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Fall Harvest Figs

According to a recent article in the Times, figs are generally considered more flavorful during their second harvest, making these weeks in September their prime season.

Figs carry such complex flavors (they remind us of lush vegetation and flowers heavy with nectar) that more often than not, it’s better to just let them stand on their own.

This simple butter cake we introduced last week on Facebook calls for a grand total of 5 ingredients and really lets the fruit take center stage.

If you’re hesitant about extra dishes to wash, we suggest sautéing a couple wedges in the juices that you might have left over in a pan after grilling steak or pork chops. The savory, rich gravy will perfectly complement the bright green notes of your figs and make them seem even sweeter.

-m

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On Pancakes

Happy National Pancake Day!

We're a little obsessed with pancakes as of late. You must be acquainted with him - a concoction of milk, flour, eggs, and some additions fried up in golden brown disks and happily drowned in maple syrup or honey or browned butter. Breakfast? Brunch food? Snacking? Dinnering? Hangover cure? He's there, he'll always be there, a stacked pile of steaming nourishment for your rumbling stomach and hungry soul. 

A bunch of brunching establishments from abroad such as Sarabeth's, Bill's, Slappy Cakes, as well as domestic ones have set shop around town and consequently spurred a mad frenzy of carbo-loading American breakfast offerings but really, there is no AP Chem class calculations involved. You can do this in the comfort of your home kitchen with a fourth or the cost of the fancy establishments.

We tried this Top Secret Pancakes from Canada for lunch when our Canadian team member lugged back maple syrup from his trip back home (yay!). They were slightly sweet with a crisp exterior and exactly what you crave after waking up late on lazy weekend afternoons mornings.

And yes, you can dress up your standard recipe with sliced bananas, frozen blueberries, various cut fruits, a dusting of powdered sugar or cinnamon, etc etc etc etc but let's were our fancy pants here. 

Insert ricotta cheese pancakes.

If you're like me and can never get enough cheese on a daily basis, (especially since import prices are ridiculously expensive and domestic equivalents are similarly so) well, add some creamy fluffiness to your batter with a boost of soft-peak meringue and ricotta cheese (thank you The Kitchn for the simple DIY recipe). 

Should you feel slightly guilty of carb-binging (which is somewhat baffling to me because pancakes), you could serve a side of chopped or roasted veggies. The above photo is served with basil pesto on the side (and that should count as a healthy offering cuz it has EVOO and herbs, right?). 

There are songs about lollipops and latkas and icecream. It's time that there's a song dedicated to pancakes. 

Check out today's Facebook post on National Pancake Day. 

-K

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Cooking with Kohlrabi

Today on Facebook, we introduced a couple recipes using kohlrabi, a bulb-like stem of a vegetable in the brassica family (like cabbage and cauliflower). Its otherworldly appearance might throw you off, especially if you’re not that familiar with German or East European cooking, but it’s making a comeback in farmers’ markets everywhere thanks to its high nutrition content and inimitable, snappy texture. 

The taste of kohlrabi will remind of you sweet, fresh broccoli stems, with just a hint of spicy radish. Its flavor profile accommodates almost all kinds of seasonings, so there’s no need to feel intimidated. Even a basic sauté with olive oil and balsamic vinegar works wonders. Simply cut off any stray branches or stumps and peel of the tough skin to prep. Thin slices of raw or pickled kohlrabi also make great snacks if you're craving that crunch. 

-m

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Here in San Francisco, I get fresh fish delivered by our local fishmonger, Kirk from Seaforager. He catches local, sustainable fish, and delivers to several areas in San Francisco for members to pick up. He also does sea foraging tours so you can learn about fishing. I haven't done that yet, but would like to!

Yesterday, we got lovely sardines. You can learn about our local sardines here.

I thought of simmering them in soy sauce, sake, and mirin, but to make sure my little kiddies would eat them, I went for a simple panko fry. The sardines were meaty and delicious!

-M

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snacks on snacks

So apparently there's this new meme called #snackwave, and needless to say, we feel involved.

(enlighten yourselves with this piece on Hairpin)  

By way of explanation: food amounts to approximately 99.95% of our SNS feeds.

Don’t get us wrong. There's no dishonor in speed-dialing the pizza palace to cash in on their 2 for $10 deal.

There’s just a certain amount of righteousness that comes with kneading out a ball of baby-soft dough, sprinkling on that cheese, and watching everything crisp to perfection in the oven.

We made this. It was salad-y and healthy. No judging!

Cookpad has a bunch of quick and easy recipes like this 5-minute dough, so you don’t even have to locate your sweatpants to pay the delivery guy.

If you’re like, “No, I’m only available during commercial breaks,” there’s this pie made with gyoza wrappers that we introduced on Facebook the other week on the occasion of National Pizza Day.

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As part of the San Francisco Street Food Festival, we went to the Friday Night Family Meal last week, hosted by La Cocina, a local incubator and support program for food entrepreneurs. 

Upon entering the outdoor venue space, we were given a large bucket to fill as we pleased from the various fried chicken options. There were dessert, cocktails, and craft beer too. Aburaya was there (they have shared their special sauce on Cookpad), as well as fried chicken chefs from Austin, Alabama, and Brazil sharing their take on this traditional dish.

It was finger-licking amazing to say the least!

-M

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We are excited to be part of a recipe contest hosted by local San Francisco Bay Area's Japanese publication, JWeekly. From now until end of August, post your own recipe on their Facebook page.

If you don't use Facebook, you can also email your recipe here: [email protected]

The theme is summer and matcha (using Ito En's matcha powder). 

There are several prizes, including Namiko Chen's cookbook, and the winning recipes will be promoted on Cookpad!

