Hoon Kueh シンガポールスタイルとうもろこしプリン

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。

 

My body is cylindrical and long.

My body is yellow. (Some of my relatives are white and black.)

My body is surrounded by lots of hair and husks.

My body consists with lots of kernels.

I get matured in summer.

I am starchy and sweet.

Who am I ?

Is it too easy for you ?

Yes, I am a corn.

Whenever the summer comes, I say “The sweet corn is my most favorite vegetable as well as the green soy beans!”

I am eating the sweet corn almost every day these days.

My most favorite way of eating it is to bite into the corn cob after steaming it.

There are some other methods that I love to eat.

Tomorokoshi Onigiri

Tomorokoshi no Surinagashi soup

I introduced  Japanese style corn soup and Japanese style corn rice before, but today I am sharing the Singapore style corn sweets.

 

That is “Hoon Kueh”.

 

 

“Hoon Kueh” is made from mainly mung bean flour and coconut milk. 

When I saw it for the first time in Singapore, I thought how unusual it is to use the corn kernels for the sweets, and I was skeptical if it can taste nice. 

But it turned out to be very yummy.  

The crunchiness of the kernels and the softness of the coconut jelly match in harmony to the contrary of my expectation.   

I bought it whenever I visited the local sweets shop and eventually went to cooking class to learn how to make it.

 

During those days, the canned or packaged coconut milk was not popular at all and whenever I wanted the coconut milk, I went to the wet market and chose the coconut, then the uncle shredded it with the machine. 

When I got back home, I squeezed it to obtain the milk. 

Oh! so nostalgic!  I wish I could do it again!    

 
The canned or packed coconut milk is easily available even in Japan since some time ago, but neither of them can compare with the freshly squeezed one. 

 

I was extremely disappointed when I found that most of the venders selling Singapore dessert were using readymade coconut milk, not the fresh ones anymore when I first visited Singapore for the first time in eight years after I left there for good. 
My most favorite coconut dessert, Bobo Chacha became not “most” anymore since then.

 

The modern manufacturing technology made it possible to cook the tropical food even in Japan and other countries which are far away from Thialand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. 

That’s why I can share Singapore food even in Japan like I do today, so I should thank to this modern technology and vibrant capitalism.

Owing to them, people can easily pick up the coconut milk from the variety selections which are sold cheap, yes, cheap, not reasonably. 

I encountered some articles the coconut is also creating problems ethically and environmentally in the process of harvest, production, manufacturing and marketing like chocolate which is by now widely known by people.

The coffee, bananas, avocado which are all imported from the economically not well off countries are also sold all the year round at low prices in Japan, much cheaper than the Japanese local fruits and tea.  

This encourages young people, young mothers and budget tight people to go for those items. 

Vegans also go for them as they believe those products are not animal derived.

But the fact is that we might be hurting local people as well as animals, and harming the environment by consuming them in a world scale.  

 https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/is-your-obsession-with-coconuts-harming-the-environment/

https://secure.petaasia.com/page/63752/action/1?locale=en-US

I think we need to be more concerned about the food we eat as it is essential not only for our health but also for all the living beings on this planet and for our sustainable happy lives. 

Let’s try to know how the food we eat are made and what impact we are giving to the people and animals behind the production and also to the environment.

I minimize purchasing the items I mentioned earlier, coconut, banana, avocado and coffee. 
As for the coconut and bananas which are my favorite fruits, I eat only during summer and give up rest of the year as I believe that it is the better choice for people and animals around the world, for environment and for my happiness too.

Well, let me share Hoon Kuey recipe now….

I use this coconut milk when I cook tropical food during summer.

The assurance was given to my enquiry from the Japanese supplier who is dealing only fair trade products that it is produced without monkey labor and with their strong support for the farmers.

So if you are not sure which coconut milk is good for you, you can try this one.

（続きを読む）

タグ：とうもろこし Sweet corn Hoon Kueh ココナッツミルク coconut milk macrobiotics Vegan Plant base whole food マクロビオティック ビーガン GlutenFree グルテンフリー ethical sustainable 身土不二 プリン 卵不使用 小麦粉不使用

Snap Pea Rice with fresh onions 新たま青豆ごはん

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。

 

The spring has ended, and the season of greens has arrived.

I write about the green plums in June every year as there are many plum trees in my town and June is the harvest time of the year. 

Another reason that I want to write about it is that I love the green plums, the fragrance of the ripen green plums is fantastic!

