Chicken Hearts

Posted February 1st, 2017 in Food | No Comments »

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While I was in Japan I used to eat many parts of chicken including hearts, liver, and gizzards, especially at yakiniku and yakitori restaurants.  I love chicken hearts and gizzards as they have texture when biting.  Chicken hearts used to come with chicken livers when I shopped at a butcher near my house back in Japan.  Although I don’t hate livers, I used to pick only hearts to eat as they are chewy, and my family used to complain about it.

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When cooking livers and hearts we normally cook them with only ginger, soy sauce and mirin.  Ginger helps to remove any distinct smell that meat may have (though hearts don’t really have any gutsy smell), and the sauces give teriyaki-style sweet and salty flavour to the dish.  It really goes well with steamed rice!

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And here in Perth, I found chicken hearts and chicken gizzards at local Woolworths.  I had to buy those. (and they’re super cheap)

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How to cook… you will need:

  • Chicken Heart … 500g
  • Grated Ginger … 1 teaspoon
  • Soy Sauce … 1/8cup
  • mirin … 1/8cup

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  1. Place a frying pan over high heat and spray oil.  Cook hearts (out from the package) for 3 minutes.
  2. Add ginger, soy sauce and mirin to the pan.  Cook over medium heat until the sauce reduces and get caramelised.  Turn off the heat.
  3. Serve with steamed rice!

Mochi Ice Cream

Posted January 29th, 2017 in Food | No Comments »

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If you love Japanese snacks you may have tried Yukimidaifuku – ice cream covered with thin mochi skin.  I used to eat it while I was in Japan, especially in winter.  “Yuki-Mi” literally means “watching snow”, and this ice cream used to be on the shelves at the shops during the winter.  Now you can find it through a year.

I haven’t seen Yukimidaifuku around Perth for awhile, but today I bought a similar product from Spudshed in Jandakot.

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They are in the ice cream isle, and few kinds of flavours’re available.  Vanilla, green tea, black sesame, coconut… I forgot to take a photo. :p

Black sesame and coconut flavours were on sale and it was around $3.90, so I bought a box of black sesame. I couldn’t leave vanilla so I bought a box of those too.

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There are 5 individually packed mochi ice cream inside a box.  The original price was around $5 so they are bit pricy, but if you love mochi and ice cream I’d say you should try one.


Korokke

Posted January 4th, 2017 in Food | No Comments »

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Do you have heaps of potatoes in the kitchen?  Do you fancy of crispy fried snack?  Then look no further!  Korokke (croquette) is the dish you are after.  They can be your afternoon snack, light lunch, or even a side dish to accompany steamed rice and miso soup with special Korokke sauce. 🙂

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Korokke are deep-fried potato cake coated with panko (bread crumbs). All the coatings are same as katsu – plain flour, egg wash, and Japanese bread crumbs.

Here are the recipe :

<makes about 10)

  • 3~4 large potatoes
  • 1/2 large brown onion
  • 200g beef mince
  • plain flour to coat
  • 1 or 2 egg
  • panko (Japanese bread crumbs) to coat
  • oil to fry
  • sauce to serve (see below)

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1.

First, peel the potatoes and cut into pieces so they cook quickly.  Place in a large pot with water to cover, then cook over high heat until the potatoes are soft.

Meanwhile, chop the onion, and sauté in a frying pan with 1 table spoon of oil.   Add beef and cook.  Season with salt and pepper.

Drain the water from the pan of potatoes, and place the potatoes back into the pot.  Mash the potatoes and add the onion and beef.  Mix well.  Season to taste.

 

2.

Once the potato mixture is cool enough to handle, shape them into balls then flatten the centre.

Place flour and panko in a separate shallow plate.  Beat egg, and place in another shallow plate.

Coat the potato cakes with flour, shake the excess off, then dip in the egg wash.  Quickly place into the plate of panko to coat.  Repeat with the remaining.

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3.

Heat oil in a deep pan or a frying pan.  Deep-fry the korokke until golden.

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Korokke snowman ….  Just wanted to get a feeling of snow/cold as it’s 41 degrees today here in Perth!!!!

To serve:

Korokke are usually served with tonkatsu sauce, Worcester sauce, or tomato sauce.  Or just as is.  You can make a imitated tonkatsu sauce by just mixing tomato sauce & Worcester sauce (1:1).  Add Japanese mayonaise if you are mayo-lover!


An Dango

Posted November 13th, 2016 in Food | No Comments »

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Here in Perth it’s Spring and the weather has been strange – hot day, then rainy day, then cloudy day then again hot day! Hmmm I know Summer is just around the corner but I am not really looking forward to these scorching hot days..

Today was a hot day, and usually I would take my kids to the park in the early morning or to the swimming pool but we had someone come over to fix the garden today so we stayed home. Staying home with 2 kids means lots of food preparation. To combine the “cooking” and “playing”, I involved them in cooking and this is one of the things we made together – dango.

I love dango – I love the chewy texture! In Japan we normally use “shiratama-ko”  or “joshin-ko ” to made dango, but I do not have neither at home. Instead, I stock up this rice flour from Coles.

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Erawan Glutinous Rice Flour. It has to be this green package! It’s just over $2 a packet and so easy to make sticky dango snack.

The recipe is roughly measured, so please adjust the amount of water. And, I mixed tofu to the mixture this time, but you don’t need tofu if you don’t have. Just water and this flour is fine.

<recipe> makes around 20

• Erawan Glutinous Rice Flour … 1 cup

• Tofu (silken or momen) … 50g

• Water … around 1-2 tablespoon

Anko (or some alternative shown below)

 

  1. Drain the tofu from water, then wrap with kitchen paper. Microwave for 30 seconds ~ 1 minutes. This drains more water from tofu.
  2. Place flour into a bowl. Add cooled tofu, then smash the tofu and mix well.  Add water bit by bit to adjust the consistency of the mixture. It should be as firm as your earlobes.
  3. Boil water in a deep pan. Shape the mixture into small balls (1.5cm) then press lightly in the centre to flatten a bit. Drop the balls into boiling water.  Once the balls start to float, count 10 seconds then take them out of the water, and then drop them into a bowl of cold water.
  4. Drain the dango. Skewer them onto toothpicks, then place anko on top.
  5. Enjoy ♬

 

I made koshi-an (strained smooth Anko) but you can just buy a can of Anko from Asian grocery store, or you can eat dango with kinako (sweet soybean flour) or sweet soy sauce (Japanese soy sauce + sugar).   It’s all up to you!

 


Tempura Soba (Prawn & Vegetable Tempura)

Posted January 10th, 2016 in Food | 2 Comments »

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A summer staple food in Japan – cold soba noodle with dipping sauce.  Great to eat in a hot day!

There are few different types of noodle you can use for this “cold noodle + dipping sauce” dish.  Soba, udon, somen, and chu-ka noodle.  What are the differences?

Soba is made of buckwheat, and is grey-ish colour.  Somen is very thin white Japanese noodles made of wheat flour, less than 1.3 mm in diameter.  Udon is a type of thick wheat flour noodle.  Chu-ka noodle is egg noodle which is often used for ramen.

At my house in Japan I used to eat udon a lot.  I seldom ate soba while I was in Japan (and now still) – I’m not sure why it is, but I guess it’s because people near Kansai in Japan eat more udon than soba noodle for some reason.

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Here in Perth I got some cha-soba noodles from a local Asian shop.  Cha-soba noodles are soba noodles made from buckwheat and wheat flour with the added ingredient of fresh green tea leaves.  You can smell green tea aroma from the noodle and they are really refreshing.

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To accompany cha-soba noodles, I made some kakiage (mixed vegetables tempura) with chopped prawn.   If you have tempura flour it’s super easy to make, but even if you don’t, it’s not that difficult.

Here is the recipe for prawn kakiage:

<Recipe> makes about 10 kakiage

  • prawn (no shells & heads) … 1/2 cup
  • chopped vegetables (I used onion, zucchini) … 1/2 cup
  • plain flour … 3 tablespoons
  • corn flour … 1 tablespoon
  • salt … 1/4 teaspoon
  • water … 50ml (or adjust the constancy)

 

  1. Chop prawns.
  2. Mix flour, salt and water in a mixing bowl. Add the prawns and vegetables and stir.
  3. Heat oil in a shallow frying pan (about 3 – 5cm) to 170℃.
  4. Using two spoons, carefully drop the tempura mixture into the oil.  Fry over medium heat for both sides.
  5. Serve with cooked cold soba noodles.

 


Bûche de Noël

Posted December 23rd, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

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It’s that time of the year again!  It’s a time to express our love to family and friends, time to reflect on the past year, a time to set new goals for the upcoming year….  I wish 2015 was a great one for you.  Mine was great 🙂 Not many posting on Umeboss this year though… so it will be one of my goal for 2016 “write more posts for Umeboss”.

This month has been an event-full one for me : lots of cake-making, a family trip to a town of dolphins Bunbury, my son graduating kindergarten and family gatherings.

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After making these 4 huge cakes for my son’s Japanese kindergarten’s Christmas party, I had some leftover of sponge and whipped cream in the fridge.  Then I remembered when I was little I used to make this cake Bûche de Noël for Christmas.

Bûche de Noël  is the French name for a Christmas cake shaped like a log, and is a traditional dessert served near Christmas, especially in France.  It’s fairly easy & fun to make.  I used to just buy a Swiss roll cake from a store, and cover with whipped chocolate cream.  I loved the decorating part – making the pattern resembling skin of log using a folk, and place these “kinoko-no-yama” chocolate on top.

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It was a fun “cooking” as a little girl, and tasted good too 🙂

You may find this chocolate “kinoko-no-yama” in Perth too, (Korean version maybe available as well) but I didn’t even want to go out to buy extra ingredients for the cake – I just wanted to make now!  So here it is;

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Very simple 😀
It actually should have a Holly leaves as a decoration, but I substituted with mint leaves and M&M….   Some “kinoko-no-yama” on top and side of the log would look much nicer, I think.

You used leftover sponge for this, but you can buy a Swiss roll cake from store (like I used to do) and cover with whipped chocolate cream.  Place the cake in the fridge to set the cream (about 15 minutes) then draw a pattern using a folk.  Then, you will have a lovely0looking Christmas cake for yourself.  Please try!

 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!


Bibimbap

Posted September 30th, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

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Surviving school holiday?  I put my 4-year-old to a school swim program but going to a pool everyday with a 1-year-old is starting to give me a headache :-{  My 4-year-old can’t swim yet and 1-year-old wants to dip in the water too, so I have to be in the water splashing around with 2 boys.  After a quick shower we head home and have lunch, and surprisingly they don’t sleep at all at home so it’s been full-day-with-2-boys this week.  I need some stamina to keep up…!

Bibimbap was one of the food that came to my mind.  I just wanted to mix up the meat, veggies, rice & gochujang chilli and eat all up with a glass of chilled green tea.  Sounds nice in a hot day doesn’t it.

“Bibimbap –  it’s a Korean dish where meat, assorted vegetables and fried egg are placed over steamed rice.  You mix everything up as you eat, and though it looks messy that’s how it’s supposed to be eaten.  Usually gochujang (Korean chilli paste) and/or sesame oil is added, but I serve this dish to my kid without any extra sauce.”

I wrote a recipe for bibimbap here before, and I’d say that is more standard way to eat bibimbap as it has kimuche on it.  I love kimuche, especially in summer.  I crave for spicy food in hot days!

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There are so many kinds of bibimbap and you can make endless variations to this dish depending on your preference and dietary requirements.  I must say this is my favorite Korean dish and I often order one at yakiniku restaurant in Japan. 🙂  I love the one with tobiko (frying fish roe) in a hot stone bowl (ishiyaki-bibimbap) but when I make at home I make everything simple.

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On this recipe I didn’t use kimuche (simply because I didn’t have it in my house) but it turned out to be a family friendly dish.  Extra gochujang chilli for adults.

 

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Beat the heat with chilli!

<Bibimbap>  serves 1

  • 1 cup of Steamed Rice
  • 1/2 cup of Beef mince
  • 1/2 cup of Bean-shoot & carrot, shredded
  • 1/2 cup of Broccoli
  • 1/4 cup of Green beans, shredded
  • 1 Egg
  • minced garlic, sesame oil, gochujang chilli paste, soy sauce, sake

 

  1. Beef mince :  Heat 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, and cook beef mince over high heat with 1 teaspoon of minced garlic.  Add 1 teaspoon of Sake and 1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce, and cook until the meat is done.  Drizzle sesame oil.
  2. Bean-shoot : Blanch bean-shoot & shredded carrot.  Drain well.  Mix with 1 teaspoon of minced garlic and drizzle with sesame oil.  Season with salt.
  3. Broccoli : Blanch broccoli florets.  Drain well.
  4. Green beans : Blanch beans.  Drain well.  Shred.
  5. Egg : Fry an egg to your liking.
  6. Serve : Place steamed rice in a serving bowl.  Top with beef, bean-shoot&carrot, broccoli and beans.  Place fried egg on top.
  7. <optional> Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve with gochujang chilli paste.

 

 


Melville Matsuri 2015

Posted September 27th, 2015 in Food, Perth WA | 4 Comments »

I need some opinions please!!

 

Melville Matsuri is happening very soon and we are getting busy to sort things out. Food seems to be the high interest for people, as I received several questions about food.

What food do you expect to see at the Japan-themed festival?

So far, we have Takoyaki, Japanese curry, Japanese-style sausage sizzle, Rice balls, Rice burgers, Japanese cakes, Japanese sweets Wagashi, and Kakigouri (shaved ice).  Do you think they’d be enough?

In Japan, people expect to see Takoyaki, Yakisoba, Okonomiyaki, Crape, Grilled squid (Yakiika), Grilled corn (Yaki-toumorokoshi), Kakigouri … so on…   I wish there is a stall selling Yakisoba at Matsuri but so far no Yakisoba.

Anyway I hope the event will be a successful one!

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Potato Mochi

Posted September 1st, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

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Fun of chewy mochi-like food?  I am!  That’s why I do Bagel business, haha.

I made this for my 1 year old son, but it’s a great snack, really.  I just couldn’t stop munching!

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The key to make it chewy is mixing the potato mixture very well until it’s sticky.

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<Potato Mochi> makes 20~30 small ones

  • 2 Potatoes (about 300g)
  • 1/2cup Grated tasty cheese
  • 2tablespoons Corn flour
  • 2tablespoons Japanese mayonnaise
  • few drops of Tomato sauce

 

  1. Peel the skin of potato, and boil until soft.  Drain, and mash while hot.  Add cheese.
  2. Mix well.  Add corn flour, mayonnaise and tomato sauce.  Mix very well!  Season with salt to taste if needed.
  3. Heat a frying pan and spray oil.
  4. Shape the potato mixture into small flat coin shape, and grill in the pan over low heat.  When the bottom is coloured, flip over and cook another side.  Repeat with the rest.

 

 


Chicken Teriyaki Mayo Donburi

Posted August 24th, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

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This has been one of my regular dinner menu at home.  My family loves it, and it’s always a pleasure to see empty bowls after meal.

I’ve written few teriyaki recipes here, including spicy chilli version, salmon teriyaki, teriyaki spam onigiri, and teriyaki squid, but I realised I haven’t written the basic recipe for chicken teriyaki!  It’s so easy to make – and serving as donburi means less clean-up as everything is placed in a bowl 😉

After eating this, mayonnaise will be your best buddy whenever eating teriyaki chicken!

 

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<Chicken Teriyaki Mayo Donburi> serves 3~4

  • 4fillets (about 500g) Chicken thigh (recommend skin-on)
  • 3tablespoons Mirin
  • 1tablespoon Sugar (I used raw sugar)
  • 1tablespoon Sake
  • 3tablespoons Soy sauce
  • 2 Egg, boiled
  • 1cup Bean shoot (←optional)
  • 1cup blanched Spinach to garnish
  • steamed rice & Japanese mayonnaise to serve

 

  1. Heat a frying pan, and spray oil.  Grill chicken over high heat to colour both sides.
  2. Wipe any excess oil from the pan using kitchen paper.  Add bean shoots to the pan, and stir-fry.
  3. Meanwhile, place mirin, sugar, sake, and soy sauce in a small pan, and bring to gentle boil.  Simmer until it thickens slightly.
  4. Serve rice in donburi bowls.
  5. Place bean shoots over rice, using a tong.
  6. Place chicken into the sauce, and then place over the rice.  Drizzle extra sauce if required.
  7. Garnish with halved boiled egg and spinach.  Sprinkle sesame seeds.
  8. Enjoy with Japanese mayonnaise!

Salmon Teriyaki Donburi

Posted August 20th, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

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Eating Japanese food makes me feel I’m home and I love that moment.  In Japan I used to eat seafood almost everyday, and I lived near a big lake so seafood was part of my life, really.  I don’t know why seafood is so expensive in Australia – they are both island countries but in Japan you can get fresh delicious seafood at much cheaper price.  That’s why I don’t eat seafood as much here in Perth now 🙁

But I did have a craving for nice salmon so I made salmon teriyaki donburi for dinner tonight.  It’s simple to make and you’ll just need those basic Japanese sauces only – soy sauce, sake, and mirin! (And, fresh salmon fillets, of course.)

My old post of Salmon Teriyaki recipe is here – on this recipe salmon is cooked in the oven.  Tonight I cooked the salmon in a frying pan.

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I love skin – I eat chicken with skin on, and I eat most of fish with skin.

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I served salmon on top of rice so I can enjoy the sauce-drizzled rice.  (・ω<)  Yum.
(on the photo, skin side is down)

For the side, I blanched spinach and seasoned with just bonito-flake (katsuo-bushi 鰹節), roasted sesame seeds, and a dash of soy sauce.

Don’t forget freshly cooked steamed rice!

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<Salmon Teriyaki Donburi> serves 2

  • 2fillets/400~500g Salmon (I used Fresh Skin-on Atlantic Salmon Fillets)
  • 1tablespoon Sugar (I used raw sugar)
  • 3tablespoons Soy Sauce
  • 3tablespoons Mirin
  • 1tablespoon Sake

 

  1. Place sugar, soy sauce, mirin and sake in a small pot.  Bring to gentle boil, and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly.  Set aside.
  2. Heat a frying pan (wide enough to place salmon fillets), and spray oil.  Place salmon fillets, skin side down, and grill over medium~low heat until the skin is coloured crisped.  Gently flip them over, and cook other sides.
  3. Once salmon is cooked, remove from the pan and place into the pan of sauce.
  4. Serve salmon on top of steamed rice, and drizzle with sauce.

 


Nimono – Konnyaku & Beans

Posted August 15th, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

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You must have at least one dish that you love and miss to eat once in awhile.  In my case, it ought to be nimono.

Nimono is simple Japanese simmered dish, and the ingredients vary.  You can make nimono with many things but the main ingredients are usually vegetables.  Meat, seafood or tofu are often added, and it forms a great side dish to the table.

Sukiyaki, niku-jaga are popular nimono and you might have heard of them.  I love simple ones such as, nimono with eggplant & tuna (tinned), Chinese cabbage & chicken pieces, and daikon radish, root vegetables & squid.

After moved to North of the River, I often go to Coventry Village to buy some Japanese groceries, and when I do, I always but ingredients for oden.  I will write an easy recipe for oden (iconic Japanese winter dish) here on Umeboss some another time, but I had 1 pack of konnyaku left in the fridge and I decided to make nimono last night to accompany juicy karaage!

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<Nimono with Konnyaku & Beans>  serves 3~4

  • 1 pack Konnyaku (grey or white is available in Perth)
  • 1 cup Frozen green beans, cut
  • 90g Tinned salmon
  • 1 teaspoon Dashi powder
  • 2 tablespoons Sake
  • 1 tablespoon Mirin
  • 1 tablespoon Soy sauce

 

  1. Cut konnyaku into pieces.  I cut into small triangle.  Score konnyaku with sharp knife eso the flavour goes into the konnyaku.
  2. Place konnyaku in a colander, and pour boiling water (to remove the smell).
  3. Place drained konnyaku, beans and drained salmon in a pan with 1 cup of water and the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to boil, and simmer for 10~15 minutes.  Serve with steamed rice.

Beef Teriyaki Niku-Dango

Posted August 11th, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

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When I had leftover beef mince after cooking Japanese curry  , I quickly made this niku-dango (meatball) in another frying pan.  It’s a super quick recipe (done in 10 minutes!) and I thought I should show the recipe here 🙂

All you need is beef mince, minced garlic, and usual sauces for Japanese cuisine : sake (cooking wine), mirin (cooking sweet wine), and soy sauce.

 

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<Teriyaki Niku-Dango>  makes around 10 balls

  • 500g Beef mince
  • 1 teaspoon Minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon Sake
  • 2 tablespoons Mirin
  • 2 tablespoons Soy sauce

 

  1. Mix garlic mince with beef.
  2. Heat a frying pan and spray oil.  Shape beef mince into balls, and grill both side.
  3. Pour over the sauces, and simmer until the sauce thickens.
  4. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve with steamed rice & steamed vegetables.

 


Easy Maze-Gohan with Tinned Salmon

Posted June 17th, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things I used to do on my free-time was standing in the kitchen alone wondering what I can cook, and making whatever came to my mind.  But these days I’m finding it’s hard to spot my “free” time and I can hardly stay in the kitchen alone with two little ones nagging for food or play.  It really stresses me out sometimes, because I want to cook something for them which is nutritious and with variety of ingredients, but on the other hand if preparation takes long then they will start drag me out from the kitchen.

Here is one of my life-saving recipe.  Maze-gohan is seasoned rice with variety of ingredients.  Different from takikomi-gohan, maze-gohan is plain steamed rice mixed with cooked ingredients (where takikomi-gohan is cooked rice with ingredients and seasonings).

Maze-gohan … plain steamed rice + cooked & seasoned ingredients
Takikomi-gohan … uncooked rice + raw ingredients + seasonings cooked together

salmon-cha-han

 

This maze-gohan with salmon is a hit for my 1-year-old too.  The dish is done in 10 minutes. 🙂

<Maze-Gohan with Tinned Salmon>  serves 3~4 kids

  • 95g Tinned Pink Salmon in springwater, drained
  • 1 portion of Frozen Chopped Spinach, defrosted
  • 1 Egg
  • 2 bowls of Steamed Rice
  • 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
  • 1 teaspoon Soy Sauce
  • White Sesame Seeds to sprinkle

 

  1. Heat a frying pan, and spray oil.
  2. Cook salmon and spinach, stirring, for 1~2 minutes.
  3. Beat egg in a small bowl, and pour into the frying pan.  Stir using chopsticks or wooden spatula to scramble.
  4. Drizzle sesame oil, and season with soy sauce.  Sprinkle sesame seeds and turn off the heat.
  5. Mix with steamed rice.

You can add small amount of oyster sauce or more soy sauce if you like.  I use leftover cooked rice from day before; warm up the rice in the microwave before mixing with salmon.  You can cook this salmon first (while your kids are taking nap or watching tv) and keep in the fridge.  When they are hungry, just mix with warm rice and done!

 

 


Spicy Chilli Teriyaki Chicken

Posted May 28th, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

spicy-teriyaki-chicken-2

Since I met my husband, I became a chilli eater.  I like spicy food now and love eating KFC chicken with chili sauce & rice.  It sounds weird, but it’s Indonesian style I think! When it comes to chilli, my husband loves anything including chili sauce, wasabi, chilli powder and Jalapeño.

He started eating chicken karaage with Japanese mayonnaise & Sriracha chili sauce ever since he had one at Mr Samurai restaurant on Barrac street in Perth.  (the restaurant closed few years ago)  I’m not really into this chili sauce and am just happy with Japanese mayonnaise, but this chili sauce is a must when he eats karaage.

chili

One day I was cooking teriyaki chicken and thought of  adding something extra. Something different for a change.  I added Sriracha.

spicy-teriyaki-chicken

I actually liked it.  Ordinal teriyaki sauce with some kick in it.  It went well with Japanese mayonnaise too.

chli teriyaki chicken

Here is the recipe.

Chilli Teriyaki Chicken
Recipe (serves 2)

  • Chicken Thigh Fillet … 2 (appx 350g)  with skin
  • Sugar … 1 tablespoon
  • Sake (cooking wine) … 1 tablespoon
  • Soy Sauce … 1.5 tablespoon
  • Mirin (sweet wine) … 1/2 tablespoon
  • Sriracha Chilli Sauce … 1 teaspoon

 

  1. Mix all ingredients except chicken.
  2. Heat 1/2 tablespoon oil in a frying pan, and grill chicken thigh over high heat – skin side first.  When golden coloured, turn the chicken over and cook on low heat.  Add the sauce, and simmer until the sauce thickens.
  3. Serve with steamed rice and Japanese mayonnaise.

 


Cabbage-Yaki

Posted February 24th, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

cabbage

 

I had a cabbage.  A cabbage sitting in the fridge.  And I was thinking again “what to cook tonight…”

Since I had another baby, cooking time for dinner has been a stressful time for me.  Especially a 8-month-old doesn’t stay still and I literally can’t take my eyes off him.  He eats sandals, picks a thin tiny hair from the floor and put in his mouth, and tries to stand up but ends up unsuccessful and bump on his head…  A nearly-4-year-old, on the other hand, keeps telling me “I’m hungry~ I’m hungry~.”  I tell him “I’m cooking dinner, wait for a bit” but he insists to have some snack while waiting.  Snack would spoil his appetite, but most of the time I just give him something so I can prepare dinner.  It seems that I don’t have proper time to cook decent food these days.  I can’t stay in the kitchen for too long while 2 boys are in the house.

I’m trying to figure out what would be the best solution for this.  What other mums do?  I hear some only cook once a week, and heat up the dinner each day.  Would that be a great idea?  I’m finding hard to find a time to do grocery shopping as well.  I think I need to think about the routine and schedule ahead the menu of the week .

Anyway, one day I had a cabbage in the fridge and I thought I should cook this before it goes bad.  It’s taking a big space out of fridge too.  I decided to make something, maybe okonomiyaki – all these events in the city are making me feel like munching on some Japanese street food.  But on that day I even thought making okonomiyaki dough with flour would be too much trouble.  I was very lazy.  So I did skip that part and made this …. cabbage-yaki!

cabbage-yaki

Messy photo – sorry I had already started eating this.

Looks like okonomiyaki.  It tastes like one too!  But I basically used just cabbage, prawn, red ginger (which is a key ingredient to resemble okonomiyaki) and egg.  I skipped the flour.  Adding the sauce and Japanese mayonnaise gave it the similar taste to okonomiyaki, and it was super quick to make.  It’s basically an omelet with sauce!

 

cabbage-yaki2

Cabbage-yaki  (makes 1)

  • cabbage, shredded or chopped ..  1 cup
  • prawn, peeled and tailed .. 2~3
  • grated/minced ginger .. 1/2 teaspoon
  • red ginger .. 1 teaspoon
  • egg .. 1
  • tomato sauce .. 2 tablespoons
  • oyster sauce .. 2 tablespoons
  • Japanese mayonnaise  to dress

 

  1. Heat a frying pan and spray oil on to the pan.  Cook prawn and ginger until the prawn turns pink.  Add cabbage, and sauté until it becomes soft.
  2. Add ginger, stir.  Beat an egg in a bowl, and pour over the pan evenly.  Once the bottom is set, flip over and cook another side.
  3. Serve on a plate.  Mix tomato sauce & oyster sauce, and cover the omelet. Dress with Japanese mayonnaise.  Serve immediately.

 

A super quick snack/supper is served.


