Illahee Cooks

Chicken Ramen Salad

2010-07-02T20:58:00.005+09:00

I got this 'recipe' from a friend. I guess I've adjusted it a little, but it's a salad so improvisation is usually acceptable. A delicious salad, either as a side dish or even as a main. I made this the other night for the kids' dinner, but they didn't really like the cucumber, lettuce or green pepper. I hope they eventually will like green veggies!

Chicken Ramen Salad

lettuce
tomato
green pepper (and/or yellow and red pepper)
cucumber
carrot
...or any of your favorite vegetables for salad
1 boiled chicken breast, chilled and shredded
1 package chicken ramen
Italian dressing (Pietro brand dressing in Japan)

Basically this is a salad with shredded chicken and crushed chicken ramen. You can crush the ramen in its package, it's not as messy. Pour the salad dressing just before serving, so the ramen is still crunchy when you dig in! My friend who taught me how to make the salad swears by Pietro brand, but I used Good Seasons Italian dressing, and it was just as good.

Beef Stew

2010-03-08T16:14:00.007+09:00

I don't think this is really anything new, but I did manage to make a good pot of stew and so I'm sharing. This is my mother's recipe, but I don't know where she got it. It's easy enough to get the ingredients here in Japan, and if you have a couple of hours to spare for making dinner, why not make a pot of stew?

I am calling this beef stew, but I have also made this with pork. Many of our local grocery stores have had big hunks of pork meat (you can also buy some already chopped, mainly intended for curry or Japanese 'stew' (cream stew)), not pork belly, almost like a roast. Very lovely in stew.

I first made my mother's stew several years ago because I once had stew in a restaurant and it had tomatoes in it. Not what I was expecting, and I didn't really like it. I like tomatoes well enough, but I think I was homesick and wanted something with a meatier broth.

Beef Stew

400-500 g beef or pork (momo or roast cut, meant for stew or curry)
1 small onion
1/4 cup flour
salt & pepper
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
3 or four bullion cubes, beef preferred but any flavor should work
4 cups of water
1 bay leaf
1 carrot
2 or 3 small potatoes ("may queen" is good for prolonged cooking)

Cut meat into bite-sized pieces, perhaps one inch cubes. Cut onions into slices. Put flour into a plastic bag (ziploc bags work well for this) and add salt and pepper (perhaps 1/4 teaspoon salt and a dash of pepper). Put the meat in the bag, close the bag and shake until the meat is covered in flour (if you have a large amount of meat, do this in stages). Heat the oil in a medium-sized pot on high, shake the flour from the meat and place it in the pot. Add onions and cook over high heat until the meat is brown, stirring constantly. Don't worry if the flour sticks to the bottom of the pot, but be careful not to let it burn. When the meat has changed color, add the water and bullion cubes. Carefully scrape off anything stuck to the bottom (the water makes this easy to do). Bring to a boil. Add the bay leaf, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for at least an hour.
Peel and cut carrot and potatoes into bite-sized pieces, and try to make them all the same size. You can take out the bay leaf now, or after the vegetables are cooked, but don't forget to remove it! Remove lid, increase the heat to high, and add the vegetables. When it comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover again. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the veggies are soft. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with warm bread.

For slow cookers:

If you don't have time to wait for a pot of stew to simmer, you can make this in a crock pot in the morning (or even overnight for the next day. Stew is great leftovers!) Still prepare the meat as above, but remove to the crock pot after the meat changes color. Add one cup of water to the pot where you fried your beef and onions and with the heat still on, scrape off the good stuff from the bottom of the pot. Add and dissolve the bullion cubes. Then transfer this broth into the crock pot, just pour it over the meat. Add the chopped veggies (usually vegetables are put under the meat, but the small cut up pieces are going to float around, so don't bother), one more cup of water and the bay leaf. You shouldn't need more water because it's not going to evaporate like a traditional pot of stew, but do taste it before you serve. Cook on low for eight hours, or on high for four. Enjoy!

Yakibuta in White Sauce

2009-11-26T21:57:00.005+09:00

Sorry about not posting as soon as I said I would. I got a bit distracted by Thanksgiving! And today's recipe is not daikon soup nor nabe, but something I whipped up over the weekend, when we had some yakibuta (roasted pork) that needed to be used up. This pork was already sliced and was ready-to-use, and also near it's expiration date, when my husband bought it. I'm not exactly sure what it's for, though I would guess for ramen topping, but I suppose you could also add it to salad or soup. Anyway, I have been a bit homesick and when I saw this, I thought I could try a version of chipped beef on toast. Dried beef is not something I have seen in Japan, but there's plenty of yakibuta around.

Basically, this is just chopped, cooked meat tossed into a white sauce, then served over toasted bread. You can also use cooked hamburger (or, what I usually use here in Japan, a mix of ground beef and ground pork). If you've never made white sauce before, it's pretty easy:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
warm milk

Melt butter in a medium-sized pot. Add flour and salt, and combine with a whisk. Cook for a minute or so, then add 1/2 cup milk. Whisk continuously to prevent lumps. Add a bit more milk, maybe another cup or so. Stir with the whisk until the mixture starts to boil. You can add more milk, but be careful not to add too much, or it will not be thick enough (or, it will just take longer for it to cook in order to thicken the sauce). When it begins to boil, reduce the heat and simmer as it thickens.

When the white sauce has reached the desired consistency, add the meat, and allow it to warm through. Serve the sauce over toasted bread (I usually use sandwich bread, but any bread will do), or be adventurous and serve it over rice! Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Update

2009-11-19T19:25:00.003+09:00

Well, looks like I'm not doing well on this whole food blogging thing. Goodness. I really meant to post something before now, but I haven't been taking pictures of food recently. I personally like seeing pictures of food on food blogs, so that was my goal for here. However, food here usually disappears before I get a chance to make it pretty and take a picture of it! Plus, it's pretty dark here in my house (especially in the kitchen) so the pictures don't come out well. I am making it my goal, though, to write about daikon soup and nabe. Hopefully I'll have one of those up this weekend.

Sesame Oil

2009-08-07T08:52:00.006+09:00

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

2009-07-01T15:51:00.003+09:00

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!)

2009-04-30T20:42:00.006+09:00

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

*******

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

2009-04-15T12:12:00.005+09:00

"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!

2009-04-05T19:41:00.004+09:00

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

2009-03-30T15:44:00.006+09:00

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

2009-03-26T14:43:00.005+09:00

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.

