The strange things I do in Japan

Living in Japan is basically a lot of fun, but sometimes it's really hard to get certain baking supplies, either they don't seem to exist, or they are far too expensive. I am really lucky that I have some friends who are in the military who sometimes help me out with flour and stuff from base when they have free time. But it's not always so easy...

A while ago I decided I really wanted to try my mother's applesauce muffin recipe. Unfortunately it called for oat flour. As you might guess there is no oat flour in Japan. So I bought oats.

And then I put them in a blender

And the result was very interesting. In the future smaller batches would be the way to go. I tried to grind two cups at once, and the result was a sort of half flour half oats mix. It was okay, my muffins ended up tasting pretty decent. I will definitely do it again.

Banana Nut Muffins

Around this time of year there are often cheap bananas on sale at the supermarket. There also tend to be a lot of bananas that are on the bad side for really cheap. I picked up a bunch of six bananas that were very brown a few weeks ago. I peeled them and popped them in the freezer. We had some guests coming over, so I decided to make some banana nut muffins. They are really good fresh from the oven, or cold the next day.

What you need:
3-4 ripe bananas, mashed.
80g (1/3 cup) melted or soft butter
100g (1 cup) Sugar
1 egg beaten
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tbsp strong coffee (optional)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 cup chopped walnuts

(1) Mix the butter into the mashed bananas in a large bowl.
(2) Mix in the sugar, egg, coffee, and vanilla extract. Beat well.
(3) Add the flour, baking soda and powder, and the nuts. Mix well, but quickly. If you spend too much time mixing you will mix the bubbles from the baking soda right out of the muffins.
(4) Spoon the batter into muffin tins, filling the tins until they are about two thirds full.
(5) Bake at 180C for 25~30 minutes. Until they are brown, and a toothpick comes out clean when stuck into them. You can also listen and if most of the bubbles have stopped, they are finished.

This makes about 18 muffins.

Your batter will look like this. If you only have whole walnuts you can chopped them, or just crush them in your hand, that's what I always do. This recipe is pretty sweet. I used one cup of sugar but you could easily use a half cup, or possibly less. If you like sweeter foods, go for a cup otherwise I suggest starting with a half cup.

My muffins! Now I have to try and eat them all...

Pickle Relish

Last summer one of the teachers at one of my schools gave me a big bag of green peppers. I was going on vacation in a couple of days and I knew they wouldn't keep, so after searching the internet for a while I found a recipe for cucumber pepper relish at the site Food in Jars. The recipe was pretty close to what I wanted, but I changed it a little to match what I had around the kitchen for spices. This is what I came up with.

I made a small batch. So I used this:
1 cup of peeled and chopped cucumbers
1 cup of chopped green peppers
1/2 cup of finely chopped onion

I boiled this in 1 cup of apple cider vinegar until the vegetables were cooked down. I drained them and returned them to the pot.

I added:
1 cup vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Mustard seed
1 thinly sliced chili pepper

I boiled this for an additional 5 minutes, then put into the jar, bubbled, wiped rim, added lid, and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

I still haven't cracked open my jar yet. I am just waiting for the proper barbecue. I did give it a taste before I canned it all, and it was pretty good. In the future I think I would use 1 tsp of red chili flakes instead of the red pepper. It could use a little stronger kick.

German(ish) Potatoes

Recently I have been craving German food like my grandmother used to make. She sent me a recipe that I hope to try some time soon, but for now I just made up some potatoes.

You will need:
3 potatoes
1 tbsp Milk
1 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Oil
1 tbsp Flour
1/4 Cup Beef or Chicken Broth
2~3 tbsp White Vinegar
1 tbsp Cream
1/2 tsp Parsley
Salt and White Pepper to taste.

(1) Wash and cut the potatoes into bite size pieces, boil or steam until the potatoes are tender, set aside.

(2) In a saucepan heat up the milk, butter, and oil. Add the flour and beat out the lumps, add the broth and cook for a few minutes until you have a nice white sauce.

(3) Mix in the potatoes, vinegar, cream, and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I enjoyed these potatoes for lunch with a little sausage and some myoga pickles.