The delightful world of Omu-raisu

The dish you see here is in fact Japanese. It is called Omu-raisu (Omelet Rice). It is basically ketchup fried rice, covered with a thin omelet. Sometimes the Japanese top it with a demi-glace sauce but we usually just use more ketchup. In this case, I sprinkled and melted hot pepper havarti cheese (we also used ketchup afterwards). Mixed with the rice is a bit of onion, garlic, mixed frozen veg and cubed ham. In Japan they often add mushrooms to it. In fact, in Japan they have ENTIRE restaurants dedicated to this single item and all its variations. They keep the egg much more runny, but I prefer to cook it solid. It is really delicious when you taste it in its authentic environment. If ever you find yourself hungry in Japan, try Omu-raisu!

In addition to the omu-raisu, I made potato leek soup. First I boiled a couple of my mom's garden potatoes. I mashed them until they were super smooth. Then I made a roux using one tablespoon of margarine and one tablespoon of flour. I added about 1/2 cup milk and 1 cup chicken stock (I saved some simmering broth from last night which had chicken, soy sauce, sake, mirin and brown sugar). Once this mixture started to thicken, I added the mashed potatoes and a bit of chopped leek. I didn't need to add any extra seasoning, as the leftover chicken broth was very flavourful, if not a bit dark from the soy sauce. In any case, the soup was soothingly smooth, slightly sweet and very delicious. The moral is always save your chicken stock!

On a side note, I made bread today, but you have seen that before. Tomorrow I may tackle pie crust for a raspberry pie I am planning for Thanksgiving.

A day of comfort food...

I modified and combined a couple of different loaf recipes and came up with this: Chocolate Apple Loaf. The apple keeps it moist, while still retaining that sturdy loaf quality, suitable for afternoon tea or coffee. I topped it with vanilla yogurt and Cool Whip. Since quickbreads freeze well, I sliced it up and stored it away in the freezer for quick snacks.

Supper tonight was genuine Japanese home cooking fare. This dish is called Niku-jaga, literally 'meat and potatoes'. The Japanese often say that when they eat this meal, they think of their mother. It consists of either pork or beef, potatoes, konnyaku and carrot. Now, there are as many Niku-jaga recipes as there are mothers in Japan. Every home cook has their own recipe, but they will all have meat and potatoes in it. Some people add green peas. I usually do, but I forgot ^_^; All the items are simmered in water, sugar (brown), soy sauce, sake and mirin. It is slightly sweet, slightly salty and altogether comforting. Mustard is a nice condiment for eating it with.

This is a clear soup with beet leaves in it. Just delicious!

So simple, so good. These are the stems off of the beet leaves. I sauted them in butter, then added salt and pepper. That's it! I couldn't stop eating them as I was cooking. My mom says vinegar is also a nice addition to it.

Now I'm stuffed...time for a nap...-_-zzzz

A very hot day!

Today was a record setting day for temperature! The mercury soared above 30 degrees and it was certainly much more than that inside our apartment! Nevertheless, I cooked...and I cooked a lot today!

The above pictured dish is Japanese teriyaki chicken. The drumsticks are simmered in a mixture of water, brown sugar, sake, soy sauce and mirin. Sliced ginger, garlic, onion and carrot make nice additons. If there had been room in the pan, I would have added some konnyaku, but that will be saved for another time. Did you know that in Japan you cannot buy bottled teriyaki sauce? My husband had never heard of such a thing! Teriyaki flavour there is always achieved by the magic ingredients sake, mirin, soy sauce and sugar.

This nimono bean dish utilizes dried soy beans. Cooking beans is a large task to be sure, especially soy beans which take MUCH longer to cook than other types of dried beans. I soaked these overnight and started cooking them at 10:00am. They finished around 4:00pm. This is a task for a day at home. Added to the beans was Splenda, brown sugar, soy sauce and honey. The honey gives it a distinctive taste and lovely glaze. Soybeans are an awesome source of protein and keep very well in the freezer. Also, they are a perfect addition to any bento lunch and can be eaten hot or cold.

Yes, the black stuff is the forbidden seaweed hijiki. I had frozen the leftovers from last day and took them out again to make mixed rice. I stuffed some "abura-age" tofu pouches with this mixed rice. Delish! Technically rice eaten in an abura-age pouch is classified as sushi. Abura-age is thin pouches of deep fried tofu which has been simmered in vinegar and sugar. They are sweet, salty and tangy.

