green tea pork belly rolls

I saw these pork belly rolls filled with used green tea on a tv show, but could not find a recipe, so I adlibbed.

Using several leaves from that huge cabbage, I wilted it in a hot non-stick pan, then set it aside.

Then I made the rolls.

With about a gram of green tea (brewed and ready to throw out), I divvied it up between 6 pieces of pork belly slices.

Put the flap of each pork roll side down onto a heated pan to seal.

Cook for several minutes then turn until all sides are cooked.

Cover with a lid and cook for several minutes so that the inside will cook too.

Not sure how long I cooked everything for, but it was fast (we use gas to cook with, so that might be why also).

Drizzle with ponzu (citrus soy sauce) before eating.

Dinner is served.

NOTES: I know, not really a recipe, sorry.

Still, I think this would be a nice pupu (appetizer) or something for bento.

I didn't season the cabbage (because Satoshi should be watching his salt), but you could definitely use salt, pepper, or your favorite dressing.

Though the television did not specify, I would try to use organic tea especially since you will be eating it.

It is a great way to use up tea that you have brewed and would normally just throw out or put into your compost.

I'm making this again.

bambucha

Bambucha (huge) Spring cabbage at the market...298 yen (plus tax).

2 or so kilos (about 4 pounds).

Thinking about all the dishes I can make with this...

spring cabbage shumai

I've told you before how easily influenced I am by television.

Well, last night on a program called "Matsuko no shiranai sekai" (the unknown world to Matsuko), there was a bento specialist and she showed different dishes that are good hot but better when served cold.

One was this spring cabbage shumai.

The type of shumai she was showing was similar to the type where they cover the shumai filling with julienned shumai wrappers then steam.

Her version though, used julienned spring cabbage in place of the wrappers.

I adapted her recipe and made these...

Spring Cabbage Shumai adapted from "Matsuko no Shiranai Sekai" makes 9 or 10 shumai

300 grams chicken breast
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 nub of ginger
1 teaspoon of hoisin sauce
3 leaves of spring cabbage
parchment paper
water

1. Pulse 300 grams of chicken breast with the cornstarch, ginger and hoisin sauce in a food processor just until it comes together.
2. Julienne the leaves of spring cabbage.
3. Make 9 or 10 balls of the chicken mixture
4. Take a small handful of cabbage, place a ball of chicken mixture on top and mold the cabbage with your hands, kind of like making musubi.
5. Place onto parchment paper which you have placed on a frying pan.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have 9 or 10 shumai
7. Put about 1/4 cup water in between the parchment and frying pan.
8. Cook on medium-low, covered, for 12 minutes (check at 6 minutes to see that the water hasn't totally evaporated, add more if necessary)
9. Enjoy.

NOTES: these were super easy to make.

I would up the hoisin sauce to 2 teaspoons or serve with shoyu as there wasn't too much flavor.

But I did enjoy the ginger flavor and love the idea of cabbage being a part of this dish.

I think you could use regular cabbage, though I think you may want to blanch/wilt it before using. Spring cabbage is usually more tender than the other types of cabbage we see during the rest of the year here.

I'm making this again.

(not) rolled cabbage

We've talked about rolled or stuffed cabbage before...here.

Well, I saw a "not" rolled cabbage on a commercial and have been waiting for nippy temps to try it.

It also helps that my MIL gave us a nabe (nah-bay, clay pot), so I have something big enough to cook it in.

Take half a cabbage and hollow it out. Rinse as best as you can.

With the cabbage that you took out from the center, cut into bite sized pieces.

I added some barley (a couple of tablespoons), washed and uncooked.

Mix about 200 grams of ground beef with some minced onion, and pepper, then stuff it into the cavity.

Place the "stuffed" cabbage onto the cabbage bits and raw barley and add 4 cups of water and 2 consomme cubes.

Cover and bring to a boil (about 5 minutes) then turn the heat down to a simmer.

Cook for about 25 minutes.

Slice into 4 pieces (as photo shows above).

Serve with the soup, barley and bits of cabbage.

NOTES: this is definitely "stuffed" cabbage.

This was so easy to put together and took very little time to cook. I would recommend trying to get hamburger all the way to the edges of the cabbage so that when you cut it into 4, the end pieces will have some hamburger also.

If you don't have a clay pot, don't worry, just use something big enough to fit the whole half cabbage to cook it.

Also, you can use chicken stock in place of the consomme cubes.

I'm making this again.

keema curry

Boy, the rain sure does make things dreary.

