Archive for November, 2008

Maple ginger acorn squash

November 30, 2008 at 7:28 am · Filed under general soup ·Tagged , , , , ,

Maple ginger acorn squash

Maple ginger acorn squash

I prepared this dinner, and thus it was easy. I must give credit where credit is due: I used Chef Girl’s Warm Ginger Squash and Care2.com’s Maple-Roasted Acorn Squash for inspiration.

So, the components of this dish were: microwaved acorn squash halves, a sauce of maple syrup, salt, black pepper, minced ginger (lots!), and butter, and green onions and toasted almonds as toppings.

I also made a quick vegetable soup with canned tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, and white onions. I used herbed vegetable stock and added two bay leaves and a bit of parsley.

All-in-all, a very autumny and tasty meal.

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Eggplant pasta

November 28, 2008 at 6:14 am · Filed under miso soup, pasta & noodles ·Tagged , , , ,

Eggplant pasta

Eggplant pasta

In contrast with Yusuke’s Japanese-style pasta, this dish was distinctly Italian. Not one of our lower calorie meals, Yusuke boiled the pasta in a mixture of olive oil and water (as usual). While the pasta was cooking, he prepared the sauce in a frying pan: succulent eggplant cubes, canned tomatoes, and lots of garlic. After the pasta was nicely al dente, he added it to the sauce in the pan and cooked it all for a bit longer.

We had a light soup on the side: miso with seaweed and bean sprouts.

This dinner coincided with the arrival of our friendly neighbourhood déneigement guide. It provided a wealth of useful information about such intriguing topics as:

  • what will happen to your car if you leave it in the path of snow removal crews
  • the tiered progression of salt trucks, to snow blowers, to plows, to bulldozers, to the massive trucks that slurp up the snow and carry it away
  • how to get a snow dumping permit if you don’t have enough room on your property for your snow (seriously)

On a related note, I’ve concluded that the best way to winterize one’s home is to move to Hawaii. Yup.

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Konnyaku stir fry

November 25, 2008 at 6:42 am · Filed under stir fry, tofu ·Tagged , , ,

Konnyaku stir fry

Konnyaku stir fry

I was introduced to a new, erm, substance in this stir fry. I had read about konnyaku on the Just Hungry blog, and I asked Yusuke if we could try it. Konnyaku is a gelatin-ish food made from the konjac (a.k.a. konnyaku) plant. The package that we bought calls it “yam cake,” but apparently it has no relation to yams or potatoes of any sort. Konnyaku is described as a miracle health food, since it is very filling, has almost no calories, and has tons of fibre. The texture is the main appeal for me, and it’s impossible to describe to someone who hasn’t eaten it. It’s not as chewy as a jelly bean, but it’s much firmer than silken tofu, and it’s not dry and crumbly like firm tofu.

Like tofu, it soaks up and compliments any flavours that are combined with it. In addition to the konnyaku, the stir fry includes potatoes, carrots, and green onions. Yusuke used his standard stir fry ingredients, namely ginger, garlic, and soy sauce (and maybe salt, mirin, sugar?).

Our side dish was yudofu topped with green onions, ginger, soy sauce, and bonito flakes.

Apparently one of the concerns over konjac as a jelly snack is that it can be choking hazard and is actually banned in North America. I also read a caution that swallowing it without chewing it properly has unpleasant consequences for some people.

A note on sources: I read the wikipedia article on konjac as well as the informative konnyaku posts on Just Hungry. Of course the Internets provide many other additions to konnyaku wisdom. For example, I particularly enjoyed this site’s pronouncement: “Konnyaku is one of the most effective items for defending yourself from fatness.” And another: “Konnyaku surely helps your physical and mental health.” Sounds good to me!

