eating "local"

Last Monday, after my dentist appointment, I went into Hanshin department store to pick up something for lunch.

I also needed some celery so I went to their produce area. Now, I don't usually shop for produce at the department stores because they tend to be on the pricey side.

Surprisingly, they were having a sale and everything was rather reasonable and an even bigger bonus was that the items on sale were grown in Japan.

I found a bunch of celery for 298 yen (about US$2.98). Usually when I buy celery, they have 1 stalk packaged and it is usually 158 yen (about US$1.58)...so I was excited to pick up 3 stalks for the 298 yen.

The zucchini was of good size too and were 2 for 298 yen (about US$2.98). Usually when I buy zucchini, they are scrawny and cost 298 yen for 1.

Lastly, the asparagus were unbelievably cheap also...189 yen (about US$1.89) for 11 stalks. Usually they only have 3 woody local stalks for ranging between 158 yen and 198 yen (about US$1.58-$1.98).

When I went to pay for them, the cashier said to me, "how shall I cut it?", pointing to the celery. I told, "just cut it in half." She immediately pulled out a produce knife and cut it in half, this actually surprised me.

The good/bad thing about shopping at the department store was that they wrapped everything in this brown paper, though I guess it was better than a plastic bag.

I've already used some of the celery and one of the zucchini for 3 bean salad and vegetable soup.

And I've used the asparagus with some eringi and shimeji mushrooms for a stir-fry with a little butter and tarragon. We've also eaten the leftovers for breakfast with a sunny-side up egg on top and toast.

I also tried Ellie Krieger's "Grilled Zucchini Roll-ups with Herbs and Cheese". This was delicious, only problem I had was getting the zucchini slices thin.

Though we aren't truly eating local, we are eating more items from Japan. Have you been eating local and/or more items from your country?

comfort foods

The weather for the past week has been...well, crappy, I think it rained almost every day.

I was craving some comfort food and decided I wanted kimbap, or as my friends in Hawaii call it, korean sushi.

In order to make the kimbap I had in mind, I needed to first make a batch of bulgogi...so I did.

The only nori (seaweed sheet) that I have is pre-cut and only about 2 or 3 inches wide and maybe 8 inches or so long, perfect for making musubi, but not necessarily for sushi.

Since I hadn't made sushi for several years, I had forgotten how much rice to put in it. (sorry Grandma, she would totally be disappointed to hear this...)

The results, my filling was off center and I had a LOT of nori to spare.

What did I put into the kimbap? Bulgogi, some kim chee, several slices of cucumber and some takuan (pickled white radish). Even though it didn't look good, the kimbap hit the spot.

With some of the bulgogi I made bi bim bap for dinner another night....fried egg, kim chee, bulgogi and rice...mmm.

And yet another dinner was bi bim kook soo. I usually use somen for this dish, but didn't have any, so I used some udon. It was delicious.

On yet a different night, we had the salmon with the sweet and spicy rub as a salad. Actually as I was grilling it on my grill pan, one side REALLY got burnt, I mean black! there was no burning smell to let me know it and when I went to turn it over...blackness! I made the lemon and dill dressing from her chopped salad in "The Food You Crave" and it went nicely with the salad.

I was reading a copy of Saveur that my mom had packed into our Christmas box and they were talking about the Egg McMuffin, so of course, I had to make my own for breakfast one morning. The egg had to be a little firmer...but it was still delicious.

And then Kathy gave me an idea for another dinner, in her comment she said, "Mmm I bet the asparagus dish would be awesome with a sunny side up egg over the top"...I did a fried one, but it was.

With the gloom that comes with winter, what comfort foods have you been eating?

more recipes from ellie

For dinners, I've been cooking more recipes from "The Foods You Crave" book. One night was the "salmon with sweet and spicy rub". I used sashimi grade salmon, mainly because I was lazy and didn't want to bother with picking/pulling out bones. The salmon came out really moist, tender and delicious.

I served this with "asparagus with lemon and tarragon". She suggests nuking the asparagus, but I steamed mine.

This was a good match since fish is usually served with lemon.

Another recipe I tried was "salmon cakes with ginger-sesame sauce". Since I only had a can of smoked halibut, that is what I used. The halibut was firmer and smoky in flavor, (because it was smoked) so the cakes were a bit dry. Still, it was an easy recipe. Also, I didn't make the ginger-sesame sauce and instead made her "smarter tartar sauce" since I didn't think the ginger sesame sauce would match with the smokiness of the cakes.

