Tanabata Fruit Punch 七夕フルーツポンチ

日本語のレシピは　ビーガン、ベジタリアン情報満載の　Hachidory から　ご覧下さい。

 

“Tanabata” is coming soon.

Some of you who know Japanese culture may think it already finished in July.

But actually it is supposed to be celebrated following the lunar calendar as it does not make any sense if we follow the current calendar. 

It should be applied to most of the traditional festivals celebrated in Japan as they are closely related to the seasons which are following the lunar calendar.

Anyway you can celebrate “Tanabata” again even if you already did something on Jul 7 of the current calendar.

I wrote in details what “Tanabata” is in my last August blog.

So visit the page if you are interested in knowing it.

 I wrote my wish on a piece of rectangular shape paper for this occasion.

What is most commonly practiced at home by families with small kids nowadays is to prepare the dinner which is created with the image of the night sky, often adding the star shaped food or something imitating the milky way.

Today I am going to share one of such recipes.

It is the fruit punch with the star shaped vegan jelly, which is very simple to make, so even the small kids can join you cooking and enjoy themselves.

This recipe is prepared only with the summer fruits harvested in Japan, which are watermelon, blueberry and pineapple, no oranges, no lemons, no strawberries are added as they are out of season.   

If we go to the supermarkets, the variety kinds of fruits from many parts of the world are easily available, but I think those exotic fruits should be the treats of once a while, and we should stick to the seasonal fruit of where we are living for daily consumption. 

By doing so, our body and soul can harmonize better with the nature as those seasonal local food have more energy from the earth and the atmosphere and can level up our health and wellness. 

It is also a better choice for our sustainable future lives. 

Most of all, it is important that we do not hurt other people and creatures at the end of our food in order to entertain ourselves.  When we consume the foods that are locally grown, we can see how they are made much more clearly, and it is often possible to see with our own eyes if we wish to do so.  

Closer the location where they are produced, easier to access to see how they are made. 

If we grow or make what we eat by ourselves, it is most obvious to get to know how they are made.  

But the farther the location is, the more the processes before reaching to our hands are complicated, and we can’t know how they are made in reality, and as a result we tend to take them for granted and forget our appreciation towards the labor, products and the nature especially when the products are sold cheap.     

We can buy the tropical fruits such as banana, mango, pineapple and avocado in most of the supermarkets in Japan with the surprisingly low price tags, often much lower than the seasonal fruits from Japan.  

I always felt uneasy about it and made a research one day. 

I found that the farmers and people living near those crop fields are not benefiting enough, far little from what they deserve, some of them are even risking their lives.  

Therefore, I minimize the purchase of any products including those fruits in the supermarkets and usually order from the distributers that I can trust when I want to eat the products from overseas.

That is why I am using Japanese seasonal fruits only.

So you also try this recipe with your seasonal local fruits that are less likely harming the others and doing good for our future.

Tanabata Fruit Punch

 

 Ingredients

 Desired amount for all the ingredients

Watermelon (from my town)

Pineapple from Okinawa which is the only place that can produce pinapples in Japan

Blueberries ( from my backyard)

Star shaped jelly * refer to the recipe below

 

Soda water and apple juice, or any other fruit juice of your choice

Method

1.   Cut the watermelon and pineapple into the bite sizes.

2.   Put the fruits and jelly in the container and chill in the fridge.

3.   Serve into the individual bowls, pour the apple juice and soda water from the top.

4.   Say “Oichee!! “

Star shaped Vegan Jelly

Ingredients

150g water

4g agar powder

50g beet sugar or other type of vegan sweetener

1/2 tsp plum vinegar or a pinch of salt

350g soy milk or other plant-based milk

Utensils required

 1.   Saucepan or smaller pot

2.   The bigger pot or bowl that can hold the saucepan or smaller pot in it with ice water in order to cool down the liquid in the saucepan.

3.   Flat and big surface bottom container to hold agar jelly. (Any shape will do but not bigger than 20cm x 20cm as the height of the jelly will be too low when the container is too big.

4.   Star shape vegetable (cookie) cutter

 Method

1.   Put water and agar powder in the saucepan or smaller pot, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with the spatula.

 

2.   When it reached the boiling point, reduce heat to low and keep stirring for 1/2 ~1 minute.  

3.   Add soy milk or other plant based milk, bring to a boil stirring constantly.

*The spatula should be touching the bottom of the pan all the time as soymilk easily get burnt.

4.   Add plum vinegar and mix.

5.   Place the pot with the mixture in other pot filled with ice water.  Keep stirring to remove the excess heat.

6.   Transfer the liquid into the prepared container.

7.   Chill it in the fridge.

8.   Cut into star shapes with the cutter.

 

 Variation of Tanabata star jelly

 

Quick and simple version using canned pineapple

 

Image of milky way and stars using butterfly pea tea for night sky.

Happy cooking!

 

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