May’s Washoku Warriors challenge was to come up with a an original Wa (harmony) parfait based on the Zensai Parfait in Andoh’s book (p. 301) with 2 or more of the following: chunky bean jam, citrusy miso, brown sugar syrup, nutty miso (sweetened with ½ tsp sugar), and/or kinako mixed with cinnamon.
I chose to assemble:
– koshi an (store bought)
– brown sugar syrup
– nutty miso
– kinako/cinnamon
– cornflakes
– mochi
– 小桜 (sakura branch) candy
I could not find kinako anywhere near where I live, so I bought roasted soybeans (sold as “soynuts”) at Whole Foods and chopped them up in the food processor.
The brown sugar syrup was very easy to make, but I had no patience to wait for it to cool, so it was left out of the parfait.
I made the nutty miso using walnuts, but found it too salty to put in an ice cream parfait. Later, I found out it was because I forgot to add the sugar to make it a “dessert” sauce!
I also chose to use koshi-an I already had on-hand instead of making coarsely ground red bean jam as suggested in the original challenge.
I made these parfaits while a friend was over and set out all the toppings in individual containers so we could make the parfaits お好み-style (okonomi, “as you like”). She had: cinnamon buns ice cream + cornflakes + red bean paste + mochi + kinako/cinnamon mixture. I shared mine with my boyfriend (pictured above) and had: cinnamon buns ice cream + cornflakes + coffee ice cream + mochi + kinako/cinnamon + “sakura branch” candies.
While it was a bit time consuming to assemble or make the ingredients, the recipes all make large quantities so you can make parfaits instantly after the initial work ^_^. All of the ingredients keep for at least a few weeks. This is also a great alternative for those that don’t like Western-style sweets and prefer a more balanced sweet/savory dessert.
I don’t know half of the ingredients in this recipe, but the presentation is really pretty 🙂
Haha, I guess at times I assume people know things!
adzuki – red bean
koshi an – finely ground red bean paste
kinako – cinnamon powder
miso – fermented soybean paste
mochi – glutinous rice cake (made using sweet rice flour)
I just came across discojing through La Fuji Mama and it looks amazing! I am in Japan and I have to say that your parfait looks much better than most of the ones you can find at restaurants where I live (waaay to heavy on the corn flakes around here…)
Incidently, have you ever heard of zunda (sweetened, green soybean paste)? It is a specialty in Miyagi-ken and has become, by far, my favorite Japanese sweet-topping, beating out anko by a mile. It also goes great with ice cream and is eaten with mochi on New Years. If you manage to try some, let me know what you think!