Let's Cook: Miso Ramen!

First full new post of the Azuki Ice Cream reboot! 行こう！(let's go!)

So I'm a full on college student now. Like dorm room living, group work doing, midterm related crying, sleep deprived spacing out college student. I was in community college before so technically a college student but I feel a lot more of the student activity related soul death now. Anyway, this new living situation makes cooking a lot more difficult. My residence hall does have really nice kitchens, but there is the issue of that they are shared and that I don't have very much equipment (like literally all I have is one pot, a cutting board and knife, two bowls, one spoon, and three sets of chopsticks). Time to get resourceful because I enjoy cooking and don't want to eat dining hall food all the time. I developed quite a taste for miso soup while I was in Japan and have been making it back home. My mom found these rice ramen pack things at Costco so I can eat ramen like a proper college student. Combine my taste for miso soup and my college student desire for ramen and you get miso ramen! I make this ramen usually twice a week, sometimes more depending on how I feel. Okay, enough with the life update, let's watch me make this!

Step One: Chop Up Ingredients!

First things first get all your ingredients. I do as much as I can in my dorm room because I don't exactly trust the other people using my floor's kitchen. Ingredients are up to you, but I start by putting 1/3 to 1/2 a block of tofu into the bottom of my tupperware (it's pyrex so I can bake in it too. Pretty cool, isn't it?). Then I put 2-6 cut up green onions in there as well. Why so many, you ask? Because the campus grocery store sells them in bunches and for some reason I can't get them to store well so I just buy them then use them. Also onions are fabulous.

Step Two: Gather Other Ingredients!

Next grab your noodles (I use rice ramen, but you can basically use any noodles) and miso paste. Get your miso paste from a Japanese store if you can. It's a million times better than what you can get in a regular grocery store, even a nice one. You can use as much or as little of these as you want, but I use one ramen hunk (what would you even call that...?) and about a tablespoon of miso paste. Sticking the miso paste to the lid of your container makes it convenient to grab it to stir into your boiling water later.

Step Three: Pack Up Your Stuff and Head to the Kitchen!

Close up your container of ingredients, get your pot, and grab some sort of utensil. I try to keep everything as self contained as possible so I have less to carry to the kitchen. Also, it was snowing when I was making this! 😄

Step Four: Boil Some Water!

Put 2-3 cups of water in your pot and bring to a boil. If your kitchen has one of those hot water things like my kitchen has, get hot water from that so you don't have to wait as long for the water to boil. Also putting a lid on your pot makes the water boil faster. Once your water boils, grab the miso paste hunk from the lid of your container (see why I do that?) and stir into the boiling water until the miso paste dissolves.

Step Five: Add Other Ingredients!

Now that your water is boiling and miso paste is dissolved, add the other ingredients from your container, but don't add the noodles yet. These ingredients are not hot so they will decrease the overall heat of the solution so you must add more heat for your soup to boil again (haha can you tell I'm taking general chemistry? 😜).

Step Six: Add Noodles!

Once your soup is boiling again, add the noodles! Cook them for however long it says to cook them for, which for my noodles is four minutes. Make sure to stir things around every minute or so.

Step Seven: Put into Bowl and Clean Up a Bit!

Remove your pot from the heat and wait for your noodles and such to cool for a few minutes. Transfer your noodles and such to a bowl. Clean up a bit while waiting for your bowl to be cool enough to carry and so the custodial staff won't hate you. Once cool enough to carry, carry everything to where you intend to eat your food.

Step Eight: Add the Seaweed!

Given that the most readily available seaweed is sushi nori or seaweed snacks, I use that in my miso ramen. Take two sheets of sushi nori or however much you want and tear it into pieces. Stir into soup. You add this now because it maintains flavor better and doesn't explode. Learned this the hard way last term. One time a Japanese exchange student saw my failed noodles with exploded seaweed and made fun of them for a solid 10 minutes. We are friends now, actually 😂

Step Nine: Enjoy Your Miso Ramen!

Now that you have everything cooked and mixed in and stuff, it's time to enjoy your ramen! Do your dishes later because ramen is best fresh. I'm a nerd so I eat at my desk while watching youtube gaming stuff or kpop music videos or whatever suits my fancy that day.

Hope you enjoyed my little tutorial on how I make miso ramen! I make this all the time when I want something home cooked and that reminds me of my adventures in Japan.

Let's Cook: Azuki Ice Cream!

Given the name of the blog and the fact that I know how to make ice cream, this just had to happen. Making ice cream is a lot simpler than you would think. This is quite useful when you want ice cream in the middle of the night and can't get to the store (the closest store to my house that sells ice cream is 20 minutes away so it's not exactly easy to get ice cream in the middle of the night). In case you are wondering, yes I have made ice cream at midnight before.

Step One: Gather Ingredients!

