Gaijin Friendly Hijiki Salad & Anchovy Dressing

In each of my pregnancies I would more often than not turn up to be anemic & have fantastically dramatic kitchen/ofuro/jam-packed-train fainting spells so when it comes to hijiki it usually reminds me a little too much of being a substitute for iron supplements.  Along with spinach & liver of course.  I've only eaten it in the usual way simmered with thinly chopped abura-dofu, carrots, konyaku & soybeans.

I found this recipe in my "Harumi's Home Cooking" cookbook and finally tried it out.  I think it's the perfect introduction to hijiki for anyone whose never tasted it & therapeutic for anyone who has bad memories of gritty smooshy black goop.  It's so basic that when you think about it, all it really is comprised of is tossing a salad with hijiki.  And the dressing is one that I'd definitely make for any other salad, thankfully all my kids love anchovies too.  Here's the basic recipe:

10-20 grams of dried hijiki
a variety of vegitables, lettuce, celery, carrots, cucumbers & onions to taste

Anchovy Dressing:

10g anchovy fillets
2 tbsp sunflower/veg oil
1 tbsp wine vinegar
a little sugar (I put in a few pinches)
pepper
1 teaspoon soysauce

Soak the hijiki seaweed in warm water for about 10 min.  Drain well and dry.  Cut into short pieces if they are too long.  Cut the vegetables into thin strips, soak them in cold water for 5 min. drain & pat dry.
Mince anchovy and mix it with the other ingredients for the dressing.  Mix the hijiki and cut vegetables and put on a serving dish.  Pour over the anchovy dressing just before eating. 

That's all I got today....now, "ON TO THE THEATER!!!"

Chicken Katsu

Now now, don't go stoning me....I'm not going to tell you how to make chicken katsu. But I have to say that the gigantic-ness of my success in making it last night was really just too good to not at least post a picture of.

I know it's a simple meal, I know it's deep fried, I know that people slather, tonkatsu sauce, mayo & what have you all over it but frankly I just didn't have the energy to be healthy. OK?

So what am I saying about chicken katsu? Well probably nothing you don't know but I'll say it anyway:

- Soak your chicken in a mixture of sake, shoyu & mirin for at least 2 hours ( I soaked mine for 8)

- Go through the pain of coating with FLOUR before egg & breadcrumbs. And if you want to practice fully letting your "control-freakish-ness" go, let your 2 & 4 year olds "help" you do this.

- SET your coated chicken for an hour or more in the fridge to let the crumbs adhere to the egg wash (ewww......I hate saying that, dreadful pictures arise) But this you MUST do! It'll keep the crust stuck beautifully to the chicken through the whole frying, handling, & cutting process.

And lastly of course........

KARASHI, or BUST!!!






Thank you my friends!!

Renkon Chips

Ooooh-la-la. Renkon is very much one of my favorite little veggie treats. I put up one recipe for Japanese simmered renkon ages ago. But recently I tried making renkon chips & it was so easy I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't try it sooner. Tooo easy, gotsa try it!

Step 1) Fill a pan with about 1/2 inch of frying oil & heat
Step 2) Using a mandolin (the straight edge grater thingie) grate off a peeled renkon straight into the hot oil. Spread them out so they brown evenly.
Step 3) Using a pair of cooking hashi, pullm out onto a paper towel lined dish when they're just starting to get golden. (in about 1-1 1/2 min) A little bonus is you won't have to flipm when frying, they're so thin they'll fry up nicely.
Step 4) Salt & munch the num nums!

And if you're a OCD like me about some things cooking related. Go crazy loading them onto your single hashi as you pullm' out of the oil till you have a nice little row of fried "wagon wheels" (as my daddyo would say).

AND THAT'S IT.

Now, I'm not kidding when I say that the first time I made these I did about 4 massive renkon pieces and had a huge bowl full of chips that got COMPLETELY devoured at the dinner table. With requests to make more for snack and the approving "smirky smirk whilst hogging the last of the bowl" from my DH.

Some ideas of how you can incorporate them:
- Add to salad for crunch
- Add it onto your tower of tofu toppings
- Sprinkle them on your hot udon
- They're a totally cute garnish for a fancy dinner dish.

