bambucha

We recently received more bambucha (huge) onions from Mayumi-san (thank you!)

This time around they were from Awajishima (Awaji Island).

I roasted one of them for our dinner on Sunday (because it was the size of a softball!)

Topped it with some homemade meat sauce and shredded cheese...I've made this before here.

The weather has been so hot and humid, so it wasn't the best day to be using the oven, but this was still a delicious way to enjoy this.

Thank you again Mayumi-san!

escabeche de cebolla (pickled red onions)

Not sure why I had pickled red onions on my brain but I think it may have had to do with a picture I saw of Tacos Zarate's fish taco.

To make these pickles, I used a recipe I found on Saveur...

Here's the recipe if you want to try...makes about 1 3/4 cups

Ingredients
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 large red onion, thinly sliced lengthwise
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
3 cloves garlic, peeled and halved lengthwise
1 1⁄2 cups red wine vinegar

Instructions
In a bowl, toss salt and onion together; let sit until onion releases some of its liquid, about 15 minutes. Transfer to jar along with peppercorns, oregano, cumin, and garlic, and pour over vinegar; seal with lid. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before using.l

NOTES: I like how this recipe was super easy, no cooking involved and also how this recipe doesn't use any sugar.

I didn't have red wine vinegar so I used some white wine vinegar and a little rice vinegar.

This was puckery and the onions have a nice crispness.

I topped some fried ika (squid) with this and it matched nicely.

I'm making this again.

recreated

Sometimes when you taste something, you know exactly how to make it again when you get home.

Such was the roasted onion dish we had in Awajishima last month.

All you need to make this is:
sweet onions
your favorite bolognese sauce
shredded cheese
a little olive oil

Grease the dish you will be baking this in with some olive oil.
Peel your onions then make an "X", don't cut all the way through.
Drizzle a little olive oil into the "X"
In a 400F (200C) oven, roast the onions (uncovered) for about 30 minutes.
Add the bolognese sauce and cheese (amounts up to you), then put back into the oven for another 20 minutes.
The cheese should be a little browned at the end of the 20 minutes, if not put it in a couple more minutes.

NOTES: super easy and super delicious! Satoshi gave this a thumbs up. I'm making this again.

foodie festivals

There were many festivals over the past weekend. Luckily the weather was cooperative.

We started out at the Sweet Onion Festival. This was on the grounds of the Aloun Farms.

$2 per adult to enter and then everything had to be paid for in scrips (50-cents per scrip).

For $32 in scrips, we picked up a seedless Thai watermelon, canteloupe, honeydew melon, dozen corn, green beans, (5) sweet potato (purple kind) and lots of onions (40 to be exact)!

We shared a lot of these fruits and veggies with Mom's friends.

Afterwards, we checked out the Portuguese Festa.

It was small in comparison to the Sweet Onion Festival.

My brother had a Vinha D'Alhos (pickled pork) sandwich and I picked up some malasadas.

The malasadas were fluffy and kept their shape even after they were cool. I would say they are 2nd to Champions (which is saying a lot).

Before heading home, we picked up lunch from Leeward Drive-Inn.

It was my first time ordering from this place, even though they've been around since 1964 (it says so on their sign).

I ordered their BBQ hamburger with cheese...this was a quarter pound and I enjoyed the teriyaki sauce that was on the burger. I thought it was a nice balance of sweet and salty.

Mom had their fried noodles. I think she enjoyed this one even though their portion is massive and she only ate a fourth of it.

My brother said the mochiko chicken had too much coating on it...

All in all, great weather and lots of good food.

Leeward Drive-Inn
94-209 Pupukahi Street
Waipahu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.671.7323

hamburger onion

I saw this recipe in the Orange Page magazine and thought "I can make this".

I didn't scribble anything down, just did everything by feel.

This was good but I think I need to cook everything a little longer. The middle of the burger & onion were still a bit raw.

