Hamburger Steak/Salisbury Steak

In Japan a 'hamburg' (hamburger) is actually what we would call Salisbury Steak. It is an oval shaped ground meat patty complimented with a gravy or sauce. Granted they do have hamburgers in Japan--at fast food outlets such as McDonalds, as well as their own domestic joint 'Mos Burger' (which I must say is the gourmet of fast food hamburgers!). However, there are entire restaurants dedicated to serving hamburg in all its meaty glory. There are variations on flavour, but the basic idea is to mix ground beef with ground pork, bread crumbs and egg. I like to use onions and garlic in my hamburg. A bit of ketchup and Bulldog sauce goes well in it too. I like to experiment with the seasonings--sometimes spicy, sometimes savory.  Ketchup is always welcome as a condiment for hamburg, but a popular sauce is a mixture of red wine, Bulldog and a small touch of ketchup. For this photo I just made a  brown sauce. Steamed vegetables such as carrot and broccoli are often served with hamburg to contrast any oily flavour. It is a far cry from tv dinner salisbury steak!

Last week's meals

In a previous post I demonstrated how the Japanese make curry rice using blocks of curry roux. There is another recipe for curry in Japan called 'dry curry,' I suppose refering to the fact that no roux or liquid is used. Packets designed especially for dry curry abound in Japan, but you can get the same results using plain curry powder and a bit of salt. The best meat for dry curry is ground meat, as it contains enough flavourful fat to prevent the dry curry from becoming, well, too dry. Other ingredients such as onions and garlic are excellent additions. You can be a bit creative with dry curry, adding whatever types of vegetables you prefer. In this instance I used canned corn for an element of sweetness. If you like, dry curry can be made into fried rice or served on top of plain white rice in the donburi style.

Salted salmon has many uses, from bento to onigiri (rice ball) filling. Over the weekend, I made an easy lunch of salmon mixed rice using two fillets of salted salmon. First I prepared the rice by washing and rinsing it. Then I placed the raw fillets on top of the rice with just a dollop of margarine and turned on the rice cooker. The fillets steamed along with the rice. After about 40 minutes I gently broke up the fillets with the rice paddle and mixed it into the steaming rice. I added a touch of sesame seeds for a bit of crunch. So easy and so satisfying! I really think that no kitchen should be without a good quality rice cooker. Of course you could use a saucepan but it is slightly more challenging to get the rice just right.

We do have A LOT of ground meat in our freezer, so here is yet another ground meat meal. This is stroganoff and once again it is an easy one. I simply browned the ground meat with onion and garlic. I then added a touch of sake and water, before adding a can of Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup. When it was nearly done I stirred in some sour cream and it was complete! This recipe can be found on the Campbells Kitchen website. Just search 'Stroganoff'. I do encourage people to check out that site for a lot of easy economical recipes.

And to finish off, a whole wheat honey banana muffin! I am trying to eat really healthy right now for certain reasons ^_^ so I figured this slightly sweet muffin would help with that. There is no added refined sugar in it at all, only natural honey. It is more of a breakfast muffin than a sweet and helps when you don't feel like eating much in the morning. Plus, it is just right when you are craving something a bit sweet but not cloyingly so.

That's it for now! ~_^

For the love of bread

I made a rather large batch of bread dough the other day. Half of it I used to make regular buns but the other half became a large loaf of fluffy bread. It really is delicious! The only problem is the slicing...I seem to have inherited my mom's technique for slicing bread--which results in the top being thick and the bottom being thin. ^_^; Ah well, you can't win 'em all! Either way, the bread is great as-is, or lightly toasted. Like the edge of the bottle in the upper right of the background? It is cooking sake for those who were wondering. ^_^

And what suits bread more than chili? This batch of chili was made using a combination of ground beef and ground pork. There is a can of soybeans in there, as well as corn, carrots, onion and garlic--lots of garlic! A touch of Tabasco adds some heat, as does the spicy pepper cheese. I served the chili on top of fresh lettuce for a little crunch and to tame the heat. It's actually not that spicy though. The chili powder I have seems to be a bit on the mild side. In any case, it is a satisfying dish when the weather outside is frosty.

A little of this, a little of that

This donburi (one bowl) dish should actually have a third row with it. The dish is called Sanshoku Donburi which means three coloured donburi. However, I am missing the third row which is typically a green vegetable such as broccoli, peas, asparagus or slivered green beans. However, my husband requests that I serve the vegetable portion separately. Thus this is a two coloured donburi. Beneath the topping is plain steamed white rice. The egg is scrambled fried with a scant amount of sugar. The ground meat is a mixture of beef and pork, fried with fresh grated ginger, soy sauce, sugar and mirin. This dish is very popular in bentos especially with children. It is delicious served hot or at room temperature (in the case of a bento).

This is a super easy dish I modified to my own tastes from the Campbells Kitchen website. The original recipe was for sweet and sour pork. As you can see, I used chicken drumsticks, along with chunks of carrot and some soybeans. The base of the sauce uses tomato soup with some vinegar, sugar and worchestershire sauce to make it sweet and sour. The soybeans were canned, so I could avoid the eight hour cooking marathon. For the first time I have found canned soybeans and it has been a pleasure, that's for sure! They are a truly delicious, nutritious and versatile cooking ingredient. Unlike other canned beans, they are not mushy.

