Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

The Azuki BeaN Mamas wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We're so thankful to you for reading our blog!  We're spending the holiday with our families and trying out new recipes. We will post next week.

Ginger Beef

We're entering the busy holiday season so we decided to put some simple recipes for you to make. This delicious Ginger Beef recipe uses only 5 ingredients and yet it's so delicious!  The ginger gives it that zing that makes this a holiday favorite.  Who says we don't have time to cook at home during this shopping season? Come home and drop the meat in the marinade and take a shower.  Make rice, preheat oven, prepare steamed or canned vegetables, and then pop the steaks in the oven...you're ready to eat when the rice cooker dings in 20 minutes.  Wow, how easy was that!

Ginger Beef

1-2 lbs rib eye steak
3/4 C soy sauce
3/4 C mirin (sweet cooking rice seasoning)
3/4 C sugar
1/2 tsp grated ginger

Directions
1.  Mix soy sauce, mirin, sugar and ginger in a bowl, take out 1/2 cup and save in small pot
2.  Add Rib eye steak
3.  Marinate for 45 minutes to 4 hours in refrigerator
4. Preheat broiler
5.  Broil meet to desired degree of doneness (ovens and steak thickness vary- 5 to 8 minutes)
6. Heat excess marinade in small pot until almost boiling
7.  Remove from the oven and let sit for a few minutes
8.  Slice the steak into thin strips
9.  Serve on plate with a little heated sauce drizzled on top

This is great for 2-4 people.  It's easy to vary the quantity depending on how many people and how much they eat.  Add a little more marinade and throw in an extra steak when College BeaN suddenly says he'll be home for dinner.  I only put it in the marinade for 20 minutes and it was good.  I'm so rushy, which is probably why Chef Azuki's food tastes better than mine, but you know, we do what we gotta do. This is definitely the  perfect meal for me during the busy holiday season.

BeaNspiration:  A perfect meal, sweet and simple!

ChawanMushi

Today Chef Azuki's mother was over and showed us how to make ChawanMushi. She told us ChawanMushi means bowl (chawan) steamed (mushi).   It was so delicious!  I remember my mom making this lovely silky savory custard and always wanted to learn how to make it.  Since my mother's passing, I only tried to make it once.  It came out a little hard, not exactly like I remembered.  Today, I stood by while Bachan Azuki created magic and made the silky, custard-like, delicate egg dish.  It's like custard or silken tofu, with vegetables in it and hints of egg flower soup.  It's hard to explain, but when you eat it, it's delicious.  I don't know why I always thought it would be difficult to make; but following this simple recipe, it was a snap.  I received chawanmushi bowls at my wedding, 20 some odd years ago, and this is the second time I've used them.  Well, better late than never.

ChawanMushi

Ingredients:
1 bone in chicken half breast
Enough water to fill half of a large pot.
3 eggs
1/2 Carrot-very thinly sliced
1/4 C frozen Peas
Kani-kamaboko (artificial crab meat) 2 crab sticks
1 tsp salt
Parsley to garnish

Directions:
1.  Fill large pot half full with water
2.  Boil chicken
3.  As chicken is boiling slice carrots and cut kani-kamaboko into bite size pieces
4.  When chicken is almost fully cooked take it out and let it and the water cool
5.  You may want to speed up the cooling of the water by adding some ice
6.  Cut the chicken into cubes
7.  Take out about 4 Cups of water and add a tsp of salt
8.  In a small separate bowl really mix eggs well with a fork or chopsticks
9.  Add egg to the water and mix together with a fork or chopsticks
10.  Pour egg/water mixture into 5 chawan mushi bowls or custard ramekins
11.  Add chicken, carrots, peas and kani-kamaboko to each bowl.
12. Cover the bowls tightly with aluminum foil.
13.  Place bowls into a large flat bottom steamer.
14.  Turn on the heat on medium-high
15.  When water starts boiling, leave in for 10 minutes longer.
16.  Carefully remove bowls.  You may want to remove the top layer of the steamer first
       so you don't get burned by all the steam coming from the water below.
17.  You can garnish with parsley if you like

We took pictures with the Chawan Mushi bowl covered, with the garnish on top and stirred to show the vegetable and meats underneath.  You stir it up and eat it with a spoon.  You can eat this for breakfast, or as a side dish.  I love it!

BeaNspirations:  Sometimes, once you actually try something, it's not as hard as you thought!

Quick n Easy Persimmon Tea Cakes

  

Chef Azuki received more persimmons. This time she received soft persimmons known as hachiya. She used the hard fuyu persimmon last time when she created those delicious tarts. Many people love the soft persimmons; while others love the hard fuyu persmissions. It's like how some people are cat people and others are dog people. My mom loved the soft persimmons, while I was definitely a fuyu persimmon lover.  Although Chef Azuki likes the hachiya taste, she doesn't like the texture of the  soft persimmon.  She noticed the texture was similar to mashed bananas and wondered what would happen if she substituted mashed hachiya for bananas in her banana bread recipe & mixed this together with some ingredients from her pumpkin bread recipe. The outcome was a huge success!  It might make a convert out of me too.   Go Hachiya Persimmons! 

Quick n Easy Persimmon Tea Cakes

Ingredients: 

2 eggs 

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups mashed hachiya persimmons

4 tbsp canola oil

2 cup Bisquick mix

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg 

1/4 tsp powdered ginger 

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Whisk eggs with fork

3.  Mix together eggs, sugar, persimmons, canola oil and mix quickly for 30 seconds

4.  Slowly mix in Bisquick incorporating it into the egg mixture

5.  Mix for an additional minute 

5.  Pour into tea cake or cup cake pan lined with paper baking cups

6.  Bake for 1 hour or until golden and a toothpick comes out clean

7.  Let cool

The aroma is delicious.  You’ll have to wait until it’s not hot anymore to remove it but you may just have to have one warm and toasty.  Yum! 

BeaNspirations:  Mix and match for a fantastic fall!