Ghibli Week 7: Spirited Away Steamed Buns

As we reach the end of this gastronomical (and very prolonged) journey, it's time for a bit of R&R and what better place to relax than at a bathhouse? Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) was released in 2001 and was the first Ghibli movie I ever watched. An engrossing story with an equally incredible soundtrack, it's little wonder that even to this day, it is the highest grossing film in Japanese box office history (as per Wikipedia). 

(source)

Food plays an integral part in Spirited Away; the parents are turned into pigs after eating the food meant for the spirits, Chihiro almost fades into nothingness until she eats something from the spirit world, the dumpling the River God gives her plays an important role later in the movie and that's just scratching the surface. The food choices I could've tried to recreate in this movie are endless but to wrap it up, I've chosen something very near and dear to my heart: the pau (or steamed bun) that Chihiro eats after a long day of working at the bathhouse.

A staple of dim sum restaurants everywhere, they're easily recognisable by their fluffy white exteriors encasing salty-sweet chunks of roasted pork (usually) but it's not uncommon to find them with varied fillings such as red bean, black sesame or salted egg custard. For these, I used a can of ready-made red bean paste (which can be found at Asian grocery stores) and I made a couple of savoury ones too.

With this one I cheated a little bit and used a package, similar to the box cake mixes, for time constraints so no recipe I'm afraid. If you've already got a solid recipe under your belt, feel free to go ahead and use that, I'm sure the end result will be the same! I think what's most important in this recipe is the kneading; you want to achieve a smooth, elastic dough in order to get the best texture and look from your pau, plus you'll get killer arm muscles so win/win; but beware of overkneading the dough otherwise they'll become tough and chewy, instead of fluffy and soft. I found the hardest part about this was folding the buns... and rather than me trying to explain how to do it, here’s a video which is pretty easy to follow, even if you can't understand Mandarin. Don’t worry about making mistakes when folding though because you can just turn it over so the folds are on the bottom and you’ll have a smooth bun, just like the ones in the movies!

So just to wrap up: massive thanks to everyone who's stuck it out, you guys are awesome. I might revisit Studio Ghibli in the future, but for now- I declare Ghibli Week officially OVER!

Available from Asian grocery stores

The contents of the bag - just add water

The savoury ones with the pleating action

Not as big as Chihiro's but still good

Savoury ones

(source) om nom nom

Happy slothing!

xx

Ghibli Week 6: The Borrower Arrietty's Peanut Butter and Jam Thumbprint Cookies

This post we shrink down in size and visit The Secret World of Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ). Based on the novel, ‘The Borrowers’ by Mary Norton, it follows a young boy’s discovery of the hidden world of the Borrowers, tiny people who live within the walls of his mother’s childhood home. Accompanied by a gorgeous soundtrack by French musician Cecile Corbel, you can listen to the theme song here.

(source) 

Now astute readers may be going 'Hey, wait a minute, you never said anything about doing Arrietty in your Ghibli Week run down', but after giving it some thought, I couldn't go past this movie especially since I adore the soundtrack. So without further ado, let's get to the recipe!

Blink and you'll miss the cookies in this scene.

It's peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time!

Thumbprint cookies or jam drops, I know these as 'those cookies with a bit of jam in the middle'. As you can tell, I'm probably not the most creative at naming things. I decided to make the cookie peanut butter flavoured because winning combination right there. To those with peanut allergies, please accept my apologies but these would be equally as good if you used shortbread instead. Hmm, that gives me an idea for a future post...This recipe's super simple as well and can easily be whipped up for afternoon snacks. Make a cup of your preferred tea or coffee and enjoy!

Vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract - whatever's on hand

Whipped until light and fluffy

Eventually you end up with this - it's quite soft and it's kind of got the consistency of icecream

Nut balls *snickers*

Flatten them slightly and...

Boop! Thumbprint cookies.

Wham, bam, there's the jam.

Ghibli Week 5: The Cat Returns Strawberry Shortcake and Fish Crackers

This post we travel to a feline kingdom where nothing is what it seems, and it's one of the first Ghibli movies I watched. The Cat Returns (猫の恩返し) was released in 2002 and astute viewers might recognise The Baron from another Ghibli movie, Whisper of the Heart. I've decided to make two things from this movie: the cake that Muta eats in the palace and the fish crackers that Haru eats then gives to the stray cat!

Fishy fishy fishy fish

(source) They're little fish!! So much fish!

No, it's not the cake with the fish on top although I kind of wish it was

Perfect for summer strawberry season!

