rosewater

A guy and a gal. And their two cats.

[houserosewater]

it’s been a while, friends. I started a new job! It’s been about a month and a half now so I’m feeling more settled, which means new posts are coming! 😌 we made this video a while back, it’s our first foray into doing something like this but we’re really inspired by make food, eat food and peaceful cuisine! hope you enjoy it.

[houserosewater]

This past weekend we pulled out our kitchenaid ice cream attachment and made blackberry fig coconut ice cream at home! It was our first time working with figs (I don’t think I’ve even eaten a fig before this). I bought some mission figs at Sprouts and let them ripen prior to using them. Another first for us: this is our first vegan ice cream! I am trying to be more cruelty free in my choices. I’m not vegan (yet?) but was excited to try out alternatives to using milk. 

We used this recipe by Green Kitchen Stories, which makes about a liter’s worth:

Ingredients:

10 fresh ripe figs (preferably mission figs, they are sweeter)

6 tbsp water

lemon zest, from 1 lemon

1/3 cup dried shredded coconut, unsweetened

fresh ginger, 1 inch (2,5 cm), minced (optional)

1/2 cup (1,2 dl) honey (vegans use agave nectar)

2 cups (5 dl) coconut milk

lemon juice, from 1/2 lemon

2/3 cup (1,6 dl) fresh blackberries

lemon balm

Directions:

Start by removing the ends from the figs. Cut each fig into 8 pieces. 

Put them in a saucepan, add water, lemon zest, coconut flakes and ginger. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until the figs are tender. 

Add honey and around 10 blackberries. Continue to cook for about 15-20 minutes (you might want to lower the heat a bit) until it reaches a jam-like consistency. 

When it’s done, remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Use an immersion blender or food processor to quickly mix it together with the coconut milk and lemon juice. Don’t mix too hard, it’s nice with some fruit pieces here and there. 

Chill well in the fridge before you put the mixture in an ice cream maker for about 25 minutes or however long your brand of ice cream machine suggests. 

Serve with fresh blackberries and a few leaves of fresh lemon balm.

Our results were spectacular :)

Our adaptations & notes:

We made this a vegan recipe by using agave instead of honey and a can of coconut cream (not coconut milk and not coconut beverage! We bought coconut beverage from trader joe’s not realizing it wasn’t coconut milk, this has added water so I think it wouldn’t have been as creamy. I think in the future I’ll continue to use coconut cream because I liked the resulting texture of this so much. 

I couldn’t find lemon balm at any stores near me, so I used mint leaves instead. 

We used the kitchenaid ice cream attachment. It requires at least 17 hours of freezing in the fridge, so make sure to do this! We did for about 24 hours just to be safe. Before churning the mixture we put it in the freezer for about half an hour as well. Once the churning was finished we put it in our Tovolo ice cream container. Resist the temptation to eat it now! We had a few spoonfuls before freezing it overnight and it was well worth the wait. Pictures were taken after freezing overnight and the texture (and imo the flavor) were spot on. 

We’re thinking of making a vegan brownie and/or vegan coffee ice cream next. :)

[houserosewater]

The guy and I spent the weekend learning to make stuff for our home. First hand made wood piece! Some imperfections but it's a learning process. If anything I love it more. Might stain it in the near future too. A pipe dream is to just make home goods for a living. Who knows? Maybe one day.

[houserosewater]

Today we made kimbap (김밥)! One of my closest friends is Korean and made the two of us kimbap when we went for a picnic a month ago and I was craving it :) And, these are vegan!

Ingredients:

Steamed rice (3-5 cups of steamed rice, depending on how much you want to make of course)

Nori sheets

Pickled Korean radish (about 5 inches long)

8 oz spinach

Cucumber (about 5 inches long)

Carrots (I used two small carrots)

Shiitake mushrooms

Sesame seeds (optional)

Sesame oil

Directions:

Food Prep Steam some rice! It’s easier if it’s cool before making the kimbap so that the seaweed doesn’t soften, which makes it harder to cut. I had frozen some steamed rice so I just heated mine up and let cool, and I was good to go. Next, blanch the spinach. Squeeze as much water out of it as possible. Tweeze it apart with your fingers. If you’re using fresh shiitake mushrooms, slice them into small pieces. I had dried shiitake slices that I boiled. Julienne the radish, carrots, and cucumber. I sprinkle and massage a pinch of salt onto the carrot slices to soften them up. Rolling Time Ready to roll! I use a bamboo sushi roller to make it easier. Place one sheet of nori on the sushi roller. Put a thin layer of steamed rice on the nori, cover all except for two inches worth of nori. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on the rice. Start layering ingredients! I went with the julienned items first, then topped with shiitake mushrooms. It’ll be hard for me to explain how to do the rolling part. I used Maangchi’s YouTube tutorial as a reference. After rolling, take a sharp non-serrated (I’m no knife expert but I hate using serrated knives) and slice! I was pretty bad at this, but the guy did way better than me :)

[houserosewater]

I’ve been working a lot lately, in and out of different places, but today I decided to stay home. 

