Green beans with Japanese sesame dressing

I demonstrated how to cook Japanese green beans with sesame dressing (Ingen no Gomaae) for Nikkei Concern (http://www.nikkeiconcerns.org/seattlekeiro.html) Health fair other day.

I decided to make two types of sesame dressings.  During the process of creating recipes,

I looked up my Japanese recipe books.  My all cookbooks of Japanese basic home cooking include a recipe of green beans and sesame dressing or some sort of sesame dressing. I cook spinach with sweet soy sesame dressing #1 often at home.  I made green beans with sweet and sour sesame dressing #2 at my party and it was popular that several guests asked me about the dressing.

The organizer of the Health fair asked me not to use sugar in the recipe because many old attendants of the health fair have diabetes.  I usually use sugar to make the both dressing. I researched sugar substitutes and all have some problem. (Checkout: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/are-artificial-sweeteners-a-healthy-substitute-for-sugar-201112304047) I decided to use honey which is natural although the honey contains sugar and have unique flavor. 

I conducted some test making sesame dressing. Honey is sweeter than sugar.  I found the amount of honey which works for the sesame dressing after several trials.

Also to keep beans nice green after boiling, there are two way to parboil them. One way is to cook beans in salted water. Others salt beans before parboiling. The first way is commonly people use. So I decided to use the second method. But if your doctor told you not eat salt much, you can eliminate salt when you boil the beans.  Here is the recipe which I made for the health fair.

Green beans with sesame seeds honey dressings

By FumikoB

 

Ingredients for 4 servings:

8 ounces Green beans (About 32 medium size beans)

Water for boiling

½  teaspoon sea salt

½  teaspoon soy sauce

Dressing 1 ( Goma Ae) 6 Tablespoons Black sesame seeds 2 Tablespoon Soy sauce 4 teaspoons honey * 2 Tablespoon Dashi or water *If using sugar, 2 Tablespoon sugar in place of honey.

Dressing2  (Goma yogoshi) 6 Tablespoons white sesame seeds 1 Tablespoons honey* 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar 2 Tablespoon soy sauce 1 Tablespoon Dashi or water *If using sugar, 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons sugar in place of honey.

Cooking instructions for green beans

1.       Wash green beans and cut into pieces 1 ½ inches long.

2.       Sprinkle sea salt on the green beans and mix so beans are coated with salt.

3.       Boil water, then add beans, boil for 5 minutes. (If you like tender beans, cook longer.)  

4.       Strain the beans using a colander, and the place in bowl. 

5.        Add soy sauce on the hot beans and mix.

6.       Cool the beans.

7.       Mix the sesame dressing with the beans.

8.       Plate the sesame marinated beans and serve at room temperature.

Making Sesame Dressing

1.       Roast sesame seeds in a frying pan over medium heat until nice aroma comes out.

2.       Grind sesame seeds in a Japanese mortar with a wooden pestle.

3.       Mix the rest of the ingredients for dressing in another bowl with the ground sesame seeds.

>>>>>>>Printer friendly Version

  

Holiday bread wreath

I love baking bread. I usually use a bread machine to make dough, shape it and let rise and bake it.
For Nebraskan runza and Piroshki, I kneaded dough by hands. It is very useful to know how to make bread from scratch to teach Hum Bao. Although my recipe of Hum Bao is for my cooking class, I share my holiday bread recipe here. If you don't have bread flour in your kitchen, try with 3 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour instead of partial bread flour. I think the result will still be great.

I got Kitchen aid mixer for Christmas. I will use it to make my bread soon.

Holiday bread made with bread machine

        from Prune Kitchen Seattle

If you have bread machine, try this recipe to make sweet dough. The dough is good for breakfast bread as well as for a holiday bread.

