Chicken cream stew -miso flavor-

It was rainy day and so chilly today.  I went to around the Boston common park for meeting my friend who came from Japan and I really respected.

I saw leaves turning yellow gradually.  I heard that Boston's autumn tints was so beautiful!  I feel kind of sorry about ending summer but am looking forward beautiful autumn.

When it's cold, I get the urge to eat a cream stew because it makes me warm up well.  Tonight I made it with miso.  Maybe you are surprised that I add miso to cream stew but actually miso go well with dairy products like milk and cheese.  You should try!  I am sure you will be impressed the deliciousness!!

Chicken cream stew -miso flavor-

• 2 slices of chicken thigh
• 1 potato
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 Tbs of olive oil
• 3 cups of whole milk
• 1〜2 Tbs of miso
• 3 Tbs of milk (☆)
• 3 Tbs of flour (☆)
• a handful of cheese

1,  Cut chicken thigh, potato and carrot into bite-size and onion into thin slice

2,  Heat a deep pot and olive oil until quite hot and stir-fry onion

3,  After onion become soft, add chicken thigh and stir-fry until light brown

4,  Add potato and carrot and stir-fry quickly

5,  Add milk then cover a pan and boil with low fire skimming the scam until potato and carrot become soft

6,  Add miso bit and bit

6,  Mix (☆) in a small cup and add to the stew bit and bit and boil until thick then add cheese

It made me so warm!  I will definitely make cream stew from now on, especially in winter!

I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks for my friend who I met today.  You encouraged me a lot so I decided to do my best for my dream even if it is really tough.  I hope you could enjoyed Boston and will come again soon!  See you again in Boston or maybe Okinawa!!

Good luck and thank you from my bottom of my heart!!  Take care of your self :))

Japanese mustard spinach salad with dried bonito mayonnaise sauce

Do you know "dried bonito" (called Katsuo-bushi)??  It' made from just bonitos.  It takes lots of process to make it, like boiling in a huge pot, smoking, drying in the sun...and more!  The taste deserve to do the effort!!  It's like flavor (umami) itself!!

My roommate saw dried bonito shaves in my storage and said "I know this!  It's only for Dashi, right?".  No no, that's not true!!  Exactly we can make really tasty dashi soup from dried bonito.  But Japanese people use it not only for dashi but also for tofu, rice bowl, stir-fried udon and even just cooked rice!!  I mean dried bonito can easily make your food so tasty.

Even though I made stir-fried Japanese mustard spinach a couple of days ago, still I have a lot so at this time, I 'm gonna show you a recipe for salad which has lots of Japanese mustard spinach!!

Japanese mustard spinach salad with dried bonito mayonnaise sauce

• half pound of Japanese mustard spinach
• a carrot
• 0.15 oz of dried bonio shaves (I just used one small pack like this.)

• 4 Tbs of mayonnaise
• 1 Tbs of soy sauce
• white sesame seed
• Japanese hot pepper
• salt

1,  Cut Japanese mustard spinach into 2 inches length and carrot thin

2,  Boil hot water and add a bit of salt.  Blanch Japanese mustard spinach and carrot for 1 minute or so then remove from a pot and cool down with cold water immediately and squeeze tightly

3,  Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix them very well

Even though I used just simple ingredients, the taste could be so deep and complicate because dried bonito did work very well!!  I thank dried bonito for helping my cooking a lot :))

Black sesame seed ice cream

 To be honest, I was not trying to make an ice cream.  Actually I wanted to make a black sesame seed pudding which was like a blancmange.  I don't know why but it seems like that I did some mistakes during cooking.  Usually liquid for pudding could set after a couple hours but when I checked it next morning, it was still a liquid state...  At that time, I was so disappointed because I wanted to give this one to my friend who was coming to my home.  But I pulled my self together and tried to put it in the freezer for trail.  Surprisingly,  it could become a really tasty ice cream!

