Pork salad with Japanese style onion dressing

I couldn't sleep well last night so was sooo sleepy today.  I needed to take a nap so couldn't join any Halloween parties, which made me so sad because I was looking forward to the party since I came here in Boston.  So tonight I just made a salad as dinner.  Poor Halloween night...;(

Pork salad with Japanese style onion dressing (2 serves) 

• any vegetable for salad
• thin sliced pork
• 1/2 onion
• 4 Tbs of ponzu
• 2 Tbs of olive oil

1,  Cut vegetables into small pieces or thin slices.

2,  Boil thin sliced pork until color changes completely.

3,  Grate onion and add ponzu.  Heat them until boil lightly.  Take it off a fire and add olive oil then mix well.

4,  Place vegetables on a plate and add the dressing.  Place boiled pork on the vegetable and add the dressing again.

It was so sad I couldn't go outside tonight but still this salad made me fine.  I decided to sleep early before the day of the Halloween next year!!

Japanese style pork ginger

It seems like the hurricane Sandy was gone but still the weather was not so good.  Actually it's raining and thundering now.  But I could go grocery shopping to an asian grocery store somehow and bought thin sliced pork a lot.  I made a Japanese style pork ginger (called Shoga-yaki 生姜焼き) today because I wanted to have kind of spicy food.

Do you know why people feel warm up when they eat ginger?  Ginger has a gingerol which is a kind of an organic compound and pungent component.  When we heat ginger, gingerol changes to a shogaol which is also a kind of an organic compound and speeds up the body metabolism.  That's why when you have a ginger, you feel warm up.

I had a Japanese style pork ginger which has a lot of ginger so actually I am sweating now!  So hot!! 

Japanese style pork ginger (2 serves)

• 0.8 pound of thin sliced pork
• 1/2 of onion
• 1 Tbs of sesame oil
• 1+1/2 Tbs of ground ginger (☆)
• 2 Tbs of mirin (☆)
• 2 Tbs of soy sauce (☆)
• 1 tsp of sugar (☆)

1,  Cut hin sliced pork into easy bite sizes and onion into thin slices.

2,  Heat a pan and sesame oil until quite hot and stir-fry thin sliced pork until light brown then add onion and stir-fry until onion become pliant.

3,  Mix all of  (☆) well and add to a pan.  Stir-fry until lose water.

4,  Place on a plate.  Add mayonnaise and a bit of Japanese red pepper if you would like.

It's really easy because you don't need so many processes and stuffs but tasted really good!!  The ingredients for sauce are kind of similar to teriyaki but the pork and a lot of ginger make the taste completely different and refresh!

Actually my roommate bought cakes for us so we had those as dessert with a coup of hot tea.  NY cheese cake and azuki cream puff!!

Look!!  Bountiful cream and azuki bean jelly!  I was so happy♡

We were having tea hearing the sound of thunder.  I hope tomorrow will be fine but it suppose to be strong rain again according to the weather news...So sad ;(

Kakiage-Don (rice bowl)

The big hurricane Sandy arrived in Boston.  Due to this, all public schools were cancelled and also almost public translation didn't work.  I tried to go outside to grocery shopping because I didn't have so many stuff in the fridge but no sooner had I opened the entrance door then I gave up to do that because it was incredible strong rain more than expected.

Anyway, it was better to stay at home today.  Actually I was seeing outside from my room but nobody was there.

I made a Kakiage-donburi with all ingredients I had.  Kakiage is a type of tempura and a Japanese dish of seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried.  It's really crispy and has a lot of flavor!  Usually I don't make this kind of deep fry but today I had a lot of free time so made it!!

Kakiage-Don (2 Serves)

• 1/2 of onion
• 10 pieces of freezer or raw shrimp
• 3 Tbs os edamame
• cooked rice for 2 person
• 1/2 cup of flour (☆)
• 2 Tbs of corn starch (☆)
• 1 tsp of baking powder (☆)
• 1/4 tsp of salt (☆)
• 100〜150cc of water
• 1 tsp of vinegar

sauce for kakiage-don

• 6 Tbs of mirin
• 3 Tbs of soy sauce
• 1 Tbs of sugar
• 100cc of dashi

1,  Peel shrimps and remove the digestive tract from the back of the prawn.  Cut into small pieces.  Cut onion into thin slices.  Put onion, shrimp and edamame in a bowl.