Makin' pizza

2009-02-23T11:44:00.008+09:00

Here are two pizzas ready for the oven! The one in the foreground is my daughter's, the one in back is my eldest son's. To get them to help out, I prepared all the toppings and then moved everything to the kotatsu (sadly, my kitchen is so small so my kids can't help me in there). It was a bit of a challenge to keep the baby out of everything, but the two older kids had fun.

I used my bread maker to make the dough. There is a 'pizza' option on the menu, and will prepare the dough up to the first rising. Then, you take it out, punch it down and divide it in two, then put it in a warm place to rise again (about 20 minutes). All in all, it takes about an hour and a half from mixing to finishing a pizza (though I let it cool down for about 7 minutes before I cut it). That's the first pizza, the second will take twenty more minutes to bake (darn small oven!)

Pizza dough in breadmaker (National SD-BM101):

280 grams flour
15 grams butter
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
180 mL water

Dump dry ingredients into the breadmaker 'pot' (make sure the paddle is in it--properly hooked up--or you'll just have warm goop in there after 45 minutes *blush*) making a kind of hill in the middle. Pour the water around the sides, making an island out of the hill. Put the pot into the bread maker and make sure it's fitted properly inside. Close the lid, then lift the smaller lid and add:

1 tsp. dry yeast

in the yeast compartment. Close the smaller lid, press the 'menu' button, select the 'pizza' option and push start. (I hope you know these for yourself on the bread machine. If not, check out jojoebi's helpful picture on flickr.)

When the dough is finished, take it out and be careful to take out the little paddle. You don't want to find that in your dough when you go to roll it out! Divide the dough into two equal portions then allow it to rise again, in a warm place, for twenty minutes. After rising, roll the dough out in whatever pizza shape you want, pierce the dough with a fork, then put on whatever toppings you like. Bake for about 20 minutes at an over temperature between 180 and 200 C (I use 190). Yum

(I know this recipe is specifically for the bread machine. Sorry about that. But *if* you are in the market for a bread maker, and *if* you live in Japan, I cannot recommend this one enough. There is a smaller, slightly less expensive machine by National that doesn't make pasta/soba/udon dough and mochi, but if you think you want to try making either of those, then be sure to get this machine. It has a timer you know, fresh baked bread in the morning when you get up!!)

For pizza sauce, I guess my taste buds have finally become 'Japanized' because I don't mind the 'cheap' stuff from AEON (generic brand no less). When I first came to Japan I couldn't stand Japanese pizza sauce and usually had to put lots and lots of tabasco on it just to make it appetizing. Now I find it's not too bad. Ha!

As for the toppings, I get the dry salami (or at least, it looks like dry salami) in the supermarket. For some reason a lot of them are called 'Light Karen' but I'll try not to read anything into that. I like piman and onion on my pizza, but the kids do not. That's why having two (small) pizzas is great, because I make a 'pepperoni' and tomato pizza (one half olive) for the kids and a kind of 'combo' for my husband and me. It works out well. For the cheese, I usually get the shredded cheese at Costco (with mozzarella) but even the packs sold at the supermarket work well.

Over the weekend I used some whole wheat flour (100 grams) and though it wouldn't roll out to a very big shape, it was delicious!

Pork and Hakusai

2009-02-16T13:00:00.004+09:00

I know, I know, two pork dishes in a row. What can I say? It's a great winter meat....

This is a super simple recipe that I got from shinshu life, a blogger who lives up in Nagano (if I'm getting that right. I usually get things like that wrong, woe is me!) and I have to admit that I had to try it as soon as I saw it on her blog. Two ingredient recipe! Awesome.

Of course, we always have to 'improve'. I believe Heather added a little water. I added shredded carrot. It was delicious, and even the kids ate it!

Hakusai Pork

hakusai (napa cabbage)
pork

As Heather states it, the amounts are not listed because it's up to you. I used a whole (small) head of hakusai and about 400 grams of (thinly sliced) pork. I also used a small carrot and grated it finely. Cut the meat and hakusai into bite-sized pieces. Layer the hakusai and meat, starting with the vegetable on the bottom, in a large pot. I sprinkled the carrot over the meat on each layer. Cook over low heat (I covered the pot with a lid) until the hakusai turns transparent and the meat changes color. You can season with salt and pepper if desired.

Be sure to check out the original post on shinshu life!

Pork and Vegetable Stir-fry

2009-02-15T09:30:00.005+09:00

I really like nira, but the amounts sold in supermarkets are usually too big for one dish. I usually make scrambled eggs with nira, and this dish (which can also include scrambled eggs). Use thinly sliced pork, leaner is better. Don't leave the meat in the ginger mixture for too long, or it will get too spicy.

Pork and Vegetable Stir-fry

150g pork
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sake
small amount of freshly ground ginger
150g cabbage
100g bean sprouts
50g nira
50g carrot
salad oil, sugar, salt, soy sauce, sake

Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces. Mix 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sake together with ginger and marinate the meat in the mixture. Cut nira into 5cm long strips, and cut cabbage and carrot into similar size pieces. Rinse and drain bean sprouts.

In a wok or large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add the pork and stir-fry until it changes color. Add the carrot and cabbage and continue frying until the vegetables begin to soften. Next, add the nira and bean sprouts. When heated through and nira begins to wilt, add one teaspoon each of sugar and salt*. Stir well, then add one teaspoon of soy sauce and one tablespoon sake. Stir to mix all seasoning in, and you're done!

*I only put in a 'dash' of salt, since there's soy sauce added at the end.

Tofu Hambaagu

2008-11-26T16:12:00.000+09:00

A few years ago, during the New Year Holiday, my mother-in-law gave me a cookbook. I'm not entirely sure why, maybe because she didn't need it? Anyway, there are a lot of dishes in it, mainly Japanese, and I've made quite a few tasty things from it, namely the tofu hambaagu.

In Japan, the 'hambaagu' is basically a Salisbury steak. When I first came to Japan, I couldn't stand all the sauces on the meat here (especially steak, what is up with that??) and even now I try to avoid it as much as possible, whenever I order hambaagu in a restaurant. In our house, we usually use ketchup to flavor our tofu hambaagu, though this recipe gives a recipe for a sauce (mix 4 tablespoons of ketchup with 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce).

If you don't like tofu, don't worry. This recipe has meat in it (sorry vegetarians) which really tones down the tofu flavor.

