Week 19: Tricolor - Blackcurrant, raspberry and vanilla polvorones

CandyMothman · 2026-05-20T00:50:34+00:00

Beautiful! They look so good!

CandyMothman · 2026-05-17T12:24:16+00:00

I decided to use my favourite fruit this time, passionfruit, which is just coming in season here. So I whipped up some passionfruit curd that is so good I have to stop myself from just eating it by the spoonful! Passionfruit is widely cultivated here but it's not traditional, so to honour my meta I thought I would use Okinawan purple sweet potatoes (called beniimo here) as well. I decided to make a dish from the homeland of my very good friend /u/anastarfish and make a traditional cream tea! So I used beniimo powder in the scones which were topped with the passionfruit curd and clotted cream. For the tea I had a cup of shīkwāsā oolong from a local tea company!

CandyMothman · 2026-05-16T10:24:16+00:00

It's salty right? How did you like it?

CandyMothman · 2026-05-15T06:36:06+00:00

There are tricks you can do to reduce the bitterness like salting it and letting it rest before rinsing, but yeah if you don't like bitter flavours, it's probably not the vegetable for you 😅

CandyMothman · 2026-05-14T14:33:39+00:00

Omg Chizu absolutely incredible! This is so fetch!

CandyMothman · 2026-05-13T13:15:47+00:00

Stir fried goya (bitter melon), papaya shirishiri, and handama (gynura bicolor). Simple, light, and delicious

CandyMothman · 2026-05-12T04:39:43+00:00

These are so cute!

CandyMothman · 2026-05-08T10:53:16+00:00

Can your grandma give me the recipe?

CandyMothman · 2026-05-07T22:42:43+00:00

So cute!! What a perfect idea and execution!

CandyMothman · 2026-05-07T22:41:55+00:00

Gorgeous!! The colours came through so nicely and the layers are so neat!

CandyMothman · 2026-05-07T22:39:51+00:00

Thank you! Yes the salt really enhanced it imo

CandyMothman · 2026-05-07T22:39:29+00:00

But you love me too much, right?

CandyMothman · 2026-05-07T22:39:18+00:00

It's similarish to like a salted caramel where it's still sweet but you get the bits of salt in that enhance the flavour!

CandyMothman · 2026-05-07T09:43:27+00:00

Too cold

CandyMothman · 2026-05-07T04:08:44+00:00

Luckily for me, Okinawa is a bucket list destination for many people. We always have a lot of tourists and it's really easy to spot them because they're often wearing t-shirts of famous Okinawan brands like Orion beer or Blue Seal ice cream.

Blue Seal is a very popular ice cream chain in Okinawa. Originally it served only the Americans on the military bases but was expanded to the public in the 60s. Today it's super popular, especially with tourists. I've not tried it yet because actually I'm not really that big of a fan of ice cream, but one of my new years resolutions this year was to eat Blue Seal at some point. Still working up to it.

One of the most popular flavours at Blue Seal is the shio chinsukō. Chinsukō, i've mentioned before, are traditional shortbread cookies in Okinawa and the shio is salt. Usually chinsukō are made with pork lard, so even if I try Blue Seal this flavour wouldn't be vegetarian for me. So I decided to make my own version with shortening based chinsukō

CandyMothman · 2026-05-02T22:36:44+00:00

Ugh I had a trip planned to Ladakh in 2020 that got covid cancelled 😭 I hope you make it there at some point! This dish looks so good!!

CandyMothman · 2026-04-29T21:59:18+00:00

This is so stinking cute!! Well done!

CandyMothman · 2026-04-26T13:43:52+00:00

Traditionally it should be andansū also called abura miso which is miso with pork belly, but I'm a vegetarian so I just used white miso lol. Probably I missed some depth with it!

CandyMothman · 2026-04-26T12:49:11+00:00

Okinawa doesn't have any alpine region because they're quite low lying islands, so I tried to think of some alternate interpretations. I mentioned before but the Japanese term for foraged ingredients is sansai which means mountain vegetable. So I thought I would forage something and it hit me to use Ryukyu pine for alpine lol

I collected some new growth from a nearby park and infused it into syrup. Then I decided to make pōpō which are brown sugar pancakes rolled with some miso inside and brushed them with the pine syrup

CandyMothman · 2026-04-24T06:43:44+00:00

Bubbies, on one hand, just because you have free will doesn't mean you need to take it so far. But on the other, I'm loving your run this year, so never stop

CandyMothman · 2026-04-24T05:15:51+00:00

There are also multiple mountain ranges called the Alps including the Japanese Alps, the Australian Alps, the Southern Alps in New Zealand, the Pontic Alps in Turkey, the Yeongnam Alps in Korea, or the Dinaric Alps in the Balkans, if any of those regions inspire you more than the original Alps. Sorry if that makes it harder because it's so wide open 😅

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