Japanese dish, two days in a row! (I know…) I have been secretly missing Japanese food ever since my last trip. I miss the Umami taste in Japanese cuisine (though I  confessed after a while I did miss simple Aussie sandwiches for a break while I was there! ). I miss the simplicity of Japanese dishes that highlight the fresh ingredient of the meal. I miss the simple but yet so flavourful dishes that goes well with a bowl of Japanese rice and keep me filled throughout the day.

In Japan there are many quick meal shops that sells meal in a bowl of rice, such as tempura on rice, sashimi on rice, and not forgetting Gyudon which is beef on rice. It is a perfect way to fill your stomach up especially for a quick lunch. Normally the main ingredients is a protein or vegetable dish. Quote from Wikipedia, Gyūdon (牛丼) or literally beef bowl, is Japanese dish consisting of a bowl of rice topped with beef and onion simmered in a mildly sweet sauce flavored with dashi (fish and seaweed stock), soy sauce and mirin (sweet rice wine). This sweet and salty beef with sauce on rice is definitely a delight.

Recipe of Japanese Beef Gyudon is simple yet full of flavour.

 Ingredients:

• 300g of beef skirt steak, thinly sliced
• 1/2 white onion, sliced
• 1 spring onion (the green part), diagonally sliced
• Sauce:
  • 2 tablespoon sake
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoon mirin
  • 3 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup soup stock (refer Stock)
• Stock:
  • 1 piece of 4-inch konbu kelp
  • a handful of dried bonito flakes
  • 2 cups cold water
• Sichimi seven-spice chili lix (optional as toppings)
• Red vinegar ginger (optional as toppings)

Steps to prepare Stock:

1. Wipe konbu kelp with a wet cloth to clean. Do not wash konbu kelp otherwise you’ll lose all the flavour.
2. Place the konbu kelp into a bowl and fill it with cold water just enough to soak it in. Leave it for 20 minutes.
3. Transfer the kelp and water into a saucepan/pot and bring it to medium heat.
4. When small bubbles start foaming on the bottom of the saucepan, remove the kelp immediately.
5. When the liquid starts to boil, add the bonito flakes in. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
6. Turn off the heat, and wait for the flakes to sink to the bottom of the saucepan. Strain the stock through a sifter to separate the flakes.

Steps to make Gyudon:

1. Place a pan on a medium heat and add the onions in. Dry fry it till the onions wilted and slightly soften. Remove it from the pan and set aside.
2. Add the prepared stock into the pan, and bring it to boil.
3. When the stock starts to boil, return the onion into the pan, and add the beef slowly using a tearing motion.
4. When the beef starts to cook on the outside, add the sugar and mirin. Simmer for 3 minutes. If foams starts to form, skim it off using a spoon.
5. Add the soy sauce into the pan and simmer over low heat until the liquid is reduced by half.
6. Cook rice as per instructions. When the rice is slightly cooled, place them into a bowl and scoop the beef and onion on top of the rice. Sprinkle some chili mix, place a couple of spring onions and ginger (if you like). Serve hot.

Today I am super excited to write this recipe which turn out to be a huge success! I wished I bought more pork belly to make this to begin with. Ah, the sound of greediness… pardon me.

Recently I have eaten some really tasty braised pork in Japan and was wondering how this was done. So I learned some tricks about cooking the meat and leaving them overnight so that the moisture penetrates and breaks the collagen down. The fun part about this is that it might makes other think that you spend a lot of time on tenderizing the meat, cooking it a long time or use appliance like slow/pressure cooker. So by precooking the meat, storing them overnight, and then when ready to eat, reheat the pork with the braising sauce, you end up with super tender and juicy pork belly.

The Japanese style braised pork or also known as Nagasaki-style red-braised pork is almost similar to Chinese “Dong-Bo Rou” (translated to red-braised meat). If possible, get the pork belly from butcher in a big slab, then cut in into big square chunks as the size of the meat gets smaller when the fat melts away after the cooking process.

Ingredients:

• 600g pork belly cut into large square chunks
• 1 thumb-size knob of ginger, sliced (with skin on)
• 1 spring onion (approx. 10cm from the root onwards), with the green leaves discarded
• Sauce:
  • 1 cup cooking sake/ryori-shu
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 3 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 4 tablespoon mirin
• 1 large bok choy
• Dash of salt

Steps:

