baked beans with portuguese sausage

With a couple of linguica, I made a really small batch of baked beans for our Sunday dinner, and had enough leftovers for dinner on Monday…whoo!

I hadn't bought catsup in ages, but needed some for this recipe, so I bought a small bottle.

Also didn't have a can of pork and beans, just a can of baked beans, so that is what I used.

Found a "bigger" can of kidney beans...110 grams!

Will stock up on more "real size" canned beans the next time I go to the import market to buy our coffee beans.

I didn't have prepared mustard, only grainy, so that is what I used.

I should've added the molasses and brown sugar to give it another layer of flavor, but I felt there was enough sweetness from the beans and catsup.

And since I didn't have worcestershire sauce, I used a little okonomiyaki sauce.

No white vinegar either so I used rice vinegar.

Really ad-lib.

My mom would often make a big pyrex pot of this for our Sunday dinner gatherings and use kielbasa instead of portuguese sausage though.

Good memories and this hit the spot.

portuguese "bean" soup

Made a small batch of Portuguese Bean soup with a couple of the linguica...my only problem was that I couldn't find a can of kidney beans at the market I was at.

I ended up buying these kidney beans...50 grams.

This product is intended to be added to salads.

And this one with 5 beans and 5 grains...40 grams. 

Tastewise, the soup came out pretty close to what I've had at home.

I'm glad I got to make this.

meister toganeya

So...we used some of the liver pate for banh mi and we ate one of the linguica with rice and egg.

For our pupu party one night, I used one of the chorizo with some fried potatoes and onions.

The chorizo had just enough heat but doesn't totally burn your mouth off.

Instead of making aioli for the potatoes, I used the bits from the everything cashews and added it to the mayo...so ono!

With the corned beef, I made corned beef and cabbage.

It wasn't as salty as the canned type but was still very flavorful and tender.

We had the salami with crackers and a soft cheese spread that had chives and garlic in it.

The salami was aged and so melt in your mouth!

The white sausage I served as breakfast since I read online that the white sausages "should not hear the noon church bells chime"

I read that it should also be served with sweetened mustard, so I mixed grainy mustard with some honey.

The casing are also supposedly not eaten, so we cut a slit and "rolled" them out to eat.

The soft pretzel I bought from Himmel, a bakery in Oookayama.

We still have some of the linguica, chorizo, pate and white sausage left, so we'll be eating this in the coming weeks.

I would definitely order from this shop again.

shine muscat and charcuterie

Over the weekend, Satoshi ordered Shine muscats from his friend.

He said he ordered 2 kilos but it looks like it might be more...with shipping and tax 4000 yen?! not sure how much since Satoshi ordered it...

I ordered a selection of sausages from Meister Toganeya, who makes their sausages in the German style.

I was particularly interested in their Linguica because I am always on the lookout for “portuguese sausage”.

I also ordered their corned beef, chorizo, weißwurst (white sausage), liver pate and salami…5590 yen (tax and shipping included).

Since this charcuterie maker does not use preservatives, I put almost everything into the freezer for us to enjoy with wine or breakfast in the coming weeks.

So far, we've had some of the liver pate as banh mi.

The maker suggest toasting the pate on baguette, so that is what I did, super flavorful and creamy!

And one of the linguica with rice and egg...so ono! the meat inside the casing is super tender and tastes similar to the portuguese sausage we have in Hawaii.

The weather has been in-between Fall and Summer, so it is hard to determine what to wear, whether to bring an umbrella or whether to turn on the ac.

I hope the weather is nice where you are.

on a walk

Today we had sun! After a couple of grey and rainy days, it was nice to get out for a walk...except that the wind was super strong and icy!

After we tried the sausage with yuzu in it, I researched and found out it was made by Minoo Sausage.

I had seen it at a local supermarket, but when I went back to buy some, they had already sold out.

Fast forward to today, on my walk, I found it at a touristy shop along the trail to the Minoo Falls...800 yen (tax included).

I froze it and we'll eat it as pupu (appetizers) this winter.

Along the trail, I also found some yuzu...Todoromi yuzu is grown in the Minoo mountains.

1 kilo was 320 yen (tax included).

I was so happy to find some.

When I got home, I started prepping to make some yuzu marmalade.

And wouldn't you know, I ran out of sugar, so I ran out to the store and picked up some.

This year's marmalade is darker because I used brown sugar.

I still have a bottle that I made last year, and can't wait to try this year's batch.

Have a nice weekend!

nozaki vienna sausage

I found the vienna sausage made by Nozaki.

The can is about the same size as the Libby ones.

I also bought a can of their 50% less fat corned beef to try.

I was surprised because if I remember correctly, Libby's has only 7 vienna sausages in their can...Nozaki has 14!