Well, that's all I can think of for now......
Go forth & deep fry!

HUMP!

Hey there citizens! Hows spring treating you? Everyone thawing out OK?

I'm gonna do something new here on this bloggie, so bear with me.

If you've grown suspicious from the title of this post & you're wondering if I'm gonna give you too much information about some aspect of my personal life that you don't want to know about, rest assured there will be no such unveiling tonight. The only "Hump" in this post is the name of the restaurant that DH & I went to the other evening.

And I'm gonna give you a review of it whether you like it or not, because I'm still floating from the sheer bliss of the experience.

First of all I must give props to a friend who graciously provided Josh & I with the opportunity to experience this lovely restaurant in all of it's splendor & my fantastic sisters in law & Tom who held down the fort while went off to act like adults for the evening.

I assure you, this was harder than I thought it would be, as every couple seconds I wanted to scream at all my fellow train riders, like an idiot, "BEHOLD ME....I AM AL......and I'm an ADULT, YO!!!!.....I'm FREEEEEEEeeeee!" whilst swinging carelessly from round train handle bars to handle bars & that would just ruin the whole delightful facade of being an adult individual, wouldn't it?

So here's my first restaurant review, don't worry fellas at the rate that I eat out, these reviews will be coming out as often as I give birth (Occasionally but not too infrequently to forget all together) I took pics w/ DH's Iphone & as the sun went down the dim light didn't make for very good shots so sorry bout that.

Well now on w/ the show ..........The Hump, is a LA style sushi restaurant located near Tokyo eki, with it's sister resturant of the same name in Santa Monica

First off, the decor was great, modern, classy & chic. Our booth had a full window view of the Imperial palace moat & grounds. And I was desperately trying to control my instinctive desire to grove like a lunatic to the happy-making but odd combo of gospel/trance music in the background.

We started off with cocktails. And DH insisted we try something so he got a tequila based cocktail called "Teqtonic" never heard of it, I got a vodka/cointreau based cocktail called "Balalaika". Personally I liked his better. (Should've gone w/ my instincts & gone w/ Tequila?)

KAMPAIIIII (this is right before I start raving to the empty restaurant about how ...."I'm a GROWN UP, on a DATE!" like a moron who is obviously not grown up nor on a date)

I went ahead & ordered the Chef's Choice 8 course set. And my DH, being slightly less adventurous with seafood, choose out his own course individually.(with a little help from me!)

Mr. Husband's edamame was nearly enough for me to ask for a nama beer to go with it, but I decided to save my stomach for the goodness to come.
My starter was a sora-mame & prawn salad with a delicate sesame dressing. Along with a very unique tasting sea snail (I forgot the name). It tasted salty & somewhat bitter but the texture was very soft & palatable and the broth in the shell was quite a pleasant little kick. Kinda hard to describe really.

Mr. Husband ordered his own sushi plates one plate of hon-maguro (black tuna) & one plate of this Bluefin tuna Otoro. (fatty belly cut of bluefin tuna) Bluefin is considered to be the KING of tuna, And if you've never tasted otoro, let me just say there's only one way to describe it....Sushi-gasm! (FOR REAL!!! TOTAL SUSHI-GASM!)

Imagine, if you will, the softest creamiest sushi with white fat marbled into it & around the edges that melts like butter in your mouth. MELTS!! There's practically no way to chew it because it just disolves like cream. Stop me already I could go on about this forever!

2 seconds before OTORO-GASM!!

Here's my sashimi plate. Maguro, ika & red sea bream. First impressions.....fresh wasabi is most obviously fantastic & mind-blasting (or should I say, nose blasting?). I still don't care for squid, there is no unpleasentness in the taste but the texture is just too muddy for me.

Here's his salad course, mix of grilled veggies: baby corn, mastutake mushroom, paprika, okra & shishito peper with a very light cheese dressing that I just couldn't place but it was something blue....lighter than Roquefort or Gorgonzola. It was creamy & delicate. Surprisingly my mushroom hating man-of-love tried the matsutake & found that it's meatier taste was a not entirely unpleasant.

