mapo hot pot

We had natto & egg on rice for breakfast today.

And when i placed the soya sauce on the table, J says he didnt need it.

??! was my reaction, plain natto & egg with white rice?

Then he fished out all out furikake (savoury flakes made up usually of seaweed bits, sesame seeds and dried fish based flakes)... we have curry, mixed wild grains, black sesame... and a few more >.<

Sometimes when i find a cute bottle for the furikake, i buy and then refill them with other furikake when theyve finished.

We have a family of 3 at the moment.

Certainly made our natto & rice taste better even without the soy sauce.

I really love natto, but i get a bit frustrated with myself these days. Natto today tasted not usual.

My taste buds seems to be changing at an alarming rate. what i used to like, tastes weird.

Dinner tonight, was...

Mapo tofu hot pot!

Last years hot pot boom was curry based.

This year seems like it will be mapo?

Saw a few kinds of mapo hot pot stock at the supermart and decided to try this one out.

Added lots of white cabbage, mushrooms, leeks, tofu & a tiny bit of minced pork.

Hmm... the stock was yummy enough for us to consume that huge amount of vegetables i added. (this is what we love about hot pots. VEGE!) Its like having wafu (japanese style) vegetable stew in a large pot and we get to scoop out whatever we like.

The mapo flavour was so so, but not fantastic because of the slightly artificial flavour, i think will try my own combination next time =P

With lots of soup left, we usually add rice + egg to make porridge, or noodles (any kind goes well), or the very standard rice mochi. We had mochi today... mmm... chewylicious~!

Looking forward to more hot pots when it gets colder =)

Pumpkin quiche

After pumpkin scones last week, pumpkin quiche~

Made a pie dish full of this yesterday & simply toasted it in the oven this morning for breakfast.

Autumn special, Salmon & potatoes pumpkin quiche

This was pretty simple to make. i added pumpkin flakes for an autumn feel to this quiche.

Didnt use cream this time.

Simply,

The Basic pumpkin quiche base

2 eggs

200ml milk

30g pumpkin flakes

1 cube of buiion cube

salt, pepper & nutmeg

Variation

Salmon chunks (broiled or grilled type)

boiled potato cubes

Heat everything in a pan except the eggs, bring to about 80degC, then pour into the beaten egg mixture.

After molding the slightly thawed pie sheet (store bought) onto a pie dish, pour the quiche mixture in and bake at 200deg for 15min, 180 for 15min.

We have a new mini shopping centre near our place!

Well, not really a shopping centre, i call it the housewives centre.

Theres a stylish supermart with mostly exquisitely selected foods (read, expensive grocceries) & imported stuff. Plus on the upper levels, a small book store, a cafe, 2 family restaurants.

Next to the supermart, there was a franchise of the katsu shop called Wako, and i was soooooo looking forward to trying this.

i love tonkatsu (breadcrumbed & deepfried pork) cos it is like a rank up version of the usual pork chops i usually had as a child. And i dont usually like to deepfry since the SMELL just lingers in my hair & i have a headache with the remaining oil always. So if i wanna have a simple version, i use my oven that deep fries. But sometimes i want a taste of the real thing. So this shop near our place is gonna be convenient! =)

Plus, it has prawn katsu, squid katsu & chicken katsu too! gotta try the prawns next time.

Dinner tonight was

Seafood curry plus a tiny tonkatsu treat

One rank up version of curry rice =)

My first attempt at claypot rice.

Autumn is strolling in, and this is one typical claypot dish with lots of mushrooms. Autumn usually means we get a nice variety of mushrooms and if we are eating at home, i can add as much as i like!

With a nice slightly burnt base =P

Chicken and mushroom claypot rice

Pan fried the mushrooms (shimeji, shitake, maitake & enoki) with the chicken bits (mixed thigh & breast meat) in some shoyu, bonito flakes & ginger juice added lastly.

Then cooked with 1 and a half cups of rice, 225ml dashi, 2 tbs shoyu & 2 tbs sake.

Dinner was very autumny. With mushroom claypot rice, baked sweet potatoes, carrot soup and a mini okra salad.
The rice on its own was yummy enough.

I did it Japanese style with some shoyu & sake added into the rice mixture.

But halfway through, i was suddenly craving black soya sauce.

hehe, after a tiny dollop of the sauce... hmm.............. i suddenly smell................... mum!

