Japanese Spoon Desserts

[Anneke]

One of my clients has asked me to come up with some miniature desserts for her restaurant's sushi buffet. She's looking for something to put in small glass cups, nothing too complicated, not necessarily authentically Japanese, but maybe with a hint of the Orient. This is not a style of dessert that I'm familiar with. She does NOT have an oven.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, recipes?

Thanks.

[Blueicus]

Green tea mascarpone (you can always use a cheaper cheese) mousse with chocolate swirls?

Japanese crepes with sweet red bean filling (I think this would be a tougher sell for non-Japanese customers)?

There's this confection I really liked, basically ice cream in a rice flour wrapper (sorta like mochi). Known as mochi ice cream. Mochi ice cream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[tessa]

a lychee stuffed with ginger icecream,
or a melon ball marinated in sake
or a minature asian style cheesecake with lemongrass

or how about some different chocolate truffles such as
a green tea infused truffle dipped in dark chocolate or
a sweet chilli truffle or
a coconut and lime truffle in dark chocolate or
a red bean truffle in white chocolate or
a peanut butter truffle of white chocolate dipped in white chocolate ( i took a plate of truffles to school and this was the most popular flavour amongst the chinese students in my class which was just over half of my class of 20 students)

[even stephen]

sweet sticky rice pudding
yuzu sorbet
sesame brittle
candied ginger
"the melonballs in sake sounded nice"
blackberries with ginger and sake syrup

[tessa]

you have my mouth watering with the sesame brittle,how would you make that with out a stove though could you do it in a microwave ??
whats Yuzu and how do you use it

Originally Posted by even stephen

sweet sticky rice pudding
yuzu sorbet
sesame brittle
candied ginger
"the melonballs in sake sounded nice"
blackberries with ginger and sake syrup

[Anneke]

Love these ideas. Thanks all. I like the brittle idea; used to make it years ago- the only pastry position I ever held in a restaurant! BTW I DO have a stove, just no oven.

I'm thinking of of making a sticky coconut cake/pudding in steamer baskets. My client wants to use these little glass shooters for the buffet. I was thinking one creamy custardy thing, one caky item and one jelly/agar item. Fruit sauces, syrups are doable and easy, garnishes less so.

I like the green tea truffle idea but chocolate might be too pricy for her. Could work some matcha into a custard though... Hmmm...

Thanks for the inspiration!

[tessa]

done on the stove
or a very finely chopped exotic fruit salad with coconut cream
or how about using the macha in a light mousse
or steamed minature red bean dumplings
all served in the shot glasses

Originally Posted by Anneke

Love these ideas. Thanks all. I like the brittle idea; used to make it years ago- the only pastry position I ever held in a restaurant! BTW I DO have a stove, just no oven.

I'm thinking of of making a sticky coconut cake/pudding in steamer baskets. My client wants to use these little glass shooters for the buffet. I was thinking one creamy custardy thing, one caky item and one jelly/agar item. Fruit sauces, syrups are doable and easy, garnishes less so.

I like the green tea truffle idea but chocolate might be too pricy for her. Could work some matcha into a custard though... Hmmm...

Thanks for the inspiration!

[even stephen]

Tessa,
I am not a real pro with origins......yuzu is a strange citrus fruit about the
size of a large orange.....mostly its used in savory preparations......zest and
juice for sauces and garnish.....juice is sour and not real sweet....had a small party for the honorary chairman of Toyota a couple of months ago.....and decided on making a sorbet with a side garnish of sesame brittle.....sorbet tastes like a sour mix of grapefruit, lime, lemon, orange....kinda. For the brittle, I caramalized sugar to a nice amber color added untoasted white sesame seeds and immediatly poured the sugar onto a NEW extremely flat
sheet pan that had been very lightly oiled with sesame oil. very thin layer of
sugar and sesame seeds, very level surface. Just before serving, I broke it into mosaic type pieces and dusted it with powdered sugar....really covering it
so it looked chalky....laid it out on a small plate mosaic style....was nice....
what do you do and where do you do it?.......take care

[tessa]

so unfair to make my mouth water like this when i havent had breakfast yet that yuzu sounds really interesting i wonder if we can get that here in little old NZ

Originally Posted by even stephen

Tessa,
I am not a real pro with origins......yuzu is a strange citrus fruit about the
size of a large orange.....mostly its used in savory preparations......zest and
juice for sauces and garnish.....juice is sour and not real sweet....had a small party for the honorary chairman of Toyota a couple of months ago.....and decided on making a sorbet with a side garnish of sesame brittle.....sorbet tastes like a sour mix of grapefruit, lime, lemon, orange....kinda. For the brittle, I caramalized sugar to a nice amber color added untoasted white sesame seeds and immediatly poured the sugar onto a NEW extremely flat
sheet pan that had been very lightly oiled with sesame oil. very thin layer of
sugar and sesame seeds, very level surface. Just before serving, I broke it into mosaic type pieces and dusted it with powdered sugar....really covering it
so it looked chalky....laid it out on a small plate mosaic style....was nice....
what do you do and where do you do it?.......take care

[Tri2Cook]

I have one I do layered in the little glasses per current trend.

From bottom to top:

jackfruit gelee
honeydew cubes marinated in vanilla bean syrup
caramelized puffed jasmine rice disc
jackfruit mousse
caramelized puffed jasmine rice

It requires last minute final assembly or the disc and caramelized rice will go soggy but you could leave that part out and they'll hold up for quite a while. Then you'd just have to sprinkle some of the caramelized rice over the top and, if you still wanted to use the discs for texture, stick them in the mousse or just eliminate the crunchy stuff altogether and make some marshmallows for the top ala Pierre Herme. You could also make it easier by caramelizing rice krispies instead of puffing rice yourself.

I don't have a picture at the moment but I have all of the components set up so I'll grab a pic tonight and post it the next chance I get.

[Tri2Cook]

This is the version using rice crispies instead of the puffed rice. I also added cardamom to the mousse this time.