Not really wanting to cook, I flipped through my cookbooks and looked for something easy.

I found a rather easy keema curry recipe by Mizuno Jinsuke.

I didn't have all the ingredients he listed so ad-libbed here and there.

Keema Curry adapted from "Hajimete no Spice Curry #2" : 4 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, grated
1 nub ginger, grated
1 onion, minced
15 grams butter
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon flour
200 milliliters hot water
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
400 grams ground beef
50 milliliters rosé
cherry tomatoes, sliced
sugar snap peas, blanched

Heat the oil in a pan on medium and add the garlic and ginger
When fragrant, add the onion and cook until the onions get a little color
Add the butter, turmeric, cayenne & cumin, stir well
Add the flour, stir well
Add the meat and cook until it has some color
Add the wine and let the alcohol burn off
Add the hot water and bring everything back to a boil, add the marmalade
Turn the heat down to simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
Serve over rice and garnish with diced cherry tomatoes and blanched sugar snap peas.

NOTES: the curry was a bit sweet with the marmalade so I would probably cut back the amount. Other than that, I liked the amount of heat the curry had and how easy it was to put this together.

I'm making this again.

Oh, and I served this with coconut flavored cabbage (sabzi).

Hope the rain stops soon...

re-vamped

I recently re-vamped cabbage mochi by adding some dried sakura ebi (sergia lucens) and green onions.

Got a thumbs up from Satoshi...I guess I'll make this version again.

If I'm not mistaken, Golden Week starts today...

roca's red vegetable pickles

With the rest of the red cabbage, I tried this recipe in Roca's other book, "Roca no Bento".

The recipe says it serves 2, we don't usually eat that much pickles in one sitting, so it seemed a like a lot to me.

Red Vegetable Pickles from "Roca no Bento" serves 2

160 grams red cabbage
1 bay leaf
1.5 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
pepper

Rinse and cut the red cabbage into small pieces
Add the cabbage to a resealable bag, add the seasonings.
Remove as much air as possible and let sit for at least an hour.

NOTES: this was so easy to put together and it tastes like the Japanese cole slaw that I've made before.

We had a little of it the other morning, nice and crunchy! Satoshi said he liked it because it reminded him of sauerkraut.

The sausage we had tasted like portuguese sausage too, whoo!

I transferred the pickles from the resealable bag to a jar. The notes of the recipe also say you can use regular cabbage for this too.

I'll definitely make this one again.

It's Friday here, I hope you all have a nice Easter and a nice weekend!

roca's cabbage apple & sesame salad

I recently came across Roca's recipes books...this is the same cafe I went to, that recently closed its doors.

The recipes are quite easy and I like that they use a lot of veggies.

I tried the cabbage, apple & sesame salad recipe.

Roca's cabbage apple & sesame salad: from "Roca no Teishoku" serves 2

1 leaf cabbage (60 grams)
1 bell pepper (30 grams)
1/8 red onion (25 grams)
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 apple (60 grams)

1.5 tablespoons ground sesame seeds
1 tablespoon vinegar
pepper

Julienne the cabbage, bell pepper
Thinly slice the red onion
Add the 1/2 teaspoon of salt, mix everything with your hands and set aside
Slice the apple, thinly but not too thin
Squeeze out any water from the cabbage mixture
Mix with the apple and add the last 3 ingredients
Mix well.
Chill before eating.

NOTES: super refreshing! it's crunchy, a little puckery. Sweet from the apple and a little bite from the red onion.

Our bell peppers are really teeny, so that is why 30 grams is the size for the 1 bell pepper. I used a red bell pepper and also ground black sesame seeds.

I've already made this twice (once with ground black sesame seed and the other with ground brown sesame seeds) and Satoshi really likes this salad.

Another type of cole slaw...I am gonna make this often this summer!

p.s. made it to the end of the week, hope you have a nice weekend!

cabbage mochi

We recently received a lot of plain mochi (no filling).

I froze most of them. And with 3 of them I made this...cabbage mochi.

This is a pupu (appetizer) eaten in Fukushima prefecture. I learned about this one from that same show, Kenmin Show, that showcases different foods from the various prefectures in Japan.

