canh khổ qua

Blog friend, Passthepocky introduced me to a bittermelon soup called Canh Khổ Qua.

She said her father makes this soup and gave me a link to a recipe that is similar to what he does.

Since the video didn't give measurements, I used parts of this recipe

Canh Khổ Qua adapted from the internet : makes two servings

150 grams of minced pork
1 bittermelon, cut into 2-inch rings, cleaned.
4 pieces of dried woodear mushroom, reconstituted
several strands of harusame (glass noodles), boiled for 3 minutes until soft
pepper

Soup: 5 cups chicken stock
1/2 tablespoon fish sauce

Garnish: chopped cilantro

Chop up the reconstituted woodear mushroom and noodles and mix them with the pork.
Use the backside of a fork or spoon to clean out the insides of the bittermelon, then stuff each piece with some pork mixture.
Put everything into a pot with the stock and fish sauce
Bring to a boil then down to a simmer, skimming off any scum that rises to the top.
Cook until the bittermelon is tender with the cover off. (About 20 minutes)

NOTES: No need to pack in the pork mixture as it will expand when cooked. Keeping the cover off while cooking keeps the broth clear. The bittermelon I had was a bit "skinny" so it was kind of hard to stuff. The soup was super bitter because I didn't parboil the bittermelon before stuffing it. The weather was super hot and not really soup weather but I'm glad I got to try this. If I can find bittermelon in the Fall, I want to try to make this again.

Thanks Passthepocky!

oh em gee

So...our building is getting a facelift.

They put up scaffolding around us, which sounded more like drilling?! (turns out that they actually were drilling so that they can secure their scaffolding to the building!)

My "babies" (well, most of them) came indoors...

It'll take 4 or 5 weeks, longer if the weather gets funky...

At least it gives me a "good excuse" to turn on the a/c during the daytime.

Pray they finish earlier...

On a happy note, I cut off the pointy tip of a goya (bittermelon) seed and soaked it in water. It germinated, so I planted it. A day or two later, I noticed that it started to sprout...crossing fingers we actually see some bittermelon this time.

How's your summer going?

dinners

Before it gets too cold to talk about beer, thought I'd share this one with you, as well as some dinners...Castello's Lager, an Italian beer.

Easy to drink and similar to American beers. Would I get it again? probably not it was a little to thin for my liking, but it was nice to try.

One thing we had for dinner was goya champuru made with corned beef hash and an egg.

First time making it this way but it was delicious.

Just saute the goya with the corned beef hash and then add in a scrambled egg, add some pepper and serve over rice.

Unfortunately this goya was from the market, the one on our lanai is only 2 inches long...boo!

Another thing we had was this carpaccio made with tai (sea bream).

I saw this recipe in the latest issue of "Elle a Table", I didn't follow the measurements just the method.

Take a white flesh fish like tai (sea bream) and slice thinly, place on plate.
*if you can find white fleshed fish that is already sliced for sashimi, then use that, it will save you some time.

Topping:
Take a pinch (or more) of shiofuki kombu (dried seasoned seaweed) and chop finely with a pinch (or more) of shibazuke (pickles colored with red shiso leaves)
Add some olive oil, mix well (this will make a "sauce")

Decorate:
Sprinkle some chopped green onion and some toasted white sesame seeds.

Eat right away.

NOTES: this was easy, delicious and would be nice to serve at a party. Definitely making this again.

What have you been eating?

58

Remember how I mentioned that the Japanese like to use numbers to make up words?

Well, the other day was 5.8 which is go-ya...bittermelon day!

When I saw the huge pile of goya at the market, I didn't put the two together.

Even the price had a 5 & 8 in it...158 yen (about US$1.58)

In fact, the half can of SPAM was more expensive about double the price of the goya!

This goya was huge! but the insides were really ripe. The coating around the seeds were red.

I used part for goya champuru and the other part for stuffed bittermelon...rain is in the forecast for the next couple of days, I think Summer is here!

on the lanai

The other week I picked this bell pepper, it was still really small but it looked like it may have been diseased (I could be wrong), so I threw it out.

Then the other day, I picked this one, it was a bit bigger but it also had a spot.

