Daifuku for Breakfast

Daifuku

The other day A and M really wanted daifuku as an after school snack. Have we ever made daifuku as an after school snack? No. But that didn’t stop their craving, and I agreed to check online to see if we could find directions to make our own. The girls love daifuku, but it costs almost $2 per cake here and always comes wrapped in plastic, so it’s an infrequent treat for us. We’ve seen mochi made the traditional way at the Mochi Tsuki festival here, and the girls have taken turns pounding the rice. I assumed it would be too complicated to make at home. Was I ever wrong! The recipe we found at VeganYumYum made it look almost too easy to be true, but it really is true: This is fast and easy food.

We zipped off to the store for the ingredients we needed, a (BPA-free) can of azuki beans and a box of mochiko, even though I still had my doubts about how well this experiment would go. In case you’re calculating the carbon footprint of this snack, please note that I also picked up our week’s worth of groceries at the same time (yes, I’m still feeling the effects of our No Impact Week).

We mixed up a batch of red bean paste using agave syrup instead of sugar and set that to cool. We followed the directions for the first batch of mochi, using raw sugar with the mochiko, water, and sea salt. Three minutes later, we had lovely hot mochi, ready to wrap around a bit of bean paste…The bean paste was also hot but we managed to squish together 12 daifuku, more than we needed for dessert. They all disappeared, anyway.

If I had taken the time to watch Lolo of VeganYumYum’s daifuku video, I’d have been more assertive with the mochi to form it into rounds. We went with squares and triangles since that was easy and the mochi and bean paste were both quite hot – The fastest shapes possible seemed beautiful to our steamed hands.

Daifuku, not quite round

The girls loved them so much, I made another batch this morning. I  used rapadura (unrefined, unbleached, and non-crystallized dehydrated cane juice) instead of refined sugar, and the daifuku turned out a beautiful translucent brown. No, it’s not the healthiest breakfast by any stretch, but there you have it. Sometimes, I just need to get some calories into A, my reluctant eater.

Now, if I can just find someone who sells sweet brown rice flour, I could make a less processed version of daifuku…If you happen to know where to find such a flour, please do let me know!

Here’s my version of the Vegan Yum Yum’s daifuku:

1 cup mochiko sweet rice flour

1/4 cup rapadura (unrefined, uncrystallized cane sugar), date sugar, or coconut sugar

2/3 cup water

• Sprinkle a good coating of tapioca starch on a clean cutting board or other kitchen work surface.
• Have your daifuku filling ready to go next to your working area. My girls prefer red bean paste over everything else, but sometimes we mix it up and use fresh berries (just a raspberry or two per daifuku, or a few blueberries), chopped dates, peanut butter, or home made marzipan.
• Stir everything together in a microwave safe bowl until you’ve got a smooth paste.
• Microwave on high for 2 minutes, uncovered.
• Remove from microwave and stir to mix well. This will take some arm power. Persevere!
• Put the bowl back in the microwave for 1 minute. Watch the last few seconds of cooking – The second the microwave stops, open the door. You should see the ball of mochi deflate. If it doesn’t, heat it for another 30 seconds and check for that immediate deflation. Continue as necessary until you get there – It really shouldn’t take longer than 4 total minutes of cooking at high power.
• Turn your hot mochi out on to the starch-covered spot. Let it cool a few seconds, then flip it carefully over to coat both sides with starch. Press down carefully to form a rectangle of even thickness. I stop when the mochi is about 1/2″ thick all around.
• Cut the rectangle of mochi into 12 squares.
• Working quickly, pick up one square at a time, using your fingers to pat and squeeze and pull it so each side is about 2″ long.
• Nestle the square in one palm and place a little ball or bite of your filling inside (about 1 tsp, maybe a bit more), then pull the opposing corners of the mochi over the filling, pinching the corners together to seal. Do this with the other pair of corners, then do the same thing with the other new corners to end up with a circular daifuku. Just keep pinching and prodding to get there – At this point, the mochi is so hot, it will easily seal up and keep its form.
• Turn your finished daifuku over and let it rest while you fill and seal the other squares.
• The key here is to work quickly so the mochi is still hot when you’re forming that last piece. Cold mochi is not as stretchy, and it won’t want to seal and form a circle. Start working as soon as your fingers can stand it without needing medical attention for burns.

 

 

 

New Blog (not mine)

My friend Liesl Clark has her blog up and running, and her first post features a new short film narrated by her daughter about her family’s most recent trip to Nepal. She and her family really do put her first post title into practice: Think Locally, Act Globally. They split their time between several communities around the globe, and truly belong to each one as thoughtful and active residents, focused on living simply and building local connections that matter,  on a simultaneously intimate and global scale. Please, don’t miss Liesl’s blog, Pioneering the Simple Life: One Family’s Journey Back to the Future.

Old Blog (mine)

I was planning to archive the the recipes and some essays from my first blog here, but I’ve realized that’s I’ll never get around to that. If you’d like to take a trip down my memory lane, here’s my first blog.

