Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Classic Ragu Bolognese

I've been fall in Love with Italian food for almost 5 years. Once I had Ragu alla Bolognese Tagliatelle at Q4 , I become Ragu alla Bolognese-holic and always wanted to make my original Ragu sauce. With many tiny adjustments, I finally made my original Ragu!! It is perfectly my favorite taste so please try my recipe =)

イタリア料理を大好きになって、はや5年。ラグー•アッラ•ボロネーゼ•タリアテッレを初めてバンクーバーのQ4というお店で食べてから、いつもオーダーするようになりました。長い間、私風にアレンジした本格ラグーソースに挑戦したいと思っていましたが、ついに週末をつかい、小さな調節を繰り返し、オリジナルレシピを完成させました。本当に私好みの優しい味です。


Classic Ragu Bolognese

Ingredients:
             Pancetta   100g chopped (you can use Bacon instead)
             Grounded Beef    400g 
             Onion    1/2 (Medium size)   finely minced
             Carrot     1/2 (Medium size)   finely minced
             Celery      2 stalks   finely minced
             Butter     45g (30g + 15g)
             Olive Oil     4 tbl spoon 
             Red wine (Dry)      1 cup  (1/2 cup + 1/2 cup)
             Water         3 cups
             Veggie/ Chicken/ Beef Bouillon  2 cube 
                  ☆ I used 1 of each Veggie and Beef Bouillon cubes
             Tomato paste    4 tbl spoon
             Milk            1 cup
             Bay leaves     4
             Salt and Pepper  

材料:
             パンチェッタ  100g 細長く小さめに切る (ベーコンでも良い)
             牛ひき肉    400g
             玉葱   1/2 (中)   みじん切り
             人参    1/2 (中)  みじん切り
             セロリ    2本  みじん切り
             バター  45g  (30g+15g)
             オリーブ油     大さじ4 
             赤ワイン (ドライ)     1 カップ  (1/2 カップ + 1/2 カップ)
             水         3カップ
             コンソメ、もしくはチキン、ビーフのブイヨン  2キューブ 
                  ☆ このレシピの場合、コンソメとビーフブイヨンのキューブを1つずつ使用
             トマトペースト   大さじ4
             牛乳           1カップ
             ローリエ     4枚
             塩こしょう 適量 


In a heated Pot or Pan, add minced onion + carrot + celery and sauté with butter (30g) + 4 tbl spoon of olive oil till veggies become softer... but DO NOT BURN them!
あたたまった鍋、もしくはフライパンに玉葱、人参、セロリのみじん切りを入れ、バター30gとオリーブオイル 大さじ4で炒める。野菜が透きとおるまで炒めるが、焦がしてはいけない。
Add Pancetta to the pot and cook with Mid-Low heat till Pancetta become smaller and a bit crispy.
小さめに切ったパンチェッタを鍋に入れ、弱ー中火で炒める。ほぼすべての油が出てきて、クリスピーになるまでゆっくり炒めていく。
Add grounded beef to the pot and cook the meat perfectly with Mid-HIgh heat.
Add first 1/2 cup of wine to the pot and cook with Mid heat till the wine is reduced to half.
牛ひき肉を鍋に加え、完璧に火が通るまで炒める。そして、1/2カップのワインを加えて、ワインが半分になるまで中火でゆっくり煮詰める。

This is the Veggie Bouillon from Bosa market that I used in this recipe.
私は、バンクーバーのBOSAイタリアンマーケットで購入している、野菜のブイヨンを使用しています。

Add second 1/2 cup of wine, 3 cups of water and bay leaves. Cook with Mid- Low Heat for 2h or until the water is reduced to 1/3.
煮詰まったら、残りの1/2カップのワイン、水3カップとローリエを足し、弱ー中火で2時間煮詰めます。だいたい3分の1くらいに煮詰めていきます。

  Add Tomato paste and cook it again with Mid- Low Heat for another 1h.
トマトペースを加え、もう1時間煮詰めます
This is the thickness of the sauce after 1h. When you make a line, you can see the sauce is slowly closing the pass.
線をつくったときに、ゆっくりと線が閉じていく程度まで煮詰めます。

Add a cup of milk and the rest of butter, cook till the sauce become your favourite thickness. Add salt  and pepper to taste (make sure to adjust the taste to your favourite salt level) .
最後に牛乳1カップと残りのバターを加え、好みのソースのとろみになるまで弱火で煮詰めてください。塩こしょうで味を整えて完成です。(パスタの使う方は、少し塩気を強めに作ってください)

Let the sauce sleep for 1-2 days... and I made Ragu alla Bolognese Tagliatelle with this sauce. Fresh basil, Tomato, Parmesan or Pecorino cheese are perfect toppings for this dish. You can also wrap it and freeze to save for next few weeks.
1−2日寝かせてあげると、より美味しくいただけます。このソースでパスタを作る場合、フレッシュバジル、ミニトマト、パラメザン/ペコリーノチーズがよくあいます。冷凍保存も可能です。

Please Try My heart melting 
Ragu alla Bolonese Sauce =) 

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

The busiest Month of My Life...

YES, I got Full-time JOB in the real estate industry!! 

I've been working as a Cashier, Waitress, Bartender, Seasonal Model and Assistant Yoga instructor while I was in college, and I enjoyed my jobs because these were all related to my hobby!! I graduated college last Summer and I was actually searching my full-time job to start my Office career. I applied for almost 70 companies online within a month... and  I got a chance to work at a real estate office in a beautiful area of Downtown, Vancouver.

