GBBO Japanese Week - Wagamama's Tori Kara Age and Chicken Katsu Curry

I was a bit surprised when I saw Great British Bake Off was doing Japanese week, as I didn’t think Japan was a particularly easy theme for cakes and bakes. Of course, I’ve never been to Japan so could be completely wrong – and a few years ago I did go to the opening of a Japanese cafe in central London which was really nice. But when I googled Japanese desserts, the main things that came up used flavours that are quite hard to get hold of unless you can go to a specialist shop, like yuzu, matcha and red bean paste. One recipe I kept coming across was a really light wobbly cheesecake that looked quite difficult to make – which is what Lottie actually made on GBBO that made her star baker.

I have made mochi before which was interesting – quite nice but not something I’d eat regularly – but since I couldn’t get hold of any matcha or yuzu in time I couldn’t think of anything I could bake that wouldn’t be really complicated. So I decided to do dinner from my Wagamama cookery book instead! I picked out Tori Kara Age which is essentially a marinated fried chicken recipe. I didn’t realise it was actually a side dish as I have never ordered this in Wagamama’s, but I think it also goes well with rice as a main course.

It is a little time consuming to make since you have to make the marinade (which is a separate recipe) first, and then a dipping sauce (another separate recipe). Luckily I already had most of the ingredients, including sake, from a previous recipe; this uses quite a lot of soy sauce as well so make sure you have plenty! Once I had marinated the chicken pieces they were coated and fried; the dipping sauce added an umami sort of taste that was really quite more-ish!

My favourite Wagamama recipe though is the dish I order almost every time I eat there (which is only once every couple of years, if that, as my husband doesn’t like that cuisine) – chicken katsu curry. So I was quite pleased when the restaurant chain decided to publish their recipe during the first lockdown, for people to make at home. It is surprisingly easy – you need quite a few ingredients but all ones I already had in the cupboard. I tend to take a shortcut and buy breaded chicken goujons rather than make my own, but the sauce tastes exactly like the real thing and has quickly become a firm favourite in my household!

I was also interested to learn about kawaii from Great British Bake Off - a style of Japanese cake decorating that translates as cute or adorable. If you see a kawaii cake you will know straight away what I mean! I have made a few things in the past that might fall roughly under this category - not strictly speaking kawaii, but I think they are quite cute! Check these out:

Reindeer cake pops

Puppy dog cupcakes

Cupcake

Russian doll birthday cake

Shopkins doughnut birthday cake

Strawberry and white chocolate unicorn cake

Restaurant review: Pan de Vie matcha cafe, London

There are plenty of restaurants and cafes in London that focus on one dish or ingredient – be it hot dogs, cheese or arancini (deep fried risotto balls) – but Pan de Vie is the first one I’ve heard of to make a hero of the Japanese green tea powder matcha.

 

The café/patisserie opened not long ago and invited me along with lots of other bloggers to a launch event. Just off Leicester Square in New Row, the café is likely to get a lot of passing trade but I can imagine it’s somewhere that people will specifically seek out as well. You don’t have to be obsessed with matcha to eat here – but it helps!

 

The café has plenty of other things – some of their cakes looked to die for – including macarons and madeleines, but their speciality is Japanese treats, many of which are flavoured with matcha. At the launch, we tried a selection of sushi which was good, but to my untrained tastebuds seemed pretty much the same thing I can buy in Tesco or M&S. The more unusual items really stood out though. We tried buns stuffed with chicken teriyaki which were delicious; there is also a sweet version containing matcha custard which was a bit like eating a cream doughnut but intriguingly different. I was also told Japanese cheesecake is something really special – I’d never even heard of it, but tried a small slice (matcha flavoured, of course) – it was so creamy and light, I’m definitely sold! The café offers them by the slice or box of 5 and you can eat in or take away – there is a small seating area downstairs.

 

We tried a variety of other small treats, but I have to admit I didn’t get the name of a lot of things – there was a cake flavoured with red bean paste; the small green circle is a white chocolate tart (with matcha, as if you couldn’t guess!).

 

Matcha is an anti-oxidant and is supposed to be effective in improving mental focus; it is used in both Japanese tea ceremonies and in cooking (you can get matcha ice cream, noodles, cocktails and of course cakes). It’s not a fad that will disappear and I gather Pan de Vie wants to roll out more branches in London. Their cakes are not cheap but are delicious.

