Hello! I’ve been having some Japan-cravings lately, and my solution to that has been to make lots of Japanese food… ^^; so here’s some more! this time I decided to try and make one of my favorite sweets: Melon pan! (メロンパン)

I served it at an easter party later ^_^

To make it, I followed this video recipe:

or watch on Youtube

It was kind of hard to follow the measuring instructions, but I found it easier when using a units converter, for example this one (english) or this one (swedish). I also found a similar recipe that’s in writing instead, if you find it easier to follow ^-^ This was the first time I ever tried to make Melon Pan, and I have to say it wasn’t all that easy to make x_x but I’m happy about the result. They may not be as pretty as the original, but they tasted delicious ~

At the convenient store they usually look something like this:

And here’s mine, fresh out the oven ~

いただきます！

Hello! I just remembered that I had a strong craving for Onigiri a while ago, so I spontaneously made some from things I had at home ^^ So I thought I’d share the recipe!

We bought this cute bento from Loft when we were in Tokyo ~

Onigiri Recipe

Begin to cook some rice. To make it perfectly sticky I followed this recipe and made rice for 4 persons.

• 2 cups sushi rice (actually I used regular jasmine rice)
• 2 cups water
• 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons mirin

I didn’t follow the cooking instructions completely though, because I was hungry and didn’t want to wait for the rice to dry. I usually just follow the cooking instructions on the rice package. Also, I added the sauce after the rice had finished boiling, but I think it turned out okay anyway!

When the rice is finished it’s time to make some fillings. For that I decided to use things I had at home, and those things were… chicken, mayonnaise and Okonomiyaki sauce. so that’s what I used ^^; I didn’t have a recipe for this, but I just went with it.

• 400 g chicken
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• oil to fry the chicken
• 2 tablespoons Kewpie mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons Okonomiyaki sauce

Fry the chicken in a pan together with oil and soy sauce until it’s cooked. Then chop it up into smaller pieces, put it into a bowl and add mayonnaise and sauce. If it seems to dry, just add more mayonnaise or sauce. Although I used the Japanese Kewpie Mayo (I like it the best) and Okonomiyaki sauce, you can use any kind of sauce you like. I think other bulldog sauces would be delicious too.

Now it’s time to make the onigiri! Fill a bowl with cold water (some suggest you stir in a couple teaspoons of salt in it, but I don’t like too much salt so I usually skip that part) Dip your hands in the water before beginning to make each onigiri. This way the rice won’t stick to your hands too much. Then start shaping your onigiri. I decided to make circles and triangles. You can shape it by cupping your hands together and clumping the rice together. When you’ve made a nice shape, make a small hole in the middle and add your filling, then cover with rice and form it into the right shape again. When you’re done you can fold a strip of nori (seaweed) around the onigiri if you like. I made a quick visual guide of this~

And that’s it! いただきます！

Oh and I forgot to take proper pictures of the inside of my onigiri, but here’s a picture I took with my iPhone: