Sunday Lunch and Heartburn from Oily Food

This is one of my favorite lunch – bihun sup ayam (rice noodle soup with chicken).  Mother-in-law makes lunch on every Sundays and it has been this family’s tradition (?) for a long time -since my husband was a baby.  Sometimes the food is chicken porridge, sometimes it’s egg noodle soup, but I like this bihun sup ayam the best.

If someone asks me what noodle I like, I would say “bihun”.  I don’t hate egg noodles, I just prefer rice noodle.  I also like kway teow noodle.  Some rice noodle is thick – like those you get at Vietnamese noodle house.    I’m not really a big fun of the thick rice noodle as it’s easy to break (different to udon noodle which is supposed to be chewy).  Rice vermicelli noodles doesn’t fill my big stomach enough, but I like eating it as snack.

Still now, oily food (e.g. deep-fried food) and garlic make me feel sick.  I don’t think it will go away while I’m pregnant！  It’s one of the things that I feel uncomfortable about living with in-laws, as they like eating Chinese food very much (everyday) and you know Chinese foods often contain lots of oil.  Besides the fact that I am Japanese who loves plain Japanese food, I’m an extreme on-oily food lover.  (tempura, karaage, only once a month!)  I really appreciate D’s mum cooking every day as I don’t feel like cooking at all these days, but she cooks deep-fried stuff almost everyday and if the food is in front of me I’d eat anything.  Afterwords I suffer from heavy heartburn. (*_*)

Hearty rice noodle soup is what I crave for quite often.  As I don’t cook myself much now and eat Chinese food often (e.g. chicken stock based soup, not udon soup), I’m thinking my baby may like Chinese food when he grow older!  There is a saying that what you eat during pregnancy could be baby’s favorite food.  I’m not sure if it’s true, but 85% of what I eat is Chinese food now so I’m guessing it could be true! (@_@)

Happy Soda

If you go to Indonesian restaurant (e.g. Bintang Cafe 1 / 2 ) you can find this drink on the menu – happy soda.  It’s a soda drink with sweet milky taste… It tastes quite similar to Japanese melon soda.  The difference is that melon soda is green color, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream floats on top of soda drink.

To make happy soda, you will need red syrup – we had been hunting for this syrup, and finally found at an Asian grocery shop in Market City, Canning Vale.  If you are looking for something Indonesian or middle-eastern Asian food, you may find it at this shop. 🙂

First, you pour 1~2 tsp of condensed milk in a glass.

Then, pour 1~2 tsp of the syrup.  You can adjust the amount of milk and syrup to your liking.

Add 6~7 ice cubes, and top up with soda water.

Nice refreshing summer drink (sweet!) for hot afternoon. 😀

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Dashi Stock

Recipe for the essential item for Japanese cuisine – dashi stock.

<dashi>  makes 3 cups

• 3 cups (750ml) water
• 5g bonito flakes

Happy 10th Birthday!

On the weekend I made a birthday cake for 10 years old girl!

As it’s for a girl, and she is turning 10, I made the cake into “10” shape and decorated with pink cream.

It’s a sponge cake layered with fresh fruits and whipped cream.

It was very rush, actually.  I told the father to come to my house to pick it up around 11 am, but I woke up at 9 am!  All the ingredients were ready – the sponge cake was baked, cream was whipped, and the fruits were washed and dried already – I just had to assemble all of them and create a “10” shaped cake.

When I was covering the sponge with cream, I realized I will need more cream- the amount I whipped last night wasn’t enough to cover this huge cake!  I was panicking a little, but tried to calm myself down and whipped another pack of cream.  Lucky I had bought 2 packs of cream!

I layered lots of fruits inside.  I wanted to make the surface simple so I just decorated the side of “0” with sliced strawberries, and I decorated the top of cakes with pink cream flower.

Hope she had a wonderful 10th birthday 😀

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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

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!

Bakar Chicken and CORICA Apple Struddle

My in-law made ayam bakar (grilled chicken), sambal kan kun and stir-fried kairan with oyster sauce.  Kan kun is my favourite Chinese vegetable!   Every time I go to Hawker restaurant I order stir-fried kan kun.  I just love the slimy and crunchy texture.

“Bakar” means, according to my husband, “burned”.  I assume it’s a similar word to “kogeru” or “kogasu” (焦げる) in Japanese.  The process of “bakar” enhances the flavour of the dish (meat/seafood).

The chicken was marinated in some kind of Indonesian spicy sauce, then grilled.  It was so yummy that I ate 3 pieces!

Sambal (chili paste) kan kun (front) and stir-fried kairan with oyster sauce (back).

It was a hot day!  Eating spicy food in such hot day is so perfect…

My husband’s friend from Malaysia had been here for few days, and he just left to the airport.  They are such close friends… it made me jealous sometimes! (>0<)

He left a box of Corica apple struddle for us in the fridge.

The sweet custard cream and crispy pie sheet….   It was a perfect dessert after the spicy Indonesian dishes!

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One Plate Breakfast (Wafu)

It may be because of the weather, or it’s just that I’m tired…  I’ve been feeling sick lately.  No fever yet, but you know you can feel when your body is getting sick by having some symptoms such as running nose, sneezing, muscle aches, and headache.

I had these symptoms yesterday, and I knew I would have fever if I didn’t do anything.  So, what I thought of doing were….

① Eat well, ② Take hot shower (bath would be much better…), ③ Sleep well.

As I mentioned before I’ve been eating Indonesian and Chinese food over the last couples of weeks, and my body can’t take any more oily food!  And, my body needs more vegetables.  I don’t feel good if I don’t eat vegetables.  It’s not that I feel guilty, my body really feels weak –  get tired easily, and I have to rush to the toilet many times.

So, when I’m feeling weak, the food I eat is always Japanese food!

＊ Spinach and Silver Fish Rice (あっさり☆ほうれん草と雑魚の混ぜご飯)

＊ Onion Soup (ネギ汁)

＊ Natto (納豆)

Maze-gohan (mixed rice) is such an easy dish to make, as you just need to mix the ingredients with steamed rice.  (Spring) onion is one of miracle food that ease inflammation of sore throat – that’s what we say in Japan.  There is an old saying that if you catch a cold, tie a spring onion around your neck overnight.  Next morning your fever and symptoms of the cold/flu are gone.  There is something to do with Allyl sulfide, apparently.

Before I proceed to the recipe, I just want to say that I felt much better this morning!  I ate this one plate last night too, and I don’t have muscle aches and headache anymore.  Thanks to the hot onion soup… and hot shower and a good sleep.  This was my breakfast today as well.

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<Spinach and Silver Fish Rice> serves 1

• 100g steamed rice, hot
• 15g blanched spinach
• 5g silver fish
• 1/4 tsp roasted white sesame seeds
• a drop of soy sauce

1. Spread silver fish in a frying pan (no oil).  Roast over medium heat until crunchy.  Set aside.
2. Chop spinach finely.  Sprinkle a drop of soy sauce, and leave it for 5 minutes.  Gently squeeze out excess liquid.
3. In a bowl: mix silver fish, spinach and sesame seeds with steamed rice.  Be careful not to break the rice.

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<Onion Soup> serves 2 ~ 4

• 2 small onions (100g)
• 1/2 cup chopped spring onions
• 2 tsp dried cut wakame seaweed
• 3 cups water
• 35g miso paste
• 1 tsp mirin
• 1g ginger, minced

Gourmet Mushrooms