The Snowlady Chronicles

It was a Fishy Weekend

Thursday April 29, 2010

LAX

WINDY!!!

Last weekend, I decided to start cooking seriously again.  Enough of easy pasta dishes and sandwiches.  So I made 2 fish dishes.  One is a from my favorite Italian cookbook -The Essentials of Italian Cooking  by Marcella Hazan.  I made the swordfish stimpirata style, which is a very easy dish.  The swordfish is sauteed and smothered in an onion, capers, celery and vinegar sauce. 

The other dish I made was from Elizabeth Andoh's Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen
 The recipes are very good and the photos are fabulous.  It might be hard for some folks to find the ingredients and some people might find Japanese cooking to be surprisingly complicated at times.  I find it though to be one of the best English cookbooks on Japanese cooking.  I made the miso marinated fish with the codfish I bought recently from the Santa Monica Market.  It is quite easy to make but time consuming in that the fish needs to marinate in the miso for about 2 days.  I cheated on the recipe as I did not have any cheesecloth to wrap the fish and only marinated it for 1 day.  It was still delish!! though. 

I had the swordfish on Saturday with some sugar snap peas and rice.  Sunday I had the miso marinated fish with some left over snap peas dressed in sesame oil and sesame, miso soup w/tofu and rice. 

Quite a healthy weekend I must say.  Now if I can only get back to my exercise routine.....

Underneath the miso are a fillet of very fresh cod

Veggies from the Santa Monica farmers market that I used for the swordfish recipe

The best kitchen gadget from Japan:  An inexpensive yet very effective mandolin

Sugar Snap Peas dressed in sesame oil and sesame

Swordfish Stimpirata

Miso Marinated Cod

Coq Au Vin a la Julia Child

Sunday March 28, 2010

Malibu, California

Beach Weather

Friday night I saw Julia and Julia and got inspired so decided to make Coq Au Vin from Julia Child's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" on Saturday.  Although I've had the book for ages, this is the first time I'm trying one of the recipes!  I also have Julia Child's "The Way We Cook" and just love that cookbook and have tried many of the recipes in the book.  It is a great basic cookbook that everyone should have.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking was always intimidating to me.  But the movie inspired me and since I had a package of cut up Kosher chicken , a recent purchase from Trader Joe's, I went to the local market to buy the rest of the ingredients which included brandy. 

I have to say, the recipes in the book are very easy to follow and I love the detail in explaining the technique.  It was kind of a pain to prepare the pearl onions but for such a rich tasting dish, the whole meal was prepared in less than 2 hrs.  The only "scary" part of the preparation was lighting the cognac poured over the chicken.  But I survived that with no burns and no fire alarms going off. 

I did not have it on Saturday because I decided to let it sit for a day so that the chicken fully absorbs the rich tasting cognac/red wine sauce.  I had it for lunch today with some polenta and yum yum yum!  Perhaps not the best dish for a summer day as it is rich but the flavors are amazing.  It's going to be my meal for the next few days!

Highly recommend you try it as it is not difficult to make.  Bon Appetit!

Empire's Kosher Chicken:  Kosher chicken is the best.  Couldn't get it in Japan so was so excited to find it at Trader Joe's during a recent shopping trip

 

The recipe from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"

Coq Au Vin

Food for Comfort When Things Don't Go Quite as Expected

Sunday February 21, 2010

Malibu, California

Another Beautiful Day

So where is the rain?  I woke up to another beautiful day.  Woke the dogs up early for a walk as I had a lot of catching up to do with work.  So yes, my Sunday morning was to be spent working.  But when trying to access my email, etc, got a major error.  Called the help desk which is located someplace exotic around the world to find out that I have a "security" issue that needs to be corrected and it is a two step process with each step taking about 3hrs!!  So that is 6 hrs total.  So much for catching up on work.  Well, at least I caught it today and not tomorrow on an "official" work day.   Anyhow,I let the technician take over my laptop remotely (which is a modern day wonder) and was left to contemplate what to do the rest of the day as I could not leave the house while my laptop was getting fixed.