Somehow claypot rice tastes different made on my own. Not as satisfying.>.<

I usually cant resist a piece of flourless chocolate cake each time it catches my eye at any cafe.

Its like having a huge serving of chocolate truffle which is simply heart melting~

Anyway, i love sweet treats too much for my own good, and now that i have all the time to bake any dessert i feel like having, all the more i am giving way to myself.

This recipe i found online, and tried today, was sooooooooooo soooooooooooo yummy, yet very healthy. No eggs, no butter, no flour. Main ingredients, tofu, soy pulp (okara), and cocoa powder!

Flourless tofu chocolate cake

Flourless tofu chocolate cake

170g tofu

100g okara

30g brown sugar

20g cocoa powder

20g skimmed milk powder

2g kanten powder (gelatine powder)

100g milk or soy milk

Preheat oven to 180degC.

Put everything in the food processor and blend well.

Pour into a pound cake mold lined with baking paper.

Bake at 180degC for 30min.

Let it cool in the mold at room temperature.

Then chill well (in its mold) in the fridge before serving.

Dinner tonight...

sukiyaki don (sukiyaki topped on rice), fish cake sticks with spicy shichimi mayonnaise, komatsuna hitashi & wakame soup

Our all time favourite sukiyaki

I did use sweet wine today, only a bit of brown sugar, and i figured, this is just as good!

(for 2 persons)

1/2 a large onion, thickly sliced

1 piece of tofu, divided into large cubes

100g beef slices

5 shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced

3/4 dashi (Japanese broth)

2 tbs shoyu

1&1/2tbs sake (or white wine)

1tsp brown sugar

1 beated egg

Mix 1 tbs of teriyaki sauce or Japanese BBQ meat sauce with the beef slices and leave in the fridge for half an hour.

Fry, in some vegetable oil, onions & mushroom slices till fragrant.

Add beef and separate the slices as you fry.

Add the sake, broth, shoyu & sugar, and tofu.

Reduce to medium heat, cover & simmer for 5 minutes.

Add a beaten egg, turn off fire, cover for 30seconds.

Scoop out immediately onto hot white rice.

Top with chives if you like.

Komatsuna hitashi topped with fried tofu skin slices

Hitashi directly translates to, being steeped in, and is a style of having blanched vegetables steeped in light sauce. We had it with ponzu, a tangy shoyu sauce.

The first time i had hitashi, i really liked how i could have a huge lot of vegetables at a go without feeling the sauce weighing down.

Its been quite some time since we had white rice. Todays was Koshihikari from Niigata.

Yummy~!!

microwaved potato chips & loco moc rice

Spent a weekend at in laws place.

Otoosan made gyoza! from the stuffing, to wrapping those pretty dumplings. Was really really impressed how a typical businessman who didnt even know how to operate a rice cooker can change so much after retirement! this shows you really can pick up anything at any age.

Well, no pics of gyoza, but we had oden again last night.

We always look forward to hot pot nights and how the yummy looking soup is still bubbling away even on the dining table

added konnyaku (the black jelly looking pieces), while the rest were really really yummy after a weekend of steeping in oden broth.

And since we bought some soba flour from the soba maker yesterday, i made crepe for breakfast. I dont usually like breakfast filled with sugar, so instead of sweet crepe, galette.

Spinach, cream cheese & ham galette

which was really yummy, just weird in shape. (gotta perfect this =P)

Dinner was western too...

Taco rice loco moco style & oden

Taco rice is very popular here. Typically, rice topped with cheese, lettuce, a burger patty & salsa.
I made it loco moco (Hawaiian) style.

I was wondering why loco moco is soooooooo popular in Japan, wikipidiaed it and it seems there really was some influence by the Japanese! Read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loco_Moco.

This reminds me of the movie Honkoa boy that i watched on the plane on the way home. I guess there really is a very unique Japanese Hawaiian community existing. =)

Oh, and to make this dish even more western, i made potato chips.

Yes, MADE potato chips from potatoes.

using the microwave oven.

Gosh, this was really really addictive and really economical. J says we dont have to buy chips anymore.

Wanna know how i did it?

Very thinly sliced potatoes (1.3mm) using the vegetable slicer.

Soaked in water for 5 minutes. So this doesnt turn bitter after toasting.

