Sesame Oil

I don't have a recipe to share today. Well, not directly anyway. I thought I'd write about an ingredient today. You know, just to shake things up. Sesame oil, an interesting oil to someone who grew up with vegetable oil (um, that would be me). So, I'm not going to write about the history or the 1001 uses (if there are that many) uses of sesame oil, just write a post about what I use it for and what I think of it.

Let me start of by saying that I don't LOVE sesame oil. In fact, it took me a while to get used to it. It has a strong smell and flavor. Heating the oil really brings out the smell! When I was first pregnant, my husband heated some sesame oil and the smell made me so sick that I couldn't use it again for a very long time! After time, though, I got used to it and do enjoy it from time to time.

The first recipe I used sesame oil was daikon soup. I'll have to share that recipe this winter! I also use it for goya champuru and tonjiru. And recently, I have been using this recipe for all the cucumbers coming out of our garden, yes with a healthy dash of sesame oil. (Thanks to anchan for directing me to the recipe, and thanks to Not Quite Nigella (and her mum) for sharing it!) Speaking of which, I used my pickling dish to make these pickles.



I combined the ingredients in the dish. Then added the cut up cucumber and gave them a stir.



After fifteen minutes (or so) i put the heavy lid on and put it in the refrigerator for an hour.



I put a dried pepper in it, but it didn't really make it any spicier. Soaking the pepper, taking out the seeds then cutting it into round slices works much better. My kids don't really like cucumber so I can make this as spicy as I like.


(looks like a little dead fish in there, doesn't it?)

After an hour, the liquid from the cucumbers had combined with the rest of the ingredients and the cucumbers were deliciously pickled. My pickling dish is a little too small for this recipe, but I just kept adding cucumbers as they came out of the garden! Very delicious, even my PIL liked these cucumbers!



So, don't be afraid to use sesame oil. At the top of this post I have a photo of a 'nice' sesame oil (read: somewhat expensive) but you can find all types of sesame oil with the other oils in your supermarket (in Japan. I'm not sure where you might find it in other countries. Sorry!) Sesame oil is 'goma abura' in Japanese. Get out there and experiment!

Simmered Chicken Mini-drumsticks or Wings

Sorry, I have been slacking off on this blog. I do have some recipes to share, just no pictures or no translations of certain words. Sorry!! Here is one of my favorite summer chicken recipes. This is delicious hot or cold, and terrific with beer! From MIJ, thank you so much!

At first I am going to give metric measurements. I'll try to put conversions up, but in the meantime I suggest using this site (if you don't have metric measuring utensils) to help you out.

Simmered Chicken Mini-drumsticks or Wings

1 kg mini-drumsticks or wings
120 ml mild rice vinegar
25 ml sake
80 ml soy sauce
30 ml water
1-3 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
red pepper or shichimi togarashi
paprika
sesame seeds for garnish

Place chicken in a bamboo colander. Quickly pour boiling water over chicken and drain (or simply rinse in cold water). Lay chicken in a shallow pan in one or two even layers. Add all other ingredients, and simmer over low heat for 1-2 hours (or as suits you), turning occasionally. Discard bay leaf, pepper and garlic cloves. Serve hot or cold, with a little of the simmering liquid.



As you can see, I add a LOT of paprika. I love it! It was a bit spicy but even so, my kids loved it! The simmering liquid will most likely gel up when cold, so if you're not serving it hot, be sure to remove the chicken from the liquid.

Soybean Hummus (now with recipe!)

Watch this space! Recipe coming, I promise! I need to upload photos so I beg for your patience!

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OK, this took me a couple days longer than I anticipated, but here we go! I got this recipe from the book 'The Japanese Kitchen'. I must confess that I had never had hummus before I came to Japan, and have only ever eaten soy bean hummus. How about that? So, I cannot comment on how it compares to hummus made with garbanzo beans. Add enough garlic and cumin and I'm sure it will be delicious!

Soybean Hummus

The original recipe calls for dried soybeans which you soak and cook, but I use the prepared soybeans found in the refrigerated section of the vegetable aisle.



Also, instead of tahini, the recipe uses sesame seed paste. 'Neri goma' in Japanese.




