Sweet Potato Sweet

Sweet Potato treat

Left over sweet potato from last week’s post ( I linked it for you just in case it is too bothersome to scroll down) was transformed into… Sweet Potato…right, how original!

I saw this sweets recipe in Kinokuniya the Japanese Book Store and I immediately fixated. It ( the true name of the recipe is Golden Sweet Potato)looks darling! Lucky me, I have all the ingredients at home. Trained in Switzerland and France, pretty woman- author Yasuyo Shida (信太康代) has written several cook books including the one that I studied at in the book store, in a standing position (立読み) – Sweet Potatoes, Chestnuts, Pumpkin Sweets – Is the title too straight forward?…maybe a little, but I will take it, no confusion here.

Ingredients and instruction (revised) for 12 or 16 mini Sweet Potato sweets

Preparation: cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

• Sweet potato (Satsuma sweet potato is preferred) 300g, peel skin, cut in chunks then soak in water for a few minutes.
• Baker’s sugar 100g divided in half
• Unsalted butter 30g
• 1 egg separate yolk and white
• Milk 2 Tablespoons
• Weak Power flour (薄力粉) 130g Combine with cocoa powder, cinnamon and baking powder listed below and sift  three times.
  
• Cocoa powder 20g
• Cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon
• Baking powder 1 teaspoon

For decoration

• 1 egg yolk beaten
• Black sesame seeds

1. Put soaked sweet potatoes in microwave proof bowl and sprinkle with 1 Tablespoon water.Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 5-7 minutes at 60% power. Put back in microwave if potatoes are still hard.
2. Mash sweet potatoes with wooden pole or potato masher immediately.
3. Add butter while still warm and mix well.
4. Add 50g of sugar and keep mixing. 
5. Add egg yolk and combine well.
   
6. Divide into 6th or 8ths inside bowl (I transferred to a shallow plate for photo shoot but you don’t have to). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the dough is ready.
    
7. Meanwhile, make dough. In a large bowl and  mix rest of sugar (50g) and egg white well.
   
8. Add milk and mix well.
9. Add sifted flour, cocoa powder and baking powder mixture in the bowl and combine well.
   
10. When it comes together,  knead with your hands until it becomes supple. Add a little bit of milk if the dough is too dry to handle.
11. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20 minutes. 
12. Divide dough into 6ths or 8ths
    
13. Dust with a little flour on the surface and rolling pin. Roll the dough to approximately 6 by 4 or 5 by 3inch oval shape.
14. Heat oven to 334F. Lay the sweet potato filling on the top of dough. Wrap the filling with dough to make it look like a sweet potato.
15. Cut in half diagonally and brush the cut part with beaten egg yolk. Press some black sesame seeds in.
    
16. Lay on the prepared cooking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.Cool on a cooling rack.
    

I like to re-heat it in the microwave for 20 seconds or so to eat. Hot black bean tea is perfect for this sweets. Some Japanese scientists say the black bean will prevent sugar from turning into fat. I have yet to see any evidence that that is true. I had some more sweet potatoes to spare – so I made Sweet Potato …darn, they have to come up with a better name!

Believe it or not,  I’m in a frequent buyers program at Kinokuniya.

I eventually bought the cook book. See? I’m not always a freeloader. And I love to spend time browse/reading there.

Driving on 1-5 south, I saw this: nature’s master piece. Honey slow down!You’re ruining the art! I mean my photo shoot.

 I wishing you a beautiful Autumn blessing.

 

 

 

Golden Nuggets

Chestnuts and Sweet Potato Steamed Rice  栗と薩摩芋のおこわ

Deep into the Autumn – my craving for chestnuts rice happens this time of year. However, removing the hard outer and inner shell of chestnuts is quite a task which I simply loath. I wish I have a Chestnuts rad 2 (栗くり坊主２see video, it’s all in Japanese but you will see what I’m talking about) gadget. It seems to do a wonderful job. I wish I had invented this handy tool.

The idea of using chestnuts in heavy syrup in place of fresh ones is a bit wild. I fear that it may lead to a costly mistake?- one jar of chestnuts sets you back like $7 and only seven in the jar… what ..the…heck! Is there gold in there? Good news is that I didn’t have to deal with the dreadful shell business…yeah it was a tad sweet but not too shabby. OK, I’ll only make it this way if I’m pressed for time.   

Ingredients and directions for 4-6 servings

Necessary equipments: Steamer pan or bamboo steamer lined with silicone, coated parchment paper or moist cloth. Cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

• Sweet rice (もち米) 3 (rice cooker) cups, rinse and soak in water for 1 hour
  
• Sweet potato, prefer Satsuma sweet potato, chopped in chunks to make up about 1 cup, soak in water for 10 minutes to prevent discoloration
  
• Chestnuts in heavy syrup 7-14, drain the syrup and soak chestnuts in hot water for a minute or so to tame some sweetness.
  
• Water 350cc
• Salt 2 teaspoons
• Sake 2 Tablespoons
• Black sesame for garnish. If you have pestle and mortar, grind it for more flavor and aroma.
  
• Kosher salt to taste (optional) 

1. After soaking rice for an hour, drain water through sieve, leave rice on the sieve to dry for 30 minutes
   .
2. Pour 350cc water in pan and add salt and sake. Heat at medium high heat. When the liquid starts to boil then add dried rice and cook for 2-3 minutes or until rice soaks up all the liquid.
3. Fill the steamer’s bottom part of pan with water about 2 inch depth. When the steamer is ready, spread the rice on the upper part of steamer, place soaked and drained sweet potatoes and chestnuts on top of the rice in a single layer.
   
