This Week's Menu and Shopping List

Another week has passed, and it's March now! In my area, all the flowers are blossoming, and I feel the spring is coming!

Anyway, let's review this week's recipe.

Monday: Meat tofu (nikudofu), spinach with sesame sauce
Tuesday: (dinner at friend's)
Wednesday: Portabella mushroom and sundried tomato pasta
Thursday: Steamed pork with plum sauce
Friday: Chicken and bamboo shoot
Saturday: Beef wrapped asparagus, pork wrapped bamboo shoot with Japanese mint

Shopping list:
Pork butt (1/2 pound) - meat tofu, steamed pork with plum sauce
Chicken thigh (2 pieces) - chicken and bamboo shoot
Thinly sliced beef (6 pieces) - beef wrapped asparagus
Thinly sliced pork (6 pieces) - pork wrapped asparagus
Asparagus (9) - beef wrapped asparagus
Spinach (a bag or bunch) - spinach with sesame sauce
Onion (1) - meat tofu
Tofu - soft (1 pack) - meat tofu
Portabella mushrooms (2) - portabella and sundried pasta
Garlic (1) - portabella and sundried pasta
Fresh basil leaves
Umeboshi (picked plums) - steamed pork with plum sauce
Ooba leaves (1 bunch) - steamed pork with plum sauce, pork wrapped bamboo shoot with Japanese mint
Enoki mushroom - steamed pork with plum sauce
Bamboo shoot (1 whole) - chicken and bamboo shoot, pork wrapped bamboo shoot

Things you may or may not have in your pantry/fridge:
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Vegetable oil
Sesame
Soy sauce
Mirin
Dashi no moto
Cooking wine
Sugar
Your favorite dried pasta
Sundried tomatoes
Honey
Mayonnaise

Saturday Dinner: Hina Matsuri dinner

Tonight, I made a little bit elaborate dinner for Hina Matsuri, which is a festival for girls in Japan. Households with girls put out their hina dolls (photo on the right). My mom sent me a kit for making these dolls from Japan, and it took a whole day last Saturday to make them! Anyway, Mine is just a prince and princess, but people usually have several layers placed like stairs with servant dolls and other little items like their carriage and other treasures. Since we (my boyfriend and I) don't have a little girl in our household, it's just an excuse for me to make an elaborate dinner;)

Beef wrapped asparagus (for 2-3 people):
Thinly sliced beef (6 pieces) - You can usually find these really thinly sliced beef at a Korean store or Japanese store.
Asparagus (9)
Salt
Pepper
Vegetable oil (1/4 tsp)
Soy sauce (1 Tbsp)
Mayonnaise (1 Tbsp)

Start boiling a potful of water.
1. Peel ends of asparagus (about 2 inches) with a vegetable peeler. A lot of recipes tell you to chop these ends off because they're hard, but why waste them when you can just peel away the hard part and use them fine? But if you don't want to bother peeling them, Martha has a good idea for those unwanted ends in Martha Stewart Living magazine. Boil them in water and use that as stock when you make vegetable soup. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
2. Cut asparagus into halves and boil them in water for few minutes until they're tender. Cool them in icy water or running water. Pat them dry.
3. Spread out each piece of beef on a cutting board and salt and pepper both sides.
4. Put 2 end pieces and 1 top piece on a piece of beef and wrap it by rolling the asparagus on the beef. Wrap all asparagus.
5. Heat pan on medium high heat with vegetable oil and saute wrapped asparagus, placing the side with the end (of the meat) on the pan first so the meat won't fall off. Once one side gets brown, saute other sides and brown them.
6. Make some room on the pan and pour in soy sauce and mayonnaise. As the soy sauce and mayonnaise mixture thickens, mix everything together.
7. Lower the heat to medium and put a lid on the pan. Cook for about 3 minutes.
8. Cut each piece diagonally in the middle for nice presentation and serve!

If you can't find thinly sliced beef, you can try bacon. You might be thinking, "Soy sauce and mayo...?" It's a surprisingly good combination. Definitely worth trying.