Ingredients

3 cups Bread flour

½ cup Unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup and 2 Tablespoons Water

2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter

1 Egg

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 ½ teaspoons active yeast

½ cup sugar

1 Egg plus 1 Tablespoon of water to make egg wash

Duration: 3 ½ hour

Direction

1. Place all ingredients except egg wash in pan of bread machine.
2. Select dough cycle and make dough. It generally takes about one and a half hour.
3. Meanwhile, cut parchment paper to the size of pizza baking dish.
4. After the dough cycle is completed, dust the flour on a cutting board and put the dough on the board.
5. Divide the dough into 3 pieces and roll dough and make 3 ropes.
6. Mold the ends of the 3 ropes together and braid the rest of dough while stretching the rope.^*
7. Pinch the end of the ropes together to make a wreath.
8. Rise the dough for one hour in warm place until it doubles size. Possibly longer.
9. Preheat oven to 350 degree
10.  Brush the egg wash on wreath dough. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
11. Cool and decorate with frosting made of 1 cup of powdered sugar and 2-3 Table spoon milk. Sprinkle red and green sugar (Optional)

IF YOU KNEAD BY HANDS, use all ingredients above except 3 Table spoons of yeast.  

  ^*Notes: To have nice results, braid the rope loose and gently.

Fumiko's Holiday bread made by Bread machine(PDF printer friendly version)

My favorite American appetizers to cook

I cooked deviled eggs and stuffed mushrooms for Thanksgiving for our guests. They are easy to cook and most people love them. I used mushroom stems for stuffed mushrooms. They are delicious. 

Here are how I made deviled eggs and stuffed mushrooms.

12 Stuffed mushrooms

12 white or brown mushrooms

1 TBSP Vegetable oil

Quarter onion minced

1 clove of garlic minced

Sun Dried tomatoes in oil chopped into small pieces.

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese grated

Take stem off the mushroom and chopped the stems into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degree

Heat oil and sauté minced onion, garlic and the mushroom stems until wilted.

Combine Parmesan cheese and sun dried tomatoes with the sautéed mixture to make stuffing.

Stuff the mushroom caps and bake them for 15 minutes or more until mushroom caps are cooked. 

They taste better to be served warm.  

6 Deviled eggs

6 eggs (Use at least 3 days old eggs. Very fresh eggs are hard to peel.)

Water

2-3 Table spoon mayonnaise( Add more or less for your taste)

Parsley chopped for garnish

In a pot, fill cold water to cover the eggs and put the lid on the pot.

Boil the water with eggs over medium heat.

Turn off the heat as soon as the water boils.

Leave the eggs in pot with the lid closed for 12 minutes,

Drain the water and cool the eggs under running cold water.

Peel the eggs in water.

Clean the shell and cut vertically half with sharp knife

Take egg yolk out carefully and clean the egg white.

Mix egg yolk with the mayonnaise

Stuff the mayonnaise mixture in the plastic bag.

Cut the corner of the bag and pipe the egg yolk mixture in the egg whites.

Dish up the eggs and garnish with parsley.

Food art class for toddler with parent

A regular instructor of food art class got sick and I was asked to teach "Edible Messy Beginnings!Ages 14 month-2 Years with adult". Today I taught the first class out of 4 classes.
It was messy but little students had fun and tasty snack. If you are looking for fun activity with your baby and don't care making mess, this activity is for you. You need custard pudding and food coloring to make colorful paste and dry rice paper which you can purchase at Asian grocery store.  Have fun!
Rice paper can be used to make salad rolls by dipping into warm water to soften and fill your favorite vegetable and meat filling.

Pizza cooking on 2012 Election Day

My husband and I met two people and cooked Pizza at Prune Kitchen on 2012 Election Day. I prepared dough and tomato sauce ahead. Pizza was the perfect food to cook fast. They are members of my cooking meetup. I was disappointed only two signed up. But it turned out to be very pleasant night. We enjoyed freshly baked pizza and conversation. It was a great way to spend on the Election Day. 

I made pizza dough using Bread machine Pizza dough recipe from Rombauer and Becker version of Joy of cooking book. This is one of my favorite recipe book.

In case that you decided to buy a bread machine to make the pizza dough, here is the simple version of the recipe:

Set Dough cycle on the machine:

Add the flowing ingredients and start the cycle:

2 ½ (3 ¾) Cups of bread flour

½ ( ¾) teaspoon salt

1(1 ½) teaspoon active yeast or ¾ (1) teaspoon quick rising yeast

2(3) teaspoons Olive oil

1 (1 ½) cups water

(Large dough)

Have fun baking pizza.

