Spicy Tofu Hot Pot

Super Easy Tofu Soup

Do you know October 2nd is a Tofu Day in Japan?  10 in Chinese Character ‘十’ (looks like cross or plus sign doesn’t it?) has two pronunciations – Jyu and To (pronounce tow). 2’s Chinese character is very simple, just draw two lines, one on top of the other, make the top line slightly shorter.  ‘二’ also has two pronunciations two…I mean too. Nee and Fu. See where I’m going with this? 

Inexpensive, available in supermarkets everywhere, versatile tofu is a Japanese kitchen staple. This tofu dish is incredibly easy and quick, the spicy tobanjyan sooth your melancholic soul.

The recipe is just guideline, adjust to your own taste.

Ingredients and Instruction for two servings (Print Recipe Here)

Nice to have equipment – small stone pot with lid

• 150 cc water
• 2 teaspoons instant dashi powder Note; I used no-MSG granule type.
• 4 Tablespoons soy sauce or tamari sauce
• 1 to 2 teaspoons tobanjyan (豆板醤/spicy miso paste) available in tube or jar.
• 1 package Japanese style soft tofu, drained and cut in 4ths
• 2-3 stalks of green onion or 1 long green onion, cut the white part -diagonally
• 1/3 cup tempura batter crumbs (agedama/揚げ玉 or tenkasu/天かす) they comes in a bag, find in refrigerated section of a Japanese market. Note: Homemade tempura batter crumbs – Fish out with a slotted spoon the crumbs naturally occur when you frying tempura.

1. Pour water in stone pot or bottom heavy small pan and boil.
2. Add dashi powder and stir to dissolve
3. Add soy sauce.
4. Add tobanjyan and mix well. cook until liquids come to a full boil.
5. Lower the heat and place tofu in the pot. Put lid on and cook for about 5 -7 minutes. Turn tofu once mid way.
6. Add green onion and cook for additional 2 minutes.
7. Sprinkle tempura crumbs on top, cook for 30 second to soften the crumbs or serve immediately if you prefer crunchy texture.

Variation#1 – Instead of Tofu, add rinsed frozen udon noodle
Variation #2 – Add kimchi and it’s own juice to make knock-off kimchi jjiage

From instagram posts of Today’s TAPAS (#todaystapas) and Today’s Sweets(#todayssweets) -

I love Tamago yaki (卵焼き/Japanese style omelet). The amazing quilt underneath is a gift from a friend…she is so talented and very kind.

Pickled Grapes (the recipe in bon apetit magazine) is delightful! Ready in 30 minutes,  great in salad or for snack.

Well received, lovely Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes with custard cream filling for a church function. The recipe links - Bake for Happy kids or Nasi Lemak Lover. I must say…I did a good job!

Night fall comes early now, I just have one of those,  a cup of decaffeinated  earl gray tea and a good book to curl up with…when I wake in the morning, it’s still dark. I feel like I need mega dose of Vitamin D.

Sunlartan/酸辣湯

Chinese Sour Soup

We’re officially in autumn, I see some leaves are turning colors. The cooler temperature calls for warm soup that should not be complicated.  I made this mostly from what’s in the refrigerator.

Ingredients and Instruction for two servings (Print Recipe Here)

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 pounds pork cut into small pieces  You may substitute with chicken
• 1 stalk green onion minced
• 2 inch ginger root, skinned and minced
• 2 Tablespoons sake
• 1-1/2 cup water
• 1 bok choy separate green and white parts then sliced thinly
• 1 small bag enoki mushrooms, discard bottom dark ends, cut in 2 inches length
• salt, white pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 Tablespoons rice vinegar

1. Heat sesame oil in skillet at low heat. Add pork and cook until the meat just turns white.
   
2. Add green onions and ginger to the skillet. Sauté for 1 minute.
3. Turn the heat up to medium. Pour sake, water and sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper when the liquids boil,  turn heat to low, put the lid on and cook for 5 minutes.
   