At the launch event they had hired someone to demonstrate origami; I chatted to him for a while and watched him make amazing flowers so quickly without even looking as he was looking at me while we were speaking! Samuel Tsang teaches origami as a mindfulness technique - I always find it very frustrating as I can't do it, but Samuel said that it's something you have to learn, and following the instructions is like being able to read music - you can't just expect everyone to open a book and be able to do it - but once you have mastered the technique it's very therapeutic. I'll have to take his word for that!

F1 Foods: Japan Roundup and the Next Challenge: Russia

 

 

Once again I didn’t actually watch the Grand Prix as I was away on a friend’s hen night but I’ve said before I’m not the biggest fan: I started this challenge to cook something from each host country as a way to get more involved with my fiance’s hobby! Still when I do get a chance to watch a race I find them pretty absorbing.

 

This time was Japan and I took the opportunity to share a few recipes I’ve made before. If you’ve ever been in a Yo Sushi you might have seen chocolate mochi on the dessert menu; they are balls of rice flour filled with chocolate and taste really good, though the texture took me a bit of getting used to.

  

I also posted this bas-relief design recently, which I produced on a cake decorating evening class a few months ago. We could choose from various designs and I picked Sonic the hedgehog as I liked the way it looked and thought it would be a good challenge. I remember Sonic from computer games of my childhood but didn’t know that Sonic is actually a Japanese character – so that gives me a good excuse to enter it in this blog challenge.

 

  

I did also cook something on the weekend of the Grand Prix – I have the Wagamama cookery book at home but have hardly ever used it. Not every recipe in the book is Japanese but this one seemed to fit the bill, and tasted really good – honey pork ramen.

  

 

Finally Suelle from Mainly Baking sent in this Yuzu and green tea madeira cake where she has brought Japanese flavours to a traditional British bake. She said it has a delicate flavour where the slight bitterness of the tea contrasts with the sweetness of the cake.

 

 

 

And now to announce the next challenge: the next Grand Prix is taking place in Russia on the weekend of October 10/11, i.e. this coming weekend. You have until Weds 14th October to add your link to the linkup below.

 

 

Wagamama Roasted Honey Pork Ramen

This weekend was the Japanese Grand Prix but I have to admit I didn't watch it - as I've said before, it's my fiancé who is the F1 fan anyway, though I've definitely gotten into it since living with him! I was busy today making the flowers to go on top of Ros's wedding cake (which has made me realise I won't have time to make my own wedding cake, a shame but it could be a lot of last minute stress!). I did make a Japanese meal for dinner though in the spirit of my blog challenge Formula 1 Foods.

I've had the Wagamama recipe book for several years but hardly ever used it; when I was thinking about making a Japanese meal I immediately took it from my bookshelf and was pleasantly surprised at the number of recipes in it I liked - I don't know why I never really used this book before!


 





















I chose a dish called roasted honey pork ramen - ramen are a type of Japanese noodle. It was really easy to make though I adapted the recipe slightly to use up some vegetable stock I had in the fridge (rather than the chicken stock the recipe called for) and I left out the bamboo shoots as I don't like them. The recipe also suggested that you cook a pork fillet and then slice it but I used two small pork chops (I was going to buy fillet but they were reduced in the supermarket and I thought I may as well get a bargain) which I sliced up first and then cooked. It worked really well and the pork had a similar taste and texture as when I've had char siu pork in Chinese restaurants.

So this is my version of the recipe:
To serve one, you need

1-2 pork chops, with the bone and any fat removed and the meat sliced
1 tbsp. bbq sauce
1 tsp runny honey
100ml vegetable stock
ramen noodles
2 spring onions, trimmed and sliced
broccoli to serve

Preheat oven to 200C. Place the pork slices in a roasting tin lined with foil, and toss with the BBQ sauce. Bake for 20 minutes; meanwhile start cooking the broccoli or any other veg you want with it. After the pork has been in the oven for 20 minutes, add the honey and return to the oven for five minutes. Heat the vegetable stock and cook the noodles - I used a packet of straight-to-wok noodles so they only needed a few minutes heating through. Add the spring onions to the vegetable stock and heat through.

To serve, spoon the noodles and spring onion into a bowl and add as much of the stock as you like if you want this to be more of a broth-based dish. Top with the pork and serve with broccoli or other green veg.

I'm sending this to Formula 1 Foods as the challenge this time is Japan.

Chocolate Mochi: Food from Fiction - Jiro Dreams of Sushi

For this month's Food 'n' Flix blogging challenge, host Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla has chosen the Japanese film Jiro Dreams of Sushi; the idea is to watch the film, cook something inspired by the film and blog about it!

