Amazake 甘酒 (sweet sake)

A sweet drink made from mixing steamed rice with a fermentation agent (Kome koji) and let ferment them during about 10 hours to 1 day. It is consumed after diluting with hot waters. Containing low alcohol, children are allowed to drink it especially during Momo no sekku. It is becoming more and more popular due to its healthy virtue.

How to make Amazake ^o^
(http://www.cybermacro.com/Macrobiotic_Recipes/From_Cookbooks/How_To_Make_Amazake_by_Sandor_Ellix_Katz/)

TIMEFRAME: Less than 24 hours

• SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:

• 1 gallon (4-liter) wide-mouth jar
• Insulated cooler big enough for jar to fit inside

INGREDIENTS (for about 1 gallon / 4 liters):

• 2 cups/500 milliliters sweet rice (or any other grain)
• 2 cups/500 milliliters koji (can buy from japan supermarket)
• Water

PROCESS:

1. Cook the grain in about 6 cups (1.5 liters) of water. Use a pressure cooker if you have one. This high proportion of water (3:1) will result in somewhat softer than usual grain.

2. Meanwhile, preheat the insulated cooler and the gallon jar by filling both with hot water.

3. When the grain is cooked, remove from the heat, uncover the pot, and allow the grain to cool for a few minutes, stirring from the bottom to release heat. Don't let it get too cool. Koji can tolerate heat as high as 140°F (60°C). Cool to this temperature or, if you are without a thermometer, until you can hold a finger to it for a moment but it is still steaming hot.

4. Add the koji to the cooked grain and stir well.

5. Transfer the cooked grain and koji mix to the preheated gallon jar. Screw the lid on the jar and place it in the preheated insulated cooler. If the cooler is much larger than the jar, add additional jars of hot water (not too hot to touch), to help maintain the heat. Shut the cooler and place it in a warm place.

6. Check the amazake after 8 to 12 hours. Amazake takes about 8 to 12 hours at 140°F (60°C), or 20 to 24 hours at 90°F (32°C). If the amazake is very sweet, it's ready. If not, heat it up with gentle heat: If your cooler is big and you added extra bottles of water, replace these with fresh hot water; if your cooler is small, add hot water directly to the cooler to surround the jar of amazake. Leave it to ferment for a few more hours.

7. Once your amazake is sweet, gently bring it to a boil to stop fermentation. Amazake left to ferment after it becomes sweet becomes an alcoholic grog (the first step in the process of making sake, the strong Japanese rice wine). Be careful not to burn the amazake when you boil (pasteurize) it. The way I do this is to first boil about 2 cups (500 milliliters) of water in a pot, then slowly add the amazake, stirring constantly to avoid burning the bottom.

8. You can serve amazake as a pudding at this point, thick and with the grains intact, or you can thin it with more water and run it through a food processor to break down the grains into a liquid consistency. Amazake is delicious either hot or cold.

9. Plain amazake has a very distinctive sweetness, or you can season it. Amazake seasoned with a little nutmeg (and perhaps even rum) makes a nice eggnog alternative. Vanilla extract, grated ginger, slivered toasted almonds, and espresso are other flavorings I've enjoyed in amazake. Amazake can also be used as a sweetener in baking.

Amazake can be stored for a few weeks in a refrigerator.

editor: aE

日本のお茶１～煎茶～

The Japanese drink nihoncha (Japanese tea) on many occasions: with meals, at teatime, and whenever a visitor calls. There are many kinds of nihoncha, but the variety known as sencha is the kind that is drunk most often. Sencha is made from soft, young tea leaves picked in May or June, and it has an excellent astringency and fragrance.

HOW TO MAKE SENCHA

1) Place the tea in the kyusu.

2) Pour freshly-boiled water into a yutsubo and allow it to cool to 60℃ - 70℃.

3) Pour the hot water into the kyusu, replace the lid, and allow to stand for about 1 minute.

4) Pour into heated chawan.

BanchaBancha is made from the large tea leaves picked in August, after the young leaves for sencha have been taken. It is made with boiling water.
HojichaHojicha, a tea with an excellent aroma, is made by toasting bancha over a strong flame. It is drunk in the same way as bancha.

ボキャブラリー
よいにおい

fragrance

注ぐ

pour

ふた

lid

（葉）の複数形

leaves leaf

by Aeris ^-^

Homemake Zaru Cha soba

Homemake Zaru Cha soba

Ingredient:
- 1/2 package of Chasoba (RM5.89,inside got 2 pack)
- A little bit of Wan Ja Shian Shabu Shabu Shoyu (Rm6.50 per bottle)
- A little bit of spring onion (RM1.10)
- A little bit nori (seaweed) (RM3.19, you can find more cheapest brand,like RM1.50)

**All bought from Jusco Taman Equine

first, finely minced the spring onion , after that put it in a small plate.

Cook the chasoba in a pot of boiling water until al dente, no longer than two minutes.

Drain under cold running water ,drain until the chasoba cold

put in a bowl , and prepare a pair of chopstick

shoyu,Mix 1/3 Soba Tsuyu into a glass of cold water 2/3.

this is the shoyu mix with the water

i buy this nori (seaweed)...It is so expensive! just 6 piece inside. I should check when i bought it.

cut the nori in small pieces. put on top the chasoba.

Yeah~~~my chaSoba

HOW TO EAT?

use your chopstick now!

put some spring onion into the soba sauce (dont put all!)

take a little bit chasoba with nori into the glass of soba sauce

and then "Xu..Xu"..eat away. after that continue enjoy your chasoba ya.

THE end~~(^@^)

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Soba (蕎麦) is a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. It is served either chilled with a dipping sauce, or in hot broth as a noodle soup. Moreover, it is not uncommon in Japan to refer to any thin noodle as soba in contrast to udon which are thick noodles made from wheat.

Cha soba is the flavored soba with green tea powder.

Cold Chilled soba is often served on a sieve-like bamboo tray called a zaru, sometimes garnished with bits of dried nori seaweed, with a dipping sauce known as soba tsuyu on the side. The tsuyu is made of a strong mixture of dashi, sweetened soy sauce and mirin. Using chopsticks, the diner picks up a small amount of soba from the tray and swirls it in the cold tsuyu before eating it. Wasabi, scallions, and grated ginger are often mixed into the tsuyu.

by Aeris ^_^