I kept it and chopped it up to put into our breakfast burritos that morning.

Then the weather got really cold one day and Satoshi said, "you should pick the goya, I don't think they will get any bigger".

So I did, they were about 4 or 5 inches long.

The bigger of the 3 surprised us because we had been keeping our eye on the two smaller ones and hadn't noticed the bigger one until it was really huge.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Kazumi had let me taste her goya tsukudani.

So, thinking this would be a new way to prepare goya I asked her for her recipe.

I'll note it at the end of this post, but this was good, not as sweet as her version but just enough to help overcome some bitterness from the goya.

This was our dinner on Sunday: goya tsukudani, miso soup with daikon, carrot and sweet potato, genmai (brown rice), egg & lettuce, and yuzu pickles.

The yuzu pickles are delicious, I love the crunch and the bright flavor from the citron.

Finally, Rowena had asked me in one of her comments, as to how I use the chirimen jakko (dried small anchovies).

The most simple way we eat them is to mix some with grated daikon and top with some shoyu or ponzu (citrus soy sauce).

I also place the mixture on tamagoyaki (rolled omlette).

You can also find chirimen jakko in tsukudani, like the one we had from Shinonome.

Chirimen jakko was also part of the recipe that Kazumi gave to me for the goya tsukudani.

Here is the recipe if you'd like to try this.

Goya Tsukudani adapted from Kazumi : yields about 1/4 cup
150 grams goya, cleaned and sliced into half cm slices.
37.5 mililiters shoyu (2.5 tablespoons)
25 mililiters vinegar (1.6 tablespoons)
50 grams sugar
1.5 teaspoons roasted sesame seeds
1 gram hana-katsuo (bonito shavings)
5 grams chirimen jakko (dried small anchovies)

After cleaning the "cotton" and slicing the bittermelon, put into boiling water to blanch.
Put liquid condiments into a pot and heat on medium.
Add goya, stirring once in awhile.
Just before all the liquid evaporates, add the sesame seeds, katsuo & jakko.

NOTES: She didn't have measurements for the sesame seeds, katsuo or jakko, so the measurements are what I used.

I weighed the goya after I cleaned it.

Since the jakko is dried, I added it while I still had quite a bit of liquid.

All in all, it took about 30 minutes for all the liquid to evaporate.

The bittermelon still keeps its bitter bite but is made a little softer with the addition of sugar.

I think this would be nice in musubi.

Whew, this post was long, but I wanted to wrap everything into one post so that I could share with you the happenings from our lanai.

from the lanai

From the lanai, I picked a little of the cilantro, a little green onion and two of the goya (bitter melon).

Can you believe that on the 3rd floor we have worms?

How in the heck can they come up that high?

Anyway, the worm(s) were in the smaller of the two goya, and on the bell pepper and on the chili pepper plant, I'll tell you about the bell pepper and chili pepper plant another day.

So, about a week ago, I spotted one worm(on the smaller of the two goya), it hadn't made a hole but was just gnawing at it, brave dude to gnaw at the goya like that.

I took it off, then left the goya to get bigger.

Yesterday, I noticed that the bigger of the two goya was a light tinge of yellow, meaning it was getting overripe.

So, I picked the two and noticed this hole...

...with this long bugger in it.

Eep! and the thing about it was I thought it was dead but it was still alive.

In the morning, I thought it would've died in the garbage bucket but no, it had climbed out and was trapped in my tea strainer on the counter...sigh.

So now, he will definitely be going out with the garbage...sorry, dude.

Getting back to the goya, green onion and cilantro.

Whenever I buy goya, my cooking repertoire consists of one thing, goya champuru.

This time around, I decided to try making stuffed bitter melon and used Nate's recipe as inspiration. UPDATE: the author passed away and the blog is no longer public.

After washing the goya, I sliced it into 1 inch (or so) slices. With a butter knife, I scraped out the "cotton" as best as I could.

Then, I filled each piece with this filling:

97 grams of minced pork
chopped green onion
6 water chestnuts, minced
1/2 tablespoon shoyu
1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon black bean sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 egg

Mix well.