Tofu hambaagu

1 block momen (firm) tofu
200 grams ground meat (I use chicken because it turns white when cooked)
1/2 onion
1-2 Tbsp. oil
1 egg
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (I have used uncooked oatmeal occasionally)
1/2 tsp. salt & 1/4 tsp. pepper

Drain tofu by wrapping it in a towel and putting something heavy on top; let it drain for twenty minutes (like in champuru). Mince the onion, then saute it in the oil until it is soft. Allow the onion to cool. In a large bowl, mix the drained tofu, cooked onion, ground meat, egg, panko, salt and pepper. Mold into patties (I usually make four good-sized patties, then make the rest into small ones for bentos.) Heat oil in a frying pan and fry hambaagu, lightly browning on each side, over med-high heat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until cooked through, about 15-20 minutes. Remove cover, increase heat and cook off water. Serve with ketchup or hambaagu sauce.

Kinpira

2008-11-17T21:29:00.001+09:00

Pictured above is renkon (lotus root)* kinpira. Usually this dish is made with gobo, burdock root. The crispiness of gobo makes this a wonderfully crunchy simmered dish to round out a Japanese meal (something grilled, something simmered, soup, pickles and steamed rice.) If you can't find gobo, try lotus root, carrot, udo (butterbur in English, I think) or celery. Gobo and carrot together are a popular version of kinpira.

Kinpira will last several days in the refrigerator, and is great for including in bentos. Skip the pepper if serving to small children. Also, using prepared gobo (or renkon) will make a softer kinpira, good for those who have difficulty with crisp foods (adding a bit of water and simmering for a longer time can also soften this dish.)

I have a few different versions of this dish, so I am going to combine them a bit. Instead of a 1:1:1 ratio of sake, sugar and soy sauce, more sake is used to make it a little bit bland. With renkon you can probably get away with 1:1:1, but with gobo (because it has a fairly strong flavor), you may want to use more sake.

Kinpira

1 gobo (burdock root)
1/3 carrot (optional)
1 aka togarashi ((dried)red chili pepper)**
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
3 Tbsp. sake
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. mirin
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1-2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Prepare gobo by scrubbing off dirt (don't peel!). If using pre-washed gobo, just rinse. Cut gobo into three inch pieces, then soak in a bowl of water with about a teaspoon of vinegar. When the water turns brown, rinse and drain, then cut into match sticks. Soak again in water and vinegar until it turns brown. Rinse and drain again. Cut carrot (if using) into match sticks (same size as gobo). Soak chili pepper in warm water until soft. Cut off the top, then scoop out the seeds with a toothpick. Slice into rounds.

Heat sesame oil in a frying pan over high heat. Stir fry gobo (and carrot, if using) until it starts to soften. Add sake, sugar, mirin and soy sauce and reduce heat to medium and simmer until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and spread in a dish to cool. Top with roasted sesame seeds.

* I used packaged renkon, which may have already been cooked. It's not as crisp as fresh renkon probably would be, but I probably couldn't manage cutting it that thin, and prepared renkon (or gobo) saves a little time on this dish. If using fresh renkon, I recommend soaking it in water and vinegar before frying.

** Instead of togarashi, which can be very spicy, try shichimi togarashi (seven pepper spice) instead.

Hijiki

2008-11-10T20:02:00.000+09:00

Here is another recipe from Japanese Home Style Cooking. I really like this book a lot and can't recommend it enough! This is a fairly simple dish that is used as a side (simmered dish) in Japanese meals, usually served at room temperature. There is a lot of preparation needed for this dish, so keep that in mind before preparing. However, it keeps well for several days in the refrigerator, and can be used in bentos.

10g dried hijiki (edible brown algae)
2 dried shiitake mushrooms
30g carrot
50g gobo (burdock)
1 block firm tofu (momendofu)
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

(Simmering stock)
1/2 cup dashi stock
3 Tbsp. sake
2/3 Tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce
dash salt

Preparation:

Break and wash hijiki briefly. Soak in ample water for about twenty minutes. Carefully scoop out the hijiki with your hands and put it in a colander, taking care not to pick up any sand. Drain. (Soaked hijiki weighs eight times heavier than dried hijiki.)

Drain tofu by wrapping in a towel and putting something heavy on top (a medium-sized plate will do); let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Cut carrot into 3cm long sticks.

Soak shiitake in water until soft. Trim off the stems, then cut into thin stips.

Cut gobo (burdock) with shaving cuts (sasagaki: make shallow cuts lengthwise along the root. Place horizontally on the cutting board and shave, rolling as if sharpening a pencil. Instructions included in cookbook.) Soak cut gobo in vinegared water until the water turns brown. Wash in water and then allow it to drain.

Method:

Heat oil in a medium-sized pan. Stir-fry gobo, carrot and shiitake mushrooms until all are covered in oil. Add hijiki and fry together. Crush the tofu roughly with hands. Mix in with a wooden spoon and stir-fry until coated well with the oil. Add the dashi stock and seasonings and lower the heat to medium-high. Continue cooking until the liquid is almost gone, stirring occasionally. Slant the pan and cook until the liquid is completely absorbed. Transfer to a flat container and spread to cool. Serve in bowls. (I now have a IH cooker and the slant thing doesn't work well for me. I just cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently when it has reduced a lot.)

This is an 'all seasons' dish, and I find it compliments almost any Japanese meal.

Ok, I am lazy

2008-11-03T13:22:00.000+09:00

Sorry, I haven't posted in months! I feel like I am very lazy about this. I'm not, just busy, but hey! I missed the whole summer for cooking. *sigh* I do have some pics and recipes ready, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up and start writing here again. Wish me luck!

Sukiyaki

2008-06-07T06:20:00.000+09:00

I have been told many times that sukiyaki is very popular among foreigners. But, to be honest, I didn't really like it the first time I had it. I am a very picky eater, and sugar on beef was waaaay out of my comfort zone. I ate it, but I didn't think I'd repeat the experience.

Of course, there are many different ways to prepare anything. Sukiyaki is no different. The version I will be sharing here is 'Western style' which means the sauce is added as individual ingredients. The ratio is 1:1:1, so try that the first time you make it. Also, it is possible to buy already prepared sauce, my in-laws used some last time we stayed with them. This is a cook as you eat dish, so don't add all ingredients at once (unless you're preparing it on a stove to serve at one sitting.)

Here is a picture of my mother-in-law's table (kotatsu) with a lovely sukiyaki pan.