4. Add bok choy’s white parts and enoki mushroom, put the lid back on and cook for a few minutes.
   
5. Add green parts of sliced bok choy, sugar and vinegar. Stir few times and it’s done! Take taste test, if you like more zing then add more vinegar
   

We drove to a hill to see the Super Moon last Sunday…wondered what it is like to see the moon form the airplane.

Still we had quite good spot to observed beautiful blood moon.

Goodnight Moon…

Tuna Tartar Don(丼)

And Tuna Rice Sandwich

 

The Maguro (鮪/tuna) I bought was a bit unsightly, un-uniform in color…well I was watching my budget, less expensive than sashimi grade tuna for sure... Still grateful to get fresh maguro block. I decided to make tuna tartar…actually, mincing the meat with seasonings on the cutting board is called tataki (たたき)or namero (なめろ) in Japan. Check out similar recipe on my past blog here

Simple and flavor packed tuna tataki topped on the cooked rice is so awesome! Some of my friends can’t stand raw fish…why?  It’s so good!…But I totally get their sentiment… just like I have strong dislike of beef tartar… totally!

Ingredients and Instruction for 4 servings (Print Recipe Here)

• 200g of fresh tuna cut in chunk
• 1 inch ginger, new ginger prefer or 1 myoga cut in small pieces
• 1 stalk of green onion minced
• 1 –2 Tablespoons miso paste  If you like heat then use Korean spicy miso paste (1/2 teaspoon) instead.
• 2 3  teaspoons sake  Note: I boiled to remove alcohol and cooled.
• 2-3 teaspoons soy sauce or tamari soy sauce
• pinch of salt (optional)
• Shiso leaves

1. Put Tuna, ginger or myoga, miso paste, sake, soy sauce and salt if using on the cutting board and using *two knives to pound to *finely chopped until the meat starts getting little slimy and well blended. You might want to do a taste test at this point and add more seasoning to suit your taste. It is not necessary but I like to put in container, cover with plastic wrap and chill in a refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour. *Texture wise, micro mincing is not recommended. *Heck, you don’t need two knives but it’s cool that way!I should have used a bigger cutting board…
2. Assembly – Put warm rice in the bowl, topped with tuna tartar and sliced shiso leaves. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi on the side (optional).

For Tuna Rice Sandwich –There are trendy rice balls happening in Japan. Ordinary rice ball is called ‘onigiri’ (おにぎり) but the new style ‘onigirazu’ (おにぎらず) is show off the filling better and is easier to eat.

Equipment: square container – I used 4 inch x 4 inch

• Warm cooked rice
• Shiso leaves
• Tuna tartar (see recipe above)
• Nori(seaweed) sheet 7-1/2 x 8-1/2 inch

1. Put about 1/3 cup rice firmly in a square container, make sure to level off.
2. Lay couple of shiso leaves on top of rice.
3. Spread about 1/4 cup tuna tartar evenly on top of shiso leaves.
4. Lay shiso leaves on top of tuna tartar
   .
5. Put  about 1/3 cup rice firmly on shiso leaves, smooth the top.
6. Lay nori sheet on flat surface and dump the step #5 on top of nori diagonally
   .
7. Fold corner to wrap the  ‘onigiranai’, wet with a little water to secure the corner if necessary. Wrap tightly in plastic and leave for few minutes.
8. Cut in half. Voila! Neat, right? Variation: Make different filling such as tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet).For food safety, keep in a cool place and consume within an hour.

Last week’s Today’s Tapas #todaystapas - Momofuku Pork belly, quick cucumber pickle – My fav…I never get tired of this dish

Mango Lassi recipe from ‘ Thirsty for…’ YouTube video jump over from Linda’s Peaceful Place.blog. Check her feel good blog.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Stamina

Chinese Pork Sauté 

Funny, the flip-flops I wore in tropical climate Hawaii were no longer fashionable here, Cold air forced my toes to curl, we rushed to the parked car. I zipped up my jacket and slouched over against the car window while my husband drove home deep into the night.

