Daifuku Mochi (大福餅)

A traditional Japanese confectionery filled with traditional homemade red bean and black sesame paste.

Chewy, soft mochi filled with homemade sweet red bean paste and sweetened black sesame paste :) 

> Origin: Japanese
> Cost: Cheap
> Ease: Easy

   I do realize it's been forever since I last posted. I don't have any excuses besides the fact that Anime North had me sewing day and night, and my course had me studying for la plupart de Juin. In any case, this was requested a long while ago by somebody, so here it is and I'm sorry for the delay! Honestly, boxed mochi isn't expensive to buy. In fact, it's probably even more convenient if you went out to buy it yourself, assuming you live near an Asian supermarket. If you don't, you may find it difficult to find glutinous rice flour, which is pretty essential. In any case, this is the easy/lazy way of making mochi, but it works, so why not? :P However if you don't have heat resistant hands (like I do), you need to be careful with this recipe, I'm not sure what I can tell you. Typically, you'd be pounding the mochi with a kine in an usu (mallet and... mortar-type thing), but here, I use my hands to do so. Please be careful ): ! 

Japanese Cheesecake Recipe

Love cheesecake, but hate feeling the guilt of eating heavy, regular cheesecake? Then this is the recipe for you!

Light, fluffy melt-in-your-mouth cake with all the goodness of cheesecake, but without the heaviness

> Origin: Japanese
> Cost: Moderate - Expensive (depending on your budget)
> Ease: Moderate to Difficult

 I've always loved Japanese cheesecake. Although I love western-style cheesecake a lot, I often find that they are too heavy and leave me feeling bloated and guilty. Japanese cheesecake really is a LOT lighter. It's texture is somewhat like a spongecake-- very light, fluffy, and the best part is... it still tastes like regular cheesecake! It's great when you just want a snack and you can cut yourself a slice and munch on it :) ! However, like all cheesecakes, Japanese cheesecakes are pretty delicate and because this isn't as heavy as a regular cheesecake, there needs to be a lot of moisture when baking. I've tried this recipe twice. The first time, I was using a springform pan and immerse it in water... without wrapping it in tin foil. BAD IDEA. The bottom came out very soggy and some of the batter leaked, though it still tasted great. The second time, I filled a pan full of water and placed it on a rack beneath the cheesecake while it baked, but the result was too dry and the top of the cheesecake cracked. Basic cake making skills would definitely be an asset :) 

Now this recipe... was modified from another site and pasted into a Word document for easy printing... I don't have the site bookmarked or written down, so if you recognize the recipe from somewhere, just leave the site in the comments so I can give them credit for a great recipe! :)

Japanese Pickled Cucumber (キュウリ浅漬け) Recipe

Kyuuri Asazuke :) An easy way to unknowingly finish a whole concombre. 

Crisp cucumbers traditionally pickled to for a light and delicious taste

> Origin: Japanese
> Cost: Cheap
> Ease: Very Easy

 If you're craving a healthy and easy snack, kyuuri asazuke are the way to go! All you need to do is make preparation and let it sit overnight (or longer) to have delicious results. This recipe can be used with any type of cut of cucumber. You could slice them thickly, or cut them into rectangles, but my favourite is cutting them into thin slices. It gives me the illusion that I have more and it also calls for a shorter 'marinating' time because the pickling liquid can easily seep into the thin cucumber. I love this snack a lot, and since cucumbers aren't expensive, it's a perfect snack for a student who wants to eat healthy but wants fast food :) ! 

Steamed Black Bean Spare Ribs (蒸豉汁排骨) Recipe

Steamed spare ribs in black bean sauce... dim sum time anyone? ;)

The aroma of black bean marinated spare ribs, healthily steamed and served dim sum style :) 

> Origin: Chinese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Very Easy

 This is one of my favourite Chinese dishes. Whenever my family and I go to dim sum, my parents know to always order this for me because they know I love it. My mother used to make this for dinner all the time when I lived at home. When she bought a new steamer, she gave me our old one (there's a giant hole in the top from where my sister put it on the stove), and I decided I'd make this for myself too! It's very very simple, you can even marinate the spare ribs beforehand and freeze them so that they're ready-to-steam! This version is exactly like the version you get at dim sum restaurants when you can yum cha, so definitely try it out if you're a fan (like me)! 

