Takoyaki

Today was the summer festival at my favorite Japanese shop Ebisuya in Medford. They really did a lot with the store and have apparently become a Sanrio distributor. They also had some bento things, which is nice. I won't have to order soy sauce bottles online anymore. We had cotton candy and some traditional takoyaki which my eldest was kind enough to buy for us. The octopus wasn't what I expected. It was chewy, but it didn't make an unpleasant crunch as I thought it would. Still, a little fishy for me, which must have been the bonito flakes. It gave me inspiration to try it at home. I got the pan, and some sushi grade squid which was very cheap and gave it a go. First I had to learn how to prepare the squid. I came out of it with all my fingers and the ink sac intact. What I wasn't sure of what whether to cook it first. With the traditional octopus you boil it first, but the squid was much thinner and smaller. Still, I gave it a bit of a fry before adding it to the batter. I think that we could skip that step next time though. I also used chicken stock rather than dashi for the batter. Oddly, it came out tasting just like the stuff they were selling.  I also made some with just some green onions and no pickled ginger or squid. I am envisioning making them like little desserts also, with some sugar in the batter and maybe a berry in the middle. We will see. They are also very filling.

They almost came out perfectly round, not bad for a first attempt if I must say so myself. I think that I had the pan a little too hot, but my friend "Cooking with Dog" on You Tube said that the pan needed to be very hot. Next time I will turn it down a bit.

Paige also had her 14th birthday on the 30th, so I made her a cake.

The cake itself was just a boxed chocolate cake, but I made my own seven minute frosting with strawberry flavoring. Just what she wanted.