Cauliflower Karaage

There are many winter vegetables available in the supermarkets – and cauliflower is one of them!  Foods in season are very cheap to buy, and also are flavourful and nutritious.  (Seasonal Food Guide)

When you have cauliflower in the fridge, what do you want to cook with it?  Cauliflower cheese? Cauliflower soup?  Or add to usual stir-fry dish?  Ummmm  all of them sound so yummy….  but how about making karaage with it?  It sounds very different – because karaage usually use chicken thigh.  But, this dish is really flavoursome and rally easy to make.

The batter is seasoned so you may not need any sauce to eat with it, but you can also enjoy it with ponzu or Japanese mayonnaise.

Eat while hot and crunchy!

<Cauliflower Karaage>

• 1/4 cauliflower
• 1 egg
• 1 tbs  soy sauce
• 2 tsp oyster sause
• 3 tbs corn flour

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1. Cut cauliflower into small florets.
2. Bead the egg in a mixing bowl.  Add sauces and flour, then mix together.
3. Heat oil in a deep pan.
4. Coat cauliflower florets in the batter, then deep-fry until golden.

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White Chicken Soup with Cheesy Bagel Toast

It’s been a little warm again the last few days, but yesterday was raining and the air was nicely cool.  This Easter holiday has been a nice and quiet one for me, as all in-laws are overseas and D and I don’t have any plan.  It’s good, I like days like this

I made some white soup with chicken and leftover vegetables.  I love eating soup all year around.  It’s hearty, and you can eat many kinds of vegetables at once.

<White Chicken Soup>

• 300g chicken breast
• 1 onion (large)
• 1/2 zucchini
• 2 potatoes
• 1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup milk

* You can add/replace with any kinds of vegetables!

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1. Slice chicken into bite pieces.  Dice onion, zucchini and potatoes.
2. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a deep pan, and cook chicken and onion until the onion is almost transparent.  Add zucchini, and pour chicken stock to the pan.  Add potatoes and bring to the gentle boil.  Turn down the heat and simmer for few minutes.
3. Add the mixed vegetables and milk to the pan.  Season.  Simmer further few minutes.

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Cold Chicken Salad

I love eating salad all year round.  They are healthy, nutritious, and refreshing!  When I’m busy, a simple cut-and-mix salad is a real time saver.  As the weather is still not cooled down yet, I made this cold chicken salad with lots of cucumbers and carrots.  It refreshed my body – as I’ve been eating lots of carb and sweets lately (toast, hot cross buns, scones… the food that are easy to snack on), I really needed something healthy.

Noodle (e.g. somen noodle, rice vermicelli) can be added and make it a cold noodle salad.  The leftover of the salad can be also used to make fresh spring rolls – simply roll the mixed salad in rice paper, and serve with Hoisin sauce.

<Cold Chicken Salad>  serves 2~4

• 150g chicken breast
• 1 continental cucumber
• 1/2 carrot
• 2~3 leaves lettuce
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbs unsalted peanuts
• 5~6 mint leaves
• 2 tbs sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tbs lemon juice or white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• few drops fish sauce

1. Steam or poach the chicken.  Shred the meat.
2. Heat a frying pan over medium heat.  Slightly bash the garlic cloves with side of knife and crush a little (no need to peel the skin).  Place the garlic and the peanuts on the frying pan, and toast until the peanuts are coloured.  Set aside.
3. Halve the cucumber, and remove the seeds.  Slice thinly in angle, then cut lengthwise to make thin matchsticks shape.  Slice the carrot into the same size as cucumber.
4. Finely chop up mint leaves.
5. Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, and toss gently.  Serve immediately.

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Kinpira Gobo

Kinpira gobo, sweet soy glazed burdock root, is one of my favorite Japanese home-style food.  Kinpira is a  Japanese cooking style of “sauté and simmer”. It is commonly used to cook roots vegetables such as burdock roots, carrots, lotus roots and bamboo shoots.

The common ingredients for kinpira gobo are shredded burdock roots, carrots, and meat (usually thinly sliced pork or beef).  The seasonings are typical 4 Japanese ingredients.  If you have these 4 ingredients in your kitchen pantry, you can make kinpira at any time.

This time I used frozen shredded Japanese burdock roots.  There are also frozen shredded burdock roots from China at grocery shops and are much cheaper, but Japanese one tastes much better.  Even after thawed, the each burdock root still remains its crunchy texture.  It’s bit hard to get fresh burdock roots in Perth, so I always buy a frozen packet from Asian grocery shop and keep in the freezer.

<Kinpira Gobo>

• 100g burdock roots, shredded
• 1 carrot
• 50g pork meat (any part), sliced
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 2 tbs sake (cooking wine)
• 2 tbs mirin
• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs roasted white sesame seeds

Simmered Pumpkin

Pumpkin….  It’s a vegetable with full of nutrition!  It is used to make both savoury and sweet dishes, and the variety of the recipes are endless.

While I was little, I used to eat steamed rice mixed with this simmered pumpkin.  I call it “pumpkin rice” (カボチャご飯) and it was one of my favourite snack back then.  I remember bringing it to my friend’s house and eating, just like chocolate or lollies.

Making this dish is so simple – just place all the ingredient in a sauce pan, and simmer.  

<Simmered Pumpkin>

• 500g Japanese pumpkin
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs sake
• 2 tbs sugar