Granola Bar

I hardly eat or make desserts unless there is a special occasion. The other day, I was invited to a social event where tasting snacks and chatting are main activities. I brought my homemade granola bars for the party.

It might be not a good idea to bring these bars because they started melting under the hot weather. However, I received a lot of compliments about my simple homemade snack. Many people asked me the recipe. I am pleased to share it with you here :)

Ingredients (8x8 inch pan):
3 cups of granola, pumpkin seeds, chopped dry fruits, or nuts, etc
60 g of marshmallows
50 g of unsalted butter
1 tbsp of honey

Direction:
1. Place the marshmallows and unsalted butter in a bowl and let them melt completely using a microwave.
2. Add the granola and honey in the bowl. Mix them well.
3. Grease a flat pan (I used 8x8 inch pan). Place the mixture in the pan. Lay a wax paper on the top of the mixture and press into the bottom of the pan evenly.
4. Refrigerate it for 15 to 30 minutes. Cut into bars.

Plum and Blueberry Clafoutis

Our plum tree produced a lot of fruits this year. My husband enjoyed eating them. But they were too sour for me. In front of tons of plums, I thought about many possibilities to cook and eat them. Then, making clafoutis suddenly flashed into my mind. It was already ten o’clock at night. But I decided to just do it!

The dessert was done before the midnight. My husband and I ate all before the next day of afternoon!

Clafoutis is a French baked dessert. It is very easy to make. Mix with eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, and flour. Pour into the tart pan. Add fruits such as cherries, berries, apricots and plum. Then put it into the preheated oven. 30 to 40 minutes later you are eating this delicious dessert.

Do not remove pits of fruits. They give a special flavor to this simple sweet!

Pralines

Pecan pralines are one of the Louisiana’s landmarks. They are a very sweet flavor with crunchy pecan nuts. I love to eat them with a cup of coffee au lait or milk tea.
It is quite expensive if you buy. But it is very easy if you make. Try this sweet, which was originally from Franc!

Tiramisu Mousse

Last week a cold rain turned into a wet snow and then dry snow before midnight. It snowed in South Louisiana on December 4th! I remember my neighbor Wayne, who is native of New Orleans, said after a snowfall last year, “Last time I saw snowing was ten years ago”. So it is extremely rear to snow here two years in a row.

In Japan when you do something that you usually ignore, people tell you, “It will snow”. For example, lazy Johnny, who does not clean his room and does not care of living in mess, suddenly cleans his room very well. Then people would say, “It will snow because Johnny cleaned his room”.

I usually do not prepare or invent a complicated dessert. But I accidentally made this dessert on snow day. First, I intended to make tiramisu but later I found out that I ran out of eggs. I had to use the mascarpone cheese, which had little time left before the expiration date. Then, I came out with this fabulous dessert and also it snowed in South Louisiana! This might be because I made this delicious tiramisu mousse.

Ingredients:
250g of mascarpone cheese
150 cc whipped heavy cream
50cc espresso coffee
100cc milk
80g sugar
5g unflavored gelatin
1 teaspoon of liquor (Kahlua, rum, brandy, etc.)
3-4 tablespoons of coca powder
1 (9-inch) cookie crust

Directions:
1. Beat the whipped heavy cream well in a large bowl until it becomes foamy.
2. Add the milk and liquor in the bowl.
3. Mix the hot espresso coffee, sugar and gelatin in a small bowl until the gelatin completely dissolves.
5. Add the espresso mixture into the large bowl and mix them well. Pour into the cookie crust.
6. Refrigerate it over night. Sprinkle the coca on the top of the tiramisu mousse before serving.

Japanese Sweet Potato Bread

Thanksgiving Day is the day to express gratitude to family, friends and harvest. This year I have special thanks to you, the many readers of my blog. Since I have started this blog, I received lots of feedback from all over the world, which astonished me a great deal. Someone like you, who does not know me and I do not know you, visited my blog by chance – via either Google or other reference sites. Then, spent sometime glancing on my blog. I thank you very much for visiting my blog.