I thought of continuing the set up of my home theater system that I started yesterday but did not want to get even more frustrated.  You see, I got everything working but the left and right main speakers.  I spent over 2 hours trying to get the two speakers working yesterday and decided to purchase banana plugs instead of spending another hour threading the speaker wires through the connectors.  Yes I could call an electrician or the Geek Squad from Best Buy but I do have a college degree so am determined to do it myself. You would think by now, connecting speakers should be a "plug and chug" simple effort!

So instead, I decided to make some comfort food as it was either that or a bottle of wine to ease my frustration of this unproductive weekend.  I happened to be defrosting a whole chicken which I planned to brine tonite and roast tomorrow but instead, I marinated the whole chicken in 1 cup of rice wine vinegar and 1 cup of soy sauce.  After marinating it for about 2 hours, I stuffed the cavity with lots of garlic cloves, minced ginger, 1/2 onion and 1/2 lemon.   Roasted it in the oven instead of my George Foreman chicken roaster as I was in no mood to put it together, and served it with rice and sauteed broccoli rabe.  For dessert, I had some cherries that were about to go bad, so made a cherry sauce by boiling them in water, smashing them and then removing the pits (again, too lazy to pit before cooking) and served it over a lowfat soy frozen yogurt. 

 

Well, it is now just after 4pm and my laptop is still "reconfiguring".  I'm going to watch the Olympics curling competition on TV now.

Carne de Puerco

Saturday February 6, 2010

Malibu, California

Rain

Two Wednesdays ago, Maria brought me a special farmer's cheese from El Salvador - Queso de Chili.  It is quite a sharp cheese spiced lightly with chilis.  Since I have no knowledge of Salvadoran cuisine, I decided to make a Mexican dish instead to eat with the cheese. 

The best Mexican cookbook in my opinion is called "The Cuisines of Mexico" by Diana Kennedy.   I like it because it is quite comprehensive and she explains in detail the essential techniques that are needed for Mexican cuisine.  I did not do any Mexican cooking in Japan (except for guacamole) as getting the ingredients are very difficult.  But in LA, it can be found everywhere!

So I made Carne de Puerco which is basically a Mexican style stewed pork which can be used as a filling for tamales or burritos.  So last week my main meal for the whole week was a burrito with Carne de Puerco burrito, home made frijoles with rice and a green salad.  Here's my recipe for the Carne de Puerco that I adapted from Diane Kennedy's cookbook

Ingredients:

• 4-5 pounds pork
• tomatoes, lots of it
• chiles (preferably serrano but I used on serrano, one jalapeno and one poblano)
• one onion
• garlic
• salt
• vodka and club soda

How to make:

Cut the meat in cubes and put it in a pot.  Pour equal parts of club soda and vodka into pot.  Pour enough to cover the meat.  (I learned this technique from Tat-chan, my cousin's wife in Japan.  It really softens the meat and adds a good flavor to it.)  Bring to boil.  Looks gross at the beginning like the picture below.  Then turn heat low to a simmer.

Simmer until most of the liquid is gone and the meat is super tender.  Remove meat from the pot.

Slice the onion and saute in the same pot used to boil the meat.

Then add chopped tomatoes and chilis and continue sauteeing.  ( I used about 8 plum tomatoes but it is up to your taste.) Salt to taste.

Saute until the juices from the tomatoes evaporate and the mixture turns syrupy.

Add the meat and heat through.  And that's it!

Gyoza - Japanese Style Chinese Dumplings

Friday August 28, 2009

Tokyo, Japan

Nice Summer Evening

One of my favorite "junk" foods in Japan is Gyoza - Japanese style chinese dumplings.  You can buy them frozen in any grocery store in Japan and also some fresh ones at the basement of any department store in Tokyo.  Ramen-ya - or restaurants that serve Ramen (Japanese style Chinese noodles) also always serve Gyoza.  Ramen and Gyoza are known to be hangover cures just like pizza is to some Westerners.  But the best gyoza are the home made type.  My friend Eriko wanted to learn how to make gyoza so we made them together at her tiny but cute apartment.  This time I wrote down the ingredients while making them so she will know how to make them herself.  They are so easy to make as long as you can buy gyoza skins which are sold in most supermarkets worldwide these days.