1. Heat up a frying pan to high, and lightly oil the surface. When hot, place the pork belly (skin side down first) and brown the till slightly charred. Set aside.
2. Heat up a saucepan or pot big enough for the pork belly to be covered with water.  Place the pork belly, spring onion, ginger and fill it up with water. Leave it over high heat till it starts boiling. Then, turn the heat to medium and let it boil for an hour and a half.
3. Test the pork to see if it is tender enough by pricking it with bamboo skewer. If you are able to stick it through easily, turn the heat off, otherwise continue the boiling process.
4. Leave the meat to cool down and then store the pork (with the water, spring onion and ginger) in the fridge overnight. You may place it into a bowl if you can’t fit your pot/saucepan in the fridge. Make sure the meat is covered with foil/lid.
5. Now, when we are ready to cook the meal, remove the pork from the bowl/pot and rinse the meat under lukewarm water, to get rid of the fat/wax.
6. Place all the ingredients of the Sauce into a saucepan. When the sauce starts to boil, add the pork in. Once it starts to boil again, turn the heat to low and put a lid to the saucepan.
7. Occasionally, flip the pork so that all areas are properly basked in the braising sauce. Continue the simmer process for 30 to 40 minutes till the liquid has cooked out, and turn dark/caramelized.
8. To cook the bok choy, place a saucepan with water and add a pinch of salt. When boil, place the bok choy in for a quick 2 minutes to soften the vegetable. Next, dip the bok choy into cold water to stop the cooking process and also to let it stay crispy. Drain well. Slice the bok choy into 4 quarters.
9. Place the bok choy around a serving plate, and the belly in the middle of plate. Serve this hot with rice.

Yumm… I was inspired to create this creamy spaghetti at home after a recent visit to Siena’s Italian restaurant. I had it the Chicken Penne Carbonara from there and love how easy and tasty it is. Thus I came home, did a bit of research and here it is. The sauce isn’t really that complicated to create because basically it’s single/light cooking cream with cheese, in this case, Parmesan. I wasn’t 100% sure if Siena’s used Parmesan but it tasted identical, according to my hubby. Now I’m really happy to cook this whenever I can and I don’t have to worry if I can’t find Creme Fraiche in the supermarket. I have used Crème Fraîche before to cook cream-based sauce pasta (recipe here) and it tasted different, not that it wasn’t nice. I loved this version of carbonara as you can see strains of cheese in the sauce (when the pasta is hot, just out from the pan!) – almost like a pizza.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1 red capsicum, sliced
• 1/2 cup of Bulla light cream
• 1 chicken breast, cut into cubes
• 3 streaky bacon rashers, cut into strips
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup of shaved parmesan cheese
• 250g or half box of Barilla Spaghetini n.3
• Salt and pepper

Steps:

1. Put a large saucepan of water on to boil.
2. Put a frying pan on the stove and add two spoonful of olive oil. Fry the bacon over a high heat for 5 minutes until golden and crispy. Set aside.
3. Add the remaining olive oil to the pan and toss in chopped garlic,  frying till fragrant.
4. Add in the chicken pieces and brown them all sides.
5. Meanwhile, add the spaghetti pasta to the boiling water, add a pinch of salt and half spoon of cooking oil, let it boil until al dente.
6. Back on the pan, reduce the heat slightly and add the chopped mushrooms and capsicum to the frying pan. Cook for a few minutes, stirring, until just soften.
7. Stir in the cream. Simmer for a few minutes, it will slowly becomes runny. Add in half of the cheese and stir to mix well. Toss in the spring onions and also the crispy bacon strips.
8. Season with salt and pepper to taste and keep over a low heat.
9. When the pasta is al dente, drain well, return to the pan and combine it into the creamy mixture. Turn off the heat.
10. Toss well until the pasta has soaked up the sauce.
11. Serve on plate and place a few shaved parmesan cheese or shave the cheese over the top of the pasta. Serve hot.

This week, I combined two proteins based on the recipe; chicken and pork and man, they were marriage in heaven. The pork gives extra plumps to the meatiness of the chicken, so when the knife cuts through the meat the juice came gushing out like KFC advertisement! Boy, this is almost as good (if not, better!) as store-bought roast chicken except the stuffing isn’t as mushy (no offence, I love Woolsworth/Coles/IGA roast chicken but never the stuffing as they taste disgusting).

Recipe adapted from Food Lovers series Chicken book.