Nikomi Hamburg Steak

Posted January 15th, 2015 in Food | No Comments »

hamburg3

One of my son’s book shows typical Japanese food for kids such as curry & rice, omu-rice and spaghetti Napolitan, and it made me want to eat hamburg steak tonight!  Hamburg is one of typical kids meal in Japan.  Most family restaurants in Japan have hamburg steaks on their menu, and there are restaurants specialising hamburg steak (e.g. Bikkuri Donki) too.  There are few different types of hamburg steak, like melted cheese hamburg steak, curry hamburg steak, wafu (Japanese style) hamburg steak, etc.  Yummo!

hamburg5

I decided to make nikomi hamburg steak with fried egg.  Nikomi means “stew” or “simmered”, but the cooking method is more like “braised”.  The hamburg steak is first seared, then cooked in the sauce.

hamburg6

Hamburg steak covered in thick shiny sauce… I recommend to serve this with steamed rice but it also goes well with your choice of bread. 🙂

Here is the recipe:

hamburg2

 

serves 4

  • Pork mince .. 360g
  • Onion .. 1
  • Egg .. 1
  • Breadcrumb .. 1/4 cup
  • Milk .. 1/4 cup
  • Tomato sauce … 4 tablespoons
  • Sugar … 4 tablespoons
  • Soy Sauce … 1 tablespoon
  • Vegetable stock cube*  .. 2
  • Water .. 500ml
  • Cornflour .. 3 teaspoons + Water 2 tablespoons

* I use MASSEL salt reduced Bouillon stock cubes

 

  1. Chop up onion finely.  Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, and sauté the onion until it becomes transparent.  Transfer the onion to a plate or tray to cool.
  2. Mix breadcrumbs and milk.  Set aside.
  3. In a bowl, mix mince, onion, breadcrumbs+milk, egg, salt and pepper very well until the mixture becomes sticky.
  4. Divide the mixture into 4.  Shape them into flat ovals.
  5. Heat 1 table spoon of oil in a deep pan (wide enough to place all 4 patties), and sear the patties both side.  Absorb any extra oil with kitchen paper if required.
  6. Add water, sugar, and stock cubes.  Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to medium to simmer.
  7. Add tomato sauce and soy sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes.
  8. Mix cornflour + water.  Turn up the heat, and pour the conrflour mixture into the sauce. Stir lightly, then simmer for another 2 minutes.

 

Fried eggs, baked potatoes and vegetables are optional.  Serve with steamed rice or your choice of bread.

 

 

 

 


Miso-Marinated Pork

Posted September 13th, 2014 in Food | No Comments »

buta-misozuke

 

Meat is not my most favorite food, but I do get a craving for yakiniku (Japanese version of BBQ- it literary means “grilled meat”) sometimes.  Usually I go for thinly sliced beef if having yakiniku at home here in Perth, but marinated chicken thigh or pork fillets are actually great alternatives.

Marinating in miso based marinade gives meat tender and full of flavour.  I bet you’ll love it with freshly cooked steamed rice and some shredded cabbage!  Yummmm…  So does other marinated meat, this one gets burned easily when cooking so make sure you keep an eye on it while grilling.  Searing the meat in a hot pan gives great flavour of caramelised sweet miso paste to the meat.    You can cook this in a yakiniku plate and eat as you cook in the table, or cook in a pan and serve with shredded cabbage and hot steamed rice.  You can also make it in a donburi style by arranging the meat and cabbage on a bed of steamed rice in a serving bowl.

This pork is also great to have with somen noodle in summer.  Chilled somen noodle with dipping sauce sometimes doesn’t satisfy your hunger, but serving that with this freshly grilled pork and some summer salad makes a great treat for a hot day!

<Miso-Marinated Pork> serves 2~3 people

  • Pork fillet 300g (I used pork loin fillet)
  • Miso paste 3 tablespoon (I used red miso paste)
  • Mirin (sweet cooking wine) 1 tablespoon
  • Sake (cooking wine) 1 tablespoon
  • Honey 1 tablespoon
  • Soy sauce 1 teaspoon
  • Sesame oil 1 teaspoon
  • Garlic & ginger, grated, around 1 teaspoon each

 

  1. Mix all the ingredients except pork.
  2. Place pork fillets in a ziplock bag with the mixed sauce.  Marinate half-day or overnight.
  3. Remove pork from the marinade.  Cut into 1~2cm width.
  4. Heat a frying pan and spray oil.  When the pan is really really hot, add the meat and quickly move around the pan to sear the meat.  Be cautious not to burn the meat.
  5. Serve with rice while hot.

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Takikomi Tomato Rice

Posted August 14th, 2014 in Food | 1 Comment »

takikomi

Tomato rice, often used for omelet-rice (omu-rice), is usually made with cooked rice, chicken pieces, some vegetables and tomato sauce in a frying-pan, just like stir-fried rice.  We call the rice “chicken rice”, and I love it even without a thin omelet wrapper.  The problem with cooking this rice is that sometimes the rice becomes bit mashy while stir-frying, and you have to have cooked rice to make this.  so, when you feel like omelet-rice, you first need to cook rice then stir-fry with other ingredients.

I hate mashy rice.  Especially with Japanese rice (medium to short grain rice).  It’s soggy, soft and has no texture that I love about rice.

So these days I often make this “chicken rice” in a rice cooker.  You don’t need to stir-fry in a pan as a rice cooker will do all the work.  It’s easy, time saving, and less washing to do!

The basic ingredients are medium (or short) grain rice, chicken thigh pieces, onion, carrot and sauces, but this time I made it with prawn & chopped bacon instead of chicken.  Yum!!

takikomi2

I added spinach in this recipe.  You can modify this with any vegetables at least you add the correct amount of rice and sauces.

<Recipe>

  • Rice 450g
  • Tomato Sauce  4 table spoons
  • Oyster Sauce 1 teaspoon
  • Stock Cube 1 (vegetable or chicken) or 1 teaspoon
  • Frozen Chopped Spinach 1 portion
  • Chopped Carrot 1/4 cup
  • Chopped Onion 1/4 cup
  • Chopped Bacon 1/4 cup
  • some prawns, no shell, heads and tails

 

  1. Wash rice.  Level the rice in a rice cooker.  Add sauces and stock cube.  Add water to the level marked “3”, or you point your finger down inside the rice cooker, add water to the first line of your finger.
  2. Add other ingredients.  Level the surface.
  3. Turn on the cooker.

 

You should leave the lid of rice cooker closed for at least 10 minutes after the rice is cooked.  Mix the rice through within 30minutes after cooking to let the excess steam escape.

Serve with or without thin omelet, and enjoy!


Dinosaur Themed Birthday Cake

Posted March 20th, 2014 in Food | 2 Comments »

Dinosaurs on cake

As my son is currently crazy about dinosaurs, it was no surprise he requested a dinosaur birthday cake for his 3rd birthday.

I’m sure a dinosaur shaped cake covered with colourful sweet icing will excite him, but I still feel uncomfortable with these Western too-sweet-treat :{ I love Japanese cake and I’ve been baking Japanese style cake for his birthdays, so I decided to make one again for his 3rd birthday.

To make it more appealing to him, I put some dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs (Easter eggs, actually lol) on top of the cake.  The cake consists layers of sponge cake, whipped cream, and lots of fresh fruits as usual.

Chocolate dinosaurs

 

I started making dinosaurs few weeks ago.  It’s made of chocolate and it can be kept in the fridge for a long time once it’s made, so at least one thing is done in early stage it gives me lots of relief.

If you love drawing, you will love the process.  Of course you can create anything rather than dinosaurs!

It’s pretty easy and you’ll just need chocolate (dark and white) and some colouring.

