Archive for Food Story

海老のマヨネーズ和え-Mayonnaise Shrimp

dscn28771海老のマヨネーズ和え

 

Mayonnaise shrimp is very popular Chinese dish in Japan.  In china, the taste and ingredient of Mayonnaise shrimp is totally different by the location such as Shanghai style, Sichuan style, and Southern style.  

 

Since shrimp is coated in batter with potato starch, it has great crisp texture.  The most common recipe is dress fried-shrimp with rich mayonnaise-based sauce. 

 

There are many different types of sauce for Mayonnaise shrimp.  All of the sauce base is mayonnaise. 

One style is mixed with condensed milk and heavy cream, and seasoned with salt and pepper.  Another style is mixed with ketchup and honey.  My favorite style is the sauce mixed with sweet chili sauce.

 

I liked the sauce with sweet chili sauce because the taste of sauce is very rich and have a little spicy flavor.  This type of sauce is very good to eat with rice and fit for drinking such as beer.

 

 

INGREDIENTS (2 people)dscn2862

 

Cooked Shrimp   10-15

Potato starch/ cornstarch

 

Sauce type A

Mayonnaise         4tbs

Sweet chili sauce  1 1/2 – 2 tbs

Honey                                       1tbs

Rice vinegar                        1/3 tsp

Lemmon juice                        1tsp

 

Sauce type B

Mayonnaise                             3tbs

Ketchup                                     2tsp

Honey                                         2tsp

Milk or heavy cream        1 1/2 tbs

Lemmon juice                            1tsp

 

Sauce type C

Mayonnaise                                4tbs

Condensed Milk                         2tbs

Heavy cream                                2tbs

Lemmon juice                         1/2 tsp

Salt and Pepper

 

 

Let’s Start Cooking!

 

Shrimp with salt and knead lightly.  This act takes fishy smell of shrimp

 

Paper dry and dredge with potato starch/corn starchdscn2870

 

 

 

Put a generous amount of oil in a pan and fry shrimpdscn2873

 

 

 

Take shrimp out from the pan, and leave shrimp on the paper towel to take out extra oil dropdscn2875

 

 


Mix your favorite sauce and dress fried-shrimp with the saucedscn2876

 

Ready to serve!

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豚の生姜焼き-Pork shoga yaki

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Buta shoga Yaki (fried pork with ginger sauce)

 

Shoga yaki is a Japanese home cooking.  Shoga is ginger in Japanese.

 

Dipping pork into ginger sauce can remove smell of pork and extra oil from pork.

Many Japanese believe that Ginger is an important food to keep health.  If you get cold, ginger will help you to keep your body warm.  If you have a low appetite, ginger will increase your appetite.

 

In the U.S, I rarely see sliced pork which is appropriate to Shoga Yaki, so I often buy chunk of pork, freeze it, and sliced them really thin. 

 

Pork Shoga Yaki is very good with rice, so I often eat too much rice with Shoga Yaki.

 


INGREDIENTS (2 people)dscn2927

 

Sliced Portk 300g

A

Garlic 1 piece

Ginger 1 piece

Onion 1/2

Say sauce 3tbs

Sake 3tbs

Mirin (sweet rice wine)3tbs

 

 

Let’s Start Cooking!

 

Slice pork thinly dscn2929

 

 

Mix As in a container and make a saucedscn2928

 


 

Dip sliced pork into Sauce and leave it for 20-30 minuetsdscn29321

(You can leave them as much as you want because as you increase the time to dip pork, pork gets much softer)

 

Fry both sides of pork in the pan (use little bit oil)

 

Add leftover of the sauce!

 

Ready to serve!dscn2945

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豚カツ(Tonkatsu)-pork cutlet

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A pork cutlet is the dish which wrapped the pork in flour, egg, and bread crumbs (Panko), and fried it in oil.

A pork cutlet is a dish originating in Cotelette of French cuisine, and is one of the typical Japanised European foods. Although pork fillet or pork loin is generally used, I always use fillet since loin has much fat.

