shakshuka

1st time making shakshuka.

I sauteed some red bell peppers with some dukkah and then added some leftover marinara sauce and a little water.

Added some eggs and let it "poach" uncovered for about 8 minutes.

Then topped it with some sliced okra.

We ate it with some naan.

Not authentic and I don't think I've actually had shakshuka before, but it is fun to say and was tasty.

I'll make this again when the weather gets cooler.

hey

It is kind of summery...which means the "h" word...ugh.

Though the weather for the past couple of days has been rainy.

Kinda like rainy season..ugh

which means I haven't been outside for a couple of days...

In fact, the weather dude says that Okinawa might start their rainy season this week!

Global warming, yeah?!

One rainy day project was a batch of tomato suzuke (pickled tomatoes).

Friday is the start of Golden Week, though we won't be going anywhere, just staying close to home.

Hope your week is going well.

beef tomato

Not sure what made me crave beef tomato, but I did so, luckily there was a recipe for it in this cookbook that I have.

Beef Tomato : makes 2 or 3 servings, adapted from "Hawaii's Best Local Dishes"

200 grams thinly sliced beef

1/2 onion, cut roughly

3 small bell peppers, cleaned and cut roughly

2 tomatoes, cut into 6 wedges

2 teaspoons oil

Marinade for meat: 1 nub ginger, grated

1 clove garlic, grated

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

several grinds of pepper

1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

Gravy:  1 tablespoon okonomiyaki sauce

Marinade the beef for 20 minutes.

Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan and saute the onion and bell peppers for about 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute.

Take the veggies out of the pan and cook the meat.

Put the veggies back into the pan with the cooked meat and add the okonomiyaki sauce.

When everything is well coated, serve and enjoy!

NOTES:  I didn't have all the ingredients for the gravy, which asked for worcestershire and ketchup, instead I added okonomiyaki sauce because it tastes like worcestershire and ketchup, kinda.

Also, I didn't have sherry to marinade the meat and used balsamic vinegar, but should have used sake instead.

This was pretty easy to put together and tasty, I would definitely make this again.

berry tomatoes

I think these berry tomatoes were from Hokkaido.

They kind of looked like scotch bonnet peppers, so I made sure to re-read the sign at the market.

I'm glad we got to try these, they were super sweet.

momotaro tomato suzuke

　I got this idea from watching "Kodoku no Gurume", a soap opera (Japanese call these dramas) which a lonely businessman eats at different eateries while out on business.

I recently came across these tomatoes called Momotaro.

This variety has a "pink" flesh which apparently resembles peaches...thus the name Momotaro (Peach Boy).

I'd never bought them in Osaka because they were mostly found in the department stores and expensive, but these were grown in Aichi Prefecture and rather inexpensive, 5 were 276 yen so I decided to give them a try.

Using a paring knife, take out the area around the stem.

Make an "x" at the bottom.

In boiling water, place the tomato in for 30 seconds.

Then place the tomato into an ice bath for 30 seconds.

Peel the tomato skin.

Put the peeled tomato into this pickling liquid
3 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons shoyu
2 tablespoons dashi(stock)

Scoop some of the pickling liquid into the area where the stem was.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours and enjoy!

NOTES: The pickling liquid is actually the amount for 1 large tomato but I used it for all of them, pickling them over 3 days.

These tomatoes were sweet and went nicely with this pickling liquid.

Super refreshing, especially on these hot days.

I am gonna be making this more often this summer.

colorful tomatoes

Been seeing colorful tomatoes at the market lately...

I used some to jazz up some instant pasta the other night.

And some to jazz up our omelettes for breakfast the other day.

These were quite sweet.

Rainy season has ended here, though the weather dude says we will have a rainy week next week.

Have a nice weekend.

bambucha

Rainy season started Wednesday and it rained all.day.long.

Tuesday night though, we had this...globe zucchini stuffed with pearl barley, quinoa, parmesan and a tomato meat sauce.

I had seen others cooking with this type of zucchini online but this was my first time to actually find it at the market and try cooking with this.

I wasn't too sure if the ones I found were large or small...but think it was quite large.

This year, we sure have had been lucky with bambucha (huge) produce...here, here and here.

I hope to come across these again at the market...

Have you cooked with this type of zucchini before? How did you cook them?

the past couple of days

The weekend was forecast for the coldest front in many moons.

The weather dude even forecast that Okinawa may even get some snow!

Whoa?!

We bought some water for drinking, just in case the power went out.

My survival skills go only as far as for hurricanes, so this blizzard thing was new to me.

Luckily (read disappointedly), we didn't have ANY snow.