In a movie that's centered around cats, it's only to be expected that there's a lot of fish! To be more accurate, the cake should probably contain dark fleshed fish like tuna or something, and the pink cream should probably be salmon mousse but that's approaching Heston-esque levels of experimentation and I'm not quite ready to make that jump yet. So I decided: strawberry shortcake. There's two types of strawberry shortcake that I know of; one uses buttery shortbread whilst the other uses chiffon-soft spongecake. Following the screenshot, I went with the sponge version. The recipe is pretty simple and the only problem I found was that the sponge was a bit dry, but I think that could be fixed by brushing it with syrup like a genoise. Keep in mind that the eggs and sugar need to be beaten until thick and creamy and pale because the volume of the sponge comes from the amount of air being beaten in. (science disclaimer: information from Wikipedia; and in the distance you can hear the screams of horrified tutors, lecturers and teachers)

Super simple 

Eggs and sugar into a bowl then...

It gets quite creamy and pale after ~5 mins or so of beating

See those drips? That's a 'ribbon'

No need to bang it on the table to get rid of the air

It expands a lot so make sure your pan's big enough!

The filling's what I'm going to call 'time-sensitive' because I decided to stabilise the cream with gelatin and the first time I did it, I left the cream standing too long and it solidified completely and I couldn't spread it at all. This prompted a quick run to the store to grab more cream, so you'll have to work quickly but if you're not going to stabilise it then there's no need to worry! By stabilising the cream with gelatin, it makes it easier to transport, especially in hot weather. It also prevents the cream from 'weeping' where the cream separates and water leaks out. To make the filling pink, I used some red food colouring and stirred in strawberry jam for extra flavour. 

To assemble the cake I used the screenshot as a guide, so first cut the sponge into two even halves. I was lazy and eyeballed it, but you can get better results by using the toothpick method I covered in my Gateau Opera post! After you've done that, spread the bottom half with half of the pink cream and layer the sliced strawberries on top (you may have to push them into the cream slightly). Next, cover the strawberries with the rest of the pink cream and even out the top so it's flat, then transfer the other half on top. Spread that half with the remaining cream and decorate with the hulled strawberries. Easy pie! 

By this time, the filling had already started to set!

I made the mistake of putting the strawberries on BEFORE I cut the sides square, whoops.

The gelatin makes the filling almost pudding like.

With the crackers, at first I thought of using store bought crackers like Dixie Drumsticks because they're kind of shaped like fish but, once again I made my life more difficult and made my own. The crackers, or rather savoury shortbread, should probably be fish flavoured, but fish crackers are something very different to me (they're like prawn crackers except they taste like fish) so I went with a recipe I've followed before for cheese cookies!

Also please, please, please do not feed these crackers to your pets, they're not meant for animal consumption even if they are shaped like adorable fish. I tried to find a fish shaped cookie cutter which you'd think would be easy enough, but no one sells them. I went to four different stores and turned out empty handed, and the online search produced cookie cutters that weren't the exact shape I wanted. I think you can make your own cookie cutters using a soft drink can, but, once again, I was lazy so I used a small knife to cut the shapes. The eyes were made using the thicker end of a chopstick (round, not the disposable flat ones) and I made the gills with the thinner end by making a kind of curved indent. If you're having trouble rolling the dough out, then I suggest sticking it in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes just to firm it up. I also put them back into the fridge after I did the detailing for about 5 minutes just to make sure that when I baked them, I wouldn't lose all my hard work. 

Buttery and cheesy

Don't roll it too flat or you might have trouble getting them onto the baking tray!

Freehand cutting awwwh yeeaaaaah but no seriously, if you have trouble, make a template out of paper and cut around that for a more uniform appearance

As you can see...not as uniform as I thought they were

Ghibli Week 4: Howl's Moving Castle Breakfast

This post we're going on an adventure to the countryside to find a magical, roaming castle! Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城) was released in 2004 and like Kiki's Delivery Service, was also based on a novel by accomplished fantasy writer, the late Diana Wynne Jones. 

(source) You'd never think this was a children's movie.

In this movie there's one scene associated with food that, if you ask people who've watched it, will spring to mind almost immediately. Admittedly, I only asked 3 people so my survey population is severely lacking but the point still stands. For people who've yet to watch this film, the scene I'm talking about is when the main character, Sophie, is making breakfast and bullying Calcifer into helping. This scene also gave rise to a great insult: 'May all your bacon burn.'

(source) The animation even makes eating eggshells look delicious

All I need now is a smart talking fire demon.