There are various ways of eating and there is traditional seasoning peculiar to rural areas etc. I am from Nagoya and, generally a pork cutlet is eaten with a sweetened bean paste source (Miso Sorce). There is a dish called Kastu-Don, pork cutlet puts on rice.  Thus, Pork cutlet can be eaten in various ways.

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INGREDIENTS (3-4people)dscn2782

 

Pork                               200g

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Salt and Pepper

Flour

Egg

Panko

 

 

Let’s Start Cooking!!


Slice pork, hit the line of meat by using the back of the knife

 

Put salt and pepper both side of porkdscn2786

 

 

 

Dredge flourdscn3033

 

 

 

Dip pork into eggsdscn3034

 

 

 

Dredge Pankodscn30351

 

 

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Fry them!!!

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酸辣湯-Suan La Tang

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酸辣湯, Suan La tang is Chinese spicy hot and sour soup.

 

Suan La tang is one of the most famous soup in Chinese dishes.  Soup contains rice vinegar and black pepper which makes very spicy and sour taste. 

 

The main ingredients for traditional recipe are chicken/pork, tofu, shiitake mushroom, jew’s-ear, bamboo shoot, and spring onions.  I think if you went to Asian food market, you can find jew’s-ear. 

 

When you are tired, try Suan La Tang.  Soup relieves body fatigue. 

This is a soup of hose who are tired with a FINAL EXAM!!

 

 

INGREDIENTS (for 2 people)dscn2962

 

Chicken or Portk          60-100g

Sliced Bamboo shoot           50gdscn3032

Soft Tofu                                  1/4

Mushroom                                  2

Egg                                                1

A

Chicken base soup             500cc

(you can use Chinese soup base in stead)

Rice vinegar              1 or 1 1/2tbs

Say sauce                           1 1/2tbs

Sake                                        1/2tbs

Black Pepper          1/2 tsp or 1tsp

B

Cornstarch/potato starch     1tbs

Water                                         2tbs

 

 

 

Let’s Start Cooking!!

 

Shred chicken, bamboo shoot, and mushroom finely, and dice tofudscn2963

 

 


Put sesame oil into a pan and fry chicken, bamboo shoot, and mushroomdscn2965

 

 


Add all A into a pandscn2966

 

Simmer for 3 min, then add tofu

 

Add mixed B and simmer until the sauce has thickened

 

Pour eggs into a soup.

 

Ready to serve!!dscn29802

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Lassi-Indian Yogurt Drink

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Lassi is one of famous Indian drink made from Yogurt. 

 

When I uploaded the recipe of Saag Chicken, Indian curry, I also talked a little bit about Lassi.   Lassi is a juice very familiar in India, and almost all Indian food restaurants have Lassi on their menu.   Indian dishes are usually very spicy.  Lassi helps to reduce its hot taste in your mouth. 

 

If you had a chance to cook any Indian dishes such as Saag Chicken or Tandori chicken, you should try Lassi with it.

 

This time, I used a yogurt has a raspberry sauce on the bottom.  But I prefer to use plain yogurt to make Lassi.  I think it taste a lot like real Lassi.  Before you whip it together in a blender, you can put some fruit in it such as banana, mango and strawberry.  You can enjoy great taste fruit Lassi !!

 


 

 INGREDIENTSdscn3024

 

Yorgurt              150cc

Whole Milk     100cc

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Lemon                 1tsp

Ice

 

Let’s Start Cooking!

 

 

Put everything into a blenderdscn3025

 

If you chose plain yogurt, add 1-2tbs of honey

 

Mix 30 seconds

 

Decorate it with fruit, lemon, or mintdscn3029

 

Ready to serve!!

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漬け物-Tsukemono

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漬け物(Tsukemono) is like a pickles in the U.S.  We use various types of vegetables and pickle with many different ingredients such as salt, vinegar, wine lees, and rice bran paste.  This will improve the shelf life.