In fact, the sun came out for the most part of the day.

Still, we didn't go outside, the wind was pretty icy.

Oh well, at least I got to finish a book I was reading.

Dinner was a nabe (hot pot) of pork belly, hakusai (chinese cabbage), a can of diced tomato, dashi (stock) and curry powder.

We also had some really pale gyoza...I still need to get the hang of cooking gyoza...

To end, we made ojiya and added some rice and cheese.

Hope your weekend was a good one.

re-create

Remember that sardine sandwich we had at Amanohashidate?

Well, I recreated it and turned it into a salad.

You need:
a can of sardines in olive oil
shiso leaves, chiffonade
lettuce
cherry tomatoes, halved
cucumber, sliced

Tartar sauce: rakkyo (pickled onions)
mayo

Make your tartar sauce, chop up some rakkyo and add some mayo to the consistency of your liking
Put together your salad
Top with sardines, tartar sauce and shiso
Enjoy!

NOTES: If you don't have rakkyo where you are, mix some chopped sweet pickles and some diced onion in some mayo. I love that these sardines are so tender! Definitely making this again.

recreated

Sometimes when you taste something, you know exactly how to make it again when you get home.

Such was the roasted onion dish we had in Awajishima last month.

All you need to make this is:
sweet onions
your favorite bolognese sauce
shredded cheese
a little olive oil

Grease the dish you will be baking this in with some olive oil.
Peel your onions then make an "X", don't cut all the way through.
Drizzle a little olive oil into the "X"
In a 400F (200C) oven, roast the onions (uncovered) for about 30 minutes.
Add the bolognese sauce and cheese (amounts up to you), then put back into the oven for another 20 minutes.
The cheese should be a little browned at the end of the 20 minutes, if not put it in a couple more minutes.

NOTES: super easy and super delicious! Satoshi gave this a thumbs up. I'm making this again.

keema curry

Boy, the rain sure does make things dreary.

Not really wanting to cook, I flipped through my cookbooks and looked for something easy.

I found a rather easy keema curry recipe by Mizuno Jinsuke.

I didn't have all the ingredients he listed so ad-libbed here and there.

Keema Curry adapted from "Hajimete no Spice Curry #2" : 4 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, grated
1 nub ginger, grated
1 onion, minced
15 grams butter
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon flour
200 milliliters hot water
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
400 grams ground beef
50 milliliters rosé
cherry tomatoes, sliced
sugar snap peas, blanched

Heat the oil in a pan on medium and add the garlic and ginger
When fragrant, add the onion and cook until the onions get a little color
Add the butter, turmeric, cayenne & cumin, stir well
Add the flour, stir well
Add the meat and cook until it has some color
Add the wine and let the alcohol burn off
Add the hot water and bring everything back to a boil, add the marmalade
Turn the heat down to simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
Serve over rice and garnish with diced cherry tomatoes and blanched sugar snap peas.

NOTES: the curry was a bit sweet with the marmalade so I would probably cut back the amount. Other than that, I liked the amount of heat the curry had and how easy it was to put this together.

I'm making this again.

Oh, and I served this with coconut flavored cabbage (sabzi).

Hope the rain stops soon...

tomato onion miso soup

These tomatoes were super ripe, not mushy and only 300 yen for the 3!

I used most of these for a miso soup.

Make your dashi (stock).

Dashi (stock) from "Tanita Shokudo" makes about 900 mililiters
1000 mililiters of water
10 grams of dried konbu
10 grams of katsuobushi (bonito flakes)

Bring the water and konbu up to just before boiling.
Remove konbu, turn off heat and add the katsuobushi.
Strain liquid through a paper towel.

NOTES: this stock will last for about a week. Super easy and delicious.

For miso soup: adapted from "Tanita Shokudo": serves 2
300 mililiters of dashi
2 teaspoons miso (soy bean paste)
1/4 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tomato, diced

In a pot on medium heat, cook your onions in the dashi.
Add the miso.

In a bowl add your diced tomato, then pour over the soup, a little different from the usual Japanese miso soup, but really tasty.

By the way, this was the soup I served with the nasu kabayaki donburi.

NOTES: most people throw out the used katsuobushi and konbu after making dashi, though I have read that some make furikake out of it, I haven't tried this myself, but want to soon.

fun

I saw this on Facebook and had to try it.

Take an oblong shaped tomato.

Cut it at an angle.

Then flip one side around and create a heart.

You can keep it together with a toothpick if you wish.

Perfect for bento and a nice way to brighten up a rainy day.

tomato laomen

Saturday, the air was still very cold but at least the sun was out.

