Time flies so fast! It’s already November. I’ve been always
on the run this year, which I can’t handle the situation really well. At least
not yet! My desire to master and control this chaotic life is far from the
reality; I’m sort of a slave who is trapped in such a small world of going to
work and coming back home late at night.
Well that’s enough. I shall catch up with where I last
dropped in this blog.
I still create new things in pastry as well as the same old
things. Sometimes it comes from a mistake, while the other things are coming
from somewhere in my head.
When I feel “My imagination doesn’t go anywhere beyond”, I
go out in nature finding some treasures, especially early in the morning.
Especially, on this route out in the boonies, I usually find
naturally adorable things.
Like a cabbage with a heart-shaped hole on one of the leaves.
Like Fall-colored berries and some Oriental plants.
And a snail stretching out to reach its aim. Why not!? We can do the same thing, can't we?
As a result, I created this Entremet cake for the 30th
anniversary of a happily married couple which traveled to Shikoku, one of the
four principle islands of Japan. Darn it, I never traveled so far in Japan! But my cake did.
In October, after work, we had a chance to watch the 2nd
largest firework festival in Japan near our shop/restaurant. It was next door
neighbor’s front yard where we went to watch such magnificent firework, which
lasted for TWO hours!!!
In October, I had a demonstration of how to make a Halloween
Macaron (French macaroon) tower and its decoration at the huge department store
in Tokyo, the Ikebukuro Seibu.
So, I made many colorful (color-poisoned) Macarons for this
event.
Pears are in season now. I
prepare pears in different styles of cooking. Here’s an authentic poached pear in
light syrup with white wine, vanilla, bay leaf, and some spices.
It’s a trial version of a Halloween Macaron tower. This is a
mini version which can be made easily at home.
In autumn, the Japanese craves for chestnuts. It’s an amazing
phenomenon. It’s a seasonal thing which they seriously look for. So, I make this cake
called Mont-Blanc which resembles the shape of the famous French-Italian
mountain. If you love chestnuts, you would love this!
Another version of chestnuts dessert. Chestnut mousse topped with
chocolate mousse. Yum-yum…
This is yet another Mont-Blanc tart which I created. Three-differently-cooked-kinds of chestnuts are used and well-hidden inside. There are chestnuts cooked in Earl-Grey infused syrup inside
the almond cream in the tart base. In the top part, under the crème de
marron (chestnut cream), there is a block of chestnut mousse covered with
rum-flavored crème Chantilly and Earl Grey flavored chestnuts. Also, I placed Shibukawani (chestnuts cooked with its inner skin attached in heavy syrup) all around outside. Everybody loves
this.
In Japan, pumpkins come in many different shapes and colors in
autumn. I like to use seasonal ingredients in pastry making. Here, I made
pumpkin financiers with lightly-burned fermented butter and real pumpkin. The rich and profound
flavor of beurre noisette (brown butter) and pumpkin is such a wonderful
combination, needless to say.
This year, November is very mild and warm. We can still enjoy
outside pleasantly. It doesn’t seem foliage
changes its colors properly this fall. Well, I don’t get used to Japanese
winter, so I might as well enjoy the warm late fall.
