Dry Curry Soboro – OmuRice Style

Posted September 21st, 2012 in Food | 2 Comments »

The title might have confused you….   the dish looks like this  ↑↑↑

Juicy dry pork curry over steamed rice with fluffy thin omelet.

Serve it on a large plate then people can dig in….   Great for kids party too.

Make omelet fluffy – not over-cook it.  Soft and runny egg goes well with curry 🙂

I used zucchini, but you can use broccoli, capsicum, peas, or eggplant instead.

 

<Dry Curry Soboro> serves 3~4 people

  • Pork Mince 500g
  • Onion 1/2
  • Carrot 1
  • Zucchini 1/4
  • Ginger & Garlic, minced, 1 tsp each
  • Soy Sauce 1 tsp
  • Mild Indian Curry Powder 1/2 tsp  (adjust to  your liking)
  • Oyster Sauce 1 tbs
  • Tomato Sauce 1 tbs
  • Salt & Pepper (optional)
  • 3 Eggs
  • Milk 1 tbs
  • Steamed Rice (to serve)

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  1. Chop onion, carrot and zucchini.
  2. Heat a frying pan and add oil.  Saute onion, carrot, ginger and garlic for a couple of minutes.  Add pork and zucchini.  Pour soy sauce over the meat, and cook until the colour of the meat starts to change.
  3. Add curry powder, oyster sauce, tomato sauce and 1 tablespoon of water.  Simmer until the liquid is almost gone and all the juice is absorbed.  Set aside.
  4. Heat a wide frying pan with oil.  Beat egg lightly with milk, and pour into the pan to make soft omelet.
  5. To serve :  Scoop some steamed rice (hot) on a large serving plate.  Place the omelet on top of the rice, and scatter the dry curry over.  Serve immediately while hot.

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HCT French Toast

Posted July 3rd, 2011 in Food | No Comments »

I had some stale bread in the fridge. I was first thinking to make just standard French toast, then I looked inside the fridge again and found that there’re some ingredients for sandwiches too. Like the Croque Monsieur I made with spam, this time I decided to make one with ham, cheese, and tomatoes.

It’s a savory French toast. With cheese and tomato, it became a nutritious snack for kids too.

<HCT French Toast> makes 1

  • 2 slices bread
  • 2~3 slices ham
  • 1/2 tomato, sliced
  • 1 slice cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbs milk
  • 1 tbs butter
  1. Arrange ham, sliced tomato and cheese on a slice of bread, and top with another slice of bread. This is one portion. If you are making for 3 people, make 3 batches.
  2. Beat egg in a bowl and mix with milk. Place the egg mixture into a wide, flat plate, and immerse the sandwich in this mixture. Make sure you flip the sandwich around so the another side also absorb egg mixture.
  3. Melt butter in a frying pan. Over low heat, grill the sandwich until golden colored on both sides. Flip around several time to achieve the delicious colour.


Croque Monsieur Ume’s Style

Posted April 7th, 2011 in Food | 2 Comments »


It was raining this morning!!  Finally I can actually see and feel that the weather is moving towards autumn and winter.  Outside is bit windy, and cloudy now.  I love it!

In the weather like today, I feel like something warm for breakfast.  This dish is what I made in the home economic class when I was in elementary school in Japan.  The name of the dish was “Croque Monsieur”, so I still call it so.  The original Croque Monsieur is actually a simple hot ham and Gruyere cheese sandwich, fried in butter.  This one, on the other hand, uses spam instead of ham, and the sandwich is dipped in egg mixture before being grilled.

It’s kind of French toast of spam and cheese sandwich.  Melted cheese and crispy bread – this can be a great snack for afternoon too. 🙂

<Croque Monsieur>  makes 1

  • 2 slices of stale bread (toast slices)
  • spam (as much as you want to put)
  • 1 slice of cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbs milk
  • 1 tbs butter
  1. Place spam and cheese on a slice of bread, and sandwich with another slice.
  2. Beat the egg, and mix with milk.  Transfer the egg mixture into a shallow plate which is wide enough to put the bread in.
  3. Place the sandwich into the egg mixture to soak for about 30 seconds, then flip it around.
  4. Melt the butter in a frying pan, and grill the sandwich, both side, until golden.

