Jimami Tofu Recipe: How to Make Okinawan Peanut Tofu

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Rosanna

Jimami tofu (peanut tofu) with Sweetened Soy Sauce — Jimami *tofu (peanut tofu) with Sweetened Soy Sauce*

I first had jimami tofu (peanut tofu) when traveling in Mei Prefecture in Japan. Locals invited us over for a delicious breakfast consisting of miso soup, steamed rice, mango, kurobuta sausage, sweet Japanese omelet, pickled plums in honey, jimami tofu, and green tea. The tofu was unlike any other tofu I’ve ever had, bursting with peanut flavor in a sweet, savory sauce. At first, I assumed the sauce gave it the peanut flavor—since tofu usually takes on the flavor of the ingredients it’s paired with. Later, I found out that jimami tofu isn’t actually tofu—since it’s not made with soybeans; rather, it’s made from peanuts! It’s called tofu because it looks and feels like tofu. read more

Coffee Jelly: The Perfect After-Dinner Dessert

Posted on December 6, 2017 by Rosanna

Coffee Jelly Dessert with Sweetened Condensed Milk and Whipped Cream

Coffee jelly makes the perfect after-dinner dessert as it combines your dessert and coffee in one. Coffee jelly consists of coffee gelatin mixed with sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream. This combination of ingredients and textures—strong coffee gelatin, light and airy whipped cream, and luscious sweetened condensed milk—marry together to create a delicious dessert.

I first encountered coffee jelly through meal sharing—a website that allows you to meet up with others to share a home cooked meal. Krishna invited me into her home and prepared a lovely Japanese brunch reminiscent of her time traveling in Japan. She served traditional miso soup with tofu and wakame seaweed, cold buckwheat noodles with a soy dipping sauce, and savory rice porridge with salmon and pickled plum. To my delight, she ended the meal with coffee jelly.

Why had I never heard of this before? For a culture that seems coffee obsessed, it surprised me that this dessert wasn’t more popular in the US. Coffee jelly is prevalent throughout Japan and booming in popularity, even the local Starbucks serve it. Japan has a history of embracing ideas from other cultures and adapting them in a unique way and making them their own. Inspired by European café culture and cooking techniques they made coffee jelly. Now, I’m going to show you how to make coffee jelly in your own home.

Panther Cold Brew Coffee Beans and Café Bustelo Espresso Ground Coffee

Coffee jelly starts with good, strong coffee! You want the coffee gelatin to stand out and taste bold and full-flavored. I like to combine Panther Coffee’s cold brew and Café Bustelo’s espresso. You need both cold and hot coffee for this recipe, so these coffees work well together.

Making Coffee Jelly at Home

Since making coffee jelly is a relatively fast process, it helps to have your ingredients and tools ready to go. You need a stainless steel bowl or other mixing bowl, 2 ½ cups freshly brewed hot coffee, ½ cup cold brew coffee (or chilled coffee), 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 envelopes Knox gelatin*, and a whisk.

* Traditional Japanese coffee jelly recipes use kanten also known as agar—a gelatin made from seaweed. I chose to use Knox gelatin instead as it’s more readily available in the US. However, agar is great alternative for vegetarians or vegans.

Gelatin Sprinkled Over Cold Brew Coffee

The first step is to pour ½ cup cold coffee in a mixing bowl. Then sprinkle 2 envelopes gelatin over the cold coffee and let stand for 1 minute.

Dissolving the Gelatin in Hot Coffee

Next, you add the hot coffee to the cold coffee gelatin mixture, stirring constantly until the gelatin dissolves. Once dissolved, whisk in 3 tablespoons sugar.

Coffee Gelatin Mixture

Let the coffee gelatin mixture cool slightly until most of the bubbles have dissipated. Then ladle the mixture into 4 martini glasses and chill for a minimum of 3 hours.

Coffee Gelatin Mixture Poured Into Martini Glasses

Pouring Sweetened Condensed Milk Over Coffee Jelly

When ready to serve, remove glasses from the fridge and pour a thin layer of sweetened condensed milk over each glass, 1/8 to a ¼ of an inch thick.

Coffee Gelatin Topped with Sweetened Condensed Milk and Whipped Cream

Top with a dollop of whipped cream.

Coffee Jelly Dessert

Coffee Jelly Mixed with Sweetened Condensed Milk and Whipped Cream read more

Fromage Blanc with Honey and Raspberries

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Rosanna

Fromage Blanc with Honey and Raspberries

Fromage Blanc with Honey, Raspberries, Vanilla-Bourbon Sugar, and Espresso

This is the last post in my series re-creating Julia Child’s first meal in France. It started off with oysters on the half shell with rye bread and butter, followed by sole meunière (sole filets pan-fried with butter and topped with capers, lemon juice, and parsley). The third course was a light and refreshing salad dressed with a Dijon-mustard vinaigrette. Fromage blanc with honey, raspberries, and espresso concludes the meal (Julia Child had a strong café filter, which is a large cup of American-style coffee, but because I only have a Bialetti espresso maker, I opted for espresso).

