January Thaw

From facebook it seems like the whole United States is one giant ice cube, but we've had a little thaw here in Tokyo this week.  I'm sure before I know it the weather will be frigid again, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.  Last night John and I even went up and had a drink on the roof!  Of course we wore coats and gloves and only lasted about fifteen minutes, but it was really nice.  I love being up on our roof.  You can look out at almost the whole city, but being so high up it it feels like you can see forever. It's easier to breathe up there, and it's so quiet! 

Our neighborhood is usually quiet, but a building is going up next door to us, and the taller it gets the closer the construction noise gets to our windows.  It's not bad, but it's nice when it ends in the evenings.

This afternoon I'm going to try to make cookies in my fish oven.  I can't believe it's taken me over a year to even attempt this, but it's a complicated little contraption.  I can't read all of the controls, and those that I can aren't all that helpful.  The biggest problem is that I can't really control the exact temperature, so it's like a game of figuring out if bread toasts better on the pizza or the gratin setting, etc. Do you think cookies bake better at the "whole fish" or "piece of a fish" setting?  Maybe those don't even have different temperatures, just different time settings.  Who knows?  It will probably be a disaster, but I'll post an update if they turn out.  (Update: total disaster, as expected.)

Construction Out My Window

View From The Roof

The Christmas Spirit

Can you believe how soon Christmas is? The past couple of weeks have been a flurry of Christmas shopping and mailing heaps of packages (receiving them too!) We have our Christmas tree up and our building has some cheery lights up, which is fun. It's strange to think that this is already our second Christmas here. I've been trying really hard to get into the Christmas spirit, but it's been a pretty up and down sort of week. I'm so lucky to have the friends and support here that I do, but a friend moved back to the US today. Raku, of course, has been wonderful putting up with all my moods and cheering me up with her kindness, shopping adventures, and when all else fails with chu-hais in conbinis. Part of me is glad to be settled and really appreciative of the life I have here, but part of me is so sad to not being going back for Christmas.

I've done a lot of really great shopping lately, and have several fun posts coming soon about it all, but for now here are some Christmas-y photos.

Home Sweet Home

Our Christmas Tree!  (The same one I've had since I was 22) 

S'mores - One of the only things worth making in a fish oven

Getting all our packages ready to ship

Some days you just need to drink a Sparkling Rose or a Sparkling Nouveau in the Family Mart

Crock Pot Pumpkin Bread

Did you know you can bake in a crock pot? Move over rice cooker, I have a new (much more successful) BFF in the kitchen. Now that it's really fall I've been wanting to make pumpkin bread, and I came across a recipe to make it in a crock pot. I was pretty sure it would be a disaster like more than half of my rice cooker baking attempts are, but it worked like a dream!

You put the batter in a small loaf pan, and then the loaf pan sits in a water bath inside the crockpot to bake. Paper towels absorb the moisture as it cooks (genius!) so that it doesn't turn mushy and gross. When it was finished I was worried that the top looked too soft, but it was cooked all the way through, and even my toughest critic (my charming husband) liked it! I can't wait to make it again.

Yummy batter

Fingers crossed!

Will this really work?

Success!

More Rice Cooker Baking

I've continued my experiments with baking in a rice cooker.  So far my results have been mixed, but I wanted to share a couple of successes.  The first was a tarte tatin where the apples caramelized very lightly.  The presentation was also really beautiful, and it tasted even better the next day.

Tarte Tatin

I also baked a loaf of rosemary bread!  So exciting!  Real yeast bread with a wonderful chewy texture made right in my own kitchen.  This one had to cook on each side, but luckily there were no disasters when it came time to flip it over.

It's just begging for butter, isn't it?

And speaking of cooking, I recently made my own ricotta cheese.  Imported food can be so expensive here, a small container is about $9.  I'll even admit that I splurged for some when I figured out how to make a stovetop lasagna.  But, $9 for ricotta just isn't sustainable.  Little did I know that it's unbelievably easy to make your own!  You basically scald some milk, add a little salt, dump some lemon juice in, let it curdle, and then strain it.  Awesome!  Homemade and a quarter of the cost.

It's so easy!

One Dish Rice Cooker Meal

I wrote previously about how I've been baking in my rice cooker.  I tried another recipe, this time for a full meal, earlier this week.  Raku recently introduced me to farro, and I'm in love.  It's a grain, bigger than rice, with a nutty flavor and a great chewy texture.  I bought some at an Italian grocery and when I saw a rice cooker recipe for Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms and Farro I knew I had to try it.

You just combine all the ingredients in the rice cooker (after marinating the chicken), and turn it on.

I was worried I was going to end up with some gross half-cooked chicken, or some other sort of disaster.  But when it finished there was a completely cooked meal waiting for us.

