Posts Tagged napa

Squash salad

October 2, 2012 at 5:33 am · Filed under general veggie dish ·Tagged , , , , ,

Here we have かぼちゃサラダ, or squash salad. Well, it’s not really Japanese kabocha, but rather soft, flavourful acorn squash from our CSA basket.

For efficiency’s sake, Yusuke began by microwaving the squash for about 2 minutes. He then cut it into smaller cubes, which were microwaved for another 4-5 minutes. After that, he “smashed it a bit.”

Meanwhile, he thinly sliced a white onions and chopped some tomatoes, removing the seeds since they were too watery.

He also boiled edamame for about 5 minutes, until soft.

When everything was prepared, he mixed it all together in a large bowl.

Next, he poured in 1 tsp of almond milk, 1 tsp of mayonnaise, and a tiny bit of sea salt and pepper and mixed it all well.

The mixture was served over lettuce. (And Yusuke added more mayonnaise to his portion.) Sweet and creamy!

On the side, we had harusame soup. He first soaked the harusame in warm water to soften it. In a frying pan, he sauteed napa with sesame oil and ginger and then added water and chicken broth, along with salt, pepper, and sesame seeds.

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Harusame soup

March 21, 2011 at 5:41 am · Filed under general soup, pasta & noodles ·Tagged , ,

This soup’s broth is very simple:

  • chicken bouillon/water
  • sea salt
  • sugar (tiny bit)
  • soy sauce (tiny bit)

The main contents are:

  • napa (chinese cabbage)
  • crimini mushrooms
  • harusame noodles

Very tasty.

So what are harusame noodles, one might ask?

The wikipedia article offers the translation “cellophane noodles,” which sounds pretty much unappetizing to me. But other descriptions are better: glass noodles, bean thread noodles, or vermicelli.

According to Wise Geek, they’re Japanese noodles made from potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, or mung bean starch.

The noodles are extremely thin and become translucent when cooked. Since they’re less dense or “doughy” than other types of noodles, they’re delightful in soup!

Harusame (春雨) means spring rain, and you can google for more pics.

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Soy milk nabe

November 19, 2010 at 11:10 pm · Filed under fish, stew ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Warming fall food.

Ingredients for soup

  • 1.5 cups of unsweetened soy milk
  • 2 cups of water
  • Chicken powdered bouillon
  • Salt (a pinch)

Bring all to a simmer (NOT boiling!).

Then add:

  • Chopped napa
  • Sliced leeks
  • Baby carrots
  • Cubes of firm tofu
  • Chunks of tilapia (defrosted, first, in our case)
  • Mushrooms would also be a possibility if you have some on hand

Serve piping hot with a sprinkling of shichimi or pepper for an added kick. Don’t forget the rice on the side!

If you have a nabe pot in which this can be made: I’m jealous!

Some notes about nabe from a previous post (and see also this one):

Nabe (short for nabemono) is central to Japanese culture and cuisine. It is essentially a hot pot dish, cooked on the dining table, in which all different types of meat, seafood, and veggies are boiled in a special broth. Everyone is served out of the communal pot on the table, so it brings a warmth and closeness when shared among family and friends. Chankonabe is special, extra-hearty nabe that is a staple in sumo wrestlers’ training diets…which is what we had in Ginza [two years ago]: a million different types of mushrooms (yay!), along with some kind of meat, napa, onions, eggs, tofu, noodles, and some other stuff that I can’t remember. At the lovely home of a friend, we had nabe chock full of succulent oysters (sooo fabulously juicy and briny), white fish, mushrooms, carrots, napa, and and other veggies. Click to see other people’s nabe pics on Google images and a nice one on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/upon/2314309029/

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Trouty white stew

September 24, 2009 at 7:16 am · Filed under fish, stew ·Tagged , ,

Tasty stew

Tasty stew

Another modification of one of Yusuke’s stock recipes. To make this white stew, Yusuke mixes flour, milk (in this case, half whole milk (ha) and half soy milk), butter, white wine, and salt and pepper.

This time he added pieces of rainbow trout that he had baked beforehand along with napa, carrots, and white onions. With bread on the side, all food groups were covered (except fruit and chocolate, which is easily handled by dessert).