4. Put the lid on and steam for 15 minutes. Spread rice onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper to remove excess moisture.
5. Sprinkle with black sesame and Kosher salt and serve.

A little something on the side – boiled crown daisy (春菊) and bean sprouts. It compliments the chestnut rice well.

We raked the leaves last Saturday. There is more to come. “Then why are we doing it now?” said my husband. Because… this is in the Honey-Do list?Many of my friends deck their house for Halloween. Me? Not this year, I just don’t want to go up in the chilly attic to search for the ‘Halloween’ box. My friend made this loveable Frankenstein. Dressed up like a million dollar trooper…I start tap dancing and singing – Puttin’ on the Ritz!  Now if you’re blue… watch Young FrankenSteve version. Super-duper!

I hope you have a fun Halloween! 

 

 

Mash

Baked Sweet Potato

Strolling up the hilly Gerbera Street in Jiyuugaoka (自由が丘) for 10 minutes, a pastry shop Mont St. Clair was in our view. It was a tad smaller than I imagined but that in no way squashed my anticipation of what I was sure would be an amazing array of pastries to see. That was June of 2009. My voracious appetite to discover pastry shops drove me to this store. My husband was a willing partner in this search. 

Hironobu Tsujiguchi (辻口博啓) operates this store and twelve others. He was born in Ishikawa prefecture, the son of the owner of a Japanese pastry shop Beniya (紅屋). He could have followed in his father’s foot steps if not for a strawberry shortcake he had for the first time at his friend’s birthday party. His training  to become a pastry chef started right after graduating from high school. He won numerous and prestigious awards. He appeared on many variety/talk television shows – he beat iron chef Masahiko Kobe in Iron Chef in February of 1999, secret ingredient – Banana! He teaches Super Sweet cooking School on line as well as on-site in Jiyuugaoka. I’m short on space to list all his accomplishments though, I have to mention that in 2004, he opened a Japanese pastry shop ‘Waraku Beniya’ (和楽紅屋) to revive his father’s store which folded in 1985.

Sweet Potato is a familiar sweet to Japanese. I have not yet seen it in the US market. I followed his method almost entirely from his cook book ‘Sweets Done Right’ (ちゃんと作れるスイーツ). The only difference is that I mashed sweet potato all the way then strained it through the mesh to make it ultra creamy. Anyway, that’s how I dealt with the sweet potato that was getting new shoots.

Ingredients and instruction. Make approximately 8-2inch cups.

Equipment: food scale, sieve, 8-2inch diameter (Wilton) party cups or 4, 2-1/2inch cups (available in craft store). Pastry brush

• Sweet potato 400g cook and peel skin. I wrapped in foil and put in the oven for about 1-1/2 hour. You could also steam whole then peel the skin. Roughly mash it while it’s hot.
  
• Butter 80g softened
• Granulated sugar 50g
• Honey 20g
• A pinch of salt
• Egg yolk 30g about 2 eggs. Beat well
• Rum flavoring 1/2 teaspoon or if you are using real rum 6g

1. Put butter and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk well until color gets light and creamy.
   
2. Add honey and continue to whisk
   .
3. Add salt and mix well.
4. Add egg in three parts and continue to whisk.
5. Add rum and mix. Heat oven to 340F at this point.
6. Mash sweet potato with potato masher until it is like paste. Do not over mash if you like some texture. If you prefer smoother texture strain through a sieve.
   
7. Combine mashed sweet potato and butter/egg mixture using a spatula. Do this with a quick and light motion.
8. Fill potato batter into a piping bag with large star tip. Pipe out into each cup - this is optional process - Simply spoon out and use butter knife to make a mount.
   
9. Brush with mixture of 1egg yolk plus 1 tablespoon water for shine.
10. Place filled cups on cookie sheet and bake for 25minutes.Plain looking sweet potato needs some dressing up to do. Here I topped with whipped cream, chopped chestnuts and sprinkled with cinnamon.

 

We participate in beautification of our city park last Saturday. WERK Day is in it’s 13th run. Volunteers were treated to a pancake and omelet breakfast then divided into 5-6 groups for bark dusting, gravel paving in the dog run section or poison ivy and other noxious species removal.Memorial Park is the largest park in our city.

Here is my husband shoveling gravel into the wheel barrow.

City gave each of us the lovely orange t-shirts…and free coupon to Wendy’s.

On the home front, we have our own beautification task to do also. Honey, can I volunteer to take a nap? The golden chain tree in our back yard is in full bloom. The vibrant yellow color lasts only for a week.The enjoyment was shared with bees too.The fig tree looks promising.I’m sure I didn’t plant the strawberry there. Over thriving strawberries delight my husband.

That evening my husband took me to Urban Farmer Steak House in downtown Portland for early Mother’s Day treat. We split the wagyu rib eye steak yet it was still too much! The food was great and  the décor sooo urban chic!

Super moist petit cakes arrived just in time for Mother’s Day from Japan. The gift is from my son and daughter-in-law.

And bouquets from my husband and my daughter.

Striking peony like multi-layered petal roses. Ahhh..nice to be pampered.Thought about my late mother all day… filled with gratitude.