Cooking with Nettles: Potato Nettle Dumplings & Pancakes, Gluten-Free

When we transitioned to a gluten- and casein-free diet about three years ago, one of the few gluten foods we really missed was matzoh ball soup. While my own version of matzoh ball soup isn’t as good as my mother’s, my kids think mine is the best (I love how that works), and I didn’t want to let that tradition die.

After trying various recipes found online, we discovered the Gluten-Free Potato Kneidlach recipe from Gluten-Free Bay. We love these as “matzoh” balls in soup, we love them as dumplings tossed with olive oil and sea salt, and I love them as pancakes (I’m still trying to convince the girls to try them that way; until then, there are more for me).

M has been asking for more nettle soup and for nettle dumplings. I attempted some gluten-free nettle pieorgies last night, but then I realized, as I was about to plunge them into the boiling water, that I was on the verge of a culinary failure that would ruin dinner. What was I thinking? There was no way the delicate dough was going to hold, it was only going to dissolve and leave me with an abundance of slimy dough-nettle foam. I changed course and steamed them, instead, and the girls both ate them and declared them good. But I knew better – They were, on the whole, disgusting.

As they were steaming, though, I had another sudden realization: I could just add some steamed nettles to our favorite potato kneidlach recipe, and we’d have M’s nettle dumplings.

That’s just what I made tonight, and this time, we all agreed that they were good. Dumplings aren’t the most photogenic food, but here’s a photo in case you’d like to give this a try. Here’s what ours looked like when served as a side, gently tossed with olive oil and sea salt; we each added our own black pepper to taste.

They taste better than they look.

We have leftover batter which I will fry in a bit of hot grapeseed oil tomorrow, to make lovely golden-crusted puffy smooth nettle potato pancakes. UPDATE: I just had some potato nettle pancakes for lunch, with some fresh kimchi on the side…The nettles add a new element to the texture; these were almost like Yorkshire pudding, but with a sweet nettle flavor and that crispy potato smell.

Potato Nettle Pancakes

I’ll save some nettles in the freezer for use in this recipe again, to make green matzoh balls for future soup. As my mother always reminds me, the important thing is that your matzoh balls must go from the boiling cooking water into hot broth; that is true for these, too. I’m not sure what happens if they go from cooking pot to cold broth, but I have learned to listen to my mother and I’ve never pushed this particular boundary.

To get my nettle-ized version of Gluten-Free Bay’s Gluten-Free Potato Kneidlach, here’s what you’ll want to add:

1 tightly packed or heaping cup of steamed nettle leaves and tender stems, pressed dry then pureed until smooth in a food processor. Steam the nettles for 3 minutes or so, and save both the steaming water and all liquid pressed from the cooked nettles to drink as tea (store this in your fridge).

Omit the dill. Grate a dusting of fresh nutmeg over the mixture, enough that you’ll get just the faintest hint of nutmeg fragrance and flavor, not so much that it will smack your tongue with bitterness.

Add an additional 3 Tb potato starch. Let the batter rest for a full hour in the fridge, then try pushing some off of a spoon – If it doesn’t form into a rough ball shape, but hugs the spoon in a sticky landslide, add 1 – 2 Tb more potato starch and let rest again. You want a batter that holds together when pushed into boiling water.

I cooked mine for 5 minutes in boiling water, and they were just right; they take a bit longer to rise to the top of the water than the potato-only version, so go by the clock, not by where the dumplings are in the water when timing how long to cook them.

Bittercress Salad

M and her friend with a handful of bittercress

On our recent visit to our local estuary, we found a lot of Bittercress about to bloom. Our chickens love this stuff, and so do we. A and M picked a few handfuls each, which we brought home for dinner. Since we started eating seasonally a couple of years ago, our fresh greens consumption in the winter months has mostly been in the form of cabbage and kale, no leafy green salads. After our garden’s kale died during our long freeze a few months back, we had a long Winter of Cabbage.

I washed the Bittercress, patted it dry, tossed it with some olive oil, sea salt, and a bit of A’s favorite California-style balsamic vinegar, then we sat down to eat it with our quesadillas. M cleaned her bowl of Bittercress in less than 5 minutes, a record for my girl who is normally a timid nibbler of fresh, raw greens. We were all craving spring greens, even those of us who pretend not to like them.

If you’ve never tried Bittercress, give it a bite. There’s probably some growing in your yard or local woods – Just make sure you’re foraging on pesticide-free territory! Despite the name, it’s not bitter, just a bit peppery; A and M think it’s “like arugula, only better because it doesn’t burn.” I hear that many people stick to picking just the greens that grow close to the ground, but we like to eat the tender stalks and almost-blooming flowers, too.

If you’re looking for more ways to eat Bittercress, Langdon Cook has quite a few posts you should read – Just try the search box on his blog, Fat of the Land.

A with Bittercress

Cooking with Nettles: JoJo’s Nettle Special

One of my very favorite foods when I was a kid was my mom’s New Joe’s Special – Hamburger, spinach, onions, and eggs, all scrambled up together and served with ketchup. It’s high on my list of beloved childhood comfort foods, along with my mom’s matzoh ball soup, lasagna, and green salads.