I have made ice cream but it needs a lot of ingredients and the process is a bit complicated for me.  But I could this ice cream really easily and used just simple ingredients.  Actually, non oil and non egg but even though that, the texture is so smooth because the corn starch works well I think.

Anyway, I am happy to find this recipe!!


Black sesame seed ice cream (3〜4 serves)

• 2 cups of whole milk
• 4 Tbs of ground black sesame seed
• 4 Tbs of brown sugar
• 4 Tbs of corn starch

1,  Put all ingredients in a small pot and mix them very well with a whipper

2,  Heat it with low fire and stir it with a wood spatula constantly

3,  After become thick like the below picture, turn off fire and put the liquid in a container and leave it until cool down

4,  Put it in the freezer and mix with a folk 2 times at intervals of two or three hours

Not only I  but also my friend was so surprised about that!  It was too tasty to believe that it was made form some mistake and had just simple ingredients.

I am sure I'll definitely make variety of flavors though autumn has already came.  But also I should challenge to make a pudding again!!

Avocado wasabi tartare dip

The air is exceedingly dry in my classroom by too much air conditioner ;((  That's a problem for me because sometime it makes my skin too dry and tight.  Ummm... you know for ladies it's very important to keep their skin moist!!

So this afternoon I was reading one article about moisturizer partly as learning about it and partly as studying English.  It said that avocado can make your skin so moist and bright.  Even a famous nutritionist of Ms. Universe recommends participants to eat 1/4 of avocado everyday and says "Avocado is the only one beauty essence in this world which you can eat"!!

I know about that now so I can't help to making something with avocado!!

Avocado wasabi tartare dip

• an avocado
• 1/4 of onion
• 10 pieces shrimps
• 3 Tbs of mayonnaise
• 1/2〜1 tsp of wasabi
• 2 tsp of soy sauce
• salt and pepper

1,  Chop onion into small size and add 1/2 tsp of salt then leave for 15 minutes

2,  Wash the onion well and squeeze with kitchen paper

3,  Boil shrimps until the color change and cut into small cubes

4,  Cut an avocado into bit-size and mush it lightly with fork

5,  Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix them very well

6,  Season it with salt and pepper

I just had this with cracker like a dip but I think this tartare dip will much with bread absolutely!  I'll make a sandwich with this dip tomorrow for lunch.  Can't wait!!

I hope tomorrow my skin can be much moister than today even though I just studied this proverb, "Roma was built in a day"...

Yuzu-pepper salmon sandwich

My school has already started this week.  For me it is important to have nice lunch at lunch break.  If I don't have nice lunch, I could not do anything in the afternoon.

It's an exaggeration to say that but I just mean I need good lunch for nice afternoon!  I think you guys also think so, don't you?

When I make lunch box,  how easy and quick is really important because I really rush and have not enough time to make it in the morning.  This sandwich tastes really good but it take less than 5 minutes to make it if you have the stock of  salmon flakes.  I usually make a lot of salmon flakes and keep it in the freezer so that I can use it quickly.  But even if you don't have it, maybe you can make less than 10 minutes.  So I highly recommend this sandwich for your lunch box!!

Yuzu-pepper salmon sandwich

• 2 slices of white bread
• 1/4 pound of salmon flakes （☆）
• 1〜2 Tbs of mayonnaise（☆）
• 1/2〜1 tsp of yuzu-pepper（☆）
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 pack of brown mushroom
• 1 Tbs of soy sauce
• 1 Tbs of butter
• baby spinach

1,  Toast 2 slices of white bread and spread mayonnaise the inside of both

2,  Mix (☆) well and season it with salt and pepper

3,  Put butter in a pan and heat until quite hot and stir-fry washed mushroom and then add soy sauce and stir-fry again

4,  Place baby spinach, salmon, sautéed mushroom on a toasted bread in order and sand with another bread 

It was happy lunch time with this sandwich♡  Only one thing I was sorry was I could not have fresh one because it's a lunch box... but that's okay!  Still it tasted good!!