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Mushroom pasta

November 22, 2008 at 7:14 am · Filed under miso soup, pasta & noodles ·Tagged , ,

Mushroom pasta

Mushroom pasta

According to Yusuke, the Japanese are often accused of imitating and stealing from other cultures. But on the contrary, he argues, they borrow, adapt, and create things that are new and uniquely Japanese. Enter Japanese-style pasta. There are various “traditional” ways of modifying Italianish dishes with Japanese ingredients, but Yusuke fashioned this particular offering from angel-hair pasta, oyster and button mushrooms, olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic, and the coup de grâce: soy sauce. The oyster mushrooms were exceptionally excellent. Sometimes its hard to find decent ones: our local grocery has been known to stock slimy mushrooms with a greenish tinge. But these were deliciously firm and smooth, and my hobbit-like fondness for mushrooms was satisfied. The soup was miso with spinach and tofu.

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Sweet potato stir fry

November 19, 2008 at 7:15 am · Filed under general soup, stir fry ·Tagged , , , ,

Sweet potato stir fry

Sweet potato stir fry

This stir fry was our nod to Canadian thanksgiving back in October. The stir fry is diced sweet potatoes, bean sprouts, spinach, and egg, with salt and black pepper. Yusuke usually uses a bit of butter for this stir fry instead of oil. This would be an excellent breakfast/brunch dish, too. Yusuke sometimes tops his portion with ketchup, but I prefer unadorned sweet potato.

The soup is simply water, sesame oil, salt, black pepper, wakame, bean sprouts, and Ajinomoto “super seasoning.” Ajinomoto is MSG, a flavour enhancer that has gotten a fair bit of bad press. I’m not concerned about it though, since we eat very little processed food (which often has lots of MSG), and Yusuke only uses a tiny bit when he adds it to soup. At any rate, it was delicious.

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Sautéed veggies and tofu

November 16, 2008 at 6:57 am · Filed under miso soup, stir fry, tofu ·Tagged , , ,

Sauteed veggies

Sauteed veggies

This is a very simple dish; simplicity seems to be one of the most important themes in Japanese cuisine. Yusuke used olive oil and lots of garlic to sautée bright, fresh veggies— namely onion rings, green pepper, zucchini, and carrots— and cubes of silken tofu lightly coated with flour. And that’s all. When served, we pour a mixture of soy sauce and wasabi over everything. I have a tendency to use rather too much wasabi just so that I can get that lovely sinus-clearing, eye-watering kick.

The soup was miso of some variety…

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Curried tofu stir fry

November 13, 2008 at 6:50 am · Filed under miso soup, stir fry, tofu ·Tagged , , , ,

Curried tofu stir fry

Curried tofu stir fry

Wow! Holy red bell pepper! Finally, the bright colour of a vegetable shows up in my picture. This was another of my attempts at playing chef, just to give Yusuke a break from kitchen duty. I used this recipe: a stir fry with firm tofu, red bell pepper, green onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes. The first time I had made the dish, it came out rather tasteless, so this time, I tried to improve the gustatory experience by adding lots of soy sauce, chicken broth, and garlic in addition to the salt, pepper, and curry called for in the recipe. The soup was miso, with the last of our leftover napa (that stuff lasts forever!) and wakame. We’ve been using a different brand of miso lately, and Yusuke found that it tastes quite good to add chicken bouillon to the soup instead of dashi.

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Anpan interlude

November 10, 2008 at 5:41 am · Filed under dessert ·Tagged

Anpan from Yuki's

Anpan from Yuki's

Anpan, a soft, chewy bun filled with sweet bean paste, is one of the most wonderful Japanese foods to which I have been exposed. To quote Yusuke, his mouth full of the tasty pastry: “It’s so sad that Canadians don’t know about anpan.” My picture doesn’t really show it well, but an image search yields more examples. For those interested in etymology, the an refers to anko, which is the red bean paste, and pan is borrowed from the Romance language root for bread (e.g., French pain). I can’t really compare it to anything that’s common in North America; you’ll just have to taste it for yourself. As Yusuke says, “it’s sooooooo good.” Especially when it’s fresh out of the oven from Yuki’s Bakery.

