Do You Know What This Is?

My second DYKWTI article is up on Savvy. Check it out. Cook it up, and share it with EVERYONE. Sorry did that seem aggressive? It was meant to.

An Unexpected Friend

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.” ―John Joseph Powell

I was introduced to Yasu unexpectedly. One day, after living in Japan for over a year, I came home to a box of chocolates on my doorstep. A letter was attached to it. It read:

“Ms Anisa

I am Yasuko from upstairs.

When I was tired from moving work, you gave me a dessert. That was very delicious and thank you so much for that. I wanted to always talk with you.
But I will move on April 30 to next village.
The new address is Nishiawakura village.
If you don’t mind, could you hang out with me sometime?
I am really bad at English, but I hope we could be good friends.”

The dessert she was referring to was actually a blueberry smoothie that I made for my neighbors after seeing them gardening on a hot day.

When I finally met Yasu and asked her why she hadn’t introduced herself earlier she said that she had been too shy/scared. Can you believe it? One year of loneliness, living below my now best-friend.

Alas, we have done much since the letter: smoothie-bowls, food outings, yoga-classes, dinners with her family and yesterday, pottery class followed by a home-cooked Japanese dinner and my black-rice pudding for dessert. On the latter, her father told her mother he absolutely didn’t like it. He said this in Japanese but I understood regardless (hehe) but, no matter. It must have been an unusual taste though black rice and coconut milk is readily consumed in Asia. Yasu’s father reminded me of the many times my own father has made inappropriate comments in Persian thinking no one (but us) can understand him when they (the non-persian speakers) can easily read his facial expressions or sense his intent! Oops hehe.

Seize The Moment. Remember All Those Women On The ‘Titanic’ Who Waved Off The Dessert Cart.

On the second last day of Christmas, I mean ‘The Parents Visit’ we ate. My healthy waffles (recipe HERE), my vegan thai curry (recipe HERE) and lastly, at Hokkaido (the name of the sushi train) in Tottori.

One fruit crumble to rule them all.

It’s safe to say, if I can say so myself, which I can, seeing as this is my blog, that I know how to make a good fruit crumble. And by good, I mean real good. With real ingredients free of dairy, gluten(if you want it to be) and refined-sugar.

Last night, I made said crumble and took it to my dear friend and neighbour, Kaori’s house. Though this has become a recurring habit of ours, nevertheless, it was for a special occasion and that special occasion is Ayyam-i-Ha.

Ayyam-i-Ha, or the Intercalary Days, is a multiple-day Bahá’í festival. It typically falls around the end of February and the beginning of March and is joyously celebrated by Bahá’ís (that’s my religion) in countries and territories all over the world.

It is a period dedicated to being social, hospitable, generous and joyful. In addition, it is a time to prepare for the upcoming Bahá’í fast come March (2nd) though more on that soon!

So, Kaori, her daughter, Emma and I spent last night in yin-yang spirit by consuming a vegan, gluten and refined-sugar-free crumble alongside a huge scoop of budget ice-cream in the same bowl.

Last thing, before I get to the recipe, which I know is why you’re all here anyway, is that this morning, I woke up with a terrible cold and so, was forced to cancel my entire weekend plans. WAH. Nevertheless, it’s giving me some MORE time to work on my blog (as if I don’t harass you all enough) and combine all of my crumble recipes into one neat one, below. Sorry for all the ranting! GO GO GO:

To make the recipe GF, simply use GF oats and ground nuts in place of flour.

Filling:
3 Large apples or pears or a combination, peeled, cored and chopped medium.
1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries, blackcurrants or raspberries or a mixture of all.
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp pure vanilla essence

Crumble:
1 cup jumbo oats
1/2 cup of quick oats
1/4 cup of flour (I usually use wholemeal)
1/2 cup of chopped raw nuts of choice (I like walnuts)
1/2 cup of raw seeds of choice (I like pumpkin seeds)
1 tbsp cinnamon
a pinch of each ginger powder, nutmeg and cardamom
1/3 cup of pure maple syrup or honey
1/2 cup of coconut oil, melted.