Tiramisu Recipe

A heavenly "lift me up" in more ways than one :)

Delicate dessert with rich, creamy marscapone, infused with the energizing ability of two caffeine-ingredients; espresso and cocoa

> Origin: Italian
> Cost: Expensive
> Ease: Difficult

 Everybody loves tiramisu. If you don't love it, it's because you've never tried it. Thanks to a good high school friend of mine, I've my hands on her traditional Italian-esque recipe. I actually asked for this recipe when I was in grade 10, and I never got around to making it til 3rd year university... Gotta love hotmail's archiving. In any case, this recipe is absolutely delicious, but it honestly is very difficult. As you can tell from the top two pictures, I made 2 batches; the second, taller one turning out better. Although I'm an advocate for taking creative liberties, I would suggest following the recipe exactly if you aren't familiar with making desserts like such. Please read the recipe through before you start making it. Honestly though, it was so worth it, I enjoyed every bite :) 

Teriyaki Steak Strips Recipe

Excuse the horrible picture... I think I made this during midterm season :( 

Sweet taste of teriyaki marinated steak strips, grilled or pan-fried to perfection

> Origin: Japanese/Western Fusion
> Cost: Cheap
> Ease: Very Easy

I love meat. I love steak the most. I tend to eat mine rare or medium rare, but to be very honest, eating the same old steak all the time gets kind of boring. The best thing to do with a not-so-good cut of steak would be to cut it up and marinate it awesomely. Most of the time, I love eating my steak plain because I love the natural flavour, but often times, certain cuts of steak won't taste as good, so it's worth it to marinate it a bit to bring out some hidden flavours. Here's one way of doing it... :)

Cocoa Banana Bread Recipe

Cocoa banana bread fresh out of the oven! 

Traditional banana bread with a hint of chocolate fresh from the oven

> Origin: Western
> Cost: Cheap
> Ease: Easy

 Back when I was a little girl, my mom used to make banana bread all the time. Her banana bread was honestly the best thing in the world, and it'd get finished in 2-3 days easily. I loved the sticky top of the bread and the crunchy exterior, and of course, the soft center. Sometimes she'd add walnuts because my dad is a big fan of nuts and she added blueberries one time as well. I remember making it with her a lot as a kid, it was a lot of fun and after awhile, I learned the recipe by heart as well. It was so simple, but so good. Banana bread should be something that everyone knows how to make. The recipe is super easy, so it's hard to mess up/go wrong-- so please try it out and enjoy! 

Lemon Chicken (檸檬雞) Recipe

Adapted from Chinese Lemon Chicken by Bobby (BlogChef.net) :) Thanks for a great recipe! 

Sweetness with a hint of sour :) 

Thick, sweet lemon sauce poured over deep-fried chicken pieces, served over rice
> Origin: Chinese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Moderate

 Lemon chicken is a classical favourite when it comes to Chinese cuisine. Even though it's called lemon chicken, the sourness of the lemon is never overpowering and it complements the sweet flavour well. I've tried many different versions of lemon chicken-- some of which are too sour, or just taste plain weird. To be very honest, I did a lot of adjustment with the sauce after making the lemon sauce. Like with any recipe, it's important to taste the sauce before adding it to the chicken, otherwise you might ruin the whole thing, right? 

Chocolate Banana Cake Recipe

Decadent chocolate cake with the deliciousness of bananas <3 

Rich and moist chocolate cake baked with fragrant mashed bananas and melted chocolate chips, topped with a creamy chocolate ganache

> Origin: Chocolate
> Cost: Cheap
> Ease: Easy

Who doesn't love chocolate cake? Honestly, this is a REALLY rich chocolate cake. This is kind of just a basic chocolate cake recipe you can find anywhere on the internet, with some bananas and chocolate chips added in. *I got the adding in small chocolate chips from a site, but I can't remember for the life of me. If I find, I shall link you guys!* I found that the banana taste was a bit too weak, so next time I make it, I think I'll be more generous with the bananas, since banana chocolate cake is awesome. I might also do a layer cake, in which there's a center chocolate banana mixture for texture-sake. I loved the chocolate ganache, and I tend to make it and just pour like crazy whenever I make chocolate cakes now. I did make a mistake of pouring it on too soon with the first cake I made, it's a lot better to let it cool so it thickens a bit more, so it doesn't all pour off onto the plate :P ! 

Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐) Recipe

Delicate Szechuan spice with the soft texture of tofu :) 

Spicy chili tofu mixed with marinated minced pork in Szechuan style served over rice

> Origin: Chinese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Moderate

I always loved Mapo Tofu. It's a really easy dish to make if you're feeling Chinese food, but you don't want to put any effort in. The hardest part would be finding the ingredients in a non-Asian-invaded city (*cough*Hamilton*cough*). That being said, I imported all my materials (firm tofu, chili sauce, black bean sauce) from my hometown, Markham, when I go back for the weekends. This dish is really customizable. I know there are many people who prefer it to be less 'saucy' and more dry, so they add less water and oil when cooking. Some people like it more spicy, others like it more black bean-flavoured. That being said, this recipe is very 'traditional' restaurant style (minus the MSG). Best is served over fresh jasmine rice, but for the sake of I-am-a-poor-student-and-I-have-no-rice-ness, I used short grain rice, which honestly wasn't bad. I hear there's also a Japanese variation of Mapo Tofu. I'd like to try that someday...... in Japan.