Super cute and teeny but 14.

We had these for two breakfasts.

They are smokey flavored and they have casings with a nice snap.

Not something we'll be eating everyday, but at least I know I can buy something similar here.

goya

The temperature is supposed to drop to the lower 10s Celsius (50s Fahrenheit), so I picked the one and only goya that grew this year.

It got bigger than a week or two ago...from around 10 centimeters to 17 centimeters!

With part of it, I sauteed it with some lup cheong. It was delicious, the sweetness from the lup cheong helped to cut the bitterness.

And with the rest I made goya tsukudani.

I really wanted to make stuffed goya, but I didn't have any cilantro growing and the goya was a little too teeny to stuff.

I saved the seeds from this goya...hopefully next year I'll have more goya to show you.

It is Friday here, the temps have dropped quite a bit over here, though they are talking about summery weather in a couple of days, WT?! Hope you have a nice weekend.

lup cheong rice

Earlier this year I made a rice dish using xiang chang (the fresh version of lup cheong, a chinese sausage), which I wrote about here.

Well, on my last trip back to Hawaii, I brought back a can of chicken stock (which is really hard to get in Japan) and some lup cheong (dried Chinese sausage).

I washed 1/2 a cup of mochi rice and 1/2 a cup of white rice.

For the liquid, I used a half cup of stock and half cup of water.

Then I threw in the last piece of xiang chang (fresh chinese sausage) I had and some pieces of lup cheong into the rice cooker.

And when it was done, I added a handful of green onions.

This tasted just as I remembered it, thanks for the recipe Mom!

hawaii remembers

What kinds of things did you have for breakfast growing up?

We were lucky because on weekends Mom used to make all sorts of things for my brother and I.

One dish in particular was her peanut butter french toast.

Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (Jelly preferably guava.)

Dip into milk and egg mixture as you normally would french toast and cook with butter.

The version we had recently was different from "small kid times" (childhood) because my mom doesn't buy Love's white bread anymore, only whole wheat bread.

Another nostalgic breakfast is portuguese sausage, eggs and rice.

The spiciness and texture of portuguese sausage is something that cannot be found in Japan, though some chorizo can come quite close.

The egg has to be sunny side up or over easy...anything that will ooze over the plate, picking up some of the "juices" from the sausage, and soaking into the rice.

(Don't forget some ketchup on the eggs.)

Nowadays though, mom "fries" the sausage in the oven without having to stand by the stove (gets out a lot of oil too).

Looking back on the foods we eat nowadays, they have changed considerably from when we were growing up, but the tastes and memories have not.

tor road deli

The other week when Satoshi and I went to Kobe, I stopped in Le Dimanche to pick up a few items.

When I came out, I spotted Tor Road Deli.

I had heard of them, but didn't realize they were right across the street from Le Dimanche.

Satoshi and I popped in and picked up some bacon and bologna. Everything that we bought happened to be 30% off and came out to 977 yen (about US$9.77).

I was surprised that the bacon had many slices, usually you can only get about 4 or 5 from other brands for just about the same price.

The package of bacon had 10 slices and the bologna had 10 slices (I counted).

Though there wasn't enough fat to make the bacon crisp.

We had the bologna one morning as a bologna and cheese sandwich. They also gave us a packet of french mustard, it tasted like French's yellow mustard and went nicely with the bologna.

This deli was different from what I imagined a deli to be like; more meats and no salads. I think in French they call this type of deli a charcuterie.

They even have a sandwich room on the 2nd floor, which I think you can order and eat sandwiches there.

I'm glad we got to try some of their items. I will buy from them the next time I go to Hankyu department store or Kobe.

Tor Road Delicatessen
2-6-5 Kitanagasa-dori
Chuo, Kobe
Phone: 078.331.6535
Closed Wednesdays

brats

I recently found Johnsonville smoked brats at a local supermarket and thought they would go nicely with the bottle of sauerkraut I had in my fridge. They were 4 for 480 yen (about US$4.80).

I was looking at the back of the package and they have a Japanese website, maybe Italian sausage will soon be in our local markets?? hmmm...

So, I "grilled" the brats on my grill pan along with some onions, red bell pepper and eringi mushroom.

Since I couldn't find hot dog buns without margarine in them, I bought these long-ish raisin walnut rolls which I split open then toasted. These still had margarine in them but I figured with the raisin and walnut I offset the bad fat...

To eat this I needed a knife and fork, the outside of the brats had a nice crisp snap to them....delicious.

odds & ends

It is the end of the month which means that I need to clear out some photos.

Taste Delight's Maple Leaf Cream Cookies. Maple syrup flavored cookies with cream centers. Pulling them apart reminded me of Oreos, I loved the maple syrup flavor. The cream center wasn't maple syrup flavored, if it were I think it would have been too much.