Sukiyaki

250 - 400 grams thinly sliced beef (less fat is probably better, though the expensive 'marbled' beef is best)
2 negi (Japanese leek)
1/4 Chinese cabbage
1 block yaki-dofu (fried tofu, though regular firm tofu works well, too.)
1 package konyaku noodles
1 package shimeji mushrooms
2 or 3 bunches of edible chrysanthemum (shungiku) leaves

1 Tbsp oil

3 Tbsp sake
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp soy sauce

raw egg (optional; one for each diner)

Diagonally cut negi into 2.5 inch pieces. Chop Chinese cabbage into bite-sized pieces and divide between the thicker white pieces and green leaves. Drain tofu, then cut into blocks. Boil konyaku noodles for five minutes, then drain and let cool. Cut the bottom off of mushrooms then pull into pieces of two or three mushrooms each. Trim bottoms off of shungiku, then cut into 2 inch lengths.

Heat oil in pan (you can use a regular frying pan if you don't have a sukiyaki pan.) Fry a few pieces of onion, to add flavor. Put in about 100 grams of meat and cook until almost brown. Put sugar on the beef, then add sake and soy sauce (it is better to add sake before soy sauce, so the soy sauce doesn't burn). Stir to mix sauce. Add white sections of Chinese cabbage, and more onions. Add noodles, tofu and mushrooms. Allow it to cook for a while, then add green sections of Chinese cabbage and shungiku. You may cover it to heat through, when the greens start to wither then it is ready to start digging in. Beat one egg in a small bowl, then take what you want from the pot, dip it in the egg and enjoy. Add more ingredients as needed. If the sauce seems to be decreasing, add sake.

Options:

*Mix the sauce before hand and add after frying meat.
*boneless chicken thighs
*shitake mushrooms
*leave out Chinese cabbage

In our house, we add less sugar and soy sauce than sake, to keep the sauce from becoming either too sweet or too salty. Feel free to experiment each time you make this dish.

Okara

2008-05-21T09:28:00.000+09:00

OK, on to something Japanese. I have recently stated that I hate Japanese food, but that's not entirely true. I actually love okara, well, okara prepared as unohana. I first tried this at our favorite restaurant in Shimane-ken (a fish restaurant, if you can believe that!) and have since tried making it at home. It's pretty easy to make, though I did have a little help from my friends!

Okara is a tofu by-product. You can read about it here on wikipedia. It says there that the recipe that I am about to share is called 'unohana', though I haven't (yet) heard anyone call it that. We just call it okara.

This is yet another one of those recipes that you can put anything you want in it. At the restaurant I mentioned above, they put squid in it. I know, I hate squid! But, I can't really tell it's in there. I usually put gobo (burdock root), dried shitake, carrot and naganegi in mine, and if I remember, I will also put in some konyaku.

Okara is also great because if you are lucky, you can get it for free! One of the supermarkets in my city has a tofu maker inside, and they just have a big barrel of okara for free. It's self-serve, and I often see people taking a LOT, maybe they take it home and freeze it. The recipe I'm sharing today doesn't take a lot, maybe 200 grams. Here is a picture of some okara that I bought.

So, the recipe. My mother-in-law gave me a recipe book one year at oshogatsu (New Year), so I am translating this into English, but I'm going to keep the metric measurements.

Okara

150 grams okara
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/3 carrot
4 kikurage
1 negi (Japanese long onion)
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp. sesame oil

2 cups dashi
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vinegar

First, you need to dry out the okara, so sautee 150 grams okara in 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a frying pan. Don't burn it. Julienne the carrot, soak the kikurage (a kind of Chinese ingredient, you can find this in the dried section of your supermarket--in Japan--usually near dried wakame and konbu) and then slice thinly into strips. Cut the negi into small pieces, either in disks or long thing strips. (If you want to use gobo, like I do, feel free to use prepared gobo, usually found in bags of water, near the vegetable section in the grocery store. If you use fresh, remember not to peel it, just scrub it well, julienne it to the same length as the carrot, and soak in vinegared water. Either way, rinse and drain it well before cooking.)

In a large pot, heat the sesame oil, then add the vegetables. When they are covered in oil, add the prepared okara. Mix well. Add the dashi, soy sauce, sugar and vinegar. Simmer over medium heat for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Add the beaten egg and stir quickly. When the egg is thoroughly cooked, turn off the heat.

broccoli quiche

2008-05-21T09:13:00.000+09:00

Vegetables often go bad in my refrigerator. That is a very bad thing. I love broccoli, but I get tired of boiled broccoli, time after time. Steamed broccoli isn't much different, except I don't have to worry about getting rid of extra water. So, what to do? We have tried quiche before, but I had never made one. I found a recipe on all-recipes and decided to try it out.

I had to make a few changes, naturally. First, I didn't saute the vegetables in butter, I used econa oil. Also, I had some shitake mushrooms that I had to use, so I sliced them thinly and added them. Last, I used cheddar cheese, because I had a big block of it from Costco, and didn't have any mozzarella lying around.

It was delicious. We are probably heathen, because we put ketchup on it, but my son loves ketchup, so it was a great hit with him. I think my kids even ate some broccoli, so that was a plus!

For the pie crust, I used a recipe from the back of a Libby's pumpkin label. You can see the recipe online here. I use Crisco, but I have heard that it isn't being sold in Japan anymore. I suppose any shortening will do, but there are also many pie crust recipes out there.

I found this very easy to make, as long as I had the time to prepare (cutting veggies, frying them up, making pie crust and beating eggs takes a lot of time when you have three little ones under-foot!) and this may be a weekend meal for the time being.

Rice porridge with eggs

2008-02-18T15:28:00.000+09:00

This is a very yummy way to end a nabe party. Depending on how many people you have, how much you all have eaten or how much broth is left, you should use about two or three servings of cooked rice.

First, scoop out any bones or bits of other ingredients. Bring soup to a boil. Next, wash cooked rice in a colander and separate the grains, then place in the boiling broth and bring it back to a boil. Then, scatter chopped negi (green onion) or chives over the rice. Pour beaten eggs (I usually use two or three eggs) and turn off the heat. Cover with a lid until the eggs are soft-boiled.

nabe

2008-02-17T17:35:00.000+09:00

Ah, winter. What's better than soup? Not much, in my opinion. One pot cooking, that is good for me! Less dishes. Above is a picture of my 'do-nabe', or earthenware pot. It was a bargain, less than 500 yen! Unfortunately, it is not IH compatible, so I have to use my table-top burner for making nabe. My husband likes me to 'mostly cook' everything on the stove and then finish up on the dinner table. Those little cans of gas cost a lot! I guess I should be on the look-out for a new do-nabe. Anyway.

I have seen the word 'nabe' translated a few different ways, but I think of it as soup. The most common base is konbu, a type of dried seaweed. A four or five-inch piece of konbu should be wiped with a wet cloth and then soaked in water (in your pot) for a few hours. Heat up the water with the konbu inside, but remove it before the water starts to boil. I *think* it's edible, but I usually throw it away.

