Interesting Q&A

http://www.kyoto-yaoichi.co.jp/qa/index.html

I came across this neat website recently and was soon enchanted by not just the looks of the website, but also the business behind it. I particularly like the Q & A – it has such a wealth of information that I really have to take my time to read everything! Here are some picks.

Q: Why are nectarines sour when ripe?

A: Nectarines belong to the family of peaches. Individual nectarines may vary, but generally, strong sweetness together with moderate sourness/acidicty is a natural characteristic of nectarines, which remains even when ripe.

Q: What is the difference between celery and mini celery?

A: There are green, yellow and yellowish green varieties of celery. The stem of celery is typically thick/fat. It has a subtle scent and less fibrous than mini celery, thus making it suitable to be eaten raw in salads etc. Mini celery is also called the green variety. It has a strong scent and quite fibrous, thus making it suitable for use in cooked dishes.

Q: Does “lemon tomato” taste like lemon?

A: It does not taste like lemon. It is called a “lemon tomato” because of its yellow colour and shape.

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Mini fruit tarts

I have been thinking of making fruit tarts ever since I bought the tart cases more than 3 months ago. Finally got round to making them. I love the look of glaze on the fruits – what an amazing difference glaze makes!

I used to ‘cheat’ and make the custard filling from custard powder – the kind that comes conveniently in a tin. This time, I wanted to try my hand at homemade custard made from egg yolks, milk, butter, sugar and cornstarch. A little tedious since it involved ice baths for the mixture to sit in and transferring here and there. But, it was well worth it, especially if you like to customise the taste to your own liking, by switching cow’s milk to soy milk and adding less sugar etc.

Normally, I would have made shortcrust pastry the conventional way for fruit tarts, but I came across an adapted version that required heating the butter and sugar in the microwave till it started to brown, before adding it to the flour. Seemed promising enough. Not unexpectedly, turned out that the pastry had a slightly burnt nutty flavour to it. Some people might like it better this way, which was fine, but this method also made the pastry extra crumbly and a bit more messy to eat. I only had to give the edges a tap and they would crumble right off.

The fun part was in arranging the bits of colourful fruit on top and glazing them. TA-DA! All done!

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Making of umeboshi

Umeboshi is the Japanese name for pickled plums. It serves as a kind of appetiser and frequently appears on the side of a ‘bento’ or lunch box. Sometimes, it is also the stuffing of choice in an ‘onigiri’ or triangularly shaped rice ball. This is my first time at trying to pickle anything. I imagined that it would be very fulfilling to see the changes taking place every day until the time when they can finally be eaten. Plums from Wakayama are the best for pickling. Intensely sour and bitter, not very nice at all when you try to eat it raw – as I did.

To remove the bitterness, I soaked the plums overnight in water. So far, so good. The next day, I was supposed to dry them, rub coarse sea salt and pour shochu/vodka all over the plums. But, since I had neither shochu nor vodka at home, I decided to skip this step and went on to place them in a jar with a weight on them. The jar was then stored in a cool, dark place for 2 days. The picture above was taken after the 2 days in darkness. After the liquid comes out of the plums, there is supposed to be a great deal more work to be done before finally storing it in a dark place for another 10 days to 1 year. (Like wine, the older they get, the more flavourful they become.)

However, looking at the jar of plums in front of me, I could not decide whether sufficient liquid had came out of the plums yet, so I decided to leave it for 1 more day. Bad idea. 1 day later, the plums had black, white and green mold growing on them. Too gross to have a picture taken. My first attempt at pickling had ended prematurely in disaster.

I don’t know which was a bigger mistake – storing it for longer than necessary or deciding to skip the shochu/vodka. Now, I have to wait till next June to try again. The best harvest for plums (to pickle) is only in June.

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