Here is how I made these dinosaurs… ↓↓

Firstly, print out an image of what you want to draw.  An image with simple lines and not too many colours is a better choice.  You can draw the image from scratch if you’d like.  Remember, the image will be reversed once the chocolate is set – so if you are writing any letter it has to be reversed to a mirror image.

Once you have a clear image on nice clean paper, place a piece of baking sheet on top.  Staple the paper so it won’t move.

Chocolate dinosaur making 1

Secondly, melt dark (or milk) chocolate on a plate or small cup over hot water bath.  Using a skewer, just like a pen draw the line according to the image.

Let the chocolate set in the fridge.

Chocolate dinosaur making 2

Thirdly, make coloured chocolate.  Melt white chocolate in a place or small cup.

If you decide to make green colour, I found Matcha green tea powder works the best when mixing with white chocolate.  For other colours like red or yellow, if you happen to have some colouring powder (e.g. jelly powder) I think it’s easier than mixing with liquid colouring as chocolate and liquid don’t really get mixed well.  Too much liquid colouring will curdle the chocolate.  So, if you are working with liquid colouring make sure you start with a super tiny bit of drop.  Mix with melted white chocolate, and add some more until it reaches desired colour.

Make few colours according to your image.  I made green, yellow and red (pink).

Carefully, spread the coloured chocolate over the image.  Be careful not to move the chocolate line you drew.  (I do sometimes…)

Let the chocolate set in the fridge.

Chocolate dinosaur making 3

Lastly, melt white chocolate in another plate or small cup.  Spread to cover the thin area or all over the image.  Let the chocolate set in the fridge.

Once the chocolate is set, carefully remove from the sheet and flip it over.  Now you have a cute image to decorate your cake 🙂

Chocolate dinosaurs

 

TA-DA!!!

The green dinosaurs’s dots look like they’re bit melted when spreading green chocolate :p  But still look good aren’t they?

birthday-cake

I made this Japanese anime character “Anpanman” for my son’s 2’nd birthday.

IMG_6004

Another dinosaur for my friend.

truck

A truck for a 3-year-old boy.

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New Trend in Japan.. Wasabi Donburi?

Posted February 25th, 2014 in Food, Japan | 4 Comments »

chicken don

 

When you hear the word “donburi” you’d imagine many kinds of donburi dishes… oyako-donburi, ten-don (tempura-donburi), una-don (unagi-donburi), katsu-don (katsu donburi), kaisen-donburi etc etc.  There are many types of donburi dishes in Japan and I can’t count how many…

Donburi is one of the quick and easy dish you can have at restaurants or home – and has been one of the most popular lunch menu for office workers to grab during the short lunch break.

My favourite is oyako-donburi!! …but I also like ten-don, una-don….  hmmm writing this makes me really really hungry!!

Now, in Japan, there is a new kind of donburi dish called “wasabi donburi”.   It sounds like something you’d have to eat as a penalty of the game :p  But it appears to  be delicious!

As the name indicates, the key item is wasabi.  Wasabi donburi actually is a very simple dish – just a bowl of steamed rice, katsuo-bushi (bonito flakes), wasabi and soy sauce.

fresh wasabi

 

Sounds weird??  If you love wasabi you must try this!!

You will need fresh block of wasabi for this dish.

Imagine this…

Freshly steamed rice in a bowl.

Sprinkle katsuo-bushi.

Freshly grate wasabi and place on top of rice.

Pour the best quality soy sauce..

wasabi donburi

And eat as you mix the wasabi into rice…

Hmmmm it does sound yummy to me!!

🙂


Udon Noodle Soup

Posted November 9th, 2013 in Food | No Comments »

I don’t know if anyone likes Japanese udon noodle, but it’s one of my favorite food.  Udon noodle can be eaten hot or cold ; served in hot broth, with cold dipping sauce, stir-fried or simmered in hotpot. (other ideas to eat udon is welcome :))

For typical way to eat udon is in hot broth or with cold dipping sauce.  They both are made with dashi, soy sauce, sake, and mirin – but if you are in hurry then the dipping sauce (called tsuyu つゆ) can be purchased in Japanese food section at most Asian grocery shops.  Be careful as they look just like soy sauce – same dark colour!  Some can be used straightaway, and some need to be diluted with water.  Serve chilled with cooked udon (cold or room temperature) and some condiments such as chopped spring onions, grated ginger 0r wasabi, wakame seaweed etc.

For hot broth, as I said above you can make that with dashi, soy sauce, sake and mirin.  But if you are hurry then you can buy the soup powder from Asian grocery shops.

Near furikake, dashi stock powder and Japanese pasta sauces, there is udon soup powder.  Some Asian grocery shop may not sell this.

This is Higashimaru brand, but there’re many different brands for udon soup powder.  The grocery shop near my house only had Higashimaru.

Ok, now, all you need is udon noodle (I like frozen udon noodle as they are much closer to the real udon noodle – thick and chewy) and 1 sachet of this udon noodle soup powder.  (this box contains 8 sachets)  If you are really really in hurry, just pour boiling water to the powder then the soup is ready.  Serve with cooked udon noodle.

If you have some time or want to add some ingredients to the soup, heat the soup powder in water with chicken, sliced carrot and abura-age (fried bean curd), and cook till the ingredients are tender.  Turn the heat up on the soup and pour beaten egg.  Stir, and turn off the heat.  Serve with wakame seaweed and chopped spring onions!

I cooked that for my son (the photo looks bit messy! <3) for dinner tonight.

This udon noodle soup with egg is called tamago-toji-udon (my favorite).  You can also place inari skin (seasoned fried bean curd), wakame seaweed and chopped spring onion on a bed of cooked udon noodle, then pour udon broth.  This is called “kitsune-udon“.  Or “tanuki-udon” which is udon noodle soup with vegetable tempura on top.

There sure are many ways to enjoy udon noodle!! If you happen to go to Japan find your favorite way to eat udon noodle 🙂


American Dog

Posted September 27th, 2013 in Food | 4 Comments »

American Dog – …. I’m not talking about a dog here, it’s actually a name of delicious snack.  I think why people call it “Dog” is because it is quite similar to the style of “hotdog”.  It’s got sausage, it’s got bread (kind of), and is a handy snack to fill up empty stomach between the meal.

Here is the American Dog ↓↓↓

Yummmmm

It’s a children’s favourite!  You can find them at the counter in convenience stores in Japan along with niku-man (steamed pork buns) , karaage (fried chicken), and chips.  It often comes with tomato sauce and/or mustard, just like hotdog.

American Dog is a savoury donut , and there is sausage inside!  Sausages are coated in batter then get deep-fried in oil.  Usually American Dog is big (containing 1 whole Frankfurt sausage) and a chopstick or wooden stick is used as a handle, but I use dry pasta for edible handle and I make them smaller so kids can easily munch on.

