May 29, 2010

Fresh Tuna and Avocado Don

This is super quickest meal to cook. I always store "Negitoro(fresh chunk tuna)" in a freezer. Plus I make "Suhi-zu(vineger for sushi) and keep it in a fridge.
Make su-meshi. Place fresh tuna, avocado, seaweed and any Japanese herbs you like on the sumeshi. That's all.
Drizzle soy sauce and Wasabi when serve.

Here's "Sushi-zu" recipe.
Ingredients
1 cup of rice vinegar( I prefer "千鳥酢”)
5 tablespoon beet sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Pour them into a bin. Put the cap on the bin. Shake it. It can be stored for 1month.
Besides making sumeshi, you can use it for Japanese style salad and marinated fish as well.

Of course, Taro was not interested in it at all.
Hope he will get over soon.

Pannacotta

This is also one of my plans for Taro. But failed. Never went well when I made meals for Taro.
As Taro is reluctant to eat solid food, I came up with the idea. Pannacotta is made from milk and fresh cream which are his favourite ones. Plus very smooth to eat. He is supposed to like it, but he refused it as well.
There're loads of pannnacotta left in my fridge. How can I consume them? Don't want to finish them any more...... No cream!! No sweets!! They're my enemy so far.....

Here's the recipe of Pannacotta. Very easy to cook.

Ingredients
-300cc milk
-200cc fresh cream
-5 tablespoon sugar
-5g gelatin powder ( add 2 tablespoon water into a small bowl and stir in the gelatin powder.)

Method
1 In a saucepan, stir together milk and sugar with middle heat. Once the sugar dissolved add gelatin liquid and stir well. (do not boil) Set aside and cool it down. ( If you like it, add some vanilla)
2 As 1 become room temprature, add fresh milk and stir well.
3 Pour into six individual ramekin dishes.
4 Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool. cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours.
Serve 6

This time, I pour blueberry sauce on it. Just mix blueberry jam and red wine together in a sauce pan. Since it was just done and hot, the pannacotta was about to melt...

Carrot Potage/ Egg Salad Sandwich



Today's breakfast.


Since Taro has been suffering from canker sore, I have to make something more smooth and soft. Carrot Potage Soup should be the good meal for poor Taro.

Carrot Potage Soup Recipe

No need to add soup cube. Believe the power of vegetables!! It's very creamy potage soup. Thanks onion and carrots!

Ingredients
2 carrots- sliced or cut roughly ( if you want to cook quicker,you should slice them.)
1 onion- sliced
3 table spoon olive oil
salt & pepper
fresh cream when serve

Place carrots, onion and olive oil in the large pan. Put the lid on and braised them with middle heat until soften. Add some water and simmer for30- 40 minutes.
Transfer to mixer/ food processor and pulse until paste. ( If you have" Bamix", you can make potage soup in the pan.)
Drizzle fresh cream when you serve.


Taro's rate: none
Actually, when I take the trouble to make some meals for Taro, he always refuses it. :(

Simmered Pork Sholuder with red wine




When I got a chunk of shoulder pork, usually put some salt on the meat and keep it in the fridge. It can be stored for 1-2 weeks. The salted pork marinated olive oil, cloves of garlic and ground black pepper for 0.5 to 2 hours. Heat the big pan with high heat and roast them without adding oil. After that add some vegetables( this time, I added onions, paprika and mushroom) and
stirred well. Pour 500cc red wine into the pan. Place the lid and simmer more than two hours with low heat.
You don't need to season anything since the salted pork has already marinated.
Serve with grilled vegetables. Drizzle lemon juice when you eat.
Grilled vegetables should be different texture such as chewy or solid since the pork is very tender and soft. The contrast is also including the taste. :-)

The side dish is "Broad bean and potato Salad". Boil potatoes and broad bean until just tender. Place them in a bowl. Cut potatoes roughly using a folk. Add sliced red onion. Drizzle extra vergine olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper over them. Mix them well.
I think potato salad should be served with warm temperature. Not too cold, not too hot. Just cooked ones are the best taste ever!

Taro's rate:none
He's got a fever and has 2 canker sore in his tonsil. He cannot eat any solid food. Poor Taro-chan..... As his doctor says this is typical cold in summer called " herpangina".
He has to be absent from school until he's completely cured of the sick.

May 27, 2010

Shabu Shabu Salad (冷シャブサラダ)

This is typical Japanese dish in summer. Very thin sliced boiled pork-that is called "Shabu Shabu "meat. Usually, they are served "Shabu Shabu" hot pot in winter. For summer, we like to taste it as salad.
When boil shabu shabu, the temperature should be 70-80℃. Do not Boil when you cook shabushabu. Otherwise, the meat is going to be hard. When the meat cook, transfer to cold water with ice cubes in a bowl to cool. Drain them from water.
Any vegetables would be fine to eat them together. I chose boiled cabbage, tomatoes, some Japanese herbs.

I would like to eat Shabu-shabu Salad with grated daikon radish. This time I added red radish and Shiso(japanese herb) in it. Pour Ponzu. The taste will depend on how much genuine and beautiful the Ponzu is. As I always say, this ponzu is the perfect for this salad.