I must be creative for the day-after-a-trip meal. I stood in front of the wide open refrigerator for some time and brainstormed what can I make without going to the store. Gross! I removed a liquidized bag of bean sprouts into the trash. I inspect more for spoilage; yup, this is no good…and neither is that. In fact, most of the vegetables are not looking happy. What a waste!

Goody! I found thin slices of pork belly in the freezer! This dish has become our staple since I found it in Today’s Cooking magazine. It consists of a few ingredients and is very quick. Also the pork‘s vitamin B1 will combat fatigue and give you energy…at least that is what it said. Exhausted from trip, we need that.

Sake may be substituted for shokoushu (紹興酒) however this sweet rice fermented cooking wine is the key for flavoring. It’s cheap and you can use it for many other Chinese dishes so you may want to stock in your pantry? We like this pork sauté on warm cooked rice though, over noodle or in buns such as Momofuku’s are excellent choices too.

Ingredients for Pork Sauté for 4 (or 2 hungry) people

• Thinly sliced pork belly meat about 1 pound, cut in two-inch strips
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• Fresh ginger roots 1-2 Tablespoons, minced
• Shokoushu (紹興酒) 3-4 Tablespoons
• Brown sugar 4-5 Tablespoons
• Green onion 4-5 Tablespoons chopped small.
• Soy sauce 3-4 Tablespoons 

1. Separate some fatty part of meat from pork belly.
2. Heat non-stick pan and toss the fatty meat in and sauté until the fat is rendered at medium heat.
   
3. Put 1/3 of garlic and all of ginger in the pan and cook until fragrant. Do not burn the garlic
   .
4. Put rest of meat in and cook until meat is half way cooked. Turn the heat up to high and put in sugar and shoukoushu. Coat the meat with sauce while constantly moving it around.
   
5. Add soy sauce and sauté more.
6. Put rest of garlic and turn off heat. Stir for 30secounds or so .
7. Taste meat and adjust seasoning – we like saucy meat so tend to add more sake and soy sauce. Serve over rice and sprinkle with green onion on top. Optional; Make a well in the center of rice and drop an egg yolk in there. If you prefer thicker sauce, add water diluted cornstarch (1 teaspoon of cornstarch and 3 Tablespoons of water) at the end.
   

 

After a long fright plus one hour drive from the airport, my husband and I still felt very lucky to reunited with our beautiful grand children.We were invited to swim at Turtle Bay Resort’s pool facility. Our son-in-law gave his son a fast ride at pool.Peace!Sharks Cove was other fun place to swim and snorkel. We stopped at Matsumoto for shaved ice afterward.Grand children and their equally gorgeous cousins are very close – play well…occasional fights happen though.Today was not life on the beach day, My husband and I took grand children to movie then hurried to un, deux, trois, we observed granddaughter‘s ballet lesson. Too many popcorn ruined our appetite too. We went to the Zoo zoo,zoo with cousins. Hey look over here girl!Nature is a great artist. Love the gum tree.The Little Prince..like tree…Baobab?

We adults had an amazing meal at Morimoto’s. Here are some from the experience. I wish I was better Iphonographer! Abalone chawan mushi was velvety! Fried pineapple with iberiko topping was in the back.Poke with dashi foam. Oh my!Iron Chef Morimoto was in the kitchen. Mahalo for kindly posing for the photo.This is clearly not good pic but my husband couldn’t ask for an another photo. He was very nice though. This is Molten lava cake.Taste and artistic plating we enjoyed throughout meal!  Lovely beach is short walking distance away.

My husband and I stopped at La Palme D’Or cake shop “our usual travel pattern” before heading to airport.Mont blanc and strawberry shortcake. So so good! or should I say ono?

Back home, Portland made Autumn transformation already. 

Brrrr. Body react for 30 degrees colder.