Niku-Dofu (Japanese style boiled beef and Tofu)

It's really difficult to find thin sliced pork or beef in America.  I didn't know that thin sliced meat was not so common because in Japan I could find it so easily and eat a lot.

I happened to find thin sliced beef at one of Japanese grocery stores in Boston. 

You see!  It's really thin like papers!!

I made a Niku-Dofu (Japanese style boiled beef and Tofu) with this thin sliced beef.  It's first time to cook with thin sliced meat since I came to America so I was excited!!

Niku-Dofu (Japanese style boiled beef and Tofu) (2〜3 serves)

• 0.4 pound of thin sliced beef
• 1 pack of firm tofu
• 1/2 of onion
• 1 pack of enoki mushroom
• 2 Tbs of soy sauce
• 2 +1/2 Tbs of mirin
• 200ml of dashi (or 200ml of water + 1/2 tsp of dashi powder)

1,  Cut onion into thin slices and tofu into 6 pieces.  Cut the bottom of enoki mushroom and cut it into half.

2,  Heat a pan and sesame oil until quite hot.  Add beef to the half of a pan and onion to vacant space in the pan.  Stir-fry them separately.  Don't stir-fry them together.

3,  Add mirin and soy sauce and stir-fry again then add dashi.  After boil it, add tofu and enoki like this picture.

4,  Cover with aluminum foil and boil it with medium fire for 12 minutes.  Sometime open the cover and pour liquid on tofu with spoon.

5,  Take a pan off a fire and wait until pretty cool down for making it taste deeper.  After that, heat it again and place on the plate.

All ingredients incredibly has a lot of flavor!  Taste so deep!!  It looks like sukiyaki but this one has lighter and more delicate taste.  Actually next day it's gonna be much greater taste but it was impossible to wait until tomorrow!  Too yummy!!!

Stir-fried walnuts Pak-choi with butter soy sauce

This morning I woke up too early getting hungry because last night I had only shrimp soup as dinner.  I had a lot of vacant time this morning so made big breakfast!

I had a pak-choi which was a kind of Chinese rape vegetable.  The texture was briskly and juicy.  Normally I used green pak-choi but yesterday I found red pak-choi which had purple color's leaves.

I made breakfast with this purple pan-choi getting my stomach growls.  Be quick!!

Stir-fried Pak-choi with butter soy sauce (1 serve)

• 1/4 pound of pak-choi
• 2 slices of bacon
• 2 Tbs of chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbs +1 tbs of butter

Scramble egg 

• 1 egg
• 1 Tbs of mayonnaise
• 1 tsp of butter

1,  Cut pak-choi and bacon into easy-to-eat size

2,  Heat 1 tbs of butter and pan until quite hot.  Add bacon and stir-fry until oil come up

3,  Add pak-choi and stir-fry.  Add soy sauce and walnuts and stir-fry quickly then add 1 tbs of butter.  Add some soy sauce if you feel it's not enough.

4,  Make a scramble egg.  Beat egg and mayonnaise.  Heat a pan and butter until smoke then add egg mixture and scramble quickly.

5,  Place stir-fried pak-choi and put scramble egg on it.

I couldn't get enough of rice with this pak-choi dish!  Was so nice and made me wake up completely.  Because of this, I could had a lot of energy during the day.  I really enjoyed a beautiful day.  

I realized how important breakfast was!  Never skip it even if I oversleep!!

Shrimp ball ginger soup

My mom came to Boston this June to see me.  She stayed for two weeks and went to a lot of places together.  Also I cooked together a couple of times.  It was so much fun for me and I hope to cook with her sometime soon.

I went grocery shopping today and found big shrimp sale.  I remembered that my mom made shrimp ball when we cooked together, which was so beautiful and tasty!  So I bought shrimps and tried to make shrimp ball remembering how she made it.