In a small pot cook the apples/pears with 1/2 cup of water on med-high heat until soft (about 15 min).

Add berries, cinnamon and vanilla essence and continue to simmer for another min or two.

The secret to a crunchy crumble is a relatively “dry” filling so transfer the fruit mixture to a round cake tin with as little of its water as possible. You can drink that (that is if you have any excess liquid) or use it in another recipe, if you will.

Combine all crumble ingredients together in another bowl until nice and sticky.

Assemble on top of fruit.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and crunchy at 180C.

**Do keep an eye out so it doesn’t burn.

Oishi desu yo!

Avocado chocolate mousse

In my previous post we established that to succeed at health-food blogging one must acquire an adorable child. So, here’s Emma, the cutest one of all promoting my healthy chocolate mousse.

Emma says, well if she could speak, she would say, “have you tried the unusual yet delicious combo that is avocado or as we Japanese say, “abocado” and chocolate?! Here, auntie Anisa presents it in the form of a HEALTHY delectable mousse topped with mixed frozen berries and raw macadamias. I sure digs it.”

Recipe here.

Mini vegan cheesecakes

Spot the bear!


There she is!!!

Finally, I made my first vegan cheesecakes in Japan and since I don’t have a food processor here, I used my $20 blender (slowly/cautiously) and guess what? It worked…wonders!

crust:
1 cup of raisins (cos dates are expensive as shizz)
2 cups of raw walnuts

“cheese”:
1 1/2 cups of raw cashews (soaked for 4 hours)
1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk
1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
1 tsp pure vanilla essence
1/2 cup pure maple syrup

topping:
Whatever your little (sorry, BIG) heart desires – I used homemade blueberry syrup

First, blitz crust ingredients together in a food processor or, if you’re feeling lucky, a shitty blender until mixture starts coming together.

Using your fingers, carefully smoosh crust mixture evenly into a greased silicon 6 slot muffin tray.

Wash your food processor then process all of the filling ingredients together for about 5ish minutes or until mixture becomes nice and creamy, then distribute evenly on top of crust mixture.

That’s it! Cooking time finished! Now all you have to do is pop em into a freezer.

For best results, freeze overnight or for those of you that just can’t wait, 4-5 hours should do the trick.

To finish, top with fresh fruit or something equally instagramable/delicious.

Allow 10-12 minutes of thawing time or eat frozen if you just can’t wait!

Social media isn’t real but these raw cheesecakes are!

Don’t allow the alluring charm of these cakes to fool you. I am not happy baking in the kitchen, I am in bed with a centipede bite. But, I am also surrounded by much love and support and I’m typing on a macbook etc etc so I’m not completely hopeless. Things could always be worse. I could have been bitten by a snake or a bear – not unlikely in my neck of the woods. Anyways, my condition shall deprive me of baking (in this case: not baking) for some time. So, since I’ve been lucky enough to gain a 100 or so new followers as of recently (yep, I’m bragging), I’d like to take this time to re-introduce my healthy, raw, vegan AND idiot-proof cheesecakes.
They’re absolutely delicious and super easy to make. Recipe: here.

A healthier self-saucing chocolate pudding

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from growing up in NZ, it’s that Kiwi women know their shizzle when it comes to producing sweet treats from an oven. In fact, come to think of it, the thing I miss most from my relationship with my ex boyfriend, is his mother’s pavlova (not sure if this says more about me or him). In addition to pavlova, ginger slice, butter cookies and lolly cake, Mrs. Jones OWNED the self-saucing chocolate pudding which she baked with the help of a vintage cook-book for children(this means its easy, you too can do it!), much love and much BUTTER and white flour and sugar. Excuse me while I wash my mouth out with detergent (I joke I joke!).

Last night, I recreated her pudding by switching some of the ingredients for a “healthier” alternative and it worked. Kaori and Taka (my best friends in Japan) approved big time.

