Its MABO night~

Mabo tofu with shiitake

Its been a cold cold day, rain didnt stop at all. Hot Hot mabo tofu kept our tum tums warm.

together with a salted konbu vegetable stir fry done in the oven (yes, my oven does stir fries too!)
and instant negi shio (spring onions) soup
Dinner was easy peasy. Good for sleepy head me =)

Typhoon no.11 has passed, and it seems the sun will be out tommorrow! yeah for my laundry!!!

Some sundays, i just feel like having kaya toast for breakfast.

Kaya is one jam i think i just have to have once in awhile.

And in Jun&Aki style, with lots of cheese~

Lunch, was also, another of our comfort food,

Kitsune soba (a very basic on the soba menu, soba topped with soybean skin in hot soup)

we had a little yakitori treat by the side too =)

The soba portions for 2 persons is usually too much for us to finish, so i made noodle galette (pancake) with the extra soba.

Soba and carrot galette

Our mains was gorgeously meaty tonight...

Tonkatsu filled with ume shiso paste and cheese

I have no idea why i was just craving tonkatsu the whole weekend.

J said he felt like having tonkatsu too! So, happily, we bought some lean meat and baked (yup, three cheers for this oven that deep fries!) this for a guilt free and satisfying tonkatsu dinner!

Mmm~!

Soba galette

2 cups boiled soba (or any kind of noodles)

1 grated carrot

any pickles left in the fridge

salt, pepper

2 heaped tbs of potato starch powder or plain flour

Mix everything together, heat a frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, pour the mixture in, and flatten out in the pan. Once nicely browned, flip and fry the otherside too.

Using potato starch powder gives a chewy texture, while plain flour would give a crispy surface.

Serve with mayonnaise or drizzle with any salad dressing!

A really great way to finish those extra portions of noodles and vegetables and pickles sitting in the fridge.

Rain has started. Free air con tonight =)

Grandma & Mum used to make fried birds nest for the Chinese New Year every year. They were actually meat stuffed beancurd skins, but since the skins were overturned, such that the fuzzy surface faces the outside and gets deep fried, the beatballs looks like mini birds nest.

I bought beancurd skins today, stuffed them with minced chicken, chopped onions and negi (large spring onions) miso, and grilled them in the oven.

The taste reminded me sooooooo much of those little fried birds nests, except this was a much jumbo version.

Thumbs up from J!

Like with all all meat dishes, we had stewed carrots aside the beancurd pouches.

Havent had pickles for a long time

this really helps us finish our rice quickly

Broccolli mentaiko (spiced fish roe) creamy potato salad

Each time i pass the gourmet salad stall at the supermart, the mayo type always attracts me.

I just love creamy, cheesey salads, but choosing these every time would mean rising figures on the weighing scale. Well, not only that, but it is also harder to digest, especially on a hot day.

So , these days, i am into adding yoghurt into the mayo mixture.

With lesser mayo, and the tinge of yoghurt taste makes the whole salad a whole lot lighter.

And, another trick i learnt from tv, is rubbing a crushed piece of garlic all around the salad bowl before tossing the salad, gives the salad a nice boost of flavour!

Typhoon is approaching, which means, rain for quite a few days.

sad news for my laundry.

Salad rice

This was for breakfast

Salad rice soup & last nights salad

Just throwing together some small white fish, diced tomatoes and chopped spinach into a pot of instant tomatoe soup and lastly adding some rice into it, gave us a very very yummy bowl of nutrition boost this morning.

Dinner was

Salad rice with heaps of summer vegetables & salmon

I love to see the colours of summer vegetables all in one bowl. And since i the farmers mart had a nice mix of vegetables yesterday, i bought a bit of this and that, cut them into bite sized pieces, stir fried them in some sake, and tossed in some salmon flakes to create the basic salad. Seasoned with some salt, shoyu, topped with shiso leaves and mixed wild grains (store bought), topped on brown rice, this was one salad rice packed fuuuuuuuuuuuuuul of flavour. Oh, and the lime really gave the salad a nice accent and was very appetising too!

