Cajun Chicken Citrus Salad

It’s hot ~ …..  I’m very weak against the heat.   I can just eat watermelon everyday for 3 meals! … if I’m not carrying this cauliflower-sized bub in my belly.  

Now, salad is a perfect dish to cool my body down and it also gives me great nutrition.  This is one of my favorite salad – grilled spicy cajun chicken with citrus and creamy avocado. 

You can also add pitted olives, cucumber, sun-dried tomatoes, capsicum etc etc for extra texture and color.

<Cajun Chicken Citrus Salad> serves 2

• 200g chicken breast, skinned
• 1 tbs cajun spice
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/2 orange
• 1/8 red onion
• 2 handful of green leaves
• 1 tbs olive oil + 1 ~2 pinch of salt

1. Slice chicken.  In a mixing bowl, marinate chicken with 1 tbs olive oil and cajun spice for 5 minutes.  (adjust the amount of cajun spice to your liking)
2. Meanwhile, slice onion very thinly.  Segment the orange (take out the flesh from the skin).  Reserve the juice.  Wash lettuce and drain. 
3. Place the lettuce, onion and orange segments in a clean mixing bowl.
4. Heat a frying pan over high heat, and grill chicken until cooked.  Transfer the chicken to the mixing bowl, and pour orange juice and 1 tbs olive oil.  Sprinkle salt, and toss gently.
5. Immediately arrange on the serving plate.  Top with sliced avocado.
6. Serve immediately!

Tomato Chicken Rice with Omelet (Omu-Rice)

Besides the traditional Japanese food, there’re Western style food created by Japanese chefs in Japan.  This cuisine is called “yo-shoku” (Japanese Style Western Food) and I had more chances to eat these yo-shoku dishes than traditional Japanese food when I was little.

This dish “omu-rice” (omelet rice) is one of the popular yo-shoku dish in Japan, especially among kids.  The rice is stir-fried with frozen mix vegetables and chicken pieces, usually flavored with tomato based sauce.  Normally the rice is wrapped with omelet completely (like you wrap something with plastic wrap), but placing omelet over the rice is much easier when making multiple omu-rice, and it tastes just as good as the wrapped one.

In some restaurants chefs make omu-rice this way – make soft omelet over high heat, and place on top of prepared rice.  Then, they insert a knife to the omelet and the omelet opens and cover the rice.  I love when the egg is soft and fluffy!  (I’m sure you’ve tasted one of these if you had been to an omu-rice restaurant)

<Omu-Rice> serves 4

• 200g chicken thigh, diced
• 1 onion, medium, chopped
• 50cc white wine
• 1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables
• 400g cooked rice, cold
• 3 tbs tomato sauce
• 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

• 5 eggs
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tbs milk

Oyako Donburi

Today’s recipe is oyako-donburi. (^0^)  This dish has been one of my favorite food since I was a baby!  I just love the sweet sauce and soft egg….

I don’t use shop-bought dashi powder anymore to make dashi stock.  It may contain MSG and other things, and I thought it tastes better when I make my own dashi.  I just need bonito flakes and it’s so easy to make.  You can also use dashi-konbu (seaweed) or dried shiitake mushroom to make dashi, but I like the bonito-based dashi the best.

As you may know, “oyako“ literally means “parent and child”.  Oyako-donburi is a dish which a parent and a child are in a same bowl.  So, chicken + egg is oyako, and salmon and salmon caviar can be oyako too.

Normally, chicken thigh is used for oyako-donburi in Japan.  You can use chicken breast if you can’t eat chicken thigh or prefer lighter taste.  (although I recommend using chicken thigh)

First, we make dashi stock.  Although the recipe for oyako-donburi below is for 1 portion, it’s easier to make dashi stock in bigger portion.  You can keep the reft over of dashi stock in the fridge for 1 week, and it can be used to make udon or soba later.  If you are making oyako-donburi for 4~5 people, the amount of dashi stock may be just about right.

dashi

• 3 cups (750ml) water
• 5g bonito flakes

1. Place water and bonito flakes in the sauce pan, and bring to the gentle simmer.  Turn off the heat, and leave for 5 minutes.
2. Strain the bonito flakes and keep the liquid.  You can discard the bonito flakes, or cook with soy sauce and mirin and eat with rice later!

a

a

• 50g chicken thigh (or breast)
• 40g onion (1 x tiny onion)
• 2 eggs
• 100ml dashi stock
• 10ml soy sauce
• 5ml mirin
• 5ml sake (cooking wine)
• 5g sugar
• 150g steamed rice

1. Cut chicken into pieces.  Slice onion.
2. Place dashi stock, soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, chicken pieces and onion in a small sauce pan or frying pan.  Bring to the gentle boil, and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Lightly beat eggs in a bowl – just one or two whisking is enough.  Turn up the heat of the simmering chicken, and pour the eggs slowly into the pan.  Turn down the heat and place a lid.  When the eggs are cooked half-way through but still remains raw part, turn off the heat and leave for 15 seconds.
4. Pour the egg sauce over steamed rice, and enjoy!

Chicken Karaage

I’m eating fried food too often these days….

Sometimes I feel like eating “meat”, and last night was the day!  I had some Japanese mayonnaise left in the fridge, so I made karaage with buffalo wings.  Meat with bone and skin on is much tastier and I often find cheaper.

You can put all ingredients in a plastig bag and marinate, which leaves your hands and chopping board clean.  Toss the ingredients around inside the bag so that all the flavour goes to the meat evenly.

I served it with steamed rice, Japanese mayonnaise, and lots n lots of lettuce (or shredded cabbage)!

<Chicken Karaage (buffalo wings)>

• 500g buffalo wings
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs sake
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• 1 tsp ginger, minced
• 2 tbs corn flour to coat

* You can, of course, use chicken meat without skin/bones.  Also try octopus, squid, fish and seafood!

Tomato Curry with Somen Noodle

Somen Noodle + curry??  It sounds a little mismatch, but spicy tomato curry does go with simple somen noodle.  Enjoy with lots of mushroom ♪

aa

<Somen Tomato Curry with Chicken and Mushroom> serves 4

aa

• 1 chicken breast fillet
• 2 baby eggplants
• 1 pack shimeji mushroom
• 2~3 button mushrooms
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 2 tbs curry powder
• 100ml sake (cooking wine)
• 400g tomato tin, peeled
• 100~150ml chicken stock
• 1 bay leaf
• salt, sugar and pepper to taste
• 200g somen noodle