We hope you will share your creations!

[whatscookingcookpad]

Japanese supermarkets in North America

Even as a Japanese native who was born and spent more than half her life in Tokyo, I still get a gleeful kick running around supermarkets here, checking out the new seasonal snacks and ice cream flavors, staring at the meticulously plastic wrapped (dead) fish staring blankly back at me, the blemish-free fruits and vegetables lined up in a row, stacks of a wide array of bento lunchboxes filled with delicious morsels...

This of course, did not get any better once I moved to the States for school and found Japanese supermarkets in my vicinity. While the prices were naturally jacked up by twice or thrice-folds, the temptation to grab a box of matcha green tea kitkats, dried udon noodles, fragrant bunches of fresh shiso leaves, plump fluffy buns stuffed with anko red bean paste (tsubu-an all the way!!), or frozen packs of natto (despite the unfortunate freezer-burnt taste) was still very much there, perhaps even heightened from the rareity (I lived in the boonies, and so couldn't venture out often to the big cities with said supermarkets). Still, the shopping spree was a treasure bounty with the same gleeful kick.

I also happen to be a non-engineer with barely any IT knowledge, so setting up this googlemaps was a fun/frustrating adventure (ok, so halfway through I gave up and cried to an engineer colleague for help) but without further ado, here's a (working) map of the major Japanese supermarkets in the North American continent. It seems like the smaller mom-pop shops come and go, so it may not be the most accurate, but hopefully this will be helpful for those in the continent looking for sugary confectionaries and snacks imported from the far distant country of the Japanz.

For the global list of Japanese supermarkets, check out Japanese Supermarkets Around the World Happy eating!

-K

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Hello from the gray skies of Seattle! 

I'm currently taking a vacation and eating my way through the west coast. The temperature is just right -- a temporary departure from the near 100F 80% humidity to a much cooler 70s climate with occasional sprinklings of rain (and no one pops up their umbrella when it does...minus the tourists. An exact opposite of people in Tokyo).

On a personal note, one thing I'm sad to admit is how much my stomach has shrunken and I simply just cannot finish an entire meal by myself. Not even the smallest portion of ice cream or coffee. Sigh (as I observed my friends scarf down their portion of their meal + the leftovers of mine). But the food is definitely comfort food. Salty fries eaten by hand (instead of poked with a fork), generous smears of seeded mustard on sandwich bread, a plop of luscious whipped cream over a dripping ice cream sundae, gigantic mugs of artisanal craft beer that taste of freshly roasted coffee, and lots of plump stone fruits lying around lazily in their respective boxes at the farmers market....

This was my second time in Seattle, but my first time to properly see the city. It's a beautiful green city with a bubbly tech hub, where young families walking their doggies and yuppies wearing plaid shirts and bermuda shorts reside. The area where I stayed (U district) felt even more of a collegetown as the U of Washington campus was within walking distance. 

The trip continues to SF where I'll be continuing my quest of eating and taking in the cool weather. Looking forward to meeting our NA marketing manager M to explore the city's offerings of Japanese/Asian cuisine (and basically more eating) :D

-K

[whatscookingcookpad]

This is fresh natto. Add a bit of soy sauce and stir 10 to 15 times to get the sticky strings. I added green onions, and this in itself is a simple, healthy, and delicious meal. I had leftover stir-fried king oyster mushrooms so added that with some nori seaweed. Perfect meal.

We have some great natto recipes. Try a few:

https://en.cookpad.com/recipe/1999968

https://en.cookpad.com/recipe/2285753

https://en.cookpad.com/recipe/345625

- M

[whatscookingcookpad]

2014 J-Pop Festival in Japantown, San Francisco. http://www.j-pop.com

Apparently, the number of visitors very much exceeded last year's, and when I was walking around, it was packed everywhere. I handed out Cookpad recipe cards to people in line for food : )

I was pleased to see such high interest in authentic foods, from dried squid, green tea, to natto, as well as much appreciation and curiosity about Japanese pop culture. 

- M

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Among many of the awesome perks we have at COOKPAD HQ, we have two fully furbished kitchens stocked with fresh produce and ingredients. It's a common site to see the kitchen bustling with chatter and laughter during the lunch and dinner hours.

This is a shot of one of my favorite lunches thus far -- a cheese and bacon loaded crepe scattered with mizuna greens, and an Asian-fusion chicken salad. 

This is the crepe recipe (although I swapped the buckwheat flour for cake flour) and the salad was a random toss of whatever was in the fridge. 

- K

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Okonomiyaki are savory flour-based pancakes packed with fillings such as shredded cabbage, leeks, pork or seafood. They are flipped on a hot griddle and slathered with a generous smear of thick Japanese Worcestershire sauce and mayonnaise, and sprinkled with shaved bonito and aonori seaweed. The term “Okonomiyaki” is a combination of “okonomi” (to your liking) and “yaki” (grilled), meaning you can personalize the ingredients to your liking. It’s not difficult to make, so give it a go!

Check out the recipe here.

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Welcome to COOKPAD!

We are the largest recipe sharing community in Japan, dedicated to promoting home cooking, and expanding internationally :D

We have translated over 20,000 of our most popular recipes into English, thanks to our dedicated translation team and the thousands of amazing home cooks in Japan who have shared their recipes with us. Some are traditional Japanese dishes, some have a modern take on Japanese cuisine, and others are non-Japanese dishes but with a twist from a Japanese perspective.

We have an extensive glossary to help you with uniquely Japanese ingredients, and are developing features and partnerships to assist our English speaking audience so Japanese home cooking is easy and fun.

We are excited to share healthy, tested, delicious recipes with you!

Happy cooking :D

International Services Team

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hello world!