1 package prepared soy beans
3 Tbsp. sesame seed paste
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
juice from one lemon
1 tsp. sugar
1.5 tsp. salt
1/4 cup warm water
cumin and cayenne pepper

Place all ingredients except cumin and cayenne pepper in a blender and mix until smooth. Add a little more warm water or olive oil if it's too thick. Add cumin and cayenne pepper to taste.

The latest batch I made, I used two bags of soybeans and so a little more oil and water. I also usually use at least two cloves of garlic, because I love garlic! Serve with crackers, bread or vegetable sticks.

Holes

"Holes" is basically the American version of goulash. It's very simple, and actually not too difficult to make here in Japan. I usually end up using the mixed beef and pork ground meat, because it's less expensive than ground beef, and tastes better (in my opinion) than ground pork (or chicken), in this particular dish. My family calls it "holes" because of the holes in the macaroni.

Holes

I usually don't measure this when cooking, so think of these as guidelines. Adapt as you feel necessary. Basically using a package of macaroni (or shaped pasta) which may be about 300 grams and adding tomatoes and meat to that.

250 g ground meat
1/4 onion, chopped
1 can tomatoes (I used cut tomatoes, but whole tomatoes work well, just cut them with your cooking utensil in the pan)
300 grams uncooked pasta shapes (in the above picture I used a mix of shapes: twist, shell and wagon wheel--it's the cheapest at my local supermarket)
salt and pepper
processed cheese slices

Boil the pasta until almost done. It will absorb some of the liquid from the tomatoes so you don't want the pasta to become too mushy. The package (of the pasta I used) says it cooks in eight minutes, so I boil it for six. In a large pan, brown the meat with the onions; drain off fat. Add the tomatoes to the meat and allow it to warm through. Add the pasta and heat it over med-low heat until hot. Season with salt and pepper. I find that Japanese canned tomatoes don't have any salt, or very little salt compared to American canned tomatoes. I usually add more salt than I usually do to my cooking in this dish. Either cover the whole with slices of cheese, or add to individual servings, as desired.

Another easy-peasy meal!

I made miso today!

This year our family has joined a lecture series, mainly about farming (or growing plants. I'm not entirely sure what it's about, my husband does, though.) Today there were having a 'class' on making miso paste, and Yoshi was interested in it. However, somehow his parents were invited over today, so we couldn't all go. I was volunteered, but I was actually interested in learning how to make miso.

It turns out it's not really complicated, but it is a lot of work, and it takes a long time for the miso to mature. First you need to prepare the beans. If you're using dry beans, this means letting them soak. For today's class, a lot of preparation had been done for us. I also have to admit now, that I was thirty minutes late for the class! Oops! So, I missed the first part of the lecture. When I got there (with my jar for storing my portion of miso), I was able to just jump right in, starting with smashing cooked beans. After measuring, the smashed beans were added to (pre-measured) rice and salt, with about a cup of liquid from the boiled beans. This was mixed by hand until it could be pressed into balls. The balls were then pressed into the jar, with some konbu layered in the middle. This was measured perfectly because it just fit in the jar. Next some plastic was placed on top, then salt poured on top of that. Then it was ready to wait. It's going to take about six months for the miso to be ready!

I forgot to bring my camera with me today, so these pictures were taken with my cell phone.



Boiling beans. Part of the preparation included boiling beans, then putting them in a pressure cooker to speed up the process. This was a large pot of beans waiting to be put in a pressure cooker.




Here are cooked beans in a sieve. Notice the bowl underneath to catch the liquid.




This was a large blender which did a pretty good job at mashing those beans! We had to scrape the beans down to get them all blended.



This was a little hot to mix!





I think that the balls were supposed to make it easier to fit in the jars.





We used our fists to press the mixture down. I actually used my weight to press it down. haha

That's pretty much it for the pictures I took. I had some fun today, I hope the miso turns out well!

Simmered Cabbage and Ground Pork

Mmmmm, just looking at that picture makes me hungry. This is so delicious! I found this recipe in a book I got at Costco, a real find (if you ask me) since i got it for about 860 yen, and the retail price is about 3500 yen! I haven't made any other thing from this book, though, because it's all in Japanese. Now, I really don't have a lot of trouble with Japanese recipes, it's pretty easy to figure something out if you don't understand a word (especially if there are pictures), but the recipes in this book seem a little more complicated than simple Japanese homestyle cooking, and I haven't had a lot of time to commit to more recipes.