My salad was awesome. Mixed greens with chicken & tiny squid (see them laying on the potato like it's a little pillow, awww!) they were grilled I think, and were surprisingly good. And the French mustard & balsamic vinegar dressing is something that I'm going to try at home for sure.

I had some tempura with a few veggies, one of which was baby artichoke heart. I LOVED IT, bitter but just really right up my alley. Te fish was wrapped in some kind of wrap or batter & sandwiched in with a sweetish soft egg-like batter filling as well. This was the most mysterious thing I ate, I wish I would've asked what kind of fish it was & what the filling was made of, I assume it was made with a fish stock as well.

DH had a seared Kobe beef sashimi with a daikon oroshi/ponzu dressing. This too was fantastic (though I was only rationed 1 slice) the goma sprinkled on the beef & the yuzu in the dressing was the clincher as far as I was concerned.

The picture is a bit fuzzy but this was the much loved spicy tuna roll & California roll. Sadly my only California roll involved a lame food-court experience in Texas (not to be repeated EVER!) but this California roll was positively overflowing with soft & creamy goodness -- everything from the avocado to the crab meat to the tarako & the mayo garnishing it was a win-win situation for me.

DH quite obviously lost his mind right about the time this spicy tuna roll came to the table (along with his 2nd Tequila cocktail & my Champagne.) According to my sister in law this is basic "spicy tuna roll" in LA but it was all new too me. The maguro-tataki was spicy enough & wonderfully creamy and with little bits of tempura it had a crunch that made it all the more fun. The slivers of dried red pepper garnishing it are supposedly the norm with spicy tuna rolls. Gee....how would I know, I'm just a little gaijin. We went ahead & ordered another plate of these babies.

And finally my sushi, at last! From right to left: Dashi-maki, ikura (come to mama) ebi, akagai (blood clam, whatta name and looking suspiciously like a part of the reproductive system...eh-hum), hamachi (yellowtail), I dunno what the white one was?? Sea bream?, chutoro & otoro. By this time I'm like, holding back the tears of joy & quietly yet earnestly singing "I LOVE JAPAN".

Not a very good picture at all of the most awesome miso ever with a huge chunk of some kind of fish (again...sorry, couldn't place it) it was steaming hot, just like it should be...too hot to drink right from the start. Someone give the miso guy in the back a huge hug for me. Wonderful wonderful!

Lastly there was my dessert of sakura cheese cake. I loved how this was not very sweet at all, so you could taste a very subtle floral taste of what I assume was sakura blossom water? Maybe not, but I like to imagine it was something baby pink & delicate. Look at that strategically placed sakura petal.

Dinner ended with two hot cups of ocha & much nodding & silly smiles of satisfaction which continued all the way home as you can see.

Awww, as you can see Mr. Daddy is busy checking in with home base to make sure all the tyrants are under control & getting into their tyrant PJ's. And I tell you my friendly friend as Gene Kelly says:

WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE!!

Japanese Foodie Fails

I really love spotting gems of food "fails". I'm somehow still shocked by the combination of foods they come up with. I don't often snap a pics of them but every once in awhile there's something too ridiculously "Japanese" to pass up. So here are a few I've snapped here & there. Have any good ones, send them to me & I'll be happy to postm'.

Yes, you read it right, it's a "Pita-Mac" with karage, (deep-batter fried chicken) teriyaki sauce, with renkon (lotus root) and lettuce. This was the big Christmas "Surprise item" (Go figure!)

How can one not act like little foolish gaijins with these "ill proportioned" giant karinto!! I'm just not sure I could walk down the street with a clear conscious munching on one of these. Ewwww!

I'm trying to think of something stunning to say, but really......I'm still just snickering like a pre-schooler about these.
Bluefin Tuna Otoro. I squeezed into a curious crowd watching a guy buy this slice of tuna for 45,000Y, it was about the size of the palm of my hand. Only in Japan!
What everyone needs at the end of a long day. Yakisoba donut.
Follow that with a tuna tomato donut & you're all set.

Sitting on a rock eating..........

