Sw’hits 2013

Favorite desserts and sweet treats of the passed year.

Tororo on my bowl of natto…

A nagaimo, a long yamaimo or Japanese yam. Naga means long. We often buy only a cut, but the root is 60 cm long or more.

Grated. Tororo tuto.

Like an apple or an avocado, grated yamaimo tends to oxidate and darken in color. Or not, and that’s not previsible. But that was the case with this one so I’ve added juice of sudachi lime to keep it relatively creamy in color. That’s also a nice flavor addition.

Black natto (fermented soy beans). It’s often paired with grated wasabi.

Natto with rice is a regular breakfast item in Japan. So just that with tororo and green tea. A nice simple brunch.

Mandarin mikan daifuku mochi

丸ごとみかん大福 marugoto mikan daifuku is a currently popular daifuku mochi tea sweet. It’s a cousin of the now classic ichigo daifuku.

Most *bakers* wrap the mikans with shiroan white bean paste, but I really like the anko red bean paste and mikan orange pairing.
For the recipes to make the mochi and paste refer to this post (click).

Mikan, Japanese mandarin orange. The early ones have a green skin. Now, they are becoming really sweet.

Azuki beans to prepare tsubuan sweet bean paste.

With kurozato black sugar.

Serve fresh. Then cut :

Fresh green open sandwich

A fresh plant-based tea sandwich. I’m liking more and more vegetable sandwiches. Like these :

carrot sands

It’s a cuke sand’ today… Kyuri, Japanese cucumbers have a thin skin, and thin seeds. Everything is edible.

A thin slice of shokupan (Japanese bread) with the crust cut out. Coconut cream and grainy mustard spread on it. A handful of cress. Sliced cucumbers.