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 :) ! 

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... :)

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! 

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.