Common nabe ingredients are fish, thinly sliced beef or pork, tsukune (seasoned chicken meatballs) and assorted vegetables, carrots, daikon, hakusai (Chinese cabbage) and noodles (we usually use konnyaku noodles). But many shared dishes like this are good for cooking whatever you like. I rarely put fish in, because the broth takes on a decided fishy flavor. I have used globe fish on occasion, a nice light fish that doesn't 'fish up' the broth. I also like shrimp, but it's kind of a pain to shell them, so rarely add them.

I have learned to not add too much water at the beginning. If you do, you may be forced to throw away the broth when you finish, which is a shame because it can be so delicious. When ingredients are added, the water level rises, and if you don't have enough liquid for boiling the ingredients, you can always add more.

Cook meats and seafood first, because they need longer to cook and you really don't want to be eating half-cooked shrimp, do you? Skim off any scum because you want to keep your broth clear. Next, add the veggies that take longer to cook, such as carrots and daikon, and the white part of the Chinese cabbage. Konnyaku noodles taste better after being boiled for five or so minutes, so add those fairly early, too.

Nabe is a meal that's meant to be eaten at the table with family, cooking as you go. You can cook as much or as little as you like before sitting down to eat, it's up to you. Some people like to serve rice with nabe, while others will present it half-way through. One other method is to make rice porridge (next post) which takes advantage of all that left-over broth.

Tonjiru

2008-01-26T22:18:00.000+09:00

Tonjiru, pork soup, is basically miso soup made with pork and vegetables. It is very warm and filling on a winter's day. Personally, I think you could have this as your meal, because of all the wonderful ingredients, but (I believe) it is usually served in place of miso soup.

Tonjiru

OK, this is a recipe that I have never learned, nor do I have a recipe for it. I just kind of winged it and because it had pork and miso in it, I called it tonjiru. This is what I used pictured above:

4 cups water
1 tsp. hondashi
250 grams thinly sliced pork (such as for shabu-shabu)
1/2 carrot
1/3 daikon
1/2 gobo (burdock root)
1 potato
8 small shitake mushrooms, cut into quarters
1 block konnyaku
4 Tbsp. miso
1 Tbsp. oil
green onion

Prepare gobo by washing; do not peel but do take off dirt and small roots. Julienne or cut into small pieces, then soak in water with about a teaspoon of vinegar until the water turns brown. Drain into a sieve, then rinse. Put the konnyaku into a small pot and cover with cold water; bring to a boil and boil for five minutes. Drain konnyaku, allow it to cool and then cut into bite-sized pieces with a spoon. Cut carrot, potato and daikon into bite-sized pieces. Cut the pork into bite-sized pieces.

In a large pan, heat oil, then stir-fry the pork. After the pork has changed color, add carrot, potato, daikon, gobo and konnyaku. When the edges of the daikon start to look clear, add mushrooms and fry a bit longer. Add water and hondashi. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until carrot and daikon are soft. Turn off the heat, and add the miso. Serve in bowls with green onion.

Miso Soup

2008-01-24T19:53:00.000+09:00

Miso soup is a staple for Japanese meals, especially breakfast. It is supposed to be healthy for you (but sorry, I am not an expert or a student of Japanese food, just a simple housewife, so I can't tell you how it's good for you. And if you need to cut salt from your diet, you probably shouldn't have too much miso.) In the US, when I had miso soup, it was basically tofu and wakame. After several months of tofu and wakame miso soup, my boyfriend (now husband) asked me why I only used those two ingredients. That's when I learned you could put anything you want into miso soup. (At the time, I would also make daikon and carrot miso soup occasionally, but honestly, tofu and wakame is just so easy.)

There are many different kinds of miso, from lightly salty to very salty. Also, there are many varieties with additions, such as dashi or grains. I suggest trying different kinds of miso. Start out with a caramel brown (but not too light, that is white miso) and go from there. My personal favorite is Furusato no Asa, which seems to be a Fukuoka company. I also get a local miso from a local farmer's market which has grain (mugi I think) which is more expensive than brand miso, but really delicious.

Furusato no Asa miso:

The recipe I'm sharing today I got from a recipe site on my cell phone. I like it, and it's easy to remember. I also never follow it any more! These days I just measure by eye, and a little by taste, and rarely have a miss. I think that once you get the hang of it, the miso soup you make is your own.

Miso Soup

4 cups water
1 tsp. hondashi (dashi powder)
2-4 Tbsp. miso (depending on type of miso you are using)
1 cho tofu, cut into bite-sized cubes (I find this to be too much tofu and use only 1/2 cho (block))
a pinch of dried wakame (depending on how much you want, but it will increase in size)

Add wakame to a small bowl of warm water to soften (about 10 minutes). Rinse wakame and cut or tear into bite-sized pieces. Bring water and hondashi to a boil. Reduce heat and add miso*, then cubed tofu. Over low heat, warm tofu but do not allow soup to boil (that will separate the miso). When the tofu begins to float, it is heated through. Turn off heat and add the wakame. Serve in miso soup bowls with cut green onion.

*Add miso to stock slowly. One way is to put some stock in a little bowl, add miso to that and mix until smooth, then adding to the pot. Another is to do that right in a ladle. Still another is to use a small sieve. If you just add miso to the soup, it may not blend well and you'll have clumps of miso.

So, I do not follow this recipe exactly any more. I just go by 'eye'. After a while, I think one just goes by what they like, each miso soup is different. Very rarely, I have a miss. My husband and children, and even my mother--who hates miso soup--loves mine. Add a little miso at a time and taste. Once you've added too much miso, you cannot fix it. I recommend using a small sieve. You can find them at any 100 yen store. I got a set (sieve and spoon) which is great:

I haven't introduced hondashi yet. This is a powder which cooks use as a shortcut for making dashi stock. I have made dashi stock from fish flakes but honestly, it's a lot of hard work for not much dashi, and I personally cannot tell the difference. I also use a small amount because I don't like fish. However, miso soup does not taste the same if you just use water. Here is the brand and type of hondashi I like to use:

Teriyaki Chicken Thighs

2008-01-09T16:51:00.000+09:00

This is another recipe from a book. Bento Boxes, by Naomi Kijima. I really wish I had first found this book when I was single and living on my own, because the recipes are good for small meals (not just bentos). This recipe is actually good for a family, too, because you get a lot of teriyaki marinade and can make up to two thighs with this.

