Love Vegie

I Love making my original Vegie Recipe because it is heathy and contains lots of nutrients. Vegetarian dish can turn into many kind of foods! I mostly use "Tofu" as a protein sources in my meal. Tofu has many types such as soft tofu, firm tofu, dried tofu, fried tofu, flavored tofu, frozen tofu, tofu skin, and  okara. Here is some of the Vegie dishes I made recently.

Vegie Thai Green Curry

(I used Japanese fried hard tofu called "Atsuage", sliced into finely thin strings and added into the curry)  

Tofu salad with sweet sesame dressing

(I used soft tofu)

冷や奴 Hiyayakko

(Japanese cold tofu called Hiyayakko, I used soft tofu but it can be firm tofu)

Chanterelle mushroom and Avocado salad

(Love Mushrooms, it has special different texture and nutrients)

Japanese pickled Cucumber "Tsukemono"

(I personally believe Tsukemono is the best way to eat fresh vegetables!)

I'll post some of my tofu recipes soon!

Vegetables are good for your body and also mental health too.

Enjoy your life with Vegies =)

Original Kimchi

I made my own original Kimchi last week. I love home made kimchi because it is cheap and I can adjust the taste of kimchi to my favorite one. The recipe is my original one and slightly different from the traditional Korean kimchi.  

Ingredients: Chinese Cabbage   1

                  15% Salt water   6 cup 

　　　　  (3 cup each, depend on the size of the box)

                  Carrot   1/3

                  Radish   1/4

                  Chives   same amount as the carrot and radish

                  Dashi pack   1

                  Water   2 cups

                  Rice cake powder   4 tea spoon 

                 (Corn starch is fine too, but less amount)

                  Asian Pear   1/2

                  Ginger   3 pieces

                  Garlic   6 cloves 

                  Salt   2 tbl spoon

                  Sugar   3tbl spoon

                  Powder pepper   1/2 cup

                  Coarse pepper   1/2 cup

                  Thai Fish sauce   3 tbl spoon

                  Salted Shrimp   1/3 cup

　　材料：白菜　１玉

　　　　15%の塩水　６カップ 

　　　( 3カップずつ、漬ける入れ物の大きさにあわせる)

　　　　人参  1/3本

　　　　大根  1/4本

　　　　ニラ  人参と大根と同じくらい

　　　　水　２カップ

　　　　だしパック　１つ

　　　　もち粉　大さじ４

　　　　梨　1/2個

　　　　しょうが   ３カケ

　　　　にんにく　６片

　　　　塩　大さじ２

　　　　砂糖　大さじ３

　　　　粉唐辛子　1/2カップ

　　　　粗い唐辛子　1/2カップ

　　　　ナンプラー　大さじ３

　　　　アミの塩漬け　1/3カップ

First, cut bottom of a chinese cabbage just half way through, not all the way through till head.

最初に白菜のおしりを十字に切る。最後まで切りきらず、半分まで切る。 

Rip it by hand till all of the four pieces of chinese cabbage are separated.

手で、白菜を最後までちぎり４つに分ける。  

Wash every single one of leaf carefully

白菜を一枚一枚丁寧に冷水で洗う。

Sink the chinese cabbage into 15% of salt water.

白菜を15%の塩水につける。  

Cover with plastic wrap and put something heavy on top. ( I used three canned foods)

Leave it in the fridge for over night. 

ラップでカバーをして、おもしをしてください。(私は缶を使いました)

そのまま冷蔵庫に一晩おきます。

Now, start to make pepper paste. Cut carrot and radish to fine thin strips, and cut chives into the same length as the carrot and radish.

次にヤムニョムのペーストを作る。人参と大根を千切りにして、ニラも同じ長さに切る。

Make soup stock with two cups of water and dashi pack (dashi powdwer is fine).

2カップの水にだしパックをいれてだしをとる。粉末のだしでも構いません。

Add 4 tea spoon of Rice cake powder and stir well.

大さじ４のもち粉をだしパックを取り出しただしにいれ、よく混ぜる。

Peel the garlics, gingers, and asian pear. Put it into the mixer with the mixture of dashi stocks and rice cake powder.

にんにく、しょうが、梨の皮をむき、だしともち粉ミックスと共にミキサーに投入する。

Mix till all of the ingredients are crushed and become smooth.

全ての材料が細かくスムーズになるまで混ぜる。

Here is two types of pepper, Coarse pepper and Powder pepper.

こちらが、粗い唐辛子と粉唐辛子です。 

Here is the Thai fish sauce and salted shrimp.

こちらが、ナンプラーとアミの塩漬けです。

Put the Coarse pepper, powder pepper, salt, sugar, fish sauce, and salted shrimp into the bowl.

粗い唐辛子、粉唐辛子、塩、砂糖、ナンプラー、アミの塩漬けをボールにいれ、先ほどミキサーで混ぜたものと共に混ぜあわせます。

Mix them well and add carrot, radish, and chives. Make sure wear groves.

