TOKOROTEN - Japanese Snack Noodle

 TOKOROTEN is not my favorite, but when it comes to hot summer day, it always make me to think about it.  I would go to the corner snack store and ask for it.  The store lady would bring out a bamboo tool - TENTSUKI and pass a jelly block through and out comes this beautiful jelly noodle.  Here is an exlanation from Wikipedia: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokoroten

Tokoroten (心太, ところてん) is a dish in Japanese cuisine made from agarophytes.

Then, a special TOKOROTEN sauce dresses it and it is served.  The interesting thing about it is that the taste to me is not wonderful or something I would really crave for, but it's like a hot summer without having a ice-cream cone.

I made a short cut and decided to boil this Potato Starch Noodles.  Then, I made the TOKOROTEN sauce, sprinkled some dry seaweed flakes. 

To make the vinegar sauce:

Combine 3 parts rice vinegar 

2 parts low sodium soy sauce.

1 part mirin - Japanese cooking wine.

               Sugar can be substituted for mirin in a pinch. 

Then, Slurp it goes.  Ahhh.... Really good.

Large Muffin Top Breakfast

To overcome some of the COVID-19 stay home and teleworking humdrum, I baked myself the large top muffins.

 

The original recipe name is Almond Crumb Top Muffins from my friend's aunt.   I made some modification to the ingredients.

 

 Ingredients:

Topping - Mix all of the followings together.

2/3 C Flour

2/3 C Brown Sugar

1 tsp Ceylon  Cinnamon

5 Tbsp butter, chilled, cut into small pieces

1/4 C Slivered Almonds 

1/4 C Raisins

Batter - Mix all of the followings together.  

Shift flour, baking powder, baking soda 3 times.  Add salt and mix well.

2-1/4 C Flour

2 Tbsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp salt

Mix the following well.   Beat egg and add sugar till foamy and pale.  Hand mix in milk, sour cream oil and zest. 

1 Egg

2/3 C Sugar

1/2 Milk

1/2 C Sour Cream

1/3 C Organic Avocado Oil

1 Tbsp Orange Zest.

Mix flour into egg mixture.

Preheat oven to 375'F - 400'F

Scoop batter equally onto large muffin top pan.  *If needed, coat with butter, than, flour to the mold.  Spread the topping on top of the muffin equally and bake for 10 min.  Check with tester.  If it comes out clean, it's done.

Freeze extras for another morning!

 

Fresh Coconut Meat - Bora Bora Dragonballs - Test 1

 This Bora Bora Dragonballs are my first try.

1 Fresh young coconut - after pouring the juice to a glass to enjoy, scrape the fresh meat out.

                                        Process in food processor to shred fine, but not into paste.

                                        Spread and process in dehydrator as much as you can, but not dried.

2 C Bread crumb - Mix with semi-dehydrated coconut meat.

1/2 fresh Chunk Pineapple - processed in mini food processor - till chopped with tidbits left.

Mix in a bowl, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp +1/8 tsp ground Cayenne Pepper, add pineapple bits; 1 TBsp Coconut Aminos; 3/4 tsp dry ginger powder; 1-1/2 cloves garlic; 2 green onions - chopped. 1 Tbsp Pepperocini, or 1/4 chopped Jalapeno; 1 large eggs, 2 tsp rice wine/cooking wine, 1 lb Ground Pork.

Make into balls and dip in bread crumb and coconut mixture.

Fry at low temp till golden brown.  Serve with various sweet sauce or chili sauce .

 

I  dehydrated the coconut in my electric oven for about and an hour and half.  It is still moist, but not dry.

This is fresh pineapple chunk I saved and froze.  Chopped in a mini food processor.  Left some tidbit in there, but maybe I will just chop them up with knife to leave more larger chunks.

 

This is my first time using Coco Aminos I found at the Sprout grocery store.  

Mixing all ingredients.

Using 1 Tbsp cookie scoop.

Coat with bread crumbs mixed with coconut meat.

Be careful not to leave the kitchen, even for a short 2 minutes.  As you can see from the image, some were burnt.

It's crispy outside and the center melted away in my mouth.   I kind of wished that it didn't melt away in my mouth and had more texture.  The next time, I need have more chunkier ground pork, that might help.