kenchin-ton-jiru

Warm up with a nice bowl of soup...Today, the wind was blowing kind of wildly, knocking over most of my plants on the lanai. A twister hit the northern island of Hokkaido and some lives were lost. Where did autumn go? Are we "flying" into winter already? Brr...

I decided to make a soup for dinner which takes part of the ingredients from kenchinjiru (veggie stew with tofu (bean curd)) and tonjiru (pork soup). When making soups and curries, I tend to go overboard and add more veggies, sometimes there are more veggies than the soup or curry itself. This soup is rather easy to make and you can add whatever veggies you have or you like.

Kenchin-Ton-jiru : Serves 4

150g thinly sliced pork, cut into bite size pieces
1 block konnyaku (jellied devil's tongue)
1/2 carrot, cut in fourths and slice thinly
1/2 gobo (burdock), thinly sliced
2 kabura (small round, white radish), cut in fourths and slice thinly
3 shiitake (mushroom), thinly sliced
10cmx10cm piece of konbu (dried kelp)
4 tablespoons miso (soy bean paste)
green onions, thinly sliced for garnish
shichimi (seven spice mixture)

1. In a pot, put 6 cups of water and put in the konbu and heat for about 30 minutes, this will extract the stock needed for the soup.
2. You can leave the konbu in the pot while cooking this soup and throw out the kelp after everyone eats the soup.
3. Next put the bite sized pieces of pork into a colander and pour some hot water over it, this is to take off most of the oil. Set aside.
4. Take the block of konnyaku and "cut" with a spoon into bite size pieces. The reason you do not use a knife is to help it take in the stock, you can also break it up with your hands. Put it into the pot and cook for 4 minutes.
5. Next add the sliced gobo, carrot, pork, kabura and shiitake.
6. Cook for another 3-4 minutes, taking off the scum take appears on the top.
7. Add 2 of the 4 tablespoons of miso, making sure that the miso you add dissolves into the soup.
8. Cook for another 6-7 minutes.
9. Everything should be quite soft at this point. Add the other 2 tablespoons of miso, and cook for another 6-7 minutes.
10. Garnish with sliced green onions
11. You can also top with shichimi (seven spices) to give it a little "heat".

NOTES: I used a red soy bean paste (aka miso), but you can use whatever type you have. I don't usually use konbu to make my stock, I buy these packets that look like tea bags and inside are the ground up kelp, bonito and shiitake. Also, I was lucky enough to find kabura (white radish) with leaves--can you believe most markets throw them out? So, I put them into the soup too.

Shichimi is a mixture of red pepper, dried mandarin peel, white poppy seed, powdered Japanese pepper, hemp seed, sesame seed and green nori.

Enjoy!

tonjiru

Again, what to make for dinner? Since it's been so cold, I decided I wanted to make some kind of soup. Satoshi likes "tonjiru" (pork soup), so I decided to try to make it. I looked up the recipe and you need a lot of veggies.

With the price skyrocketing, I was a bit leery about the price I would need to pay...I got lucky...they had a ready-made bag of veggies for "tonjiru"!! Inside are thinly sliced carrots, takenoko (bamboo shoots), shiitake mushrooms, konnyaku (devil's tongue), daikon (radish) & gobo (burdock).

The best part is that it makes 2 to 3 servings. Just add 100g of thinly sliced pork, water and miso (soy bean paste). Since there probably aren't ready-made bags where you are, here's the recipe:

100 g thinly sliced pork : cut into bite size pieces
1/2 gobo (burdock) thinly sliced or shave with veggie peeler
1/2 carrot thinly sliced
1/2 konnyaku (devil's tongue) thinly sliced
1/4 daikon (radish) thinly sliced
2 or 3 shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced
2 takenoko (small bamboo shoots) thinly sliced
3 cups water
2 Tablespoon miso (soy bean paste)
2 Tablespoons oil

Put the oil into a pot and brown the pork (I didn't use oil because the pork was kind of fatty)
After the pork changes color, add the 3 cups water
Add all the veggies and bring to a boil
Skim off any fat

When all the veggies are soft, add your miso...add some chopped green onions for garnish (I forgot to)...Enjoy!!

I wanted to also share a housewife story...I have been a housewife for 5 years now and I have come to realize that being a housewife means that you are also part handyman. (I'm not so sure if this is true for other housewives around the world).

Not only do you do stuff like wash clothes, dishes and clean the house. It also means you fix stuff around the place (if you can reach it). And if you don't know how...you try to read the manuals (in Japanese, because your husband doesn't like to) and fix stuff...well, I had to kind of fix this...the light in my range hood died.

I had to figure out how the heck to get the bulb out from under the glass cover. The screw was so tight (I don't think the tenants before us had to ever change the bulb), plus I think the grease and oil from the stove had hardened itself around the screw...so, I looked for a screwdriver that matched the screw (couldn't find one) and pryed the thing loose (all while standing on my step stool, 'cuz I'm not that tall!)

Finally, I got the darn thing open...only to find out that I didn't have a bulb to match it...since I had to go out for a lesson, I bought a bulb on my way back...now that the cover was off, the task was to put it back on...finally after 3 tries...voila!! Hopefully, that will be the last do-it-myself project for awhile. :)