made in japan

The roses are in bloom again at Aramaki Rose Park, so I packed us a breakfast bento to eat at the park.

I had been seeing this foldable type of sandwich box and picked one up at the 100 yen store (which is made in Japan).

The Japanese have things down to a science, even sandwiches.

You can buy bread just the right size to fit into your sandwich box.

Bummer part is you can only buy 6 slices at a time. I hear that packaged bread in the Kanto area (Eastern Japan) comes with less slices (like 2 or 4)? While the bread in the Kansai area (Western Japan) are usually thicker sliced with max 6 slices...I've also seen types that have the crusts cut off for tea sandwiches.

Anyway, the night before I made some tandoori chicken then shredded it. In the morning I and made one sandwich with the chicken, cucumber and lettuce and the other one with the chicken, lettuce and roasted red bell pepper.

I wasn't too sure as how to pack the sandwiches into the box, since it was my first time using it.

I placed a piece of parchment paper in thinking I could put the sandwich directly in, but then wrapped each one to prevent them from drying out.

The night before I also roasted some cauliflower with some ras-el hanout. In the morning, I packed it with some cherry tomatoes, as well as some asian pear and some coffee.

This is how our breakfast picnic looked...kinda messy, yeah?! Everything was delicious though.

Not to mention we had a nice view too.

After breakfast, we folded up our sandwich box and packed everything up.

It was a great day to get out and about.

assorted mushrooms "bulgogi" style

I've been trying to make meatless meals for us during the week. Satoshi usually comes home late (after 9), so he really shouldn't be eating anything too heavy.

I was kinda craving bulgogi the other day, but decided to try it with some konnyaku (jellied devil's tongue) and assorted kinoko (mushrooms) instead.

I used the yannyomu (sauce) recipe for bulgogi but cut it in half.

Then, I stir-fried maitake, eringi, shimeji mushrooms, some konnyaku, a little onion & some red bell pepper.

And then I spooned over some of the sauce (about 2 tablespoons) and coated everything well, letting it caramelize a little.

The results, a little light in flavor, maybe I would used tofu instead so that it would soak up some of the sauce.

Overall though, I really liked this.

NOTES: I served this with some lettuce and some kim chee, sprinkling some pine nuts.

To use up the rest of the sauce, I sauteed maitake, eringi, shimeji & some konnyaku in the sauce from the beginning. The results were a little better (more flavor) than the first time.

dorie's carrot salad

Reader Akiko suggested I try Dorie Greenspan's carrot salad, so I did.

Carrot Salad with Walnuts and Raisins from Dorie Greenspan
Serves 6 – 8 as part of a buffet

Dressing
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. honey
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 tsp. kosher salt, more to taste
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper, more to taste

Salad
1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into very thin strips
2/3 cup toasted, chopped walnuts
2/3 cup golden raisins
finely chopped parsley or chives (optional garnish)

Add the dressing ingredients to a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Set aside.

Add carrots, walnuts and raisins to a medium serving bowl. Toss with dressing. Garnish with parsley or chives, if using.

NOTES:I didn't have raisins, so I used dried cherries.

Still, I loved it. Thanks Akiko!

maitake gohan

It is finally starting to feel like Autumn.

The daytime temps are still in the upper 20s (C) (upper 70s (F)), but the early mornings and evenings there is a little nip.

This recipe is so easy, I know I'll be making it often.

Adapted from Makuuchi Hideo's "Soshoku no susume-Autumn"
1/2 a package of maitake, cleaned & torn with hands
1 cup rice, washed
1 cup water (to cook rice)
1/2 tablespoon shoyu
1/2 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)

Put wet ingredients (rice, condiments) into rice cooker, mix.
Add mushrooms and cook.
Enjoy!

NOTES: not the most aesthetic, but so delicious. I'll probably switch out maitake and use whatever mushrooms I can get. You could easily double this recipe too.

poke wraps

I saw this recipe in one of my Mom's cookbooks and wanted to make this before the weather got too cold.

No need to really follow a recipe at all though.

