Japanese curry and fried udon

Bought the Japanese Golden Curry cubes (Hot) and cooked my first Japanese curry with potatoes, onions, carrots and chicken. It turned out so much better and sweeter than when I just add my favourite ingredients like crabsticks and hotdogs...lol.. Ya I know, definitely a lot sweeter. I just followed the recipe on the box and it's rather simple to do.
Anyway, I paired it with fried udon, chinese style --> Vegetarian Oyster Sauce (My FIL can't take oysters), black pepper, egg, broccoli and sausages.

It may seem like a weird mix, but Marky and I enjoyed it!

Cold noodles with creamy sesame dressing

For those who follow my blog will realise that I have so many posts on Japanese noodles...either hot/cold or the different types of noodles.
















This is because Marky and I are fans of these noodles and they are really versatile. I've made a slide show of all the different versions of the Japanese noodles and a summary of the different sauces that I've used before:

Cold Noodles

1. Traditional tsuyu
2. My own concoction:
   3 tsp sesame seed oil
   4 tsp light soya sauce
   1 1/2 tsp honey
   1 tbsp water
   1 small chilli padi
   Sprinkle of black pepper
   Chopped parsley
   Toasted sesame seeds
3. Non-creamy sesame seed sauce from Daiso (NEW!) -->$2
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Creamy sesame seed sauce from NTUC (NEW!) --> $6.90

Fried Noodles

1. Okonomiyaki sauce + mayonnaise + Furikake (see picture) + Bonito Flakes
   

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Cold Sesame Udon Salad
(Serves 4-5 people)



















Ingredients:
1 packet of udon/hiyamugi /buckwheat soba/cha soba

3 Japanese cucumber, shredded
1/2 carrot, shredded
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 floret of broccoli, cut into small pieces and blanched
8 crabsticks, shredded and pan-fried
100g picnic ham/2 large sausages, shredded (Pan-frying is optional)
2 eggs, beaten and fried
Sesame seed oil
Creamy Japanese sesame salad dressing from NTUC (Alternatively, you can also get the non-creamy sesame dressing from Daiso)
Black pepper (Optional)
Japanese Furikake


Method:
1) Bring the water in the pot to a boil and add noodles. Stir occasionally. Cook for 5-8mins until al-dente.

2) Drain the hot water and place noodles under tap water to cool it slightly. Let it sit in ice water for 1-2 mins to totally cool the noodles.

3) Drain water from the noodles and add some sesame seed oil to prevent them from sticking to each other. Leave in the fridge while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

4) Mix shredded carrot and cucumber with the noodles. Add salad dressing, furikake and black pepper according to your taste.






































5) Lastly, arrange the broccoli, tomato, shredded crabsticks, ham and egg on top of the noodles and chill further before serving. (Best to eat it cold)

6) Just before serving, you can add a bit more furikake on top of the ingredients to make it tastier.

Pan-fried Japanese Thin Udon

This was cooked some time ago when I had nothing to eat at my old home...Tastes great with my okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise! Pretty similar to Yakisoba, just that my version was Yaki-udon..lol

Curry Omu Rice

Another of my favourite Japanese dish...Omelette rice with Japanese curry. The mild spiciness & sweetness of the curry is what makes Japanese curry unique. However, I have not found out how to make the egg omelette as soft as what Ma Maison does. But this is sufficient to curb my cravings =)

Curry Omu Rice

































Ingredients:

1. Japanese curry mix with vegetables (Available at supermarkets)
2. Japanese rice
3. 2 Eggs
4. Additional meats/vegetables (I used meatballs & hotdog)

East meets West Pizzas

My craving for pizza made me run out to buy a pizza crust to make my own pizza. Although the crust wasn't anything to rave about, I do enjoy putting my favourite ingredients on the crust.

















With 2 crusts in a packet, I made 2 pizzas of different styles -- Japanese Style & Western Style Black Pepper Chicken pizzas. Both pizzas have the same base ingredients but they have different sauces for coating the crusts.


East meets West Pizzas


















Ingredients:

1. Pizza crusts
2. Chicken thigh meat
3. Black pepper sauce (Singlong brand)
   
4. Capsicum
   
5. Tomato
6. Shiitake mushrooms
7. Crabsticks
8. Tomato Paste for coating the pizza crust (Western style)
9. Okonomiyaki sauce & Mayonnaise for coating the pizza crust (Jap style)
10. Furikake (To sprinkle on the Jap pizza)
11. Mozzarella cheese
    

The process...