Sneak Peek

Hey guys! 

Yes, I am posting this at 4:00 AM :) and I'm currently trying to resist the urge to post all the recipes all at once. I have around 20 more recipes to post before I'm technically "caught up". I'll try to post them all up as soon as I can, just so that the new projects won't get mixed in with the old ones. I wish I started one of these blogs earlier though. In any case, I'm posting the public link to one of my Facebook albums that contains all the things I've made so far (or most of them anyway). So enjoy! 

Just a little sneak preview of the things I've made... 

If you want me to post any of those recipes next, just leave me a comment or a message or something! 

l'amour toujours♥
michelle 

Japanese Curry with Chicken Katsu (チキンカツカレーライス) Recipe

And the sweet scent of curry sweeps the room, so very delicious...

Japanese Curry with Chicken Katsu
Fragrant Japanese-style curry with a crispy fried chicken breast
> Origin: Japanese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Moderate

Japanese curry is bomb :D! It tends to be a bit thicker than curries from other cultures. It also tends to be more on the fragrant and sweet side, rather than awesomely spicy. In fact, a lot of the time, Japanese curry comes in premade cubes that you can buy at the local grocery store. Those tastes pretty good, but something about homemade is always better, right? In addition, you can adjust the taste to your liking. In other words, the salt or spice level is all up to your taste! Though those premade cubes really do save a lot of trouble, but if you don’t buy them on sale, it’s definitely more costly. Cost for time? Convenience for taste? Sometimes, it’s hard to decide…. If it’s cost versus time, as a student, I shouldn’t even be eating curry then! 

Chicken Alfredo Pasta Recipe

I make this quite often actually, sometimes I use more fatty ingredients if I'm feeling fat... Definitely taste the recipe before you add the pasta in, because once the pasta's in, there's no turning back! 

Chicken Alfredo Pasta (Low Fat)
Creamy margarine-milk white sauce with garlic grilled chicken on spaghetti
> Origin: Italian
> Cost: Moderate
> Ease: Easy 

So this is the first recipe that I took a picture of… It’s not that I never made anything before this, it’s just that I happened to start using my new camera around this time. In any case, this recipe was something adapted from a long while ago. I don’t even remember where I got it from or what the original recipe was. There’s a lot of substituting going on here due to my lack of ingredients, being a poor student… But it turned out pretty good. Just keep in mind that the recipe itself is very make-shift… as I don’t really follow the recipe to a T. So make adjustments where necessary! There’s your disclaimer right there :P ! 

Omurice (オムライス) Recipe

This is the first time I've tried making this, it really is different than how it looks! Still delicious though :) 
とてもおいしかったですよね！

OMURICE (オムライス) 
Fried rice wrapped in a fluffy omelette
> Origin: Japanese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Extremely easy 

After having read so much manga with maid cafes, I’ve always wanted to try making Omurice. After looking up many recipes and watching many tutorials, I decided to try my hand at this. To be very honest, I always thought that it was made with white rice, but then I realized that it wouldn’t be very tasty at all. The fried rice is actually pretty versatile, you can put whatever kind of fried rice you want in it, It’s pretty much up to you. But since tomato and eggs go extremely well together, I decided to make a tomato-based fried rice to suit the egg and ketchup that goes on top. 

Message from the Kitchen

Welcome to cooking with michèle ♥

I'll be your host for this adventure. I'm Michelle. I'm a third year, entering fourth year student studying Life Sciences at McMaster University. I'm 20 years old, and trying to balance my life... To be very honest, this probably won't help one bit :P ~

 

This is me!

I'm not actually blogging this from my kitchen.

I'm actually transferring this from my tumblr to blogger just because... well, tumblr is a bit annoying for these types of blogs. I'm being extremely lazy and using a template. Hopefully I can get around to writing up a code and designing a page during the summer, but right now... I just want to bask in my newfound freedom. As of 11:00 AM today, EXAMS SHALL HAUNT ME NO MORE. Yes, exciting, isn't it? I originally planned to celebrate with some de-stress baking and cooking, but there's no way. I'm way too tired and I still need to clean my room and pack. All in all, I'm so glad that such things are over and done with.

I'll periodically mix some of my old projects with new, since I'll probably have instances where I won't be able to cook/bake/make anything. Plus, it's way too much work to post everything up at the same time... I'll do it slowly. I shall be posting things and recipes and such that I've already made, and things I've yet to try, and places I've yet to go. So please keep reading and maybe you'll see something delicious? :)

l'amour toujours♥
michelle