I served this with steamed broccoli and the lemon and tarragon dressing, the same dressing as the asparagus. I think this dressing would work with steamed beans or actually any warm vegetable.

Since I only made half the recipe of the salmon cakes, I had one egg left in my carton. As I flipped through the book, I noticed that her recipes for muffins makes 12 with 2 eggs, so I cut the recipe in half and made 6 muffins with my last egg.

The muffin recipe I tried was the "apple-pecan muffin". The recipe calls for applesauce and buttermilk. I didn't have applesauce and wasn't going to buy (or look for it at the store) or make it, so I instead subbed some yogurt in place for both the applesauce and buttermilk.

I also didn't have wheat flour, so I added some ground flax. The muffins had just a touch of sweetness from the apples and topping. It was perfect for breakfast.

I hope to try even more recipes from this book. You can find most of these recipes on the Food Network site.

monday

Monday's breakfast was an omlette made with eggs and shiofuki konbu (this is kelp that is seasoned with shoyu, mirin then dried) , gobo (burdock) salad (which was bought...I gotta figure out the recipe for this, I love it!), various tsukemono (pickled veggies), rice & strawberries.

Lunch was a bit of carb overloading...baked curry pan (bread filled with curry), potato croquette burger and yakisoba (fried noodles). I really like the yakisoba from the sozai-ya (a.k.a. okazyu-ya) in our shopping arcade, it is kind of dry, which makes the noodle kind of chewy but not burnt to a crisp and hard.

And dinner was a pork chop seasoned with some bottled spices, moroccan carrot salad, leftover potatoes, asparagus.

sunday

Okay, so we have replaced our computer, printer, bought an external disk drive, a USB flash drive, oh and new cell phones....so with all that, the thing that is driving me crazy is that every time my mouse rolls over a word, it highlights red and a little window pops up to surf the net with. I really hate using programs in Japanese, and Satoshi is of no help as he hates reading the manuals, which means I'm on my own with this stuff....Does anyone know how to turn this off?

Anywho...A reader, Colin, was interested to see what we eat that isn't blogged about.

So, for the next couple of posts, I'll show you what I've been eating.

First of all, I don't pack lunch for Satoshi, so I don't know what he eats for lunch, but I do know that he usually goes out to eat.

Sunday's breakfast started out with a fried egg and splash of okonomiyaki sauce, tsukemono (variety of veggies and an eggplant one), rice and green tea. (We tend to eat eggs in the morning, it is the fastest and easiest way to get protein.)

Lunch was picked up at the bakery inside of the supermarket. A ham sandwich and a nut danish. (I wish these bakeries would make different sandwiches like turkey or chicken, but most do the "nitrate thing"--ham, hot dog or tuna/egg salad. The chili cheese Fritos were brought home from Hawaii.)

Dinner was a combination of new recipes. Green pea miso soup, simmered new crop potatoes and asparagus with a ginger sauce.

Here are the recipes for the dishes: from "Soshoku no susume: Spring recipes" by Makuuchi Hideo : all recipes are servings for 2

1 cup green peas, shelled
2 tablespoons miso (soy bean paste)
a little salt

Put 2 cups of water into a pot and boil the peas until soft (about 12-13 minutes).
Take the peas out of the water and keep this water aside.
Whiz peas until paste-like. Add some of the boiling water to the paste in the processor to turn paste into a soup.
Return everything to pot and heat. Add miso and stir until miso combined with water and peas. Add salt if needed (I didn't put any).
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400g new crop potatoes with skins on
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)

After washing potatoes, put into a pot and fill with enough water to cover them.
Boil on medium heat until soft. (about 30 minutes)
When soft, add shoyu and mirin. And put an oshibuta (piece of foil with 2 holes or a drop lid).
Turn heat down to simmer and simmer until all the liquid evaporates. (About an hour.)
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10 stalks asparagus
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 nub ginger, grated
1 tablespoon sesame seed

Cut asparagus into 4-5 cm pieces, add to boiling water and boil for 2 minutes.
Transfer to sauce mixture, toss.

Hope you enjoy these recipes, Colin! They are easy and delicious. Stay tuned for the rest of the week.