28-May, my Japanese colleague came over to my house for some cooking session! I remember the date cause I happened to save the marketing list as per photo above. So we are making Yam Paste and Char Koay Teow for that day. Initially she has asked to make Penang Laksa, or Fried Oyster, but I had to turn her down cause I wasn't sure if I could manage to make those complicated dishes. (I did manage to make Fried Oyster after that! Check it out here). But I was happy to make yam paste cause I love eating them. I heard they were also complicated to make, but the recipe she shared to me looks simple enough. I'll leave the recipe at the reference link below.
Yay I got some snacks from Japan from her! Look at all those beautiful wrappings! If you want to know what is inside, you can refer to my post here. What surprises me was, they have dried natto crackers inside! Yummy! I actually like eating natto. I heard they are full of collagen too! Great for the skin!
Anyway, I started cooking before she arrive by preparing lard for the yam paste and fried koay teow. Lard is relatively cheap to make. Just go buy some pig's fat (I got a lot for SGD0.80), and slowly fry them over fire. You will get a lot of lard from it! They are not considered healthy by some, but trust me, they make the yam paste so smooth and silky, and the koay teow so fragrant! Actually I wasn't sure if Japanese will even eat lard, so I was prepared to make a version for her without it. Thankfully she didn't minded the lard! Hurray! The yam paste was laborious to make, with a lot of smashing of steamed yam taking place. Interestingly, I didn't know spring onions are used in the recipe! They really add a nice scent to the dessert!
Above is our end product! I added some steam pumpkin for sweetness, but it wasn't really necessary. I also added ginkgo nuts and some milk to make it creamier, but really, the yam paste was good on its own! To me it was delicious! But it will be a while before I make these again. I need someone to help me smash up all those yam! Or maybe I'll made these for CNY next year!
The fried koay teow didn't turn out too bad either. Looking at this makes me crave it more, especially since I just came back from Penang without having any! Maybe I'll make these next weekend! If you want to know how to make these, you can refer to my post here.
Lastly, here is our full meal, top up with a steam fish just in case she can't eat any of our cooking! Got to have some contingency, right? Thankfully we managed to eat everything! And I'm happy to say, they were all delicious! Just thinking about it is making me hungry again! And no, I didn't purposely get flowers just for our guest. My husband decorates the house with flowers from time to time, and it just so happen that pink flowers look really nice with pink places and pink table mat! I really love this photo! It's one of those where you didn't plan it, but everything just looks perfect together! Thanks for visiting me Akimura-san! Next time, please teach me to cook Japanese food when I visit you in Japan!
Ref:
Yam Paste Recipe
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