Hamburger onion : serves 2

2 round onions
some oil
100 grams hamburger (mixture of ground beef & pork)
some diced onions
some chopped Italian parsley
ground pepper

Peel round onions and cut off the tops and bottoms
Then make a "X" cut into the onion BUT don't cut all the way down.
Drizzle some oil so that it goes down into "X".

Prepare hamburger.
Dice some onions, chop some parsley and grind some pepper.
Mix hamburger well.

Split hamburger into two portions and top each onion.

Cover with foil and bake at 180C (350F) for 40 minutes.

Take off foil and bake for another 10 minutes uncovered.

NOTES: Originally, I had cooked it at 180C (350F) for 30 minutes covered then uncovered at 200C (400F) for 15 minutes. But like I said, the middles were still raw.

I want to try this again.

chicken curry

Yesterday, the weather was crazy!

They predicted winds of 900-something hPa (typhoon level) and rain.

The weather dude is pretty on it these days and he said that between 6 am and noon the chance of rain was 50% while the chance of rain from noon to 6 pm was 90%.

Not having any ingredients for dinner, I ran to the store at 9-ish and the drops were already big and the wind pretty strong.

How's this? Little leaguers were practicing in that weather? Talk about crazy!

Anyway, I thought making a curry would be nice and comforting especially since Satoshi had to work and would probably come home soaking wet.

This curry says it is for 4 servings but the amount of sauce was only enough for 2, still it was really spicy and because I used spring onions, a little sweet.

Chicken curry adapted from "Hajimete no spice curry" : makes 2 servings
2 tablespoons oil
1/4 teaspoon cumin powder (if you have cumin seed use 1/2 teaspoon)
2 large onions
1 clove garlic
2 nubs of ginger
100 grams canned diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon ground coriander
100 mililiters hot water
100 grams deboned chicken thighs
80 grams plain yogurt

Slice one onion, and grate the other, keep them separate
Grate the garlic and ginger, put them together with the grated onion
Cut your chicken thighs into bite sized pieces (I removed the skins)
In a non-stick pan, put a tablespoon of oil and cook the sliced onion on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
After the 5 minutes, take the onion out of the pan and set aside.
Add the other tablespoon of oil to the pan and on medium heat add the cumin (if you are adding the whole seed then cook until it changes color)
The cumin powder will start to bubble, then add the grated onion, garlic and ginger and cook for 5 minutes until most of the liquid evaporates.
Add the diced tomatoes, and cook until most of the liquid evaporates, then turn down the heat to low and add the turmeric, cayenne and coriander.
Add the hot water and add the chicken, cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
Then add the yogurt and turn down to simmer for 15 minutes (I covered the pan at this point).
After the 15 minutes, add the sliced onions and mix well.
Serve over rice.

NOTES: this was spicy but like I said using spring onions there was a little sweetness to it. I'm making this again.

trying new recipes

After all that feasting the other day...Sunday's dinner was simple...salmon with sweet and spicy rub. To go along with the salmon, I tried Ellie's oven baked onion ring recipe.

This recipe was easy to put together. I didn't have baked potato chips, so I didn't put the cooking spray on the rings before baking like the recipe says to do.

If you make these, you have to eat them straight out of the oven. They are crisp, delicious and you won't miss that they aren't deep fried.

We had this with some leftover spiced mixed nuts, a salad and Monteith's Hearty Black Beer, a smoky, smooth dark beer from New Zealand. 330 mililiters, 5.2% alcohol, 430 yen (about US$4.30).

It was a great way to end the weekend.

tandoori chicken and couscous

The weather has been getting cooler. Some days are beautiful and sunny while others are kind of gloomy and rainy.

I think Autumn is almost here. At the market, they have started bringing in the chestnuts and pears.

Not sure why I was craving tandoori chicken, but I was.

The last time I made this, there was a slight "problem" in the kitchen.

This time around everything went okay, except that my lack of counter space made for balancing things here and there.

I bought chicken breasts with the skins on this time and marinated them lunch. (since they should marinate for about 4 hours)

The market had an awesome sale on chicken, 48 yen for 100 grams, so I only paid 172 yen (about US$1.72) for 358 grams.

