trying new recipes

Tried some new recipes yesterday.

Mio's Sauce by Mio Matsui

6 tablespoons sesame oil

10 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)

6 tablespoons sake (rice wine)

4 tablespoons sugar

2 cloves garlic, grated

salt & pepper

Heat the sauce until the sugar melts.

Cool and put into an airtight jar.

I marinated 200 grams of beef with half of this sauce for 30 minutes.

NOTES: super tasty and easy, will try this sauce with chicken or pork next.

Hakusai and Kaki Amazu-ae from 3-pun Cooking

200 grams hakusai, weighed, cleaned then sliced thin

5 grams salt

180 grams kaki (persimmon)

Sauce

3 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon shoyu (soy sauce)

After slicing the hakusai, sprinkle the salt and set aside for 10 minutes.

Squeeze out the water from the hakusai after 10 minutes.

Peel the persimmon and cut the fruit into bite sized pieces

Add the hakusai and persimmon to the sauce.

Mix well and chill before serving.

NOTES: delicious! great as pickles or salad. Will definitely make this again.

 

hermes

When you see the word "Hermes" what do you think of?

Well, in Osaka, Hermes is the brand name of a sauce. Apparently the name is based on the Greek God, Hermes.

Since 1935, they have been making worcestershire, tonkatsu (pork cutlet) sauce, as well as sauces for yakisoba (fried noodles) and kushikatsu (fried items on a stick).

I like the tang of this sauce, a little sweet, a little spicy.

Osaka has many brands of sauces, hope to try more in the future.

teriyaki sandwich

I had told you that Kirk's post, had me craving all things teriyaki.

And even though I had had a teri burger, it still wasn't the "local style", comfort kind of food that I grew up with...

You should know that teri beef sandwiches in our family usually don't happen the day the teriyaki is made (grilled).

Nope, it is the day (or two) after that the sandwiches are made.

The teriyaki is usually cold, right out of the refrig.

I usually toast my bread, I think I'm the only one in my family that does this for sandwiches.

Best Foods mayo is used, and for me, I always put lots of lettuce.

So anyway, since I still had teriyaki on my brain yesterday, I made some...unfortunately grating garlic and ginger (frozen or fresh) or any veggie for that matter almost always results in grating Kat's finger(s)...eep! and ow!

The sauce is super easy to put together and comes from "Popo's Kitchen". It's the recipe my mom used whenever she made teriyaki.

I scribbled this recipe down the last time I was home, so if you have the book, you may want to look at it for more "details"...

Teriyaki Sauce: "Popo's Kitchen"
1/2 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
1/3 cup sugar
ginger
garlic
1/8 cup sake (rice wine)
1 teaspoon sesame oil

NOTES: The shoyu I used is a less-salt type. I also used turbinado sugar (large crystal type brown sugar), 1 clove of garlic and a 2-inch diameter 1/2-inch thick piece of garlic.

I also added some sliced green onion.

Since I only used 200 grams (less than half a pound) of thinly sliced beef, I cut the sauce recipe in half.

In Japanese they call the cut of beef, "momo" which means thigh, but I think we call it "flank" or "shank" in the US.

I marinated the meat for 5 hours and cooked it on a non-stick pan　(medium heat).

Because the meat was so thin, it cooked up in no time.

The sugar in the marinade helps to give the meat a nice char.

For my sandwich, I used a malt-walnut roll, which I split in half and toasted. I also used mayo (Kewpie) and some lettuce.

Since I had this for dinner, I had it with some salad and this Orion beer.

This is their can at the moment. Did you know that in Okinawa, their sakura (cherry blossoms) bloom in late January-early February?!

Anyway, it was my first time trying Orion, and I think it matched nicely with this sandwich.

Talk about messy eats...teriyaki sauce dripping all over the place! at least the meat was super tender and marinated well.

The weather yesterday was crappy, gloomy and rainy, but this sandwich really helped to brighten things up (even though it wasn't eaten a day or two after the teriyaki was made).

copycat

The other morning, I tried the copycat recipe for Boots & Kimo's Macadamia Nut Sauce. Boots & Kimo's is an eatery in Hawaii which I've written about here.

Yesterday was a holiday, I didn't want to feel frazzled in the kitchen, so I made the pancakes Sunday night and then made the sauce just before breakfast Monday morning.

Boots & Kimo Copycat Macadamia Nut Sauce from the internet 

1 cup macadamia nuts
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup each whole milk and heavy (whipping) cream (OR 2 cups half & half)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoons lemon juice

Finely grind nuts in food processor. Dry cook in saucepan over medium-high for 5 minutes, until fragrant.