M calls it “JoJo’s Special”, which always makes me smile when I cook it for her (I picture a happy circus clown named JoJo sitting down to a bowl of it). A won’t try it, since she’s not a fan of mixed foods; she prefers one flavor or texture at a time, so whenever I make this, she gets a big pile of steamed spinach drenched in vinegar, instead.

Now I have a new version that I might like even more than the original with spinach. Last night, while contemplating a leftover grass-fed beef burger and the big dish of steamed nettles in my fridge, I got a craving for New Joe’s Special. 5 minutes later, I had a skillet full, enough for dinner and for breakfast this morning. The nettles add a lively fragrance and flavor to the dish, and with the grass-fed Mountain Beef and our back yard hens’ eggs, it’s almost entirely local. As you can see from the photo, I was in too much of a hurry to chop the nettles properly; I just tore them roughly by hand. Next time, I suppose I’ll be more civilized and use a knife.

JoJo's Nettle Special

Here’s how to make your own JoJo’s Nettle Special:

Brown some grass-fed beef in a cast iron skillet with a clove of diced garlic and a bit of diced shallot or onion if you desire.  If you’re not inclined to eat beef, you could easily substitute your favorite mushroom or tempeh, or just go with some sauteed garlic and onion, instead.

When the beef is nicely browned, add a pile of chopped steamed nettles and mix well. When the everything is heated up, add 2 raw scrambled eggs, pouring the eggs evenly over the beef and nettles. Let the eggs set for a few seconds, then scramble everything together until the eggs are just right, not dry.

Serve hot with Sriracha sauce or ketchup, salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking with Nettles: Soup with Nettles, Potatoes and Kabocha Squash

I promised myself I’d harvest and eat a lot of nettles this year, after years of enjoying the fruit of friends’ nettle foraging labor. When we visited our local estuary the other day, we saw a huge stand of beautiful nettles, some already big enough to have tough stems. I knew it was time to get going on my nettle plan; with all the rain we’ve had here recently, it wasn’t going to take long for all of them to grow past their tender stage.

The next morning, I gathered up my leather gloves, nylon grocery bag, and utility shears and hit the trail. Within 10 minutes, the bag was stuffed full of lovely, dark green young nettles.

I steamed that first harvest, and we’ve had nettles at least once a day since last Friday. The girls love them, and so do I.

Here’s what we had for dinner on Friday:

Nettle-Potato-Kabocha Soup

Steam a pile of nettles for about 3 minutes, or until fully wilted and tender. Remove nettles from steaming pot into a colander set over a bowl. Let the nettles drain and cool, collecting the liquid from the bowl underneath them and combining it with the leftover steaming water. Save this rich nettle tea in the fridge and drink it in small doses (be careful – I drank a big glassful at 10 pm and was so energized, I didn’t fall asleep until 2:30 am).

While nettles are cooling, saute a few shallots in some grapeseed or olive oil, adding a splash of sherry when they’re tender. Add 4 cups broth of your choice, 4 whole peeled cloves of garlic, and half a small kabocha squash cut into bite-sized chunks. Simmer until squash is just getting tender, then stir in several potatoes cut into bite-sized chunks.

While the soup is simmering, turn your attention to the cooled nettles. Puree the stems and leaves in a food processor until everything is a smooth puree, but not turned to liquid.

When potatoes are tender, stir in nettles, add salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy.

Countertop Kimchi

kimchi

(Update 11/17/11: Now that I’ve tinkered around with multiple batches, I’ve come up with my own variation, posted here: Kimchi, Jewish Mother Version)

Thanks to Julia Moskin’s D.I.Y. Cooking Handbook, published by the New York Times, I was inspired to attempt my first batch of kimchi. I’ve been sampling different types, reading various recipes, and watching videos on YouTube for about a year now, but hadn’t found a version that used materials I already had in hand. The D.I.Y. version, which seems to come from Tart and Sweet by Kelly Geary and Jessie Knadler, looked closest to my very favorite commercial kimchi from Midori Farm, made a relatively small amount, and it calls for fermentation in jars, not special crocks.

We stopped by HMart in Federal Way last week to pick up some gochugaru, sea salt, napa, and a nice daikon, which we combined with shallots and garlic from our own garden, and fish sauce, tamari, and carrots from our pantry and fridge at home. A & M were very excited about this, and helped to slice and brine the cabbage. They insisted that I use only 1 cup of chili powder, because they’re still coming to terms with mouth-burning spices. If this is a hit, we’ll be mixing up more of this “kidchi” for them to enjoy.

We’ll taste this first batch on Tuesday and see what we think. I think next time I’ll add a grated apple or pear for just a bit of sweetness, based on the taste I snuck of the fresh kimchi. Even if this isn’t quite the same as Midori Farm’s amazing kimchi, but I think this will be at least at tasty as the other brands available in our local stores. I will be so happy if this works!