Sunday, December 8, 2013
Little autumn in the big city
Ok.. it's too cold and most of the trees that are supposed to, have already shed their leaves already. It's such a short autumn this year... but I learned from one Japanese that Japanese autumn is more yellow than red. Whatever it is, i still find autumn scenery pretty and autumn is definitely my favourite of all seasons.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Seasonings
I don't really have lots of choices when it comes to seasoning .. I can't take anything with alcohol or anything that is not halal. And trying to find halal seasoning in Japan is not really a walk in the park. Just to let you know these are what I always use for my cooking. I just try to make do with what I have here. The food still tastes good. Authenticity? ah.. who cares.. I am not selling the foods anyway..
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| L to R: Oyster sauce, Indonesian soy sauce, Japanese soy sauce, Hon tsuyu, kicap tamin, Yoshida sauce |
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| My favourite chicken cube which I always use for preparing soup stock |
Azumi-no, Matsumoto, Nagano
I just copied almost all my recipe posts from fb to this blog. Even though the prime objective of me setting up this blog is as a journal of things that I rarely do (read: cook) while I am away from M land, I figure it would be nice to post something other than food once in a while.
Well, this was in May 2013. The whole department minus Dr OM went for a conference in Matsumoto, Nagano. Nagano was the place where they had winter olympic in 1998.
pic: Nagano town
Anyway, I won't bore you with our conference details but we as always, whenever attending conference, our main aim is to go and see, visit, and do stuff. Not that we don't really want to learn new stuff from the conference, but basically, you learn more by reading journals. Oops.. :p
Ah well, forget the conference. We went to this wasabi (Japanese horse-radish- the famous side kick to sushi) farm. Supposed to be the largest in the country. And considering that wasabi is extremely popular in Japan, it might also be the largest in the world? Trivia aside, the place was quite big. , not in Matsumoto town where the conference was held but in the neighbouring town , Azumi-no. So we had to take the train which only ran once every hour. And there was no place for you to touch your electronic ticket (suica) at the station. Everything was old school. You can only slot your ticket into the gate, and in Hotaka station, Azumi-no.. you just drop it inside the small basket in front of the train guy. Interesting.
Pic: Hotaka station, Azumi-no
At Hotaka- station, we had to take a taxi to the wasabi farm. And our taxi guy was this extra friendly uncle who insisted we go and see this one monument on the way. We were reluctant to go as none of us knew what monument he was talking about but he even said he won't charge extra for stopping. So we went, took some photos and headed for the wasabi farm.
Pic:The monument which none of us actually knew why is it there for
At the wasabi farm, they sold everything with wasabi inside.
Wasabi ice-cream, wasabi beer, wasabi hot dog, wasabi bun, wasabi cookie.. and lots more. You can actually pay to experience how to make wasabi pickles and some more stuff that I forgot what.. but we were not that interested.
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| Auntie selling wasabi buns |
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| Wasabi-no oyaki (Wasabi bun) |
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| Wasabi ice cream |
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| Wasabi rubbish bin (nope.. not made of wasabi :p) |
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| The menu |
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| Wasabi can only grow where the water is very clean |
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| Wasabi |
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| Wasabi |
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| Praying to the wasabi lord? This farm has its own legend. Quite interesting. About this one warrior who was too strong when he was killed, his enemy cut his body and buried the pieces separately so that he won't be resurrected. |
After an hour of photo session with wasabis, we went out and tried to catch ourselves a taxi to go back to the train station. The moment we stepped out of the farm, one taxi literally swooshed in front of us, opened the door and said that his friend told him that we might need a taxi to go back. Now that's what I call excellent service!. Of course, if this wasn't Japan, we would be extremely suspicious, but to those who have never been to Japan, their taxi drivers are the best in the world!! THE BEST! Those in M land are faaaaar out of their league. So we took the taxi and headed back to Azumi-no station. Again, being little ambassadors of the town, this taxi uncle became our guide and showed us around before going back. And no extra fees for that!