<Recipe>  makes about 8 mini American Dog

  • 2 long Frankfurt sausages
  • some Plain Flour to dust the sausages
  • 100g Plain Flour
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • 30g Caster Sugar
  • 1 Egg (at room temperature)
  • 20g Unsalted Butter
  • 50cc Milk
  • 1 or 2 Dried spaghetti

  1. Melt butter in microwave.  Leave to cool.
  2. Cut the sausage into 4 pieces each, so there’re 8 pieces.  Dust the sausages with plain flour in a plastic bag or a bowl.  Shake off excess flour.
  3. In a mixing bowl, place melted butter, sugar, egg and milk, and mix well. Shift in the flour + baking powder, and mix with spatula.  
  4. Break the spaghetti and stick to the sausages.  
  5. Heat oil in a deep sauce pan to 160℃.  Using 2 spoons, coat the sausages with batter then drop into oil.  Turn the donut around until it becomes golden colour.  Remove from oil to the rack. Repeat with remaining.
  6. Enjoy with tomato sauce, or any sauce you like 🙂

Kinpira Udon

Posted September 23rd, 2013 in Food | No Comments »

“Kinpira” … braised burdock roots & carrots

I love udon noodle.  I love it in hot broth, with cold dipping sauce, or stir-fried.  I love the chewiness that other noodles don’t have. Udon is a great item to finish steamboat dish as well ; after enjoying the steamboat, add some udon noodle to the broth and enjoy it as end of the meal.

Today I combined “kinpira” and udon noodle.  It’s kind of a not-so-soupy version of nikomi-udon. First, I cooked burdock roots and carrot as I normally make “kinpira”.  Combined with broth, then udon noodle.  Easy.  This nice, hearty dish is great to have in this time of the year.  The key point is to soak the udon noodle in the broth so it absorbs the flavour.

I use frozen udon noodle as they are much chewier than dried udon noodle.

<Recipe>  makes 2 serves

  • 1 cup frozen shredded Burdock Roots (available from Asian grocery shop)
  • 1 Carrot
  • 50g Chicken Thigh
  • 1 tbs Sesame Oil
  • 1 ~ 2 tbs Soy Sauce
  • 2 tbs Mirin
  • 1 tbs sake
  • 1 tsp Dashi stock powder + 3 cups hot water
  • 2 portion Udon Noodle
  • 1 tbs dried Wakame seaweed
  • 1 Egg
  • 2 tbs chopped spring onions

  1. Cut carrot into stick shape.  Cut chicken into small pieces.
  2. Heat sesame oil in a deep sauce pan.  Stir-fry chicken, carrot and burdock roots for few minutes.
  3. Add mirin & soy sauce.  Cook for another few minutes while stirring.
  4. Turn up the heat.  Add sake, then pour the dashi stock.  Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Taste the soup, and add more soy sauce/sake if needed.  Remember, the wakame will add more flavour to the soup later.
  5. Add frozen udon noodle into the soup.  If you are using dried noodle, cook the noodle first then drain well before adding to the soup.  Simmer for another 5 minutes.
  6. Beat egg in a small bowl.  Turn up the heat, and pour the egg to the soup while stirring.  Turn off the heat.  Add wakame to the soup, and place a lid on the sauce pan.  Leave it for 5mins or more.
  7. When serving, arrange the udon on a dish then top with chopped spring onion (sesame seeds if preferred).

Roasted Sesame Dressing

Posted July 8th, 2013 in Food | No Comments »

This may be too thick to be called “dressing”, but you can adjust the consistency by adding more mayonnaise.  I love roasted sesame dressing because it contains all the goodness of sesame seeds, and most of all, is very tasty!

You should use plain white sesame seeds and roast by yourself rather than using store-bought roasted sesame seeds.  It gives you more good “sesame oil” when using freshly roasted seeds.

This recipe makes a small amount and is perfect for making for a small family.

<Roasted Sesame Dressing>

  • white sesame 3 tablespoon
  • white vinegar 1 teaspoon
  • soy sauce 1 teaspoon
  • tomato sauce 1 teaspoon
  • Japanese mayonnaise 4 tablespoon (or more/less)
  • sugar to taste

 

  1. Roast the sesame seeds well in a frying pan.
  2. Place the seeds in a mortar, and grind using a pestle until the seeds break and some oil come out.
  3.  Add other ingredients, and mix through.  Add sugar to taste if needed.

I made a big batch, and keeping it in the fridge.  I made some green bean salad with this dressing the other day – yum!!  And also, I made gobo salad using frozen burdock roots. (It’s really hard to find fresh one here in Perth)  It turned out great too.  Here is the recipe;

<Gobo salad with sesame dressing>

  • frozen gobo, shredded 150g
  • 1/2 carrot
  • soy sauce 1.5 tablespoon
  • mirin 2 tablespoon
  • sake 2 table spoon
  • sugar 1 tablespoon
  • sesame oil 1 tablespoon
  • Roasted Sesame Dressing 1 ~ 2 tablespoon
  1. Cut the carrot into matchsticks.
  2. Heat sesame oil in a frying pan, and stir-fry the gobo and carrot for 2 minutes.  Pour sake, and cook further 2 minutes.
  3. Add soy sauce, sugar, and mirin.  Cook until the liquid is almost evaporated.  Turn off the heat.
  4. When cool, add the dressing.  Mix well.

It really goes well with steamed rice and miso soup 🙂

I think it will go well as a condiment for yakiniku too.  I should try that next time!


Custard Dorayaki

Posted June 1st, 2013 in Food | 5 Comments »

My oven had broken down…!!  I can’t bake until Tuesday as this is long weekend and no-one could come down and have a look at it.

Since I can’t use the oven, I’ve made something using the stove – this custard dorayaki.  … They look like pancake sandwiches :p

Dorayaki is one of Japanese sweets which usually contains azuki bean paste inside.  My husband doesn’t like azuki bean paste, and custard is much easier to make, so I went with custard dorayaki.

I don’t like it too sweet, so if you like sweet custard add more sugar to the recipe.

 

<Custard>

  • Milk 100ml
  • Granulated Sugar 20g
  • Egg Yolk 1 (L size)
  • Plain Flour 10g
  • Condensed Milk 5g
  • Vanilla essence few drops

 

  1. Whisk egg yolk and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Shift in the flour.
  2. In a sauce pan, warm up the milk.  (not too hot, around 36℃)  Pour the warm milk into the egg mixture through a sieve.  Stir.  Pour the mixture back into the pan, and heat over low heat.  Stir constantly.  Heat until the custard thickens.  Off the heat, and add condensed milk & vanilla essence when the custard is slightly cool.  Mix well, and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Keep refrigerated.

 

<Dorayaki>  makes 16 mini pancake = 8 dorayaki

  • Plain Flour 100g
  • Baking Powder 1 tsp
  • Honey 2 tbs
  • Sugar 2 tbs
  • Milk 4 tbs
  • Egg 2

 

  1. Mix everything in a bowl.  Heat a small frying pan, spray with oil, and pour a small ladle of mixture to make a small pancake.  Repeat until you use up all the mixture.
  2. Once the pancakes are cooled down, spread custard cream between 2 pancakes.  Serve immediately.

 


We are at the verge of Autumn

Posted April 27th, 2013 in Food | 1 Comment »

I haven’t written on Umeboss regularly for a long time and I feed bad 🙁  I used to write a post almost every day before, but now I don’t seem to be able to find the time to sit back and write what I want to write about.  I don’t want to say it’s something/someone’s fault, it’s just that I’ve been busy doing other stuff.  But I feel bad.