Lower heat to medium. Add butter; stir until melted. Stir in flour cook 1 minute.

SLOWLY add milk and heavy cream (or half & half), CONSTANTLY whisking. Add sugar, salt, lemon juice and vanilla. Bring just to a boil (or almost to a boil, be careful) and then reduce heat just a little so that it's not boiling. Cook 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring CONSTANTLY. Serve warm.

NOTES: First off, I cut this recipe to 1/4 (we don't need to be eating that much sauce).
I roasted the nuts in a 150C (300F) oven for 10 minutes, then chopped them by hand, so the nuts were chunky not fine.
I used full cream and skim milk, leaving out the salt and lemon juice.
I did this all on low heat because I was afraid of the sauce boiling, so it took awhile before thickening.
Keep your eye on this, and keep stirring.
To keep the nuts crunchy, I just sprinkled some on before serving.

This was delicious! Satoshi loved it too. I'm definitely making this again.

lemon chicken

The other day, I was craving lemon chicken.

Thing is you don't really see it on menus here.

So, I figured I had to make it from scratch.

I didn't want to fry chicken though, so I cheated and bought some pre-made karaage (fried chicken).

The surprising thing is that many of the cookbooks I have, have the sauce recipe for lemon chicken but most only call for a tablespoon of lemon juice?! and lots of vinegar...Really?!

I had some local lemons that I wanted to use, so I made up this one:

juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup)
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 cup water
slurry (cornstarch & water)
thinly sliced lemon
pre-made karaage (fried chicken)

Bring the lemon juice, honey and water to a boil and drizzle in the slurry until you get the thickness desired.
Add the sliced lemon at the end.
Drizzle over the chicken.

NOTES: I think my sauce could've been a little thicker but this really hit the spot. I served the chicken over stir-fried veggies.

p.s. It's the start of a 4-day weekend and the tail-end of Golden Week, have a nice weekend, everyone!

june berry "jelly"

The other day I went over to my friend, Kazumi's house.

She recently renovated her kitchen and invited me over for lunch.

In her front yard, I noticed a june berry tree, which is also known as amelanchier.

I had learned about june berries when I went to buy some cake for Satoshi's birthday.

The patissier had some cuttings of this plant near the register and it had lots of berries on them. I asked him what kind of berry it was and he explained that it was a june berry.

So, when I went over to Kazumi's and saw the berries I asked her if they were june berries.

She said the were and went to pick some. They were a little tart, look like a blueberry and had tiny seeds like raspberries.

When the berries are ripe, they turn a dark purple.

After a delicious lunch of tuna and onion cake salé, lox and bagels and some tossed salad, she let me pick about half a pound of these berries.

I washed them then cooked them in some water for 15 minutes.

Then I strained the juice out in some cheesecloth.

After straining, I ended up with 1.75 cups of juice to which I added 1.75 cups of sugar and cooked it for about half and hour (or maybe it was longer).

I ended up with three half-cup jars of "jelly".

The taste sort of reminds me of blueberry...The next morning, I checked on it, but it didn't gel so well because I didn't add any pectin and didn't have any lemons to add some lemon juice.

So instead of jelly, it is a very thick fruit sauce.

This is great on yogurt and I'm almost certain it is great on pancakes too...

Yup, they were good on pancakes, I just need to tweak my pancake recipe and cut back some sugar in that to balance everything out.

Oh and I gave Kazumi two of the three bottles, I hope she liked it...(Thank you!)

yakionigiri

Just before going to bed the other night, I was thinking about what else I could use the shoyu negi sauce for.

And I thought of this...yakionigiri (grilled rice balls).

Technically, you are supposed to "grill" them on a wire grill over a flame or hot coals, but I don't have a wire grill nor the coals, so I used my non-stick pan.

I brushed a little canola oil onto the pan and then set the onigiri on it.

Then I brushed the onigiri with what oil was left on the brush.

When I could hear a little sizzle, I brushed the shoyu negi sauce on. Flipping the onigiri after it had been basted.

I did this several times until I got a nice brown color.

OM! this was delicious. The brown parts were chewy and a little crisp. Nice flavor from the sauce too.

This was great for a first try, I only wish I had made a triangle shaped onigiri so that I could have "grilled" the sides too.

Since I have some sauce left, I'm trying this again...soon!

shoyu negi sauce

It is June, before I tell you about this shoyu negi sauce, I thought I should give you an update on things around here.