We made two type of gyozas:  Classic pork gyoza and shrimp with garlic chives gyoza

Ingredients:

Basic Pork Gyoza

• About 60 grams of ground pork or beef
• pinch of salt
• pinch of white pepper
• about 60 grams of cabbage (we used regular cabbage but I prefer bok choy)
• 2 dried shitake mushrooms soaked in water to soften
• about 20 grams of green onions or leek (white part only)
• about 8 grams of ginger
• about 2 tsp of the water used to soften the shitake
• 2tsp sake
• 1/2 tsp chinese chicken stock
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil plus a bit more to finish the gyoza
• 1 tsp salad oil
• 1/2 tsp potato starch mixed with 100 cc water
• Tare (dipping sauce)
• • 1tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp rice vinegar
  • a bit of raiyu (Chinese chili oil)

Shrimp/Nira Gyoza

• 1/3 of the pork gyoza meat mixture
• about 20 grams of nira (garlic chives - you should be able to get them in Asian food stores)
• about 40 grams of peeled, deveined shrimp cleaned in salt water
• 1Tbsp sesame oil
• 1Tbsp sake
• Tare (dipping sauce)
• • 2tsp soy sauce
  • chinese yellow mustard

How to make:

    Chop the Nira finely like as shown below.

Chop the cabbage as depicted below and sprinkle about 1/8 tsp salt over the cabbage and let sit for about 10 minutes.  After about 10 minutes using cheese cloth, squeeze the water from the cabbage. This is an important step, otherwise, you will get soggy gyozas. 

Chop the leek finely.  Here's a technique Eriko taught me.  First make slashes as shown below.  Then chop.  You will get perfectly chopped leeks.

 

Finely chop the ginger and add to the bowl with the leeks.

Dry the shrimp well and chop.  Mix about 20 grams of the nira with the chopped shrimp in a separate bowl.

Chopped the softened shiitake mushroom and add to bowl with ginger and leeks.

Then add the mushroom, nira, ginger, leek mixture into the bowl with the cabbage.  Add also the ground pork and mix well with your hands.

In a small bowl, mix 2 tsp sake, 2 tsp mushroom water, 1/2 tsp chinese chicken stock, 1/2 tsp soy sauce and 1/2 tsp oyster sauce.

Add the liquids to the meat mixture and mix well.  This is the filling for the classic pork gyoza.

Now lets finish the shrimp/nira filling.  Add about 1/3 of the classic pork gyoza filling to the chopped shrimp and nira bowl and mix well.  You can substitute the pork with shrimp.  However, you might have to add an egg white to bind the filling.  One good way to test the filling is to make a small ball, fry it and taste it.  Adjust the seasoning according to your taste.

Now the fun part.  Assembling the gyoza.  First, make the classic gyoza by taking a gyoza skin, put the filling in the middle of the skin,  with wet finger, wet the perimeter of the skin,  fold in half and seal by making folds.  It should look something like below.

Now the shrimp/nira gyoza.  This time instead of folding it in half, make folds all the way around and flatten.  Some of the filling should be visible.  (Seep photo below).

Now to cook the shrimp/nira gyoza, add sesame oil to a non stick pan.  Fry first with filling facing down on medium low heat for about 2-5 minutes until browned. Then flip the gyozas and carefully add the sake and steam for about 3-5 minutes until the gyoza skin becomes see through. 

 

 

The finished Shrimp/Nira Gyoza

Now let's cook the classic gyoza.  Add the salad oil to the fry pan.  Put gyoza in the pan as shown below and fry at low medium heat without disturbing for about 30 seconds. Then add the 100cc water/potato starch mixture at once and cover and steam for about 4 minutes.  Then uncover, continue cooking until water disappears.  Turn heat high and add sesame oil and cook for another minute or so until nice and crunchy.

 

 

The shrimp/nira gyoza.  Yum but half to like garlic chives!

