Chestnut Wagashi for the New Year

Wagashi is (are?) my new food obsession. (Check out my Pinterest board!) After false starts, failure and years of dreaming, it's time to start making them.This is as close as I'm going to get to a New Year's resolution, but I think that making wagashi at least once a month is a reasonable goal.

I followed this lovely and detailed recipe for basic shiro-an (white bean paste) posted here on the blog of Marjorie Yap's Issoan Tea School blog: http://issoantea.com/?p=1311. (Also here.)

 A little food coloring, chopped chestnuts, some sculpting and shaping and a dusting of cocoa powder resulted in a slightly-oversized confection that was nonetheless delicious.

A bit of a mess at first, and lots of experimenting with food color.
Chopped chestnuts were mixed with shiro-an inside.

Finally, a color that's acceptable! (First results were, um, undesirable.)
Now to shape them up.

Shaping with plastic wrap was sort of like
shaping kinton with chakin, only less messy.

A final dusting with cocoa powder. Ready to eat.

Cat Ladder

Nikko used me for a ladder to see what was in the upper cupboards…

… then posed for pictures.

Return

"Old Sam Peabody!"'
Calls the white-throated sparrow
Brisk autumn morning

Peep

Dark October sky
Far away, a distant call —
Night-migrating birds

Kimchi, Circa 1963

Spring Kim-chee (Pom Keem-chee)

3 cups celery cabbage
3 Tbsp salt
3 green garlic onions
1 clove garlic
1-1/2 cups water
1-1/2 tsp chopped red chili pepper
1 tsp chopped candied ginger

Wash the cabbage and cut into pieces 1 inch long and 1 inch wide. Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp salt, mix well and let stand 15 minutes

Cut the onions (including tops) into 1-1/2 inch lengths and shred lengthwise.

Chop the garlic, red pepper and ginger in fine pieces. After the cabbage has stood 15 minutes, wash it twice in cold water. Mix the prepared vegetables with the cabbage, add 1 Tbsp salt and put into a stone or glass jar. Add enough water to cover the cabbage and let stand for sever several days. In warm weather one day is sufficient, but in cold weather, five days are needed. Kim-chee can be kept several weeks in the refrigerator.

Six (6) servings.

From Hawaiian Cuisine, A Collection of Recipes from Members of the Society Featuring Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Portuguese and Cosmopolitan Dishes. Published for the Hawaii State Society of Washington, D.C. by the Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, and Tokyo, Japan, 1963.

My notes and variations

I transcribed this recipe faithfully, but made corrections to editing and typographical errors (shown by strike-throughs). Note the publication date, only a few years after Hawaii's statehood (1959).

This recipe seems to be simplified for Western kitchens. I've found what are probably more authentic recipes online which are more complicated, include ingredients like fish sauce, dried shrimp, sugar, vinegar and chili paste, and require a longer fermentation. This recipe is more of a quick pickle, with the kimchi being ready in a few days. Also note, I'm not making this in spring but in late, late summer.

Celery cabbage? Never heard of it, but it seems descriptive of the Napa cabbage typically used in traditional kimchi recipes. I used good ol' regular cabbage. I also used fresh ginger instead of candied, fresh chile peppers instead of dry, and adjusted the heat with powdered cayenne pepper. Other vegetables could be added to kimchi, such as turnips, daikon (as in photo, above), celery or carrots.

UPDATE Oct. 15, 2012: "Quick Spicy Kimchee" recipe on the Food Network: 
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/quick-spicy-kimchee-recipe/index.html