I ran out of pouches and just served the remaining rice as-is. When I lived in Japan, there was a noodle house which served hijiki rice as a side dish with their soba noodles. I have never tasted such wonderful hijiki rice in my life! They make, hands down, the BEST hijiki rice ever! Of course the restaurant was a little noisy being underneath a railway track...

I had half an onion hanging around in the fridge, so I became inspired. I made cream of onion soup! I started by making a basic white sauce (butter, flour, milk, beef broth) and then added some chopped onion which I later strained out. My husband said it was very good and requested it again!

This odd looking substance is called 'natto.' This is a very healthy dish that only about half of Japanese people can stand to see, smell or eat. To be blunt, it is rotting soy beans. It is very sticky when mixed and forms strands than can only be compared to a spider web. Much to everyone's shock in Japan, I was able to eat natto and enjoyed it very much. I honestly don't smell anything... Because of the bacteria which are fermenting the beans, it is very beneficial for the digestive system. Though some claim it aids in weight loss, I think it is related to the high protein content which fills you up and makes you less hungry. Or maybe the smell alone makes you lose your appetite. The green flecks are green onion.

Natto stuffed into abura-age tofu pouches and then lightly fried is delicious beyond measure! My husband said it is a specialty to his home town Niigata.

Yesterday my husband made BBQ steak, Japanese style. He cubed the steak and marinated in sake. After grilling, he topped it with grated daikon radish and ponzu (citrus soy sauce). It was a fabulous treat, as we rarely eat steak. Seeing as we bought it for 2 dollars, it was great!

Ears of fresh corn were on sale for .59 cents so we bought a couple and grilled them. Cutting them this size is a Japanese custom and makes it much easier to eat.

These are not basic chocolate chip cookies. Actually they are icebox cookies, meaning you either freeze or refrigerate the dough. You can shape the dough into a log and slice (what I did) or roll it out and cut them. I prefer the sliced cookies because I can easily make them thick. I added cornstarch to the flour mixture because it gives the cookies a shortbread-like texture. These cookies are nice with glazed fruit, but all I had was chocolate (not a bad thing!) Chocolate is never bad! ^_^

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!

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...

Shortcut Cabbage Rolls

My husband loves the taste of Japanese cabbage rolls, which are similar to the ground meat filled rolls we have in Canada. Personally I grew up on Ukrainian cabbage rolls which feature soured cabbage leaves filled with rice, bacon and onions. Though my husband doesn't mind these, he prefers the meat filled version his mom made in his childhood. The Japanese cabbage roll is filled with a mixture of ground pork, ground beef and shiitake mushrooms, flavoured with soy sauce, salt and pepper. The real "Japanese" part of the recipe is the simmering sauce which is a combination of consomme (or chicken stock), soy sauce, sake, sugar, miso (fermented soy bean paste) and an ample amount of ketchup. Carrots cut into matchsticks may be added to the broth, along with more thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms. The cabbage leaves are not soured, but merely blanched until soft and pliable. Regular cabbage can be used, but Napa cabbage works nicely as well. There is no baking with these rolls--simmering only. Now I enjoy the cabbage rolls as much as my husband, but they can be a bit finicky to make, especially after a long day of work. Thus, I developed a cheat method: cabbage roll soup/stew. It's all the goodness of cabbage rolls, without the rolling! It also freezes very well, so you can enjoy it at any time without the labour! I don't really measure the ingredients, except for the liquid. The amount of ground meat and vegetables are entirely up to you. It is a VERY flexible recipe. Here is a general guideline for you:

Cabbage Roll Soup/Stew

Some ground pork and/or ground beef

Chopped cabbage

Chopped onion

Chopped shiitake mushroom (fresh or dry)

Chopped carrot

Liquid:

2 cups chicken stock or consomme

3 tbsp sake

1/2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp miso

pepper to taste

ketchup to taste

In the photo I have included, I threw in some frozen vegetable mix and some leftover bell pepper. I also added some harusame (rice stick) noodles to absorb some of the liquid, as I was aiming for a more stew-like texture this time. It is really up to you! Enjoy and experiment! Make it a different soup every time, but keep the flavouring cabbage-roll-ish or you will miss the point.