Then at about 15:00 (snack time), I flipped them over in the marinade.

Previously, the pieces I had were smaller with no skin, so I cooked them for only 10 minutes then under the broiler for 17.

Since the pieces I had this time had the skin on them and were thicker, I put them into a 350F (180C) oven (skin side up) for 30 minutes then under the broiler for about 5 minutes.

The skin came out so crisp (of course I had to eat the one I had for dinner!), the meat was very moist.

I also made some carrot salad and couscous with dried fig, cranberries, apricots and nuts (pine nuts, pecan & cashew). I also roasted some red bell pepper and onion. Since I had some cucumber to use up, I cut it up and added it to the plate.

Not the most aesthetic plate, overall it was kind of labor intensive, it was a tasty dinner, which made it all worth it, plus we have leftovers so I don't have to cook tomorrow.

caramelized onions

After reading Tea's post on caramelized onions, I had to try it for myself since I had never caramelized onions before. (You should know that most adventures in my kitchen are "first times" for me.)

The "new" or spring onions are in season now, these onions are tender and sweet, great for roasting...great for caramelizing.

Tea suggests a heavy pan but I didn't have one, only a non-stick one.

I sliced 2 onions and used a tablespoon of olive oil. And then I let it cook down. I added a total of 4 tablespoons of oil and 30 minutes later....

I got this...sweet caramelized onions.

So what to do with them?...

You could try making the "Goat Cheese, Caramelized Onions and Arugula Pizza" by Ellie Krieger. I did it with feta and flour tortillas, but it was still delicious.

You could make Shepard's Pie. I actually saw Su-Lin's photo and wanted to make some. I added some caramelized onions to fresh peas and carrots and bell pepper, some ground beef seasoned with garlic and a little onion then topped it with the mashed potato. I cooked the peas, and the carrots and bell pepper I "heated" up with the water from boiling the potatoes. The mashed potato, I added some plain yogurt and a little skim milk. Then I baked it. I liked this but want to try her version with a tomato based sauce.

You could try Tea's recipe for curried oatmeal. I have to tell you a little story...When Satoshi and I were first married, I would make his breakfast then go off to work. (I would usually make a bowl of oatmeal and he would eat it when he awoke.)

One day, when we were eating breakfast together, I noticed that he put furikake onto his oatmeal. At first I thought...ewww. I guess because I grew up with oatmeal being a sweet dish rather than savory. He said the consistency was more like o-kayu (rice gruel), which is why he would add furikake.

I didn't have the madras curry powder that Tea used, so I used the curry powder that I had. Her recipe is for one, but I made half the recipe and split it between Satoshi and I.

Satoshi liked it. He said it wasn't "oatmeal-like", though he wished it could have been spicier. Maybe he'll eat more oatmeal if I cook it this way. I liked it and served it with some sausage for breakfast.

What do you use caramelized onions for?

p.s. Happy Easter!

spring veggies

With Spring, there are the "new" veggies...like shinjagaimo (new potatoes), these are tiny fingerling type (the photo shows the difference).

And shintamanegi (literally new onions), these are tender and sweet. I tried making caramelized onions (more on this in a later post). Both are great for roasting.

With the weather sort-of warming up, we've been eating more veggies as salads lately.

We also had hummus with tandoori chicken wraps.

Greek salad.

Roasted veggies with grilled chicken.

A small rant on asparagus. Would you pay 258 yen (about US$2.58) for 3 asparagus stalks from Japan or 99 yen (about US$.99) for 8 asparagus stalks from Mexico? I know neither is really a choice, but I really like to buy Japan when I can, but 3 versus 8....price wise and amount wise, I chose the Mexican asparagus.

Dark beer beef stew.

I found the recipe for the stew in a gas pamphlet at my MIL's.