I would like to take the time to point out that Japanese cooking seems to have four main seasonings: sake, mirin, shoyu (soy sauce) and sugar. If something is meant to be more sweet, use more sugar and less sake. More salty, us more shoyu. Less sweet, leave out the mirin. Pretty simple. I guess vinegar is pretty important in making sushi and pickles, but I don't like (and so don't make) sushi, and pickles are difficult (or so I'm led to believe.)

Usually I just serve this dish on a plate, but this time I had some lettuce I needed to use up, and surprisingly, the teriyaki sauce tasted great with it! I highly recommend serving your chicken on a bed of cold, crisp lettuce.

Chicken Thighs Teriyaki (from Bento Boxes, by Naomi Kijima)

1/2 boneless chicken thigh, skin on

1 Tbsp each mirin and soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 Tbsp cooking oil

1. Trim excess fat from thigh. Marinate in the mirin, soy sauce and sugar for 30 minutes. Drain, reserving marinade, and pat dry.

2. Cook the chicken in the oil, skin side down. When browned, turn and cook the other side.

3. Add 3 Tbsp water to the reserved marinade and pour over the chicken. Cover and simmer until cooked through. Remove the cover, [take out the chicken], raise the heat, and reduce the sauce to a glaze. [Slice the chicken into strips, arrange on a plate and then cover with the glaze.]

(The brackets are my 'additions', but the basic recipe is Ms. Kajima's)

Lasagna

2008-01-08T09:41:00.000+09:00

Not really a good picture, a bit too close up for reference. But it was mighty good lasagna. Even Yoshi loved it and said he wanted me to make it again. It has become very easy in recent years to make lasagna in Japan. Especially if you want to use a package. Kind of expensive if you ask me. Also, these sets use white sauce, while I am used to using cheese (usually cottage cheese). However, the pans are rather small and the instructions probably tell you if you can make lasagna in a small oven, and they taste fine, so keep an eye out if you want some lasagna some night.

This is a simple lasagna, the noodles were actually non-cook ones. I browned some ground beef and pork, added it to a small jar of Classico pasta sauce (bought at Kaldi). I got the cottage cheese at Costco (they have decent sizes there). A word about cottage cheese: there are two kinds here. One is 'chunky', and the other is smooth. If you can't read Japanese well, you can usually tell what kind you are buying by looking at the picture on the package. Be careful! I mixed the cottage cheese with an egg and some shredded cheese (again bought at Costco. I used the mozzarella mix). A bit of red sauce on the bottom of my pan, noodles, cheese mixture, shredded cheese and then more red sauce. Next time I think I'll include eggplant.

I had to scrape off the Japanese label on the box of lasagna to read the directions, so I know i bought it here, but I can't remember where! Sorry. I think I'll be making lasagna again sometime soon. Yum!

Cookies!

2007-12-24T20:04:00.000+09:00

Last week I spent a lot of time baking. First I made gingerbread, which I only cut into men. Then I made sugar cookies, from a recipe that uses five cups of flour, so you know there were a ton of those! Then banana cupcakes, yum! Next was oatmeal cookies, which didn't turn out so great appearance-wise. Tasted fantastic, though. Addicting. Last of all, I made Russian tea cakes, a very important holiday classic in our house (in the States). And my favorite cookie of all time.

I used a lot of butter. All but the cake called for butter. Very yummy, but very fattening. So, I gave a lot of treats away. Most were given to neighbors, but also to my brother-in-law. In Japanese fashion, we have received gifts in return. One neighbor gave us red rice and simmered pumpkin. Another gave us some squid. My brother-in-law brought us a Christmas cake when he and his family came over for a turkey dinner. It wasn't my intention, but it's nice just the same.

I have found making cookies in Japan to be a challenge. I have only tried American recipes, with varying degrees of success. My grandma's chocolate chip cookies have been a complete failreure. I can't figure it out! The sugar cookies have turned out great, though it takes me several days to bake the entire batch. Even my 'big' steam oven can only bake nine of these cookies at a time. I was disappointed by the oatmeal cookies, which spread out a lot, and were very soft and sticky. I put the batter in the refrigerator, and that helped a lot, but I could only bake four at a time, and afterwards they just fell apart and stuck together.

So, a couple of things I have learned. First, from Japanese television: bake at a lower temperature for a longer time. This is especially helpful if you have one of those toaster oven/oven/microwaves. If you find your cookies bake unevenly, try this little trick. Next: use baking paper. I don't have any baking sheets, though I do have a couple of pans (not those that came with the ovens). The baking paper is great, though you should be careful with drop cookies--they might roll off. Here are some oatmeal cookies after baking:

Ok, I have to end this here, the baby is crying and I have to get the kids to bed. I hope to get back and add a recipe. Do you have any tips for me for baking cookies? I really want to get those chocolate chip cookies to work!

EDIT:

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday, whether it's Christmas or New Year. The children have opened their presents, the baby is sleeping and I hope Hiro and Sasha get along for a few minutes more. Back to the cookies!

The gingerbread recipe was on the label of the molasses I bought at Kaldi Coffee Farm. The oatmeal cookie recipe was on the huge box of oatmeal I bought at Costco. The Russian Tea Cakes are special to me, so I'm going to keep that one to me (though, you might get lucky and find it on my other blog. Look back to White Day, 2007) so let's bring out the sugar cookies. This recipe is from a family friend, whose mother worked in a university cafeteria. It has been scaled down, but still makes a ton of cookies. Perfect for sharing. Since it makes so much dough, it's probably best to just make circles, though if you chill the dough, you probably could roll it out and use cookie cutters. The resulting cookies are really quite soft and crumbly, so making shapes may not work out. They taste great so do please try them out sometime. Note: I have found cream of tartar at Kaldi.

Barb's sugar cookies

1 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 cup oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients until fluffy.

Add:

5 cups flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

which has been mixed together. Roll in small bowls; flatten slightly with glass dipped in sugar. You can imprint with cookie stamps. Add colored sugar if desired. Bake at 350 F (270 C) for 8 minutes or until bottom is lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Since I don't have wire racks, I just put the baking paper on the counter for a few minutes, and then transfer them to a plate to cool. Also, for that first cookie, you should stick the glass in the bowl of dough so the sugar will cling to the glass (and be transfered to the cookie.)

Simmered Pork with Daikon Radish--Book Review

2007-12-05T12:17:00.000+09:00

It's nearly winter, and time for daikons to come into season. I love diakons. This dish is one I make often, and it comes from my favorite Japanese cook book (that I own. It's always possible that there's a better one out there, I just haven't read it yet.) So, that leaves me with a little dilema: copyright. Do I write up the recipe here, with a reference to the book and author? Or do I just direct you to the book? Since I usually follow the recipe directly (instead of adjusting it to our tastes), I think that I will not put the recipe here.