White, brown, Omega-3 added, or organic?

 I am talking about eggs. So many choices of eggs and it is very confusing.
My Japanese friend buys organic eggs delivered to her house weekly. She thought organic eggs and eggs from free range chickens are the same.  I like taste of free range chicken eggs. The yolk from free range chicken is often orange while yolk of regular chicken is  lemon yellow color.  Color of yolk depends on what hen eats.  According to Georgia egg commission website , most consumers of US prefer yolk to be yellow or gold. I heard on radio that there is egg shortage in  Mexico but Mexican people don’t like buying American eggs because yolk is light yellow.
Egg’s shells vary in color and size. Brown eggs are better than white eggs?   According to USDA fact about shell egg product,color of egg shell  is determined by the breed of hen and the both eggs contain about the same nutritional value. 
When you buy eggs, you look at the surface of eggs. The fresh egg shells are rough while old egg shells are smooth and shiny. Freshness of eggs are also tested by looking at cracked fresh egg on plate. If yolk is round and domed out, the egg is fresh. If the yolk is flat, it is not as fresh.  Older eggs are easy to peel when they are boiled.
Here is how I cook perfect boiled eggs.
In a  deep pot, add cold water and eggs which is at least 3 days old. Close the lid on the pot.
Cook the egg in the water over medium heat to boil. Turn off the heat, and leave the egg in closed pot for 7 minutes for medium and 10-14 minutes(depends on the size of the eggs) for hard cooked eggs.
Drain the water and run cold water over eggs to cook them to prevent over cooking,
Over cooking will cause green coloring around the yolk.

Photo of eggs in shells are my favorite eggs of free range chicken and yellow yolk of brown egg and orange from free range.

Lastly, I found quite interesting and informative website about eggs and chicken.

• Detailed chicken breeds and eggs color, Henderson’s Chicken handy Dandy Chicken chart

           http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

• Recipes and technique how to cook eggs

            http://whatscookingamerica.net/eggs.htm

• "Are some eggs safer than others?"

           http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/egg-types-benefits-facts?page=2

• "Cage free VS battery cage eggs" 

            http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/cage-free_vs_battery-cage.html

• A guide to choose eggs from Ontario farmers 

            http://www.getcracking.ca/EDU/a_guide_to_choosing_eggs.pdf

Which eggs will you buy after reading this?

Bok Choy flower is delicious

I planted Bok Choy in my backyard.  There were too many of them and started blooming. I found that the flower of Bok Choy is edible. I boiled it and mixed with soy sauce and sesame oil. I served it when I invited my Japanese friend to lunch. The boiled Bok Choy was delicious. She and I liked it. They tasted bit like Chinese broccoli. 

Here is the recipe:

Boiled Bok Choy with soy sauce and sesame oil

Ingredients

A bunch Bok Choy flower with stem(4-5 inches long)

1 quart of water (Less water is OK)

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 Table spoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1.       Wash and clean Bok Choy flower with stem. If stem is too large, it may be too hard to eat. Leave the small tender stem and cut of the rest.
2.       Boil water and add the salt
3.       Add Bok Choy flower
4.       Boil 3-5 minutes or stem is tender. Take out the larger stem and pinch it to test it.
5.       Take Bok Choy out and drain the water. Cool it for 5 minutes.
6.       In a medium size bowl, mix soy sauce and sesame oil.
7.       Cut the boiled Bok Choy into 1 ½ inches long.
8.       Put Bok Choy in the source bowl and mix.
9.       Dish it up and serve warm.
(NOTES) Adjust amount of soy sauce and sesame oil. Possible addition is black pepper and chili powder.