I got up early, worked out, cried on the treadmill while reading this advice column, washed my face in the bathroom and recollected myself, then biked a few miles on the stationary. Waited for him to be done with his sets. Got home and made myself miso soup for breakfast. 

When he left for work I watched the latest episode of uncontrollably fond, made 6 cups of steamed rice for freezing (for packing lunches), took a hot shower, made tea. I messaged my best friend who is currently packing up and saying her goodbyes before leaving Toronto for Denmark to start architecture school. I made her a playlist of music I’ve been cycling through to get me through some of my anxiety. 

I recently cleaned the apartment, started taking up the KonMari method and reading the first book. I’ve been going to Muji and Daiso to buy organizers and other things that will help me declutter this place (+ my mind). I packed all the clothes I never wear for donating. I made him do it too. I don’t know if he feels like he’s benefitting from this as much as I am. I couldn’t do it all in one go like Marie Kondo said I was supposed to, but I think I’ll do a second pass once I feel mentally prepared to do so.

One thing I am really thankful to myself for: I spent the most time going through the bedroom, reorganizing furniture and essentially creating a sanctuary for unplugging. There’s a space on the floor for meditating, a humidifier, the right warm lighting, and plants. Last night I showered earlier than usual, shampooed my hair, put on a face mask, drank iced water, and meditated (my form of it anyway) for 20 minutes. I don’t think I felt better until the last five minutes of the meditating. My mind was racing too much and I was distracted by a phone in the room. I want to try not using my phone in the room too much, especially at night. 

Tonight we are meeting friends (a few I haven’t seen in a while) downtown for dinner, to celebrate the birthday of one of them. She is also going away for grad school this weekend. 

Things will be okay soon. I am working on not depending on external things for happiness but trying to work on finding it within. That is why I’m trying to celebrate the little things. I opened this new bag of brown rice tea, and this is the first steeping. 

[houserosewater]

I’m filipino, but I realize I never make filipino food. Truthfully, I don’t know much about the cuisine especially because my parents didn’t cook much while I was growing up. I also don’t eat it much because the cuisine typically has a lot of meat, which I gave up over a year ago. I hope to make some vegan/vegetarian versions of my favorite dishes in the future! 

I was craving something sweet and crunchy, and remembered one of my childhood favorites, turon! It’s fairly easy to make. :) and you can make them in big batches, to enjoy over a long period of time!

You will need:

Plantain bananas - I bought mine at 99 Ranch, and they were labeled ‘Burro Bananas’. It’s very important that you don’t use regular bananas!

A package of lumpia wrappers. Mine came in a pack of 25 sheets. Depending on how many bananas you use and how thin you slice the pieces, you may need two packages. They come frozen, so make sure to thaw them. Some people recommend putting a damp paper towel on top of them to make sure they don’t dry out.

Jackfruit pieces - I know you can buy them frozen, but I’ve always bought them in cans.

Brown sugar in a shallow dish, as needed. 

A small bowl of water, for sealing the turon.

Directions

Open the plantains. It’s harder to peel them like regular bananas, so I use a knife to slice the peel vertically and open them up that way. Cut the banana in half horizontally, then slice each half into thirds. You may want to cut them even more, depending on how big you want the turon to be.

If the jackfruit isn’t in strips when you get it, tear the jackfruit into small strips.

Now you’re ready to start making them! Take a banana piece and coat it with brown sugar. Place it on a lumpia wrapper, perpendicular to one  corner. Place a few pieces of jackfruit on top of the banana. Then, begin rolling the banana in the wrapper. This is optional, but I use water to seal the end of the wrapper to the roll.

Repeat :) until you’re all done. 

If you’re not ready to cook them all, place them in ziplock bags or an airtight container and place them in the freezer. You don’t need to thaw them before frying.

