Variations on chicken...and some beef

On the lighter side of cooking, we have here a chicken salad with sesame dressing. For those of you who questioned the merits of my deep frying, this is for you ~_^. The chicken is simply poached in water and then sliced. The vegetables can be whatever pleases you or you have on hand. The dressing is a little something my husband whipped up. It contains, among other things, ground up sesame seeds, peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar and miso. It is actually a protein laden dressing that tastes very fresh. I do think it is necessary to use natural peanut butter which contains nothing but peanuts (no sugar, salt, etc). You will be glad you did.

This little dish is lemon chicken. It goes well on a bed of onions and red peppers, but since I did not have either of those on hand, broccoli became the partner. The chicken breasts are lightly dusted with flour and then seared until brown. They are then simmered in chicken broth and lemon juice with dash of salt and pepper. Cornstarch is used to thicken it up near the end of the cooking time. I threw in a bit of garlic as well. If you have fresh lemons on hand, I recommend added some of the zest to the sauce.

I have posted gyudon before, but here it is again--the delightful beef bowl. Who can resist the strips of beef and sliced onion cooked in a salty sweet broth? It is always a treat! The side dish shown above is a spur of the moment thing. It consists of sliced berry tomatoes with pepper cheese. It was melted with a mini kitchen torch.

Now for the record, it is not what you eat, it is how much. I am of the opinion that you can eat any type of food you want....in moderation. Portion size has been ballooned into proportions unheard of in other parts of the world. For instance in Japan, fried food is eaten (ie tempura) but it is not eaten everyday and only one or two pieces at a time. The most tempura I have ever seen served to one person in Japan was four. The vast majority of Japanese people are thin. This I think comes from portion sizes and daily exercise...not in the form a of gym, but rather from everyday walking and biking. They walk A LOT. Goodness knows, A LOT. And did you know that Japanese women love love love their sweets? Cakes, mochi, cookies, you name it! But again, portion size! They don't typically buy entire cakes, but rather, one piece. One piece of cake! Something to think about, isn't it? ^_^

Mini Tonkatsu

Tonkatsu is basically a deep fried pork cutlet. It is very popular in Japan and has a myriad of variations. For example, you could slice it horizontally and place a slice of cheese in the middle before breading it or stuff it with ume boshi and shiso. The tonkatsu we made tonight is just the basic version, which features pork coated in panko (Japanese bread crumbs). Normally you would fry the entire cutlet as a whole, but we sliced our pork thin to make bite-sized pieces instead. My husband wanted to use the leftovers in his bento and smaller pieces work best for that.

The pork is first dipped in flour, then egg, then panko. We deep fried it for about 6 minutes, before letting it drain on a paper towel. Actually, we made three batches of tonkatsu and froze it for quick lunches. It reheats easily in a toaster oven. In Japan, tonkatsu is often served with mounds of shredded cabbage and cherry tomatoes. The freshness of the vegetables offsets the oil. Condiments such as Bulldog sauce and mustard are a must, though occasionally tonkatsu is served alongside rice with curry drizzled on top. A delicious donburi can also be made using tonkatsu and egg.

This side dish is green beans with sesame dressing. It is extraordinarily delicious and quite healthy as well. The dressing is made by grinding sesame seeds in a mortar (or with a food processor) until they form a paste rather like peanut butter. Then, a tiny amount of sugar and soy sauce is added, as well as a dash of sesame oil. This is then mixed with blanched or steamed green beens. So delicious! Try it with spinach, asparagus or broccoli too!

P.S. We got a deep fryer for Christmas. ^_^

Simple Chicken Drumsticks

Cooking needn't always involve scores of fancy ingredients to be delicious. Here is a simple chicken drumstick supper, served on a bed of sauted vegetables. The chicken was pan seared in a bit of canola oil and butter (just a dab!). The seasoning is a standard chicken mix that you can purchase in large plastic containers at any supermarket. When the chicken was browned, I added a tiny amount of water for it to simmer in. Cooking wine is another option for simmering, but water works just as well. I am trying to limit the amount of cooking wine I consume right now, though I am certain the alcohol burns off when it cooks. Still, one cannot help but worry a bit. For anyone who knows me, you know why. The vegetables were sauted in a dab of butter, with a pinch of salt. That's it! For vegetables you really can use anything that is lingering in your refrigerator. I used shiitake mushrooms, green bell peppers, garlic, onion, carrot and a little hakusai cabbage (suey choy). This meal was served with rice, miso soup and a small fresh salad (small because there are a lot of vegetables in the meal already).

Hot Pot for a cold day!

Well, last night (and all day today) we had our first snowfall of the season. Mind you, it is all melted now, but it was coming down fairly heavily last night and today. When my husband came home from work (yes, he worked Saturday) he declared how cold it was outside. You can imagine he was very pleased to find hot pot simmering on the stove. This hot pot is served in individual nabe bowls and you eat directly from the pot it was cooked in (saves on dishes!). Basically it is a thick chicken rice stew/soup with egg on top. Using leftover chicken, I prepared a broth and added some vegetables. Then I added rice before pouring egg on top. It warms you right to the core!

One of our side dishes was potato cakes. I boiled some potato, onion and sausage together in a pot. After draining, I mashed them together, added a bit of egg, shaped them into patties, coated in bread crumbs and fried. They were nice served with a bit of ketchup.