My Dad emailed me this picture. It's a long standing joke in our family. Dating back to when the kids (primarily, I) whine about what we're going to eat & the daddy suggests we sit on a rock & eat hard boiled eggs.

Well, Dad, with our ever growing family, I think you've found the perfect solution for our exciting family picnic fare........





Now that, dear friend, is "Boiled egg surprise!!" Really now, who wouldn't want a shrink-wrapped-sausage-log of boiled egg? I'm telling you, this pic just encapsulates the spirit of the shockingly fearless and occasionally hilarious inventiveness of the Japanese. I bet they even made a reeeeeeally long egg cutter to cut the thing.

Mochi-mochi-snackie-snack!

Ooooh, brother! Is that not just a hungry-making picture? I know you probably know how to make mochi, but just to appease me since I've taken all these pictures, let's play like you don't even know what mochi is. Like you've been stranded on some mochi-less island your whole life & I'm gonna help you "see the light". Ready? OK, cool, here we go!!

Hi there! Man, you look hungry. Welcome to the wonderful world of mochi. Mochi is a "rice cake" made from glutenous rice that has been pounded to smithereens & dried out & cut into squares. What? You've never heard of it before? Well, right this way. Let me introduce you to the essential ingredients to one of the happiest-making winter snackies you'll ever enjoy. Not to mention a nifty way to pack in two bowls worth of rice in a few delicious bites. Don't be scared now, it's perfectly harmless.

We have here the ingredients you'll need:

Mochi (Duh)
Koi-shoyu (light shoyu, or normal shoyu is fine)
Mirin
Brown Sugar (a must)
Kinako (Soybean powder)
Nori (Optional)

Now there are two ways to make mochi: 1) boiling 2) Grilling! We of course like grilling because there is no happier sound than the sound of a teeth biting into a crispy, browned shell of mochi revealing a gooey goopy white inside. So line up those babies on your oven grill (all Japanese kitchens have this, I'm pretty sure) & fire it up full blasty blast.

Now, depending on how many people you're making this for you'd need to scale down or up. But lets assume that you're making about 12 pieces of mochi (for either a mob of hungry kids or one hungry sumo wrestler) Put 3 tbsp of mirin in a saucepan & put the flame on medium, bring it to a boil & simmer for about 1 minute, like so.

Now dump in 2 tbsp of sugar & 3 of shoyu, and bring that to a boil for about 1 minute or more. You're trying to thicken it up & evaporate some of the liquid off but don't overdo it or it'll be unbearably salty & ruin your whole mochi experience.

Ahh, ain't that a beauty. This is also a really basic version of Teriyaki sauce if you ever want a slapped together glaze for your Teriyaki chicken or Japanese hamburger. So keep aside any left over.
If you're like me, right about now is when you open the grill, scream hysterically at the sight of your flaming mochi & toss the black & charcoaled remains in the garbage to start again. Or of course if you're sensible & have been checking on it periodically it'll look like this & you'll squeal with joy at the vision of your bloated browning mochi puffs of joy! (I know, I might just be taking this all a little to seriously, but really, it's the simple joys of life!)

Turn them over & start'm on the other side. And if you're like me around now you'll start dancing around the kitchen singing that ridiculous song from Don Quixote, "I wanna be your mochi Man.....(mochi-mochi-man, mochi-mochi-man)"

Now we're gonna dip the grilled mochi into the sauce on both sides. (If you're feeling really Xtreme you could even dab a little butter on top, but don't tell anyone I told you!) Then you'll thank God that you're alive & that I've introduced you to the wonderful new world of mochi.

Personally, I really like wrapping the whole thing in either nori or fresh shiso leaf and putting a little extra sauce in the bowl for good measure!

Now for the kinako topping. Kinako is a powder made from soybeans so it got a nice nutty flavor. And all the great healthy macho-ness of soybeans so it's great added to shakes, ice-cream & other desserts. (Have you ever had kinako & peanut whip? Ooooh, baby!) Mix equal parts brown sugar & kinako.

Now snitch that massive kinako covered brown sugar ball there, yeah that one! Hey, just another perk of being the cook!
Now if you've grilled the mochi you'll want to dunk your mochi into a cup of warm water before rolling it in the kinako so it'll stick.