Anyway, I have to do homework from now.  It's almost 12:00am... so sleepy...

Stir-fried Japanese mustard spinach and shrimp with sea salt sauce

Have you ever tried Japanese mustard spinach (小松菜, Komatsuna)?  It's a traditional Japanese vegetable and has thick leaves and firm stems.  It's a kind of Brassica rape and the origin is white turnip.

The reason which the name has "mustard" is that it has a little bit of sharp-tasting.  That's why I didn't like this vegetable so much when I was a little kid but now I love it!  Even if you don't like sharp-tasting,  you don't taste at all if you heat enough.  

Not only taste good but also it has a lot of nice nutrition. Vitamin A, calcium, iron, potassium, fiber and more!  Nutrition of Japanese mustard spinach are really similar to spinach's one but the amount is much bigger than spinach!  Actually the amount of calcium is 5 times of spinach.  How excellent it is!!

Unfortunately I have never had it since I came to Boston.  But today I found it at a grocery store finally!!  I would like to cook Japanese mustard spinach with shrimp which is my favorite food!!

Stir-fried Japanese mustard spinach and shrimp with sea salt sauce (2 serves)

• 1 pound of japanese mustard spinach
• 12 pieces of shrimps
• 1 Tbs of chopped garlic
• 1 Tbs of sesame oil
• salt 
• pepper
• 1 Tbs of chinese chicken soup stock
• 1 Tbs of potato starch (☆)
• 4 Tbs of water (☆)

1,  Mix (☆) in a small cup.  Peel shrimps.

2,  Wash japanese mustard spinach and cut into 2 inches length

3,  Put sesame oil in a pan and heat with low fire until quite hot.

4,  When you smell garlic, add peeled shrimps to the pan and stir-fry until shrimps change color and add a little bit of salt

5,  Add extra sesame oil and stems of Japanese mustard spinach and stir-fry well then add leave and stir-fry again

6,  Add chinese chicken soup stock and add chinese chicken soup stock then stir-sry

7,  Put out the fire and add  (☆) then mix them very well

8,  Turn on fire and stir-fry again until the sauce become thick and season the sauce with salt and pepper

The best season of Japanese mustard spinach is from autumn to winter.  I hope to have a lot from now!!

Sweet potato and black sesame seed cake

It has passed just 10000 days since I was born.  For me it's a special anniversary day!!  But nobody celebrated me (because maybe the person who realized about that was only me...).  That doesn't matter really but I made a cake for me with candied sweet potato which I made the day before yesterday.

Sweet potato and black sesame seed cake (23.5×18cm cake pan)

• 1 pound of candied sweet potato
• 2 Tbs of black sesame seed
• 140g of flour (☆)
• 2 tsp of baking powder (☆)
• 1 Tbs of corn starch (☆)
• 40g of sugar (☆)
• 1/4 tsp of salt (☆)
• an egg
• 80g of butter
• 70g of sugar
• 60ml of milk
• 2 Tbs of rum

1,  Cut candied sweet potato into small cube.  Mix all (☆) and sift them together.  Melt butter

2,  Put butter in a heat-resistant container and turn on a micro oven for 30 seconds or so for melting it.

3,  Beat an egg and add sugar, milk and rum with a whipper in a big bowl

4,  Add sifted dry mixture and mix lightly taking care not to make sticky with spatula

5, Add cut candied sweet potato and black sesame seed and mix them lightly  

6,  Put the dough in a cake mold which you cover with kitchen paper

7,  Put the dough into the oven and bake at 365°F for 20 minutes

8,  remove from oven and cool down on a cake cooler

I cut into a square...

and put coconuts ice cream which was my favorite flavor♡

Oooooh, so tasty♡  It's not too sweet so could be dangerous because I could eat it as much as I would like but that's okay because it's a special day so don't care about diet for today, haha.

Anyway, I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to my parents.  I heartily thank you guys for giving birth to me and taking care anytime.