The classic pork gyoza.  The filling looks the same as the shrimp/nira gyoza but tastes different. 

You can double/triple the recipe and make the gyozas ahead of time.  But you need to freeze them if not using immediately.  Enjoy!

Ma-Bo Tofu

Wednesday August 19, 2009

Tokyo, Japan

Hot, Humid and Sunny

Last weekend, I decided to make Ma-Bo Tofu, one of my favorite Chinese comfort foods.  What is great about making Ma-Bo Tofu in Japan is that you can get Shezuan  Chinese pepper in Japan or Sanshou as it is called in Japanese.  It can be made with Western ingredients, eg, Knorr's chicken stock instead of Chinese chicken stock, etc.  but it will taste much better using Chinese ingredients. 

It's very easy to make and the recipe can be adjusted to taste.  For example,  instead of the Chinese spices, one can just use dried red peppers and some miso.  I vary the recipe depending on my mood.  Here's the classic recipe that my friend Janelle taught me how to make.

Ingredients:

• One large package of firm tofu - cubed (1inch squares)
• about 250 grams (1/2 lb) of ground pork, chicken or beef (classic is pork, I used beef)
• 1-2 T Touchi (fermented black bean) can be bought in Japanese or Chinese grocery stores
• 1-2 T Shezuan style Toubanjan
• 1/2-1 T Tenmenjan (black bean sauce)
• 1in long fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 3-4 cloves grated garlic depending on taste
• scallions chopped
• 1.5- 2cups of Torigara soup (Chinese chicken stock)
• 1-2T soy sauce
• 1-2T sake or Chinese sake
• 1-2T Katakuriko (potato starch)
• 1 tsp or so of Sanshou or Shezuan pepper (ground)
• High grade sesame oil

How to make:

The classic recipe suggests boiling the tofu first.  I'm lazy so I just wrap the tofu in cheese cloth and place a heavy plate on it, and leave it in the fridge for about 4 hours to squeeze excess water from the tofu.

Heat oil into wok, and add the meat and the touchi.  Break the meat and touchi with a spatula on high heat until done.  Then add all the chinese seasonings, ginger and garlic and stir fry for about 5 minutes.  Then add stock and tofu and bring to boil carefully.  Then add soy sauce and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Mix Katakurko with some water and gently add to the wok, carefully stirring  ma-bo tofu until thickened.  Remove from heat, sprinkle some Sanshou, chopped scallions and swirl some sesame oil over the ma-bo tofu.  Serve with hot rice.  

Here are the classic Chinese spices I used:  From left to right clockwise: Tenmenjan,Touchi, Chinese chicken stock, Shezuan style chili bean sauce and the Chinese pepper (sanshou) is in the package.

The finished product:  Ma-Bo Tofu over hot rice. 

Ottolenghi's Salmon, Eggplant and Potatoes with Jerusalem Salad

Saturday August 1, 2009
Tokyo, Japan
Still Hot and Humid

I realized while looking at my blog, I haven't been posting anything about my cooking.  I don't cook as much as I did in the States as it is so easy to just go to a restaurant or get some great take out.  But as Karyn gave me some fabulous salmon, I was inspired and made a great dinner from some recipes from my current favorite cookbook from Ottolenghi.

I went to Shinjuku Takashimaya to buy my veggies.  They had some wonderful summer vegetables.  I also had some potatoes and onions that I bought from a once a year farmer's market that they have in front of the IBM building so decided to use them too.  The cutest thing I bought though were the heart shaped cucumbers.  Only in Japan!  I had to get them and decided to made a Jerusalem Salad using the dressing recipe from La Fuji Mama. 

It took a total of about 2 hours to make everything because it took awhile for the potatoes to get soft.  But everything was very easy to make and delicious!  I highly recommend the cookbook and La Fuji Mama's website. 

Here are some of the ingredients for Ottolenghi's Marinated Aubergine with Tahini and Oregano.

The ingredients for Ottolenghi's Red Pepper and Hazelnut Salsa.  Its served with roasted salmon.

Marinated Aubergine with Tahini and Oregano.