Tomato Chicken Rice with Omelet (Omu-Rice)

Posted December 18th, 2010 in Food | No Comments »

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
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  1. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a frying pan over high heat.  Grill chicken thigh pieces.  
  2. Turn down the heat, and add onion.  Saute until the onion is almost transparent.
  3. Turn up the heat again, and pour white wine.  Simmer to reduce the liquid.
  4. Add cold rice. Using a wooden spatula, break the rice as you stir-fry.  Add frozen vegetables, then mix through.
  5. Once the rice is all broken down and heated through, add tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce.  Mix through, and season with salt and pepper.  Turn off the heat.  Set aside.
  6. Break eggs into a medium bowl, and mix with milk and salt.
  7. Heat 1 tbs in another frying pan (clean).  Once the oil is hot but not smoking, pour the egg mixture and stir with spatula or chopsticks to make soft scrambled eggs. 
To serve:
Divide the tomato rice into 4 serving plates, and top with scrambled eggs.
Enjoy with extra tomato sauce ♪

Oyako Donburi

Posted November 23rd, 2010 in Food | 4 Comments »

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!
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<Oyako-Donburi> serves 1
  • 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
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  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!
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Tomato, Lettuce and Silver Fish Scramble

Posted November 4th, 2010 in Food | No Comments »

Since I’ve been eating lots of fried food at the office and home, my face started to show some problems (>0<).  When I woke up few days ago there was a red mark on my cheek : I don’t know if it’s related to the pregnancy, my diet, or maybe it’s just an insect bite, but my lips became very dry and I really felt I shouldn’t eat too much fried food anymore.

It’s not my choice eating the fried food so often.  Someone else decides the lunch menu everyday at work, and when I’m hungry I just eat whatever is in front of me.  And at home in-low cooks some Indonesian food and they are mostly deep-fried. 

So, I decided to bring some vegetable-based side dish for lunch from today!  Rice is cooked every day at work and it really helps me for saving money 🙂

Today I brought stir-fried vegetables and egg.  It’s just a dish I made with whatever I had in the fridge, but it was pretty tasty.  I added silver fish to it, and the saltiness of the fish gave a good seasoning.

<Tomato, Lettuce and Silver Fish Scramble>

  • 1 tomato
  • 1 lettuce leaf
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbs silver fish
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  1. Cut the tomato randomly.  Tear off the lettuce leaf.  Beat the eggs in a bowl
  2. Heat a frying pan, and lightly spray oil.  Stir-fry the silver fish and tomatoes for 1 minutes, and add lettuce.  Season with pepper.  
  3. Pour the egg into the pan, and stir.  
* I cooked through the egg (to be sure), but I would normally cook halfway.

Tomato doesn’t lose its vitamin even if it’s cooked in the heat. And, cold tomatoes make your body cool down, but cooked tomatoes actually help burning the fat on the body.  (Lycopene)  Eating nutrient, right kinds of calories is very important to keep bub fed and growing! 😀

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Japanese Style Egg Omelet (Dashi-Maki)

Posted August 10th, 2010 in Food | 5 Comments »

Tamago-yaki, Dashi-maki….  They all mean “grilled egg” in Japanese, but Dashi-maki means it contains dashi (Japanese cooking stock) in the egg mixture before cooking.  Normally they are cooked in a rectangle frying pan called “tamago-yaki pan”, shaped and rolled up, and cut into bite-size pieces.

Dashi-maki is a great item for bento, accompaniment to sake or beer, or simply with steamed rice.  It is best to eat with grated daikon radish and a dash of soy sauce.  Juicy, soft, mild Dashi-maki can be made with:

  • 5 Egg
  • 100ml water
  • 5g bonito flake
  • 2tsp soy sauce
  • 1tbs sugar
  1. Place bonito flake in a small bowl and pour boiling water.  Leave it for few minutes.  Drain the liquid.  Discard bonito flake.
  2. Once the liquid is cool, mix with other ingredients.
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Tamago-yaki pan is not available here, so you can just make it with normal frying pan.
Tamago-yaki/Dashi-maki shouldn’t be colored too much.  It should look pale and fluffy.
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  1. Heat 1 tbs oil in a frying pan.  Pour 2/3 egg mixture, and quickly scramble the egg mixture.  The mixture should be dried completely.
  2. Move the soft scrambled egg into the edge of the pan, and pour the rest of egg mixture into the pan: lift up the scrambled egg so that egg mixture goes underneath the scrambled egg too.  Turn down the heat to low.  (you can add boiled spinach here, if you want: arrange the spinach on the egg mixture)
  3. Using an egg turner, carefully roll the scrambled egg towards the another side of the edge.  If the egg mixture is still runny, wait until almost cooked and then roll up to the edge.
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With a normal frying pan, don’t expect the shape to be perfect!  Don’t worry, you can just cut into bite-size pieces and garnish with grated daikon radish – it should look ok.  😀

