Takenoko Tai Gohan ~ Bamboo Shoot Fish Rice

This is the first recipe of 'One Dish,' and what makes me like the show. It's simple, not difficult to make but it's flavorful. On the side note, I really need to search for this show's files for my collection... so difficult to find...

What you need:
Bamboo shoots
1 Sea bream fish, inner parts taken out and dried
3 cup white rice
540 cc dashi
2 tbsp sake
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp salt
Some greens (I use corriander leaves)

How to:
1. Cut the bamboo shoots to bite size, set aside.
2. Slash the fish body and damp salt on the fins and tail. Poke the fish with 3 iron sticks and sprinkle salt on both side. Place the fish on direct fire (using your stove) and grill it until half-cooked.
3. On a big nabe bowl, place the rice and all the liquids, stir until liquid well mixed. Then place the bamboo shoots and lastly on top, place the fish. Close the lid. Roll a small piece of aluminum foil and use that roll to cover the lid's hole. Cook for about 20-30 minutes on small fire until you see the rice is cooked. After you off the fire, let it be for another 15 minutes.
4. Place the greens on top as garnish.

In the show they also have sakura salt. It's very pretty if you have that. How to? Place pickled sakura and some salt and bake it in the oven until crispy and dry. Then crush it and you have a pink color sprinkle.

Points:
1. I don't have that huge nabe bowl, so I just use regular pot with a lid. Presentation-wise may be questionable but it works fine.
2. I used yellow tail fish, red snapper is too luxurious for this, I guess. But if you have Tai around, you should try use that.
3. I used the packed ones, not the fresh one like they have in the show


Enjoy!

Just Another Curry Rice

I guess there will be a never ending quest in adding extra stuffs into your curry concoction. This time it's what I saw in the drama that I'm currently watching. On the last scene of the first episode, the main character is serving curry rice to his siblings and they're raving about the curry rice, and he told them, 'it's miso and honey'. Me: OOOOHHHH, I never thought of that, sasuga, curry block endorser!

So, here we go and I gobbled this baby while watching the drama's 2nd episode haha... and it's the best curry rice that I've made so far...

Ingredients:

Curry Sauce:

2 big carrots - sliced

2 Russet potatoes - cut chunks

1 medium sized onion - cut chunks

150 ml chicken stock

200 ml water

1 apple - peeled and mashed

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp miso paste

1/2 curry block (from the block packet for 4 people)  - thinly chopped

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 red chilli - seeded and thinly sliced

Topping:

100 gr pork lean meat - cut strips

1 red bell pepper - charred, filmed and sliced

1 yellow bell pepper - charred, filmed and sliced

2 tbsp corn starch

seasoning: salt, pepper, dash of dried basil

How to:

1. On the soup pan, heat up the oil and stir fry onion and red chili until soft, and add on carrot and potatoes.

2. Pour in water and chicken stock and bring to boil.

3. In a bowl, mix in apple, honey, miso and curry block until well mixed and add them into the pan and stir in until it's dissolved

4. Change to small fire, simmer it until potatoes and carrots are soft.

5. On a bowl, mix in the pork with the corn starch until the meat all coated

6. On a wok, heat up the oil and dried chili until fragrant.

7. Add in meat and stir fry until well cooked

8. Add in bell peppers and seasoning, stir fry a bit and done.

Enjoy!

Stir Fry Long Bean with Minced Chicken

I'd think I posted this recipe years ago, somewhere, but I can't find the old posting so I assume I never write this before. I think I took the recipe from tabloid Nova (those were the days when I basically copied down all Nova's recipes online and made a scrap book out of it) and the dish makes its premiere among my American friends when I was still in the states and they fell in love with it. But  along the way, I made modification per my convenience but the essence is still the same.