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Sesame stir fry

July 10, 2009 at 6:47 am · Filed under general soup, stir fry ·Tagged , , , ,

Sesame stir fry

Sesame stir fry

Another simple stir fry. Yusuke used sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and chicken bouillon (powder) for this mélange of napa (a type of Chinese cabbage), bok choy, carrots, and shrimp. Since sesame oil is so strong, the dish was very flavourful.

Napa tofu soup

Napa tofu soup

We also had this clear soup with the remainder of the napa, cubes of firm tofu, green onions, and chicken broth.

The picture also shows a glimpse of our new rice: gen-ji-mai brand brown rice. Yusuke found that this was much cheaper than our usual white rice, so he decided to give it a try. The grains are about the same size as white rice, though not quite as sticky when cooked. It is must less “grainy” in texture than I expected. And it’s healthy, too, at least according to the package… To be precise, brown rice has 64% more fibre, 286% more potassium, 582% more magnesium, 161% more vitamin B6, 1021% more vitamin E, and 400% more antioxidants than “ordinary milled white rice.” Impressive. But mostly, I think it tastes good. Recommended.

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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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Napa and shrimp

October 16, 2008 at 6:34 am · Filed under miso soup, stir fry ·Tagged , , ,

Nappa and shrimp

Napa and shrimp

Once again, an unfortunate picture spoils my attempt to demonstrate yumminess. Sigh.

The main dish was grâce à a new recipe that Yusuke found on the Japanese version of the Kikkoman website. There’s an English version of the site, too, but apparently it’s not nearly as good vis-à-vis recipes as well as goofy animation. Personally, I think it would be much easier to compile Japanese recipes that don’t use soy sauce, but that’s beside the point. So the dish consists of napa (a type of leafy Chinese cabbage) boiled in white wine, shrimp, and naturally, soy sauce. And that’s pretty much it. The cabbage had a nice sweetness that was brought out by the wine, and you can’t go wrong with shrimp. The miso soup has tofu and wakame.

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Spicy tofu

October 13, 2008 at 10:36 am · Filed under general soup, tofu ·Tagged , ,

Spicy tofu and soup

Spicy tofu and soup

Spicy tofu—or more properly, mabo dofu (or mapo doufu or mala tofu or 麻婆豆腐 or any combination therein)—is a Szechuanese dish that is extremely popular in Japan. I think Yusuke’s Japanese version isn’t as extreme vis-à-vis spiciness, but it rates favourably on my spicy meter. I could eat mabo dofu and rice every day.

Our soup for this meal was chicken broth with bean sprouts, green onions, and napa. The picture above makes the mabo dofu look strangely orange, but it usually looks more like the picture below, the blurriness of which is due to its being taken on a cell phone.

I happened to have Yusuke’s mabo dofu recipe already typed up, so here it is. Note that the authentic version of the dish is supposed to have ground pork or beef, but Yusuke is very sweet and leaves out the meat for me.

Yusuke’s mabo dofu recipe

Ingredients (measurements are approximate):

  • 1/4 tsp minced ginger
  • 1/4 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp chili bean sauce (a.k.a. tobanjan)
  • Chicken broth: 1 tbsp chicken bouillon (powder) and 1 cup of water
  • 1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
  • 2 tbsp thickening powder/potato starch**
  • Green onions, thinly sliced or chopped
  • 1 package of tofu (Yusuke uses silken tofu rather than firm), cut into cubes
  • ground pork (optional)

Heat the oil in a frying pan and sauté the ginger and garlic

Add the green onion, chili sauce, and pork (if desired). Let it cook for a few minutes (if using pork, make sure the meat is cooked through!)

Add the broth, sugar, soy sauce and oyster sauce and stir

Add the tofu and let simmer for about 5 minutes

Reduce the heat

In a separate bowl, mix the starch with 2 tbsp water. Gradually drizzle the starch into the tofu and sauce. Add only one spoonful at a time while stirring constantly. This will thicken the sauce avoiding clumps.

**For this and other stir fries, Yusuke uses a starch powder that we can buy at a Japanese or Korean grocery store. He’s not sure how to translate the name, but it is a fine white powder made from potatoes. He bought some standard North American potato starch, but it did not work as well, so apparently there is something different about the Japanese brands.

Blurry mabo dofu

Blurry mabo dofu

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