Pork wrapped bamboo shoot with Japanese mint (for 2-3 people):
Thinly sliced pork (6 pieces) - You can also find this at a Korean or Japanese store.
Bamboo shoot (1/2 of a large whole - precooked)
Ooba (6 leaves) - Leftover from the other night.
Salt
Vegetable oil (1/2 tsp)

1. Cut bamboo shoot into 6 long pieces.
2. Spread out each pork piece on a cutting board and salt both sides.
3. Wrap each bamboo shoot piece with an ooba leaf and place it on the pork. Wrap the bamboo shoot by rolling it on the meat.
4. Heat a pan on medium high heat with vegetable oil and saute wrapped bamboo shoot pieces. Saute all sides until they are brown.
5. Turn the heat down to medium and put a lid on. Cook for about 3 minutes.

The ooba leaf is definitely the key of this recipe. It's so flavorful that the only other thing you need is salt.

Chirashizushi (for 2-3 people):
Chirashizushi is a type of sushi with different kinds of cooked sour vegetables. Sometimes it has sashimi pieces over the rice. I just used a chirashizushi mix (photo below) for this.
Chirashizushi mix (1 pack) - Mine came with 2 small packs in 1 package.
Short sticky rice (270ml)
Egg (1)
Vegetable oil (1/2 tsp)

1. Cook rice with less water than usual.
2. Break the egg and beat it really well.
3. Heat a pan with oil and use a paper towel to spread the oil out thinly and evenly.
4. Pour the egg onto the pan and spread it out as thinly as possible.
5. After the egg is cooked, place it on a cutting board and slice as thinly as possible into strips.
6. When rice cooks, get another person who can help you and a fan (or something you can use as a fan).
7. Put rice in a largest container you can find. In my case, it was my dutch oven. Pour the vegetable mixture onto the rice and mix well as the other person fans the rice. The idea is, you want to dry out the rice as you pour the vinegar mixture onto it so the rice doesn't get soggy.
8. Put egg strips over the rice and seaweed strips which come with the package.

You can also put sashimi (cut raw fish - has to be fresh) over the rice or mix in canned salmon. The key to making this sushi successfully is the drying part. Get someone to help you. I suppose you could use an electric fan, but this might blow out dust in the fan onto rice...

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Technorati Tags:asparagus, bamboo shoot, hina matsuri, sushi

Tea time at Satura Cakes

Today, I went to Satura Cakes in Los Altos, CA. It was my third time going there. Their specialty is "Japanese cakes." Japanese cakes are lighter than American cakes. They use cream rather than icing. I had mont blanc, and my boyfriend had almond croissant. The crust on my mont blanc was little hard, but cream was good. I wish there were more Japanese or even European cake shops around here. Satura is not bad, but they only have few choices, and with what they offer they probably wouldn't be able to survive competition in Japan. Also, it's nice that they have places to sit like a cafe but their coffee is really average. A quality cup of coffee and/or tea would be a big plus for this type of cake shop.

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Technorati Tags:satura cakes

Friday Dinner: Cooked chicken and bamboo shoot

Tonight, I cooked chicken and bamboo shoot, a nice quick meal ideal for a Friday night dinner.





Cooked chicken and bamboo shoot:
Chicken thigh (2 pieces) - You can also use chicken breast.
Bamboo shoot (1/2 of big bamboo shoot) - Buy a cooked whole bamboo shoot that you can find at an Asian store. It's usually in an air-tight package.
Vegetable oil (1/2 Tbsp)
Cooking wine (1 Tbsp)
Soy sauce (2 Tbsp)
Sugar (1/2 Tbsp)
Water (3/4 Cup)
Dashi no moto (a pinch)

1. Cut the chicken and bamboo shoot into bite sizes. For the bamboo shoot, make sure you clean out the inside with running water because sometimes it still has rice pieces that it was cooked with. Pat dry.
2. Heat oil in a pan and saute chicken pieces until all sides are nice and brown.
3. Add bamboo shoot pieces and stir-fry until bamboo shoot pieces get little brown also.
4. Put all the ingredients from cooking wine to dashi no moto, preferably in that order.
5. Cook until there is only little soup left in the pan. Stir occasionally to make sure that all sides get cooked in the soup.