Shrimp ball ginger soup (2 serves)

• 6 pieces of raw shiitake mushroom
• 0.2 pound of raw shrimp（☆）
• 1 Tbs ob edamame（☆）
• 1 Tbs of corn starch（☆）
• 1 tsp of ground ginger（☆）
• 1 tsp of soy sauce（☆）
• 3 cups of water（★）
• 2 tsp of ginger（★）
• 2 tsp of dashi powder（★）
• 1 tsp of yuzu pepper（★）
• 1 tsp of soy sauce（★）
• 5 pieces of okra 
• 2 tsp of corn starch
• 2 tsp of water

1,  Peel shrimps and remove the digestive tract from the back of the prawn and chop to a paste.  Chop edamame to small pieces.  Mix all （☆）very well.

2,  Remove stalks from shiitake mushrooms and put shrimp paste on it.

3,  Boil them in hot water until color changes pink and remove.

4,  Cut okras into thick slices.  Add all of （★）in a pot.  After boil, add cut okra and boil it.

5,  Pour soup in a bowl and put shrimp balls on each cup.

This soup has a really delicate and deep flavor!  Also I added ginger so it made me warm up very much.  It's really cold tonight so I am sure I can avoid getting a cold with this soup :))

Chicken and eggplant donburi with ponzu mayonnaise sauce

Maybe because of autumn appetite??  Recently I have a vast appetite!!  Even though I had a cold, I wanted to eat something hearty meal.

The rice bowl today I made had kind of rich taste because I used mayonnaise for sauce but even so still I could taste refresh because I used ponzu sauce also.  Ponzu is made with citrus juice, dashi and soy sauce mainly so cyrus juice give really refresh favor!

Also this one has a lot of vegetable more than meat.  So I think it's super healthy... maybe...??

Chicken and eggplant donburi with ponzu mayonnaise sauce (1 serve)

• 1/4 pound of chicken thigh
• 1/4 pound of eggplant
• 1/4 of onion
• Cooked rice for 1 person
• 1 Tbs of sesame oil
• 1 tsp of garlic
• 2 Tbs of ponzu
• 1+1/2 Tbs of mayonnaise
• salt
• Black pepper

1,  Cut chicken thigh, egg plant and onion into small cubes.  Soak eggplant in water for 10 minutes.

2,  Chop garlic.  Heat a pan, garlic and sesame oil until quite hot then stir-fry chicken thigh until brown.  Add onion and stir-fry until pliant.
3,  Add eggplant and stir-fry again until pliant.  Add mayonnaise and ponzu and stir-fry quickly.
4,  Season with salt and black pepper

I am sure that for me autumn is the season for good appetite more than reading and arts!!

Rice omelette with ume plum sauce

It seems I caught a cold yesterday because I was outside for long hours to see the regatta race.  When you catch a cold, what do you wanna eat?  For me, I get the urge to eat something mild and not so strong and salty.

The rice omelette today I made doesn't have strong taste but the more you chew it, the more flavorsome it becomes.  

When I made an Omu-rice (rice omelette),  I made an omelette and flavored rice separately but this time, I just mixed all ingredients of rice omelette and pan-broiled.  Even thought it's easy, the taste is great and complicated!!

Rice omelette with ume plum sauce (2 serves)

• 1/2 pound of cooked rice
• 3 eggs
• 2 Tbs of mayonnaise
• 1 Tbs of hijiki + 3 Tbs of water

Ume plum sauce

• 1 cup of water
• 1 tsp of dashi powder
• 3 pieces of ume plum
• 1 green onion
• 2 tbs of potato starch or corn starch + 4 tbs of water 

1,  Make ume plum sauce.  Cut a green onion into thin slices and Remove seeds from ume plum and chop into a past.  Boil water in a pan and add dashi powder, green onion and ume plum.  After that, add starch and water and boil until thick.

2,  Soak hijiki in water for 15 minutes of so.  Mix all ingredients of rice omelette except butter (This time I used Japanese anchovy but if you don't have it, that's totally fine)

4,  Heat a pan and 1 tsp of butter until butter melt and become light brown color.  After that,  add 1/2 of rice omelette ingredients and make omelette shape with spatula.  Make another omelets in this way.