Just get some of your favorite poke (I made some spicy ahi poke)
Get some rice papers for summer rolls.
Wash and dry some lettuce.

After wetting the rice paper, lay a piece of lettuce down, add some poke and roll.

Enjoy with some beer or your beverage of choice.

NOTES: the rice papers I bought were a little small, so I couldn't put as much filling as I wanted. Other than that, they were delicious and I'd make these again maybe with tako (octopus) poke or some other kind of seafood poke.

yaki kuri gohan

The last time I made kuri gohan (chestnut rice) I used pre-peeled chestnuts (and it was 6 years ago too...yipes!).

This time around, I used the chestnuts I picked up at Hattori Ryokuchi Park.

I checked online and Martha had an "easy" method for roasting the chestnuts...well, nearing 5 minutes before the time was up in the oven, one of the chestnuts decided to explode!

Chestnut matter all over the oven. It wasn't pretty, not to mention it scared the bejeezus out of me as I was standing nearby.

What also wasn't pretty was the fact that the fuzzy skin closest to the chestnut did.not.come.off.easily....sigh.

So, it took me over an hour to peel these even getting some of the fuzzy skin in between my nail and the softest part under it (ow!) . (Thank goodness I didn't wait until right before I wanted to cook the rice to do the roasting!)

I started with about a cup of unpeeled chestnuts but by the time I was done "peeling" (read scraping and digging at) them, I had about a 1/2 a cup.

I ended up with more bits than whole pieces.

1/2 cup roasted and peeled chestnuts
1.5 cup rice
1/2 cup mochi rice
2 cups water
1 tablespoon sake (cooking rice wine)
1/2 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
1/2 teaspoon shoyu (soy sauce)

I served this with sanma (saury) and kinpira. Can you believe that the market had sold this sanma with a packet of lemon juice?!

I couldn't see myself using the packet, so I used part of the fresh lemon I had on my table. (Actually this type of fish is usually served with sudachi (a type of lime) I had forgotten to buy some and thought my neighborhood co-op would have some, but sadly they didn't, so I used the fresh lemon that I had.)

Still, whether I bought it with or without the head it was the same price...198 yen each, so of course I went "without".

NOTES: The rice was good despite all the stress, you had a little chestnut in every bite. The flavors were light, and since Satoshi has to watch his sodium, I think it all balanced out because the fish was grilled with salt.

Note to self: find bigger chestnuts (maybe some that are already peeled or someone to peel them for you)...ahem.

All in all though, this was a good experience, and Satoshi enjoyed this.

Whoa?! it is Friday already...enjoy your weekend!

hattori ryokuchi park

Monday was a holiday, so we headed out to Hattori Ryokuchi Park. It was our first time here and was about a 15 minute walk from the Hankyu Sone Station. The park is 126 hectares or 311 acres.

Or as the Japanese like to say, it is 33 times the size of Koshien Stadium. I always wonder why they compare the size of things to baseball stadiums, not like I can visualize the size.

Anyway, lunch was leftover chinjaorosu, some rice and Asian pear.

I have to show you this new trick I just learned.

When you peel the skin of your Asian pear, don't peel it all the way. This will help keep it from turning brown without having to squeeze some lemon on it.

It was actually quite HOT this day, I think the temps were somewhere like 26C (78F).

And a little humid too..blah.

But, there were many out and about.

And with all the people at the park, there were also many lost children being called out over the PA system.

We checked out an area of the park where they have about 10 farm houses from around Japan.

I was kind of in awe of this because they have the actual sized houses, which means they need a LOT of land for this.

There is a small admission to go in to see these houses (500 yen), but we thought it was totally worth it to see the different types of farm houses.

Near one of the farm houses, I noticed there were a couple of chestnut trees and the "sea urchins" were all over the ground...so I sorta helped myself...(I was able to pick up 13)

This photo is for my blog friend, Jalna.

I hope to be able to share with you what I did with this chestnuts.

I also took this photo of this woman sitting in one of the farm houses, it's my favorite at the moment.

We're looking forward to checking out this park again for cherry blossom season.