With stir-fried chicken and vegetables…


Tofu Quiche

Posted April 9th, 2010 in Food | No Comments »

Try this tofu quiche if you are thinking to bake something savory.    It contains okara, which is a white/yellowish pulp that remain in the filter sack during tofu making process.  As this is considered as a “waste”, most of tofu shops can give it you for free, if you ask.  Although this is considered as a “waste” , it has been part of the traditional cuisines of some Asian countries includes Japan, and since 20th century it has been used in the vegetarian cuisine of Western nations as well.  Also, okara is very healthy food as it is low in fat, high in fibre, and also contains protein, calcium, iron and riboflavin.   The texture of this dish vaguely resembles polenta.  

Serves 6 (22 cm pie mold)

  • 6 eggs
  • 1.5cup okara
  • 1/4 cup soy milk
  • 3 rashes bacon, leaned
  • 1/2 cup Mozzarela cheese, shredded
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 shee ready-rolled frozen puffy pastry, thawed
  
  1. Preheat the oven to 200 ℃.  Line the pastry sheet on the mold.  Cut off any excess.  Using a folk, spike the bottom to make little holes.  Line aluminium foil over the pastry and spread pie stones (or uncooked rice).  Bake for 15 minutes, and remove the foil and stones, then bake another 10 minutes or until lightly golden.
  2. Beat eggs in a bowl, and mix with okara, soy milk, chopped bacon and half amount of cheese.  Season with salt.
  3. Pour the mixture into the pastry shell and sprinkle with the rest amount of cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese melts and the top is golden.
  
  

Baked Scotch Egg

Posted July 12th, 2009 in Food | 4 Comments »

I don’t eat meat so often.  It’s not that I don’t like or can not eat, I just don’t feel like eating them.  For me, hearty vegetable soup or grilled seafood make me more excited than bacon or saucy steak. … lots of people must be thinking that i’m so weird :p

However, my partner can’t survive without meat, so I need to cook meat often at home.  Now, thanks to him, I eat steak quite often.  I actually like Australian beef than Japanese beef.  Japanese beef usually is fat marbled, which means that it contains various amounts of intramuscular fat and has an appearance similar to a marble pattern.  This marbled meat gives tender texture and it melts on the tongue, and it is considered as high quality meat in Japan and usually expensive.  But, I like tough red meat here.  Australian beef is called “oz beef” in Japan and quite well-known there too.

When I was a kid I liked eating hamburg, and my mum sometimes put boiled egg in the middle.  (or cheese)  This is kind of my childhood food, and I make it here too for myself (and partner :p)

Using a pound cake mold…

  • 600g beef mince
  • 1/2 onion
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbs breadcrumbs
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tbs tomato sauce
  • 4 boiled eggs

* Preheat oven to 200

  1. Mix all the ingredients, except boiled eggs, in a bowl until the mixture become sticky.  Season well.
  2. Cove the bottom and sides of a pound cake mold with mince mixture, and place boiled eggs.  Top up the mold with the rest of mince.  Pad the top lightly to make sure there is no gap or hollow inside.
  3. Spread another 1 tbs of tomato sauce on the top, and cook in the oven.

Any left over can be used to make a gourmet beef burger.  Toast 2 slices of bread (or a roll) and sandwich sliced scotch egg, cheese, lettuce, tomato and any sauce.  Easy meal, no waste of food!


Double Cheese x Ham Omelet

Posted June 9th, 2009 in Food | No Comments »

As I mentioned before, I love egg!  Egg is one of my favorite food since I was little.  Egg is very nutritious, and has a good source of energy.  Eating too much eggs might give you high cholesterol, but eating one egg a day is a good diet.

I also like plain omelet, but prefer putting something in the middle.  I put anything: mushroom, spinach, tuna, mixed veggies, potatoes, rice (omelet rice), minced chicken/beef etc…  I will show you my basic omelet recipe here, Double Cheese + Ham.

 

  • 3 eggs
  • 3 tbs milk or cream
  • 2 slices ham
  • 1 tbs cream cheese
  • 1 tbs shredded cheddar (or Mozzarella) cheese
  • 1/2 small tomato
  • salt, pepper, margarine
   
  1. Briefly beat eggs and milk (cream).  Season.
  2. Dice tomatoes.
  3. Heat up an omelet pan, and drop 1 tsp of margarine.  Pour egg mixture, and scramble as you would lightly cook scrambled eggs.  Sprinkle cheddar cheese over.
  4. Place ham, cream cheese and tomato concasse.  Fold into half.  Let it cook through.
   