Since all the goodness was already packed in one plate, i had some space for some junk food =P

Grilled pumpkin yoghurt cream cheese salad topped with... lots of curls

Curls is this puffed corn snack that reminds me a lot of cheezels, and that J simply is crazy over.

Curls compared to cheezels, curls is much less salty (which is why i still prefer my cheezels, and Jun still like curls though he has tried the 10 times yummier cheezels).

Anyhow, curls has 2 standard flavours, lightly salted, and cheese. But for every season, like for most Japanese snacks, there is a seasonal flavour, which is always labelled Limited stock. And most of the time when i see this phrase, my knees go weak and i just have to put it in the basket.

So this season, BBQed corn. was good!

Edamae cream pasta~

Have been feeling tired the whole day, so the easiest dinner to make, would be pasta.

Edamame miso cream pasta with sauteed scallops

When i make creamy pastas, i usually try to make the dish less heavy by using less pasta

and tossing in lots of vegetables or mushrooms. Used enoki this time.

This sauce was pretty simple, and full of flavour.

200g precooked edamame bean(or any beans)

1/2 a pack of enoki mushrooms (cut into half lengthwise)

1 clove garlic (mashed)

2 tbs miso

1 and half cups soybean milk (or mlik)

Pasta (cooked according to instructions)

Boil pasta.

Fry the mashed garlic and edamame in a frying pan with some olive oil. When fragrant, add a dash of white wine.

Add 1 tsp salt, stir in 1/2 cup pasta water (water from boiling pasta), and process everything in blender.

Return the paste to pan, turn heat back on and add enoki.

Toss in pasta.

Top pasta with sauteed scallops or any seafood, and some grated cheese. Voila~

And a super simple salad, by boiling everything in the same pot, tossing in some tomatoes, and drizzled with some homemade onion shoyu dressing.

After my looooooooong afternoon nap, i still need more sleeeeeeeeeeeep.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Potato cakes that remind me of the potato patties burgadail(?) at the malay food stall in school.

This was from a cooking show on TV, and the taste was so nostalgic although i think the ingredients are quite different.

Mashed potatoes, chopped onions, tuna and steamed diced carrots.

Popped in my oven that does deep fries with the griller.

So we had deep fried potato cakes without all the oil and mess!

and i know this simmered mushroom dish looks yuck

because of all the seaweed bits. But this nori sauce really really goes with rice.

Grilled eggplants, tossed with sunflower seeds and pesto

Have been feeling super super sleepy all day long.

Weather is just perfect for me to snooze all day...

After last nights carrot potage,

which i poured over the corn rice with a slice of cheese for breakfast,

i was craving more vegetable stew.

And inspired by the menu outside the curry shop which we have been passing by a zillion times,

Spinach chicken curry!

and cucumber walnut salad

The spinach curry was so so so so addictive, this recipe is for keeps.

Found this in a magazine and it is really really simple!

2 persons

1 chicken breast

1 tbs curry powder

1 tsp shoyu

1/2 cup plain yoghurt

1/2 a large onion, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 bundle of spinach

1 cup chicken broth

Pierce the chicken meat with fork all over. Cut into large cubes. Marinate for at least 2 hours with the curry, shoyu and yoghurt.

Blanch spinach, squeeze out excess water, and finely chop (or use food processor).

In a large frying pan, heat 1/2 tbs oil and fry onions and garlic, then add chicken cubes together with its marinate, and fry till fragrant. Add a dash of white wine.

Add spinach and broth. Bring to boil and lower the heat.

Add curry roux (for 2 persons), and simmer on low heat for 10 min.

Voila~

J suggested i add corn in the next time. Good idea, but honestly, i dont like corn in my curry =P

The cicadas have stopped calling out at night, the crickets are singin instead.