Be sure you give it a good toss as the water absorbs the kinako & if you don't really layer it on it'll be a bit bland! Oh, I can hear my sister screaming from here, eh, Elaina?

Man, that's just good looking! And that's the way we roll.

Oops of course, some ocha, oolong-cha or sokenbi-cha to wash it down.

NOTE: I didn't want to do this, but I don't want you to say I didn't warn you. If you honestly haven't eaten mochi before I must tell you what every self respecting Japanese mochi muncher knows & that is that a few old people & or kids die every new year from choking on mochi. I'm not sure why everyone keeps repeating this like it's some kind of "very real danger" but traditionally you must always talk about choking on mochi while you eat it. Supposedly it enhances the taste. :) And rumor is the only way to clear an esophagus from mochi is to take a vacuum cleaner to the poor victim. True or not, if you have fast eating kids you can always bring the point home by pulling out the vacuum cleaner every time they start eating mochi.

Quick Fix: Soba/Udon Lunch

It’s really coldy-woldy (as my 3 year old would say). And it’s time for a fantastic coldy-woldy, quick-fix lunch. Now bear with me everyone living here in Japan, I'm not trying to be moronic or corny but I personally find a good soba/udon lunch a real "heart-warming" meal. For anyone whose new to Japanese, I guarantee if you have both tsuyu & soba or udon on hand you can throw yourself this "bread-alone" typical "school-day lunch" fare or hasty dinner.

So here’s how it goes: (I'm guessing this is where I loose the Japanese audience, that's OK...see you next time where I make Vietnamese steamed fetel chicken with prawn sauce)

The cast:
- Men-Tsuyu
- Dashi powder (or fish flakes if you’re a traditionalist, hey if you have time to iron your socks & monogram your hankies why not!)
- Boiled eggs or chikuwa or kamaboko (Getting the kids to peel eggs is a great time filler) - Dried stick of kombu @ 5 cm long (optional, but I really love the flavor it adds)
- 1 cm slice of fresh ginger
- assorted veggies (eg. Daikon, carrots, cabbage, wakame, spinach, ingen, whatever you’ve got on hand, just not broccoli please!)
- soba or udon noodles (personally, I prefer udon, hands down)
- Negi or ko-negi (essential, friends, ESSENTIAL! When you're pg wife is weeping that it just doesn't taste authentic......it's the NEGI, you forgot)
- Shichimi (for udon) or wasabi (if you’re having soba)

The lowdown:

Throw the kombu into a pot of cold water (about 1 c of water per person eating) soak for 15 min.

While it’s soaking, cut up your veggies smallish. (I like vague words like “smallish” so that I won’t be to blame for the size chopping dilemma, good luck w/ that) I like doing things ‘matchstick’ or ‘waribashi’ size, I think it goes better with noodles than disk or cubes.

Cut the ginger finely so none of your whiny little kids will find a piece & yell loud enough for lawyer boy to hear “Do I HAVE to eat the ginger?”

Bring water to a boil & then take out the kombu when the water is nearly at a boil. Add dashi, (about ½ a tsp per cup) to taste.

Throw in your veggies, (Chikuwa or kamaboko if you’re using) not the negi yet, if you please. (I’m assuming you wouldn’t add cabbage, spinach or soft leafy veggies in till the end too)

Bring it to a little simmer for 2-3 minutes, add tsuyu. Again I’m not going to tell you how much but if you’re gonna have the noodles in it, it should be pretty weak. You can always add more later.

Throw in your leafy business, ginger &/or wakame. Give a little stir & turn off the heat.

Boil your noodles according to the directions. (overboiling is yucky-yucky-yucky!) Drain & serve before all the steam rises & they turn into a giant chunck of noodle that you have to cut with a knife. ARGGGG!!! Personally I have all the bowls ready & serve the noodles straight into the bowls from the boiling water & top with the tsuyu & veggies.

If you’re using eggs, slice them in half lengthwise & put in the bowl.

Bring any condiments to the table & cozy up to the best winter lunchie you’ll ever have.

And that's what she wrote folks!