My Smoothie's Superfruit acai smoothie, a product from Sweden have these great design boxes, the box folds up after drinking.

According to the outside of the box, the smoothie has 19 acai berries, 1 apple, 1/2 banana, 14 raspberries, 52 blueberries and 9 blackberries all in this tiny box. I loved the taste but didn't like the pulp, almost made me gag, I'm such a wuss.

Sekai no Kitchen's Tiramisu Latte, was very almond extract-y (is that even grammatically correct?) and combines marscapone and espresso. I don't think I would drink this one again.

Lipton's extra shot Chai....this one was more on the clove side, not sure if I would get this one again.

Dean & Deluca's Bretagne Caramel Walnut Ice cream....delicious. Lots of walnuts in caramel ice cream.

Awhile back, I bought these hotate (scallops) which were grilled at Daiei, 150 yen (about US$1.50) a stick. I also picked up some tako (octopus) and then made a donburi (bowl) with rice, lettuce, the hotate and tako, a little kim chee and yuk-hoe sauce, a fast delicious dinner.

I was surprised at how small the filet-o-fish at McD's is...it was the size of my palm! This sandwich reminds me of my grandma.

When we were growing up we would catch The Bus with my grandparents to Ala Moana shopping center. We would eat lunch at McDonald's and my grandma would always eat the filet-o-fish.

I recently defrosted some homemade portuguese sausage and paired it with kim chee fried rice for a quick weekend lunch.The month flew by so fast!

re-creating and a re-do

If you recall, last month I made taegu which was too salty. With the rest of the dried codfish, I soaked it in water overnight then used the same recipe for the sauce and I also added 1 teaspoon of kim chee starter.

I liked this version, it wasn't as salty as my first trial and the fish was softer. It was definitely easier to separate from the bone too (though I did find while eating that I missed some). I think the next time I try making this, I will try it with cuttlefish.

Since I had some potatoes that needed to be used, I wanted to try making the korean potatoes that I sometimes get in Hawaii whenever I eat Korean take-out. I found an easy recipe in Jean Watanabe Hee's "Salads, Sides and Soups".

Here is the recipe if you want to try making it:

Korean Potatoes : 6 servings

3 medium potatoes (about 2 pounds)
2 cups water
1 tablespoon Hawaiian salt

Soy sauce mixture:
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon pepper (or less, adjust to taste)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Peel and cut potatoes into bite sized pieces. Immerse in brine of water and salt for 10 minutes; drain. Place potatoes in skillet and pour soy sauce mixture over. Cook, uncovered, over medium-high heat for 10 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.

NOTES: while typing this recipe, I realized I didn't put the oil into the sauce. Still, the potatoes are tasty and just like the potatoes you can get at most Hawaii Korean take-out places.

Another comfort food I tried making was portuguese sausage. When we lived in Hawaii, Satoshi and I loved this especially for breakfast and loved putting it into chili. There is supposed to be a flavor packet made by Noh Foods for making portuguese sausage, but I've never found it at the local markets in Hawaii. My mom clipped out the recipe from the paper and sent it to me this past Christmas. (Thanks Mom!)

Portuguese Sausage Patties from HSB "By Request", who got it from Muriel Miura's "Hawai`i Cooks & Saves"

2 pounds pork, coarsely ground or chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 chili peppers, chopped
2 to 2.5 teaspoons salt or 1.5 teaspoons rock salt
1/8 teaspoon cumin, optional
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup water
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red food coloring, optional
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke

Combine pork with garlic, chilies, salt and spices.
Combine water with food coloring, vinegar and liquid smoke.
Pour over pork mixture and mix well.
Cover and refrigerate 2 days, mixing occasionally.
Shape into thin, 2-inch wide patties and fry in ungreased skillet 5 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned and cooked through.
Makes 32 patties, serves 8.

NOTES: I didn't add the cumin, food coloring or liquid smoke. The texture was more like pork sausage, a little different from the portuguese sausage that we know, but it tasted ono (delicious in Hawaiian)! When I fried some up for breakfast, I used a tablespoon to scoop out the sausage mixture, rolled it in my palms then flattened it. The rest of the sausage mixture, I divvied up and put it into the freezer so we have some to fry up for other breakfasts.

The last thing I tried re-creating was a reuben. We don't have delis here where you can get sandwiches made, so I was happy to come across pastrami, rye bread and sauerkraut at the supermarket. The rye bread tasted more like white bread with hard seeds in it, but the pastrami and sauerkraut were delicious. I didn't add any type of dressing, but I did add some cheese and cornichons on the side....delicious.

What have you been eating?