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| Why put that geta (slippers) there? beats me.. |
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| The famous beautiful water of Hotaka.. you can drink it from the source... |
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| Enlarge and read it for yourself |
Oh.. we also went to Matsumoto castle. It was famous because of the battles... Very different from the palaces and castles in Kyoto. The ones in Kyoto are very nicely decorated, fit for Kings, queens, princes and princesses. But this one is more like a fort. With holes for guns. And the inside are full of weapons used during the wars.. hundreds of years ago.. The steps inside were very narrow and steep so that only one person can pass through at one time.
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| Matsumoto castle |
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| Yoroi-musha. but this guy (who is probably some high school kid doing a part time job ) is too thin and pale to be a warrior.. |
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| View from inside the castle |
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| View from inside our hotel .. breath taking... |
Well read more about Nagano here: Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagano_Prefecture
Matsumoto castle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoto_Castle
Tofu no masago age, Kiriboshi daikon no itame ni
A.Lower right- Tofu no masago age
B.Lower left- Kiriboshi daikon no itame ni
A. http://
Ingredients:
Tofu- half pack
Minced chicken-80g
Carrot-20g
Chirimenjako-dried small fish (bilis?) 10g
Ground sesame- 1/2 teaspoon
Egg-half
Starch-2 tablespoons
Salt-1/3 teaspoon
Shoyu-2/3 teaspoon (I think I used a little bit more than 1/3 or 2/3 of teaspoons for both salt and shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)
Sake (a little-cooking alcohol commonly used in japanese cuisine but I didn't use it in any of my cooking.. so maybe the Japanese might think it's not as authentic or as good as the original.. but i don't care)
Some oil to fry
Method:
1. Drain water/dry the tofu
2. chop carrot
3. Mix everything
4. Shape 3 into small balls and fry ( I just scoop using spoon and fried)
B. http://cookpad.com/recipe/
Dried fine radish strips 50g
Carrot 2/3
Water 300 cc
Sugar and and a half tablespoon
Shoyu-japanese soy sauce- 4 tablespoons
Sake- Japanese rice wine- 1 tablespoons (didn't use)
Mirin -another type of cooking alcohol commonly used in Japanese cuisine- 2 tablespoons (didn't use)
Dashi ( I used cukup rasa (chicken stock from Malaysia)
I also add thinly sliced dried tofu (abura age)
Method:
1. Soak the dried radish in water (follow instructions on package)
2. Put all seasoning in water and boil. Slice carrots into thin stripes.
3. Drain and squash water out of the radish and add into the pot together with carrot (and in my case, abura age - dried tofu too)
4. Stir once in a while until the soup is gone.
Summer vege curry with diced chicken
Summer vege curry with diced chicken. Something that I would never cook if it wasn't for AS1's school lunch. Tip: I used microwave to soften the pumpkin and potato, to save cooking time. Taste? Full of vege taste.... And..... I am not a vege fan..
Salmon cheese teri yaki
Salmon cheese teri yaki
1.powder the salmon with flour
2. Stir fry with some shoyu, sugar (the usual ingredients in Japanese cuisine.. )
3. Add cheese.
Simple.
the one in the middle of my bento box is kinpira potato.
Basically, just potato, radish and carrot sliced, and stir fried using the commonly used ingredients in japanese cuisine. Go figure.
Jagaimo no age ni (Potato- simmer fry?)
Jagaimo no age ni
Potato- simmer fry?
http://
potato 4～5個
French beans・2～3本 ( I obviously did not use this here)
salt- a little
white sesame seed 1 tablespoon ( I ran out of white ones so I used black sesame seeds)
Some oil to fry
Seasoning
Stock ・250～300ml how to make >>
Sake (alcohol 2 tbspoons- I didn't use)
Mirin(alcohol 1tbspoon- i didn't use)
Sugar 1tbspoon
Shoyu 1 tbspoon
Method:
1. Potatoes were cut (skin removed) , then fried in oil ( amount: just enough to slightly fry the potatoes. Not too much or not too little.
2. Prepare seasoning stock in a different pot, (do add water please.. this guy however did not mention how much so i just guessed.. one cup) Once boiled, add 1 to 2.
3. when the stock is almost dry, add the sesame seeds.
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