Pancake. Sandwich.

Just imagine that for a moment.

Here, lemme help you with that…

Mmmm…pancake sandwich. Actually, these little guys are delicious and fluffy dorayaki, a Japanese confection consisting of a layer of sweet azuki bean paste sandwiched between two sweet little pancakes.

I had my first dorayaki ever on the plane-ride back from our honeymoon in Japan. It was a sweet I bought specifically so that I could take a little of Japan home with me, and I savored every pillowy bite.

I thought it might be interesting to use this green tea I picked up at Tomato and make green tea flavored dorayaki.

Here’s what I used to make them:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. green tea powder
• about 8oz. anko (sweetened red bean paste)

I started by whisking together the eggs and sugar…

Next I combined the baking soda with the water and then added that to my egg mixture…

I added half the flour and then whisked in the green tea and the rest of the flour, mixing well but not over-mixing…

The batter was super thick, I set it aside while I let my non-stick pan heat up…

I went ahead and sprayed the pan with non-stick spray, even though the pan is already non-stick, because there is a lot of sugar in the batter that could cause the dorayaki to burn.

In went three test dollops…

Just like regular pancakes, you know they’re ready to turn when bubbles start appearing on the surface of the batter. When flipped, they should be golden and crisp on the outside, like this…

I sat them aside on a tea towel to cool while I got my filling ready…

I used this brand of red bean filling, also from Tomato…

I love that stuff. I just spread a bit on one side of the pancake…

And topped it with another!

Pancake. Sandwich.

Good for breakfast or dessert.

Jeff and I both agreed that while absolutely delicious, the pancakes came out bigger than most dorayaki pancakes. Next time, I would definitely just use one pancake and cut it in half like an english muffin.

Soooooooo goooood though.

CHOMP!

Today, I’m nursing a major pork hangover.

That’s because last night Jeff and I met up with our friends, John and Emily, for a special dinner at The Iberian Pig in Decatur Square.

Jeff and I have been there twice before, so we knew it was going to be amazing.

We had to wait for over an hour because none of us thought to make a reservation at a busy restaurant on a Saturday night during prime dinner hours. Oops!

No problem, cocktails make time fly by faster! I got an Old Fashioned…

It was an exceptionally good one too. Jeff and John both got Old Fashioned’s as well but theirs had drops of “bacon essence” added to make them an amazingly unctuous experience. Emily had a Bramble, a muddled blackberry cocktail that looked insane.

We decided to order tapas for the table rather than individual dishes so that we could try more things.

Before we could even get started though we were gifted a plate of the pork cheek tacos as compensation for our long wait. Don’t mind if I do!

Yeah, that took the hunger edge off.

We ordered a bunch of things to get us started. First up was the charcuterie platter, consisting of manchego and cana de oveja cheeses and jamon iberico slivers all with crusty bread, olives, espresso aioli, and fruity accompaniments.

I’m in love with the cana de oveja cheese. It’s the semi-soft sheep’s milk wheel-shaped one with apricot accompaniment. Tasted like a Spanish brie. Of course the Iberian ham wasn’t bad either!

Then we had the Spanish tortoloni, delicious tangy cheese-filled tortoloni in a pistachio cream sauce with golden raisins and pine nuts.

One of my favorites!

Then, the albondigas. These were meatballs made from wild boar sausage in a luscious pimenton pepper cream sauce. Very appropriate to say “Amazeballs!” here!

We also had a plate of asparagus with melted manchego and serrano ham in a moscatel wine sauce, but I forgot to photograph it as we were passing plates all over the table at this point.

Next round of yummies started with the barbequed octopus. Correctly prepared, soft but springy octopus is one of my favorite foods. It was served in BBQ sauce with crunchy roasted potatoes and bits of pork.

Then the huevos con trufa, a soft poached runny egg over slow-roasted pork cheeks and caramelized onions dripping on crusty bread slices with hints of black truffle.

Woah, totally killer! Every part of this dish was meltingly soft except for the crisp pieces of bread that served to sop up all the salty juices!

Then, we had a flatbread topped with arugula, smoked salmon, fried capers, red onion, and a citrus creme. Normally, I would have loved something like this, but in comparison to all the other amazing things we were eating, it just didn’t do it for me.

We were feeling the oncoming fullness, but figured we could split two more plates.

We got the croquetas de queso, fried balls of tangy creamy cheese with a lavendar honey creme slathered across the plate.

Each one was a two-bite ball of bliss!

Last dish of the night was the veal shank ravioli with roasted shiitake mushrooms, rioja creme sauce, and black truffle creme fraiche. Killer.

You know where this is going, don’t you? Dessert, that’s where.

Jeff and I split an orange cheesecake. It was so feather-light and cooling, not thick and heavy like you might expect.

John got the copa catalan, which we’ve had once before and loved. It’s a vanilla bean panna cotta topped with an espresso sauce. It has a kind of granular sugar quality that is texturally interesting.

We were so full!

So glad we got to go back to The Iberian Pig, it’s one of Decatur’s real treasures.

What’s the most delicious dish you’ve ever had at any restaurant?

Behold, the newest addition to my kitchen army!

I have been wanting and needing one of these for a long time! This little baby is a Zojirushi induction-heating rice cooker, we bought him with Christmas money we got from family.

Take a peak under the hood…

Yeah, tons of cargo space. This is my kind of hot-rod.

Before heading out to the gym today I filled my new toy with 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups water and set him to cook while I was gone.

That may look more like rice than quinoa to you because it is rice. That’s a shot of some rice I made last night that didn’t turn out too great because I had it on the wrong setting, but I forgot to take a picture of the quinoa before cooking, so this’ll do.

When I got back from the gym I had this waiting for me…

Perfect, fluffy quinoa ready to eat and still warm!

There was a ton of it so I decided to make two different preparations, one sweet and one savory.

For the sweet one, I added the following:

• handful of chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup or so mixed dried cranberries, golden raisins, and goji berries
• about 1/4 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• zest of a small orange

I then made a dressing with the juice from the orange and a spoonful of honey, and heated it in the microwave so it would be thinner and distribute better. I just tossed it all together for this delicious sweet treat.

That one will be awesome in the morning with some almond milk drizzled over, or piled on top of yogurt. I’ve made a sweet maple cinnamon breakfast quinoa before, but this one is even better!

For the savory one I added:

• half a red bell pepper, chopped super small
• one chopped scallion
• one carrot, grated
• a handful of spinach, chopped finely
• zest of a lemon

For the dressing I used the juice of half the lemon, a pinch of salt and pepper, about 2 tsp. white wine vinegar, 2 tsp. tahini, and olive oil whisked in.

To make I just grated the carrot directly over with a microplane to get it really fine…

And added the chopped spinach…

Having a quality knife has been so wonderful!

Mixed in the dressing and here it is!

Believe it or not, this one was even better than the sweet one!

I had both for lunch with an apple dusted in cinnamon.

The quinoa gave me a big dose of protein to repair my sore muscles after today’s workout. Both preparations were so delicious and I managed to whip up both of them in about 20 minutes total.

I am hopelessly in love with my new rice cooker. I can’t wait to try cooking millet, farro, oatmeal, and of course rice, in it!

Look for many, many rice cooker recipes to come!