Yuki’s is a fabulous boulangerie/pâtisserie in our neighbourhood owned by a Japanese ex-pat and her husband. They have exquisite European-style truffles, tarts, and cookies—often with a Japanese twist, all types of bread and pastries, and a few deli items like cheeses, sandwiches, and quiche. And most importantly, anpan. They only make it on Saturday mornings, so I often stop in to buy a treat for Yusuke, but I have to get there early before it’s all gone. The owner always knows that I’m there for anpan! Yuki’s also sells their wares at the local Japanese festivals, and at the August matsuri we sampled their green tea cheese cake and of course, anpan.

Anpan is so popular in Japan that there is a very famous (think Bugs Bunny) kids’ cartoon character called Anpanman. Anpanman is a super-hero whose head, naturally, is Anpan. One of his special powers is an an-punch. He has a huge cast of food-themed friends, including Onigiri-man (rice-ball man), Currypan-man (curry bread man), and his dog Cheese. I love the pictures of all the characters on this Japanese site (click on the image of Cheese the dog). Anpanman’s nemesis is Baikinman (Germ Man). Scary!

We took the opportunity to pose with a cardboard Anpanman at the festival in August.

Anpanman and me!

Anpanman and me!

Anpanman and Yusuke

Anpanman and Yusuke

Baikinman

Baikinman

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Broccoli with tofu sauce

November 7, 2008 at 7:07 am · Filed under general soup, salad, tofu ·Tagged , , , ,

Broccoli with tofu sauce

Broccoli with tofu sauce

This was one of my culinary experiments. Which rarely turn out well. Sigh. This was actually supposed to be a quiche-like dish with tofu instead of eggs. I used a blender to mix silken tofu, soy milk, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper. I poured the mixture over boiled broccoli, baby spinach, and green onions, and then I baked it in the oven for 45 minutes.

Alas, it never quite thickened properly, thus becoming tofu sauce rather than tofu pie. I think next time I’ll add cornstarch or something. The “sauce” though, turned out to be rather more tasty than I expected, similar to a cream sauce without being oily.

We had plain rice on the side, along with spicy tomato-peanut butter soup. Which, being very easy, I make from time to time. First, I sauté white onions in the soup pot with lots of minced ginger and some garlic. Then I add the rest of the ingredients: vegetable broth, 1 tbsp of tomato paste, 1 cup of peanut butter, salt, sugar, and most importantly, red pepper flakes and either tobanjan or Thai Sriracha sauce. I like to make it pretty spicy, because the final touch is to add raw bean sprouts when serving the soup. The cold, crunchy sprouts nicely balance the spiciness.

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Okonomiyaki

November 4, 2008 at 7:31 am · Filed under miso soup, pancakes ·Tagged , , ,

Okonomiyaki and soup

Okonomiyaki and soup

garnished

Okonomiyaki: garnished

Ah, the famous Okonomiyaki. Yusuke calls it Japanese fast food, or perhaps more properly, festival food. I first had it at the Montreal matsuri (festival) last year, and Yusuke has made it many times since then.

Basically, okonomiyaki is a pancake or crêpe with lots of stuff mixed into it. There are two main styles of okonomiyaki: Osaka (Kansai region) and Hiroshima. Yusuke makes the former, and his preferred ingredients are cabbage (chopped), shrimp, and green onions.

He uses a sort of assembly-line procedure whereby he separates the vegetables/shrimp for each okonomiyaki in a separate bowl, then breaks an egg on top of each, then adds the batter of flour and water. Then he mixes everything within each bowl before pouring it into the frying pan. (I’m the lucky one who gets to wash all the bowls and clean up the spilled flour…) I must say, this is a very effective way to ensure an equitable distribution of ingredients.

Yusuke found a lovely step-by-step illustration of how to make okonomiyaki. Click “Preparation” at the bottom of the page to get to it.

Okonomiyaki is eaten with okonomi sauce, which is thick and rather sweet-ish. You can even buy it on Amazon! Okonomiyaki is also garnished with dried bonito flakes, powdered nori, and mayonnaise (which I skip).

The soup with this meal was miso with mushrooms and bean sprouts.

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