Chinese Dragon year celebration

In Chinese calendar, last year was a rabbit year and January 23rd, 2012 is a year of Dragon.
My first celebration of Dragon new year was to cook and eat Chinese dinner with ‘ Seattle let us cook together’ meetup members on last Saturday.
Menu :
Two types of dumplings, Chicken and shrimp
Baked Barbecued pork bus
Beef chow mein
Steamed Chinese broccoli
Sesame ball
And Tofu pudding dessert
Ten of us cooked together and had delicious dinner together. I used recipes from various website. Among dishes, I liked Barbecued pork made for barbecued buns the best and also beef chow mein was very tasty although it is chop suey.
Here is the link for recipes:
Barbecued pork buns:
http://cottagegardenrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/02/cha-siu-bow-baked-bbq-pork-buns.html
Beef Chow mein
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-Chow-Mein-232606

By the way, due to snow in Seattle, I had to wait to buy ingredients until Saturday morning. I went to china town and it was too crowded and was not able to park my car. I drove far south to another Asian market. The parking was full. I parked my car 5 blocks away from the market and purchased all ingredients for the dinner. I learned not to go to Asian market on weekend close to Chinese new year day by car especially it snowed the day before.

Decorating cookies at Allrecipe.com

This morning, I went to Allrecipe.com office in Seattle to participate Cookies Across America party with “Seattle let us cook together meetup” members.
It is exciting to be a part of community support effort by baking and decorating cookies. I thank to Allrecipe.com to invite us. The cookies were already baked and decoration supply was there. We needed to be there and just decorate. The young participants had a great time to apply their artistic skills to the cookie decorations. These tasty and nice looking cookies will be donated to The Pike Place Market Foundation which helps low income and elderly residents of downtown Seattle.

Kitchen knife Safety

Check out this chef's knife training video from Melbourne



If you love cooking, your kitchen knife is one of the most important tools in your kitchen.
After I read cooking basics books and internet what other chefs tell about using kitchen knives, I found 6 safety tips which are common sense but are useful in addition to watching my fingers and my knife.

1. Keep your kitchen knife sharp.
Dull knife slips and cut something else than what you want to cut. You can test if your knife is sharp by moving back and forth on the cutting board. If your knife cut into the board and is hard to move, your knife is sharp. If your knife moves easily, your knife is dull and need to be sharpened. Some Sushi chef tests his/her knife on his/her thumb nail. Please don’t try it.
2. Do not walk around with your knife. When you need to carry your knife, hold it by your side.
When Japanese chef carries his sharp knife, He will put his hand o over the knife and tell people around him that he is coming with his knife.
3. Never point at your knife every one
4. Do not try to catch a knife when you drop it.
Blade is heavier than the handle and goes down first and dangerous. From old book of “Cutting-up in the kitchen. The butcher’s guide to saving money on meat & Poultry by Merle Ellis”, if you drop a knife or it gets knocked off the counter, throw your hands in the air, as if somebody had a gun in your ribs, and let it fall…..
5. Never leave your knife in soapy water or a sink full of water.
Someone wash dishes and may cut his/her hand. Knife need to be kept at the location where everyone can see.
6. When you pass a knife to someone, put it on a cutting board and let another person pick it up.
Kitchen knife need to stay on the cutting board unless it is washed or put away.


YouTube video Above is from Melbourne production and I used some tips from it. I liked it the best among many knife skill videos.

Fresh out from own backyard

Vegetable Garded

It is nice to have fresh herbs and vegetables nearby to add seasonal fresh touch to homemade dish. I have some edible plants around my Prune kitchen.
There are a large Grape vine by a gate to the Prune kitchen, raspberries, green beans Japanese pepper plants, Shiso(Japanese fragrant green leave), Mint, Rosemarie, and Sage in side yard, , cherries, Rhubarb, cabbage, tomatoes, Chinese chives and green onion in the backyard. The new residence with the Prune kitchen get more sun shine than my previous house. Last fall, I dag the rocky and hard ground around Prune Kitchen, added many bags of composed and organic fertilizers, and planted vegetables. My hard labor paid off and I have vegetables in my garden. Tomatoes start ripening two weeks ago and until Seattle’s rainy fall starts, I will have enough fresh tomatoes for my everyday salad.
Beginning this summer,when I trimmed overgrown grape vines, I realized that I can save some tender fresh grape leaves to make stuffed grape leaves(Dolmathakia Me Rizi.) I searched the recipe and made some for my family and cooked with members of “Seattle let us cook together meetup.” The Dalmathakia Me Rizi was interesting taste to me while meetup members who cooked and ate dalmathkia said it was very delicious. We made as many as 60 of them and they were gone. Here is how I made dalmathakia Me Rizi.
I cooked fresh leaves using Grape Leaves-Canning recipe from food.com .