The film, made quite recently in 2011, is a documentary and tells the story of Jiro Ono, the 85-year old head chef at Sukiyabashi Jiro, a sushi restaurant in Tokyo that has three Michelin stars. Jiro's oldest son works with him at the restaurant, while his youngest son runs the sister restaurant. The film covers everything from their relationships, to the day-to-day working of a sushi restaurant (watching the scenes at the fish market is especially interesting), and Jiro's constant striving for perfection in the food he serves his customers.

Jiro works hard, is a perfectionist and says he doesn't like holidays; he also doesn't want to relinquish control of his restaurant to his son. He eats, lives and breaths sushi - and dreams of it. He says in the film: "I would make sushi in my dreams, I would jump out of bed with ideas." His restaurant may only seat 10 and have the toilets outside, but it has won three Michelin stars. Jiro's ethos is that every meal has to be better than the last one, and he takes pride in judging what his customers want. He even memorises seating arrangements and sends out sushi from the kitchen of different sizes - he explains that the women want smaller portions. I actually found that a little sexist, but his customers in that scene seemed to agree!

Chocolate Mochi - a Japanese dessert often served after sushi

I wasn't expecting to like this as I'm not a fan of documentaries and I thought having to read the Japanese subtitles would be a pain (the only Japanese I ever learnt was a song about a goat). But it's so much more than a documentary - the film is almost poetic, combining classical music with slow motion shots at times and I was so drawn in, I barely noticed I was reading susbtitles. I learnt a lot as well - I assumed the rice that forms the basis of many types of sushi was just standard rice, but I had no idea how much effort goes into preparing and cooking it. There is also an 'ebb and flow' to a good sushi menu in terms of the order of flavours, which was interesting. I also didn't know that sushi chefs roll around the fish in their hands to shape it or indeed that there were so many different types of sushi or ways it could be prepared.

So when I started thinking about what I could make for Food 'n' Flix, I knew immediately I didn't want to try making sushi - it's a lot harder than it looks and isn't just a case of slicing up some raw fish! I could have a go - I have seen some Groupon offers for sushi-making lessons recently and am quite keen, but have no time before the deadline of this blogging challenge. But I also felt that having watched this film, any sushi I tried to make would be an affront to Jiro! Luckily there was one other dish that immediately sprang to mind. When I went to Yo Sushi a little while ago I had a dessert called a chocolate mochi, which was a ball made of rice flour and filled with chocolate. It was delicious and so I have tried to recreate this! I found a recipe on the internet and adapted it to add cocoa powder. 

To make about half a dozen, you need:

125g plain chocolate
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup double cream
3/4 cup glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup caster sugar
2/3 cup water

Heat the double cream in a small pan and take off the heat before it comes to the boil. Chop the chocolate and butter and stir into the cream; keep stirring until it melts and you have a smooth sauce.

Place in the fridge for up to an hour until it has set. If it sets too hard, just allow it to come up to room temperature before you use it.

Shape into balls by rolling small amounts of the chocolate ganache between your palms. Mine had softened a little too much so I ended up making rather misshaped chunks!

I had to make a special trip to Chinatown to find glutinous rice flour, as none of my local supermarkets stocked it. Luckily I found it in the first Chinese supermarket I went to and it wasn't very expensive.

Mix 3/4 cup rice flour with 1/4 cup cocoa powder in a large glass or pyrex bowl.

Add the caster sugar and water and mix with a rubber spatula until you have a smooth batter.

Cover with cling film and microwave on high for two minutes. Uncover, stir, and recover and microwave on high for another two minutes.

You'll end up with a sticky ball of dough.

The recipe I used said to lightly dust a surface with more rice flour and carefully roll out the dough while it is still hot and cut into equal segments for each mochi piece. But I found the dough was too sticky and too difficult to handle when it was hot so I left it to cool - but this meant it was quite hard to roll out. I ended up cutting it into pieces and stretching them as much as I could.

Place one of your chocolate truffles in the centre of a small piece of rolled-out dough and shape around the truffle so you have a ball (the dough will stick to itself to seal the ball). And that's it - these are eaten cold,  or rather at room temperature.

I found these fairly similar to what I'd had at Yo Sushi in taste though they didn't look quite as good! The sticky rice dough is something of an aquired taste I would say; I found it a bit strange but it was quite nice, and the combination of the chocolate dough and the truffle in the middle is lovely.

I'm sending this to Food n'n Flix and am looking forward to seeing the roundup on Camilla's blog. And if anyone has any ideas how I can use up the rest of the bag of glutinous rice flour, please let me know!