pupu potato salad

Stumbled on this combo at the bento shop recently.

They not only sell bento but also pre-made foods and this was in that area…it was so delicious that I had to try recreating it…ajitama, yakibuta (roast pork) and potato salad

I was interested in looking for roast pork & ajitama made together so the flavors would be same and found some at the market the other day.

I cut off the fat from the roast pork and cut it into bite sized pieces.

The ajitama I cut in half then folded everything into the potato salad.

The original potato salad didn’t have veggies in it, but this version works.

If the roast pork or ajitama had a little “sauce” it would have melded better when I mixed it with the potato salad.

Still, this was delicious.

Not really a recipe, but I would definitely make this again.

aaloo masala

Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback on yesterday's post.

After I work on re-pasting the photos on the posts that are connected to Flickr, I will work on rotating the ones in the albums...

Changing subjects...Tried a new recipe recently called Aaloo Masala.

Apparently Aaloo is the Hindi word for potato and Masala is spices.

This is kind of like middle eastern potato salad.

Adapted from "Spice Cafe" by Kazushiro Ito, makes about 4 servings
2 potatoes (about 300 grams total)
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard seed
5 curry leaves
2 heaping tablespoons minced onion
2 heaping tablespoons minced carrot
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt

Peel and slice potatoes into cubes then boil until soft (about 15 minutes)
Drain and set aside
In a pan, heat oil on high and add mustard seeds
When you hear the seed start to pop, turn off the heat and cover the pan until the seeds stop popping.
Turn the heat back on to medium and tear up the curry leaves and add
Add the onion and carrots.
Cook until the onions are transparent
Add the turmeric and salt and mix well.
Add the spice veggies mixture to the potato, mashing the potato while stirring and leaving some chunks as well.
Serve warm.

NOTES: This was delicious and different. I served this with some tandoori chicken and would make this again.

Oh and with the other half, I made shepard's pie...in a baking dish, I put some steamed broccoli, cut up the tandoori chicken then topped it with the aaloo masala and then baked it in the oven for 20 minutes.

anchovy potato salad

There is a tiny bar in Osaka that I've been seeing on social media and it seems by the amount of photos uploaded that their most popular dish is an anchovy potato salad.

Satoshi and I have tried to eat there, but it is always crowded, so we've never been able to get in.

Anyway, since I had some potatoes, I wanted to try to make it.

Of course, since I've not actually tried it, I don't know what it is supposed to taste like...so I made up my own version.

Kat's Anchovy Potato Salad : serves 2 depending on your serving sizes

6 fingerling sized potatoes, peeled and diced

Dressing : adapted from "Everyday Salads" : Masaki Higuchi
2 tablespoons olive oil
anchovy paste about 1 tablespoon
1/2 teaspoon of grated garlic
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
freshly ground pepper
couple dashes of dried dill
1 tablespoon mayo

Mix dressing and set aside
Cook your diced potatoes and when tender, drain
Mash potatoes slightly and cool slightly
When potatoes are warm, add dressing.
Enjoy warm or chilled.

NOTES: this was delicious warm, nice with wine. We also had it the next day, chilled with beer.

I think it would be nice on toasted baguette also.

I am thinking to add some balsamic vinegar in place of the white wine vinegar and/or capers next time.

p.s. Happy Valentine's Day...we celebrated on Saturday with all sorts of sashimi (raw tako with ponzu, aji tataki (minced horse mackerel) & bincho maguro (albacore tuna)), anchovy potato salad & other nibbles.

playing with your food

If you've ever travelled to Japan, you may or may not know that the potato salad here is more like mashed potatoes.

I'm not sure why this is but I have found a new way to put potato salad out on your table for Christmas parties.

All you need is some potato salad, some lettuce and stars cut out of carrots or yellow bell peppers.

Just layer the potato salad between leaves of lettuce, top with a carrot (I used light yellow carrots) or yellow bell pepper star and voila!

You'll have a Christmas tree...fun, yeah?!

When I saw this being done on tv, I wasn't sure as to how big the pieces of lettuce should be, so my leaves were quite large.

I made individual "trees", but think that if you break your lettuce up into smaller bite sized pieces it will be easier to make your potato salad tree.

If you do try this out, let me know what you think.

Merry Christmas everyone!

odds & ends

Not enough days to blog about everything, so this post is packed with randomness...

Yesterday, we had snow, all.morning.long.

Luckily, I didn't have anything planned, so I stayed indoors and made this brownie dessert for Valentine's.

I used milk chocolate since that is what Satoshi likes. I didn't add sugar to the recipe since I was using milk chocolate and I also made a glaze/frosting for the brownies...don't ask me how much butter I used...gasp!

Earlier this month, we had some Chinese food for Chinese New Years at Lei Can Ting.

I don't think anything on my plate was traditionally Chinese New Years food, but it was fancy and really delicious.

There was a piece of shrimp coated with a sweet mayonnaise, daikon cake, half a piece of spring roll, some steamed dim sum, salad, a soup with a gyoza in it and for dessert a jin dui filled with sweet bean paste...oh an a bowl of congee topped with crunchy spring roll skins, pieces of pickled daikon and green onions...whew!