Yield: 2-3 person

What you need:

200 gr long beans - cut 5cm length

150 gr minced chicken

5 gr corn flour

6 cloves garlic - finely chopped

1 small red onion - finely chopped

2 red chilies - take out seeds and sliced

Water

Seasoning: salt, pepper, sweet soy sauce, mirin

How to:

1. On a bowl, mix chicken, flour, salt and pepper until well mixed

2. On a wok, heat up the oil, add in garlic, chilies and red onion, saute until fragrant and soft

3. Add in the chicken mix and use spatula break them until small pieces (bite size)

4. When the chicken is half cooked, add in long beans, splash some mirin and water, then close with the lid for about 5 minutes

5. Once long bean cooked, add on sweet soy sauce and pepper, and if you like the gravy to be thinner, add bit more water

Tips:

1. The original recipe use minced beef, but for healthier choice, I use minced chicken

2. The original recipe also use tomatoes, I forget to buy some, so I use chilies :p. If you use tomatoes, you'll need less water and you'll have more color on your dish :).

3. I use red onion instead of shallots because I don't like cutting shallots (they're small so you need to peel some while you only need 1 red onion to do the job). Shallots may taste sweeter but I don't see much difference in using shallots or red onion, they're the same to me :p

4. Though this dish has tomatoes in it, I don't think I'll mix this with pasta because I don't think sweet soy sauce will go well with pasta :p...

Enjoy!

The Curry Rice Got an Upgrade

I'm experimenting with a different type of curry rice, you know, those that you usually seen in the restaurant. Is it difficult to make? Nope, and it's healthier than the usual curry rice because now we have some colorful veggies :).

Yield: 2 person

What you need:

Curry Sauce:

1/2 pack Curry block. This time I use Glico brand 'LEE'. It's supposedly 10 times spicier, yeah right, still OK, not spicy at all, but definitely taste stronger than House's Vermont Curry

450 ml chicken stock (the recipe on the packet will ask you to add in 350 ml water but I find that it's too thick)

1 onion, sliced big

2 carrots, cut big

2 potatoes, cut big

1 apple, puree

Stir fry:

1 tbsp dried chili (yeah, I like this stuff)

1 orange pepper, charred and filmed, sliced big

2-3 Japanese eggplants, sliced by length

1/2 pack nameko mushroom

50 gr brussel sprouts, halved

150 gr shabu shabu meat

Seasoning: mirin, salt, pepper

How to:

Sauce:

1. On a sauce pan, saute onion until soft, then add on carrots and potatoes.

2. Add on chicken stock and bring to boil. Once boil, add on apple puree and curry block.

3. Boil until carrots and potatoes are soft.

Stir fry:

1. On a wok, saute dried chili until fragrant then add all veggies except orange pepper. Add on mirin accordingly as eggplants require lots of liquid to get soft. Close the wok with a lid for 5 minutes.

2. Once Eggplants are soft, add on orange pepper, keep on stir frying.

3. Add on shabu shabu meat, and cook until it's done.

Assemble:

1. On a plate, add rice on the half of the plate, and curry sauce on the other half. Then add the stir fried veggie and meat in the middle.

Enjoy! 

Chicken Ball Porridge

It's been a very long time since the last time I made this chicken porridge and I usually only make this when I'm sick or my tummy is not up for the regular food intake. And, having the wonderful Zojirushi (elephant brand) rice cooker aka rice cooker which can cook not only rice but also porridge, mixed rice and even steam and make cakes makes it even easier to cook this dish. I don't need to control the fire or worry that the porridge will burn on the bottom of my pan if I don't stir it. So, just how easy to make this porridge?

What you need:

1 cup of rice

400 ml chicken stock

Water - as you need

Ginseng - as you need

Chicken balls:

250 gr minced chicken

15 gr corn flour

seasoning: pepper and salt

How to:

1. Cook rice the same way as you usually do, just add the chicken stock first then top up with water to get to the porridge measurement in your rice cooker bowl (this is why I like my rice cooker, no brain needed). Set it to porridge and cook.

2. In a bowl, mix all the chicken bowl ingredients until well mixed.

3. After about 15 minutes cooking, open the rice cooker lid and with 2 spoons, start making chicken balls and put them in. Then add ginseng.

