Somen Tomato Curry with Chicken and Mushroom

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

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<Somen Tomato Curry with Chicken and Mushroom> serves 4

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• 1 chicken breast fillet
• 2 baby eggplants
• 1 pack shimeji mushroom
• 2~3 cup 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

Nabe Night

Another winter food in Japan is….  yes, Nabe!

Nabe, or Nabemono, is a term referring to all varieties of Japanese steamboat dishes.  The pots are traditionally made of clay or thick cast iron so that the food can be kept warm for a while after being taken off the fire.  In modern Japan, nabemono are kept hot at the dining table by portable stove. The dish is frequently cooked at the table, and the diners can pick the cooked ingredients they want from the pot. It is either eaten with the broth or with a dip. Further ingredients can also be successively added to the pot.  Eating together from a shared pot is considered as an important feature of nabemono.  (wiki)

Actually, nabe simply means “pot” in Japanese, but we call the steamboat that people eat together in winter “nabe” too.  To think about it, it sounds little funny..  ”let’s eat nabe!” can mean “let’s eat the pot!”

Unfortunately I don’t have clay or cast iron pot here, so I made it with normal pot.  I added as many ingredients as possible…..  same as oden, more ingredients you add more flavorsome it becomes.

The typical ingredients for nabe in my house are Chinese cabbage, spring onion, tofu, carrot, chicken (or pork or fish) meat balls, chicken meat with bones, mushrooms, and kuzukiri - starch noodle.  Kuzukiri is one of my favorite food in nabe: it’s chewy.  You can add any ingredients you like, such as spinach, fish meat, fishcakes, udon etc etc.

It’s fun to gather friends and share a nabe on the table while watching tv.  This time, I made nabe with chicken soup.

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<Nabe in chicken soup>

1. Cut ingredients into desired size.  Place the ingredient all together in a pot.  If you are using Chinese cabbage, place them on top as if it covers the entire food.
2. Add chicken stock (depends on the size of the pot, but I used 1 L for a very large pot)
3. Bring to the boil, then simmer.  You can do this process on the portable stove on the table.
4. Eat as it cooks.  Add ponzu directly into the pot, or use ponzu as a dipping sauce.

Oden

As you may know, Oden is a typical winter food in Japan. ( wiki )  It is a kind of light, soy-flavoured dashi broth stew, consisting of several ingredients such as daikon radish, konnyaku, boiled eggs, fish cakes etc.  It’s basically stew with a mixture of whatever you want to add.  

I loooove Oden, I can just survive with this every day during winter.  It’s also nice to be eaten with warm sake/sho-chu.  

It’s so funny to know that foreign people really hate Oden.  They say that it smells like washed socks….  I don’t think so!  But, I guess Oden is a type of alien food for them. :p

When you order oden at convenience stores or Izakaya, you normally order the item one by one according to what you want to eat.  You can just order “tamago (boiled egg)” or “daikon (radish)”.  But, when you make oden at home, you add as many kinds of ingredients as possible so that the flavor is full.  Each ingredient gives the flavor to oden

Eating oden in kotatsu while watching tv… I miss it!

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Apricot Tartlet

An apricot tartlet with sweet moist filling.  Great accompaniment for a tea time ♪

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<Tartlet Base> 20cm tartlet tin

• 150g plain flour
• 70g unsalted butter (softened)
• 60g icing sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 egg yolk

Pork Soboro with Root Vegetables

I love root vegetables!!  The crunchy texture is a great accent on the dish.  They are winter vegetables, so you can find fresh root vegetables at grocery shops now.  (I saw fresh lotus roots at VHT in Northbridge, and Local Fresh in Carousel shopping centre)  Otherwise you can always get frozen root vegetables at Asian grocery shops.

The seasoning is simple, but this dish is very tasty; all the flavours from pork and root vegetables come together and is agreat accompaniment for steamed rice.

Garnish with crispy lotus root slices

<Pork Soboro with Root Vegetables> served 4

• 200g pork mince
• 100g lotus roots
• 100g bamboo shoots (in can in brine)
• 1/2 carrot, small
• 1/2 onion, medium
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1tsp minced garlic
• 1tbs sesame oil
• 1/4cup oyster sauce
• 1tbs soy sauce
• steamed rice to serve

1. Chop up onion and carrot.  Dice lotus roots and bamboo shoots. (if you are using fresh lotus roots, leave in a bowl of cold water with dash of vinegar for 20~30 minutes.)
2. Heat oil in a frying pan and saute onion, carrot, garlic and ginger.  Add pork, drop soy sauce onto the meat, and cook until the colour starts to turn. Stir well.
3. Add lotus roots and bamboo shoots, stir.  Add oyster sauce, and cook over medium-high heat until the liquid is almost gone.

To make lotus root chips:

1. Slice lotus roots very thin.  Deep-fry in hot oil until crispy.

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You can also enjoy as a condiment for porridge.

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