HCT French Toast

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

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)

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!

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• 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!

Tomato, Lettuce and Silver Fish Scramble

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

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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