500 grams gyumomo (beef top round)
salt/pepper
flour to coat
oil to brown
250 grams onion, sliced
150 grams carrot, chopped
1 celery, chopped
1 package shimeji (tricoloma)
celery leaf
350 ml dark beer
******************************
(a)
2 cup bouillon
100 grams tomato puree
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon sugar
1 bay leaf
******************************
40 grams butter
salt/pepper
Italian parsley

1. Cut meat into 4 cm cubes, salt and pepper and coat with flour, brown in oil.
2. Cut vegetables, wash shimeji
3. After browning beef, add veggies and coat with oil, add beer and let alcohol burn off (about 10 minutes).
4. Add (a), celery leaf, scrape off scum.
5. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.
6. Add butter, turn off heat.
7. Top with parsley.

NOTES: this is rich and delicious, I used 1.5 onions, 1 carrot, 250 grams meat and only 12 grams butter (40 grams of butter seemed too much). I also used Yebisu black beer.

new friend, new recipe, new flower

Yesterday I met a new friend. She contacted me through Flickr. Since she's travelling through Japan, she emailed me and we met for lunch and lots of sweets. (sorry no photos of the food) She gave me a mini bottle of her favorite liquer, which I hope to make ice cream or bon bons with!...thanks for a great time, Maui Luna!

The new recipe is something I tried for dinner.

Spring potato kinpira -- serves 2 from "Soshoku no susume-Spring recipes" by Hideo Makuuchi

400g new crop potatoes (about 1 pound?)
a pinch of dry chili
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 cup sake (rice wine)
2 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

Wash the potatoes and keep the skins on (dig out any of the eyes--if any)
Cut the potato to about 4 or 5 mm.
Heat a pan and put in the oil
Toss the potato with chili around in oil until transparent
Add the sake, mirin and shoyu and simmer on medium until all liquid disappears.

This other recipe is adapted from a recipe I've used from Jamie Oliver. Cut an onion (preferable new crop as these are tender and sweet) into quarters but don't cut it all the way through.

Put a teaspoon of oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put into a 400F (200C) oven for about 30 minutes.

Lastly, I wanted to show you my new flowers. They are called "forget-me-not". They were really inexpensive, less than 100 yen each. I thought the little flowers were so cute.

pumpkin "pie"

Saturday's dinner was inspired from this book. In it, I found a recipe for Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Crispy Garlic.

I ended up not following the recipe and did my own thing.

Roasted Pumpkin, Onion and Garlic Soup inspired by "Little Book of Soup"

1/4 pumpkin, seeded with skin on
3 tablepoons olive oil
1 onion, halved
salt
1 clove garlic, leave skin on
1 cube consomme
300 ml water
pepper

Put foil onto pan and lay pumpkin, onion and garlic. Drizzle olive oil over the veggies. Sprinkle some salt.
Put into 200C (400F) oven and roast for 30-40 minutes.
In a pot, put together the consomme with the water, heat.
Use a spoon to scrape out the pumpkin after roasting and throw all veggies into a food processor.
Add some of the consomme to the food processor to help liquidize the veggies.
Add some salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with a 1/2 teaspoon of cream.

As the veggies roasted the aroma that filled the room was delicious. This soup wasn't thick, but it sure hit the spot.

In Japan, they call puff pastry sheets, pie sheets. I made some "pies" for us, using cubes of Monbana 70% chocolate with nibs and a squeeze of chestnut paste....delicious gooey-ness!

koromogae

It is that time of year to take out your Spring/Summer clothes and to put away the Fall/Winter stuff. This is called koromogae. Koromo is clothing and is also the outer batter of tempura. gae/kae means to change. So, it is like taking your outer shell and changing it for a lighter one. Koromogae also occurs after summer before Autumn starts. In Hawaii, we don't have this changing of clothing because we don't really have seasons. This is one of the fun things I look forward to in Japan.

I washed my fluffy Hello Kitty slippers and put them away.

And took out these lauhala (pandanus) ones. My great-grandma used to make these type of lauhala slippers to sell. I'm not sure if others still make these, but I figured I should use them instead of leaving them un-used in my box. They have something quite hard in the middle, so it is a bit raised... I guess I need to break them in.