The book.

I found this book in the English section of the Maruzen Book Store. It is a wonderful book with color pictures and complete instructions. It's called Japanese Homestyle Cooking by Tokiko Suzuki. It gives you a run-down on all types of tools and cutting styles used in Japanese cooking. It also tells you what time of year certain dishes can/should be made. Even though most ingredients are available most time of year now, when made at the traditional time of year, they can taste even better. I'm not one to really buy into the 'special Japanese four seasons' thing, but i think that certain foods do taste better at different times of year.

So I don't leave you hanging, this recipe calls for boneless pork belly, daikon, carrot and fresh shitake mushrooms (you don't need a lot of mushrooms. Also, the recipe calls for small mushrooms, but sometimes I just get big ones and cut them into quarters.) Brown the meat, add the daikon and carrot, then the mushrooms. Three cups of dashi stock, some sake, salt (just a little) and soy sauce. Simmer until the daikon is soft. It's easy and fairly quick, and this recipe alone nearly makes it worth buying this book!

a long break

2007-12-05T11:59:00.000+09:00

well, it's been nearly three months since i last posted. i've been busy! also, i haven't been able to take pictures of what i make, since it nearly disappears as soon as it hits the table. my kitchen is fairly cramped, so i don't like to take pictures there. also, those last few weeks of pregnancy found me not in the mood to cook. so, anyway, i'll try to update more often here!

Simmered Pumpkin

2007-09-14T13:52:00.001+09:00

This is a simple side dish that doesn't take long to make, and can last for two or three days (save time!) Kabocha (pumpkin) is sweet and creamy, and can be served with almost anything. This is a recipe I got from a close Japanese friend.

Kabocha no Nimono

1/4 kabocha
1 tsp dashi*
1 1/5 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs mirin
1 Tbs sugar

Scoop out the seeds from the kabocha, then cut into bite-sized pieces. Put kabocha in a pan and then add water, covering the kabocha by two-thirds. (Use a pan that allows enough room for the pieces to cover the bottom. They will not cook evenly if they are on top of one another.) Add dashi, soy sauce, mirin and sugar. Simmer over low heat until kabocha is soft (do not boil).

*Dashi is soup stock, the most common made from fish. I use commercial dashi (in a powder form) and the best way to add dashi to this dish is to first prepare dashi for miso soup. If I don't prepare miso soup, I just sprinkle in the smallest amount of dashi powder, though if I'm not careful, this dish can be too salty.

A summer dinner

2007-09-11T09:29:00.000+09:00

This picture highlights two things I want to share in this post. First is the meat (perhaps the most obvious). I bought it at the store, already rolled and seasoned. All I had to do was grill it (which I did with my marvelous steam oven.) This is Aussie Beef, and probably a bit old, because although it smelled lovely while cooking, it had a tiny bit of a old taste to it. It was still pretty good, though, and didn't take long to prepare.

The real point of this post, though, is the pasta salad. Doesn't it look great? The recipe is one my mom got from an old college roommate, pretty much easy to make any time of year back home, but nearly impossible to make in Japan. Why impossible? Because of the red radishes. If you look closely, you probably won't see any, but I assure you, they are there (I slice them thinly). I have had a lot of difficulty finding red radishes here in Japan. In recent years I have found them in department store's grocery sections (such as YouMe Town and Aeon) but--here's the kicker--they are usually sold in small packages, five to a package, for about $2. Shockingly expensive! Once or twice I have bought them (for a reasonable price and in a larger quantity) at the neighborhood veggie shops, but I never know when they might have them. I actually tried to grow some this year, but little green caterpillars ate them! So much for that idea.

SO! On the day that I found the steaks, I actually found red radishes. In the discount bin! This is important: IN THE DISCOUNT BIN!! Almost every supermarket here has one of these. Sometimes more than one (perhaps one in each department). It is often worth your time to check out the discount bin in the veggie section. Keep in mind that you should probably use that food that same day, or perhaps for the next morning, but you can often find good food at a fraction of the price. For example, the radishes that day: ten for fifty yen. That's less than fifty cents! A bargain for Japan! In another favorite store, they have a discount bin for refigerated items. I often get discounted milk (non-fat milk!!) and juice (we drink a lot of juice these days!) Some things you may pass on because they will expire in a day or two, but you never know when you might find some yaki-soba noodles and voila! there's your dinner for that night.

I will point out here, too, that sushi and bentos are often discounted a few hours before the store will close. These are items that must be disposed of by a certain time (and so, cannot be sold the next day) and if you're too busy/tired to make something for dinner, this can be a good way to get a discounted meal! I think many people already know about this, but if not, check it out!

So, the recipe for the pasta salad:

mini shell pasta, about one cup, cooked (or use other shaped pasta--sometimes small shells are hard to find in japan)
1 cucumber, cut into bite-sized pieces
green onion, chopped (the ammount depends on you. we often have a container of chopped onion for miso soup, I just throw in a handful or two for this salad)
7 to 10 red radishes, thinly sliced
1 tomato, cut into bite-sized pieces
mayonnaise
ketchup
salt & pepper

In a large bowl, mix together pasta, cucumber, green onion, and radish. In a small bowl, mix about 2 Tbs. mayonnaise with 1 Tbs. ketchup. This should turn into a beautiful salmon color. Adjust by adding more mayonnaise or ketchup as needed, but be careful not to make too much dressing. Add to salad. Add tomato just before serving the salad as it tends to soften up (not quite as pleasant to eat) after cutting. Salt and pepper to taste.

Goya Champuru

2007-08-22T08:21:00.000+09:00

Finally, something Japanese!

I admit, I've been cooking more American foods lately. Blame pregnancy (I do). Lots of cravings and homesickness you know. Anyway, the other night I made goya champuru. This is so easy and pretty healthy. Basically it's based on goya, a bitter melon from Okinawa. This very bad-tasting vegetable (fruit? there are seeds inside...) is supposed to be very good for you. At the moment I only know two recipes using goya: goya champuru and goya chips (I just drag thin slices of goya through corn starch and then fry them in oil.)

