Hainanese Chicken Rice / Eggplant Steak / Work Hard Bento

Heh heh ... this was yesterday night's dinner. I seem to be getting better at making the chicken tender and moist and just as delicious as the kind from back home! The rice was so fragrant and tender, so uh ... I kind of dug in before remembering to snap a photo. The untouched one is Sean's.

Complete with 2 sauces! XD Excelsior

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Last night's dinner was somewhat vegetarian. Simply because I was going to make dijon pork chops, but the pork tenderloins were not defrosted in time so I improvised ... eggplant chops with dijon mustard, it turned out really really delicious, so much so that Stewie finished his entire slab of eggplant, his rice and edamame.

Sean did not care for it too much, though.
I used the leftover rice (there is always a ton in each side serving package **sigh) heated up more edamame, threw in some hotdogs, and made this nice bento for Sean to take to work tomorrow.

Colorful! Now some kind people please send me cheap Bento boxes so this can be even more fun >_> LOL

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It is all about food today huh, hmm ... I have been suffering from PMS so been fatigued more than usual and sleeping more. I did, however, manage to miss Stewie's dental appointment and will have to reschedule. We have booked and paid for the hotel in Myrtle Beach for the second week of August (when Kirsty comes!!!) and I just planned our itineraries. With the help of Priceline, I was able to find a hotel room for only $60 a night!!! We are going to try to share the room, and that will make it cost around $35 per person for both nights total. That is an unbelievably good deal.
Hmm ... pretty ... my first self-manicured French nails.

It was a reward to myself after deleting Colleen from my life. Wow, I sure do go through friends like water. Maybe it is because I hate Augusta so much ... that I kind of reflect that hatred subconsciously, and everything to do with Augusta I detest, and people sense it in me. The other day I called U-Haul to rent a truck for this weekend so I can finally toss our couch out, and the girl on the other end had such an uneducated drawl/accent that I absolutely had to hang up, and then beg Sean for help. He somehow can understand the slang and hear through it (that is because he is awesome, and is great at his job tee hee) but almost always, I find myself crying for help when it comes to trying to talk to these people. It is not quite the Southern slang, because I understand Paula Deen perfectly well >_> it is that weird uneducated accent that people pick up that sounds like they are too lazy to even enunciate, I feel like taking a bat to their face screaming "SPEAK UP?! I CAN'T UNDERSTAND A WORD YOU'RE SAYING!!!" /end rant.

Happy Bento

The sausage kind of warped a little bit while cooking, sadly. I should have thought of cooking first, then cutting. It is so cute though! There are little tulip nori sprinkled on the rice. The border is flaked salmon with teriyaki seasoning and sesame seeds. Some steamed veges left over from making the cheese cups (upper right) The cheese cups are just steamed broccoli, cauliflower and baby carrots, tossed in margarine and I sprinkled cheese shavings on them and nuked. The left one is the fruit cup, with mango, clementines and grapes. Too much yellow and not enough red though!

I will keep trying!

Mayorer

You know in the past there was a craze in Japan where people put mayonnaise on everything? Maki wrote about it on her blog, and I thought, hmm ... I think I will fit in very well, since I put mayo on a lot of things as well. My favorite of course is Kewpie, but it gets expensive, so I enjoy the Fat Free Kraft mayo as well. There is a slight texture difference in the fat free kind. It feels lighter, fluffier and less creamy on the tongue, and slightly more sour (?) but overall nothing different. Plus it's healthier! Ha ... well not really.

So far I've seen people look at me oddly when I eat:

French fries with mayo
Corndogs/Hot dogs with mayo
Spaghetti with mayo
Rice with mayo (but to be fair california temaki is rice, ebikko, vege, and mayo)
and of course, not to sound trailer-parkish ... but mayo sandwich!

Am I a "mayorer"? I think so!

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I'm currently hunting for a Zojirushi rice cooker, so anyone out there who has experience with these rice cookers, please enlighten me on the ones with the best value. My rice cooker has not been working right ever since Stewie climbed the dining table and flung it to the floor. -_-; And yes, I have my rice cooker right on my dining table for easy access. ke ... ke.