It melts my heart !

However the green plum trees do not bear the abundant of fruit each year.  They do only every other year.  
People call it “Naridoshi”, for the year of good harvest and this year is not Naridoshi.   I can find only a few pieces in a tree at this moment.

It is disappointing, but honestly to say I feel a kind of relief at the same time.  I will not be too busy for green plum works which includes umeboshi/salt preserved plum and syrup making.  I can spend my time for the other things. 

The plum is not the only green color food in June.

We have a few kinds of peas from May to June.

I want to introduce them to you today.

This is “Soramame”, fava beans or broad beans in English.

I like to split the pods and see the beans are nestling on the soft and spongy hollows.  They are like the babies resting on the cot.

 

Here are other types of peas…

They are “Greenpeasu” / Garden Peas, “Snapendo”/ Snap peas , “Sayaendo”/ Snow Peas, from left to right.

When they are opened…

 

The pods of Greenpeasu are too hard to eat, but the ones of latter two can be eaten as they turn to soft when they are cooked.

All of them are so tasty when they are fresh, so if you live in Japan, do not miss this moment to enjoy those peas as they will quickly disappear in a few weeks’ time.

I am sharing the recipe of “Shintama Aomame Gohan “ today.

It is the rice cooked with freshly harvested sweet and juicy onions and snap peas.  

These two vegetables collaborate so well and create the synergetic effect for tastier rice that makes me ask for Okawari, which means another bowl of rice.

Try and Enjoy!

 

（続きを読む）

タグ：卵小麦粉乳製品不使用 ヘルシー料理 ご飯料理 さやえんどう ソラマメ スナップエンドウ 新玉ねぎ グルテンフリー ビーガン マクロビオティック macrobiotics Vegan Gluten-Free wholefood Plantbase snow pea garden pea snap pea Japanese Food Japanese vegan TOFU

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.

（続きを読む）

タグ：西瓜 英語料理教室 pineapple マクロビオビーガン Vegan ブルーベリー ビーガン ビーガン料理教室 パイナップル マクロビオティック Japanese 寒天 macrobiovegan tanabata マクロビオティック料理教室 フルーツポンチ 豆乳 Japanese vegan Vegan Jelly Fruit punch Watermelon blueberry macrobiotics SOY MILK Hachidory agar

Chilled Sweet Corn Soup Vegan とうもろこしのすり流し

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。 

Now the season has shifted from the fruits of the round shapes to the summer vegetables.

Ume / Green Plum was abundant this year.

Ume Hisuini / Simmered green plum, luxurious dessert !
 (spent a whole week to finish cooking !)

 

Anzu / Apricot at my back yard also bore lots of fruit for the first time this year.

 Made into jam and juice, preserved in syrup and liquor. 

 Sumomo / Red Plum
I prefer to eating fresh as it is so juicy and sweet.

 

And it is now in the midst of sweet corn harvest. 

The corn is my second favorite summer vegetable, so I bite into a whole steamed corn almost every day recently. 

Japanese sweet corns are very sweet, juicy and tasty !

The sweet corns that are sold in the stores are all non-GMO as it is prohibited to grow GMO vegetables for commercial use in Japan.

However, it is allowed to import the GMO products from the other countries.  And the majority of the corns consumed in Japan is imports, and the main exporter is USA, whose corns are dominated by GMO.  In fact, Japan is the biggest importer of the corns in the world.  As I mentioned earlier, all the corns that are sold in the stores are domestic products and non-GMO. 

Then why is Japan importing so many corns?   
The statistics indicates that the amount that we are eating is only a tip portion of the total consumption of the corns in Japan.  Then to where those huge number of corns which are all imported from the other countries go?  

They are mainly fed to the farm animals. 

The amount they need to be fed is enormously bigger than the one that we eat, that is why so many corns are imported.

According to the survey, 80% of Japanese people want to avoid GMO products, but the fact is that many of them are not aware that they are eating the animals that are raised all with GMO feeds because it is not regulated to show it on the labelling of the meat products. 

So, you should know that when you eat meat in Japan, you are eating GMO indirectly. 

Even if you don’t mind consuming GMO, you’d better know the situation of farm animals in Japan. 

It is often appalling. 

Those farm animals are sometimes described as “commodities”, but I think they are treated less than that. 

If the thing is a commodity, it is treated with care, not to break it until the day it is sold, but the farm animals are not.