Then I used some of cooked leaves and a recipe from Greekcuisine.com to make Dolmathakia Me Rizi. As you see the recipe, it contains too much oil and I reduced oil amount to a half of the recipe and steamed instead of boiling.

Lastly useful fresh herbs are Rosemarie and green onion. It enhance the taste of pork dish and add nice aroma and flavor to the pasta dish when cooked it with Tomatoes and chili flakes. Green onion is for Japanese soup and add color to the salad.

Seattle Let Us Cook Together Meetup

I have been an organizer of “Seattle let us cook together” meetup for 7 months. I started this meetup to cook something good with others at Prune Kitchen. The meetup is self-taught interactive cooking class. Our dinner cooking is like Thanksgiving dinner. The members cook appetizers, main course, and dessert and share the meals at Prune kitchen.
The fee is between $15 and 30 include all ingredients and cover the expenses. I met many new members who loved to cook or wanted to cook with others. We have cooked variety of meals include Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Italian, and American, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We cook simple common meals to complex recipes. Starting in this fall we will cook on one Friday dinner and one weekend brunch per month plus some weekend’s dinner.

Photos above are some of dishes which we cooked at the Seattle Let us cook together meetup.

Edomae Sushi , Vinegar and Sushi rice

I learned interesting facts about Edomae Sushi at Tokyo Sushi academy during my Japan visit. Edo is the old name of Tokyo. Edomae Sushi is Tokyo style Nigiri. Nigiri is a shaped Sushi made with sliced fresh fish and Sushi rice.
Here is introduction to Sushi vinegar. Sushi vinegar is made of rice vinegar, sea salt and sugar. Sushi vinegar in east part of Tokyo is different from west part. In the west include Osaka, Sushi vinegar recipe include more sugar or sweet (Osaka style) while east part of Japanthe Sushi vinegar is less sugary (Tokyo style). Since I am from Hiroshima which is located in the western part, my home style Sushi is made from sweet Sushi Vinegar. Edomae Sushi uses Vinegar called Akasu or Red vinegar. I had lived in only western part of Japan and never heard about Akasu before hearing from Tokyo Sushi Academy instructor. Akasu or Red vinegar is made from Sake Kasu which is byproducts from sake making process.(See http://www.esake.com/Sake-Food/Kasu/kasu.html .)
Edomae Sushi chef has his/her unique recipes of Sushi vinegar by blending, partially red vinegar and the rice vinegar. Sushi rice made using Red vinegar is called Aka Shari which means red Sushi rice in Japanese. Tokyo Sushi Academy uses Mitsukan brand. Mizkan sells Akasu or Kasuzu for only commercial use. Here is a bit of history of Red vinegar from Mizkan Japan website which is not included in American Mizkan Site.
“… Founder of Mizkan, Mr. Matazaemon Nakamura was born as a Sake producer’s son in Edo period. He recognized when bacteria got into the Sake barrel, Sake turned to vinegar. He decided to make vinegar from byproduct of Sake and successfully made Kasuzu or Akasu. Meanwhile, Haya Sushi(fast Sushi), which is origin of Nigiri made of sea food and Sushi rice, was very popular in Edo or former Tokyo. Haya Sushi was made with expensive rice vinegar. Mr. Nakano marketed his Kasuzu as inexpensive alternative to rice vinegar. Sushi chefs at popular restaurant in Edo recognized Kasuzu had flavor and Umami suitable to Sushi rice. They madeHaya Sushi with Kasuzu. Since then, Kasuzu or Akazu has been necessary ingredient to make Edomae Sushi ……”
When I was in Tokyo, I looked for Akasu or Kasuzu. I had to go four super markets and several more expensive than rice vinegar due to long processing time. I brought back this rare vinegar to Seattle and made Sushi vinegar by mixing 1:1 ratio of rice vinegar and Akasu. Sushi rice was beige. I made lettuce wrap stuffed with Sushi vinegar, vegetables and meat. They were delicious.
Lastly, things that you should know before you decide to go to traditional Edomae Sushi restaurant. Sushi chef decides the price of Sushi when he/she sees the face of the customer. It means the same Nigiri can be cheap at one Sushi restaurant but expensive at another. No price will be listed on the menu. That is why people like to go Kaiten Sushi (conveyor belt Sushi) or Sushi train place. There you can estimate how much you had by number and color of your empty plates.
Here is
Tokyo style Sushi vinegar recipe
½ cup Rice vinegar
1 table spoon sugar (Preferably superfine sugar)
1 tea spoon sea salt
In the cooking pot, combine all ingredients and heat to melt sugar and salt. Do not boil. Cool the Sushi vinegar and use for Sushi rice. For sweet Sushi vinegar, add extra 1-2 Table spoons of sugar.
As you wish you can adjust sugar and/or salt amount.

