Nasu(Eggplant) & Green Pepper's Miso flavour

Nasu are often cooked during the summer.  They can be grilled, steamed, fried, pickled etc.

This is fried Nasu and Green pepper with Miso, Say sauce, Sake, Mirin and sugar.  It is good with beer or white rice. 

Bento(home packed meal) for Kids

Bento is a home packed meal or a single portion takeout common in Japanese cuisine.  Kids are growing so fast.  They need 2 layers bento box for school lunch these days.  I made this bento today.

It's rice with bonito flake with a drop of soy sauce and seaweed on top.  Teriyaki chicken, Ham & Green pepper and a lady finger and grapes. 

Otsumami

Otsumami is a small dish you can eat with beer, wine, sake, or other drinks.  Usually I serve it just before appetizer, but there are lots of Izakaya(Tapas) in Japan and you can keep on having otsumami throughout the dinner. Izakaya has a lot of kind of Otsumami such as Yakitori, Tofu dishes, other dishes. This is a Otsumami I made yesterday.  It's just a mix nuts, but I put rosemary, salt and pepper with brown sugar and cayenne pepper then roasted in the oven.  I bought this local brand nuts very cheap, but it became a fantastic Otsumami.  It's delicious.

Umeboshi (Plum)

Umeboshi are pickled ume fruits.  Umeboshi's texture is like the apricot, but taste is sour and salty.  Umboshi are made by salt and vinegar.  We usually eat with white rice like the photo below or put in the rice ball.  It's very good for Bento(taking lunch box) as it's prevent from going bad.  It's good for digestion, prevention of nausea, systemic toxicity and against aging.  When you are hangover, put one Umeboshi into a cup with warm water and mix well.  Drink slowly then you will feel much better.

We say "Eat one Umeboshi in the morning then you will have a good day!"

Gambare Japan! (Cheer up Japan!)

How about this Sushi??

Ikebana

I feel always very happy when I have some flowers at home.  I pick some flowers from my garden and just put them in the vase and decorate at the entrance or our dinner table.  Sometimes I go to a market and buy some roses or lilies etc.  However, when I am having guests at home for dinner, I usually do Ikebana.  It makes more comfortable and would like my guests to feel Japanese Omotenashi way.

Spinach with Sesame sauce

"Spinach with Sesame sauce"

Ingredients:
1 pack of Spinach
White sesame paste 2tsp
Mirin 1tsp
Sugar 1tsp
Soy Sauce 1tsp

1. Mix White sesame paste, Mirin, Sugar and Soy Sauce well and put aside.

2. Boil the spinach and soak in a water so that bitterness will be gone.

3. Gently squeeze the spinach and cut smaller length.

4. Mix it with the sesame sauce.

Avocado Natto

Natto is a traditional Japanese food made from soybeans fermented.  It is a very healthy food as it contains plasma protein, vitamin K, calcium to prevent heart attacks, pulmonary embolism, strokes etc.  Anyway, We eat this Natto often and lots of Japanese have been eating since they were babies.  (Of course some people don't like it because it's smelly as it's fermented). 

Mix well then it's going to be very sticky.  Then put soy sauce and Karashi(Japanese mustard) and some chopped Negi(leek) then mix more.  Usually we eat with a bowl of white rice.  There are so many ways to eat Natto. 

The other day I made this as you see the photo.

I mixed with Avocado and salted Seaweed with Soy sauce and wasabi.  This is great with Beer!

Inarizushi

Inarizushi is a popular dish among children.  It's Tofu Skin with Sushi rice.  My child had a class party(potluck) from school the other day and I made Inarizushi and Hosomaki which contains avocado and crab meat.  It was a big success:)

Chirashizushi

There are many kind of sushi in Japan.  Chirashizushi is the one of them.  Usually, we eat this sushi on a special occasion such as Girl's Day(March 3rd) or Children's Day(May 5th) or birthday, anniversary etc.
Of course you can eat anytime you want and it is my daughter's favorite dish so I make quite often.
It's sushi rice with cooked shiitake mushrooms, carrots, lotus roots with vinegar.  Then you put sashimi fish such as tuna, ikura, negitoro, octopus, scallops and some vegetables on the rice.  This time I put boiled broccoli and avocado and thin sliced egg rolls.

It's fun to decorate.  Itadakimasu! (Bon appetite!)

How to make Miso Soup

Ingredients:

Water 400ml
Kombu(Sea Weed) 10cm
Bonito Flake Full hands
Miso 30g
Leek(Negi)
White Radish(Daikon)

1. Soak Kombu in a water, if you have time, soak it 30-60minutes before.

2. Put it on the fire until you can see the small bubbles from the bottom.

3. Take Kombu out before boiling then put bonito flake.

4. Wait until bonito flake goes to the bottom like the photo.

5. Strain bonito flake.  Do not squeeze.

6. Cut leek and white radish. (You can add or create your own with other vegetables such as Shiitake Mushrooms, Cabbage, Tofu, Onion etc) and put them into the soup.  Cook until becoming soft.

7. Add Miso in the soup.  Do not bring to boil.  When it's boiling, it's lost flavour.

8. Ready to serve.

Omotenashi by non Japanese Food

Omotenashi means "inviting guests and entertain for food and drink, like a party" in Japanese.  We love having guests at our home and spending a great time with family and friends.  Most of you probably think to do Omotenashi is a bit too much trouble and too hassle because you have to do cleaning house, go shopping, deciding menu, thinking that which wine or drink should go with the food etc.  I also felt so in the beginning, but after you do Omotenashi few times, you will enjoy it. 

I like to decide menu and cook the most.  (I don't say cleaning:))

When we invite friends or people from my husband's company and if there are no Japanese and if they like Japanese Food, I always make Sushi for the party.  I will write about this for my next blog.

Recently, we invited a couple who are good friends of ours.  A gentleman is from Germany and his wife is Japanese.  They both love wine so I even set the table like this.

The menu on this day was "white fish (flounder, sea bream) Carpaccio with Orange and Italian Parsley"
"Lamb chops with garlic and rosemary" "Baked potatoes" and "Vanilla Ice cream with 15 years vintage balsamico with double espresso"  Unfortunately, I forgot to take those pictures.  Next time, I will up here.

Home made food is a joy!

There are so many Japanese Restaurants in Singapore especially these days, many new restaurants opened.
If you want to eat real high quality Japanese Food, of course you can visit to those restaurants and enjoy an excellent food and atmosphere.  However, it's more comfortable to cook at home and it's tasty and cheaper as well.  You spend fortune to eat at a nice Japanese restaurant and you can't get good services always:(

This kind of  dishes I make at home very often.  It's so easy and simple.  Nothing is complicated.

Cooking is fun and I would like to tell you that Japanese food can be made at home so easily!

Sushi for Kids' lunch

Sushi is usually with raw fish so it's impossible to take it for lunch especially in Singapore as it has a tropical weather.  But there are lots of other sushi which don't contain raw fish.  Children like Makizushi, rolled sushi.
You can make Cucumber(Kappamaki), Eggroll(Tamagomaki), Dried gourd shavings(Kanpyomaki) etc.
You can also make Futomaki which contains many things inside such as egg roll, crabmeat, cucumber etc.
I make kids lunch like the photo.  It has cucumber, eggroll and canned tuna (I cooked with soy sauce and mirin) then roll.  This is good even though in hot weather because sushi rice contains vinegar so it won't go bad fast.

If you want to learn how to make those kind of sushi, just drop me a line to my email address or comment to this blog.