Autumn is really nearing..................

More gorgeously simple food =P

Tri coloured don for breakfast

Natto, cucumber cubes and scrambled pumpkin tofu topped on rice, drizzled with shoyu.

Gentle on stomach dinner

Nonbutter Carrot soymilk potage, corn rice,

Bonito flakes stir fry. Broccolli with soybeans, sakura prawns and shimeji.

We brought back a kilo of these beautiful prawns from the wet market in Wakkanai.

600yen for 1KG!!! this was not the only eyepopping price we saw. i almost wanted to buy the whole wet market.

Black black stir fried burdock.

This is was my favourite of the evening.

Black sesame paste stir fried burdock

1 burdock, cut into thick strips

2 tsp black sesame paste (or black tahini)

1tsp miso

1/2 tsp brown sugar

1tsp shoyu

Stir fry burdock in some olive oil or sesame oil till fragrant.

Add the codiments dissolved in 1 cup of water, cover and simmer on very low heat for 10min.

just cant get enough of black sesame =)

We’ve had so many nights of elaborate food...

we decided we need to give our bodies a break.

Breakfast today, instead of the usual fried curry buns,

curry bun inspired onigiri (rice ball)

curry onigiri topped with cheese and breadcrumbs and baked

Lunch was fried rice with lots of vegetables and scrambled egg like tofu

When i dont feel like having eggs, i make this scrabled egg looking tofu which tastes very very close to eggs and we can have as much as we like without worrying about egg yolk overdose =)

Basically just tofu, scrambled in a frying pan, mixed with some miso and salt, and pumpkin flakes (or turmeric powder to give colour)

And dinner was...

Grilled chicken and spinach burgers with mashed potatoes

and seaweed salad by the side

The chicken patties were amazingly soft and juicy, and i think the mashed lotus root i added helped a lot.

For 2 persons

ground lean chicken 200g

spinach 200g

lotus root 150g

half a large onion roughly chopped

black sesame

Blanch spinach, squeeze off water and roughly chop.

Wrap lotus root in microwave wrap and microwave at 600W for 4min. Grate with a grater into a bowl.

Mix everything together in the bowl, and 1tsp salt and some pepper, and grill on medium heat for 13min.

Drizzle with shoyu to serve.

I feel autumn breezing in already~

We r back from our mini holiday in Wakkanai!

And, saw what the northest part of Japan looks like during its short short summer.

Even in the midst of summer, it was so cool, we needed our jackets! cant imagine how the people there live through winter.

Being a very mountainous area with relatively dry and cool climate,

there were pretty flowers everywhere

And blessed with the Ohotsuku sea and the Sea of Japan surrounding,

we satisfied our tum tums with plenty of good seafood

Moutain full of Uni (sea urchin) and ikura (salmon roe) topped on rice

Again, mountain full of salmon and ikura topped on rice

Meals were filled with gorgeous servings of fresh sashimi we really cant forget.

And for awhile, i can do without seafood.

Not that i am sick of it, but really, after youve gone so near to the best, it will be hard to satisfy our dearly pampered taste buds for quite some time to come.

The enchanting sunset at Noshap bay area

Ahhhhhhh................ it was indeed a very very beautiful trip, and i am still in super relaxed mode..............................

It is mabo nasu!!!

The both of us love our mabo sauce a lot just like how the westerners love their tomato based meat sauce.

Mabo nasu (mapo eggplant)

with mushroom sauce topped on blanched kangkong
& nira stirfried with fish cakes

After a long day walking around town with a visitor, i am quite exhausted and nira helped perk me up a bit.

I wanted to do the nira stir fried with chicken liver which is a popular summer stirfry because of its stamina boosting effect, but i just cant muster the courage to handle liver.

what if it stinks? what if i overcook it and it tastes really yuck.

maybe i should just buy grilled liver from the yakitori shop so i dont go wrong.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.................

i just feel like having the liver stir fry mum does once in awhile.