Tips:
- You can use 100% chicken broth instead of mix it with water. I use canned chicken stock so I have to add water to dilute the sodium content in it
- You can sub the minced chicken with minced pork or mix pork and chicken 50-50
- You can add green onion as topping, it'll make a great presentation
- For side dish, you can make sweet soya sauce scrambled egg (my fave), or add some pickled radish or even the pickled tofu (I used to like this, but guess not anymore now)

Kakiage Donburi ... My Version

It's been a very long time since I did deep fry dish in my kitchen. So, I forgot a lesson or two on the art of deep-frying while making this kakiage donburi and ended up with quite a hefty casualty. Normally Kakiage is done with shrimps/prawns,squids and scallops (at least that's what MOS burger version has). Some restaurants will also use perilla leaves (I love those leaves but damn they're expensive). To me, I conclude that Kakiage is Japanese version of bala bala, OK slightly different, but the idea is the same. Basically you put together a of sliced veggies plus some seafood of your liking, mix it into a batter and deep fry it. That's why initially I'm thinking of making bala bala instead of kakiage. But there's a catch. In bala bala, the art is to make the batter not too watery and to stay fluffy after hours. We don't have to do that for Kakiage because guess what, you just need to follow tempura mix recipe on the back of the package, which is exactly what I did.

yield: 1-2 person (depends how big you want to make your kakiage)

What you need:

100 gr silver fish

50 gr carrot, julienned

1/2 no onion, thinly sliced

1 pack enoki

100 gr tempura flour

160 gr water

Sauce:

7 tbsp soy sauce

4 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp Worchestire sauce

1 tbsp honey

5 tbsp water

How to:

1. On a bowl, make the tempura batter, and add on the rest of ingredients, mix well

2. On a wok, heat up oil to 170-180C (How do you know? Just do a random test, splash bits of tempura batter, if it come up fast, then it's ready for frying)

3. Deep fry the portion

4. Sauce: on sauce pan, mix all the ingredients and heat them up.
5. Assemble: On your bowl, place rice, pour in bit of sauce (not too much, but to your liking). Place the kakiage on the top, and drizzle it with the sauce again.


Tips:
1. If you're too lazy to heat up the sauce, don't add water to it. Just mix the rest of ingredients on a bowl and use it.
2. My crash course refreshment on the art of deep frying:
    - Don't be stingy with your oil and use a big wok because deep frying is not the same as pan frying, the oil will rise up when you put in the kakiage. If you use small pan, you'll have lots of oil to clean up afterwards
    - Keep your tempura batter cold. Cold batter will make your stuff crispier
    - Pay attention to the oil temperature. If the oil not hot enough, you'll end up with a soggy kakiage (which is my first batch). Bala bala still can take lower temperature because of the way its batter is made, but not kakiage.

Curry Rice ~ カレーライス

It's a yummy treat, worth to try and it's very easy to make, a no brainer. I make minced pork curry this time because I lazy to cut any meat, that's all.

Ingredients:

1 pack Japanese curry pack (i use Vermont honey apple curry - Hot) 

300 gr minced pork

300gr carrot - cut big

300gr potato - cut big

2 onions - sliced thick

2 banana

1 gala apple

1 big scoop of honey (I use dark honey)

500 ml chicken stock

350 ml water

How to:

1. Sautee onion until cooked, then add on minced meat and cook until meat is well done.

2. Add on carrot, potato, chicken stock and water, bring to boil.

3. Mesh apple and banana using blender, mix in honey and cut curry block. Add them in.

4. Cook until the carrot is soft.

Tips:

1. it's ok to use apple only, you can use more apple to substitute banana

2. you can substitute potato with apple (it'll more sweet and less starchy)

3. And always if you're eating the curry rice with egg, poke the yolk and mix it with the curry sauce, you'll get a totally different taste, and yummy level goes up 1 more notch

Challange: I saw on some show that they actually add chocolate or coffee. Never try this, guess, I'll leave this to the real restaurant to do LOL...

Meatloaf Baked Rice

This time it's a simple baked rice, I've made similar baked rice previously, but I modified this one because... there are people who don't eat onions...

Ingredients:

2 cups White rice (not cooked yet) -- this should filled about 4cm from your ramekin base

300 gr minced beef

200 gr minced pork

1 bunch cillantro/thai parsley - chopped

1/2 cup bread crumbs

2 no eggs

1/2 no red bell pepper - diced small

1/2 no orange bell pepper - diced small

50 gr parmesan regianno - grated

Condiment: tomato sauce, salt, honey, worcestershire sauce

How to:

1. In the mixing bowl, mix minced meat, cilantro, bread crumbs, condiments and eggs until well mixed and the meat turn smooth paste *I found by doing this, after baked the meat is more tasty and juicer... thanks for what I saw on this week's HnA LOL*

2. After the meat is ready, add on the bell peppers, mixed just until the bell peppers are well spread

3. Assemble: on the ramekin, put rice as the base, then layer thinly with cheese and tomato sauce. Then, on the top, add on the meat mix and again finish it with the tomato sauce and cheese layer.