Japanese Baked Pasta

I totally love this recipe and it's rather easy to make too... As I do not have any oven safe bowls, I molded my own bowls out of aluminium foil & they worked great too!

Japanese Baked Pasta























Ingredients:

1. Any pasta of your liking (I used the seashell type)
2. Any meat & veg that you like in your pasta. (I used frozen mixed vegetables & my usual hotdog and crabsticks)
3. Minced garlic
   
4. Light & dark soy sauce
5. Black pepper
6. Okonomiyaki sauce (For topping the pasta)
   
7. Furikake (For topping the pasta)
8. Mozzarella cheese (For topping the pasta)

The 1st picture below shows the pasta after being stir-fried & the 2nd picture shows the pasta after adding the three toppings.

Miso Grilled Chicken

As you may have noticed, I'm always cooking chicken as I'm not a very big fan of other types of meats, although I do try to cook something other than chicken once in a blue moon. I'm not a very adventurous person you know...

And since I love Japanese food, here's my miso marinated chicken that's being 'grilled'. Another easy-to-make recipe to suit the busy urban dwellers.

The salty taste of the miso in this dish, combined with the fragrance of the spring onions and sesame seeds, makes this a great dish with piping hot rice.

Miso Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:

2 tbsp miso paste

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp sesame seed oil

1 clove of garlic, minced

A handful of toasted sesame seeds

2 sprigs of chopped spring onions

4 Deboned chicken thighs (Easier to cook)

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients (except the chicken).

2. Pound the chicken with the back of the knife to tenderize the meat.

3. Put the meat in a ziplock bag and pour the marinade in it. Massage the meat. (I meant massage, really!)

4. Place the bag in the fridge to let the meat marinade for at least 1/2hr. Don't leave it for too many hours and it will be too salty.

5. Heat up your grill and grill the meat till golden brown.

6. Serve with rice!

Okonomiyaki

One of my favourite Japanese food is Okonomiyaki, which is something like a Japanese pizza and is mainly made up of cabbage. You can add in whatever you like if you are making it on your own.

The "must have" ingredients for me are crab sticks and egg. Trust me, the egg really makes a difference to the taste!

So, in order to custom make my own okonomiyaki, I bought the okonomiyaki flour from Daiso (Somehow I only found it there), which wasn't the best of choice, but enough to satisfy my cravings. I also bought the okonomiyaki sauce, japanese mayonnaise and bonito flakes from the supermarket to complete the okonomiyaki.

Since I can't read the Japanese instructions at the back of the packet of flour, I had to estimate the amount of flour to use. (Which apparently was too much for a one person's share). Despite that, my first okonomiyaki was still quite successful and good tasting too! The trick is not to have too much flour mixture in your okonomiyaki.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup okonomiyaki flour
1/2 cup water
1 egg (Separate the yolk and white)
1 bowl of cabbage, chopped
2 crabsticks (1 halved and the other shredded)
Okonomiyaki sauce
Japanese mayonnaise
Bonito flakes

Instructions:
1. Take flour and mix with water to get a thick batter consistency.
2. Add egg white and mix well.
3. Next, add the cabbage and shredded crabsticks and mix well.
4. Brush some oil in your pan and make sure that it is hot before adding a huge heap of your cabbage mixture.
5. Using a flat spatula, shape the mixture into a round shape and ensure that the mixture is well distributed.
6. Make a dent at the top of the mixture and add the egg yolk in the middle.
7. Once the bottom of the mixture is nicely browned, turn the okonomiyaki over carefully with 2 spatulas. (The egg yolk will break at the bottom)
8. Brown the other side of the okonomiyaki and you may then serve it with the okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise and bonito flakes.


A step by step illustration of how you can dress up your okonomiyaki =)

Doesn't this just look sooo good?

My Birthday Lunch (for Marky)

Don't ask me why I am cooking on my birthday for Marky when it should be the other way round. Haha...I just missed cooking, so he was in a treat when I made him grilled chicken on the IKEA grill pan (Marky bought it for me on my request =) ) I mentioned to him about the soba salad that I made the other day and he asked me to make that for him too, as he hasn't eaten my soba in a long time. (IN the end, I made udon salad for a change. It turned out great!)

So there I am, busy preparing everything on my birthday...

In my grill...