The weather is still quite cool (thank goodness!) We've had some hot and humid days, but we've also had lots of rain (and a typhoon).

The areas affected by the earthquake are slowly getting back to normal, though monies are not getting to them quick enough.

Goya (bittermelon) plants are a "hot" item. The shade the vines and leaves create are being sought after with the heat of summer expected.

There is talk of the need for cutting down on electricity usage countrywide to help out the areas where the destroyed nuclear power plant used to supply, which spurred the trend with the goya.

Oh, and that site that was stealing my posts?

I thought that their site was taken down, but actually they seem to have stopped uploading stuff, think it is because I changed my RSS feed from "full" to "short"...yeah!

Anyway, that's basically what's happening around here, now let me tell you about the sauce.

The other day, I was watching a morning show and got the idea for this sauce.

They had shown the sauce being drizzled over karaage (deep fried) chicken along with some fried eggplant.

Unfortunately, the show didn't give an actual recipe, so I had to think up my own...

I don't fry at home much, so I cheated and bought some pre-made karaage chicken.

Also, instead of frying the eggplant, I sauteed some eggplant, carrot, shiitake & onion with some sesame oil until the eggplant was cooked through.

Then I made the sauce:

Kat's shoyu negi sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3.5 tablespoons sudachi (lime) juice
3 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
2 teaspoons sesame oil
a pinch of dried sliced chili
a sprinkle of black sesame seeds
1 stalk shironegi (leek) (white part only), minced
10 leaves shiso (perilla) julienned

Mix well, until sugar is dissolved.

I placed some of the sauteed veggies on the bottom of my dish then put the karaage chicken on top.

Then I drizzled two tablespoons of this over it.

NOTES: Yum! this sauce is refreshing and matches the fried chicken. I'm making this again, and maybe drizzling it over other fried things like fried squid or fish.

We're expecting some rain today, so I'm planning on staying indoors.

leftovers

The weather has gotten pretty warm during the daytime. Still, nights and early morning are cool and comfortable.

Satoshi has not been eating at home because of his business trip and a drinking party (oh man, I could rant about the after effects of that drinking party...but it would be TMI (too much info) and this is a food blog..ahem!)....

So anyway, while he was gone, I tried to use what I had in my fridge as much as possible.

On one night, I had a repeat of the summer rolls for dinner.

Then the other day, I bought some mini spring rolls with some leftover nuoc cham for lunch. (Along with a musubi and some iced earl grey tea)

In Japan, spring rolls usually have bean sprouts, some minced pork, carrots, sometimes harusame (vermicelli)...the taste and texture reminds me of what the Filipinos call lumpia.

These were freshly made at the supermarket and only 150 yen (about US$1.50) for three....mmm!

I love how most supermarkets have their own kitchens to make different foods instead of having other vendors bring them in.

Then for dinner on another night, I bought some fried squid and some harusame namasu.

Harusame namasu is vermicelli noodles, carrots, cucumber and kikurage (wood ear) marinated in a vinegar-sugar mixture...quite refreshing during the summer months.

I drained the vinegar mixture then placed the namasu on top of some lettuce, topped it with the fried squid which I heated in the oven, then drizzled on the last of the nuoc cham.

Wow! this version was awesome and I love how the flavors didn't overpower one another.

What have you been eating?

p.s. if you enjoy our blog, would you please "like" our Facebook page?! Thanks in advance.

creme de caramel au beurre sale

I don't know about you, but I am easily influenced by what others blog about...like creme de caramel au beurre sale (aka salted butter caramel sauce).

If I can't find it where I am, then I'm interested in trying to make it myself.

Anyway, awhile back, Kathy travelled to France and enjoyed jars of this stuff.

I happened across bottles of this in an import shop in Osaka and bought one to try.

It wasn't the exact same brand that she had tried but it was still from Bretagne (Brittany), France, where this type of sauce is well-known.

In fact, this sauce was darker than the one she tried.

I put it in the refrig and finally opened the bottle the other night.

I was amazed because even with the sauce being kept in the refrig, the sauce is soft, spreadable.

I zapped a tablespoon of the sauce and drizzled it over vanilla ice cream.

The sauce still stayed soft even on ice cream.

It was delicious! Salty and sweet. I think the next time I'm trying this on pancakes, I should actually try making crepes...hmm.

UPDATE: this is good on pancakes, tried it yesterday at breakfast.

gu-iri ra-yu

There is a food trend going on here...it is called gu-iri ra-yu (goo-ee-li lah-you) or chili oil with "stuff" in it.