I started my blog in order to collect useful ideas, tips and facts about healthy and enjoyable cooking from books, websites, food experts and also use my personal experience and that of my many friends and family members. So, I can go back anytime to remind myself of healthy eating and, at the same time, share this knowledge with others who may have similar interests with me. I am grateful to know that many people really enjoy my blog and spend their valuable time with me.

This Thanksgiving Day I made this sweet potato bread. I gave one loaf to my good neighbors, Janet and Bert, and served another one to our guests at the Thanksgiving dinner. So I would like to share this recipe with you.

I used Japanese sweet potato, which we call Satsumaimo. Satsumaimo (Ipomoea batatas in the formal scientific term) is different from yam or regular sweet potatoes one can find in a regular super market. I can found Satsumaimo in any Asian market. They are called Korean sweet potatoes, Japanese sweet potatoes or just Asian sweet potatoes. However, these potatoes are native to South America and came to Japan around early the 17th century via China. These sweet potatoes have a thin, reddish brown skin with a golden flesh. The taste is very sweet, almost like chestnuts, and has a crumbly texture. They are rich in vitamin C and fiber. Their vitamin C is hardly destroyed by heat.

Since the potatoes themselves have a sweet flavor, adding a little bit of sugar and butter make this simple cake incredibly delicious. I wish many stores could sell this tasty and inexpensive Satsumaimo in the US. If you are lucky to find this sweet potato, please try this delicious bread!

Ingredients:
300g of Satsumaimo (Ipomoea batatas)
½ cup of milk
2 eggs
50 g of butter at room temperature
1/3 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons of baking powder

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 320 F degrees.
2. Peel the skins of the sweet potatoes and dice then into small pieces.
3. Heat the milk, sugar and the sweet potato pieces in a pan and stir until the potato pieces become soft. Add the butter and mix them well.
4. Put the eggs in a bowl and beat them well. Add the flour and baking powder and stir them well. Add the potato mixture and mix them gently.
5. Place them in a baking pan. Bake it in the oven for about 40-50 minutes.
6. Take the cake out of the pan and let it cool off. Slice to serve.

Banana Bread

We have seven big banana clusters in our yard. This is like a total of 20-30 individual trees. Every year they produce a few bunches of bananas.

For the first few years my husband promoted his bananas and gave away most of them to his friends and neighbors. Unfortunately, our bananas are not sweet but very sour. So people who appreciate our bananas become fewer and fewer every year. These years none of them eats our bananas including my husband and I.

So, this year when I first tried this delicious banana yogurt bread, I was extremely pleased that our bananas are certainly valuable. Because our bananas are not sweet, I added honey, which enhances and gives them an extra flavor. Also I put yogurt to make the mixture smooth. Perhaps, adding some liquor brings extra richness on this delicious bread.

It is already November, but a few clusters of bananas will be ready for Thanksgiving and even Christmas! Indeed, Louisiana is a semi-tropical place.

Ingredients:
2 bananas, smashed
2 eggs
80g sugar
2 tablespoons of honey
1 cup and 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/3 cup of yogurt
4 tablespoons of butter, soften

Optional: ¼ cup of crashed walnuts, pumpkin seeds, raisins and/or etc.

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 320 F degrees.
2. Put the eggs in a large bowl and beat them well.
3. Add the sugar and mix them well.
4. Add the honey, flour, baking powder, yogurt, butter, banana and walnuts and stir them well.
5. Bake it in the oven for about 30-40 minutes.
6. Take the banana bread out of the pan and let it cool off. Slice to serve.

Castella (Honey Sponge Cake)

Castella is a very simple but delicious sponge cake made of sugar, flour, honey and eggs. It does not require any dairy products. Some in Japan say that this cake was brought from Portugal. Others say it is from Holland. Yet, it is certain that this cake was introduced in Nagasaki, Japan around the early 16th century and spread to all over Japan. Since then, it has been one of the most popular desserts in Japan.

Japan had a strict foreign policy, which isolated it from foreign countries, between 1616 and 1858. However, there were a few exceptions. Some limited places were allowed to have diplomatic relations and trades with confined foreign countries under the government of Edo. Dejima, which is a small man-made island in Nagasaki of about 3.7 acres, was one of them. Dejima was mainly open to Holland and Portugal. During the restricted foreign policy era, this tiny island became a very important site to introduce not only foreign commodities but also western medical and astronomy knowledge, and new ideas about equality and freedom. These new ideas influenced people, who eventually ended the government of Edo in 1867.