"Welcome to an Adult-hood!!!" This is what my friends said after I started my job. I realize what it really meant after few weeks. I really enjoy my work right now but just... I was extremely tired and had no time to cook nice food =(  It took a month to get used to the regular hour time frame (8 hours a day, 5 days a week) and the new co-workers/ new work environment.  Now days, I bring my lunch from home everyday, and finally I have time to cook nice dinner after work!! 

Here is some of the dinner and lunch pictures I took last few days. I will slowly cook better lunch box (including my favourite Hallo Kitty bento box and Mario bento box) I personally think cute and tasty lunch box can make office ladies happy at least for their lunch time!! I hope you can get some ideas for your lunch box from my pictures =)  

 Sukiyaki with Syrah
 Spicy Miso hot pot with Syrah
 Stir Fried Pork dinner set
 Beef curry
 Lettuce Fried Rice
 Niku Jyaga dinner Set
 Miso cream avocado pasta
 Potato feta cream pasta
 Tonjiru miso soup and mushroom rice dinner set
Kimchi Pork Bowl

Last of All, I wanted to Thank my Parents and Brother for all the support with lots of love (and money!!) , My best friend Mark who cheered me up with good food and drinks!!, and Eiichi for my mental support from Japan!!! plus all the people for Congrats Messages... I Love you All! Now I can cook better with my own salary!! 

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Daily cooking "Fall"

I've been busy recently, so I have no time to post recipes in detail... but, I hope you will enjoy my daily lunch and dinner pictures from past two weeks =)
Mentaiko cream pasta topped with crispy salmon skin

Role cabbage with truffle oil cream pasta  

Steak meal for my friend

Random breakfast

Tantan style udon

Seafood congee for hung over morning

Traditional Japanese style breakfast

Dried shrimp and cabbage cream pasta

Mapo style eggplant

Classic Carbonara 

I will cook some seasonal recipe soon!
Enjoy the fall veggies =)

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Yakisoba style spaghetti

This is one of my favorite spaghetti style. Yakisoba is the one of Japanese cheap and good noodle dish. Yakisoba often sold in Japanese festival and popular among children and even adult as well. Yakisoba is usually sold in a package including egg noodle and yakisoba sauce/ powder. Yet, it is expensive to buy in Vancouver, and not easy to look for at grocery store in your neighbor as well. So I made Yakisoba with spagetti and it was very delicious so I'm posting the recipe here now=) 


Yakisoba style spaghettii

Ingredients (2 serving) : Spaghetti for 2 serving
                        Your favorite meet (chicken, beef, or pork)
                        Carrots     1/3
                        Cabbage     2 leaves
                        Green onion     2
                        Salt and pepper   
                     ※Yakisoba sauce

※You can buy yakisoba saurce at any asian grocery store such as T&T, H-mart, Fujiya or Konbiniya. Some of organic store such as IGA market place has yaiksoba sauce as well =)
Step 1: cut meat and veggies into 1 inch pieces. I like to cut carrot into long and thin slices. Boil the water in a large pot for cooking pasta. 

Step 2: On heated pan with oil, stir fly meat first and add veggies to cook with medium heat. Add salt and pepper when the veggies are cooked. While you are cooking meat and veggies, cook pasta in a pot.

Step 3: Add pasta and yakisoba sauce into the pan, mix well. Add a bit of oil again to prevent the spaghetti to stick together. 

Step 4: Serve on the plate, and you can top with aonori (japanese dried seaweed) and white sesame.

This recipe is very simple.
Enjoy the japanese taste with your favorite pasta =)

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Yes!!!

Yes!! My garlic shrimp recipe won second place on Japanese recipe site cookpad by popular vote for shrimp recipes♥ Every moment I spend on my cooking, the world seems so perfect to me... Thanks to my friends who helped me to motivate me, and my best friend Mark who supported me to make me more confident about my food. I hope I can cook more of my recipe to my parents in Japan =)

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

winnie the pooh curry

Right after I came back to Vancouver, I made a winnie the pooh curry just to enjoy my sunday morning=)  pooh is made with turmeric rice and piglet is made with smoked paprika rice. 


 First, make rice balls and shape it into the characters. It is actually not too difficult =)

Cut the seaweed into eyes, noses, eye blows shape and put these on the shaped rice.

Next week, I'm planning to make sponge bob and patrick curry so I will shoot a pictures step by step =)

Enjoy your last days of summer!
Hope you're enjoying my blog =)

 

Sunday, August 11, 2013

My birthday 2013

It was my birthday on Aug 9th♥ I got so many birthday wishes from friends in all over the world! I spent my birthday with my favorite food and drink. I planes my Italian Japanese fusion plate a day before and and cooked it on my birthday night. I was gonna spend my time alone bit surprising guest Mark and Yuka came over to my house =)

I opened champaign after 12pm on 8th

Planed the plate on 8th

mini caprese with home grown basil, mini veggie dip, duck terrine, avocado/ham/camembert pinchos, ham and cheese with home grown shiso, prosciuto sushi, mentaiko gunkan shushi 

 on my favorite balcony

with my favorite chateunuef du pape♥

my new year has started again. 
Thanks to my lovely mom and dad for my wonderful life♥
I love you =)