5,  Place the omelette on at the plate and if you would like, you can tear seaweed seat and green onion

It has really deep and delicate taste.  Even if I don't have a cold, I want to eat it again!

Anyway, I'm gonna go to my bed hoping I can completely recover by tomorrow morning!  Have a good night :)

Kabocha pumpkin soup

I went to the Charles river to see the regatta race today.  Fortunately, the weather was so nice and so many people were along the river!!  It looked like a kind of festival!  I was so surprised how popular the regatta was in Boston!!

The views that a lot of boat were floating on the shining river and the players were rowing their boats were incredibly beautiful!!

I also saw pretty ducks♡  So cute♡♡

Actually I didn't know about the regatta race so much (sorry, but it's not so famous in Japan...)  but even so, I enjoyed and had so much fun!  I hope I can see again next year :))

It was warm but even so I was there for long hours so felt really cold and hungry when I got my home. I had leftovers of boiled kabocha pumpkin I made the day before yesterday so I made a pumpkin soup for dinner quickly!

Kabocha pumpkin soup (3〜4 serves)

• 1 pound of boiled kabocha pumpkin
• 2 cups of whole milk
• 1/2 pf onion
• 4 slices of bacons
• 1 Tbs of butter
• 1 tsp of soy sauce
• 3 Tbs of cheese

1,  Cut onion into thin slices and bacon into one-bite sizes.  Remove skin from kabocha pumpkin and cut the skin into small pieces.

2,  Heat a pan and butter with low fire and stir-fry onion and bacon until onion become pliant

3,  Add kabocha pumpkin and stir-fry mashing it

4,  Add milk and cover then boil until quite hot.  Add cut skin, soy sauce and cheese and mix well

It was so sweet and tasty even thought I made less than 15 minutes!!  This soup made me warm up so much that I am sure I can sleep well tonight.

Have a good night and sweet dreams☆

Ginger hijiki takikomi gohan

The takikomi gohan I made last month was really good!  Actually one of my friends said it was the best takikomi gohan he had eaten in his whole life!  I was so glad that was thinking to make another flavor one since then.

I bought a lot of ground chicken these days because it was on sale but actually I was not familiar with cooking ground chicken so I wanted to make something with it somehow otherwise it could be getting worse so quickly!!

Therefore I made the takikomi gohan with ground chicken tonight.  I don't think it's not so popular to use ground chicken for takikomi gohan but I think it's gonna be great because ground meat has a lot of juice and they can get seasoning a lot!!

Ginger hijiki takikomi gohan

• 1+3/4 cups of white rice
• 2 cups of water
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 pound of ground chicken
• 1+1/2 Tbs of hijiki
• 3 Tbs of sugar (☆)
• 1Tbs of mirin (☆)
• 4Tbs of soy sauce (☆)
• 2 Tbs of ground ginger
• Edamame

1, Wash the rice and leave it in the water in the cooker for 1 hour or so

2,  Cut carrot into thinly slices.  

3,  Add 4 Tbs of water to hijiki and leave for 20 minutes until completely soft (If you use tepid water, leave for 10 minutes)

3,  Put 3 cups of water in a large pan and heat and boil

4,  Add ground chicken to boiled water and break chunks with a spatula then skim the scrum carefully

5,  Add carrot, hijiki and all of (☆) and boil until cooking water become about half

6,  Add the ingredients and 3 Tbs of cooking water to the rice and start the rice cooker.  After it's done, mix well.

7,  Serve takikomi-gohan in a bowl and put edamame on the top

It looks beautiful and of course taste good!  I think the ginger made this much more tasty and also it's good for the coming cold season because ginger make you warm up and good for your health.

By the way, I'm gonna go to the Charles river to watch the head of  the Charles Regatta race tomorrow!  It's a really famous boat race in Boston and over 300 thousand people are coming every year!  It's first time for me to watch the race so I'm so excited!  Hope tomorrow is gonna be beautiful day!!