As you can see on the photo above, my omelet got little too much color :p  but the bottom of egg should not be colored this much. (><)  Well, it taste same, I enjoyed it anyway…  ♪

Fried Noodle Wrapped in Omelet (Omu-soba)

Posted May 24th, 2009 in Food | No Comments »

Similar to omu-rice, omu-soba is a dish which yakisoba (stir-fried noodle) is wrapped in thinly cooked omelet.  This is not really yo-shoku (Japanese Style Western Food) nor Japanese food.  Someone made up this dish like “hey, if you can wrap up rice with omelet, why don’t we do that for yakisoba too?”

Yaki-soba is Japanese style stir-fried egg noodle (thin).  It’s usually cooked with thinly sliced pork, onion, carrot and cabbage, and topped with ao-nori and bonito flake, then served with red pickled ginger.  We use yakisoba sauce which you can easily buy from supermarket in Japan.  The sauce is quite exensive in Asian grocery shops in Perth, so I normally season the noodle by myself.

< Yaki-soba > for one

  • 1 portion of yakisoba noodle (or any thin egg noodle)
  • onion, carrot, cabbage, beanshoots, some meat or seafood (up to you)
  • 2 tsp Worcester sauce
  • 1 tsp tomato sauce
  • 1/2 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp oyster sauce
  • salt & pepper
  • tomato sauce + Japanese mayonnaise + ao-nori to garnish

  1. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a frying pan.  If you are using thinly sliced pork, cook the meat first.  If you are using some other meat/seafood, saute sliced onion and carrot, then add meat/seafood.  Season with salt&pepper.
  2. Add roughly chopped cabbage.  Stir-fry for about 1 min, and add yakisoba noodle.  Try to loosen up the noodle with chopsticks, and drop 1~2 tsp water.  Stir, turn down the heat and cover with lid.
  3. Once the water is absorbed into noodle, take off the lid and turn the heat to medium.  Pour the sauce and stir-fry.  Season if required, and set aside.
  4. In another frying pan, cook thin omelet.  Turn off the heat.
  5. Place yakisoba noodle onto the omelet.  Place a plate on the top of frying pan (the serving side down), and flip it around.
  6. Curl the edge of omelet in and completely wrap up yakisoba.  Drizzle mayo, tomato sauce and sprinkle ao-nori.

Japanese Omelet with Roasted Eel (U-maki)

Posted March 22nd, 2009 in Food | No Comments »

  • 1/2 ~ 1 packet of frozen unagi
  • 4~5 eggs
  • 1 tsp white sugar
  • 1 tsp mirin
  • 2 tsp sake (cooking wine)
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • salt
  1. Defrost unagi.  Cut it to about 5cm width.  Adjust the length of unagi to match the pan you are using.  (you may be not using even 1/2 of unagi, it depends on its size)
  2. Mix all the liquid together with egg.
  3. Heat up tamagoyaki ki (frying pan for tamagoyaki – Japanese rolled omelet) and pour 1 tsp of oil.  Wipe off the excess with paper towel.  Pour about 1/4 of the egg mixture into the pan and scramble as you would lightly cooked scrambled eggs.  Over low heat, let the bottom of egg set.
  4. Once the bottom of omelet is set, place unagi on the egg; about 3 cm from the edge of the pan.
  5. Carefully roll up the egg,  (same as making sushi roll)  and push the omelet to the edge of pan.
  6. Clean the surface of pan with oiled paper towel.
  7. Pour another 1/4 of egg mixture into the pan and rotate the pan so that it coats the entire bottom. Quickly lift the cooked egg mass up and let the egg mixture flow underneath before putting it back down. This step is crucial in getting the layers to adhere.
  8. When the new layer of egg is almost cooked through but still a little wet on top, roll it up like step 5.
  9. Continue the process until you use up all the mixture.
  10. If the roll seems undercooked or unstable, you may want to turn the roll on its side and cook briefly to firm things up.
  11. To make it look nice, use makisu (bamboo mat) to re-shape the omelet.  Let it cool the omelet in makisu.  (this process is not necessary if you don’t care the shape 🙂
  12. Cut and serve.
*** You can use normal frying pan, but it’ll be little difficult to shape like how it should be.