May 26, 2010

Somen with deep fried vegetables


This is our lunch in one day.
Somen is one kind of Japanese vermicelli which is made from wheat.
When it comes to summer, we often have it served as cold. In summer people don't feel like eating due to the hotness, however well-chilled Somen is very smooth to eat so that we can cool off from the heat. I like to place some ice cubes in the sauce dip. Feel Cool more and more.
Besides somen, I prepared deep fried summer vegetables with grated radish. As Somen is very simple and light taste, the other meal should be more hearty one.
I like to see the colour of vegetables that are getting changing to more vivid as deep-fry.
Deep fried eggplants! It's gonna be melting when I throw it into my mouth :D Yummy indeed.

May 22, 2010

Noodle Salad ~Hiyashi Chuka冷やし中華~


Sticky hot in Tokyo. When summer has come, I usually make "Hiyashi Chuka ( literally meaning is Cold Chinese)" for lunch. It's like a noodle salad. Served with cold. I think Chinese people hardly have cold stuff, so probably this is Japanese own style.
Today, we tasted it with sesami sauce. Mix sesami paste, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Sweet and sour taste is typical Hiyashi Chuka.
 
As you can see the photo, A toddler snatches "Beni-Shoga(red colour ginger pickles.) Despite the spicy pickles, he loves to eat them.
Maybe he is pleased with the colour.

Taro's rate:★★



May 16, 2010

Pineapple Fried Rice

This is my most favourite fried rice! :D Plus I made shrimp tomato soup. As for the soup, I added pineapple juice. Very fresh and light. It is matching with shrimp.
Though I wanted Taro to taste it, he fell asleep during the dinner time. :(
Recently he doesn't want to take a nap on weekends. But as he was running out of his energy in the evening, he has gone to a sleepy land. He skipped dinner as well as yesterday.
Hope he will taste it for breakfast tomorrow.

May 15, 2010

Thai lunch

My mom made a fabulous plate for lunch.


I am in love with sunny-side up!
Happy :D
Yummy;)
I love this plate! Thanks, Mom!


Taro's rate:★★★★★

May 12, 2010

Katsuo-no-Tataki & Carrot Leaves Kakiage

Katsuo(Bonito) is now on the season!

This is the first time for me to cook carrots leaves. Making Kakiage is the right choice. Very crispy and light taste. Just dredged them with flour and a little bit cold water. Season with salt and pepper only. 好好味:D



May 9, 2010

Sweet & Sour Pork 咕咾肉


Since I got a fresh pineapple, made sweet & sour pork.
In the sauce, besides black vinegar, sugar and soy sauce, I added ketchup and strawberry jam.
Taro likes the taste, but the pork chunk was too hard for him to chew.
Pineapples make the meat more tender. We love sweet and sour taste. :)

By the way, I had Taro's hair cut short while he was sleeping. The bangs might have got shaggy though. He is very pleased with the flower shaped hair slide. He looks like a girl! :D
Recently he has liked to sing a song. Today, he was humming the theme song of "Bananas in pyajamas". Wow!

Naples Style Pizza


Pizza Margarita

Kaori Pizza :D

Baked pizza from scratch. There're various type of pizza in the world, but my best favourite pizza is Naples style which has a chewy texture.

I thought it was hard to make it same as Naples unless I have a oven made of stones.
However, I found my oven has a pizza stone and great heat ability. It rises 340℃!!
I don't need to go out for "pizzeria"!! Yay.
This time, I baked the basic and simple pizza, "Margarita"(basil leaves, mozzarella, tomato) and pineapple and bacon pizza. The latter one, I put various ingredients on it- besides pineapple and bacons, sausage, zuccini, diced tomatoes, sliced onion and broccoli.

Taro is crazy about pizza. While the pizza were in the oven, he couldn't wait for it and got grouchy! He was lying down on the floor and crying until the pizza done.
The moreover, despite the pizza was ready, it was too hot for him to taste, so he had to wait for a several minutes. Poor Taro-san.

Taro's rate: ★★★★★
Definitely he loves it. I promise I will bake it again some time.



May 5, 2010

Carp shaped buns



May 5 is "Children's day" that we celebrate for children's health and happiness.
At first, I planned to bake some cake but recently we have been taking too much sugar so that baked bread instead. Am not sure why we raise "Koinobori" which is carp shaped flag, but carps are symbol of the day.
Though we don't have any carp flags, I baked carp shaped buns. :D Put corn, tuna and mayonnaise.


As Jun said, this is "Mambo" not "carp at all. Mambo buns? Carp buns?
Never mind! The taste is important not the appearance.


Taro's rate: ★★★★
Corns might irritate him. He tries to get rid of it when eats.


May 4, 2010

Need Vegetables!!


Boiled Komatsuna, Carrots and Chinese cabbage with small sardines & grated radish.
Drizzle "Ponzu" over it.

Back from Nagoya this afternoon. Since we had gone out diners during the whole trip, we have been keen on having vegetables seriously.

Tonight's menu
-Boiled vegetable salad
-Kinki Kasu-duke
-Fuki Nibitashi
-Radish and seaweed Miso soup
-Brown rice

Taro's rate: no mark
He was so exhausted that he fell asleep at 4 o'clock and didn't wake up until the next morning.

May 1, 2010

Grilled Cheese Sandwich




Got a sandwich toaster as same as the one my mother used to have. Though there're various type of sandwich toaster, I am 100% sure that this is the best toaster ever!

Today, I chose avocado, tuna and cheese for the filling. They're Taro's favourites.
Of course, he ate up one piece of sandwich.

Taro's rate:★★★★★

Grilled sandwich matches "MILO" very much. Try it! :D