Since my goya were quite small, I had extra filling, Nate said in his post that he steamed the rest of his filling in foil cups, so that is what I did also.

I put them in foil cups that I have for bento.

I don't have a steamer big enough to accommodate all of these pieces, so I put them into my non-stick frying pan.

I put the heat on low, added a little water to the pan after it heated up and covered the pan for 30 minutes.

After steaming it for 30 minutes, I turned off the heat and let it sit in the pan, covered for another 10 minutes.

Then served it with rice and topped it with the fresh cilantro.

NOTES: As an after thought, if ever I need to steam in my frying pan again, I will put whatever needs to be steamed on foil, so that the water won't come in direct contact with it.

This was delicious and I'm glad I tried a different way to prepare goya.

Thanks Nate for the cilantro seeds and delicious recipe.

goya champuru

The weather is still warm during the daytime. Humidity for the most part is non-existent. But we do have some rainy days which brings cooler temps.

At night, it is quite cool too, but not quite cool enough to take out our heavy futon (comforter).

Still some people insist on dressing like it is the middle of winter, which makes me instantly perspire whenever I see them.

Anyway, here's a dish we had a couple of nights ago...goya champuru.

I wish I could tell you that the goya (bittermelon) in the photo was from our lanai.

But sadly, we had lots of flowers and nothing bigger than the tip of my finger.

This is the 2nd year I've tried planting goya, not sure what I am doing wrong.

Got this nice sized goya at a farm stand for only 100 yen (about US$1).

It had been awhile since I'd made goya champuru for Satoshi but I think it turned out quite well.

I've posted about how to make champuru here.

goya

Do you remember I planted some goya (bittermelon), then accidently killed them when I was killing some aphids?

Well, I replanted them before going to Hawaii. I also made a make-shift trellis by tying some knots along several strings then hanging it from my laundry poles.

While I was gone, I asked Satoshi to lead the goya to climb up the rope...and came home to this.

As I was looking at the plant I noticed 3 teeny goya...hope they get bigger.

Gonna google to see how to take care of them (or if you know what I should do, write it in the comments)...so excited!

hawaii cooks

Yesterday for dinner we had goya champuru. I've written up about this in the past. My mom got these teeny tiny goya (bittermelon) from a friend. They are supposedly wild...all I know it was a P.I.T.A (pain in the a**) to clean.

We added some portuguese sausage, tofu, onion and egg. Since my mom is watching her salt intake we didn't season it at all.

It was still quite flavorful from the sausage, but these goya slices sure packed a bitter punch!

What did you eat for dinner yesterday?

odds & ends

It is the end of the month, so let's clear out some photos.

There was an assorted fish (maguro, ika, salmon), shrimp salad maki for lunch one day...mmm.

We've been eating carrot and cucumber sticks with a teaspoon of olive tapenade with our dinners.

My generous blog friend, Abigail of Mamatouille sent me some Jasmine tea and Espresso flavored Kit Kats, along with some Cadbury milk chocolate and a cup of 60% Ghiradelli chips...thank you again!

The Jasmine tea flavored Kit Kat was my favorite, the tea flavor really shines through. The Espresso flavored was good also but a little on the bitter side. The Cadbury Dairy Milk was creamy.

I received these Japanese sweets, which I think are called kangori from my friend Kazumi when we went to Nose.

Kan is the chinese character for cold but also because they use kanten (agar-agar), gori is ice. These aren't cold treats but they resemble pieces of ice. Biting into them, they have slight crunch to them but the inside is gelatinous.

For another lunch, I had some inarizushi stuffed with okowa (mochi rice). These were delicious because they have assorted savory flavored mochi rice.

I made some walnut covered chicken for a dinner. I actually had made this before when I was in Hawaii, but used mac nuts then. These came out just as delicious.

I tried Ellie Krieger's Ranch dressing, it was easy and delicious. We've also been eating carrot and cucumber sticks with this dressing too.

This photo of the dog and his owner was taken in January (I think), I totally had forgotten about this photo. The owner can barely walk and uses this cart to steady herself while the dog just sits calmly as it rolls along.