It all started with an article about it in a magazine for housewives...now you can't even buy the original item because the company is trying to keep up with the demand.

So one morning on television, I saw a recipe on how to make my own.

I ran into a problem (or two) while making it. First, I didn't have enough ground chili, so I put in some chili flakes. And then I put in too much oyster sauce (that's what happens when you measure over the container!)

Here is the recipe if you want to try.

Gu-iri Ra-yu : Adapted from Komoda Kinya's recipe shown on "Tokudane"
Makes a little over a cup : serving size 1/2 tablespoon or so

30 grams garlic*
300 milliliters olive oil
2 tablespoon ground chili
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1.5 tablespoon kochujang (korean spicy miso)
1.5 tablespoon miso
1/2 tablespoon shoyu
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sesame seed
12 grams fried onions
1 tablespoon sesame seed oil

Put everything into a pan and heat until you get tiny bubbles (about 3 minutes or so)

Store in a glass jar and take out of the refridge a little before using.

NOTES:You can change the measurements, adding more or less. You could even add some scallions and or ginger skins. I think the combinations are endless!

The ones I've seen on television are red, red, RED. Mine didn't turn out as red, but this thing has KICK! It starts off sweet then the chili kicks in, you cough a little and then eat some more. The sliced garlic actually tasted more like sliced almonds.

*For the garlic, try to slice it thin first, rinse, dry well then fry, this way you will have some crunch. If you can find some garlic that is already dried and sliced use that instead, it will save you some time. If you do use garlic that is already dried and sliced, just break it up with your hands into chunky bits.

So far, we've eaten this on tofu with green onions...perfect for a light entree or pupu (appetizer).

And mixed with some ground pork and tofu as a kind of mabo tofu.

I also sauteed some shrimp and green onions with it.

This is quite salty and spicy so make sure to serve lots of rice (and beer).

wow

Did you vote yesterday? I did (by mail). The coverage here in Japan was unreal, at some points I was thinking, "Japan should be worrying about their own government instead of concentrating so much on ours", but I realized that with the outcome it will affect everyone not only in the U.S.

A national channel broadcasted ABC's live coverage, so I sat in front of the television for most of the morning. I usually go out to buy groceries and lunch during that time of the day, instead, I ate whatever leftovers I had in the refrig and was hooked as to see what would happen.

Finally, I gave in and had to take my nap, (I take a nap everyday so that I can wait up for Satoshi to come home and feed him dinner). I woke up to hear the last part of Barack Obama's acceptance speech. (Thank goodness for the internet because I was able to see the whole speech). And what a speech it was...at points I cried, it was moving and inspiring....exciting stuff! If you have a chance to vote in the country you live in, you should, it can really make a difference.

Now, let's move on to food...a couple of weeks ago when I went to Tokyo, I picked up this tiny bottle of chocolate salted caramel sauce (the bottle on the left) made by Les Comptoirs de Saint Malo. (840 yen about US$8.40)

Well, today I made a batch of David Lebovitz's Philly style vanilla ice cream and scooped out a teaspoon of the sauce.

Nuked the sauce....

then poured it on...heavenly. (I could probably eat this sauce straight out of the bottle.)

What a great day it was.

barbecue sauce

Living in Japan, I sometimes crave for barbecue sauce. Not the teriyaki kind, but "western-style" barbecue sauce. I finally decided to try a recipe from one of my cookbooks called "Barbecue Bible" by Steven Raichlen. Awhile back I had bought Jack Daniel's whiskey to make barbecue sauce, but never got around to doing it.

It turned out to be REALLY easy--mainly because I zapped the onion in my food processor.

Still House Barbecue Sauce from "Barbecue Bible" by Steven Raichlen

Ingredients:
1 cup Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey
1 cup ketchup
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup onion, very finely minced
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1.5 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke

Combine all the ingredients in a large, heavy nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce the heat and briskly simmer, uncovered, until richly flavored and slightly thickened, about 20 minutes, stirring from time to time with a wooden spoon.
Use right away or transfer to jars, cover, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.
The sauce will keep for several months.
Makes about 4 cups.

Note: I cut this recipe to 1/4 of the measurements because we didn't need 4 cups of sauce.

For tonight's dinner, I grilled then baked some pork chops and made some mashed potatoes and a salad.

This sauce is spicy but really good...think I'll try it on chicken next...

Enjoy your Superbowl parties for those of you in the States!!
Have a nice week.