First of all you need to make the ice cream. The recipe I use is just a can of coconut milk, 1/4-1/2 cup of maple syrup, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. You can use whatever recipe you like but I use this one because it is simple and is something my sister who has allergies to both eggs and dairy, common ice cream ingredients, can have.

Step Two: Mix Ingredients Together!

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk together. Whisking is useful because it gets more air into the ice cream mixture, and believe it or not air is a key ingredient to ice cream. Learned that from the Ben and Jerry's ice cream recipe book we have.

Step Three: Put the Mixture in the Ice Cream Maker!

Or not if you don't have an ice cream maker. Ice cream makers aren't exactly common devices but we have one and a really nice one at that because I literally live on a dairy farm so there is tons of ice cream to be made. If you have an ice cream maker, just put in the mixture and follow the instructions. If you don't have one, this wikihow article has some options for you to try. I have another method I heard about which I guess I could make a tutorial on at some point if that interests people.

Putting the mixture into the bowl of the ice cream maker (the mixy bit is in there too).

And the noisy behemoth of an ice cream maker on the floor in my room. Normally we shut it in the laundry room or something because the thing is super noisy but this time I just put it on the floor of my room and wore headphones.

Step Four: Finish Ice Cream!

The ice cream should look something like this when finished. Or, ya know, ice creamy.

Next put it into bowls and get out a can of sweetened azuki beans. It actually took us quite a while to find the sweet azuki beans in the store and now I don't remember what section they were in so I can't give you advice on where to find them 😆. Unless of course we happen to be going to the same store in which case hit me up and let's take a field trip.

Step Five: Mix in Azuki Beans!

You can either leave them as a topping or mix them in. Both ways are good.

Enjoy your homemade azuki ice cream! 😁

Let's Cook: Indonesian Coconut and Spice Rice!

And I'm back with another cooking tutorial! Decided to make this the other day in honor of my future roommate in university. She's from Indonesia 😁.

This recipe is Indonesian Coconut and Spice Rice from The Essential Rice Cookbook. Definitely recommend this cookbook because it has so many interesting ways to cook rice. I often have to go to the store because my American kitchen doesn't always stock everything needed for these recipes. For some strange reason I *LOVE* grocery shopping so this isn't really a problem as long as I plan a little.

Step One: Cut Stuff Up!

First things first you have to cut up a couple ingredients. One of these ingredients is lemongrass. Take a 10cm (4 inch) section (and if you want cut it into two or three pieces) and lay your knife sideways along it. Put your hand on top of the big flat area and press down until the lemongrass squishes a bit.

The other thing you will want to cut up is 2-3 spring onions/green onions/long tiny onion things. Just cut them into 2.5mm (1/8 inch) slices. Put lemongrass and onion things in the same place so you can add them easily a little later.

Step Two: Saute Almonds and Coconut!

Put 1 tablespoonish of oil in a pan and heat it up a little bit on medium before putting 1/2 cup of nuts in. The recipe calls for peanuts but my sister is deathly allergic to peanuts so I used almonds instead. Shove them around in the pan for 1-2 minutes before adding 1 tablespoon of shredded coconut. The first time I cooked the almonds for too long so it was a burned mess the birds got to enjoy.

Step Three: Add Liquids and Spices!

To the almond and coconut mixture, add 2 cups of water and 1ish cups of coconut milk. Then add the lemon grass, onion things, and 8 curry leaves and return to boil (which takes maybe a minute). Turn the heat to the lowest setting and let simmer for two minutes (simmer means little bubbles in the liquid). After those two minutes, add 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, and 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (be careful, this stuff stains). Mix everything together.

Let everything simmer together for a bit (I told you what simmer means above). After a couple minutes, fish out the lemongrass bits.

Step Four: Add the Rice!

Add 2.5 cups long grain rice and mix it together with the broth you have made.

Cover with a lid and let cook on the lowest heat for 10 minutes. Don't peak unless you think it is burning. Mine was starting to stick to the bottom at the end of ten minutes but some aggressive stirring fixed that. Fish out the curry leaves so nobody gets a mouthful of leaf. When it is done, it should look something like this.

Step Five: Enjoy!

Put into bowls, grab your chopsticks, and dig in!

Hope you enjoyed that tutorial! Thank you to Thunder Bay Press for publishing this lovely cookbook and to my lovely roommate, I can't wait to meet you! 😄

How to Use a Rice Cooker

My parents got tired of me making rice on the stove because I kept burning the rice and also the rice smell bothered them so my dad pulled out our old rice cooker and gave me a basic lesson on how to use it. I gave it a shot and here is how I did it:

Step One: Get out the rice cooker!

Here is our old rice cooker. We have had it for as long as I can remember and I don't think it has been used in the last five years. That is because due to allergies we didn't eat rice for three years and we only ever have it when we eat out (which is not often) for the past two years. It is a Japanese brand, I believe, due to the fact that the inside has カップ (katakana means cup) written on the inside.