My goya (bittermelon) before I "killed" it. There were aphids on my bell pepper plants and I got crazy...sprayed everything with a soapy solution and the goya plant (and bell pepper plant) dried...I am hoping for a revival.

Lastly, a bento I bought from Daiei for lunch...they had kodaimai (short wild rice), salmon, some assorted tempura and some nishime..only 498 yen (about US$4.98).

Yet another delicious month....goochisoosama!

trying to beat the humidity and rain

The weather here hasn't been too nice. It has been raining for the past couple of days, in Kyushu (southern Japan) they have been having major flooding. We have been having some rain and humidity too which makes going to get groceries not too fun, kind of depressing and non-motivating if you ask me.

I wanted to share with you some things I have been eating. Goya Champuru--I've posted about this before. We started eating this after our first visit to Okinawa about 4 years ago.

Hot and Sour Soup or Suanratan--I got the recipe from a book I have called "Tenyu"--it is relatively easy to make. It didn't taste exactly as I imagined it would, I think I may have to try making it again some time.

2 kinds of chilled tofu-this dish is perfect for warm days. A block of momen tofu (hard type soy bean curd) plus tamago tofu (savory soft egg custard), a little shoyu (soy sauce), the konbu (kelp) stock that the egg custard comes with and lots of okra on top.

Mushroom risotto made from dried mushrooms that Bourgogne sent me. (Thank you!)

Lastly, a cool dessert made by Seikanin. This one is called Kiraboshi (shining star). We had this on Tanabata. A clear ume (plum) flavored gelatin with yokan (jellied sweet bean paste)stars and sasa (bamboo leaf).

I hope your week is going well and you are keeping cool/dry where you are.

trying to beat the heat (part 4)

Something usually seen during the summer are these clouds called nyudogumo (cumulo-nimbus), they are usually seen in the afternoon and bring thunder and rain. Unfortunately, even though it rains, the humidity still lingers.

Changing the subject, have you ever wondered what I do about grocery shopping during the summer here?

Since many people here have to travel a bit to get to the supermarkets, many stores have ice chests where you can help yourself to some free ice, put them into plastic bags and lay them near your fresh foods like fish, meats, dairy products. You can't eat the ice because it is treated with something that keeps the ice from melting quickly. I usually don't like this type, because if you can't eat the ice and it gets on your food, is it safe?

There was a story on Slashfood recently that also talked about free ice.

Other stores have re-useable ice called horeizai, it looks like those big blue ice packs for your ice chests or lunch bags only smaller. I like these because they are re-useable. Plus, if you wrap a couple in a towel and place it around your neck, you can feel cool for a couple of hours! (at least long enough to catch a nap without the a/c on...) Oh, and if you happen to buy ice cream, you can purchase dry ice for a small cost.

Changing the subject again, there is another dish that reminds me of Okinawa called goya champuru. Goya is the Okinawan name for bittermelon (nigauri in Japanese). Champuru means to mix.

This dish is a type of stir fry and is really easy to make. I usually make this dish during the summertime because goya is plentiful and also has a lot of vitamin C, almost 4 lemons worth. It is supposedly a good food to help your body shield the sun's rays.

To make this dish you need a block of tofu (firm type) (soy bean curd), some bacon/luncheon meat (sliced), a goya and an egg.

When buying goya, make sure that the bumps on the outside are rather large, if they are small, this means your goya is too young (and VERY bitter!).

To prepare the goya, first cut it in half. You'll notice there is a lot of fuzzy stuff inside, this is called wata (literally cotton), use a spoon and get as much of this "cotton" out, the more you take out the less bitter it will taste. After taking the "cotton" out, slice thin and rub with salt. This is supposed to also take some of the bitterness away, then rinse.

Open the container of tofu and put it over a strainer to get out as much water . Cut up your tofu into bite size pieces. Put a tablespoon of oil in a pan and "fry" your tofu, this is also to get out a lot of the water. Take the tofu out of the pan and set aside.

Add the sliced bacon/luncheon meat and goya and cook until the goya is tender, then add the tofu back into the pan. Lastly, scramble an egg and pour over the whole thing and cook until the egg is cooked, mixing every so often....dinner is served!

Hope you all are keeping cool where you are!