Then dried very well with kitchen towels (dried very very well)

Tossed with salt (or you can skip this)

Then line the micowave (either the turntable, or the base of the oven if there is no turntable), with oven sheet. Place potato slices, being careful not to overlap any portion. Run at 600W for 4 minutes, flip and run again at 600W for another 4 minutes.

You wont believe this is non oil fried!!!

For once, potato chips is not junk food.

I LOVE POTATO CHIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ODEN night!

with vegetable sticks & miso dip

i love having my oden with miso dengaku (miso dip), and what i had always bought from the mart, i now make my own.

The usual miso dengaku has a lot of sugar & mirin (sweet wine) in it, so by making our own, the sugar content is controlled.

Simply, per 1 tablespoon of miso, i add 1 tablespoon of grated carrots and some sesame seeds. Sometimes, i add a bit of mirin or sugar, or if not, just some water to dilute.

goes very well with vegetable sticks too, not just oden.

these days, i find it so hard to digest my dinner, i think i should go on a porridge dinner week.

need to search for some porridge recipes.

Pumpkin cranberry scones non butter

Mornings are getting cooler, and today was a bit chilly.

On such days, i really need hot soup to start my day,

so cabbage & tomato herb soup was for breakfast.

topped with fried onions ( lovingly made by mum~ brought a BIG bottle home)

And, for my mid morning break...

Freshly baked pumpkin cranberry scones

Autumn cakes are out all over in the stores & each time i have my tea break at some cafe, there is always something pumpkin. This pumpkin scone that i had twice at starbucks was so addictive I so wanted to make some on my own! The ones at starbucks were filled with raisins, but since i dont have any in my stock, i filled them with cranberries. which was good too!

I simply love scones because it is like having bread in a cookie, but popping too many at a go, also means too much calories since it is usually made with quite a bit of butter. But this version i learnt from a book is totally butter free, and just as yummy! the replacement, egg yolk and condensed milk.

Makes 5

• Flour 117g
• Pumpkin flakes 23g
• Cornflour 20g
• Baking powder 1tbs strong
• Salt 2/5 tsp
• 1 Egg yolk
• 1tbs condensed milk or milk jam
• 30g brown sugar
• 50ml milk
• Cranberries (as much you like)

Stir well the wet ingredients with the brown sugar, and mix into the sifted dry ingredients.

Soaking the cranberries with the wet ingredients helps soften the dried fruit a bit.

Divide the dough into 5 triangle pieces (or using the mouth of a jar, round pieces). Brush some milk on each piece and bake at 180degC for 15min.

Js after work super late coffe break

I was standing in the kitchen for quite a long time today.

Peeling off the shells and skins off chestnuts.

YES, they are in season already!!!

My fingers really hurt, but at the end of the day...

Smelling the chestnut rice just made the pain dissappear

the sweet chestnuts are absolutely appetising. J had an extra large serving of rice

and... a dish which is just so comforting on a cold day

Nikujaga

which literally means meat & potatoes.

This is a really simple shoyu simmered beef and potatoes dish, but took me some time to get the hang of making it. The ratio of sake, shoyu and mirin (sweet wine) and timing of simmering.

I figured, simmering the onions, potatoes & carrots in sweet broth (just broth and sugar or mirin), till soft, then adding the meat & shoyu lastly makes a HUGE difference. Reason being, simmering the potatoes in shoyu makes the potatoes too salty and adding the meat in too early makes the beef slices hard.

My version of nikujaga

3 medium potatoes

1/2 a carrot

1 large onion

100g thinly sliced lean beef

300ml dashi (clear broth)

1tbs sake

1 and half tbs brown sugar

2 tbs shoyu

Pour dashi & sake & sugar into pot, bring to boil the onions, potatoes & carrots and simmer with a droplid on low heat for 20min.

Bring heat to high, and add beef & shoyu. Simmer for 2 mins.

Serve with blanched french beans or sweet peas.

And salad today took a bit of time too...

Okara salad

This took a bit of time because the vegetables had to be simmered before adding okara to the pot. But Okara being soy pulp, together with all the vegetables is really a fibre powerhouse. And the both of us love this salad so much, we gobble down quite a lot each time. which is good =)

Weather forcast says some parts of Tokyo will go as low as below 10deg in the wee hours of the morning tommorrow. Time to watch my blanket.