Even today, castella desert from Nagasaki is distinctive and famous for its rich honey flavor. If you ever go to Nagasaki in Japan, try castella and visit the Dejima island, which is preserved as one of the most historic sites in Japan. However, up till then, try my recipe to enjoy this simple honey sponge cake.

Ingredients:
110g of sugar
100g of all-purpose flour
4 eggs
2-3 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of hot water

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees.
2. Place the honey in a small bowl and add the hot water. Mix them well.
3. Beat the egg s in a large bowl until they become foamy. Add the sugar and beat them well.
4. Add the honey mixture in the large bowl. Mix them well.
5. Add the all-purpose flour and fold them evenly.
6. Transfer the mixture into the pan and spread it evenly. In order to remove air inside of the mixture, drop the pan from a height of a few inches.
7. Bake it for 10 minutes and reduce the temperature to 300 F degree. Continuously bake it for about another 40 minutes. Do not open the oven during this process!
8. Take it out from the pan and let it cool. Wrap it with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Refrigerate it for one or two days so that it would be richer and more flavorsome like the one in Nagasaki.

Tiramisu

My husband and I occasionally go for grocery shopping right after working out at a local gym. The other day we were following this routine. While I was busy selecting tomatoes from the big pile at the grocery store, my husband put some items in our cart. Later I found three pieces of tiramisu there.
“It is more calories than we have just spent in the gym! Put them back!” I yelled at him.
He disappointedly stared at the tiramisu and said, “Yeah, that’s right… “
Then, he put them back.

I felt guilty after that. We have not had any sweets after we intensively started our exercise program in order to get rid of our extra fat we have obtained during the summer. Tiramisu is my husband’s most favorite desert. It might be too tough for him not to have his favorite sweet more than a month.

Next day, we went to the gym, again. When I started running, I realized that the TV on my treadmill was on and I tuned in on the Food channel, which was showing various kinds of fabulous sweets. Perhaps someone is telling me I should give some sweet reward to my husband and also myself. Afterward, I decided to make tiramisu.

Luckily, we got super fresh and organic dozens of eggs from a local farmer family; Jim and Carolyn.

There is no comparison between homemade tiramisu and tiramisu in most of the stores or restaurants. This is because they use substitutes for eggs, cheese, and coca. Homemade tiramisu is way much better if you use the real and fresh ingredients.

Use whipped heavy cream instead of the egg whites if you like a richer taste. Note that it would be more calories, but they are worth it ;)

Ingredients:
500g of mascarpone cheese
4 eggs at room temperature
¼ cup of sugar
40-45 of ladyfingers
1/3 cup of espresso coffee
1 teaspoon of liquor (Kahlua, rum, brandy, etc.)

3-4 tablespoons of coca powder

Directions:
1. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Place the egg yolks and the sugar in a large bowl (if the eggs are not super fresh and not organic, I recommend you to use a double boiler). Beat them well. Add the mascarpone cheese and mix them well.
2. Place the egg whites in a medium bowl and beat them well until foamy.
3. Add the whipped egg whites into the mascarpone mixture. Mix them evenly.
4. Combine the espresso coffee and the liquor in a flat pan. Dip the ladyfingers in the coffee mixture (do not soak them!). Place them in a single layer in the baking pan. Spread half of the mascarpone mixture evenly on the ladyfingers. Repeat the second layer of the dipped ladyfingers and the rest of the mascarpone mixture.
5. Reregulate this tiramisu mixture for about 8 hours. Sprinkle the coca on the top of the tiramisu before serving.

Sweet Kidney Beans

I do not remember the name of the fresh beans I purchased from a farmer at the local farmer’s market. But I am sure this is a kind of kidney beans. They are two to three times bigger than regular red kidney beans, which are frequently used in Cajun/Creole cuisine in Louisiana.

First, I cooked a Cajun bean soup using these beans. It was very good. However, when I tasted them, I immediately felt they might also be good for sweet beans.