The goya is from Okinawa, and goya champuru (I am told) originates from there. Recipes I have seen (or, offerings in Okinawan restaurants) use SPAM, probably because of the American occupation. However, I suspect that this dish is older than the occupation (but hey, what do I know?) and originally used thinly sliced pork. SPAM is pretty expensive here in Japan (I don't know how much it costs in Okinawa, but here in Kyushu it costs more than I want to spend), so i use a kind of ham steak. It looks more like a pressed ham or even a kind of sausage, which is more SPAM-like to me, and adds a bit of flavor (that is, salt) to the dish. Tofu is also an ingredient, so the meat is probably not necessary, but does give it a nice flavor.

Goya Champuru

goya
pork (maybe 150 grams? I usually use two slices of pressed pork--already sliced when I buy it.)
1 block firm tofu
2-3 eggs, beaten
1 Tbs soy sauce
salt and pepper
oil

First prepare tofu by wrapping it in a towel and then pressing between two towels for twenty minutes. This rids the tofu of excess water, which you don't want in your finished dish. Next, cut off the ends of the goya, then split it in half lengthwise. With a spoon, scoop out the seeds and soft inner flesh.

Place one half of the goya cut side down and then cut into very thin slices. Put slices in water and soak for at least twenty minutes. Cut meat into bite-sized pieces. (Here's a photo of what I use):

Drain goya and pat dry. Heat oil in a frying pan or wok (start with 1 tbs, you may want to add more later). Stir-fry goya until it starts to get tender. Add meat (if using raw pork, be sure to cook thoroughly) and continue to stir-fry. Cut tofu into small blocks (but not too small, stir-frying will make the pieces smaller.) Add tofu and cook until heated through. Next, while continuing to stir, add beaten egg. Soaking the goya in water helps cut down on the bitter taste, but the eggs does this, too. Use two eggs if you want a more bitter taste to come through. When the eggs are cooked, turn off the heat and then stir the soy sauce in. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Honey BBQ Buffalo Wings

2007-08-19T08:38:00.000+09:00

When I first came to Japan, it was difficult finding foods from home. It was possible to go to the big city to get 'American' foods, but that usually ended up being Quaker instant oatmeal, Dove chocolates, the occasional bag of marshmallows and English teas. It was a bit of a pain for me to go to the big city, luckily I only lived about 40 minutes away (by bus and train.)

There has always been FBC (which I have never ordered from, even to this day) where one could order things that have been shipped from the US, or could be ordered and then shipped from the US. Quite often, the things that I wanted had to be ordered in bulk, which meant a higher price and about fifteen more boxes than I wanted (limited space in my apartment.) Also, I never had internet in my home so online ordering meant a trip to the city.

Costco has been a great option, though not everything I could hope for. One thing they carry that I've always been grateful for is lean ground beef. Can't find that too often in Japan. As a warehouse-type store, of course things are sold in bulk, too, but usually in manageable sizes. Costco has been in Japan as long as I have (in fact, for a few months longer than me! I have been very lucky to live in Fukuoka.) It's a great place, especially if you want some non-Japanese pizza!

My post today is about buzzard wings. My new favorite store is Kaldi Coffee Farm. It is a wonderful store full of foreign foods (not just American (or 'western') foods but also Chinese, Thai, Indian and some others). I especially like the availability of baking products (like Crisco!) and spices. It's also great for jarred spaghetti sauce because they sell little jars, which is perfect for my small family (at the moment). I go often to see if they have anything new and a couple of weeks ago I was excited to find this bottle of buffalo wings sauce.

(see how cluttered my kitchen is??)

It was very easy to prepare; the directions are on the bottle (I carefully peeled the Japanese instruction sticker off the bottle). I cooked the wings in my Helsio steam oven (on water grill to cut down on fat) and then tossed them in the sauce. These were so delicious, even Sasha enjoyed them!

Banana Cake

2007-08-09T14:39:00.001+09:00

I don't really like bananas. I only eat them at a certain point of ripeness: just ripe. Perfectly yellow; no green and no spots. A very narrow frame of banana goodness! I tend to buy bananas that are a bit green.

Buying bananas in Japan can be a bit tricky. Many times I have bought some perfect-looking bananas only to have them turn out to be chalky. Even if I leave them to ripen, they don't improve. Where do chalky bananas come from? Is it a certain kind? (plantain maybe?) Or, are they picked too soon? I don't know. However, I have found the place to buy perfect bananas: Costco. I almost always buy my bananas there, because they are the cheapest, and they are never chalky.

In summer, the bananas go 'bad' quickly. With two small children in the house, bananas usually disappear fast, with only one or two that go too far to be eaten. In winter they last longer, but my husband refuses to eat bananas then. He says that bananas make you feel 'cool', which is bad in winter. (I have never heard this. I keep meaning to look it up on the internet but, meh.) Often, when I get bananas, I have 'leftovers'. Perfect for banana cake.

I got this recipe from my mom; I'm not sure where she go it. I think it's in a book of recipes that she got from friends when she got married. Anyway, if you ever have some extra-ripe bananas and sour milk in your kitchen, this recipe should work for you.

(Note: the measurements in this recipe are American. I brought my measuring cup from the US. Japanese and American teaspoons/tablespoons are the same.)

Banana Cake

1/2 cup shortening (I use Crisco, which I buy at Kaldi)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup sour milk or buttermilk
1 cup mashed bananas (2 or 3 bananas)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream shortening and add sugar gradually.
Add well beaten eggs.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
Add alternately with sour milk and bananas which have been pushed through a sieve (or you can liquefy them in a blender.)
Stir in vanilla and chopped nuts.
Pour into a greased and floured tube or Bundt cake pan
Bake at 350F for 50 minutes or until done. (Toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean.)

Introduction

2007-08-07T16:37:00.000+09:00

Hi! I've decided to start another blog, as if I didn't have enough to do already. Ha! You may find (if you find this blog at all) that I am a poor writer. I write for myself, but I guess this blog is going to be for others, too. yikes!

I have been living in Japan for eight years. I am married to a Japanese man, and we have two (almost three) children. I have been trying to cook in Japan for eight years. I have found it challenging for a few reasons: first, I had no experience with Japanese ingredients before I came here! What were all those weird vegetables? Why were apples so darn expensive? Second, I hate fish. I still don't like fish, though I occasionally do eat it. Not sushi, though (my poor husband...) And third, it was hard to get ingredients for things I knew how to make. Over the past few years, it has become much easier (thanks to the internet) to get those things, both in availability and price.

This blog is mainly to encourage me to cook more (I've been very lazy lately because of pregnancy) and take pictures (I love to take pictures). If it can help others (especially those new to Japan), cool. The reason I'm not just blogging about cooking on my other blog is that it can be quite boring sometimes. So, I guess I'm making a little bit more of an effort over here. Hope I can do it!