The majority of them are kept in the tiny cages where it is impossible for them to move around in the filthy environment until the day that they are sent to the salughter house, especially the chickens are treated like just objects, because their commercial value is too little to treat them with care.   If you see those animals and farms with your own eyes in reality, I’m sure many of you do not want to eat the flesh of those animals anymore.

I know what I am writing now is unpleasant, but this is the fact that is happening in our lives, which is hidden in our society in Japan (and in many other countries too). 

This reality has to be revealed, and all of us should not avert our eyes from this fact.

I would not say to refrain from eating animal products totally from today.  I know it is too difficult for most of us to change the eating habit.   But we should always try to know how the food that we are eating are produced, and make a small effort little by little to lighten the sufferings of the farm animals and some people whose dignities are deprived for our pleasure of eating. 

Yes, little by little, cause a little becomes a big when it is accumulated, which can bring a big change.

Well, I move on to the recipe now.

Today’s recipe is one of the Shojinryouri / Japanese temple dish, “Tomorokoshi no Surinagashi”, my second favorite sweet corn dish. 

All you need is only two ingredients, a sweet corn and white miso (and some water).   It tastes very tender and sweet.  

So, try it while the corns are still juicy and fresh!

 

（続きを読む）

タグ：とうもろこし とうもろこしのすり流し とうもろこしご飯 マクロビオティック ビーガン 精進料理 ヘルシー 料理教室 夏レシピ Vegan macrobiotics Sweet corn Hachidory Farm animals Shojinryouri Japanese vegan Japanese vegan cooking GMO 遺伝子組み換え 畜産動物

Red Bean Potong / Icecles シンガポール風小豆アイスキャンデー

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。

 

“Atsui!”, this word is uttered so often these day at my home, as if the greeting such as “Ohayo/Good morning!” and “Tadaima/I’m back home” are ousted.

Just two weeks ago, I wrote that we were experiencing the wettest summer, but one day the rainy season suddenly finished, and it turned to a scorching summer.

 

“Tanabata” / The Night of Seven/七夕 or Star Festival in English is approaching soon.

It is celebrated on the 7th of July on lunar calendar, that is why it is called Tanabata七夕.  

 

Children write their wishes on the strips of fancy papers and hang them on the bamboo leaves, and they look up at the sky at night to look for the twinkling stars and milky way. 

 

 

It is said that Hikoboshi and Orihime who used to be a loving husband and wife but later had to be separated can meet only once a year on this day. 

But if it rains, they can’t meet because the milky way is flooded and that prevents them from meeting, and the wishes that children wrote on the paper would also not come true. 

What a romantic (or sad ?) story, isn’t it ?

 

 

Unfortunately, Japanese people are not following the lunar calendar anymore and celebrate most of the traditional festivals following the western solar calendar, which does not make any sense and even seems to be absurd to me.

 

This “Tanabata” festival may be the worst example.
July the seventh on the solar calendar is in the midst of rainy season in Japan and we seldom have clear sky on that day.

Children are made to make Tanzaku/ a strip of paper writing their wishes in the kindergarten on this day, but they have to be disappointed seeing the cloudy or wet sky at night.

But there are still some towns following the lunar calendar and celebrate Tanabata in August which is July in lunar calendar. 

I’m advocating to shift to the lunar calendar when we celebrate the traditional festivals even though we can retain the current calendar for everyday use.

 

I am introducing a dessert recipe named “Kirakira Tanabata no Yoru / Twinkling stars and Milkyway”  in my online Kids Family class.  If you are interested in, visit my cooking class website  and click “Latest/最新情報” label on the left top, or Facebook to get more information.

The recipe for this month is just suitable for this heaty summer.

 

It is “Red Bean Potong”.

 

It is the ice popsicles that is originated in Singapore.

Japan also has the similar ice popsicles made from the red beans.

But I wanted to write things related to the coconuts for Japanese people on “Hachidory”, the site with lots of vegan information in Japan, and for which I contribute a vegan recipe monthly.

 

I already wrote a similar content in English on this blog before.

But it is not totally same, so visit “Hachidory” if you are interested in what I wrote in Japanese.

 

 

 

（続きを読む）

タグ：小豆 アイスキャンデー ビーガン料理教室 マクロビオティック料理教室 シンガポールのアイス 小豆アイスキャンデー Hachidory Red Bean Potong Japanese Vegan macrobiotics MilkyWay Star Festival tanabata 旧暦 お星さま 七夕