Konnyaku & Bento

My son, making a funny face at the bright flash of the camera, or posing ... drinking warm milk out of a tea cup. He loves it because the cup is just his size!


I finally, finally bought molds to use with the konnyaku jelly mix my mother gave me from Malaysia. This stuff ... hardens WAY too fast!!! I painted over some with food coloring. Aren't they just so darned cute?


A closeup of the kitty face! The mold is all about cats and cat related things. There was a dog one too but I thought these were cuter. Nya~


Using the fish mold my mum gave me as well. There was way too much mix in the package!

This was tonight's dinner bento. I know, I know it doesn't look like much either but it took me a whole freakin day! We went to the park at around 11am after he finished his breakfast, then I went shopping for new bento toys (about 60 bucks worth of scissors, stampers and molds) then came home and worked on the wonton goldfish, gave Stewie lunch, worked on the spinach. By that time it was 3pm, and hubby came home, while Stewie was napping. Made the rice, packed everything nicely ... then went to start my surveys. By that time it was 6pm and Stewie woke up from nap, and so I went upstairs to play with him a little bit. But I ended up passing out instead! And now awake at 11pm. >_<>

Close up of the domokuns ... haha, yeah I know the cheese isn't uniform, but I was trying to work fast.

There's spinach on the upper left. My gripe is there wasn't enough veggies, but hubby doesn't like em, and there's only so much that Stewie will eat that is raw vegetables. He hates cherry tomatoes, and has spit out all the non-pureed veges I've fed him. The crowning glory though, is that my husband did in fact polish off his ENTIRE bento box. :)

Second Launch

Now to make this place as interesting as the Xanga.

So the past week, I got bonked on the noggin again with things I meant to do but never pulled through with *cough damn resolutions cough* Such as? (where is the damn strikethrough key?)

• Getting haircut and donating it to Locks of Love
• Switching to Blogger from Xanga
• Learn how to make OBento Thanks Pikko!
• Update my whole wardrobe
• Wear more accent jewelry I make my own too.
• LOSE WEIGHT! (funny how this is a caps lock enabled priority huh?)
• Beat every song in Guitar Hero 2 with 5 Stars (my left hand is now temporarily a claw)
• Stop playing Neopets >_> (ya not possible)
• Find a job
• Drive with a valid license *whistles innocently*
• Like myself more
• Obssess(sp) less about the future

I ADMIT I SUCK AT HOUSEWORK! Yes, today I just sat down on the bed, looked at the place and totally admitted it, while muttering under my breath, picking up all the mess that Stewie made while I was still fuzzy with sleep and didn't want to get up.

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So, I sped off to the Japanese store and bought a bunch of goodies to replenish my supply. I had to make Onigiri as they are one of my favorite things to make and eat. Is this not festive for Independance Day?

I should color some to make red and blue. Tee hee this is so much fun! They had umeboshi filling because I was rushing due to somebody.

Also, I thought this was cool as hell, the leftover seaweed looks so military.

This is my monkey enjoying his onigiri. He was starving when I was trying to get the food together. He gorged himself on two onigiri and some turkey breast slices and cheese as well as a cup of pureed spinach. He's not putting on any weight though ...

This is my first attempt at making a nice Bento for Sean. I know it looks so kiddy-like, but I really need to get more cutters! Tomorrow's Mission! It is pork balls on a bed of baby spinach, with baby carrot, turkey breast, cheese, shio goma furikake on rice.

My lunch tomorrow:

... because nattou is the best thing for my body right now.

Stewie's bento consists of an onigiri similar to mine, a bed of spinach, and this:

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O_o why does Blogger always put spaces under sentences where I didn't see them before? Grr.

Teriyaki Pork Steak

Marinade:
2 tsp sesame seeds
3 tbsp mirin (cooking sake)
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp dried chili flakes

About 3-4 pork tenderloin fillets, bone-in is optional. The thinner, the less cooking time required and the thicker, the lower stove temperature is needed so you don't overcook it.

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Marinate pork for at least an hour prior to cooking.

Heat up a flat frying pan with about 1 tbsp of butter. Place pork steaks into butter and pan sear on medium to high (depending on thickness) until cooked. Please don't eat it medium rare, you want them to be fully cooked!