Pudding:
1 cup self-rising wholemeal flour (switch for rice flour with 1 tsp baking powder for a GF alternative)
2 tbsp raw cacao powder
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
4 tbsp extra virgin organic coconut oil
1/2 cup almond milk
1 free range egg

Sauce
1 cup soft brown sugar
2 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 1/4 cup of boiling water

Preheat oven to 180C

In a large bowl, mix flour, cacao and sugar

Combine oil, milk and egg in a jug. Slowly add to flour mixture.

Pour this mixture into a greased oven dish. Smooth top.

Sauce time!

Combine sugar and raw cacao powder then sprinkle evenly over batter.

Slowly pour boiling water over the back of a large metal spoon to cover pudding.

Bake for 20-25 minutes – be careful not to overcook it, you don’t want to make cake.

Serve hot with cream, yoghurt, ice-cream or milk of choice.

the best fruit parfait in okayama

Okayama AKA the ‘Sunny Land’ is known for its delicious fruit and in particular, its white peaches. The folk tale of Momotaro, a boy born from a peach who became a warrior, originated in this region. Here, as well as actual whole fruits, an extensive variety of fruit (in particular peach and grape) products are on offer. These include, fruit jams, fruit chocolate, fruit jello-like desserts, fruit tea and even fruit curry! Not sure how I feel about the latter but hey! We ought to give everything a go, right? Perhaps most popular of all fruity products though, are Okayama’s fruit parfaits. These as you can imagine, can be seriously good and are often served with a combination of cream/ice-cream/sponge cake and oddly, corn-flakes – go figure? And range anywhere from 600YEN to a whopping 2200YEN.

So, where is the BEST fruit parfait in Okayama you say? Kurashiki Momoko is my answer (In Kurashiki – well, duh). Kurashiki Momoko is a farm direct outlet located in the Historical Quarter of Kurashiki, run by the Okayama Prefecture Vegetables and Fruits Sales Group. The two-story building is a retail space on the ground floor and an adorable wooden furniture fitted café, on the second. You know a place knows their shizzle when there’s a line out the door!

One of the most popular items on their menu is the fruit parfait, which is available only during the peach season. Fruit options include: peach (well, of course), grape, fig, pear and mixed fruit. They are generously proportioned (especially the 22000Yen one) and seriously GOOD – I mean look at that picture! The café also serves smoothies, gelatos and other cakes/sweets as well as a range of edible souvenirs, all made with locally grown Okayama fruit.

We ordered the fig and pear parfaits and ohhh boy.

However; I do have one tiny complaint though. When we finally reached the counter, after having waited our turn like civil folk, we were escorted all the way to the back of the line again! What had happened is that the shop assistant had assumed (as unfortunately often happens here – sorrynotsorry) that the foreigners had pushed in line. Thanks to a lovely Japanese woman (who with her family had been waiting behind us all along) speaking up, we were apologised to and escorted to the front again. Here’s hoping you won’t have the same experience – A minor glinch compared to the epic sequel, though!

my favourite japanese food is…

As a foreigner in Japan, there are several typical questions that you’re sure to be asked. Alongside, “are you married?” and “can you use chopsticks” sits “what is your favourite Japanese food?” In particular, I’m constantly asked this by my students. In my early days I’d be answering, sushi, tempura and ramen. Now however; after having tried a fair bit of Japanese cuisine, I can wholeheartedly say my favourite is shu creme. These French-style cream puffs will be the death of me.


So what is it? According to the internet, shu cream is a Japanese dessert which translates to “cream puffs”. It is based upon the French Choix pastry where the puff pastry is baked to light and airy perfection with a thin yet slightly crisp exterior shell. The shell is then filled with a sweet and creamy custard. Prior to serving, shu cream is gently dusted with sweet powdered sugar.

In other words, a giant profiterole. Yes such greatness exists!

So forget ramen and sushi. And instead, shu shu shoose shu cream.