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.

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.

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.

flying tandoori

No it is not a new airlines...but I do have to tell you about the disaster(s) I had yesterday in and out of the kitchen.

It started in the morning, trying to get my toast out of the oven, I branded my finger with the element. My reflexes were not quite awake yet and I left it to sizzle a bit (Ssss)...itai (ouch, now I kind of know how those cows must feel)!

Then when I went to the market and tried to pick out a lemon, 3 of them flew off the shelf....sigh...I ended up not buying any.

And then the disaster of all disasters was trying to prepare tandoori chicken for dinner, I used this recipe. As I was measuring out the spices into a ziploc container to marinade the chicken, my unzipped jacket somehow went into the container and proceeded to drag the container off the counter. I tried to catch it, which ended up with me volleyball bumping it instead and spices flying everywhere...of course, I screamed...

I walked carefully to the bath area to brush myself off. Spices were on my sweats and house slippers....afterwards, I noticed there was also a nice "spice trail" to the bathroom...

I took out the vacuum cleaner and vacuumed everything (hopefully everything) that spilled, then I started measuring the spices again.

I guess I should be thankful it happened with only the dry spices and not with the yogurt and other wet ingredients.

After marinating the sasami (skinless chicken breasts) for about 4 hours, I baked it for 10 minutes in a 350F (180C) oven then put it under the broiler for another 17 minutes, turning once halfway.

I also made some hummus using a recipe that I had printed out from the Food Network (the recipe is no longer on their site). It was a recipe by Mina Newman, executive chef of Layla Restaurant (not sure if she or the restaurant is still there in NYC).

I toasted a handful of pine nuts, then cut up half of a carrot, cucumber, red pepper & green pepper. I added 5 or 6 teaspoons of the hummus and mixed it well.

Then I took out 1 graham pita from the freezer and toasted it. I cut it in half and filled one half with half of the hummus mixture and a sliced tandoori chicken breast.

The results...a great dinner and a nice way to end all the madness in the kitchen (for now).

sol

Saturday after a lesson, I walked to the grocery store.

On my way, I passed by SOL to see if he had keema curry....nope.

I debated whether to get lunch from there, but on my way back from the grocery store, I stopped to pick-up some tandoori chicken (3 drumette pieces) 300 yen (about US$3), naan 200 yen (about US$2) & chicken curry 300 yen (about US$3).

The tandoori was skewered onto metal skewers then placed into the same vertical "oven" that the naan was baked in.

Since I wasn't feeling too hungry, I ate 1 drumette, halved the curry and halved the naan.

I think the only time I've tried tandoori chicken was at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) and that version was really dry. The tandoori chicken at SOL was moist, tender with a little zap of spiciness....delicious.

I also made some chai, using the spices I picked up in Tokyo.

Lunch the next day was even better, I put the chicken and naan in the oven to warm up. The chicken got bright orangey-pink and a little burnt, the naan got crispy and the curry was delicious, it was a nice way to warm up on a cold day.