Dinner on 20/07/10

Menu: Goya champuru, kabocha, okara, miso soup with mozuku, takuan(Japanese pickles) and rice with grains

Here's the photo of the dinner which my mum made on our first day back in Okinawa last summer.

Doesn't all the food look delicious?

I just found out the English name for mozuku. Apparently, it's called Cladosiphon okamuranus!

Cladosiphon okamuranus (水雲; 藻付; 海蘊; 海雲 (mozuku^?)) is a type of edible seaweed in the genusCladosiphon, naturally found in Okinawa, Japan. Most of the mozuku now is farmed by locals, and sold to processing factories. The main use of mozuku is as food, and as source of one type of sulfated polysaccharidecalled Fucoidan to be used in cancer treatment aid health supplements.

(Fromwikipedia)

Looking at this photo makes me hungry and makes me miss Okinawa...

Dinner on 13/06/10

Menu: Soki jiru, spinach ohitashi, and rice

That's the soup I didn't take to my friend's on the previous day. It still tastes lovely though. In the soup, I used spareribs, daikon (Japanese radish) and kelp. I made spinach ohitashi to go with it. I wanted something simple like this. I simply boiled some spinach for a couple of minutes, and squeezed out the water. Cut in 3 to 4cm length, and then soaked it in diluted hontsuyu. Hontsuyu is very useful and is commonly used in Japan.



Japanese Hontsuyu Soup Base for Noodle

Dinner on 12/06/10

Menu: Goya (bittermelon) champuru, somin (white noodle) champuru, jushi (rice with pork, shiitake, carrots), ninjin shirishiri (grated carrots and eggs), soki jiru (soup with spareribs, Japanese radish and kelp), chicken with marmalade and soy sauce

I treated my local friends to some Okinawan food at one of my friends'. Apart from the chicken dish, they are all typical Okinawan dishes. I don't know why we use the term "champuru" for the noodle dish (we use vegetables, tofu and meat in champuru dishes), but I believe there's an another name for it - somin tashiya (ソーミンタシヤー.) In traditional somin tashiya, white thin noodles, spring onions and salt are used. I would use sliced onions, tuna, and spring onions for the dish. My mum would use grated carrots as well. All the dishes are easy to make, but I will write about them another time.




This is the close-up version of the soup and rice dish. Actually, the soup wasn't a proper one. I used normal pork instead of spareribs. What happened was, I did make the proper soki jiru at home, but I wasn't confident enough to take it around. When I went to a supermarket on the way to my friend's, I couldn't find any spareribs. The soup still tasted nice though.

I was quite happy that my friends enjoyed the Okinawan food. :)





*My writing isn't good here, is it. Sorry, I'm getting tired. Time to go to bed now.

Dinner on 11/06/10

Menu: Spinach champuru, miso soup, rice, umeboshi puree

I wanted to have a simple dinner and made champuru with spinach. In champuru dishes, we use tofu, vegetables and some sort of meat (or tuna.) I've never used spinach in a champuru dish, but I thought "why not?" We had lots of spinach which I bought from the street market (three bunches for ￡1!!) I put in dashi stock, soy sauce and black pepper to taste.

Dinner on 07/06/10

Menu: Beef fried rice with lettuce

We had leftover roast beef which my husband had cooked, and I decided to make fried rice in order to use it all up. I was a bit lazy and didn't bother cutting onions. I only used spring onions (normally I use both of them.) Anyway, I made scrambled egg and put it aside. Then fried spring onions, green pepper, beef, leftover rice, the scrambled egg, and lettuce. Does it sound strange to you? I love putting lettuce in fried rice! I only used soy sauce and black pepper to taste.

Dinner on 01/06/10

Menu: Garlic prawns in tomato sauce with pasta

This is one of my favourite dishes. Not sure if I have put it up on this blog, so I will briefly explain how to make this dish.

