Ginger Chicken

Ginger chicken – I used chicken thigh and marinated in teriyaki-style ginger sauce before grilling.

What you need to be careful when grilling marinated meat is that it burns easily.  And especially for chicken, you don’t want the meat burnt and black but the inside remains uncooked.  I heat up the frying-pan then turn down just before cooking the chicken.  Cook over low heat – because the pan was hot, the bottom of the meat should have nice-looking colour.  Then flip it over.  Cook over low heat again for few minutes, then add little amount of water.  By adding water, the chicken will be surely cooked through.  The full recipe is below ↓

The meat is soft and juicy!  This dish isn’t a saucy one, but because it’s been marinated the flavour is inside the meat.

The bed of cabbage laying beneath the chicken is also cooked in the teriyaki-style sauce, so you pick a piece of chicken with little amount of flavour-soaked cabbage, then enjoy all together.

Here is the recipe;

<Ginger Chicken>

• Chicken Thigh 2 fillets
• Cabbage Leaves 2 leaves
• Soy Sauce 1 tbs
• Sake (cooking wine) 1 tbs
• Crushed Ginger 1 tsp
• sesame seeds to sprinkle (optional)

1. Place chicken fillets in a container or a plastic bag. Add soy sauce, sake and ginger to it, and rub gently.  Leave in the fridge for 2 hours or so (or you can leave it overnight – it’s ok)
2. Drain chicken (keep the marinade).
3. Heat up a frying pan over high heat.  Add oil, then turn down to low.  Place chicken and grill until the bottom is coloured.
4. Flip it over.  Cook over low heat for 3 – 4 minutes.  Add 1 table spoon of water, then cook until the water is gone.
5. Remove the chicken and place on a chopping board.  (keep the frying pan)
6. Slice up the cabbage leaves.  Place the cabbage & remained marinade sauce into the frying pan, and cook until the cabbage is soft.
7. Slice the chicken.
8. Spread the cabbage on a plate, then arrange the chicken on top.  Pour the sauce (from the pan) over.  Serve with steamed rice.

Feel Like Japanese Tonight

It’s sometimes hard to cook what I want to eat everyday.  D is such a nice husband and likes to help me cooking dinner, but his choice of food is quite different from what I want,,, most of the time :-p  He’s been into hash brown wrap with bacon and egg, and we had that for lunch today.  Since I had time to cook today as Hiro had 2 naps during the day, I made some Japanese food for dinner.

The mail dish is this ginger chicken (recipe) – I used chicken thigh and marinated in the sauce before grilling. It’s served on a bed of simmered cabbage which is also cooked in the teriyaki-style sauce.

This is one of my favourite dish – simmered hijiki seaweed with chicken and vegetables (recipe).  It’s shame that you can’t get hijiki from shops in Perth as it’s not permitted to import commercially  You need to import by yourself from Japan!  I still have 2 more packets which I brought from Japan in Feb this year.

It’s a typical nimono (simmered dish), but hijiki is great for your skin and hair and is very healthy.  I made it with chicken, carrot, konnyaku and abura-age (deep-fried bean curd), but you can also add soy beans and/or snake beans.

This is pickled cabbage.  It’s one of the dish my grandma used to make at home.  It’s made with just cabbage and salt, but is a great companion to steamed rice

I will post recipes of these three dishes …

Bagel. Bagel. Bagel.

I’m little furious at the moment.  And upset.  And disappointed…

A cafe contacted me saying that they are looking for a bagel supplier.  So I went down there to drop off some samples.

I kinda knew what was about to happen.  It happened to me before, actually.  People here like soft bagels….  or bread because it’s easier to eat as a sandwich.

When I dropped off the bagels they tasted and said my bagel is tasty.  And asked if I could make it bigger.

They gave me a sample of the bagels they are after….

From the looking I knew it’s just like a normal bun, in a shape of bagel.  I tasted it – it definitely contains egg and milk, probably butter as well.  And, I don’t think it’s been boiled before baked!

Very soft, and I felt I was eating a white bun.  Is this what they want??

Hmmm….  If I could make my bagels into this I could be very successful! Haha.  They wanted to place big order every week.   But I don’t think I will do it  I just want to stick to what I think it’s good.  A water bagel.

Had My Hair Cut

I had hair cut!!

I went to Nao’s place again.  (previous post)

I wanted to cut my hair short (my hair was below my shoulder and sooo damaged!), and I did.  Well, it turned out not as short as I was thinking, but I like my hairstyle now.

I did cut, colour and 4 foils (we call it “highlight” in Japan).  Because my hair tends to go reddy colour, I chose ash brown to dye my whole hair + golden brown for the highlights.

One thing I like about going to a home-based salon is that I feel more relaxed going there.  Price is often cheaper too. Nao has done a great job on renovating the room – automatic shampoo chair is one of them.  I’ve been to some home-based salons (Japanese) before, and they usually don’t have this type of shampoo chair.  You’ll have to do it either at the laundry sink or use their shower room to wash your hair by yourself.

When Nao washed my hair she did little massage with hot towel, and it was great.  I really needed it!

Now my hair is all new and I just love easy shampoo!

CN Mart in Myaree

Near the entrance of Hulme Court, just off Mc’Coy street, there is a new Korean grocery shop in Myaree.  This CN Mart (Corean N oriental grocer) is owned by the same owner as Hanaro Mart (just few minutese drive from CN Mart), and they have wide range of food, drinks and household items.

Most items are Korean, of course, but they carry lots of Japanese food as well.  I used to go to Hanaro Mart often to buy a tin of boiled azuki bean.  Korean one is much cheaper than Japanese one, and it taste the same.  My friends also go there to get some cosmetics and massage items.

Why they have 2 shops in the same suburb?  It’s because owner wanted to separate the items each shop carries.  CN Mart carries grocery items, and the original Hanaro Mart (address below) carries  only liquor, including Japanese sake and shochu.

I wanted to buy kinako (soy bean powder) but I couldn’t find anywhere.  Nippon Food in Subiaco always didn’t have it in stock.  So I called CN Mart and they said they have the Korean version.  They actually got 2 types, roasted and non-roasted.  I didn’t know the difference as we only have one type of “kinako” in Japan, but the staff said the roasted one is more common and is for mochi etc.  That’s what I was after!  So I bought it.

I also bought Korean sake (cooking wine).  Just wanted to try if there is any difference between Korean and Japanese.

The owner is super friendly and kind.  I’m sure I will be using this shop very often.

Hanaro Mart

7/67 North Lake Road, Myaree WA
0411 38 1101

CN Mart 

Hulme Court, Myaree WA
08 9317 4885