This is what the inside looks like. Ours has cup markings on the side and is Teflon coated so DON'T USE METAL WHEN SCOOPING FROM IT.
Step Two: Prepare rice!

I'm making sushi rice so put in a colander and rinse before putting in the rice cooker with water.

I'm still figuring out the rice to water ratio but from what I have seen it is about 1 cup rice to 1.25 cups water.

Step Three: Plug it in and push the button!

So when you plug ours in the light appears next to "keep warm" so to cook your rice you push the button so it goes to "rice cook"

Step Four: Wait!

When the rice is ready the light will switch back to "keep warm" (sorry for terrible lighting. Don't take pictures in the evening)

The moment of truth...

Step Five: Enjoy!

Your rice is now finished! Scoop it into a bowl using a rice paddle or other non metal scooping implement.

Let's Cook! Super Lazy "Sushi"

I wanted something sushi-like for lunch and a couple days ago I tried something similar and discovered that red bell pepper, avocado, and pickles are a really good sushi-ish combo. Probably sounds weird to everyone else but I love pickles and am not that picky so to me this is delicious. 

Step 1: Make Rice!

Rinse 1 cup of rice in a colander and put it into a pot with 1.25 cups of water, bring to boil, let simmer for 15 minutes, then turn off heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Make sure to leave the lid on! I burned the rice a little this time but it was still fine in my opinion. 

I was watching videos about Japan while my rice was cooking so to make sure I didn't forget and leave it for too long I used my little timer. It's pretty cool. 

The timer is a cube timer which are pretty cool and the sticker is Kei Tsukishima from Haikyuu! in a dinosaur costume as drawn by the amazing Na-ruu, whose online store is here.


Step 2: Cut Up Fillings!

Cut up whatever fillings you like into strips, which in my case was red bell pepper, avocado, and small pickles. Also grab one of those small snack packets of seaweed at this point. Put all of this on a plate.  

Step 3: Put Everything Together!

Put the rice into a bowl and build your own lazy sushi by scooping a bit of rice onto the seaweed pieces then adding bits of toppings then roll/fold the seaweed around everything. 

Let's Cook! Vegetable Donburi

I had a day off finally so I did my cooking during the day so the pictures have decent lighting! Whoo! Also, this is probably the best a dish has turned out so far. Especially proud of the rice. Really helps if you follow the directions XD.

Anyway, I made vegetable donburi, which according to The Essential Rice Cookbook are "one-dish meals in which a dish of cooked rice is topped with well flavored meat, eggs, tofu or a combination of all of them," aka a Juno kind of dish. I had to get a few things for this （eggplant and sushi rice) even though I still replaced a few ingredients. Luckily for me there is a 24 hour grocer near my school so I can stop by after dropping off my friend. There are a surprising amount of people grocery shopping at 9:30 at night.

If I type it in hiragana it looks like this:　やさい　どんぶり

I'm getting distracted. Anyway, here is what I did:

Step 1: Make Rice!

The directions in the recipe said to wash 2 cups of rice (put it in a colander and run water over it) and put into a pan with 2.5 cups of water. Bring to boil and then drop the heat to the lowest possible and let it simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes is up, remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Do not take off the lid after you turn it to simmer until it has finished cooking and has been off the heat for 10 minutes. I'm fairly certain that's part of the reason I got such good results this time.

Step 2: Cut Up Vegetables!

Cut up an onion and get that cooking then start cutting up the other vegetables, in my case 2 eggplants, 4 mushrooms, and a small handful of green beans. Make sure to cut the eggplant thin enough that it cooks as quickly as the mushrooms and green beans. I like to put all the vegetables into a bowl while cutting them because I don't like having stuff on the cutting board when I'm trying to cut up stuff.

Step 3: Cook the Vegetables!

So you have already been cooking the onions and now it's time to add the rest of the vegetables. Cook them until they are fairly cooked. I like things cooked well so I probably cook things longer than most people.

Step 4: Make Sauce!

So what I did for the sauce was combine coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, and some water. Not really what it was supposed to be but anyway that's what I did. Pour whatever you end up making into the pan and stir things around a bit and let simmer together for 4 minutes or so.

Step 5: Add Eggs!

Crack 3-4 eggs into a bowl and beat them until they are all combined (this step is REALLY important for me because I can't stand cooked egg in its separate parts). Pour over vegetable mixture and let set for a couple minutes before stirring everything together to cook a little more.

Step 6: Serve!

Scoop some rice into a bowl and top with the vegetable and egg mixture. Grab your chopsticks and dig in!

Note: I had some of this cold for dinner and it is AMAZING that way. Definitely great for leftovers and will be making this a lot more.