If you are ready to cook them, or at least some of them, :) then pour about half an inch of cooking oil in a saucepan, and place over low-medium heat. You’ll need to play around with this to make sure that the turon doesn’t cook too fast. If the brown sugar leaks through the wrapper, there’s a chance it will burn on the outside as well. I had to figure this out through trial and error and ended up with some burnt ones, but they were still nice on the inside. 

Enjoy! :)

[houserosewater]

One of the dishes I made for dinner last night was 김달걀말이, which is korean rolled tamagoyaki, or zebra egg roll. I slightly modified this recipe from Eugenie Kitchen:

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 tablespoon milk

¼ teaspoon salt

1 seaweed sheet (Nori or 김)

Cooking oil for brushing

Directions:

First, I will start by crushing 1 seaweed sheet into pieces.

Then I’m cracking 3 eggs in a bowl. And I will add 1 tablespoon of milk and a pinch of salt. And stir to combine. You really don’t need a lot of salt because seaweed is already salty.

And I will strain the egg mixture to remove chalaza. It’s to obtain smooth egg mixture for neat egg roll.

Now I will heat a frying pan over medium heat. It’s a non-stick pan but I will lightly grease the pan anyway.

I will pour in small amount of egg mixture just to cover the surface. And I’m sprinkling the seaweed pieces all over the top. And when the egg is half cooked, I will roll the egg from the right side of omelet half way to the middle. If you are left-handed, it will be easier to start rolling from the left. And move the omelet all the way up to the right edge of the frying pan. Adjust the heat if you think the egg is getting cooked too quickly. And if there is not enough oil, lightly grease the pan each time you roll up. And I will pour in the egg mixture to the side of unrolled omelet. It’s like extending the egg blanket for rolling. And again sprinkle the seaweed pieces over the top. And when the egg is half cooked, I will roll the omelet and push it to the right. And I will repeat the process until I use all my egg mixture. The egg roll is really light, even you don’t have to touch the bottom of the frying pan with chopsticks to roll it up.

When it’s done, I will transfer the roll to a cutting board and slice into bite size pieces.

My modifications included 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp mirin, and 1/2 tsp of sugar (I like my tamago on the sweeter side). I regret not straining my egg mixture because it definitely didn’t turn out to be as smooth. Next time!

[houserosewater]

A few months ago the beau and I found Maori Murota’s ‘Tokyo Cult Recipes’ at a bookstore downtown. We didn’t buy it at the time because we had so many cookbooks already, so it sat in our wishlist for a while, but we finally bought the book. It’s very beautifully done and I highly recommend it!  I think it’s the only cookbook I’ve ever purchased where I want to make every single recipe (some of course will be adapted to suit my pescetarian diet). I haven’t baked in months, but when I saw her recipe for matcha white chocolate cake I knew I had to make it (and it’s in the oven baking as I type this). Also some things! I didn’t have caster sugar, so I made some myself using my manual ceramic coffee bean grinder from Hario. The matcha powder I used is by Maeda-en, and I’m using their culinary quality version. I read somewhere that the quality of matcha doesn’t matter much for culinary purposes - I wouldn’t know, but when I opened it it smelled really good 👌

Maori Murota’s Matcha White Chocolate Cake (from Tokyo Cult Recipes)

3 eggs

All purpose flour, same weight as eggs

Caster sugar, same weight as eggs

70g white chocolate chips (2.5oz)

Softened butter, same weight as eggs

1 tbsp matcha powder

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F), and butter and flour a 19 x 19 x 8 cm (7½ x 7½ x 3¼ in) loaf tin. Weigh the eggs, then weigh out the same amount of butter, sugar and flour. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter together for 5 minutes, or until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each one in well before adding the next. Sift in the flour, baking powder and matcha. Combine using a spatula. Stir through the white chocolate chips, then pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes. The cake is cooked when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

More info about Tokyo Cult Recipes can be found here.

And here’s a link to buy her book :)

[houserosewater]

I decided to start a new blog (I don’t even know how many I have now) that’s solely for lifestyle writing. I stopped working a few months ago and in the time I’ve had off I’ve tried to find ways to nurture my mind and soul, as cheesy as that sounds. I’m trying to find peace within myself, I’m trying to slow down, I’m trying to find more focus. I’ve been working a lot on negotiating lighting and space within my apartment, I’ve been crafting more, cooking more, spending more time outdoors. And trying not to feel in a rush to go back to work (a luxury that I really can’t take for granted, as so many don’t have that option). 

cheers!

- rosewater