Pancake to benefit Japan earthquake survivors

Pancake breakfast for Japan Earthquake relief March,2011

Although my Japanese family lives in Hiroshima and was not affected by 9.0 earthquake, I was born and raised in Japan and wanted to help people affected by Earthquake.
Around Seattle, there are many fund raising events involve food.
Bake sale, Auction dinner, Cake walk and pancake breakfast are good examples. I am not rich enough to give away fancy dinner but can host fund raiser Pancake breakfast at Prune Kitchen. Our friend, Lyle, often invites many friends to his pancake breakfast at his apartment. I asked him if he can help me pancake breakfast at Prune Kitchen to help Japan earthquake survivors. He agreed to be one of hosts and cook breakfast. He brought two large industrial size coffee makers with fresh coffee, two hot plates, and pancake ingredients. I bought sausages, potatoes, bacon and fruits.
I wanted to have breakfast menu include carbohydrate, protein, and fruits.
Menu of the breakfast
Lyle’s Pancake with Syrup or homemade berry sauce
Pork sausage
Pan fried Potatoes with onion and bacon
Fruits (Slices of Apples and Oranges)
And Coffee, tea or orange juice.

We raised $5062.41 total for American Red Cross, Peace Winds America and World Vision.

Here are recipes of pan fried potatoes and potato pancake from the left over potatoes.
Fumiko’s Pan fried Pototoes with bacon recipe:
4-5 servings:
3~4 medium sized Red or yellow potatoes boiled and cool the day before the breakfast
3 slices of bacon
3tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic

1. Peel cold cooked potatoes and cut about ½ inch cube.
2. Cut bacon to small pieces
3. Fry the bacon until outside edges turned to brown.
4. Drain about a half of bacon fat from bacon
5. Add onion and garlic to the cooked bacon and cook over medium heat until onion turns transparent
6. Add potatoes and fry together with bacon and onion.
7. Turn the potato over when the bottom is brown and crispy.
8. Cook the potatoes until light brown.

Potato pancake from the left over fried potatoes with Bacon or mashed potatoes

Left over cooked potatoes with bacon or mashed potatoes
Unbleached all purpose flour as needed
1 egg
1TBSP cooking oil

1. Mash the left over potatoes and bacon. (If you use leftover mashed potatoes, skip this process.)
2. Add an egg and flour in the potatoes.
3. Mix well and the potato mix is too soft add more flour. I like small amount of flour to have crispy potato taste while my family like more flour added to have stiff but well formed pancake.
4. Make the ball and press to make hamburger shape.
5. Heat the frying pan and add oil
6. Cook potato pancake in the pan.
7. Cook both side of the potato pancake to light crispy brown.
8. Serve it warm

