JaBistro

JaBistro

222 Richmond Street West

Toronto, ON M5V 1W4

Tel: (647) 748-0222

How were your Valentine's Day celebrations? Not to brag, but mine was pretty good. While we still had to go to work, Howard surprised me in the morning by making my TTC commute shorter. At work, our social committee left heart-shaped Tim Hortons doughnuts on each of our desks. A yummy jelly-filled addition to my breakfast! That day, I also participated in a flash mob for One Billion Rising, had a delicious prosciutto panini from Mercatto for lunch, and was whisked to JaBistro after work.

JaBistro has been on our restaurant wishlist for awhile, we had heard that the guys at Guu were behind this venture and wanted to try it out. In addition, they had been receiving great review after great review after great review.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the friendly hostess who checked our reservation. She led us to our seat at the bar (they had asked if we had a sesating preference when they called to confirm a couple of days before), took our jackets, and placed the menus in front of us.

To my surprise, the place wasn't packed for Valentine's Day - maybe the rain kept people at home or plans were being made on the weekend. It did fill up a bit by the time we left, but I was still surprised to see empty spots at the bar!

On their drink menu, they had three virgin cocktails where I spotted the green tea mojito. It's hard for me to turn down a mojito flavour I hadn't tried before! This one was made with matcha syrup, simple syrup, lime, mint, and soda.

Do you see the amazing sushi platter he's preparing? We want to come back for that!

You can also make reservations for their Prix Fixe menu or the Fisherman's Platter (looking for four more to join us, any takers?) online.

If it's available, ask to sit at the bar, you'll get to witness some blowtorch action and some playful sound effects too.

The aburi, seven delicious blowtorched pieces.

You'll notice that they'll always place the platter in the order of consumption, you start from the left and always end with the tamago on the right.

Top: The aburicious, a sampler consisting of two atlantic salmons, two cured mackerels, two tiger shrimps, and two JaBistroll.
Bottom: The nama, seven classic pieces.

Right: Oh JaBistroll - salmon, snow crab, uni, and tobiko - you are so delicious!

Aside from the Japanese menu items, you can also order dishes under their Bistro section. The kamo (above) consists of smoked duck breast, burdock, and onsen tamago. You mix up together and eat it as a salad.

The gindara is black cod and bacon with a shrimp toast.

I was pretty full by then, but I did come here to try their matcha puff too! The puff was filled with a black sesame custard cream with matcha whipped cream and drizzled with black honey. Some garnish and a deliciously rich green tea ice cream.

Don't skip on dessert here.

To our surprise, they also had a special of the day for dessert! So Howard ordered the banana pastry - also decorated with hearts as our waitress pointed out. Too cute!

Two heart-shaped housemade calvados (soft nama chocolate) to end the amazing meal.

Happy Valentine's Day

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

It's almost Valentine's Day! Do you have any plans for tomorrow? I'm going to work... so the highlights will probably be my lunch date with friends and my dinner date with Howard.

Regardless if it were Valentine's Day or not, why not make something sweet and pink?

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
(Makes about 20-22 cupcakes)

1 stick of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
Seeds from one vanilla bean
4 large egg whites
1/4 cups of milk
2 1/4 cups of cake flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and have your liners ready in the cupcake tray.
2. Using a stand-mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla bean seeds together.
3. Meanwhile, use a hand-mixer to whisk the egg whites until soft peaks are formed. Slowly add in the milk. It will be light and frothy. Pour 1/3 of this mixture with the butter mixture along with the vanilla extract and mix until incorporate.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Pour 1/3 into the butter mixture and incorporate. 
5. Alternate between adding the egg/milk and flour/baking powder/salt into the butter/sugar/vanilla bean mixture until they are all incorporated.
6. Use an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute the batter into the cupcake liners.
7. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
8. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.

Strawberry Frosting
(Makes enough for 22 cupcakes)

1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons of puréed and strained strawberries

1. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until smooth. About 4-5 minutes.
2. If you're using fresh strawberries, cut off the stem and the leaves. Give the strawberries a wash and pat them dry with a paper tower. 
3. Purée the strawberries and strain them through a sieve to separate the seeds. If you look at the photo above, we made about 1 cup, but you only need 3 tablespoons - otherwise the frosting's consistency will be too runny.
4. Add the seedless purée and mix until incorporated.
5. Fill your piping bag or use a metal spatula to frost your cooled cupcakes.

The strawberry frosting doesn't have a strong strawberry flavour, but it is there. We couldn't add anymore strawberry purée because the frosting would have been too runny. I think the solution is to use really ripe strawberries (so plan ahead) or to maybe boil it down so that some of the water content evaporates?

And if you want the frosting to have a stronger pink colour, you'll have to add some food colouring to it. We kept the pale pink since we didn't want to add any other chemicals to it. Seriously, strawberry frosting is a tough one to figure out. Do bakeries use strawberry extract to get a stronger flavour?

Overall, the strawberry frosting works with these light and airy vanilla cupcakes. The cupcakes are really soft and fluffy! Adding vanilla beans make it taste so much better, but I'll probably use less sugar next time.

Woof! I couldn't resist.

CNY and VD

I managed to do a Chinese New Year (my year of the Tiger, growl) and a Valentine's Day treat in the kitchen yesterday. First, my mother taught me and Laura how to wrap Zong (I pronounce it joong in Cantonese). Mom prepared all the ingredients below:

Beans

Sticky rice

Zong leaves

Not pictured are the pork fillings (basically pork chopped into cubes). We had to learn the finesse of wrapping all the ingredients into the leaves, so that they stay intact for boiling.

We took one leaf, folded it into a cone shape and added the sticky rice and beans. Then we added one piece of pork.

Then, we covered the pork with more sticky rice. We use a second leaf to help cover the top.

Here was the fun part, wrapping the zong with string to keep it from bursting.

My first zong! Not very pretty and not in the ideal triangle shape.

We made a whole pot full! These are ready to be boiled.

Next, Laura and I made cupcakes!!! Initially, we were going to attempt the Sweet and Salty Cake from Baked. But, after wrapping zong and making lunch, we needed to hurry to make our dinner plans. So we made chocolate cupcakes with hazelnut buttercream - so rich and delicious!


Brooklyn Blackout Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
(Makes about 18 regular cupcakes)

1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
2/3 cup of milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and have all ingredients at room temperature. Also have your cupcake liners ready.
2. With your electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together.
3. Add in one egg at a time. Continue mixing until combined.
4. Add in the vanilla extract, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix well.
5. Pour in half of the flour and mix.
6. Pour in all the milk and mix until combined.
7. Finally, add in the other half of flour.
   
8. Using an ice cream scoop, fill the liners to about 2/3 full, and bake for 20-25 minutes. Or until a cake tester comes out clean.
9. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.
   

Don't they look like Kisses?

Hazelnut buttercream
Recipe adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
(Makes enough to frost 18 regular cupcakes)

1 stick of unsalted butter
2 cups of confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons of milk
1/3 cup of hazelnut spread (like Nutella)

1. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until smooth.
2. Add in 1 tablespoon of milk, beat until combined.
3. Add in the hazelnut spread and mix.
4. Finally, add in the rest of the milk and beat until smooth and fluffy.
5. Use a spatula or piping bag to frost your cupcakes.

We hope you have a wonderful long weekend!

P.S. My Valentine's Day card from Howard:

Happy Valentine's Day!

XOXO, A Baked Creation