Next, remove pork from pan, and pour the rest of the liquid marinade into the pan, cook on high heat until everything bubbles. When it seems to thicken into a gravy, remove from fire.

Serve pork on hot white rice with a side of veggies, and place gravy on the side as a dip, or dribble over pork steaks and rice. It's delicious!

Japanese Curry

This is what Japanese Curry roux looks like. Stock up on it because you can make this:

I used pieces of cut up beef chuck, cubed potatoes and carrot. So good with warm white rice. Just follow the instructions basically.

Steak and Sushi

The other day I tried my hand at cooking prime rib. It came out uber tasty, except slightly more done than I was expecting. I like my meat medium rare to rare. This came out medium well. The au jus was delicious with Merlot, but a little too salty. We also had olive oil roasted asparagus and roast garlic (that I spread on toast!) My parents would have enjoyed this meal at home.

The next day we had fried rice for dinner. I think I basically just threw in whatever I had, hot dogs, spam but this time I put a Japanese flair to it by adding umeboshi (pickled plum) to enhance the flavor. It tasted better than I thought it would have.

Next up is what I made for dinner today ... again. So purdy! California maki with crab stick. avocado and tobikko (capelin roe), and the other is kampyo (marinated root) crab stick and sakura denbu (which gives it the gorgeous pink color!) Everyone needs to eat more neon colored foods!

Sushi Nigiri

The fish was not half bad, although I was quite angry at the cut. I guess getting sushi grade fish from the store was too much to hope for! I marinated them in vinegar and shoyu and they tasted just great! We had tuna and salmon, and after divvying up the pieces, I was actually full. The rice was really perfectly sticky and made really nice nigiri. They did not break apart or anything when picked up and dipped in soy sauce. I forgot about the tobikko though. Oh and this is the photo of the maki sushi from the potluck:

From left: Kappamaki (cucumber), futomaki two kinds - one with kani (imitation crab), kampyo and tamagoyaki (sweet egg roll) one with cucumber, sweet egg, kampyo and kamoi sakura denbu - and oshinko maki (pickled radish)

Cocktail and Pork Katsudon

On The Menu

Appetizer ~*~*~ Seafood Mango Cocktail (Serves 5)

1/2 lbs of cooked, cleaned and de-tailed shrimp (cocktail shrimp may be substituted but I like the juicier tender large shrimp)
1 pack (about 1 lbs) of frozen or fresh cleaned squid or calamari
1 medium sized mango cut into cubes (use half for the salad, half for dressing)
3 pieces of fine chopped garlic
1 lemon or substitute lemon juice
S&P

For the dressing:
1 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp dijon or honey mustard
1/2 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
Half the mango, mashed

Slice calamari body into 1/2 inch pieces so they form rings when cooked. Heat pan on medium heat with 2 teaspoons vegetable oil or butter, add chopped garlic. Then when aroma is released, toss in your calamari pieces, stir fry until slightly cooked about 5 minutes, then toss the shrimp in as well. Fry for another 2 minutes while seasoning with some salt and a little pepper.

Remove from heat and ladle the contents into a dish while draining off excess liquid. Squeeze entire lemon over the seafood, place in the chopped mango and mix well. Place into refridgerator while you make the dressing. Serve very chilled.

Blend all the ingredients together, chill and layer dressing and seafood before serving. Top with eiter mint leaves, a sprinkle of tumeric or a wedge of lemon. Enjoy.

I first ran into this dish at the restaurant called Out Of Africa in PJ about 8 years ago. I have since then tried to reinvent the cocktail using my own measurements, ingredients, from taste and from memory! This is probably the best tasting result I have had and Sean loves it! We need cocktail glasses pronto.

Main Course ~*~*~ Pork Katsudon with Miso Soup

1/2 inch pork cutlets dipped in tempura batter and rolled in panko breadcrumbs, deep fried until tender. Serve with rice and instant miso soup. It is THAT simple. Heh.