Cooking for my mother

My sister called me that our mother lost appetite and got ill. I decided to go to stay and cook for a month at my parents’ for my mother. She used to be bit over-weight. When I arrived at my parents’ house, my mother was very skinny. She was too weak to even speak up what she wanted.
According to my sister, she started eating very little. When she was in a hospital, she didn’t want to eat. My sister prefers cooking simple meals and doesn’t like cooking much. She made Japanese hotpot or Nabe, and Variety of ingredients cooked in large pot or Oden. They are nice simple Japanese Winter meals. However, because my mother is very good cook and love to eat, I know she love to eat Japanese dishes which is more complex. I wanted to make something easy to digest and meet her taste bud. She has high blood pressure problem. She used to cook and eat low sodium meals and will not eat any salty meals. Go good soup stock is key to cook dishes with less sodium without losing flavors. I made Dashi (Japanese soup stock) from Iriko (Dried small fish) which home cooks in Hiroshima use instead of dried bonito flakes to make Miso soup. Using this sock, I made Miso soup, Chawanmushi( steamed egg dish), cooked root vegetables, and most Japanese dishes. I hope that eating slow food which I prepared from fresh ingredients with love make her healthy and happy.
My mother told me that I make more Japanese meals than my sister who live in Japan. I harvested , Daikon (typoe of radish), Gobo(burdock) and cabbage in my mother’s garden. I cooked Daikon and Gobo with Dashi. I made small rolled cabbage made with ground Chicken and Tofu inside cooked in Japanese soup stock hint of tomato flavor. My mother was not sure about rolled cabbage at first. After she ate one, she loved it and asked another one. She gradually gained her appetite and started eating more. By the time I left her house, she could make Sticky rice or Mochi and teach us how to prepare fresh octopus and sea cucumber which my uncle fished. I told her that I would be back to cook for her in May if she is well.
After I came back to Seattle, my sister told me that doctor told the test results of our mother is better than her last visit.
The photos shows meals which my mother had.

Japanese Breakfast Cooking Together

I hosted Japanese breakfast cooking and eating for Pacific Northwest Cooking Recipe meetups at my new kitchen.
4 members and my husband attended the cooking event. I set the menus, bought ingredients and directed them to cook. Here is the menu
=========================================
Menu:
Rice
Miso soup.
Baked Halibut
Panfried Tofu with grated daikon and ginger
Natto
Sautéed Burdoc and Carrot(Kinpira Gobo)
Boiled Spinach with Bonito flakes and soy sauce
Toasted and seasoned seaweed (Agitsuke Nori)
Pickled vegetables (Tsukemono)
Pickled plum(Umeboshi)
Sesami kelp(Goma Konbu)
===============================================
In addition to these, because my friend had given me Matsutake mushrooms yesterday, I made Matsutake rice.
All attendants learned bit of Japanese cooking and happy eating delicious Japanese breakfast.I am including recipes of 3 items from this breakfast.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Miso soup(4 Servings)
1. In the bowl add ½ cup of water and 1 tsps of Dried seaweed (Wakame).
2. Cut 1/8th of Tofu into small pieces.Chop green onion.
3. In the pot, add 2 Dashi packs and 4 cups of water and heat to boil. Boil for 5 minutes to make soup stock. (I used all natural Dashi pack which looks like teabag. )
4. Remove the Dashi packs and add Tofu
5. Heat the soup and add Soy bean paste (Miso) 1/8cups and more as needed.
6. Before the soup boils, turn down heat to keep warm.
7. Seaweed will be hydrated by this time. Drain and squeeze the excess water of seaweed.
8. Add the seaweed and green onion into 6 portion to add it in the bowls.
9. When other food is ready, pour the Miso soup into each bowl.

Sautéed Burdock and Carrot (Kinpira Gobo)
1. Peel Burdock (Gobo) and cut into Julienne. Soak the Burdock in bowl of water with 1tsp of rice vinegar to avoid browning.
2. Peel carrots and cut it into Julienne.
3. Heat a frying pan, add 1 TBSp oil.
4. Add Burdock and carrot and fry
5. Add ½ tsp Chili flakes.
6. Add 2TBSP water 1TBSP Sake, 1 TBSP Mirin, and 2SBSP Soy sauce.
7. Cook until all liquid is evaporated.
8. Add 1tsp sesame oil and 2 tsp of Sesame seed.

Boiled spinach with Bonito flakes and soy sauce
1. Wash spinach well.
2. Boil water and add spinach.
3. Cook the spinach until the stem is tender
4. Take spinach out and put it into the iced water
5. Squeeze the excess water and cut it into one inch length wide
6. Dish the spinach and serve with dried bonito flakes and soy sauce(Add Dashi to make less salty).

