What, why, wherefore.

It all started from a trip to the city, I got two packs of thin sliced Wagyu beef, a bunch of Enoki mushroom and Shirataki noodle from Sunrise market in Astor Place. So I thought why don’t I make Sukiyaki. Then I searched for a recipe, I found this Masaharu Morimoto recipe from Food Network.

There has to be first time of everything. This is my first self prepared “sukiyaki” hot pot and I hate to say that it turned out to be so good. So humble, I know. Tonight, I am preparing the meal for 5 people but Kristine couldn’t make it. So there were just me, Thomas, Lorry and Oskar.

Sukiyaki

Soup

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup mirin
• 1/2 cup sake
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup Dashi stock

the stuff

• 1 scallion
• 2 packs thin sliced wagyu beef
• 2 leaks
• 2 Nappa cabbage
• 1 bunch Enoki mushroom
• 1 pack Shirataki (yam noodles)
• 1 pack instant noodle (my recipe though)
• Salmon and jumbo shrimps

Bring all the mix into boil, add the scallion and the leaks. There is no exact instruction for making sukiyaki. In Japan sukiyaki is cooked on the dining table, and each person uses chopsticks to pick up the ingredients from the pan as they are cooked. Therefore, all the ingredients are not put into the pan at once, but little by little.

Strawberry summer cake

I saw the recipe from the Smitten Kitchen and she said she got it from Martha Stewart. It is one of the most beautiful cake I have ever seen. It doesn’t have those creamy buttery fat but it does have a lot of sugar.

• 6 tablespoon unsalted butter (I don’t have so I sort of skipped the extra 1/2 teaspoon)

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar (minus 2 tablespoon for the sprinkle)
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (while Smitten Kitchen used half and half of barley flour and the all-purpose, but I replaced a slightly with whole grain flour)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 pound (450 grams) strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the pie tray, I used a 9 inch oven bowl. In the mean time, whisk flour or flours, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with a whisk. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared the oven bowl. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries. Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes.

This cake is so yummy, I got a lot of compliments from the guests. I can’t wait make it again next week. And this time, I will find the bigger pie tray because this time I found that this 9 inch oven bowl is making my cake too thick and fluffy. Try to put the strawberry just on the top of the cake, just one layer. Because baked strawberry made the cake too wet to that it can’t stay in shape when we cut it. 

(Edited 09.05.11  - After buying a new pie tray, I made this cake again for my move in party of my Union Square apartment and this time it was perfect!)