I had it with cooked hijiki that I made last night (I made too much...) and rice. You can serve it with miso soup also.

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Technorati Tags:chicken, bamboo shoot, Japanese food

Basic Japanese Ingredients

I think a lot people have the idea that Japanese food is really complicated and hard to make. Well, it's not complicated at all! I'll list some items that you might want to get before trying some of the Japanese recipes here. I'll keep adding to the list.

ESSENTIALS:

1. SOY SAUCE 醤油

This is absolutely essential for Japanese cooking. You can get soy sauce at any grocery store now. Soy sauce comes in great variation. You can get regular, low-sodium, organic, and other fancy kinds that use different soy beans, fermentation process, etc. Three major tastes are Koikuchi (thick), Usukuchi (thin), Tamari (rich). Koikuchi dominates the majority of soy sauce production, so if you get "regular" this is what you are getting. Usukuchi has less color and taste, which makes it ideal for Japanese soup that accentuates the taste of Dashi (stock). Tamari has very rich color and taste, which makes it ideal for eating sashimi (raw fish). My recommendation is to buy a "regular" one that seems reasonable in price.

2. MIRIN　みりん

Mirin is Japanese sweet rice wine used exclusively for cooking (don't drink it). The combination of soy sauce and mirin creates the typical Japanese taste, which Americans are most familiar with in the form of teriyaki sauce. Mirin can be found in any Asian store and some gourmet grocery stores. One thing to be careful of is not to buy the fake version called Mirin-fuu みりん風. It is made of cheap alcohol and artificial flavor or syrup. I accidentally bought it before, and it's one of those things that you really can taste the difference between genuine mirin (sometimes called, Hon-mirin) and fake one. Genuine mirin is much more expensive, so that's one way to tell which one is which.

3. COOKING WINE　料理酒

When I say, "cooking wine" in my recipe, it refers to Japanese cooking rice wine, which is nothing more than just cheap sake. You can find it at any Asian store. You could substitute mirin with cooking wine and sugar if you don't want to invest too much in these ingredients to begin with.

4. MISO 味噌

Miso is another essential ingredient for Japanese cooking. It's used in a variety of ways. The most well-known is miso soup, but it can be used for salad dressing, marinade, stir-fry, and different kinds of sauces. Miso is made from either rice, wheat, beans, or a combination of those three, but most miso is made from rice. Miso can range from Shiro (white) to Aka (red). Shiro is sweet and Aka is salty. You should start with something in between, which you can usually tell by the color.

5. Dashi no moto だしの素

Dashi no moto is like equivalent of bouillon for Japanese food. It can be either fish-based, seaweed-based, or a combination of both. It usually comes in a box with smaller bags, and you can get it at any Asian store. Dashi is used in any soup or stew in Japanese cooking. While it is ideal to make your own dashi (stock), which is actually not so hard, I just use dashi no moto because it's so easy. Just make sure you buy one that doesn't have MSG in it. I think most of them don't, but it doesn't hurt to be careful.

6. RICE VINEGAR 米酢
This is the typical vinegar used in Japanese cooking. It's very mild and doesn't have a very strong taste like champagne vinegar or wine vinegar, which makes it ideal for Japanese cooking. You can find it at many grocery stores, but, if you can't, try an Asian store.


7. RICE 米

Well, rice is not an "ingredient" most of the times, but it's absolutely essential in Japanese cuisine. I like Japanese sticky rice because it catches all the sauce of food you're having with rice and doesn't get soggy. However, non-sticky rice works perfectly for fried rice because it doesn't stick to each other. I usually cook a mixture of brown rice and white rice (3:2 or 2:1). I think brown rice is so rich in flavor, and it's also healthy for you.

OTHERS:

8. SESAME OIL

Sesame oil is oil with wonderful sesame flavor and smell. It's used in a variety of foods from stir-fry, stew, to salad (dressing).

9. UMEBOSHI 梅干

Umeboshi is Japanese picked plums, which are very salty. It can be really really salty or not so salty (some of them have honey in them). Being a big fan of umeboshi, I've tasted many kinds of umeboshi and I can say that taste can really vary. Prices also vary. Some can be as expensive as a couple of dollars each (one plum) or more. If you're first time buyer, try one that has honey as an ingredient because it's milder in taste.

