gudakusan u no hana

Gudakusan u no hana (goo-dah-coo-sa-n-ooh-no-ha-nah) loosely translates to okara (soy lees) with lots of "stuff" in it.

I recently tried a recipe in Masakichi's book.

Adapted from "Bento no Hon" by Masakichi
150 grams okara (soy lees)
1/2 carrot, julienned
some hijiki, rehydrated
some goya (bittermelon), cleaned and thinly sliced
5 grams chirimen (dried whitebait)
2 handfuls chopped green onion
1.5 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
3 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 egg, scrambled

Heat a pan and add the oil
Add the okara and with a wooden spoon, coat with the oil and break the okara up a little
Add the carrot, hijiki, goya and chirimen, heat through (or cook to tenderness of your liking)
Add the green onion, mix well
Add the sugar, mirin and shoyu, mixing after each.
When everything is coated and starts to come together, add the scrambled egg.
Mix well.

NOTES: this is delicious, you can add your favorite "stuff". In the original recipe she adds aburage (fried tofu), and chikuwa (a type of kamaboko). The okara tends to soak up whatever seasonings you give it, so you need to work fast with this one.

This is delicious hot or cold, I am making this one again.

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...

sliders & stir-fry

Made some tandoori chicken the other day.

For dinner the other night, we cut up some pieces of chicken and added some grilled zucchini to some pumpkin rolls to make them into a sort-of slider.

Lots of flavor, a little sweet from the roll and spicy from the chicken...delicious!

With the leftovers, the next night I made a stir-fry.

I sauteed eringi mushrooms, zucchini & asparagus in some olive oil and then added the sliced tandoori chicken to heat through.

Simple and delicious...my kind of meal.

*we're on a little excursion, will moderate comments when I return.

easy dinners

I don't know about you, but I like to make meals as painless as possible. That means not too much fuss or steps to follow...

Last night's dinner was a keema-like curry. I couldn't find a recipe that I liked, so I took the type of spices that were in several recipes and came up with this.

150g ground beef
1/2 onion, diced
celery leaves, diced
1 clove garlic
1 tsp. ginger, ground
1 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. cumin
4 grinds pepper
1/2 tsp. tumeric
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/8 tsp. clove
1 tsp. garam masala
1 can of diced tomatoes

Brown onions, celery leaves and beef. Add spices and then can of diced tomatoes. When everything is heated through, serve on rice or with naan.

NOTES: No matter what curry I make, I always put in a can of diced tomatoes, I saw this technique on a television show here and it has stuck with me ever since. I served this with my rice mixture of genmai (brown rice), haigamai (half-polished rice) and multi-grains. I also thinly sliced carrots, zucchini and potato and baked them in the oven with olive oil, pepper and salt to make my own chips. It doesn't start off too spicy, but has a kick towards the middle.

The other night's dinner was a simple stir-fry. Since I had all these veggies and some roast pork, I cut everything up, and while it was sweating, I added some pepper and added 2 teaspoons of hoisin sauce at the end.

Serve with rice.

NOTES: the hoisin flavor can be strong so don't use too much, the sauce kind of thinned out with the water that came out of the veggies while cooking, which balanced everything out.