Memories in the Cooking

This dessert really brings on the Christmas mood with preserved fruits, spices and a touch of alcohol. It tastes like Christmas fruit cake with mulled wine.  Ingredients:  - assorted preserved fruits (ginger, yuzu, cranberries, raisins, dates etc)  - 1 tablespoon of honey  - 1 dash of alcohol (whiskey or rum)   - vanilla ice-cream  Procedures: 1) Place all the fruits in a pot. Add enough water to just cover the fruits. Let the mixture boil and simmer until the liquid is reduced to a syrup-like consistency.  2) Add honey and alcohol. Let it continue to simmer for another 5 mins. 3) Serve with vanilla ice-cream. 

I tried my first sushi baked at my sister's bake. It is a basically a deconstructed sushi who is easier to make than the traditional sushi. I am making it even easier by not baking it! And it is still delicious.  Ingredients:  - 2 cups of Japanese rice  - 6 half mackerels  - a packet of bonito flakes - half a cup of sushi vinegar  - 1 tablespoon of miso paste  - 5 shitake mushrooms, sliced - half a cup of mayonnaise  - 1 tablespoon of mirin  - 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce  - 1 tablespoon of honey mustard  - sushi seaweed  Procedures: 1) Marinate mackerels and sliced mushrooms in miso paste and half a cup of water overnight.  2) Add Japanese rice and 2 cups of water in rice cooker. Add the marinated mackerels and sliced mushrooms on top of the rice. Cook according to rice cooker instructions.  3) Set aside the mackerels. Mash the mackerels (remove the bones). Add mayonnaise, light soya sauce, honey mustard and mirin. Mix well.  4) To the rice, add sushi vinegar and mix well.  5)