Makes about 3 or 4 servings

1 small head of cabbage, cut into bite sized pieces
1 tablespoon of oil
3 mochi (rice cakes), cut into bite sized pieces
some water
1/4 cup mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 tablespoons shoyu
1 tablespoon sake (rice wine)

Cut your cabbage & mochi into bite sized pieces
Add the oil to a heated pan and put the cabbage in
When the cabbage is almost wilted, add the mochi and a little water to steam
Just before the mochi starts to melt, add the mirin, shoyu & sake
Cook for about 3 minutes and serve

NOTES: this recipe actually asks you to add freshly made mochi, but we didn't have any, so I added the ones we received and steamed them along with the cabbage to soften. There weren't any measurements for the condiments, so what I have here is what I used. If you do use freshly made mochi, cook the cabbage to your liking with the condiments and add the mochi at the end.

Super easy and a different type of beer chaser.

inaba chicken curry series

So that canned butter chicken I was talking about is a new item from Inaba. They are the same people who made those curries with the tuna in them. I don't remember how I found out about it, but I have a feeling it was from social media.

Anyway, I was able to round up the 4 types : from top left: chicken green thai curry, butter chicken, bottom left: chicken red thai curry, chicken yellow thai curry.

So far we've only tried the butter chicken. Instead of it having an Indian curry flavor, I think it tasted similar to the tuna thai curries we've tried in the past with chicken instead.

I'm gonna save the other cans for days that we can't get out of the house to eat.

When we tried the butter chicken was when I made the sabzi and cabbage side dishes.

Since the veggie recipes served four, I served the other half when I made tandoori chicken.

The mango lassi was bought at the convenience store and doctored up with some yogurt.

The weather has turned a bit icy though we were able to get out to see some fall foliage, I'll talk about that soon.

Hope your week is going well.

more from masakichi

I tried several more recipes from Masakichi, this time from her book titled, "Bento no hon" (Bento book).

This chicken recipe is called Buchi-uma chicken. Buchi means "really" in Hiroshima dialect. Uma is a shortened version of umai which means delicious.

So, this is "really delicious chicken"

10 chicken drummettes
2 teaspoons grated ginger
2 teaspoons grated garlic
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
1/4 cup mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 tablespoons sugar

Put your chicken into a pan, making sure that they line-up and don't overlap each other and there isn't too much space between each piece.
Add the next 6 ingredients and put the stove on to medium heat.
When the liquid starts to bubble, put an oshibuta (drop lid) and turn the heat down to medium-low.
Cook for 10 minutes
Turn the chicken over and cook for another 10 minutes.

NOTES: This recipe is easy and delicious, it kind of reminded me of shoyu chicken, a dish we eat in Hawaii.

The next recipe was easy also but needed a bit of tweaking.

Kabocha no kurogoma yogoshi ("dirty" pumpkin)

1/8 kabocha, cleaned and washed
1 tablespoon dashitsuyu*
1 tablespoon sake (rice wine)
1 teaspoon ground black sesame seeds

After cleaning and washing the pumpkin, cut into bite sized pieces
Put into a dish and drizzle the dashitsuyu & sake
Cover tightly with plastic wrap
Zap in the microwave for 1-1.5 minutes, pumpkin should be soft when tested with a chopstick
Toss in ground sesame seeds

NOTES: Dashitsuyu is a blend of fish-seaweed stock, soy sauce and a little sugar, if you can't find dashitsuyu where you are, I would suggest making your own by adding a teaspoon of fish-seaweed stock, a teaspoon of soy sauce and a half teaspoon of sugar. In the directions it didn't mention the plastic wrap, so I ended up zapping it for longer than 1.5 minutes in fact it was almost 2 minutes total.

The last recipe I tried was called Cabbage Oyster-bitashi

Hitashi or in this case bitashi is a style of cooking where you boil the veg and then toss it with a shoyu based sauce.

3 or 4 large cabbage leaves
1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
some chili flakes
water to blanche cabbage
white sesame seeds

After washing the cabbage, cut into large bite sized pieces
Mix the next 4 ingredients and set aside
Boil some water
When the water comes to a boil, add the pieces of cabbage and swish around for about a minute
Drain
Add the cabbage to the oyster sauce dressing, toss
Sprinkle with white sesame seeds

NOTES: I would just drizzle some sauce to toss instead of dumping the cabbage into the dressing, it was a bit too much dressing. But taste-wise this was good, I would definitely make this again.

Over all, all the recipes were easy and delicious, I'd make them again.

What's cooking in your kitchen?

p.s. it's pocky day!!

from one cabbage

I usually don't buy a whole cabbage because we usually can't eat it all before it starts going bad.

But I couldn't pass up the spring cabbage that was at the market the other day. 128 yen for the whole cabbage.

Relatively cheap for our area and the leaves were so big!

I made some stuffed cabbage.

And some cole slaw.

