Mini Challenge: Japanese Cooking (Cold Inaniwa Udon)

I love Japanese food; and given that I’m a vegetarian, the choices can be so limited but that doesn’t mean all of them are off limits to me. Anyway, when Natalie of In Spring it is the Dawn came up with a fun mini challenge about Japanese cooking, I just couldn’t pass this up.

Here is one of my favourite dishes which I love to prepare whenever I’m in the mood for Japanese food. It may look and sound simple, but I love the taste and I don’t think I’d ever get tired of eating it, hehe.

Inaniwa Udon

I love udon! There are so many varieties of udon out there in the market, and it can be pretty confusing (at least to me) since there are types of udon for different cooking methods: dried cold udon, stir fried udon or udon with miso soup. Among these dishes, my favourite has to be cold Inaniwa udon. I will usually order this from a favourite Japanese restaurant located near to my office, but after the relocation I rarely go there anymore (due to the distance but I will visit for special occasions).

Anyway I learnt from Google that Inaniwa udon (稲庭うどん) is made in Akita Prefecture in Northern Japan and is considered as one of the highest quality udon made in the country. I couldn’t find any in the Japanese supermarkets that matched the one which I eat at the restaurant, but I do find one brand that match closely in terms of the udon texture. Another thing I liked is their udon are already sorted in 4 bunches so that means you that means you don’t have to estimate the proportion.

(Above pic shows my favourite noodle brand and konbu dashi)

Once you have decided on the quantity, cook them in boiling water for about 6 minutes (or until their texture have turned soft). Scoop them up and put them into cold ice water. Aside from making it a cold dish, this also helps for a smooth texture so they won’t stick together and thus, affect the taste. Scoop them onto a dish (you may wish to spread some shredded seaweeds on top and/or add in a few ice cubes) and served with a small bowl of cold konbu dashi (kelp stock). I don’t know about you, but it makes me drool whenever I think of this dish. I hope you will try it if you are interested!

Finally, thanks to Natalie for hosting this fun challenge!

Chinese New Year Cookies

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you'd have read my status about my wish to know how to bake those delicious Chinese New Year cookies (CNY falls on 3th and 4th Feb this year). It all started when my coworker offered us her handmade cookies - Double chocolate mint cookies and Kueh Bangkit. I asked for the recipes and she is very kind enough to share them with me. I decided to spread the love by sharing them with you here, hopefully you will try them yourself if you are interested.

Double chocolate mint cookies

Ingredients
115g salted butter
180g Self Raising flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
80g castor sugar
50g light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tube of Polo mints**
1 cup of chocolate chips

Method
1. Crush polo mints in a bag, set aside.
2. Cream butter, sugar in a mixer till creamy.
3. Add egg to beat till well mixed.
4. Turn off mixer and fold in flour, chocolate powder, chocolate chips and crushed mint.
5. Lined a baking tray with baking paper.
6. Use a piped bag to squeeze out tiny spots on the paper
7. Bake in preheated oven 180 for 15 mins.
8. Remove and cool completely on wire rack.

Important Notes
** The most important ingredient here is the mint. Best to get Polo Mints. If you can't find Polo Mints (the famous tagline was "The Mint with a Hole"), then use any candy mint that are just hard mints not soft mints.

Don't attempt to use Peppermint Oil flavouring. It will make the cookie taste somewhat artificially 'plasticky'. You need to pipe it out on a sheet of baking paper. The raw dough should look like a tiny 5 cent coin. When it is baked, it will spread out a bit.

To get the cookie to be more flat and spread thinly, use more butter. Add 50g more. And you need to adjust the sugar content as confectionery chocolate (those you get from supermarkets) are already sweetened.

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Kueh Bangkit

Ingredients

500 gm. Tapioca flour
220 gm. sugar
250 gm. coconut milk
3 egg yolks
Pandan leaves - cut into pieces and dry it

Method
1. Dry fry the tapioca flour with pandan leaves for about 10 mins over low heat. Sieve and remove pandan leaves and leave to cool overnight. Can prepare this a few days ahead.
2. Warm up the coconut milk then add in sugar and stir till sugar melted. Leave aside to cool. Add in egg yolks and stir till well blended.
3. Pour coconut mixture into tapioca flour and mix into a pliable dough. Dough should be able to stand on its own and does not have a shiny look.
4. Roll out dough and cut with a cookie cutter.
5. Bake over low heat at 160C for about 20 - 25 mins. Cookies should be whitish in colour and not golden brown.

Note
If dough is too soft, add in additional flour and if dough is too dry, add in some coconut milk and egg yolks.