We went to Umeda for lunch since Satoshi had his German language class afterwards and decided to try Tomato Laomen.

I had to look up the word "laomen" and found out that it is from "laomian" which apparently eventually transformed to "ramen".

Their lunch set comes with a bowl of tomato ramen, rice, cheese and dessert...850 yen.

The noodles are thin and the soup is shoyu based with thin slices of pork and topped with lots of veggies especially tomatoes. The soup is very light and tasty.

After you eat all the noodles and veggies, put your rice and cheese into the soup for a risotto-style dish.

Dessert was sweet potatoes simmered in citrus...refreshing.

With all the soup, noodles and rice, it was very filling! We'll be back.

Tomato Laomen (UPDATE: this location no longer in business)
Osaka Ekimae Dai-san Building B2
Phone: 06.6341.8408
Hours: M-S 11:00-21:30, Su & holidays 11:00-17:00

one tablespoon

Dunno if they have this type of thing in the States, but I love Japan because they have things like this.

You don't need to open a whole can of tomato paste, a packet is 1 tablespoon.

Sure, it isn't environmentally friendly, but when you only need 1 tablespoon for a recipe, it sure is convenient.

In fact, if I were to buy a can of tomato paste it would probably cost me more because I've only seen cans of tomato paste at the import markets.

This box has 6 packets and was only 158 yen, what a deal.

"creamy" tomato soup

I recently purchased a copy of Ellie Krieger's "Comfort Food Fix".

I haven't "read" through the whole book yet, but since I wanted to make tomato soup for dinner, I flipped through to see if she had a recipe...she did.

I didn't follow the whole recipe, just parts.

"Creamy" Tomato Soup adapted from "Comfort Food Fix" makes 2 servings
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 onion, diced
1 (400 grams) can of diced tomato
1 tablespoon tomato paste
250 grams (about 1 cup) chicken broth
1 tablespoon skim milk
1 teaspoon sugar
sprinkle of salt
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 pinch of dried thyme
parmesan cheese
Italian parsley, minced

Sweat the onions in the oil until transparent.
Add the can of tomatoes, tomato paste and broth.
Bring to a boil then bring down to a simmer.
Cook for about 15 minutes
Add milk, sugar, salt, pepper, thyme, mix well.
Turn off heat.
Whizz until smooth.
Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of cheese and parsley

NOTES: the original recipe called for chives, cream and garlic. I thought adding garlic would be a little too strong a flavor, so I left it out and added thyme instead. I didn't want to go and buy cream, so I subbed skim milk. And I didn't have chives so I used Italian parsley instead.

I liked how easily this soup came together and it was tasty too. I'm making this again and I'm also sending it to Deb's Souper Sundays.

p.s. I know I said that you can't find chicken stock in Japan but I had forgotten about the chicken stock at Seijo Ishii (gourmet supermarket), they sell them in 1 cup sizes for 250 yen. In Japanese it is called "torigara soup".

toscana violet

I recently saw these at the market...Toscana Violets, are grown in Kumamoto (Kyushu)...they are cherry tomatoes...198 yen (about US$1.98 for 7)

On the label, they say they are supposed to resemble the feel of grapes in your mouth.

They are a deep purply-brown.

The juice that comes out from it was a little brownish.

The seeds kinda tiny.

So, how did they taste? Hmm, nothing to make me go back out and get more, they tasted like cherry tomatoes, not sweet nor sour, maybe a little tart, but it was great to try.

By the way, I took some of those tiny seeds and hopefully we'll have our own Toscana Violets to harvest.

back in the kitchen

Saturday the rainy weather continued, since we didn't have anything in the house for breakfast, we went to a favorite cafe in Makiochi (post about that later).

After breakfast we walked to Yamaya to buy some beer and other things.

As we made our way from Yamaya to the train station in the rain, we also stopped into a market to pick up some other groceries.

Dinner was a hodgepodge of salads and some shrimp.

I noticed that the cherry tomatoes on our lanai were ready to eat, so I picked them and tried La Fuji Mama's Jerusalem Salad recipe.

I didn't write down the recipe and kind of did it by memory...I think I added too much garlic so it was kinda bitter to me, Satoshi said it was delicious.

I used the grill rub that I bought at Blue Hawaii Lifestyle on some shrimp and cooked them in the oven for 10 minutes.

I saw this "Barefoot Contessa" episode while in Hawaii where Ina Garten roasts shrimp in the oven with just some olive oil, salt and pepper.

I used her method except I sprinkled the rub in place of the salt and pepper. The rub was tasty giving the shrimp lots of smoky flavor.

I also made some carrot salad, watermelon-feta salad and steamed some corn.