Had to try Deb's caramelized pineapple with dark chocolate, after seeing her version, here.

I didn't grill mine, just used a non-stick pan, and my sugar coating was a bit watered down, so it took awhile to caramelize, but it was so delicious with the dark chocolate.

The sweet from the pineapple and the tartness from the dark chocolate...great with wine.

And then there was an evening when we had buri sushi (amberjack).

The pieces of fish were so thick and fresh. Love the supermarket's pre-made food area.

Recently tried this imperial porter called "To whom it may concern, we didn't ask you what kind of beer you like, sorry".

Made with black sugar it had hints of chocolate and caramel...yum!

Celebrating 30 years, Haagen Dazs came out with a rose ice cream...wow the rose flavor is so nice, not perfumy or overpowering.

On the other hand, their sakura ice cream was bad, really bad....even if sakura translates to cherry, it isn't the same cherry as bing or sour cherries...blah!

Ginormous potato, and only 38 yen!

I boiled the potato and mixed in a tablespoon of andasu and some mayo for a kind of potato salad...delicious!

What have you been enjoying?

kim chee potato salad

Still addicted to kim chee...this dish is a re-creation of something Satoshi and I had at the River Cafe in Umeda.

Kim chee potato salad.

The version we had was a bit spicier but this recipe is rather close.

3 small potatoes (about 4 inches long and 1 inch in diameter each), peeled and cooked
1 egg, hard boiled
1/2 Japanese cucumber, sliced into short matchsticks
50 grams kim chee, chopped chunky
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (preferably Best Foods, but I think they used Kewpie (a Japanese mayo))

After you cook the potatoes, mash but leave chunky
Peel egg and let egg & potato cool
Using a knife, cut up egg into small pieces
Add cucumber, kim chee, oil and mayo
Mix well
Serve on lettuce. (I served it on sanchu (Korean lettuce))

NOTES: This dish was served with crispy won ton chips on it, but I omitted it. It comes together quickly. I'm definitely making this again.

from parsley comes...

The weather has been gradually getting cooler. Not humid as much and bearable. The plants apparently appreciate the cooler weather too because my Italian parsley got really bushy.

After the downpour on Friday morning, I decided to seek out lunch and go grocery shopping.

Since I had potatoes, I thought I would use part of the parsley for potato salad.

Cooked 3 small potatoes until tender then peeled them and cut them kind of chunky. Cut a bit of onion and grated it.
Sliced some cucumber thin and added salt and let them sit for 5 minutes then rinsed and squeezed them.
Added 2 slices of crispy bacon, broken up into bits.
Added 1 tablespoon of sweet pickle juice, 2 teaspoons mayo and several tablespoons of Penzey's Green Goddess dressing*
Chopped up a little handful of parsley.
Mixed well and chilled until dinner.

*I got part of the Penzey's Green Goddess dressing mix from my mom when I was home earlier this year. The mix is easy to put together, just some vinegar, water and yogurt or mayo. I used yogurt. We've been enjoying this dressing with cucumber and carrot sticks.

From my rice connection, I also received some eggplants (thank you!), so I decided to use them and some carrots in this recipe. My food processor is really teeny so it took me several batches to blend the soup, and there were some chunks that missed out on the food processing, but it was great, especially with some toasted sesame bread.

For dessert, I melted some dark chocolate to drizzle pour over some haupia...whew! that was a lot of food, but it was all good.

Satoshi is at work today, so it is just another day at home for me, hope you are enjoying your weekend.

okara "potato" salad

Part of tonight's dinner, a "potato" salad made with okara (soy bean curd lees). I found this recipe on the okara package and changed it here and there. It is really easy to make.

Okara "Potato" Salad :serves 4

120g okara
1/2 cucumber, sliced thinly
1/2 a carrot, sliced thinly
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper
A few slices of ham, cubed
1 tablespoon plain yogurt--no sugar added
1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1. Put the cucumber and carrot in a bowl and sprinkle salt on to it. Let sit for about 3 minutes to draw the liquid out 

2. Take veggies, rinse and squeeze out as much of the water as possible.

3. Add ham, okara, salt, pepper

4. Add yogurt and mayo. Mix well.

Enjoy!

NOTES: You can use whatever veggies you usually put into your regular potato salad (if you use frozen peas and carrots, just omit the salting (Step 1)). This recipe is good because okara has no distinct flavor of its own so it actually tastes like there are potatoes in the salad, even if there aren't! Oh, and if you make it the night before, you can come home from work and just heat up your main dish....Dinner is served!

I also wanted to share with you something that occurs during autumn--A lot of people dry their kaki (persimmons). I've often seen them hanging off their lanais, but this was the first time I got to actually try some. My student, Kazumi, gave me some yesterday, her friend's mom dried them. Apparently, they had so many kaki, that her friend's mom was peeling kaki almost everyday!

It was interesting to see up close, they use nylon type rope and stick the stem of the kaki through the rope to "string" them up. The kaki is sweet and reminds me of dried apricots. Just be careful of the pits, they are quite hard!