10. POTATO STARCH 片栗粉(arrowroot)

This is the thickening agent typically used in Japanese cooking. Although it is known to the Japanese and packaged as katakuriko (arrowroot), it is usually potato starch because arrowroot is expensive. Potato starch has more thickening power than cornstarch. You can get this at any Asian store.

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Technorati Tags:soy sauce, mirin, Japanese food, Japanese pantry, umeboshi, Japanese cooking

Thursday Dinner: Steamed pork with plum sauce

My mom sent me a tube of plum paste from Japan, so, tonight, I made steamed pork with a refreshing taste of plum. I went to a local Chinese store to look for a bamboo steamer, but they didn't have it, so I just used microwave, and it worked really well.



Steamed pork with plum sauce (for 2 people):
Pork butt (1/4 pound) - Use it half-frozen so you can slice easily
Japanese picked plum (umeboshi) (2 Tbsp paste, about 4 plums)
Shiso leaves (Japanese mint) (4) - You can get this at a Japanese or Asian store. It might say "Ooba" rather than Shiso.
Enoki mushroom
Salt (a pinch)
Soy sauce (1 tsp)
Mirin (1 tsp)
Honey (1/2 tsp)

1. Slice pork about 1/4 inch thick.
2. If you can't find plum (umeboshi) paste at a local Asian store, you can just get whole picked plums/umeboshi and chop them up finely until they are mushed up like paste. Mix the paste with soy sauce, mirin, and honey.
3. Roll up shiso/ooba leaves and slice them like you would to basil leaves.
4. Take 2-3 slices of pork (on top of each other) and put a thin layer of the plum paste on one side. Place them on a large microwavable plate. Take 2-3 more slices, put a thin layer of the paste on one side, and place next to the first 2-3 slices of pork with the pasted side and non-pasted side attached. Basically, you just want to make layers of pork and plum paste. Keep going until you use all the pork.
5. Put the shiso/ooba leave strips over the pork.
6. Cut off the end of enoki mushroom and wash it well. Using your hands, separate the bunch of mushrooms into small bunches. Place them around the pork.
7. Sprinkle some salt (just a pinch) over enoki mushrooms.
8. Cover the plate with plastic wrap loosely and cook in the microwave for about 8 minutes. Depending on how thick your pork is, you may need to increase the cooking time.
9. Check to make sure meat is cooked all the way through and serve!

I served this dish with a side dish of cooked hijiki (Japanese seaweed) and rice. Because picked plums are really salty, I put honey in to make the taste milder. I used pork, but you can totally use chicken breast if you're not a big pork fan.

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Technorati Tags:pork, umeboshi, plum, shiso

Wednesday Dinner: Portabella and sundried tomato pasta

So tonight, I wanted to use portabella I had in my freezer and decided to make pasta. I just put portabella in the microwave for like 30 sec. and it was totally fine! Now I know that I can freeze mushrooms.







Portabella and sundried tomato pasta (for 2 people):
Your favorite dried pasta (enough for 2 people)- I used whole wheat spaghetti
Portabella (2)
Sundried tomatoes (about 4 Tbsp)
Garlic (2 cloves)
Fresh basil leaves
Pepper
Salt
Olive oil (1/2 tsp)

1. Boil water in a big pot and when it boils put salt and pasta in. Set timer to 1 minute before the optimal cooking time (indicated on the package of your pasta).
2. Cut portabella mushrooms into half and then slice them. Peel and slice garlic cloves. Chop up sundried tomatoes roughly.
3. Heat pan at medium high heat with olive oil and sliced garlic.
4. Saute portabella slices in the pan and sprinkle in salt and pepper.
5. When they are nice and tender, put sundried tomatoes in. Mix well.
6. Hopefully, your timer goes off around here. Put cooked (not completely) pasta into the pan. Mix well until everything is well incorporated. If it gets too dry, put some of the water you cooked pasta with to moisturize.
7. Sprinkle in more salt and pepper.
8. At the last second, put in basil leaves, tearing up ones that are too big.
9. Mix well and serve.