Japanese food for the New Year

I don’t know about you but come the new year I feel the immediate need to switch to Japanese food. It could be the fact that I used about 50 kgs of butter & or shortening in the last 2 months or the fact that I somehow was left with all the left overs from our Christmas dinner & had to literally munch my way through the fridge to get to the tofu & moyashi.

Not that I mind the munchies, I’m all about the snackies. One small joy in being a human cow is that I can eat pretty much anything & everything and only loose more weight. But eventually I start not only craving the simple food but I’m getting the feeling that “Old Faithful” the oven & “Bruce the Manly Mixer” want a bit of a break too. It’s time for Japanese.

It doesn’t help that Oshogatsu means Japanese traditional music playing in all the stores & big sales on nimono & oden ingredients, or the fact that a majority of my childhood New Year's memories are filled with Obachan's cooking.

I find Japanese food simple, pure, for the most part healthy & always easy to make. I don’t mean to oversimplify Japanese cooking but if all I had was shoyu, mirin, sugar, dashi & sake, I would probably be able to make 1oo's of great Japanese meals. Too easy people. And the next best thing about it is you can make a 5 or 6 dish meal in under an hour. You can’t go wrong. The perfect thing for a busy mom trying to get back into gear with school. All I need do is grab something from the fridge, pour shoyu & mirin on it & VOILA....dinner is served.

Suddenly I’m just dying to go to the onsen and soak in a yuzu bath drink a massive nama beer with some sukemono. Seriously who wouldn’t want to spend a lazy day under the kotastu drinking ocha & eating mikans, or kinako covered mochi.

Before my screaming sister went home I got her over for a good old fashioned oden dinner. Terribly fun!! If I was going to have a "pot luck" dinner, I'd choose this. What’s your favorite Oden food? Mine’s Kinchaku. Those little deep fried tofu pockets stuffed with mochi & tied with a string of gourd. Gooood stuff.

Hope to get some recipes your way once I get the school situation up & running again. Till then, it’s still not too late to say, Yoi Otoshi O!

Winter Carrots: Carrot & Miso Soup

My kids are crazy about winter carrots. It really started out with DH buying a massive (and I do mean MASSIVE) bag full of carrots once in the winter. Surprisingly they were quickly devoured & so we bought another & another.....These aren't just ordinary carrots, they're winter carrots. And by that you have to understand that when the temperature goes down the carrot makes more sugar to keep from freezing, hence the sweeter carrots. The colder the weather the better the carrot.

It's totally uncontrolled "Rabbit syndrome" at my house when this happens. The kids walk around the house munching on small whole carrots and usually don't even bother peeling them anymore. The skins are thin & the carrots themselves are almost translucent, crisp, shining & juicy. Mr Trav. talks about winter carrots every time we eat carrot sticks all year round.

So I'm terribly happy my soon to be 3 year old lady decided on "Bill's Big Carrot Cake" (undeniably the best carrot cake ever) for her birthday.

And if you're feeling a little experimental here's a recipe from "Harumi's Home cooking" that I like to make in the winter:

Carrot & Miso Soup:

100g carrots (one large or two smallish carrots)

2 c water

1 chicken stock cube

1 rasher streaky bacon

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp finely chopped Celery

1/2 tsp awase miso (I like using red miso best, for this, but I think any miso will do)

Salt & Pepper

Chopped cilantro to garnish (I use negi, of course, seeing as cilantro is not very cheap)

1. Peel carrots & cut into 3 cm think round slices

put the water & chicken stock in a pan & bring to a boil. Add carrots & over with a drop lid. (Simple "drop lid" explanation)

2. Turn down the heat & simmer until cooked. Remove from the heat & mash the cooked carrots in the remaining liquid.

3. Cut the bacon into small pieces. In a frying pan, heat the oil & cook the chopped bacon till crisp. Turn off heat & mix in chopped celery. Add to the carrot soup.

4. Bring to a boil then turn off the heat & mix in the miso & season w/ s&p. (remember, boiling miso is UNCOOL & will change the texture & flavor) Pour into bowls, sprinkle w/ cilantro (or negi)

Happy Winter days!