*if you have more rice, you can do this: rice - cheese+tomato sauce - meat - chese+tomato sauce - rice chese+tomato sauce -  meat - chese+tomato sauce. I think this is more fun, but 2 cups is not enough for this :)

4. Baked at 170C for about 40 minutes *start checking after 35 minutes*

Enjoy!

Nasi Tim Ayam

Thought of sharing this easy recipe. You won't find nasi tim ayam anywhere outside Indo, not even in Singapore. So, you gotta make your own if you want to have one. The only obstacle in making this dish is that you have to have the giant steamer that can hold 10 small bowls because if you notice, that nasi tim ayam is always in the bowl shape, right? But, this problem is solved if your rice cooker can be set to cook mixed rice or have a timer setting :D :D and it's a very easy breezy dish to cook too.

Ingredients:

200-300 gr chicken breast, cubed

1 can straw mushroom (jamur merang), drained and halved

1 pack shitake mushroom, sliced

10 cloves garlic, chopped

a little bit of grated ginger

Seasoning: salt, pepper

Condiment: mirin, kecap bango, oyster sauce, Worcestershire

3 cup of rice

250 ml chicken stock (I use Swanson, too lazy to make my own chicken stock)

Water -- add on more if you want softer rice

How to:

1. On a wok, heat up oil (I use combination of olive oil and sesame oil), cook garlic until fragrant

2. Add on chicken, and all condiments, once chicken is half-cooked, add on the mushrooms. Just cook until the shitake slightly soft, there's no need to cook until all well done because all will be done in the rice cooker.

3. Move the chicken and mushroom to the rice cooker (including all the gravy). Add on the rice, chicken stock and water. Set your rice cooker, and done.

Side dish:

5 cloves garlic

1 bunch Brocolli, cut

Make a Brocolli stir-fry with a dash of salt

* No picture here because you cannot serve that giant rice cooker bowl at 1 go, right?*

Nasi Kuacai aka Chinese Mustard Rice

Finally, I get the English name of this bitter veggies. It'sChinese Mustard / Gai Choi / Kua Cai. It's bitter so for me it's only edible if it's cooked in 1 way, rice dish. My family call it Nasi Kua Cai, other families may call it differently, but it's all the same thing, Kua Cai plus meat plus rice, period. It's a simple rice dish, especially if you by chance have a huge rice cooker sitting at your kitchen. I only have a mini cute rice cooker, so I have to use regular huge pan to cook this rice dish. Easy to cook w/ no sweat, so there's no excuse for saying I don't know, it's too complicated.

Ingredients:
6 cloves garlics -- chopped
6 cloves shallots -- chopped
10 gr ebi (dried shrimp) -- chopped
150 gr minced pork
150 gr minced chicken
150 gr prawns -- de-shelled and cut small
30 gr dried scallops -- soaked, don't throw the water(OPTIONAL)
1 head of big Chinese Mustard -- thinly sliced
2-3 cups of rice (preferably the sticky type rice eg. Japanese rice)
Seasoning: Pepper, sugar, salt, sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine (red), sesame oil

How to:
1. Combine pork, chicken and prawn in 1 bowl and add pepper, sugar and salt. Mix well.
2. Heat up sesame oil on a skillet (medium heat). When oil is hot, add in garlics, shallots and ebi, stir till fragrant.
3. Add in the mixed meat. Stir fry until the meat is half-cooked, and add in the scallop. Pour in a bit of Chinese cooking wine before add in Chinese mustard. Stir fry until Chinese mustard soften a bit then add in the sweet soy sauce and soy sauce.
4. On the rice cooker, have the rice ready (washed and add bit of water or the scallop water). Add in the whole stir fried Chinese mustard and meat, add on necessary water and start the cooker.
5. Once done, don't take out immediately, leave it for about 5-10 min before serving.