Another thing I love about the change in seasons is that a lot of the Japanese cookbooks are arranged amongst the seasons too. I have quite a collection of these and love that the recipes feature the shun (in season) ingredients.

As I was looking through a cookbook, I came upon this easy recipe. It was perfect for dinner and aside from the seasonings only took 2 ingredients!

Here is the recipe if you'd like to try it. Onion wrapped in pork-teriyaki style-- Serves 4
translated from "Orange Page Haru ni Oishii kondate"

1 onion
1/3 teaspoon salt
240g (8 slices) thinly sliced pork thigh
cornstarch
2 tablespoons salad oil
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablepoons sake (rice wine)
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon ginger juice

Take the onion and cut it into 8 crescent pieces.
Put the pieces on a plate and cover gingerly with plastic wrap.
Zap in micro for 3 minutes. Sprinkle with salt after it comes out of the micro.
In a frying pan, put oil and heat on medium.
Take the pieces of pork and sprinkle cornstarch on them then place a piece of onion on each piece and roll up.
Put the end of the roll onto the hot pan and cook on both sides until it turns golden brown.
Add the sugar, sake & shoyu and cover for 2 to 3 minutes to steam.
Take the cover off and turn the pieces over. Cook until most of the sauce has cooked away, turning every so often.
Squeeze the juice of the ginger over the pieces and serve.

NOTES: I put the amount of oil that the recipe called for and ended up with way too much oil in the pan from the pork and had to sop it up with a paper towel before starting the sauce. Also, I put a piece of ginger from the freezer into the sauce as it cooked and when it got softened, I squeezed it over the pieces at the end. This recipe is super easy and showcases the tender onions that are in season here.

carrot potato & tomato spiced soup

It is the day after Thanksgiving, what will you do with your leftover turkey or are you still at the malls? I couldn't find any turkey here, maybe I didn't know where to look--even the Subway sandwich shop was too far, so I couldn't even eat a turkey sandwich for my Thanksgiving.

When I was at home, I got to the point of hating to eat turkey and would purposely make beef curry on that day--plus, I usually couldn't spend it with family because they would go to the outer islands to spend it with my grandparents and I would have to work the next day and couldn't take time off. But now that I'm FAR away from all of them, I miss eating turkey--more than that, I think it is the family get-togethers that I miss the most about this time of year.

Tonight, Satoshi had a get-together with the alumni of his university baseball club, so I had to figure out what to make for dinner for myself. I guess I could have bought something, but I had a package of carrots and potatoes "calling me" to use them....

So, here is another variation of the moroccan spiced squash and carrot soup recipe which I posted about here. This time, I used carrots, potatoes, onions and diced tomatoes. After everything was soft, I whizzed most of it in my "cute" food processor and drizzled some plain yogurt on top.

Very fast and easy and a nice way to warm up on a cold evening.

trying to beat the heat (part 2)

So now that summer is here, and it is WAY to humid for my likings here in Japan, I've been in a salad kind of mode and looking for nice, refreshing ways to dress them up.

Here's a recipe I found today while reading Gourmet Magazine's April 2006 edition.

Lemon Oregano Vinaigrette : Adapted from The Signature Room at the 95th, in Chicago. Makes about half a cup

1/2 garlic clove
1.5 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
1.5 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1.5 teaspoons mild honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1.5 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano

Blend all ingredients except oregano in a blender until combined well. Transfer to a bowl and stir in oregano, then season with salt and pepper.

Notes: if you are using a small food processor, like I did, make sure to slice up the garlic clove before pulsing or you will have a mess in your kitchen (because the garlic moved the blade up and leaked some dressing)--like I did. Also, I used 5 Tablespoons of EVOO, since I didn't have canola oil. And I used about a 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano.

This dressing was really good! Lemony, not too garlicky really refreshing. Definitely worth making again!