What is this strange looking blob, you may ask? Though it doesn't look like much, it is actually a nutritional powerhouse, all the while being delicious. This is a ham and cabbage casserole. It combines shredded cabbage, onions, garlic and ham, in a thick creamy saucy. The sauce is very very basic: milk and minute tapioca! First you shred and boil the cabbage...drain. Then you fry the onion, garlic and ham in soft margarine. Remove the ham mixture and add milk and minute tapioca to the same pan. Once that is thick, add the ham mixture and cabbage. Let it boil for a bit and then pour it into a greased casserole dish. Mix a small amount of bread crumbs with margarine and sprinkle on the top. I should say that black pepper can be added to taste. Salt is not necessary considering the ham. I baked it in the oven for about 40 minutes. It was really great! Nothing to look at, but quite good. It tastes richer than it really is. The tapioca is deceptive in that it mimics cream without the calories. I guess you could say it was comfort food for a cold day!

There you have it! Cold weather fare!

A little taste of autumn!

When October comes around, chestnuts start appearing in our local Asian grocery store. Chestnuts are very much an autumn food, though if preserved correctly, you can enjoy them all year round. Last week, my husband brought home a bag of chestnuts in their shell. I was very excited, because I just love the subtle sweetness of them. Chestnuts, when cooked, have a rather soft texture, sort of like a potato. They can be mashed or even made into flour. In fact, I had chestnut ice cream at a restaurant in Vancouver. It was great! Anyway, I let the chestnuts sit in boiled water for about 20 minutes to soften their shell. Then I spent about an hour cutting away both the outer and inner layers...the most annoying part. Once that was done I boiled the chestnuts again until they were soft. I froze them on a baking sheet before pouring them into a plastic container. Because they had been individually frozen, I can take out just what I need at anytime. So tonight I made chestnut mixed rice. The chestnuts are placed in the rice cooker along with the rice, water, sake, mirin, soy sauce and sugar. Other nice additions (that I didn't have on hand) are mushrooms (shiitake or shimeji) and abura-age (fried tofu).

A real treat tonight! Last weekend my dad had given us some bone-in chicken breasts. We rarely buy white chicken breasts because they are insanely expensive. So this was great! I roasted them with fresh garden onion, garlic and grated ginger, along with a sauce of honey, sesame oil and soy sauce. It was very delicious and provided ample leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

This Japanese side dish is known as Kinpira, though it really should contain burdock (gobo) in addition to the carrot. But, seeing as burdock is scarce in my kitchen, it was made entirely of carrots. The carrots are lightly fried before adding sugar, soy sauce, mirin and sake (I have already said these are the magical Japanese flavouring ingredients). Sesame seeds are the highlight of the dish. As a side note, it freezes well, makes an excellent bento addition and can be eaten hot, cold or room temperature.

With the cooler weather coming, cooking is much more pleasant!

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

How to make a PINK roast chicken...

So yesterday I made a pink roasted chicken...completely by accident. I had decided to roast some root vegetables around the base of the chicken, which included potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and BEETS. By the time everything was done, the beets had gone white and the chicken had sucked up the colour, right into the bones! When I carved the chicken, the bones were PINK! Notice how the skin has some pink spots on it in the photo?  Now the chicken is very well cooked (3 hours!) and was super moist, but it was...pink. The breast meat was white, but the drumsticks were...well...pink. And the beets were...well...white. How odd! I never would have thought the beet colour would be absorbed into the chicken bones! And now you know! ^_~

For dessert we enjoyed chocolate carrot muffins. I think next time I will try using melted chocolate chips instead of cocoa powder for a change of pace.

Out of bread again! Today I decided to make a super big batch--white and whole wheat. Here they are rising under the towels!

Soft, fluffy white buns! This time I remembered to glaze the tops with egg white that I was saving in the freezer. By the way, egg whites (raw) freeze and thaw with no ill effects. Yolks and whole eggs are not so easy.

Light whole wheat buns. These are not 100% but more along the lines of 60%. I used canola oil instead of Crisco (my foolproof method). The canola oil made no difference in the buns. I will likely use it from now on, as it is much more healthy than vegetable shortening. No trans fats! Yay!

My stock, all sealed up and ready to be frozen! Shouldn't have to make any for some time...unless I eat them all this afternoon...

We have FRESH vegetables!!!

We paid a surprise visit to my parents today and they lavished fresh garden vegetables upon us! They gave us onions, garlic, potatoes, beets and carrots from their very own garden. Tonight I began utilization of the bounty by heading for the most perishable of them all--the beet greens. In Japan, they have a very famous dish called Goma-ae. Traditionally this steamed salad with sesame dressing is made using spinach. However, I have found that beet greens work just as well. The greens are steamed (I used the microwave) and then immersed in ice water. Once squeezed out, you add ground sesame seeds, sugar and soy sauce. It is a delicious side dish to compliment any meal! My husband also used the beet greens in a clear soup. We had been given some frozen tempura by my parents and my husband decided it required a clear soup for dipping in.

Beet greens are very healthy and mild enough to be used in a variety of dishes. My husband dislikes beets, but really enjoys the leaves. I plan on using the stems in another dish... On a side not, my grandma used to make cabbage rolls using beet leaves for a change of pace. They are actually quite strong and work very well for this purpose.

To catch up, this was yesterday's supper--pork stir fry. The sauce is a basic chop suey sauce which contains beef broth, brown sugar and soy sauce. A bit of cornstarch adds thickness. It was a simple dish but very filling, mainly due to the cabbage. Look for some fresh dishes to come!

Thanks for the veggies!!!