But this is a winner, something even my kids love. It's juicy, buttery and oh so yummy! The book is 手作り家庭料理, which (I think) roughly translate into 'handmade homestyle cooking'. (I would like to link to it on amazon.jp, but there's a lot of kanji in the address and isn't being co-operative in copying. Sorry) There are three sections to this book: Japanese, Western and Chinese. The simmered cabbage and ground pork is in the Western section.

I'd say this is similar to cabbage rolls, without the fiddly rolling and tying.

Simmered Cabbage and Ground Pork

6 to 8 large cabbage leaves
200 grams ground pork
1/3 carrot
1/2 onion
1 small egg
salt
pepper
2 Tbsp. butter

simmering liquid:
2 cups soup (chicken stock)
2 Tbsp. sake
1 tsp. salt
pepper

Soften cabbage leaves by blanching them (put the leaves in boiling water to cover, remove them when they begin to get soft, then place them in cold water to halt cooking.) If necessary, cut down (but not off) the hard white part in the middle of the leaf. Mince onion and carrot, and beat the egg. I grate the carrot using a fine grater.



As an aside, I just love this tool because it has several different cutting/grating options, plus the bowl has a tiny sieve at the top so you can put water in the bowl to immediately soak something you've cut, then just drain away the water.

Anyway, grated carrot:



In a bowl, combine the ground meat, carrot, onion, egg and a small amount of salt and pepper. Mix well.



(You can see my soft cabbage leaves in the back there.)

Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pan over low heat. Put two or three cabbage leaves on the bottom, overlapping them a bit. Evenly distribute half of the meat mixture over the cabbage. Put two leaves over the meat, then the other half of the meat over that. Use the last of the leaves to cover the whole of it.


butter and cabbage

Add the soup, sake, salt and pepper.



Cover with a paper drop-lid and simmer over medium heat for about thirty minutes.



Carefully lift the whole out onto a plate, top it with a sprig of parsley if you like, and cut into sections like you would a pie. Enjoy!





I didn't quite cook enough cabbage leaves this time around, but I just got it all to fit together. As for the soup, I like to use "gara soup", which I think is a kind of Chinese chicken stock bullion. It's rather salty so I usually don't add a whole teaspoon of salt with the simmering liquid.

Glazed Meatballs

Here is another recipe from "Bento Boxes", modified of course. Naturally, I first tried this recipe for my son's kindergarten bento, but it's also great for dinner. As a recipe for a bento, the portions are small, so I have increased them, mainly so I can make a lot and freeze the left-overs, which are then easily heated up two or three at a time, for any bento, or served as a side dish at a meal.

Besides the amounts, I have also changed the cooking process, and I don't serve the meatballs with quail eggs, which I don't like. The original recipe has one egg and one meatball speared on a toothpick, and it's very cute (two or three skewers in a bento). As for cooking, the meatballs are to be deep fried, perhaps to keep the ball shape, but I dislike deep-fat frying (seems like a waste of oil) and pan frying doesn't seem to take that long or make funky-shaped meatballs.

Glazed Meatballs

1/2 onion, minced
cooking oil
250-300 grams ground meat (I prefer a pork/beef mix)
1 egg
1/4 cup breadcrumbs or quick-cooking oatmeal
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp each sugar, soy sauce, mirin and sake
water

Saute the onion in about a tablespoon of oil until translucent. Allow the onion to cool. Mix the ground meat, onion, egg, breadcrumbs, and a small amount of salt and pepper; combine well. Roll into small balls. [Deep fry at 340 F (170 C) for 2-3 minutes until browned well] Cook meatballs until well done. If you fried them in a pan, drain meatballs, wipe pan with a paper towel (be careful not to burn yourself like I do!) then place meatballs in the pan with remaining ingredients. Simmer over medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes, turning the meatballs often to cover them with the glaze.

If you are serving these in a bento, you probably don't need the left-over glaze. If serving for a meal, put the meatballs in a dish that can hold liquid then pour the extra glaze over them.

Pictured above, the meatballs are served with steamed veggies seasoned with fresh Italian dressing. Please click on the picture to view on flickr, so you can see a bit more of the meatballs.