No longer updating, but hope you enjoy the recipes!
Unfortunately, I got too busy to go back to blogging, after I was forced to take a break from it in 2015 because of tendonitis.
But you can still follow my cooking, eating, and travels on instagram: (@spontaneoustomato)
Japanese Pumpkin Soup with Leeks (Kabocha Soup)
.%20This%20favorite%20of%20Japanese%20cafe%20menus%20is%20a%20creamy%2C%20slightly%20sweet%20pumpkin%20soup%20with%20a%20rich%20backdrop%20of%20onions%20and%20leeks.%20Easy%20to%20make%2C%20and%20lovely%20with%20a%20garnish%20of%20chives%20or%20even%20crumbled%20feta%20cheese! "Pin it!")
(Check out my Japanese cookbook giveaway [now closed] for more Japanese recipes.)
It’s pumpkin season, and everyone knows that pumpkins are the superior squash.
Or at least I am much more likely to yield to the temptation of anything that lists “pumpkin” as an ingredient, whereas substitute the word “squash” and… not so much.*
Japanese pumpkin (kabocha) wields even more power over me than the great North American pie pumpkins do.
Nostalgia for Japan (and its wealth of pumpkin-flavored goodness, both sweet and savory-with-a-hint-of-sweet) certainly has something to do with it. But even without the dash of seasoning nostalgia provides, to me kabocha tastes like pumpkin should.
Guest Post: Homemade Ciabatta
. "Pin it!")
Good news: my girlfriend, Paula, finally had time to write her second guest post about baking bread. This post about homemade ciabatta– and some major (and exciting!) life decisions– follows her first guest post about homemade French baguettes. I’ll turn things over to Paula:
There’s just something about baking. It’s a practical form of chemistry. I even could go so far as to call it a practical magic. You take basic ingredients, combine them with care, and the end products make those around you happy.
The products are temporary works of art that you can appreciate with all of your senses. When I watch someone enjoy what I’ve created, it fills me with a sense of accomplishment and joy that not many other things can compare to.
In my first guest post about baguettes, I mentioned that sometimes I fantasize about quitting everything and becoming a baker. After what felt like an age of agonizing about it, I’ve decided to change my major and pursue baking. I’ve already met with the head chef of culinary arts at my school and applied for the program.
.%0AThese%20make%20the%20perfect%20appetizers%20or%20an%20easy%20and%20delicious%20dinner.%20(Or%20spice%20up%20the%20chicken%2C%20Korean-style%2C%20to%20serve%20it%20with%20pickles%20and%20beer!) "Pin it!")
When I first moved back to the states from Japan, I missed the food something awful.
But my Japansickness wasn’t limited to edible pleasures. I also missed all of my beloved Japanese (and Canadian, etc.) friends, and I was shocked by how much I missed speaking and listening to Japanese.
When you’re a language nerd like I am, and you’ve immersed yourself in hours and hours of language study– only to suddenly be removed from the context of being able to use any of that knowledge– you feel a little out of place and a little useless.
Then something perfect came along. Something that allowed me to put that Japanese knowledge to use, while thinking, listening, reading, and translating about food all day long…
100 Homestyle Recipes from Japanese Kitchens
I was contacted by Sarah Marx Feldner, the baker behind Treat Bake Shop, to help with some translations for her upcoming Japanese cookbook.
And not just any Japanese cookbook, but a straightforward and mouth-watering collection of Japanese homestyle recipes; a cookbook to be treasured.
Homemade Chive Butter
Remember that time when I accidentally made butter?
Well this time I made butter on purpose. Progress!
The accidental homemade butter was so smooth, rich, and just a little bit sweet that it won me over completely. We used it to bake cookies, make frosting, and to butter corn on the cob, but mostly we used it on bread.
I never buy salted butter, because I think it’s unnecessary, and I like to be able to know and control exactly how much salt is going into whatever I’m making. But a little grind of sea salt in the homemade butter added a depth of creamy flavor– and perhaps contributed to this hint of sweetness that I may be imagining?– which allowed the butter to steal the show from the toast.
So with fresh bread as a showcase, I set out to make butter again. On purpose. With chives.
Korean Cinnamon Sugar Stuffed Pancakes (Hotteok)
.%20Crispy%20warm%20dough%20filled%20with%20brown%20sugar%2C%20cinnamon%2C%20and%20crushed%20roasted%20peanuts.%20In%20celebration%20of%20the%20start%20of%20the%20colder%20seasons. "Pin it!")
Last fall I visited Korea right after the Chuseok holiday and tried hotteok for the first time.
I couldn’t figure out how I had possibly missed these scrumptious snacks during all of the time I’d spent in Seoul in the past. But then my friend/Seoul-roommate/honorary-sister Kyongsuh gave me an English-language Korean cookbook as a souvenir (or maybe because I’d recently started this blog?) and there was hotteok!
The cookbook described it as a “delectable Korean treat in the winter season.”
That explained it. All of the time I’d spent in Seoul before had been in the summer (icky heat, humidity, and mosquitoes, yes, but also patpingsu, sujeonggwa, and samgyetang, which more than kind of made up for it).
Simple Lemongrass Laksa with Shrimp
There’s a Vietnamese restaurant in Santa Barbara that makes a killer curry.
It’s a soupy, peanutty, spicy, coconut milk broth with a submerged tangle of chewy rice noodles and a choice of chicken, beef, salmon, tofu, or shrimp.
It’s my mission to make it at home. So far I’ve tried and failed once.
What I ended up with was a pretty tasty and standard Vietnamese curry (Cà ri gà) with chicken and potatoes, but the flavor of the broth missed the mark by a long shot.
The two upsides to this slight disappointment were: 1) a hearty cà ri gà for dinner, which I didn’t get a chance to take photos of, and 2) extra fresh rice noodles!
spontaneous tomato 