Wednesday night R and I went for dinner with two of his friends to an awesome Teppanyaki Restaurant in Hoofddorp called Senbazuru. Our chef was hilarious and helpful, telling us which sauces we were supposed to use with each dish (if any). I would definitely recommend going, just know that it wasn't cheap like most restaurants here.

During the noodle course, the chef rolled up the fried egg and started shooting it in my direction. He then told me I was going to help him by catching one of the pieces in my mouth! R's friend knew this was coming and was kind enough to film it for me. It took me 3 tries, and unfortunately the successful attempt was not captured on film.

The funny thing about the location of this restaurant is its proximity to the ski hill. Yes, I said ski hill! R was highly embarrased that I wanted to take photos, but I did! It's an artificial surface with a T-bar lift. And the craziest part - it was busy on a Wednesday evening in September! I guess it's all the people getting ready for the ski season.

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As I mentioned in my previous post, I made biscuits! I call it an experiment because I tried to mesh Joy the baker's two recipes, Cheddar Black Pepper Biscuits and Brown Sugar Bacon Biscuits, while converting everything to metric and/or weight and substituting where I couldn't find the right ingredients.


First I combined 700mL of all purpose flour and one package of baking powder.


Then I crushed 6 sugar cubes and added them to the mix.

Crushed sugar cubes

 Finally I added a dash of salt and a generous helping of pepper and stirred it all together.

Look at all that pepper!

Then I added a about 3/4 cup of butter and mushed it all up with my hands and did my best to make it the consistency of couscous. There are no more pictures until the final mix because my hands were covered in dough! I then added about 400mL of shredded cheese and mixed, then 400mL of milk, and mixed it all together. I forgot to add an egg...

We'll see what happens!

I covered a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and plopped spoonfuls of batter onto it.


R's oven/microwave combo only went to 250 degrees, so I put them in on a combination of oven and microwave, and they turned out a little chewy, but not too bad. Especially considering how bad they could have been, given all the guessing I did!

I think an egg would have made these a bit fluffier

I must mention that the last bunch I put in caused the aluminum to catch on fire - not surprising since it was in a microwave oven.  I just couldn't believe it didn't happen sooner.

When that happened, we had a conversation that went something like this:

R - Everything okay?
Me - I just set your oven on fire
R - Ha ha ha, very funny
Me - Yeah, I'm not joking. But it's out now, so it's okay. Don't worry.

I was in the mood for a crunchy snack while I was at the grocery store, so I picked up a package of crispy rice crackers. I was a little shocked and dismayed by how much package was involved for these small little chips.

Look at all this packaging!! Source

So I went on a little internet hunt for some crispy rice cracker recipes!

I mishmashed a bunch of recipes together (including the Homemade Senbei Japanese Rice Crackers at Ivy's Feast, Crispy Rice Crackers at Tess's Japanese Kitchen and Homemade Rice Crackers with Nori at Tes at Home) and came out with a really simple recipe. Plus, they go really great with my cousin's Hummus dip! I am hoping to experiment by adding some different flavours like cheese and bbq, and maybe trying to make crispy quinoa crackers, but I'm taking baby steps with this.

I also came across these Best Snacers (and Breeze) ever on Making Love in the Kitchen. They weren't really the type of rice cracker I was looking for, but I'm keen to make these. Plus, if I can really substitute quinoa in these, I'm a happy girl. I love quinoa!

But for now, my version of Rice Crackers.

3/4 cups rice flour 3/4 cups cooked Japanese rice 2 tbsp vegetable oil   0.5 tsp salt 4 tbsp cup water 2 tbsp sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 400.

Combine the rice flour, rice, vegetable oil and salt in a food processor. Pulse until finely ground. 

Fine ground rice, flour, oil and salt

While the processor is on, add the water.

The water made the dough very sticky

Transfer to a bowl and add the sesame seeds. Knead to combine.

Make 3/4 inch balls of dough. Cover with rice flour and press with the bottom of a glass or bowl.  I found they were best when they were about 1/8 inch thick.

I used LOTS of rice flour to keep these from sticking

 Bake for 5-7 minutes on each side or until slightly brown.

The engineer in me hates that they are not uniform

I was pleasantly surprised how delicious these were!! I figure these are healthier than the store bought ones (though I haven't confirmed this yet) and they produced zero waste, thanks to the bulk food store and my homemade drawstring bags! I call that a big success!

Note to self: Put white crackers into a coloured bowl next time!