Make sure to put enough salt in because although sundried tomatoes are packed with flavor they don't spread flavor to pasta. Also, don't put too much olive oil because sundried tomatoes are in oil also and they can get greasy. So I made this dish vegetarian, but you can add bits of sausage or bacon (saute them well with portabella in the beginning). You can also add permesian cheesee or other types of cheese over the pasta at the end.

I served the pasta with olive salad with simple vinaigrette.

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Technorati Tags:Pasta, Portabella, Sundried tomato, Sun-dried tomato

Tuesday Dinner: at my friend's

Tonight, I got together with my friend at her apartment for dinner. We didn't really plan anything so made something out of stuff we could find. She made chicken with balsamic vinegar sauce that was really good. Basically, she sauteed floured chicken thigh on medium heat with olive oil and garlic with the lid on, making sure that both sides were nice and brown. She then put equal parts of balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and soy sauce into the pan, and put some pre-washed arugula. The sauce thickened and it was really good. She served it over orzo but said couscous also goes well with it. I want to try making it at home too! I will go back to cooking tomorrow~

Monday Dinner: Potless Japanese dinner

Tonight, I made pot-less Japanese dinner, which means I didn't use a pot (or pan) to make dinner. I just used microwave, but it's not frozen dinner!





Spinach gomaae - means sesame flavored (for 2 people):
Spinach (about 2 cups - pack it in)
Sesame paste (1-1/2 Tbsp)
Soy sauce (1/2 Tbsp)
Sugar (1/2 tsp)
Water (1/2 tsp)
Dashi no moto (a dash)

Make sesame paste:
Put a good amount of sesame in a food processor. "A good amount" depends on how big your food processor is. My food processor is pretty big, so I used 1/4 cup or so. If you have a small one, you can use a smaller amount. Grind the sesame seeds. They'll start to make really good smell. Keep grinding for about 5 minutes until the seeds have kind of paste texture, making sure they are not stuck on the bowl.

1. Rince and cut up spinach about 2 inches in length if not already pre-washed or cut.
2. Place spinach on a large microwave-safe plate. If it was pre-washed, sprinkle some water on the spinach.
3. Cover the plate with plastic wrap but not tightly so that steam has a place to escape.
4. Cook in the microwave for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
5. Put the spinach in icy water or cold running water and squeeze out water.
6. Mix sesame paste, water, dashi no moto, sugar, and soy sauce.
7. Mix the spinach with the sesame paste mixture.

This gomaae is a very typical Japanese side dish. You can use this "sauce" for other types of steamed vegetables like string beans or even broccoli.

Nikudofu - means meat tofu in Japanese (for 2-3 people):
Pork (about 1/2 cup) - You should use pork that's not too lean since it can get tough after being cooked in the microwave.
Onion (1/2 of big)
Tofu, soft (1 pack) - use tofu that's packaged with water and refrigerated.
Water (1 Tbsp)
Dashi no moto (a dash)
Soy sauce (2 Tbsp)
Sugar (1/2 Tbsp)
Mirin (1 Tbs) - Mirin is sweet rice wine. You can get it at any Asian store. Be careful not to buy a fake version of mirin, called "mirin-fuu." Real mirin is more expensive so you can tell that way too.

1. Wrap tofu with paper towel. Microwave for 1 minute. Flip the tofu and microwave for 1 more minute. This is a technique for getting rid of excess water in tofu. Cut up tofu in 8 squares.
2. Slice pork as thinly as you can.
3. Chop up onion in about 1 inch squares.
4. Mix water, dashi no moto, soy sauce, sugar, and mirin.
5. Mix the tofu, pork, and onion in a large microwave-safe bowl.
6. Drizzle the liquid mixture over the tofu mixture.
7. Put plastic wrap over the bowl loosely.
8. Cook for 14 minutes in a microwave.

It tastes better if you leave it for little bit. It's also a very typical Japanese dish. Many other recipes call for beef instead of pork. I've never used chicken, but it might work too.

I got this recipe for nikudofu from a Japanese cookbook by Harumi Kurihara. Her book is now in English and sold at bookstores here (US) too, although I don't know if this specific recipe is in that book.