl, and gradually mix in the vinegar mixture. 
4. Place a seaweed sheet onto a bamboo seaweed roller thing ( I don't know what it's called). Spread sushi rice onto it. Then, add the fillings along the edge.. Roll it over once so that the filling is covered. Then, continue rolling until the whole roll is rolled up. Cut into small pieces. You can basically put any type of filling you want in the sushi. Enjoy. :)
   
   
   Here's the link to my other sushi recipe. It has pictures. Well, I hope you guys enjoy the sushi. 
   
   
   
   

AnPan Man

 Hey everyone. I just recently went to a Japanese Bakery for the first time, and, the breads were delicious! I never head about it until my friend mentioned it one day, and I knew I had to go out and try it. The first picture is of the AnPan Man from the bakery. They make the red bean kind and the chocolate kind. I decided to choose the chocolate kind (with chocolate cream too), because I like chocolate. It's pretty delicious and looks pretty cool. The next time I go, however, I'll try the actual red bean kind. So, I attempted to make the AnPan Man. I'm halfway successful. I realized that I didn't have anything to use to make the eyes and the mouth. I was able to make the cheeks and the nose, which I'm happy about. Maybe next time, I'll stick two chocolate chips for the eyes, or I can make icing and add food coloring. It's just an idea. Also at the bakery, they had Kobe Cream Delight, Double Chocolate Bread, Chocolate Hat, and the regular red bean buns. They also had Strawberry with Cream and blueberries and a lot of other things, but they cost a lot more. My favorites will have to be the AnPan Man, Double Chocolate and the Kobe Cream Delight. They are delicious. Anyways, the AnPan Man recipe. It's why I'm making this post. Well, here's the recipe. Enjoy. :)
What You need: 

• The recipe for the bread dough
• can of red beans
• something you want to make the eyes and mouth (icing, beans, candy, chocolate chips, melted chocolate, etc.)

Dough (for those who are lazy):

• 3 3/4 cup bread flour
• 3/4  cup sugar
• 1/2  cup warm milk
• 1/2  cup warm water
• 2 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 egg, whisked
• 1/4  cup oil

Directions: 

1. In a bowl pour in the warm water and warm milk. Mix in the sugar. 
2. Add in the active dry yeast and let it poof for about 10 minutes.
3. Mix in the egg and oil. 
4. Slowly add in the flour, cup by cup,  until a dough has formed. Knead the dough. It should be elastic, but it shouldn't stick to the bowl. 
5. Cover it with plastic, and let it rise for about an hour in a warm place. 
6. Push the dough down to let out the air.
7. Divide the dough into 15 pieces, and let them rise for an hour.
8.  Flatten the dough, add the red bean, and then enclose the red bean with the dough. Roll it into a ball.  Make sure you have extra dough. With the extra dough, you make 3 little circles for reach bun. 2 for the cheeks, one for the nose.
9. Let it rise for another hour.
10. Add in the eyes, if you are using chocolate chips or beans, or whatever you are using. If it's icing or melted chocolate, you add it after the bread is done baking. Brush the top with egg yolk if desired and bake for 13 to 15 minutes. Enjoy.

Crepes

Hello Everyone! How are you guys doing today? I'm doing fine, thank you very much. I'm already getting a lot of homework from school. That's what I get for taking 4 AP classes. Anyways, I decided to post a crepes recipe. I spent a lot of time trying to find a Japanese crepe recipe, but I failed at that, so I decided on making regular crepes. The recipes I founded for the Japanese crepes seemed very similar to the regular ones, so I decided just to make regular ones. They taste pretty good, and I love it with ice cream, bananas, and chocolate (nutella). You can add other things, if you want too. It's just my preference. I also like it with red bean ice cream. Red bean ice cream is awesome. Anyways, here's the recipe to the crepes. I hope you guys enjoy these.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cup  milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp corn oil

Directions 
1. In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients.
2. Heat up a non stick pan and butter it.
3. Take 1/4 cup of the mixture pour it on the pan and swirl it. Once it's nearly cooked on one side. flip it over and cook for another 20 to 30 seconds.
4. Take it off the pan, and let it cool, if you are using ice cream filling.
5. You can add any fillings you want now. After you add the fillings, you can wrap it any way you want.

                     

Red Bean Mochi 糯米糍 Recipe

您们好！ It's been a while since I lasted posted. Once again, I'm very sorry. There is so much school work, and a lot of things have been going on. I had tons of projects I had to work on and I'm getting ready for my AP tests, and it's really stressful. The ACT is also this weekend. So much. >_< On top of that, I also have to manage 2 clubs which I am president of (which you guys should know). I am also participating in my school's cinco de mayo assembly. I am singing with a few other people, and practicing for it has occupied my free time. Man, life is so busy and stressful now a days. I bet that in the past, life was so much easier. Oh well. Life is life and it changes...whether we like it or not.  so where was I? Oh yeah. I made mochi. But, why? well..

  The past weekend, I went over to my friends house, and she loves asian things, even though she is not asian. She especially loves Japanese and Korean things. We talked about all of that stuff, and we talked about food today (and we practiced for the cinco de mayo assembly). xD She especially loves asian food. So, after, when I got home, I started craving mochi, because it's an asian food and we were just talking about it. All asian countries have different variations to it. Well, what is mochi? Well, it's a rice cake. The basic ingredients are glutinous rice flour, sugar, water, coconut milk and red bean. I'm assuming the coconut milk and red bean are optional, but the people in Japan, Korean, and China usually add the red bean and coconut milk. So, here's my own recipe for mochi. I hope you enjoy. :) mochi = 很好吃。 

Ingredients: 

• 1 bag of Glutinous rice flour 糯米粉
• 1  1/2 cup sugar
• 1 can of coconut milk (400 mL or 13.5 oz)
• 1  1/2 cup water
• red bean paste (or any type of filling, peanut butter, peanuts, etc...)
• coconut splices/ shredded coconut  

Directions: 

• Mix and whisk/sift together the rice flour and sugar.
• Add in the water and the coconut milk, and mix until you get a creamy, somewhat liquidity mixture. 
• Pour into two bowls/plates/pans and steam for 30 minutes. Don't pour it too full, or else it will poof up and out of the pan.
• Once it is steamed, take it out and let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes so that it will be easier to handle. 

• Wear plastic gloves and use a spoon to take a piece of the dough. Flatten it into a ball, and stretch it, add the filling, and then wrap the skin (dough) around the filling to cover it to make a ball. Roll it in coconut.