Fromage Blanc—French-Style Fresh Cheese

Fromage blanc is a fresh cheese, which means it hasn’t been aged. It’s mild and soft, similar in texture to sour cream, with a tart flavor. Although fromage blanc is low in fat, it still has a rich and creamy texture, and its subtle flavor does well in both sweet and savory applications. You can find fromage blanc in the dairy section of some grocery stores, usually next to the yogurt (call ahead to check). I found it at Whole Foods.

Fromage Blanc with Cream, Honey, and Chambord

Julia Child doesn’t go into much detail about the dessert of her first meal in France, other than saying, “We followed our meal with a leisurely dessert of fromage blanc, and ended with a strong, dark café filtre.” So I got to play with how I served the fromage blanc. My mind leaped to raspberries and Chambord, a black raspberry liqueur made with blackberries, raspberries, cognac, vanilla, and herbs.

Fromage blanc’s natural flavor is somewhat tart, so I softened it with a sweetener–honey pairs well with berries. I also boosted the richness of the fromage blanc by adding some heavy whipping cream. I finished the dessert with fresh raspberries and a sprinkle of vanilla-bourbon sugar for some texture and a more nuanced flavor. I made my own vanilla-bourbon sugar, but you can also purchase it online if you prefer. This fromage blanc with honey and raspberries was the perfect ending to a wonderful French meal!

Here’s a look at the four courses of the evening:

Now you have all the recipes to re-create Julia Child’s first meal in France! Bon appétit!

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Chocolate-Raspberry Glass Cupcakes

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Rosanna

Chocolate-Raspberry Glass Cupcakes with Buttercream Icing

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love its spookiness, as this allows me to embrace morbid concepts in fun ways. For example, these chocolate raspberry cupcakes play on hyelophobia, or fear of glass. The sugar glass–its jagged edges covered in red food coloring–looks very much like broken shards of glass smeared with blood. The buttercream icing with red swirls further plays on this theme. read more

Coconut Cupcakes with Chocolate-Sriracha Ganache

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Rosanna

Coconut Cupcakes with Chocolate-Sriracha Ganache

I love cupcakes, but not as much as my sister Sadie. She’s a cupcake fiend! She visited me in Miami over the Fourth of July weekend, and there were two things that she absolutely had to do before leaving Miami: go jet-skiing and make cupcakes.

Jet skiing was an adventure—at some points I wasn’t sure that we were going to survive! I’d never driven a jet ski before, and at first it was scary. It’s easier to steer at high speeds, but to go that fast is intimidating. So I started out really slow, which made my steering horrendous.

But Sadie egged me on. I found this quite hilarious, as I’m partly to blame for her adventurous nature—I took her on an inverted rollercoaster when she was 5 years old. She loved it and laughed the whole time!

My sister’s fearless nature inspired me to go fast. I summoned the inner Klingon in me and said, “Today is a good day to die.” I squeezed the gas and we flew. It was smooth sailing from there. Sometimes you have to embrace adventure!

Our cupcakes, while not as adrenaline-packed, were an adventure in and of themselves. It can be challenging to create recipes, but never let fear get in the way of your creativity. Sadie wanted to make a cupcake that had an unexpected ingredient or unusual flavor, and so our chocolate-Sriracha ganache was born. But what kind of cupcake would go well with this?

We didn’t want to make chocolate cupcake base because the ganache needed to stand out from the cupcake itself. So we decided on sweet coconut cupcakes as a cool counterpoint to Sriracha’s mild heat.

The coconut cupcakes are moist and sweet. We used coconut milk, instead of water or regular milk, to enhance the coconut flavor. We also added sweetened coconut in the batter. For the ganache, we used Ghirardelli’s 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate. This resulted in a dark chocolate bittersweet taste accented with a hint of warmth from the Sriracha.

If you’re up for the adventure, try out these coconut cupcakes with chocolate-srircaha ganache. They’re out of the ordinary but very good.

Coconut Cupcakes with Chocolate-Sriracha Ganache Topped with Sweetened Coconut Flakes

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Tag Archives: dessert

Jimami Tofu Recipe: How to Make Okinawan Peanut Tofu

Coffee Jelly: The Perfect After-Dinner Dessert

Fromage Blanc with Honey and Raspberries

Chocolate-Raspberry Glass Cupcakes

Coconut Cupcakes with Chocolate-Sriracha Ganache