Another food that is popular in Japan, especially during the summer, is edamame (soy beans). I like it because it is really easy to prepare, and I don't have to stand near the stove as it cooks. In Japan, they come packaged--still in their pods, and sometimes they are even still attached to the plant!
Get a saute pan with a lid, or any shallow pan with a cover will do.
Snip the bean pods (where it was attached to the plant), I think this is to allow for even cooking and seasoning.
Rinse them.
Lay them as flat as possible into the pan.
Add a cup of water and cook for about 7 minutes on high heat. (You can add some salt before turning on the heat, or after cooking, whichever you prefer.) After the 7 minutes check to see that most of the pods have opened a bit, if not, you can cook for a minute or two more, take them off the heat and run under cold water.
Sprinkle with some kosher salt and enjoy!

Notes: try to make this ahead so that you can chill them in the refrig before eating!

Gaban, a spice maker in Japan teamed up with House Foods, a company which makes curry rues and other "quick food" items and came up with a black peppered potato chip. The chip is a "fake" potato chip (formed into a chip shape like Pringles), but the taste is great--nice and peppery! They also have a chili pepper version, in a red container, for you thrill-seekers!

Today, my student, Tomomi, brought me some onions which her parents got from some of their friends. They are huge! Will definitely be roasting some of these in the next couple of days. (Thank you!)

Here's another bead stitch project which I just finished. I still need to get it graded by the teacher. The 3 similar rings are the actual project. The "Louis Vuitton" marked ring was an extra project. Boy, those seed beads are tiny!

Hope you are keeping cool where you are and enjoying the weekend!

dinner

Tonight's dinner was roasted chicken with onions (both red & yellow) and fresh thyme. Oh, and some wilted spinach. Remember I got some fresh herbs? which I wrote about (here) .

Well, the watercress that I also got was dead this morning, all shrively dead. 

So I cut off the dead stems and leaves and gave it some water and what do you know? It revived, in the same day! Wow!

So, anyway, after seeing the "dead" watercress, I figured, I better do something with the other herbs that I got. I looked in "The Naked Chef" cookbook by Jamie Oliver.

I've always enjoyed his shows when they were on the Food Network. 

His accent was really cool and even though half of the time, I didn't really understand what he was saying, his style of cooking looked fun!

The best part about this cookbook is that he indexes everything by the ingredient, I just looked under "thyme" and there were all kinds of recipes listed!

Anyway, on page153 of the cookbook there is a recipe for "Roasted Red Onion with Thyme and Butter".

I followed the recipe--somewhat and ad-libbed a bit too.

Here's the original recipe:

Roasted Red Onion with Thyme and Butter
Serves 6

Try to get 6 equal-sized medium to large red onions. Remove the first layer of skin.

With a knife, just take the bottom of the core end of the onion off, to give it a flat base, and make 2 cuts in a cross-shape in the top, cutting half-way down (do not cut right through into quarters).

Push some chopped or pounded fresh thyme into these gaps with a good pinch of salt (it's important to get the salt right into the gaps) and a little piece of butter.

I prefer to cook the onions in an earthenware dish on a thin layer of sea salt or I put them in with my roast chicken or lamb and they cook quite happily in the same tray.

Place in the oven at 400F for 30-35 minutes. These onions are great with a roast, so tasty and sweet.

Note: Since I was only cooking for 2, I got 2 onions, one red and one yellow and halved both. With half a red and half a yellow, I cut these into half again.

I then lined two pyrex dishes with foil and put one fourth of each onion in. 

Then I cut 170g of chicken into 4 pieces and put two pieces in each dish and put some minced garlic on top, then I dotted each piece in the dish with butter, sprinkled some sea salt , ground some fresh pepper and then laid the fresh thyme on top.

I cooked it for 30 minutes in a 200C oven (actually I used the "cooking with foil button" on my oven and it is like putting it into a toaster oven for the 30 minutes). 

The onions were so soft and very tasty and the chicken was cooked just right. 

Try it, it is an easy dish to make especially when you working moms who come home from work and don't really feel like standing in front of the stove!

Enjoy!