And with the rest of it I made some stir-fry with some ginger ra-yu (chili oil).

Can't wait for more Spring veggies to appear at the market.

curry dog

The other day on Twitter, I was chatting with one of my friends and we got on the topic of hot dogs with curried cabbage.

It seems that curried cabbage on hot dogs is a Kansai (Western Japan) thing.

Since I had that on my mind when I went to the market, I picked up some weiners and cabbage and made my own curried cabbage.

With a handful of cabbage, slice it thinly.

Then in a non-stick pan, throw in your cabbage and let it wilt.

While it is wilting, add a teaspoon or so of curry powder.

When the cabbage is cooked to your liking, take it off the heat. I like it a little "crunchy" so I didn't cook it too long.

To assemble the dog...I used baguette, but you can use a hot dog bun.

Instead of slicing the bun on the side, I sliced it from top to bottom.

Open up the bun and add a layer of curried cabbage, then add your hot dog.

On the sides, slip in your cheese and top with more cabbage.

Toast for about 5 minutes.

Add some chips to your plate and you're ready for lunch.

So easy and delicious.

whoa?!

In the past week, most leafy veggie prices have skyrocketed.

After seeing Kirk's tacos, I was thinking of making taco rice for dinner, but as I looked for lettuce at the market, I stopped and had to look again...390 yen (about US$5-something) for a head?! and it wasn't even a "nutritious" head of lettuce, it was iceberg lettuce.

So...I subbed lettuce with cabbage.

And even cabbage, I bought a 1/4 of a head for 108 yen (about US$1.40) which is still high, if you convert it, but at least it camouflages the blow of 390 yen, because a whole head of cabbage would be close or higher than the lettuce...sigh.

I stir-fried everything (zucchini, brown mushrooms, carrots, onion & cabbage) then added a tablespoon of taco mix.

Over the hot rice, I placed a slice of red cheddar then, topped it with the stir-fry and a tablespoon of salsa.

I liked this version because everything was pretty much hot (temperature wise), if I had used lettuce like I intended, it would have been a bit more summery.

Guess I have my taco cravings under control, for now...

rolled or stuffed?

In Japan, this dish is called "roll cabbage".

In Hawaii, it is called "stuffed cabbage".

Since spring cabbage is in season now, I made this for dinner the other night.

Only problem was that I only had 1/4 a head of cabbage, making for weird pieces of cabbage to "stuff".

I washed the cabbage, then nuked it for a minute and a half.

Then, I made the filling...

135 grams ground beef
1/2 carrot, minced
1/4 onion, minced
1/4 zucchini, minced
1 eringi, minced
1 egg

For the sauce:
3 cups water
1 consomme cube
1 tablespoon canned diced tomatoes
salt & pepper

I "rolled" the filling into the pieces of cabbage that I could and ended up with 8 "rolls".

I say "rolls" because the pieces of cabbage weren't large enough to totally wrap the filling properly.

Then I put them in a frying pan with the water & consomme cube.
When the liquid came to a boil, I skimmed off the scum and added the tablespoon of canned diced tomatoes, then skimmed more scum off.

I let it cook on medium for a total of 15 minutes with a lid on the pan.

Halfway through the 15 minutes, I turned them over carefully with tongs.

When the 15 minutes were up, I left the lid on and turned off the heat.

I served this with rice on the side.

This was delicious and perfect for the weird cold weather we've been having the past couple of days.

With the other 4 rolls, I've got enough for another dinner...woot!

What have you been having for dinner lately?

easy dinner

Super easy dinner the other night which I based on a dish that we have in Hawaii called kalua pig and cabbage.

Since I had almost half a head of cabbage leftover, I wanted to use it up preferably with an easy recipe.

I thought about kalua pig and cabbage but knew I wouldn't be able to make it unless I made my own kalua pig from scratch, so instead I bought a grilled chicken breast from a yakitori shop in our shopping arcade and chopped it up.

1/2 onion, thinly sliced
about 1/2 head of cabbage, chopped into bite size
1 grilled chicken breast, skin removed and cut into bite siz
pepper

Cook onion and cabbage in a non-stick pan until limp.
Add chicken to re-heat.
Add pepper to taste.
Eat with rice

NOTES: Since the chicken was grilled it had a smoky flavor. This was fast, semi-homemade and delicious.

v-day

How was your V-day? Ours was good. The day started out with me giving Satoshi chocolates and a card.

In Japan, the guys get all the attention on V-day, if you want to read up on it, I've written something about it here.

As I was returning from the market it began to drizzle and the drizzles turned in to snow!

