These pancakes are naturally colored green but don’t let that turn you off. The flavor is very light with a buttery taste and a tiny hint of green tea to compliment this homemade griddle cake recipe. Ingredients: 1 cup all purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 packet of Aojiru or .1 oz of matcha tea powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar 1 cup milk 1 egg 3 tablespoons melted butter 1) In a large bowl sift and combine all dry ingredients and punch in a well in the middle. 2) Pour into the hole, milk, melted butter, and crack an egg. 3) Whisk well all the ingredients together to form a batter. 4) On a heated and oiled griddle or pan, pour the batter while letting it form a circular shape. 5) Cook one side on medium- low heat until it bubbles and is ready to be flipped. 6) Cook the other side and be careful not to burn. 7) Serve on a plate and continue the pancake cooking process. Pancakes tastes great stacked up with maple syrup and butter (or try fruit syrups and fruit slices as a garnish)

This recipe is a little different from the traditional green tea mochi recipes you may find online. Instead of mixing the matcha in the mochi dough, I decided to make the taste light by only lightly dusting the matcha green tea afterwards into the mochi. Ingredients: 1/2 cup Glutinous Rice Flour such as Mochiko 1/8 cup sugar 1/3 cup water Potato/tapioca starch Matcha Green Tea 1) In a microwave bowl, mix in sugar and rice flour. 2) Next, pour in water and stir the solution well until everything is full dissolved. The batter should look like cream of rice. 3) Transfer the bowl into a microwave and nuke it for two minutes on high. Microwave ovens vary so you may need to microwave the solution more or less around the two minute range. 4) The dough should form into a sticky goey consistency in which you should stir it up a bit once more. (I used a fork because the dough is hot, wouldn’t want to use my hands) 5) On a dusting board or plate, sprinkle starch and matcha green tea together. Blend the dusting mixture well until you get a pale green color, you may add more matcha for a greener effect. 6) Dust your hands and grab a small piece of the mochi dough *careful, it’s hot!) 7) Place the small chunk on the dusting mixture and knead the dough into it. Next roll the dough into a smooth ball and redust the mochi with the dusting flour. 9) Repeat the steps 6-8 until all the dough is used up. Serve on a platter. (Mochi can be stored in a air tight plastic bag at room temperature)

Kasutera, or traditional Japanese sponge cake, is a wonderfully light dessert that is flavored with the subtle taste of green tea. Impress your guests with this yummy green tea sponge cake.

This is the first 15 minutes of an old Japanese movie that came out in 1952. It’s in the public domain so I thought I’d upload it for anyone who is interested in Japan, Japanese films. It also has subtitles in English. If you’d like to see the rest, let me know.