 We have more than 10 kinds of traditional way to pickle in Japan. These fit to each region’s culture and climate. 

 

Kimuch, South Korean dish, is also a kind of pickles.  Kimchi requires several special ingredients to make.  I love Kimch, and I always wanted to make but I could not find enough ingredients here, at Alfred.  

 

Today, I introduce you Nappa pickles which is very common pickles in Japan.  Nappa pickles usually require a large pot, and after put Nappa into a pot place a stone as a weight on for few days.

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But you will only need Zip bag for my recipe. 

If you pickled before you go to bed, you will have a delicious Nappa pickles for your breakfast. 

 

 

INGREDIENTSdscn2923

Hakusai/Nappa                               1/2

Salt     3% of the weight of the Nappa

Girlic                                          2 pieces

Red pepper                                    1 piece

 

 

Let’s Start Cooking!!!

 

Slice garlic thinly, Remove seed from red pepper and chop it finely, and cut Naappa in half lengthwisedscn29251

 

 

 

 

Put Nappa into Zip bag.  Salt between the leaves.  And add garlic and red pepperdscn2926

 

Remove the air from the bag and put it into the refrigerator

 

Leave it for half a day

 

Ready to serve!!

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SPAM Rice Ball

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Spam is a canned precooked meat product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

  

In Okinawa, Japan, SPAM is quite popular.  It is expensive if you live in the main land of Japan (Honshu), but in Okinawa Spam is available at relatively less expensive price.  Moreover, the cooking that used spam is available at not only a family but also a restaurant and the convenience store in Okinawa.  Spam is even used in the traditional Okinawan dish. 


SPAM is very famous in not only Okinawa but also Hawaii and Guam, and it is a popular cooking ingredient.  In Hawaii and Guam, there is the spam food that matched with Japanese style taste due to numerous numbers of Japanese tourists. 


 In the U.S, SPAM was supplied to U.S. Army during the times of the Vietnam War and WW II because it is preservative and reasonable.  There is a story that American soldier are tired of SPAM due to its simple taste. 

 

Today, I would like to introduce a recipe of SPAM rice ball which is popular in Hawaii and Okinawa.

 

INGREDIENTS (2 rice ball)dscn2881

 

SPAM

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2 eggs 

Dried Seaweed (NORI)    1 sheet

Rice (as much as you want)

 

 

Let’s Start Cooking!!


Slice SPAM (each 1 / 4 inch), cut dried seaweed about 1.5-inch, and then beat eggs

 

Bake the both sides of the spam until it turns to brown (do not put oil on the pan)dscn2889

 

 

Make an omelet with the frying pan (make its size as same as the size of two sliced spamdscn2890

 

 

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Put rice on a wrap, hold it, and make it like a baledscn2884


 

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Put an omelet (sliced into a half) and SPAM on the ricedscn2892

 

 

 

Surround them with Dried seaweed and hold it!dscn28931

COMPLETE~

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照り焼きピザーTeriyaki Pizza

 

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Chicken Teriyaki Pizza (Japanese Style Pizza)

 

Teriyaki is very familiar in the United State with the name of Chicken Teriyaki

In the United State in general, Chicken Teriyaki is grilled chicken with commercial teriyaki sauce.

 

In Japan, the word Teriyaki writes 照り焼きin Chinese letter.  照りmeans a shine or luster given by the sugar and mirin.  焼きmeans cooking method of grill.  In Japan fish such as Japanese amberjack or swordfish are mainly used for Teriyaki.  Like the chicken, Fish is grilled is pan on both sides with sauce to get luster on fish.  Teriyaki in Japanese cooking technique is very general and the flavor is familiar.

 

McDonald’s in Japan has original recipe of Teriyaki burger which very favorable for Japanese. 

And like Pizza Hut and a lot of pizza chain sell teriyaki pizza.

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Today I will introduce very popular Japanese Teriyaki Pizza.

The firs thing is how to make Chicken Teriyaki and then make Teriyaki Pizza.

