Hi everyone, I hope you are all well? It’s been raining a lot in Wales and actually today is quite stormy. This time, I’ll share some photos of Japanese sweets I made from sweet potato and chestnuts.
皆様こんにちは。お元気ですか？ 再び雨続きのウェールズです。今日はサツマイモと栗の和菓子レポート。
British sweet potatoes are very different from the Japanese ones. They are bright orange inside and the texture is quite watery, so I normally use a type called white sweet potatoes. They are not so common so if you can find them, you are lucky! I bought some from a fantastic vegetable shop in Penarth, the next town to Cardiff.
The French chestnuts in the photos are from the same grocery. They are much bigger than the normal size we find in the UK. They looked like Japanese ones so I simply couldn’t resist buying some. I tried cooking a few in boiling water with some salt. This is one of the common ways how we eat chestnuts at home in Japan. They were simply delicious – exactly what I expected. I’ll cook the rest for chestnut rice, Chris’ favourite :)
イギリスのサツマイモは日本のそれとはだいぶ違います。まず色が鮮やかなオレンジ。そしてかなり水っぽいのです。そこで、私が好んで使うのはホワイトスィートポテトというタイプ。あまり一般的ではないので、見つけられたらラッキーです。今回は隣町の素敵な八百屋さんで仕入れてきました。
同じ八百屋さんで売られていた栗は、フランス産でしたが日本のものに似ていて、ついつい手が出ちゃいました。通常見かけるものよりだいぶ大振りです。いくつか試しにシンプルな塩茹でにしましたが、そのままでもとても美味しかったです。残りはクリスの大好物、栗ご飯になる予定。
Then I made some Japanese sweets or wagashi, these are called Chakin-shibori. Chakin-shibori is a type of traditional cooking technique where mashed ingredients are shaped using a tea ceremony cloth or chakin. Patterns appear on the wrapped ingredients by wringing through (shibori) and by twisting the chakin cloth.
The cooked paste was still too soft so I adjusted the texture by adding some kinako, soy bean powder, cocoa powder and matcha tea powder.
The flashing orange colour in the front is quince from the previous post. The middle one is chocolate and the next one is matcha green tea.
そして、このサツマイモと栗を使って茶巾絞りを作ってみました。かなり柔らかだったので、きな粉やココアパウダー等を使って硬さを調整。
手前にちょっぴり覗いているオレンジ色は、少し前にご紹介した花梨のペースト。真ん中はショコラで、一番奥は抹茶。
I want to add some twist to the wagashi next time, perhaps Amaretto?
The 24 Seasons is ‘Frost Falls’ and the 72 Micro Seasons is ‘Light Rains Sometimes Fall. ‘ It might not be so far away when we see the light rain changing to light snow.
Thank you very much for visiting my blog! Have a lovely weekend ♫
茶巾絞り、もう少しお酒等でひねりを効かせたかったのですが、又次回までの課題。
二十四節気は霜降。72候 は霎時施(こさめときどきふる) 。小雨が雪へと変わっていく日もそう遠くはないかもしれないですね。
今日もブログ訪問ありがとうございます。皆様どうぞ素敵な週末を!!