This is a bento I made for my husband on Monday. Tiny cocktail sausages work very well in bento because of their size. You can see I did a variation on tamago-yaki. I rolled steamed broccoli inside it which worked quite well. Spinach would have also worked nicely. On the rice I included an ume boshi (pickled plum) which is a popular addition to bento, due to their antibacterial qualities. It is said that ume boshi prevents food from going bad. In Japan, when someone is sick, you often feed them rice gruel with ume boshi. They say it will heal all that ails you. Better stock up for the winter! P.S. The green turtle is a decorative pick.

Last weekend my husband cooked himself some fresh ramen for lunch. We only had one package of fresh ramen, so he went ahead and prepared it. I had Kraft Dinner. We were both satisfied.

And now for my favourite muffins! Chocolate Zucchini Muffins! So moist and delicious! Thanks to my parents who so generously donated the zucchinis!

The weekend is here again, which means time with my honey! Can't beat that! ^_^

Uses for Matcha and Peppers

Once again I will praise Matcha green tea powder for being more than just a delicious beverage. Case in point: Matcha Chip Muffins. I modified a basic muffin recipe in a couple of ways. Firstly and most obviously, I added Matcha green tea powder to the batter. I didn't really measure...just added it until the batter was nice and green. Secondly, I skipped the milk and instead used fat free vanilla yogurt as the primary wet ingredient (there is just 1.5 tbsp of oil in these muffins and only 1/4 c sugar!). The yogurt makes the muffins soft, moist and pleasantly chewy. Sour cream may be substituted with similar results, though you will need a bit more sugar. In many baked goods, substituting sour cream or yogurt will yield richer and moister results. The chocolate chips were thrown in last on a whim. ^_^

If you ever happen to have some bell peppers hanging around that must be used soon (if they are going soft), then why not try stuffed peppers? I did some research on stuffed peppers and found that most North American versions contain rice or some other starch, as well as scramble fried beef and some veggies. My Japanese cookbooks had some very different ideas. They suggested making basically a meatball or hamburger mixture (using equal parks ground pork and beef) and stuffing this directly into the pepper without pre-cooking. They could then easily be pan fried and steamed (or roasted). I made up a meatball mixture using only ground pork as this is what I had on hand. I used a handful of Stove Top Stuffing instead of bread crumbs which yields fabulous flavour. I fried and steamed these stuffed peppers for about an hour. I served them with a sauce made of Campbells Tomato Soup and pan drippings. The dish was very filling and...somehow retro.

All in all, it was good eating. ^_^

...of Cabbages and Octopus balls...

We were given two heads of cabbage this past weekend as a gift. One was the delightfully different purple cabbage and the other was a standard green cabbage. Last night for supper I made use of a small fraction of the latter. Japanese cabbage rolls are unique in that the soup they simmer in contains miso. Other than that, it is fairly standard: ground pork, egg, cornstarch, seasoning. Ketchup is a must for the broth, as well as chicken boullion, soy sauce and sake.

For lunch yesterday my husband made Tako-yaki or fried octopus balls. I know what you're thinking, but no. Just no. Tako-yaki uses a batter similar to Okonomi-yaki, the Japanese savory pancake. The batter has cabbage and bits of pickled ginger added to it. You place a bit of the batter into the indentation on tako-yaki pan and then add a tiny piece of octopus tentacle. More batter is then poured on top. The tako-yaki is turned within the round indentation on the cooker until it forms a solid sphere. There really does seem to be a technique to it. My husband is pretty good. The tako-yaki is then topped with mayo, okonomi-yaki sauce, seaweed and bonito flakes. Osaka in Japan is famous for tako-yaki. If you visit there, be sure to try it!

While my husband made octopus balls, I made a broccoli potato frittata. It turned out quite good and firmed up nicely. Sometimes I brown the top under a broiler, but this time I was too hungry to wait. ^_^

To finish everything off, a nice slice of leftover raspberry pie from Thanksgiving! The tea is a green tea called Candy Cane Lane made by Celestial Seasonings. It is my favourite! It combines green tea, peppermint and vanilla! So delicious!

On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese

Now this may look very similar to my previous post about taco seasoning and ground meat, but the taste is totally different. This spaghetti sauce has a secret ingredient which gives it a delicious Japanese-ish taste. That secret is...........

SAUCE. In Japan it is usually just called "sauce" and everyone knows exactly what you mean. "Sauce" is sometimes called "Bulldog Sauce" on account of one of the big brand makers. The brand pictured above is actually the Kagome brand which tastes identical to Bulldog. Sauce is a vegetable fruit medley remotely like a mild and sweet HP sauce. Along with the vegetable and fruit is vinegar and sugar, so there is a bit of tang to it. Anyway, the Japanese often add this to spaghetti sauce and call it "Napoliton". Don't really know why...

