Umami Mart

Hi, welcome to my new column, MOTOism. I’ll mostly be cooking here, as always, with the occasional restaurant rant, to keep everyone on their toes. It’s summer, it’s hot, and it’s time to make an easy dessert that doesn’t boil the kitchen. Over the weekend, I made batches of macarons, but I still haven’t figured […]

After seeing so many people starting a second career by opening gluten-free bakeries around the U.S., I thought, “Martha, you totally missed your chance to capitalize on my MO-dessert line!” Unfortunately, whenever I read recipes for gluten-free items online, it’s always so complicated. Xantham gum? What the hell is that? To substitute wheat flour people […]

PREFACE Martha, You Want Me Last week was intense. News reports on the Sendai Quake was getting worse by the hour and the number of victims had already exceeded that of the Kobe quake in 1995. It is still increasing. Radiation has been detected in spinach and milk. The Japanese government is slow in communicating […]

Before I go into this week’s tear-jerking post, I am fortunate to tell you that all my peeps in Japan are fine, but my thoughts are with everyone who is affected by the earthquake. This is truly awful, sad, and devastating for all of us. Japan may be well-equipped to handle the situation technologically, but […]

My MO-obsession (baking with rice flour) has returned, and this time, it’s the MOcaron. Now that I know exactly what to do when it comes to macaron-making, substituting almond flour with other ingredients is not that hard. Having said that, I had no idea whether rice flour would work. Since the first recipe I used […]

PREFACE: Battle ReCPY: Madeleines (Mary Ann + Marcus) Valentine’s Day is so overrated. Why do people pay extra for red roses? Why do you have to buy new lingerie? WTF is up with all the chocolate? I don’t understand what’s so romantic about today–it’s just a regular Monday to me. Us consumers are so manipulated […]

This is a whole new level of ReCPY, everyone. I’ve created many baked goods in the past, but nothing compares to this. I heard Iron Chef had an episode on natto, and Morimoto made some kind of dessert with natto soaked in Coca-Cola or something. The thought of natto mixed with something sweet made me […]

I am still MO-ing. Just like many of my other endeavors, I have the tendency to keep tackling something until I am satisfied. I think I am nearing the end of this MO-Journey. There are endless ways to create MO-Desserts, and as I said last week, you can substitute regular flour with rice flour for […]

My obsession with rice flour continues.  As I mentioned in my last post, I think I can substitute flour with rice flour for any recipe.  It may be too subtle to taste the difference for some, but others are very distinctive, such as MOffins.  Warning: if you don’t like sticky textures, you may not like […]

Sorry for disappearing for so long since my last post– had a couple of weeks full of extreme work situations. Having said that, I still bake every weekend, but just haven’t have time to post any of it. Since I found the delightful MOffin recipe, I’ve been obsessed with rice flour. The texture, as well […]