Delight of the day: Kukicha

I recently have got a new Japanese - style kettle and cups and I was so eager to use them! I and my hubby love trying various types of teas. He likes particularly Indian spiced tea while I prefer light ones. However, infusing tea leaves such a pleasant scent in your room, doesn't it?

Today I'd like to introduce you a particular green tea called "kukicha"; a Japanese blend made of stems, stalks and twigs. Kukicha has a unique flavour and aroma among teas, due to its being composed of parts of tea plants that are excluded from most other teas. It's mild and slightly sweet. It's recommended to steep into hot water at around 80 °c for 8 - 10 minutes. Kukicha is special because it's naturally very low in caffeine without any industrial decaffeination (because of the very long drying process) and for this reason, it's also suitable for kids.

A mochi made my day

I really really missed the Japanese mochi a lot, so when I found it for sale I immediately grabbed a pack! Some of you may not know what I'm talking about. Mochi is a Japanese rice cake, commonly consumed during the New Year, made of glutinous rice pounded and molded into round shape. There're various assortments, I love all of them but this time I fuond the green tea flavoured ones. I'm going to show you a picture of the preparation of traditional mochi below.

Source: http://honoluluweekly.com/food-box/2009/12/pounding-in-the-new-year/

Japanese mochi is well-known and eaten in Thailand too. Italian people might not like these kinds of dessert much, seeing from my family, they don't like any kinds of our sweet made of glutinous rice.

And above are the green tea mochi I've enjoyed a lot ^^ They were very tender and delicate, just as I was looking for! Now see how I rendered them more perfect ^^

Nothing would have been more genius than accompanying them by a cup of hot green tea (never add sugar in the green tea!!!). They really made my day ｡◕‿◕｡

Colorful low-fat muffins! (Why not baking them to celebrate Carnival?)

Tomorrow it's carnival! We normally don't do much on carnival, we don't disguise ourselves except our kid who goes to school in costume. We also brought him to see some funny parades; however we've never been to a famous one like the Venetian one yet. I just learnt that the word "carnevale" means "farewell to meat". Some years I helped my mom-in-law making the classical carnival fried pastry called "Frittelle" or "Chiacchiere" or "Bugie".

Two days ago, I baked some of my-styled muffins. Then I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea proposing them in the occasion of the carnival celebration too. My muffins are not the same muffins you know because I replaced butter with low-fat white yogurt for the reason that all my family members could have them without worring much about their health and weight! They came out to be very light and not less yummy than those made of butter. I decided to make some with cocoa powder and the few with matcha green-tea powder. I love every food with green-tea flavour such as spaghetti, ice-cream and cakes. How I adore its scent and taste!

This's my recipe. 
Ingredients:
(I measured everything by the cup of yogurt)
1 cup of low-fat white yogurt
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups of sugar
3 eggs
1 cup of vegetable oil
4 tea spoons of baking powder
1 1/2 table spoons of matche (green-tea) powder
2 table spoons of cocoa powder
sugar grains and tails for topping decorations

Before baking

Preparations:
1. I used 2 large bowls where I put half of sifted flour and baking powder.
2. I added the cocoa powder into one bowl and the matcha powder into another bowl. I mixed the ingredients well.
3. In a large bowl I whisked the yogurt with sugar, then I added eggs and vegetable oil and I mixed them well.
4. I united half of the well-mixed wet ingredients to the bowl with cocoa powder and then I mixed them very well until it became smooth. As well I poured another half of wet mixture into the bowl with matcha powder and mixed well.
5. I filled the mixture into muffin-sized containers for oven. At last, I put the sugar grains and tails on top.
6. I baked them for about 18 min. at 180°c.

The final result!

Have a great time on Carnival!

Waffles...and my first green-tea flavoured whipped cream!

First of all, who has known that yesterday (23 Jan.) was the Chinese New Year's Day?? The Chinese new year starts with the new moon on the first day of the year. This year is the year of Dragon, according to the Chinese calendar! (Last year it was rabbit year) The Chineses believe that Dragon (my Chinese Zodiac sign) is the symbol of power and prosperity, so we should expect a better year. Well, there's no bad point expecting a better year, so why don't we do so?

This's the prediction of the year 2012:
"Expect this to be a very energetic year, filled with optimism, power and entrepreneurship. This year is of water dragon which means that even the most powerful will give a patient hearing to the weaker, and will try to see through their point of view, better alliances and decision will take place."

Now let's talk about my waffles!!! I mentioned in a post in December that I got a waffle maker. Then I've used it a couple of times. Last Saturday my son asked if I could make some waffles again...and they were done!! :) He loves them with chocolate chips. Guess what came into my mind about a matching topping! One of my friend brought me a sachet of green tea powder when she came to visit me. A green-tea flavoured whipped cream sounds great on top of waffles! You know, I never made fresh whipped cream before. The result was; the taste was incredibly good...but please don't give importance to the aspect...ahahaha!! As in the picture below, it had an ugly shape. I may be going to buy a right tool to shape a beautiful whipped cream topping.

And now...I'm proud to present my home-made Waffles (with chocolate chips assortment) and my very first Green - Tea flavoured Whipped Cream!

To do the waffles, I followed the recipe of Two Good Eggs (a breakfast blog), a nice and creative  breakfast blog I'm following. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients for waffles:
1 1/2 - cups flour
4 - teaspoons baking powder
1/2 - teaspoon salt
3 - teaspoons sugar
2 - eggs (separate yolks from whites)
1/2 - cup butter (melted and cooled)
1 3/4 cups whole milk

Directions:
1. In a large bowl add flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix well.
2. In a small bowl or cup mix yolks, butter and milk together then pour into dry mixture. Mix well to combine.
3. Take the whites of the eggs and whisk them into stiff peaks.
4. Then fold the stiff whites into batter. Mix to combine.
5. Take a laddle and a half and pour into your waffle iron and press. Should take about 5 min. to become fully cooked and golden.

Let's move on to my green-tea flavoured whipped cream!
(I'm sure all of you are better than me whipping the cream.)

I left the bowl and the beater in the fridge before using as suggested in some websites. I poured 1 cup of whipping cream into the bowl, whisked it quickly until obtaining bubbles. Then I added 1/4 cup of white sugar (should reduce a little bit if you don't want it too sweet as I did), continued beating quicklier and after some minutes I added 1 teaspoon of green tea powder and continued working until I got a well whipped cream!

You should believe, it was superb!!!