Usually, Japanese black beans are used for this dish. These simmered sweet beans are considered a special dish and typically are served in the New Year’s Day. I love these black sweet beans since I was a kid. Therefore, my mother cooked this dish for a few times a year.

My instinct was correct. These particular kidney beans went very well with the sugar and soy sauce. They can be served as a great appetizer or nice cold dessert.

Ingredients:
1 and ½ cups fresh or dried kidney beans
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons of soy sauce

Directions:
1. If you use dried kidney beans, soak them in water overnight.
2. Wash the beans well. Put them in a large pot and water until all of the beans are covered by water.
3. Bring to a boil. Then discard the water. In order to remove the harshness of the beans, repeat this process for two to three times.
4. After step 3 is done, add water until all of the beans are covered by water. Also add the sugar and soy sauce. Bring to a boil. After boiling, lower the heat. Simmer for one hour to one and half hours until the beans become very soft.
5. Refrigerate the simmered sweet beans and serve them cold!

Greek Yogurt with Honey and Walnuts

According to the Global Sex Survey done by Durex, a British condom maker, every year, Greece has ranked No. 1 as the most sexually active nation in the past few years. My husband, whose native country is Greece, said, “This might not be accurate because Greek men are more likely to exaggerate how macho they are.” He may be right. It is difficult to tell this survey is correct since the questions are so intimate and it is impossible to verify the results are true.

It is said that this simplest Greek dessert, Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts, is an aphrodisiac. Couples eat this sweet before going to bed. Is this dessert really an aphrodisiac?

Surprisingly, yogurt, honey and walnuts contain high amounts of “fertility vitamins”, such as vitamins C, E, essential fatty acids (EFA), and zinc.

As stated by Bell Online:
Vitamins C, E and EFA are important for women.
Vitamin C “helps to protect cells and strengthen the immune system.“
“Vitamin E may increase egg quality. “
“EFA can help the health of your reproductive system, insulin levels, heart and brain.”

For men, Vitamins C, E and zinc are essential.
“Vitamin C has been shown to reduce DNA damage in sperm by 91%. It is also shown to reduce agglutination and abnormalities.”
“Studies show that vitamin E can increase sperm potency by 2 ½ times.“
“Even a mild zinc deficiency can cause drastically lower sperm counts. Zinc may also improve sexual function.”

Yogurt is rich in zinc. Walnuts are high in EFA and also they contain some good amounts of vitamin E. Honey is an excellent source of vitamin C. Some vegetables and fruits are high in vitamin C. However, after harvest, they rapidly loose their vitamin C potency. As compared with these vegetables and fruit, honey keeps its vitamin C well.

So, is Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts an aphrodisiac? Honey is rich in tyrosine, which helps reduce stress. Eating this simple, yet, extremely healthy dessert may help relax. As result, people may feel intimate with their partners and this may be consistent with the results of the Global Sex Survey.

Greek Yogurt with Honey and Walnuts Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup Greek yogurt
¼ cup walnuts
3-5 tbsp honey

Directions:
Place the Greek yogurt in a bowl. Add the walnuts and honey. That’s it. Enjoy it!

Gâteaux Chocolat (Chocolate Cake)

March 25 is Greece Independence Day and my husband’s name day. As I mentioned before, people in Greece eat cod fried in kourkouti. Of course I made this dish but beside this I decided to make something special, Gâteaux Chocolat. This is a very simple and easy chocolate cake, yet delicious. Make it a day before so that the taste would settle and be better.

Ingredients (a 9.25x5.25 loaf pan):
100g chocolate (semi-sweet dark chocolate is recommended)
50g butter
50 ml heavy whipping cream
3 eggs, separated
100g sugar
40g unsweetened cocoa powder
20g all-purpose flour
*Optional: 1tsp rum or brandy

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
2. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt it with butter over hot water or using a microwave.
3. Beat the egg yolks with half of the sugar, mix with, heavy whipping cream, cocoa powder, flour, and rum (or brandy). Mix with the melted chocolate and butter.
4. Whip the rest of the sugar into the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff and in peaks.
5. Slowly mix 3. with 4.Cook in the preheat oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, low the heat to 330 F degrees and back for 30 to 35 minutes.