Japanese Heart Shaped Cucumbers with Cherry Tomatoes, served with a Hummus style dressing adapted from La Fuji Mama's Jerusalem Salad

I made a version of Ottolenghi's Crushed New Potatoes with Horseradish and Sorrel.  I used Arugula instead of Sorrel as it was out of season and added sauteed onions.  The potatoes and onions were from the Farmers Market in front of my office. 

Roasted Salmon with Red Pepper and Hazelnut Salsa and Crushed New Potatoes with Horseradish, Arugula and Sauteed Onions.

Roast Chicken with Sumac, Za'atar and Lemon

Saturday March 7, 2009
Tokyo, Japan
Sunny - Finally!

One of my favorite instructor(Harada-san) at ABC Cooking is moving to Mongolia - yes, Mongolia, so I decided to invite her to dinner along with one of my favorite class mate (Sawada-san).  Harada-san accepted a job as a food service coordinator for a 5 star resort just outside of Ulan Bator.  Sawada-san is so fascinating to talk to because she lived in Nepal for a couple of years and worked for the Japanese embassy in Nepal.  She is with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so is very bright.

Since both are foodies, I decided to try a recipe from Ottolenghi's cookbook that my friend from London gave to me as a gift.  I've been to the place in London and its one of my favorite places to go to when in London.  The food is so fresh  and is a modern take on Middle Eastern food.  The two founders have a very interesting background.  Yotam Ottolenghi is an Israeli and Sami Tamimi is a Palestinian.  They were both born in 1968 and grew up a few kilometers from each other in Jerusalem.  However, they met for the first time in London where they formed a relationship and started Ottolenghi's. 

I was so excited to receive the cookbook and could not wait to try the recipes.  But...  many of the recipes required Middle Eastern spices which I could not find in Japan.  And then Dima came to the rescue - and another sign we were meant to meet each other.  She was moving back to the States and offered to give me her "special" spices.  They turned out to be the 2 key spices needed in many of the recipes.  One is Sumac which is made from crushed berries of a small Mediterranean tree.  The other is Za'atar which is a Middle Eastern blend of dried thyme, toasted sesame and salt.  They both are fantastic!  

So I made the roasted chicken dish from the cookbook.  It was fantastic!  Basically its marinated in Sumac, lemon, olive oil, chicken broth and lemons and then baked with Za'atar sprinkled on top.  It finished with pan roasted pine nuts in butter.  Everyone loved it and the girls are now determined to hunt for Za'atar and Sumac and the cookbook in Tokyo!

I served the chicken with a cucumber salad from the book and a simple pasta with a mushroom, shallot, garlic, olive oil and butter sauce.  For dessert we had the wonderful strawberries that Harada-san and Sawada-san brought and the Mouse a la Fraise that I made.

I highly recommend the cookbook and also recommend their website: http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/

Check out the recipes on the blog sections!  AND thanks to Dima for the spices!

Ottolenghi's Roast Chicken with Sumac, Za'atar and Lemon

Sumac

Za'atar

Oden and Chicken Francaise

January 2009
Tokyo, Japan
Work, Work, Work!

Work, Work, Work!  If I didn't have bread making, the cake class and fun friends, that's all I would have been doing this month.  I'm so busy at work and not having my work PC for about a week has put major stress in my life.  One thing I like to do besides knitting when totally stressed out is cooking.  Here are two dishes that are my favorites that I made:

Oden
Oden is a very popular dish in Japan in the winter and is one of my favorite Japanese meals.  Basically its similar to a pot a feu but you add fish cake, veggies and tofu based vegetable cakes in a seaweed or fish stock based soup. 

I knew my favorite department store Takashimaya was having an Oden fare at the food court so I bought my ingredients there.  They have a wonderful stand that sells the freshest Ganmodoki (tofu balls w/veggies) and Fish cake stand.  They also have the most beautiful veggies so I bought my daikon there as I love Daikon in Oden.  I also bought the ingredients for the soup stock which is basically Wakame (dried seaweed).  Since I like it Kyoto style, the soup is basically flavored with wakame, a bit of soy sauce and a bit of fish stock.  Tokyo style has a stronger soy flavored broth and I do enjoy it but Kyoto style is my favorite because you can enjoy the true taste of the fish cake and ganmodoki. 