My sauce included onion, garlic and cubed carrot. You can see my leftover canned diced tomato from my taco recipe the other day. One can sure went a long way! The ground beef is frozen, because I divide up each container that I buy and used smaller portions. This amount was more than enough for the sauce. There was even some leftover for my husband's lunch. He will eat the meat sauce with rice in his bento. I also made some garlic toast using the buns I baked today.

There you have it! My budget meal! Japanese Napoliton spaghetti, home made garlic toast and salad!

All things spicy

On Tuesday we had a very simple supper. Pictured above and below is Curry Udon. It uses curry roux, just like regular curry stew, only you add udon noodles and a few vegetables. It really becomes more of a soup. For a protein in this meal, I made tamago-yaki (sweet rolled omelet). Tamago-yaki is made using a square frying pan. You mix eggs with sugar, soy sauce and dashi. Then you pour a thin layer into the pan. When it is nearly cooked, you carefully roll it into a log. Then you add another thin layer to the pan and repeat. It produces a really pretty pattern when the log is sliced in half. See photos below:

It is hard to see the layers in this photo, but they are there...

Keeping with the economical theme, yesterday I made my own taco seasoning for ground meat. Now it is easy enough to purchase a packet from the store, but for their size, the packets are expensive. Anyone who has a decent spice rack sitting around collecting dust can surely make their own taco spice. I whipped mine up using chili powder, paprika, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, salt, pepper, beef boullion and cornstarch. To be clear, the cornstarch was not mixed in with the spices. It was added later, along with a little cold water to prevent clumping. This blend of spices was exactly like the the store bought packet, only much better! I highly recommend trying this economical method.

I fried up my ground meat and then added half a can of diced tomatoes (the other half being carefully saved for Thursday's supper of spaghetti). After letting the mixture simmer for awhile, I started adding the taco seasoning until it tasted satisfactory. I then added about five drops of tabasco sauce for some kick. I served this on top of lettuce and topped with cheese. Even my husband enjoyed it and he doesn't usually go in for herbs and spices. So bust out the old spice rack and give it a try!

Muffins and More!

Chocolate oatmeal muffins! Hooray! Fiber and chocolate together at last! Check out my half-eaten delicacy below:

It really was far too hot for baking (the inside temperature of our apartment is nearly always uncomfortably hot), but we were out of sweets (of any kind!). I really couldn't take tea without a little something and my husband always needs nibblies for his lunch, so I took a few minutes to bake the above pictured muffins. Really quite good. As with nearly all quickbreads, it freezes well.

Tonight was fried rice night. Don't you just love how I garnish everything with mitsuba? ^_^ Anyway, I used a bit of ground beef, along with egg, onion, garlic and a handful of frozen mixed veggies in this dish. The pickled ginger tops it off nicely.

The whole meal consisted of miso soup (with wakame) and a simple fresh salad. Surprisingly economical (thrifty lately...aren't I?).

Yesterday (Sunday) I made zaru soba for lunch. We didn't eat until 2pm, but this is a fairly quick meal to prepare. The dipping sauce in the cup actually came pre-made. I just added water to the liquid and ta-da! Dipping sauce!

This is just a closer view of the noodles. They are eaten cold and are very refreshing on a hot day.

Supper on Sunday night was chicken thigh pieces simmered in ginger, garlic, sugar, sake, mirin and soy sauce. This combination creates a glaze on the chicken. I served it on a giant shiso leaf.

Because I removed the thigh bone from the chicken myself, I had leftover bones which I used to make a clear soup. The cucumber in the small dish has a dressing of vinegar and soy sauce on it. As always, a salad and rice complete the meal. It may seem small, but it was satisfying. ^_^ P.S. Chicken thigh is best for simmering because it doesn't dry out like white meat.

A week's worth of photos!

Tonight's supper was very economical. It consisted of meatball soup with vegetables and herbs from our balcony garden (turnips, turnip greens, mitsuba). I did throw in a couple of mini carrots and a green onion I had in the fridge. The broth is basically a miso base with some Toban-jan (spicy Korean bean paste) and sesame oil. The salad is seaweed mixed with shiso leaves from our garden, dressed in a home made dressing of vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and seasame oil. Rice and a green salad round the meal off. A close up of the meal is below.

Today I decided to make cinnamon raisin buns. I made them with half whole wheat and half white flour. I shaped them fairly large, so I only got about nine out of the batch. I really love raisin bread with Cheese Whiz on it for breakfast. Something about the cheese and raisins...

Yesterday I had a major craving for cookies and decided to make chocolate chocolate chip cookies with raisins. The raisins were not part of the original recipe, but I added them anyway because I have raisins lying around the pantry.

Back on Thursday I made another economical supper. This is the Japanese one bowl dish Oyako-don. Did you know Oyako literally means "family" or "parent and child"? This dish consists of eggs and chicken cooked together and put over rice. Hence the "family." ^_^ The pink garnish is pickled ginger.

Last Sunday I made raisin buns for my husband--no cinnamon, no whole wheat, just fluffy white bread with raisins. I used an egg wash on the top of the buns to make them shiny.

There you have it! A weeks worth of pics! I seriously need to learn how to download photos off the camera myself...