We tried Orval beer...I saw this on Rowena's blog and also wanted to try it. Yamaya had this for 628 yen (about US$6.28), 330 ml, 6.2% alcohol. It had a floral/fruity aroma but it was too bitter for me.

All in all, it was great dinner for a rainy night.

are you happy?

From the looks of this photo, I think I am....

Not that I tried to make them look like a face, it just turned out that way...ha!

That sweet potato in the photo was huge--about 12 inches long and guess what?! only 88 yen (about US$.88)

The cucumber in the photo was also huge, a little longer than the sweet potato and only 50 yen (about US$.50)

The pear on the left 88 yen (about US$.88) the pear on the right 98 yen (about US$.98).

Why the cheap veggies and fruit? I think it was the neighborhood supermarket's tactic to get us into the store. They just renovated and upscaled their products. (This was the store I've been betraying...) But I was disappointed, they no longer carry the brand of milk or yogurt that I like...boo! I am still going to shop wherever I am and not go special to this store.

Hey...our tomatoes are getting ripe!..these guys fell off when I covered the plant with a plastic sheet, I'm putting them into a paper bag and hopefully they'll ripen a bit more.

the past couple of days

After seeing Kirk's post on Chicago style hot dogs on Tuesday morning, I went out to find something close to it for lunch, but came up empty.

I did find a Hiroshima style okonomiyaki (550 yen about US$5.50), though. This was filling, lots of cabbage and yakisoba in the middle, but I was disappointed with the outside. Usually, Hiroshima style okonomiyaki has a thin crepe-like outside, this one was really eggy and thick. (Osaka style okonomiyaki has cabbage and other goodies mixed into the batter, so it usually turns out to be a thick fritter of sorts.)

Next to the Hiroshima style okonomiyaki were these taiyaki (120 yen about US$1.20). Taiyaki are baked in these tai (sea bream) molds and filled with an (sweet bean paste). This was disappointing too, the outside was really thick...more outside than bean filling.

Oh well...

On Tuesday night, I made the pancakes from the set that Satoshi received, for our breakfast on Wednesday. I also added a couple of handfuls of fresh blueberries into the batter.

I don't think the maple syrup in the set was 100%, it had a coffee flavor and was kind of watery, not the thick syrup that I was thinking of.

I also wanted to make candied bacon, but couldn't find the brand of bacon I liked at the store, so I just served it with some ham and the Darjeeling tea that came in the set...delish!

Thursday's breakfast was the leftover pancakes (from the mix I made 6, the bag said 4), ham, asian pear, leftover succotash & herb tea. This was the other tea that was in the set. The most outstanding flavor was mint, though the label said blue mallow, citrus peel and hibiscus (I think the label was wrong). It was still a good tea and breakfast.

After breakfast, Satoshi left for Tokyo and I had a lesson. After my lesson, I wandered around Takarazuka's Hankyu Department store. This store isn't as big as the main one in Umeda but they do have a food area.

I picked up this bento for my dinner at Yonehachi--750 yen (about US$7.50). I like this place because their rice is okowa and you can choose which ones you want. Just pick out the bento and tell them what okowa to fill the empty areas with. Some bento have 3 empty spaces, some 2. They had 4 choices of okowa and I chose the chestnut okowa and the shiso chirimen (perilla & whitebait) okowa. The main dish was a tofu "hamburger" (though it had no meat in it)...very filling.

Friday morning, I had another lesson, so I had my breakfast at Starbucks. Cranberry pancakes (the last time Starbucks had blueberry).

Lunch was at my favorite cafe, Per Caffe Bianco, as I was interested in seeing what kind of art would come with the iced cappuccino. There was no art, but they still make you feel special by putting it into this champagne glass.

Satoshi came home late last night and brought home these ningyoyaki (literally baked dolls) Like the taiyaki, it is baked in tiny molds the difference is that the outside is castella (an eggy sponge cake) and filled with an (sweet bean paste), the taiyaki outside is more like a waffle...delicious.I liked the packaging very festive. I think this is a picture of a matsuri (festival) in Asakusa. The house like thing that the people are carrying are called mikoshi. Mikoshi are tiny shrines. Different parts of Japan have different types of mikoshi. If I'm not mistaken, carrying the mikoshi gives you good luck and helps your wishes come true. Many men do this to wish for their wives health and households safety and children do this to wish for good grades and good health.

Remember the tomato that I threw into a pot?....looks like we'll have tomatoes soon! (hopefully before autumn rolls around)

It is Saturday, the candidates for our city council and mayoral election are out in full force, it is raining and gloomy and Satoshi is off to work.