So, here's my final review.  The mushrooms and farro were great, but the chicken was overcooked.  It's possible that this is my fault because I bought really small chicken breasts that were already pounded pretty thin.  A regular one might have come out perfectly.  When I try it again I'll post an update.  Otherwise I think the chicken could do with some garlic and salt in the marinade, but overall I'd recommend it.

Fancy!

Baking in a Rice Cooker

Will I sound crazy if I admit that sometimes I daydream about my old kitchen in America? It's true. Before coming here I was a pretty good cook, and an excellent baker.  It's the baking I miss. It's such a calming process. You start with all these raw ingredients, but when you combine them in just the right way you end up with a beautiful product. And I love to bake for people. Well, it's hard to do that without an oven.

Lately I've been focusing more on cooking, and I've learned a lot. My techniques are improving, and I''m learning a lot of delicious recipes. (Thai peanut noodles for dinner tonight with homemade raspberry sorbet for dessert) One way that my kitchen has improved though, is that I own a rice cooker now. Cooking rice has always been a pain, but now it's so simple, and the rice comes out perfectly every time.  It's amazing!

Rice Cooker Love!

A couple weeks ago I discovered that you can bake in a rice cooker. Crazy! I've got a lot more experimenting to do, but I've already had some pretty exciting results. Some rice cookers have a cake function, but mine doesn't, I've just been doing everything on the regular setting.  

The first thing I tried was a banana bread recipe specifically for rice cookers.  After the first round of baking it wasn't done, so I let it cool for a few minutes and ran it again. (It won't restart when it's too hot) And then a third time. At that point I was afraid the bottom was burning, but the top still wasn't done, so I took a deep breath and flipped it over  I cooked it once more and it came out perfectly. The bottom (now top) had browned a lot, but although it looked burned it didn't taste that way. (This has been my experience with all three baking attempts). The texture and flavor were exactly what you'd hope for with banana bread.

Look!  I baked something in my own house!

For my second attempt I got a little bolder.  I decided to make my regular corn bread recipe (The Pioneer Woman's recipe to be exact). It's a fluffier, buttery corn bread, not a super dense or super sweet recipe - sort of like a corn muffin in texture. I whipped up the batter and put it in, imagining it would take 2 or 3 "sessions" of baking, but it came out perfectly the first time.

Inside the rice cooker bowl

Yum!

My third attempt was the least successful, and honestly I'm not sure what the problem was yet.  (I need to test more recipes. )  I made a lemon yogurt cake (The Barefoot Contessa's recipe), and after the corn bread expected it to be finished after the first round of cooking.  Yeah, nowhere close.  So, I ran it again.  And again.  It was still gooey on top, so I decided to flip it like the banana bread.  Well, the batter was not as solid as the banana bread, so it sort of slopped all over when I flipped it.  I was pretty sure it was going to be a total disaster.  But after that round of cooking it was done.  The middle was probably a little softer than it should have been (though that might have just been the lemon syrup), but we still ate it.

Not too ugly, huh?

I've done some more reading, and now think I might be able to roast potatoes, and even cook full meals in the rice cooker. It must seem a little crazy, but I'm actually really enjoying this new hobby. I'll update you when I've got more successes (or failures) to share.

American Kitchen Appliances in a Japanese Kitchen

Before moving here I couldn't decide whether or not to bring my kitchen appliances with me.  The problem is that the voltage of the electricity here is slightly lower than in the US.  This doesn't matter with anything that uses a charger, like a phone or a laptop, because the electricity is converted anyways.  But it means that a clock that is plugged in will run more slowly so it won't keep time, and our light bulbs aren't quite as bright here.

I tried to research online how my kitchen appliances would do here, but I couldn't find any concrete answers.  Raku told me she couldn't find the answers either, so they left all sorts of things in the US or got rid of them.  I'm writing this post in hopes that it will help other people when they're trying to find the answers that we couldn't.

 I knew that space would be limited, and I didn't want lots of useless items sitting around, but I also knew how useful these items would be if they did work.  So, I gambled and brought everything.  And here's the great news - everything works!

Our toaster broke during the move, so I can't vouch for it.  But, I read that heating elements wouldn't work.  This hasn't turned out to be true because I've cooked several successful meals in my crockpot.  I've found that the heating element is fine, but because of the lower voltage it doesn't get as hot, so I just use the high setting for low, and everything comes out perfectly.

My food processor also works perfectly.  I've been trying to decide if the blade actually spins slower, but I can't tell.  And even if it does it doesn't effect the performance at all.

My hand mixer and my stand mixer both work too.  (Raku and I used them to make a cake yesterday!)

On a side note, our lamps and my hair straightener and curling iron are working as well.