Italian Hina Arare

Today, I took a half day off to see dermatologist since my skin was dry and itchy.
Also, I went to the bank since I cannot go during the weekday.
I had such a productive day!

However, before I go home, I bought a bag of Hina Arare (because it was at half price) and ate them all and felt sick...
I think it should be eaten moderately.

So, today is Hinamatsuri!
I made Italian Hina Arare for appetizer.
I used tomato for pink, mozzarella cheese for white, and avocado for green. (I explained about those three colors last week.)
I marinated them with wine vinegar, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper to give an Italian touch :)
My boyfriend was surprised with this idea!

Okay. This is all for today.
See you tomorrow!

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California Roll for Hinamatsuri

Last night, my boyfriend attended the after-hours party with his work mates.
He often gets a bite to eat when he gets home, so I made "California Roll for Hinamatsuri" for him.

The recipe is simple.
It is a regular California roll but you give it a twist.

You make 3 different colored sushi rice (pink, white, and green) and draw diagonal strokes on a sheet of nori.
The white color is plain sushi rice.
For pink, you mix "Sakura Denbu", which is pink colored & seasoned shredded codfish.
For green, you mix "Aonori", which is a type of edible green seaweed in powdered form.
The order of colors must be pink, white, and then green.
These are the colors of Hishi Mochi (diamond shaped rice cake), commonly consists of three layers; pink, white, and green, from top to bottom. Hishi Mochi is usually presented with hina dolls, which I showed you yesterday. It is said that pink represents peach flowers, white represents snow, and green represents grass.
Those colors have a meaning to get the power of nature.

Don't you think this is a good idea?
My boyfriend enjoyed eating it :)
By the way, I didn't know the actual meaning of Hishi Mochi until I translate this into English.
It was a good lesson for me!

Okay. This is all for today.
I hope you have a nice weekend!!!

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Recipes for Japanese Doll Festival

Hi! I'm back!!!

As I said yesterday, I'm gonna write about my cute recipes for Japanese Doll Festival (Hinamatsuri).

The Japanese Doll Festival (Hinamatsuri), or Girls' Day, is held on March 3rd.
On this day, we set up hina dolls (hina-ningyo) since they are believed to protect girls from bad luck.
Platforms with red felt cloth (hi-mosen) are used to display a set of hina dolls. Those dolls consist of the Emperor (odairisama), Empress (ohinasama), three court ladies (sanninkanjyo), and five musicians (goninbayashi) in traditional court dress of the Heian period.

2 years ago, I made the Emperor and the Empress using "chirashi sushi rice balls".
I made their court dresses using crepe style fried egg (usuyakitamago).
Their heads are too big, but adorable, right?
The recipe is here.



Then last year, I made them in a different style.
This time, I just made rice balls.
I used candy cheese for their head.
It was pretty easy, but very abstract :)
The recipe is here.





Also, on Hinamatsuri, we eat colorful rice puffs (hina-arare).
You can make this easily from sticky rice (mochigome).
The recipe is here.






Now I am thinking what to make this year.
Hmm...
Will see :)

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