Kabocha Thai curry

My life has been hectic. I haven’t written my blog for while. I will write more what kept me busy later.
I resume my blog and try to write more.
I joined Pacific Northwest cooking and recipe meetup group and attended “Your favorite Recipe Share and Tell Pumpkin and Apples” meetup. I thought Japanese way to cook Kabocha but it may not be popular among the attendants. I thought curry may do well with pumpkin. I decided to select other Asian curry rather than Japanese. I searched my collection of Indian then Thai recipe books. I found one which I could imagine to make tasty curry. I changed quite bit from original “Sweet Pumpkin and Peanut curry” in Thai the essence of Asian cooking by Judy Bastyra.(There are many good recipes and nice photos in this book.)
================================================
Kabocha Thai Curry Recipe
Kabocha is Japanese pumpkin. It is dark green. It is smaller and sweeter than large yellow pumpkins.Original version uses peanuts,regular pumpkin, garlic and chicken stock, no meat, no zucchini. I used Kabocha and boiled them before adding them to curry soup.
Ingredients
1 large Fresh ginger cut into julienne
1 Shallots chopped small pieces
½ Kabocha peeled and cut to chunks
Zucchini ¼ inch sliced
Fresh Mushrooms sliced
Chicken ½ inch cube
Oil 1Tbsp
13.5 oz can of coconuts milk
Fish sauce 1-2 TBSP
Yellow Thai curry paste 1-2TBSP
Cooking instruction
1. Boil Kabocha 5 minutes. The Kabocha is halfway cooked
2. In a large stew pan, heat oil and stir ginge and shallots.
3. Add chicken and cook until done.
4. Add the curry paste, mix and stir.
5. Add coconuts milk, fish sauce, Zucchini, mushrooms
6. Cook until the vegetables are well cooked
7. Add pumpkin and cook until pumpkins are tender.
8. Serve with toasted Pumpkin seeds.
(Notes)This curry is very satisfactory itself without rice. Make it vegetarian by eliminating chicken and adding nuts or beans.

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Simple homemade Tempura

Tempura may be sinful. Being Japanese, I eat it at least once a month to satisfy my hunger of crispy tasty deep fries. Good Tempura is crispy outside and vegetables inside are tender. The key to make crispy Tempura is to make cold batter and heat oil hot enough but not too hot.Be careful treating hot oil when you make Tempura as you would make any deep fried food.
I usually make Tempura batter with egg, unbleached flour, ice and water, vegetable oil. The recipe is very simple. Bell peppers, mushrooms, potatoes, Kabocha pumpkin are good to make Tempura. If you use fish, shrimp, meat or Tofu, dry them with paper towel and coat them with flour before dipping into the batter. I picked Mint and tender dandelion leaves and made Tempura. Mint was good and Dandelion was bit bitter. If you have potatoes, onion, carrot, and green beans or Asparagus, julienne them mix together and put them into the batter. I rolled Scoop the mixture with spoon and drop into the oil to make colorful vegetable Tempura. I usually use thick heavy frying pan with 2 inches depth and fill it with vegetable oil half full. I often eat Tempura with the Tonkatsu sauce such as Bulldog or Ikari brand rather than fancy Tempura sauce served at the restaurant.
Here is Japanese home-style Tempura recipe:
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour more or less
1 cup ice and water combined
1 egg
Pinch of Salt (optional)
Vegetable oil (I use soy bean oil or Canola oil)
Vegetables
Cooking instructions:
1. Prepare vegetables by chopping onion, cutting sweet potatoes; take the ends and cut green beans and etc.
2. Pour the half full of the oil to a deep heavy frying pan. Turn on the stove to high and heat the oil.
3. Mix an egg and ice and water and add flour. Mix them together lightly to make batter. Over-mixing will generate too much gluten.
4. Test oil temperature by dropping tempura batter into the oil. If it sinks, the oil is too cool. If the batter goes down the bottom and float in 3 seconds, the oil is ready. If the batter floats on the surface of the oil, it is too hot.
5. When the oil is hot and ready, coat the vegetables with the batter and drop gently into the hot oil to fry. Several vegetables can be cooked at once. However, too many vegetables lower the oil temperature.
6. Take the Tempura out of the oil when the batter is crispy and ready. Place on the plate with paper towel to remove excess oil.
7. Clean the oil by taking the remaining batter out of the oil.
8. Repeat 5 and 6.
9. Dish the Tempura and dip into Tonkatsu sauce and eat it.