On a snowy day...

After days of rain, raindrops finally turned to snow this morning...


So it snowed and snowed all morning...
brrrrrrrgh was it freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing!!!
As i waited for the snow to stop before i hopped to the supermart in my rainy day boots, i decided to bake a new batch of comfort muffins...

Chunky chocolate and almond muffins

Used less sugar and added some homemade fig jam into this batch, hmm... gives a nice wholemeal muffin kind of look to the muffins. the texture of the fruit bits was nice too!

Dinner tonight had to be oden.

Both of us being oden freaks just have to have this comfort hot pot once in awhile, and what better day to have this than on a snowy cold day.

This was last nights dinner...

Shoyu simmered red sea bream, garlic stir fried leek and prawn salad, shiso wrapped sweet miso (store bought), miso soup with nameko, and brown rice topped with grilled mentaiko .

Meanwhile, J bentos have been quite extravagant these 2 days...

Traditional Pork katsu, melting eggs cooked till the yolks are half runny and steeped in a soya sauce and sesame oil dressing for a few days), mini salad, and red wine and almond rice

Red miso raosted pork, leek salad and plain rice topped with sliced melting eggs

Sauerkraut nimono

So the other day the BBQ gathering, when i tried this braised dish of sauerkraut, cabbage and sausage that Orla made, it reminded me of how i make the japanese nimono (simmered dish). A nimono dish is made using foods such as fish, meat and vegetables that are simmered in a seasoned broth. The broth may be flavored with various seasonings like buiion, japanese dashi or simply salt. And since i love sauerkraut, i decided to try making the dish on my own...

Sauerkraut nimono made of sauerkraut, cabbage, pork sausage, fish sausage, mushrooms, broiled in buiion broth with a dash of caraway seeds, salt and black pepper. I started broiling it yesterday morning, and after that turned off the heat and let it sit on the stove till this evening. hmm... the flavours were so well absorbed......

As suggested, we tried it with bread... yummy~

Dinner
Baked medai drizzled with garlic infused olive oil, soramame (braod beans) salad, sauerkraut nimono and red wine rice topped with toasted almonds

Green worms?

Nope.

Called kogomi, it is a kind of mountain vegetable eaten since 8000 years ago.

The last time i tried this vegetable, it reminded me of asparagus, so i decided to grill it on my fish grill to have with our fish main.

Bento

As requested, i made ume shiso (ume>plum, shiso> perilla) porkk cutlet.

The perilla leaf is a kind of mint leaf used very commonly in japanese dishes and this combination of savoury yet sour and sweet japanese plum together with perilla gives a very interesting burst of flavour in the mouth.

These pork cutlets were made using very thin slices of pork rolled up with ume and shiso, and this time i added cheese too, next coated with breadcrumbs and fried golden brown.

Todays dinner was a simple affair.

Breadcrusted cajun spiced fried chicken topped on rice, purple cabbage coleslaw topped with toasted black beans with a yummy nutty flavour, mustard marinated mushrooms.

i am wishing we will see some sun soon after days of rain.

Oyako don (chicken and egg simmered with japanese leeks topped on rice)chilli beans salad with tacos drizzled with garlic infused tabasco sauce

the chilli beans was a simple version i made last month and froze it.

Ingredients

200g of combined boiled garbanzo and kidney beans

200g ground beef

half a large onion chopped roughly

1 clove of garlic minced

1 can of whole tomatoes

1 tablesppon each of curry powder, chilli powder, cayenne pepper (optional)

a few sprigs of chopped fresh parsley

salt and black pepper

After frying the onions and garlic in olive oil, add the beef, beans, spices, canned tomatoes and parsely.

Add 1 cup of water and simmer on low heat for 15 min.

Voila~

Since J didnt have to be at the office today, we had the whoooooooooooole day to ourselves relaxing at home...

i started my day with baking cranberry walnut muffins with a warm cream cheese centre, and we had them for breakfast...

then after my usual supermarket shopping, i made salmon and winter spinach udon carbonara, with a chilled japanese seaweed salad by the side...

then continued nibbling on more cookies and nuts we brought back.

These pink coconut candies being my favourite when i need a sugar dose... Nope i didnt make them, but a very dear aunt of mine makes these every new year season and we just cant get enough of them.

the ingredients are very basic... coconut grating, condensed milk, sugar and rose colouring. i tried making them, but they just dont stick correctly... i think for as long as aunt jenny makes them, i am just too lazy to try perfecting them on my own.

Back from Singapore~

After 3 weeks of feasting, we are back to basic comforting fish and miso soup dinners.

The health conscious me always takes a back seat during the new year season, so after all that feasting over christmas and new year season, i think we shall be happy with simple dinners for awhile.

this year, festive feasting was an extended for us since we had a chance to go back to sunny Singapore in the first week of Chinese new year. Not only was mum cooking all our nonya favourites... curry chicken, chap chye, kueh pie tee, kiam chye duck soup, assam prawns...

we were also meeting up with many people and feasting on lots of chinese new year favourites

having lots of beer with friends

indulging in gelatos everyday

trying new eating places... (this was a pizza place i fell in love with at holland V, called La Nonna, it serves fantastically crispily thin pizzas and breads)


trying new foods... like this portugese egg tarts (oh, i discovered that indeed these are eaten in Portugal! all along i had thought it was some fancy name another Asian thought of to make these pie sheet based kind of egg tarts sound special)




We went to Ikea today and got these Swedish crisp breads that look like overtoasted sliced baguettes and decided to try something new instead of the usual cheese or carviar...

cottage cheese and japanese salmon roe (ikura)

wow, it certainly tastes very different from caviar and is definitely worth the try!

or, for a more standard style of having these beautiful pop in your mouth ikura pearls, simply top on warm rice, close your eyes and savour the mouthful of rice and bursting egg roe...