よくかき混ぜ、人参、大根、ニラを足してさらに混ぜます。手袋をつけるのを忘れずに。

Take out the chinese cabbage from fridge, and squeeze out the water.

冷蔵庫から白菜をだし、水を切る。

Wear groves and put the Pepper paste on each leaves carefully.

ゴム手袋をして、ペーストを白菜一枚一枚に丁寧にぬっていく。

All done and put it back to the plastic box (Ziplock etc). 

I got my pink boxes at Daiso, the Japanese a dollar store which I was talking about in the last post.

ぬり終えたら、漬ける箱にいれる(ジップロックなど)。

ピンクの入れ物は、ダイソーで購入しました。

I put waxing paper on top before close the lid to make sure that my ziplock lid (mine is white) doesn't get stained by the pepper color. 

私は、ジップロックのふたが赤く染みにならないようにクッキングペーパーを上にのせてふたをしました。

Leave it for 1-10 days to become real Kimchi!! It is still good with light pickles kimchi =)
そのまま1-10日漬けます。一日後の軽くつけたキムチも美味しいです！


Please enjoy my original Kimchi recipe!

Japanese taste

I often go to Japanese a dollar store (actually $2 in Canada) called Daiso in Richmond. They sells all kinds of stuffs such as food, stationaries, gardening things, and dishes. Most of my Japanese small dishes are from Daiso! The dishes gives a perfect Japanese look with Traditional Japanese food =)

Simple and cheap Breakfast 

(Tororo, Sweet egg roll, Natto, Orange, Rice, Miso soup) 

Tororo Soba

I Love simple healthy Japanese Food!!

Eat Healthy and Live Long =)

Chinese Food

Almost Chinese New year, so I'm going to write about my chinese meals. My favorite Chinese food is dumplings! It is also called Gyoza in Japanese, and it is one of my family's favorite dinner. I made the fried dumpling with wings last night. 

青椒肉絲 (Stir fried pork and bell peppers)

麻婆茄子 (Stir fried eggplant and pork)

羽根つき餃子 (Dumplings with wings)

The wings are made out of flour!

I'm so excited to cook for Chinese New Year! 

Still don't know what to cook for the dinner =(

Bosa Italian Market

Finally, I visited Bosa market again!! Last time I shopped there was in the spring so I was just too excited and I bought bunch of ingredients that only sells at the Italian market =) 

I got Buccatini pasta, Fresh Italian sausage, Pancetta, Chanterelle mushroom, Caciocavallo cheese, and Pecorino Romano =)

I made my favorite Buccatini Amatriciana =) 

I wrote about My Buccatini Amatriciana Recipe Before, so Please try it!

Recipes

I got a question about my recipe for the X'mas dinner, so I'm going to post my Recipe of the Chicken legs today. In the most of my cooking, I don't measure exact amount of the ingredients so I will roughly write the amount. 

Simple Japanese style chicken Legs

Ingredients:  2 Chicken thigh 

          Marinating Sauce:  Grated Garlic 1 tbl spoon

                                       Grated Ginger 1 tbl spoon

                   　　　        Cooking sake  3 tbl spoon

                                       (you can use the white wine instead)

                                       Soy sauce 5 tbl spoon

                                       Maple syrup 3 tbl spoon 

                                       (you can use honey instead)

                                       Bay Leaf

   

Step 1: Mix all the ingredients of Marinating Sauce in a plastic Ziploc bag and shake and mix well

Step 2: Add chicken thighs and Marinate over night (personally prefer marinate the chicken for 2 nights)

Step 3: Take out the Chicken and roast on the oven at 425F for 30 min

                                         Enjoy my Recipe =)                                             

Happy New Year

Good Bye 2011, and Hello 2012! I love this New Year's Holiday season so much, because it is the only time that I can cook Japanese traditional New Year's dishes =) The special meal for the holiday called "Osechi" is very creative, and each one of the food has specific meaning and wishes. For instance, Steamed bended Shrimp images an old men bent with age, and it wishes to live long. If you want to make whole set of the Osechi it might take 3 to 5 days, so I made a part of it.

The dish above is called "Toshi Koshi Soba"(Year-end Soba). It is also a custom food in Japan, and I personally like soba with shrimp tempura so I had a Tempura soba.

Osechi on the Plate

(Marinated Quail's egg, Sake Steamed Shrimp, Karashi mustard and Wasabi lotus root, Datemaki, Namasu (pickled radish and carrot), Kuri Kinton)  

Osechi in the Box

Kamaboko (red and white fish cake), Sweet Black beans, Sake Steamed bended Shrimp,Kuri Kinton 

Ikura, Datemaki, Rolled stewed Konbu, Namasu

Chikuzenni

     

Ozouni (Traditional soup with rice cake)

Rose Sushi (Salmon and Uni)

My New Year's Resolution is to cook more of better and Yummy food!!
Happy New Year to the whole world =)