 

 

Chicken Teriyaki

 

INGREDIENTSdscn2982

 

Chicken thick 400-500g

Cornstarch

Salt and papper

 A

Soy saucetbs

Sweet rice wine (Mirin)tbs

saketbs

Sugar 1 1/2ts

Grated ginger1tsp

 

Chop chicken into bite-sized piece, salt and pepper to chicken.  And dredge with cornstarch.dscn2983

 

Mix All A

 

Heat oil in a pan and grill chicken until brown

 

When it gets brown, cover with lid and grill 5 min with low heat

 

Take the lid, add mixed A and cook in medium heat until sauce gets thickened.  Shake a pan when you mix (dress chicken with sauce) dscn2986

*cook a little longer if you use chicken for pizza.  Stronger flavor suit for pizza

 

 

 

Pizza dough

 

You can buy commercial pizza dough, but if you really want a real crispy crust, you can make it with this recipe!

 

 

INGREDIENTS (30cm X 2)

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Bread flour60g

All purpose flour60g

Pinch of salt

Dry yeast tsp

Warm water 5〜6tbs

Olive oil tbs

 

Mix Bread flour, all purpose flour, and salt in a bowl.

 

Mix dry yeast with warm water

 

Add mixed warm water to bowl and check the dough’s softness

 

When dough comes together, add olive oil and knead it until comes togetherdscn29341

 

Leave it an hour at warm place

 

Cut it in half and roll out the dough so that it gets as thin as possible with round shapedscn2938

 

 

Let’s make Pizza

 

INGREDIENTS

Chicken Teriyaki

Mushrooms

Spring onion

Corn

Dried seaweed (Nori)

A

Mayonnaise tbs

Say sauce 1 1/2tsp

Chili powder 1/3tsp

 

 

 

Spread mixed A on pizza doughdscn2987


Spread Chicken, mushrooms, and Corn.  Then add lightly chopped onion on top

 

You can decorate with mayonnaise at lastdscn2988

 

Bake 5-8 min in 450F oven


 dscn29921

 


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餃子-gyoza, Jiaozi, Mandu

1

 

Gyoza, as known as Dumpling in America, is a popular Chinese dish. It is called Jiaozi in Chinese, Gyoza in Japanese, Mandu in Korean.

 

 In Northern China, Gyoza is eaten as a principal food. The skin is thick, and the popular way of cooking gyoza is 水餃子,boiling it in a soup or hot water.

To the contrary, in Southern part of China, people usually eat flied gyoza with thinner skin than 水餃子. It is served as one of dim sums, and sold in stalls as well as restaurants.

 

Gyoza came to Japan after World War Two. We generally call flied gyoza as Gyoza. They are eaten as a side dish with rice.We have an amusement park of Gyoza, in which we can enjoy many kinds of gyoza or famous gyoza restaurants all Japan. As it shows, gyoza is one of the most popular side dish in Japan.

 

In America, getting gyoza skins is difficult for me and other Asians who live in countryside. However, if you live in a big city or near Asian stores, you can get them easily and cook gyoza much easier.

 

Today I will introduce cooking delicious gyoza from very beginning=from skin! .

 

 


INGREDIENTSdscn29581

 

(inside meats of goza)

Minced pork                  100g

Leek / green onion    1 bunch

Cabbage                    3 leaves

A

A piece ginger

A piece garlic

Sake                                1tbs

Soy sauce                        1tbs

Sesame oil                       1tbs

Salt                              1/2tsp

A little pepper

Oyster sauce                   1tbs

(If you have it)

 

Skindscn2961

All purpose flour            300cc

Bread flour                     100cc

Boiled water                   150cc

Cornstarch/potato starch

 


Let’s Start Cooking!!

 

 

1 How to make gyoza meat

 

Grate the ginger and the garlic. Chop leek and cabbage finely.dscn2959

 


Put all A in a bowl with cabbage, leak, and grounded pork and knead for 5 minutes until it gets sticky.dscn2960

 

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave it at a room temperature.