It ended up snowing the whole afternoon. I loved how the snow fell, it reminded me of white feathers, beautiful!

While it continued to snow, I heard commotion going on outside and decided to check it out, I'm kinda nosy like that.

It turned out something needed fixing, and this poor guy was outside with a plastic sheet overhead.

For dinner, I tried a new recipe.

It was a spicy pork wrapped with cabbage. Of course, I didn't read the recipe properly and ended up detouring a little from the original.

Spicy Pork Wrapped with Cabbage :adapted from ESSE March 2011 issue : serves about 3
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sake (rice wine)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1.5 tablespoons miso (soy bean paste)
1 teaspoon tobanjan (chili paste)
150 grams pork, thinly sliced
1.5 tablespoons ground white sesame seeds
3 leaves of cabbage, washed

In a pan, put the first 6 ingredients in and add the pork.
Turn the heat up to high and while mixing, let liquid evaporate.
After the liquid evaporates, add the ground sesame seeds, mix well.

With your leaves of cabbage, heat in a microwave (600W) for 90 seconds. Be careful of the steam and remove the hard stem. Then wrap 50 grams of pork.

Cut in half and serve with rice.

NOTES: The original recipe says to put about 50 grams into 1 leaf for a serving, but my leaves of cabbage weren't too big, so I made about 4 or 5 little rolls as 1 serving and served with lots of rice.

The original recipe also calls for the cabbage to be boiled but since I didn't read it properly, I nuked it.

For dessert we had dark chocolate dipped strawberries. I used Rowena's idea and placed some heart sprinkles that I had.

The day after, the sun came out and started to melt the snow.

p.s. yesterday, we visited MIL and she is happy to be at home. She can't sit on the tatami like she used to nor can she go upstairs to sleep, so she is living on the 1st floor of her house for now.

BIL & SIL take turns daily to check on her and bring her food, and once a week her doctor and a nurse make house call visits to help change bandages and such. It was nice visiting with her though we worry about her getting around her house.

Hope your V-day was a nice one, boy the week went by quickly, hope you have a nice weekend!

hawaii eats

Longan is a Chinese fruit that is similar to lychee except it doesn't have the bumpy skin. This fruit is also known as "dragon eyes", well, because when you peel them....

They look like them.

This fruit is quite sweet and the "meat" of the fruit quite firm. These were sent by my mom's cousin on the Big Island. (Thank you!)

Tonight's dinner....kalua pig and cabbage.

For special occasions, an imu (underground oven) is dug and hot stones are placed at the bottom. A whole pig is then salted and wrapped with ti leaf and then burlap, and the whole thing is placed into the imu to steam all day. After the pig is cooked, the meat is then shredded. This is called Kalua pig or Kalua pork.

Locals usually combine the shredded pork with sliced cabbage and onions, salt and pepper to create kalua pig and cabbage. Fast, easy and ono!

new bag

After two (brrr) freezing days of rain and flurries, the sun is back! (yeah!!) I spent most of the morning between several loads of laundry and making a new bag.

I ran into a few problems and the bag didn't come out as the book pictured. (Guess I'll have to try it again!) But, I think it will serve its purpose. When we moved to Japan 5 years ago, I hadn't sewed since home economics class in intermediate school, still, I had Satoshi buy me a sewing machine.

Besides food, another thing I love is BAGS, so I figured instead of buying them, I would try to make them. Since then, I have made my own tote bags which I use when grocery shopping. At the grocery stores, they give you extra points on your point card for using your own bag not using their plastic bags.

And we often take these totes with us on our trips or when galavanting around Osaka, they fold up nicely and come in handy especially when we need another bag to bring home our souvenirs or purchases.

In a couple of days, it will be St. Patrick's Day. At home, my mom usually cooks fresh corned beef with cabbage, carrots and potatoes. Since I couldn't find fresh corned beef in our markets, I decided to use canned corned beef and made another dish which we have in Hawaii....Corned beef and cabbage.

There are two ways that my family has this dish. One is with salt and pepper. The other is with shoyu (soy sauce) and sugar (we say shoyu-sugar or satojyoyu). I decided to make it the shoyu-sugar way.

Ingredients
1 can corned beef
1 onion
1 cabbage

1T sugar
1T shoyu

Cut cabbage into bite sized pieces, slice onions
Cook in a non-stick pan
After cabbage and onions slightly wilt, add corned beef
When everything is mixed and heated, add the shoyu and sugar.

An easy dish for busy people!
Enjoy! and Happy St. Patty's Day!