If you try these let me know what you think! I know a few of you have emailed me for some recipes for food. Well, I will keep it up :) The dishes are 100% cooked from scratch in my own kitchen and I enjoy reinventing or reintroducing oldtime dishes with newer twists. "How can I make it better?" is a common thought in my mind when I cook, and I do it mostly by taste and smell.

Macha-Mint Frappucino

1 peppermint tea bag
1 green tea bag
Vanilla ice cream
Sugar or honey (optional)
Milk
Ice
Blender that can crush ice

Infuse both tea bags with 8oz water. Add ice cream depending on how creamy you want it to be. Add 5 oz milk and several ice cubes. Add honey or sugar to taste. Blend until smooth. Top with a sprig of fresh mint leaves, serve and enjoy. To reduce the overpowering mint taste, infuse bags separately and mix mint tea to green tea by a 1:3 ratio. Lowering the mint taste will bring out the green tea, and make your frappucino taste like macha ice cream ... yum!

Kushi Dango

KUSHI DANGO (Recipe courtesy of About.com)

1 cup rice flour
3/4 cup warm water

For Sauce:
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsps soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp potatostarch/cornstarch
1 1/2tbsp water

*Bamboo skewers

PREPARATION:

Put rice flour in a bowl and add warm water. Knead the dough well. Make small round dumplings. Place the dumplings in a steamer and steam them on high heat for 10 min. Cool the dumplings and skewer them in bamboo sticks. (3-4 dumplings each stick.)

Mix water, sugar, and soysauce in a pan and put it on medium heat. Mix the water and potatostarch in a cup and set aside. When the sauce boils, add the starch mixture and mix quickly. Slightly grill the skewered dumplings and brush the sauce over them.

Zosui - Porridge / Congee

ZOHSUI / OJIYA (aka congee, aka porridge but with a Japanese twist)

1 CUP RICE
6 CUPS WATER
2 TBSP DASHI STOCK
MISO PASTE (optional I substitute with instant miso soup packet)
KATSUO (bonito flake for the main stock and for topping)
1 SHEET WAKAME (I substitute with nori - toasted seaweed)
PEPPER

OPTIONAL
CRAB MEAT / IMITATION CRAB MEAT / FISH CAKE (anything)
CHOPPED SPRING ONION (negi)
CUBE TOFU
EGG

Put the rice and water into a stockpot to boil, when the rice is cooked and softer than normal, add all the ingredients and stir. Cook on low heat until the water is absorbed, some people prefer it more soupy, that is ok too. If you have extra optional ingredients, toss them in now, make sure the egg is fully cooked by mixing and stirring it into the zohsui. Top with chives, spring onion seaweed pieces, katsuo, toasted sesame seeds anything you wish.

According to Maki's article about this particular dish, zohsui is a temple food. However, there are others who believe that zohsui also is most beneficial eaten when you are ill. For sick people and I believe this because right now I am feeling under the weather, it is an easy dish to make and toss everything in, it is also fast to prepare and cook!

All the ingredients that you really need are just what you think will be healthy for you. I chose egg for protein and strength, tofu pieces, seaweed because I need more iron. It looks a little gross on the picture, and it smelled weird to me, but when I tasted it ... WOW ... it is one of the more delicious things I have ever eaten. And perfect for me because it is so soft and easy to eat, especially when I am having a sore throat. This is definitely a dish I am making for my children when they are ill.

As for the Chinese side of it, my grandma used to make it for me all the time when I got sick. Rice, water and chicken wings, or sometimes omit the chicken completely. I would eat it with salt, salted egg, or Bovril. Then I recall once that there was too much "soupiness" in the porridge, so I started scooping out the water and tossing it at which my grandma reprimanded me and told me a story which I vaguely remember, it went something like this:

Two sisters who were quite poor, one was quite picky about her food and always got the best choice of everything. When the villagers made them some porridge, the picky one decided she only wanted the rice part of the porridge and so left all the water part only for her other sister. Then when the other sister got home, she was dismayed, but ate the water part anyway. This kept going on everytime there was porridge for dinner, and the other sister would only eat the water part until one day the picky sister asked her why she looked still so hale and hearty. The other sister replied that the rice water retained all the goodness and the best parts of the porridge and it kept her alive as much as the rice part.