Ingredients

• 150g ground pork
• 50g fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 medium size chicken
• 100g butter
• 1/2 brown onion, finely chopped
• 2 tsp dried or fresh sage leaves
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• Dash of pepper
• Chopped parsley for garnish
• Side vegetables:
  • 600g baby potatoes, halved
  • 3 tablespoon olive oil
  • 450g baby carrots
  • 50g butter, melted

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 180 C degrees.
2. Mix the pork, breadcrumbs, onion, sage and season with dash of salt and pepper. Stuff the mixture into the cavity of the chicken.
3. Smear the chicken with the butter, and rub the remaining salt onto the skin. Place the chicken on a roasting pan.
4. Roast the chicken for about 1 1/4 hour, basting the juice every 20 minutes or so.
5. While the chicken is roasting, put the potato in a large pan of salted water and bring to boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
6. At the last 15 minutes before the chicken is ready, mix place the potatoes and carrots with the melted butter and olive oil. Place them onto the roasting pan.
7. The chicken is cooked through when skewer is inserted into the thickest part of the thigh and the juices run clear. Rest the chicken for 5-10 minutes in a warm place or cover with foil before serving.
8. Serve the chicken and vegetables sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Thai curries are one of my favorites to make for weeknight fuss free dinner. I particularly enjoy green curry but this time around I decided to be a little bit different and try on making Thai Red Curry instead. Thai red curry is less spicy compared to green curry, and it is also used to make thot mun pla; thai fish cake – which is why the cakes are reddish in color. In Thai restaurants, notable red curry dishes would be kaeng phet pet yang; which is roast duck in red curry. Unfortunately I won’t be able to cook this at home so I made simple Thai Red Curry Chicken with Aubergine. The traditional red curry chicken goes with Bamboo shoots but I did not have this so I replaced with Aubergine instead.

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 pieces of chicken thighs, cut into chunks
• 3 generous tablespoon of Thai Red Curry Paste (I used Valcom’s)
• 1 cup of thin coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of fish sauce
• 1/2 cup of pineapples chunks (fresh or canned)
• 1 aubergine, sliced
• 1/2 red capsicum, sliced
• 4 Kaffir lime leaves
• 2 tablespoon of cooking oil

Steps:

1. Heat up a saucepan over medium heat. When hot, add the oil and place the chicken into the pot.
2. Brown the chicken slightly then turn the heat up. Stir in the curry paste and kaffir lime leaves. Mix well.
3. Add the coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce. Let it boil for 3 minutes.
4. Add the pineapple chunks and aubergine slices. Turn the flame down to medium heat. Cover the saucepan with a lid and let the aubergine simmer for 3 to 5 minutes till they are soft.
5. Remove the lid, and check if the aubergine has soften (otherwise, put back the lid and let it sit longer). When it has, add in the red capsicum and stir gently to mix it in.
6. Place the lid back on and turn the heat down to low. Let the curry simmer for 2 minutes before serving.
7. Serve curry while it’s hot with jasmine rice.

Arigataya Ramen is one of the very famous ramen place in Perth, situated right smack bang in the Northbridge where all the famous Asian eateries are. I was looking forward to having a soothing bowl of noodle soup and haven’t been back there for a while now. I recalled I went back there about a year ago. I ordered a plain gyoza dumplings Ramen but added Chicken Karaage as toppings because that price was cheaper than ordering a Karaage Ramen itself.

When the order came, it looks good but when I bit into the noodles, the ramen did not have the bouncy texture anymore so that was a little disappointing. The chicken karaage was mediocre. The soup base was still good and very tasty so I slurped till the last drop.

The ramen place now have a TV that shows patron the entire ramen making process from making the noodles from scratch to broth preparation. It was a well documented short film that gave nice insight of ramen making process which does take many hours and effort. I will probably not go there for a while because there are tastier ramen place in town such as from my favourite Zensaki place at Barrack Street – though I am not sure if their Ramen is made from scratch.

• 3 Tablespoon Olive oil
• 1 Small brown onion, finely choppped
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 medium carrot, diced
• 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 500g beef mince
• 2 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 tomato
• 2 Tablespoon Tomato Paste
• 250g or half box of Barilla Spaghetini n.3
• Dash of Salt & Pepper
• Half cup red wine
• Shaved Parmesan for topping (optional)

Steps:

1. Make a slit on the tomato and submerge it in hot water, leaving it for 5 minutes. Remove it from the water and feel off the skin. Cut open the tomato, discard the core and roughly chop the flesh.
2. Heat the oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, cook onion and garlic and saute till fragrant, then add the carrots and cook until softened.
3. Toss in the mushrooms and cook for 1 to 2 mins or till softened.
4. Add the beef and turn up the heat, stir fry until it is lightly browned and no lumps of meat remain.
5. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and red wine, allowing it to bubble and slightly reduced.
6. Now add the chopped tomato and the tomato paste. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.
7. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti till al-dente in a pot of boiling water. Remove half cup of the pasta water carefully and add to the sauce. Cook the sauce for further 10-15 minutes until slightly thickened. Turn off the heat and add a dash of olive oil.
8. To serve, drain the spaghetti and using a thong, dish it onto a plate. Top the pasta with ladles of Bolognese sauce. If you like, grate some Parmesan cheese on top and serve the pasta hot.