Here in Perth the Autumn has arrived and I’m enjoying the beautiful sky and temperature.  …. It rains a lot, and I see lots of snails (gross!), but let’s think that all this is part of nature.  🙂

In my hometown, Japan, we get lots of delicious food in Autumn.  Some fruits, fish, chestnuts, sweet potatoes, etc etc are the best to be eaten in Autumn.  But here, I don’t see much Autumn fruits sold cheap at the shops.  Grapes, pears, mandarines, persimmon – to name a few – are the Autumn fruits, but grapes are not really cheap!  Maybe it’s still too early?  I hope the price will drop in few weeks when we start to feel winter is just around the corner.

I baked walnut nougat slices last night.  It’s a perfect sweet to munch on with a cup of hot tea.  I found that roasted almond would have gone much better on the nougat rather than walnuts, so I will try making it with almond next time.

Here is the recipe:

* butter and egg should be at room temperature

* I used 20cm x 20cm oven pan, but you can use a bigger sized pan

<Walnut Nougat Slices>

~ the base ~

  • Unsalted Butter 150g
  • Granulated Sugar 100g
  • Egg 1
  • Plain Flour 300g

~ the topping ~

  • Unsalted Butter 30g
  • Granulated Sugar 80g
  • Cream (I used Whipping) 100ml
  • Honey 30g
  • Whole or chopped walnuts 150g

 

  1. Roast walnuts in the oven or in the pan over stove.  Leave to cool down.
  2. Base – Add sugar to butter, and mix using a whisk.  Beat egg, and gradually add to the butter mixture.  Mix well.
  3. Shift in flour, and mix using a spatula. (DO NOT over-mix)  Once the dough comes together, wrap in plastic and rest it in the fridge for 3 hours +
  4. Set oven at 180 ℃.  Line baking sheet in an oven pan, and spread the dough over.  Poke few times with fork.  Bake in the oven for 15~20 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and leave to cool.
  5. Topping – Place all the ingredients except walnuts in a sauce pan.  Over low heat, simmer to caramelize.  To check it’s ready to take off the heat, simply drop the caramel into a cup of water – if the caramel forms small balls inside the water, then it is ready.  Take it off the heat, and mix with walnuts.
  6. Spread the nougat over the base.  Level the surface.  Bake in the oven at 180℃ for 20~30 minutes.
  7. Slice into pieces before it’s completely cool.

a


WAICC Indonesian Food Fair

Posted March 17th, 2013 in Food, Perth WA | No Comments »

Today there was an Indonesian Food Fair in Bateman.  I heard there’ll be many authentic Indonesian foods including savory and sweet, so I headed down there to have a try.

This WAICC Indonesian fair is annual event, and is carried out at Bateman Catholic primary school building.
When I arrived there – …WOW, lots of smoke coming out from satay section.  There were people grilling satay in front of the building, and it was very smoky!! Smelled good at the same time too – variety of meat with Indonesian peanut sauce… yum!

There were lots of Indonesian signature foods such as Nasi Lemak, Mee Goreng, Martabak.  I got this sweet sesame ball-thingy (labelled “ONDE” but I’m not sure if this is the name of the food??) and it’s good 🙂  It’s like the sesame balls you get at Yum Cha, but this one has different filling inside.

There were many great foods to buy.  I’ll definitely come back next year! 😀


Wagamama Subiaco WA

Posted March 5th, 2013 in Eat Out in Perth - Japanese Food -, Food | 2 Comments »

For my son’s birthday we had a family lunch at Wagamama Subiaco.  I’ve been to Fremantle shop few years ago (which had been now closed for business) so I knew this restaurant is not a proper Japanese restaurant ; their menu is definitely a fusion of Asian cuisine.  But we went there anyway!

They do “kids eat free!” –  a child eats for free when an adult purchases a main meal.  This offer is available everyday!

Hiro chose “mini yakisoba” (stir-fried noodle), and his baby cousin chose “mini cha-han” (stir-fried rice).  These say “mini” but the dish was pretty big.  They both couldn’t finish their meal.  I thought they taste bit too salty, but I guess that’s how local people like it.

I ordered “chicken katsu curry bento”.

My party ordered “pork belly ramen noodle”, “yakisoba”, “teriyaki salmon with rice”, and “teriyaki beef bento”.

“Chicken katsu curry bento” – the curry is not Japanese curry – it contains coconut cream.  I didn’t like the rice too – too mushy 🙁  They probably don’t bother using expensive Japanese rice (short grain).    And, I was surprised the difference of meal size between “teriyaki salmon” and “bento”.  “Bento” contained just small amount of rice, but “teriyaki salmon” contained big mountain of rice on its plate.

Well. atmosphere is nice and the staff were friendly.  We had fun over all.

We ordered desserts as well.

We ordered “banana katsu”, “coconut creme brûlée”.

“Banana katsu” came with coconut ice cream on side, and  “creme brûlée” came with chocolate brownie spring roll on side.  Creme brûlée and brownie spring roll weren’t very sweet.  They were all ok, but next time I’d probably just order ice cream if I want some dessert.  Ice cream flavours include vanilla | coconut | lychee | green tea | black sesame seed |, and I think they are much better choice.

Wagamama Subiaco 

 


Grilled Miso-Marinated Pork

Posted January 24th, 2013 in Food | 2 Comments »

It’s been beautiful days in Perth.  I only remember Perth’s summer as hot and dry, but this year is very different (last year too, maybe) – humid, rain, and sometime very cool.

Today  I visited my friend’s new house and enjoyed swimming in their yard.  It’s a sunny day with nice breaze – so perfect to just sit on the poolside and chat.

When I got home I felt like something grilled meat.  In Australia we happen to have bbq quite often, and I’m used to this type of food.  I love it.  Australia Day is approaching and I definitely think we are gonna have some bbq with family on the long weekend.

Today I made grilled pork.  The pork is marinated in miso-mixture so it’s got some Asian flavour.

This miso-marinated pork is great to have with steamed rice, and is best to make with pork belly.  The fat makes the meat juicy, soft and tasty.

But this time I had this with somen noodle.  Somen noodle is like a king of summer food in Japan.  Simply boil the noodle, cool down in cold water, then eat with soy sauce-based dipping sauce with some condiments.  Love it.

<Grilled Miso-Marinated Pork>

 

  • Pork Belly 2 fillets (around 500g)
  • Miso paste 3 tbs
  • sake (cooking wine) 1 tbs
  • Mirin 1 tbs
  • Honey 1 tbs
  • Soy Sauce 1 tsp
  • Sesame Oil 1 tsp
  • garlic 1 clove – minced
  • ginger 1 small knob – minced

 

  1. Mix everything except pork belly in a shallow plate or in a plastic bag.  Marinate pork belly in the mixture overnight.
  2. Take out the pork, and slice in 1cm width.
  3. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a skillet pan over high heat, and grill the pork.  The meat is easy to get burnt because of the miso marinade, so be careful.  Turn around the meat with tong often so it won’t go black.
  4. When the meat is fully cooked, golden and crispy, take out from the pan.  Serve immediately with salad and rice/noodle.