2,  Make batter.  Mix (☆) and add cold water and vinegar and mix quickly.  Don't mix too much.  If you think the batter isn't thin enough like this picture, you can add water a bit by bit. 

3,  Add onion, shrimp and edamame to the batter and mix lightly.

4,  Pour oil to a pan and heat it until quite hot.  When you drop a bit of batter from high position and batter rises quickly, it' a sign that you can start deep-frying.

5,  Deep fry the kakiage ingredients using two spoons to make a circle.

6,  After the edge become light brown, remove from oil and put on kitchen paper or news paper to remove extra oil.

7,  Make a sauce for kakiage-don.  Heat a pan and mirin until boiling then add all ingredients of sauce.  Heat and boil for 1 minutes or so.

8,  Place cooked rice in a rice bowl and add 1 Tbs of sauce.  Place kakiage on the rice and add sauce as much as you like. 

It has been really long time since I had kakiage-donburi last time.  I was so happy that I could enjoy this flavor and crispy texture in a while.

I enjoyed relaxing in my room today but hope that the hurricane will go away from Boston and disappear soon!!

Pork and leek soba

In America, maybe almost people are having a Halloween party tonight o already did this weekend.  Despite this, I was too busy to have time for party because I moved to a new room this weekend.

 Do you know "Hikkoshi-soba"?  Soba means close in Japanese and looks long so in the past, people who moved to new house gave soba to neighbor and landlord to appreciate ongoing the help, support and relationship and tell the happiness to be close from now on.

Of course it's only Japanese culture so I didn't give soba to neighbor but still I wanted to feel like having hikkoshi-soba that's why I made not halloween food but soba!

Pork and leek soba (2 serves)

• soba for 2 people
• 1/3 pound of thin sliced pork
• 1/3 leek
• 10 pieces of shiitake mushroom
• 1 Tbs of sesame oil
• 2 Tbs of ground daikon radish 
• 800 cc of dashi (☆)
• 2 Tbs of mirin (☆)
• 2 Tbs of soy sauce (☆)

1,  Cut leek into thin sticks and pork into easy-bite sizes.  Heat a pan and sesame oil and stir-fry until pork's color become light brown and leek become pliant.

2,  Cut shiitake mushroom into thin slices then boil until soft.

3,  Boil a lot of hot water and boil soba for the time package says.  If it starts boiling over, you can add about 1/4 cup of water to stop it.

4,  Put boiled soba up to a colander and make it cool down with cold water.

5,  Put  (☆) in a pan and heat until hot.

6,  Put soba in a bowl and put stir-fried pork and leek, shiitake mushroom and daikon radish then pour soup.  Add Japanese red pepper powder if you would like.

I really enjoyed this soba hoping my good luck in this room.

By the way, maybe already you know but a devastating hurricane is arriving in Boston.  I hope nothing will happen tomorrow.  Take care!!

Niku-Dofu Donburi

We Japanese really like to eat a rice bowl like an above picture because it's easy to cook and so tasty. Do you guys know Gyu- don (a beef bowl) which is the most popular fast food in Japan?  Yoshinoya is the one of the most famous fast food restaurants in our country.  When I was working in Tokyo, I often went to Yoshinoya in Shibuya, for I didn't really have a time to eat a lunch, but they served us it  quickly and cheaply; it was so economical for me :))  So, today, I cooked a Niku-tofu bowl like similar to Gyu-don with leftover niku-dofu from yesterday.  It took only 10 minutes to cook and tasted pretty good. I will show you how to cook it easily and quickly, and I am going to bed to have a good dream soon!!

Niku-Dofu Donburi (1 serve)

• 1 portion of niku-dofu (include soup)
• soy sauce as much as you like
• 1 egg
• 1 portion of cooked rice
• 1 green onion

1,  Put niku-dofu in a pan and heat until quit hot crashing tofu into small pieces.  If you don't have enough soup, you just add dashi a little bit.

2,  Beat an egg and add it wholly and boil with low fire.

3,  After you cook egg enough, put the niku-dofu on rice in the rice bowl.

4,  Cut green onion into thin slices then put it the top of the niku-dofu don.

Even though I made it easily, it had a lot of favor!  I just add an egg to niku-dofu but the taste was really different from niku-dofu, which made me so surprised!!

I think also you guys could be surprised like me.  I highly recommend to leave some niku-dofu for this niku-dofu donburi even if you want to eat all strongly!!

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 :))