Chicken Ramen Salad

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.

Makin' pizza

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 Vegetable Stir-fry

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.

Kinpira

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.

Okara

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

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.