 


 

2 How to make gyoza skin

 

Put all purpose flour and bread flour into a bowl, and pour hot water onto them.

 

Mix them with chopsticks or a spoon roughly until the dough gets as warm as you can touch.

 

Knead the dough until it become smooth. (5-10 min)

 

Make the dough into two balls, wrap each of them by plastic wrap, and leave them 30 minuets at a room temperature.dscn2967

 


Spread cornstarch on a table and roll and shape each dough into a stick with a diameter of 3 centimeters (about 1.2 inch)

 

Cut the sticks into small pieces so that each piece is 8 grams. (If you prefer larger skins, Cut them into 10-gram pieces)

 

Sprinkle cornstarch on each piece of the dough and roll out the dough so that it gets as thin as possible with round shape.dscn2968

 


Sprinkle a little cornstarch on each skin to prevent them from sticking to each other, and pile them up.dscn2969

 

 

 

 


3 How to make gyoza

 

Put a little water on the whole edge of a skin, put “gyoza meat” onto the skin, and wrap it.dscn2971

 

 


See the video and learn how to wrap gyoza!

 

Oil over a pan, and place gyoza side by side in the pan. Then heat the pan over a high flame.dscn2976

 

Cook gyoza until its bottom side gets golden brown.

 

Mix 1 tsp potato starch into 100cc hot water, and pour the water over gyoza.  Put a cover immediately on the pan, and steam gyoza until the water completely evaporates (around 5 minuets)

 

Cover the gyoza with a flipped large plate, turn over all pan and plate, and move gyoza from the pan to the plate.dscn2977


 

Make a sauce with soy sauce and vinegar (soy sauce: vinegar=1:1), and enjoy the gyoza with the sauce!! (You can put a little chill oil in the sauce if you would like to)

 

 

 

 

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叉焼-Char siu (Chinese-style barbecued pork)

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叉焼-Char siu (Chinese-style barbecued pork) is very famous Chinese side dishes in Japan.  Mainly in Japan, Char sui is generally put on ramen as a topping.  In China, Char sui is dipped into the various types of sauces or stuffed into a Chinese bun.
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In Japan, there are mainly two types of recipes.  Baking pork in the oven, or boiling it in a pan.  The differences between them are softness and texture.  Boiled Char sui is softer and moisture texture.  Moreover, boiled char sui keeps longer than baked char sui.  In Japan, boiled char sui is often used for ramen because boiled Char sui pair perfectly with it.

  
Today, I would like to introduce to you about both boiled and baked Char sui

 

 

Boiled Char sui

 

INGREDIENTSdscn2839

pork tender               500g 

A

Ginger      2〜3thin slices

Leek                       1piece (only use green part of leek)

Soy sauce                 100cc

Sugar                         50cc

Water                       200cc

Rice wine                 100cc

(you can use dry white wine instead)

 

 

Let’s start cooking!

 

Cut Green onion into the appropriate size

 

Put chunk of pork into a pan, and wait until the surface of pork is toasted dscn2843

 

 

 

Mix A into a pan, and heat up them. (Do not boil it) dscn2841

 

 

 

Put the grilled meat into the pan, then simmer it for approximately 40 min to 1 hour dscn2844

Turn off the heat, and wait until it get cold in the soup. 

 

 

Cut them! Ready to serve!!dscn2868

 

*you can freeze the soup for the next time (but do not forget remove leek and ginger)

*char sui can be used for ramen or fried rice as a topping or ingredient.

 

 

 

 

Baked char sui

 

INGREDIENTS

pork tender     500g
A
sugar              100g
soy sauce        70cc
Oyster sauce    2tsp
A little grated ginger

 

Mix all A, then dip the pork.

 

Leave it for half-day to a day( more dipped, more tasty)

 

Preheat an oven to 450 degree, then bake pork in the oven for 40 min

 

*You can use the soup which pork was dipped as a sauce for Char sui.  Before you use the soup, please boil the soup 

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