I originally was going to make it with a Western style pot but noticed that Takashimaya has an outpost of Takumi - a famous craft store in Tokyo, so went there to see if they have any interesting ceramic "nabe" pots.  Sure enough I saw a beautiful green "nabe" that I fell in  love with.  It was quite expensive (about 22000yen) but since I was working very very long hours, I decided to treat myself as I love the nabe.  Its handmade in Japan with a glaze made from natural paint by a local artist so its one of a kind!

My oden tasted even better by cooking it in a special "nabe"!

My special "nabe"


Janet's Kyoto Style Oden
 

Chicken Francaise

The Saturday after a my first exhausting first full work week of the year, I decided to clean my refrigerator as a stress relief exercise.  While cleaning the freezer, I found 2 frozen Hinai-Jidori chicken breasts that I bought about a month ago at the chicken stand at Takashimiya (yes, I love that dept store!) 

Hinai-Jidori chicken is probably one of the best tasting chickens in the world.  (Bresse chicken is pretty good too in my opinion! The Bresse chicken dish I had at L'Ambrosie at Place des Vosges in Paris was the best chicken dish I've ever had but that's another story).  Jidori literally translates to earth chicken.  It is a free range chicken and in Japan they are brought up on clover fields and supposedly drink the purest water in the Hinai region.  Thus Hinai-Jidori chicken.  The 2 small boneless chicken breasts cost me 4500yen which is about 50$.  Yes, very expensive.  I was going to cook them immediately but got invited to dinner so ended up freezing them instead.  I'm sure its a no-no in Japan as it is so fresh that its actually served raw in many fancy Japanese restaurants.  

Anyhow, I was too lazy to go shopping so scavenged my kitchen to see what I can make with the chicken without going out.  I had some pasta, frozen vodka sauce, wine, lemons, butter, capers, eggs and flour so decided to make chicken francaise with pasta. 

I've been making chicken francaise for years and have served it many times at dinner parties.  Here is my recipe:

* heat about 1/4 cup oil in pan

* while oil is heating, dredge chicken breasts in seasoned flour

* once oil is hot enough, dip chicken breasts in beaten egg mixture and fry in pan

*  fry on one side until golden and then fry the other side until golden and cooked thru

* remove chicken breasts and place on a dish

* pour excess oil out of pan

* heat some butter, equal amounts of chicken stock and wine and juice of half of lemon in pan

* pour sauce of chicken, add some capers and serve!

My Chicken Francaise

Decadent Chicken a la King!

January 3, 2009

What To Do with Left Over Champagne

My friend and I celebrated Skipper's return from the hospital with a bottle of Champagne.  We were so exhausted though that after one small glass each, we turned in for the night.  So the next day, I had an almost full bottle of Cristal Champagne sitting on the kitchen counter!  Since it was a very nice bottle of Champagne and I did not want to waste it, I searched the Internet for recipes I can try which use Champagne.  Some were interesting like Martha Stewart's article on making Champagne vinegar (basically you put the Champagne in an open jar and let it sit for days) but most were not appealing.  So I decided to make my Chicken A la King but this time instead of chicken broth use the Champagne.    It was the best Chicken a la King that both I and my friend has ever had.

Here's my recipe for 3-4 servings:

• Saute 1/2 of a thinly sliced onion, 2 thinly sliced shallots and 3 minced garlic gloves in 3T butter on low heat for about 5 minutes. 
• Add 1.5 sliced chicken breasts and stir fry on medium high heat until the chicken is browned (about 5 minutes).  
• Add 1/2 to 3/4 bottle of Champagne to the mixture and boil at high heat until the liquid becomes syrupy.
• Turn heat to medium and add one pint of heavy cream. 
• Heat through (sauce should be gravy like), season with salt and pepper.
• Serve over hot pasta or hot rice and sprinkle chopped parsley
• Enjoy!

My Chicken a la King with Spinach added at the last minute