• 1 Yellow capsicum
• 1/2 Carrot
• 3 deboned chicken thighs (Marinated overnight in teriyaki sauce, chopped garlic and ginger, a sprinkle of sugar and a splash of sesame oil)

*Teriyaki sauce and black pepper are added to vegetables as they are being grilled*

What's in my udon salad...

• 2 bundles of dried udon sticks (duh..)
• Japanese cucumber, julienned
• A small bunch of edamame, remove peas from pods
• Salad dressing (Double the amount from my previous post + additional chopped parsley and toasted sesame seeds)

What can be easier than to just toss everything together!

The resultant plate of food...
















Let us zoom into...

The grilled chicken. Perfect combination of the sweetness of the teriyaki sauce and flavourful ginger & garlic.



Udon salad
Tinge of spiciness, sweetness & saltiness from the sauce to add an extra oomph on the originally tasteless udon & greens. The addition of sesame seeds & chopped parsley makes this version even better than the previous one.


Grilled vegetable
Brushing on teriyaki sauce on the vegetables brings out their natural sweetness. At first I thought that I'll just put the carrots as garnish, but I ended up eating up all my carrots. =)

Finally, I had a positive feedback from my dearest Marky! That makes all efforts worthwhile. (Yuppie!)

Simple Cold Soba salad

Made this for lunch today =) Haven't been cooking for a longggg time.

As usual, there isn't much ingredients at home, so I have to take out the frozen food to add to my plain soba noodles. (Sometimes I really think I'm really a JUNK + ie, always cooking out of leftovers LOL) But I'm rather happy with the resulting taste of the dressing -- A combination of sweetness, saltiness and spiciness. The crispy strippy crabsticks adds a crunch factor to the noodles and the sweetness of the taiwan sausage is just so...Mmm...nice!

Here goes the the recipe:

Simple Cold Soba Salad (Serves 1)
















Ingredients:
1/2 a bunch of soba noodle sticks
Frozen vegetables or any other vegetables (Eg. broccoli or cucumber)
1 Taiwan sausage (Optional), sliced into thin pieces
2 crabsticks (Tear into strips and fry as shown in Strippy Crabsticks)
Olive oil/other healthy cooking oil
Sesame seed oil
Black pepper


Noodle dressing
3 tsp sesame seed oil
4 tsp light soya sauce
1 1/2 tsp honey
1 tbsp water
1 small chilli padi
Sprinkle of black pepper

Method:
1. Bring the water in the pot to a boil and add soba noodles. Cook for 3-4mins. Stir occasionally.
2. Drain the water and place noodles into ice water. Let it sit for 1-2 mins to cool the noodles.
3. Add sesame oil to frying pan and fry veggies. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pan fry taiwan sausage slices until glazed.
5. For the dressing, add all seasonings and condiments into a small bowl and stir briefly. (Press on the chilli padi if you like it hot.)
6. Lastly, pour dressing onto noodles. Add taiwan sausage and strippy crabsticks as garnishing. Serve!

Maki Sushi from leftovers

I have been busy lately, stressing about what I haven't studied and how far I'm lagging behind my friends...This is really affecting me ALOT! But I still think that I should squeeze in a little time for this short post which has been on the hold for some time.

As mentioned in the title, I made my maki sushi out of all the leftovers from the previous night's dinner. It was light, delicious and rather healthy (Brown rice was used instead). Most importantly, I had fun rolling my own sushi (although my Maki Sushi wasn't of the right shape, but I couldn't care less)

I don't have a recipe for this as this is rather easy and you can be creative and try it with your favourite ingredients!

Noodles :Zaru udon as promised

Hey guys, I've just tried the zaru udon for dinner today and it's goooooooood. I had my 2nd attempt at the zaru soba and it turned out perfect too! I think my previous failure was because of the longer cooking time. This time round, I took ard 5-6 minutes to cook the noodles and I constantly stirred the noodles.

Oh ya, I also had 3 additions and they are bonito flakes for the udon and grated white radish + spring onions for the tsuyu. Everything is perfect and ready for my X'mas celebration. So happy... =)

Noodles :Menu for the day (Part 1) ---Lunch

Lunch
I went to Isetan at Shaw on Saturday to buy soba, udon, seaweed and also tsuyu to test out for my family X'mas gathering. Was thinking of having some Japanese dishes on that day.

You can see my virgin attempt of zaru soba below, which I had for lunch today. Wasn't too bad but I felt that the brand of soba that I bought wasn't as springy as I liked. However, the sauce was pretty good. I give a thumbs UP for that.

I shall try the udon soon.