Bit of a cop out, since this isn't a recipe, but who can argue with bacon? The biggest issue for me was trying to get bacon that looked exactly like the one in the movie. Originally, I planned to use pork belly and cut that into a thick slice, then prep it with a dry rub of salt and spices; but I couldn't find pork belly that was thick enough so I was forced to use my back up plan: buy it from the store. The regular bacon rashers weren't exactly what I was looking for, I think most bacon is cut into the separate sections e.g. shortcut vs streaky, and I was determined to find bacon that stretched the length of the frypan. Luckily for me, I found the 'premium' section of bacon, and the many choices available, but you really can't go wrong whichever you pick. So it's pretty easy to recreate this dish; just fry two pieces of the bacon, then add four eggs and fry until your desired doneness. If you want a more authentic movie experience, you can serve it with a thick slice of sourdough, a chunk of cheese and a bowl of what I think is tea. Either way, you'll really bring home the bacon. 

Bacon

More bacon

Best bacon (it's about the length of my hand plus forearm)

It's very hard to find an angle that doesn't make it look like an...ahem.

omnomnomnom

Happy slothing!!

xx

Ghibli Week 3: Kiki's Herring and Pumpkin Pot Pie and Bread

This post we're up in the clouds, but first we've got some deliveries to make! Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便) was released in 1989 and was based on the novel of the same name. If you haven't seen it yet, give the soundtrack a listen; I'm especially fond of Rouge no Dengon (listen to it here). So the thing I most remember about this movie, was the bread. 

(source) One day I'll make bread like that...

My track record with yeast recipes is not great, to be honest, but I've kept at it! I've got a bread-maker somewhere, a long since past gift or impulse buy (I forget), and the household went through a phase of having fresh bread; and let me tell you, there may be a lot of things better than waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread, but it's definitely up there. And man, oh man, eating freshly baked bread? So good. I like my bread crusty but not overly so, with fluffy insides that are perfect for soaking up melted butter or margarine or olive oil with spicy, crunchy dukkah or tart balsamic vinegar or runny honey or warm, gooey peanut butter...sigh.

Back on track, this recipe calls for a lot of kneading (it needs to be kneaded hehe) so don't forget to stretch! True story; when I made this, I ended up pulling my forearm muscles so you've been warned. I've covered the technique before, but a quick refresher: push the dough away with the heel of your palm, fold it over, turn dough 90 degrees, repeat. Unfortunately there aren't that many process photos, because I thought this would be a complete write off. I also found this dough to be quite sticky and ended up adding roughly two extra tablespoons of flour. Science disclaimer! Not a food scientist, not a professional chef, never went to culinary school, recipe books and the internet are my sources of information and I think Play School may have covered this once? Baker's flour has a higher percentage of gluten than your everyday run of the mill plain flour, which gives bread a more elastic dough. This, when combined with the yeast's formation of carbon dioxide, traps the gas in the dough and causes it to rise. It also creates a better crust versus regular flour. Science over.

The bane of my baking existence.

Photo courtesy of dad sloth. 

Yooooooooooo. Dust them with flour before baking for that artisan look.

We love our bread, we love our butter, but most of all, we love each other.

It's a pretty dense bun, but it's great sliced and toasted.

Same deal with the herring and pumpkin pot pie, no process photos. I actually didn't use herring (and I'm not quite sure what kind of fish it is) so technically it's just a fish and pumpkin pot pie. To-may-to, to-mah-to. The fish, I found in the freezer and there were just three, sad, sorry looking fillets that I cut into ten pieces and scattered throughout the pie. Poor dad sloth didn't even realise there was fish in the pie until we told him later.

 I used Japanese pumpkin because I find it to be sweeter than other types, but I'm sure butternut or grey pumpkins would work as well. The base of this pie is a white, or bechamel, sauce. It's basically flour, butter or margarine, and milk. I don't actually have a recipe for this; if I want a thicker sauce, I add more flour,less milk and if it's thinner, I add less flour and more milk. You kind of get the hang of it after a while because it's all about proportions, but it's easy pie! Tips: be mindful not to burn the flour and add the milk little by little to make sure you get a nice, smooth consistency! It's a super impressive but low effort sauce that goes well with a lot of dishes, and you can make it richer by adding other stuff like stock or cream or cheese. Don't forget to season it as well; salt and pepper go a long way to making it tasty, and I like to add ground nutmeg for extra flavour. I also used store-bought puff pastry to save time and effort. One day I will make a laminated dough, but that day is not today. Laminated doughs kind of scare me as well; you have to use an entire pat of butter, and that's too much butter for one person.

(source) The original! I used it as a reference picture for the fish on top.

Pretty close, if I do say so myself! Mama sloth helped on the crimping of the crust. Can you tell which one's hers? Hint: it's the pretty looking ones. Those weird indents are knife marks (literally made by stabbing the pie) so the insides will cook.

The movie version..

And mine! 

Creamy and delicious and deceptively hearty