Author: Chef M

While tres leches is served all over Latin America, Nicaragua is the country that can claim this dish as its own. A plain vanilla cake is soaked in a mixture made from three kinds of milk evaporated, sweetened condensed, and whole and then topped with silky meringue. It’s a simple yet satisfying dessert, especially when served with a shot of espresso. The recipe for this yellow cake belonged to my great-grandmother Wiwa and is a great basic cake recipe.

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A crispy kudzu coating on creamy cubes of tōfu gives this dish textural interest, and the spicy grated radish with fiery pepper topping offers flavor impact two good reasons why this dish is a favorite at pubs and casual eateries. When nanban (literally, “southern barbarian”) dishes appear on a menu, Japanese diners are ready to enjoy spicy fried foods with a hint of citrus. The origins of this are traced to the nanban jin, the “barbarians who came from the south” the Portuguese and their penchant for spicy, tartly marinated fried foods such as escabeche. This dish, along with battered-and-fried…

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A staple of the Japanese temple vegetarian kitchen, nama fu (fresh wheat gluten) boasts a satisfyingly chewy texture and easily absorbs the flavors of other foods with which it is cooked. In Japan, it appears in many guises on many menus, both vegetarian and not. At elegant kaiseki establishments, you will find thin slices shaped and tinted to resemble foliage (green maple leaves in summertime, turning yellow then red as autumn deepens) or flowers (pink plum blossoms for New Year, cherry blossoms in the spring) and floated in broths or simmered dishes. Home cooks will sometimes add a few fancy-shaped…

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Slow-simmered beans are a mainstay of many frugal Japanese households, a nutrition-packed boon to limited budgets. Although not particularly difficult, dried-bean cookery does require time in some instances, several days from beginning to end though most of it passes with only minimal attention of the cook. During both the soaking and the cooking steps, the beans undergo a transformation in several distinct stages, changing from a shelf-stable pantry item to a richly seasoned, fully cooked food. Note that you will be simmering the beans for an extended time with only saké and sugar, both tenderizing agents. Soy sauce is added…

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