Ha ha, yes old wives tale that my grandma probably made up to make me not waste the food. It worked though, and I have always liked both sticky or soupy porridge. I miss her very, very, very much. In my life, I have never ever doubted her, and I know she has never lied to me at all. Which is why it is such a hard pill to take that she has gone on. She was my island of sanity and the only person I could ever have talked to and confided in. Most of my memories have always consisted of her being in them, that is probably why I have such a hard time letting go.

*sigh* I will tell my son about her. She would have loved him immensely.

Teriyaki Chicken

TERIYAKI CHICKEN

4 CHICKEN THIGHS (deboned will make it easier to cut up in pieces, but I used the bones to make the chicken soup)
2 tbsp. MIRIN (Japanese cooking wine)
2 tbsp. SUGAR
2 tbsp. DARK SOY SAUCE (optional)
1 tbsp. COOKING SOY SAUCE

Panfry the chicken, or chicken cutlets until there is no red parts left. Add the mirin, sugar and soy sauces. Cover the chicken in the mixture, then set the chicken aside. Keep cooking the mixture until it thickens, this sauce is great over rice and for dipping the chicken pieces. Serve hot.

This was what my set up looked like. Woo yummy chicken soup. Just put some water with the bones in a small pot, boil, add salt, threw in some chives. You can also serve Miso Soup instead of chicken soup I guess, but being Chinese, I do not like wasting the chicken bones. Ha ha

Temaki - California Handroll

BASIC TEMAKI SUSHI

2 CUP SUSHI RICE (I used Nishiki brand)
1/2 CUP SUSHI VINEGAR (or use a vinegar + sugar mix)
1 PACKET TOASTED NORI SEAWEED (make sure it comes in large sheets)

1 CUCUMBER / KYURI (Japanese cucumber)
1 PACK IMITATION CRAB MEAT (You can use stick form or loose pieces form but stick is prettier)
MAYONNAISE (I could not find Kewpie so I used normal Kraft)

Additional Ingredients (optional)
WASABI (Japanese horseradish, comes in tube form for convenience)
EBIKKO / TOBIKKO (seasoned shrimp or fish roe)
LETTUCE / AVOCADO (oh yum)
GRILLED / FRIED SALMON SKIN
HOT DOGS (I have never tried this but it seems tasty to slice them up and include it in the temaki)

1) Cook rice in rice cooker according to the instructions on the bag.
2) Fluff the rice and mix in the vinegar (I used less than 1/2 cup vinegar because I don't like it overpowering the rice "scent")
3) Let rice cool a little bit before handling.
4) Cut the nori seaweed with scissors if it is too large, otherwise, proceed to place an adequate amount of rice on the seaweed, put your dollop of mayonnaise or wasabi.
5) Add your fillings.
6) Roll it up and enjoy~! Make sure you serve it right away as the nori will tend to get soft and harder to bite. Temaki sushi is eaten from the end of the cone upwards, but you can do it the other way too! Ha ha

** Notice I did not recommend raw fish, this is so that anyone can make this recipe without possibly contracting listeria or other dangerous bacteria that can manifest in raw food. Personally, I think raw fish should only be handled by professionals. Not everyone can stomach raw fish and I am not supposed to eat it while pregnant anyway~!

Onigiri

ONIGIRI (aka Riceballs)

I do not have any umeboshi, or takuwan, so I used furikake. Still yum though. I think I made both types, round (traditional) and the triangle. Some day I will figure out why there are two shapes after doing some research but for now, eat time.

Itadakimasu~!

Udon Basic

Step 1
Cook Udon to the right consistency, graded for translucency, spring and chewiness in noodle. Flavor of udon is also important, not too flour-like! In this case, I used the udon that Jocey sent me. Good stuff.

Step 2
You want to make sure you have a good stock for the soup. I used wafu-dashi dried bonito stock for the base, and I think I added too much sugar. Corrected by balancing out with soy sauce and salt. Aji-mirin was also added and it was all by taste.

Step 3
EATAGE!!! It came out perfect, I sprinkled some seasoned furikake on the top for added flavor. Very tasty.