Firstly, you make tomato sauce and put it aside. Then you fry garlic in a frying pan, add prawns and fry for a minute or so. Put in the tomato sauce, sprinkle some black pepper to taste. Pour the sauce over cooked pasta. You could mix the sauce with the pasta instead. I think that's how Italian would do.

Dinner on 29/05/10

Menu: Fish and chips

We spent our time cleaning around the house in the afternoon, and my husband treated us to fish and chips for dinner :) As you might not know, if you don't live here in the UK, we put malt vinegar on fish and chips. I found it unusual to start with, but now, I'm used to having it - actually, I love the combination!

Dinner on 27/05/10

Menu: Gyoza (pork dumplings), salad, miso soup, rice

I made gyoza today! Shame about the quality of this photo, but we all enjoyed our dinner. My daughter had 5 dumplings! Home-made pork dumplings taste so much nicer than the ones you get at restaurants here in England in my opinion. It's so easy to make as well.

Dinner on 24/05/10

Menu: Prawns with sweet chili sauce, rice

I made this dish again! I love this.

Lunch on 24/05/10

Menu: Goya champuru, hiya somen

It was a hot day, so I cooked goya champuru again!! I used up tofu, so I didn't use it. I had leftover somen with it. I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch!

Dinner on 23/05/10

Menu: Hiya somen (cold noodle with dipping sauce), moyashi salad with Chinese-style dressing, hiyayakko (cold tofu with soy sauce)



It was really hot throughout the day, and spent our afternoon in our local parks. When we came back, I wanted something light. So, I made summery dishes. Hiya somen is a perfect dish for summer. You dip somen (white thin noodle) in dipping sauce which is in a red bowl. You add grated ginger/wasabi, spring onions and nori as toppings. The tofu dish is easy to make. You just cut tofu, and put grated ginger, spring onions and a dash of soy sauce on top! We normally use katsuobushi (dried bonito) as well, but I don't buy it here because of the price. For salad, I used leftover moyashi from two days back, thinly sliced celery, carrots, ham, and I made a quick dressing using Ajipon dressing and a dot of sesame oil. I sprinkled sesame seeds as well.

Lunch on 23/05/10

Menu: Chicken rogan josh, basmati rice, salad, vegetable sticks & cheese dip, shloer

What a beautiful day we had that day! We had lunch in our garden. It was an easy lunch as the curry was leftover dinner from the day before. Not sure if that's just our thing, but Friday or Saturday is the curry night for us. I love Indian curries!

Dinner on 21/05/10

Menu: Sweet & sour pork, stir-fry moyashi, rice, soup

I was going to cook pork in a different way, but I changed my mind and made sweet & sour pork instead. This is one of my husband's favourites, by the way :) I experimented a bit, and used malt vinegar instead of rice vinegar. The outcome was......I think I would stick to rice vinegar. My husband didn't complain though. I just wanted to see if malt vinegar would be a good substitute. Oh well - never mind. I made the soup using pork bones, ginger, spring onions, dashi stock and a dash of soy sauce. I put in a dot of sesame oil to taste as well. It was alright.


This is the close-up version of the sweet & sour dish. I used too much carrot - oops. If my mum sees this, she would definitely make a comment on the carrot.

Lunch on 21/05/10

Menu: Goya champuru, rice

I meant to update my blog sooner, but it's not easy to find enough time to sit down and do so when an active 4-year-old is around.

Anyway, I made goya champuru for the first time this year. It was a hot day, and I picked up a couple of goya while in town the previous day. I used to eat goya champuru all the time while living in Okinawa. We have long hot summers over there, so it's a perfect dish for it. Goya (bitter melon) is a summer vegetable, by the way. It tastes bitter, so it's not so popular amongst kids. I've always loved it though. I still make goya champuru here in England, especially when we have hot days.

I wrote about goya a while ago, click here to see what I have written, if you are interested.

I'm off to pick up my daughter from school now.

Dinner on 17/05/10

Menu: Gyoza filling & vegetables on rice, miso soup

I was looking through the freezer and found a bag of leftover pork dumpling filling which I made a few months back. It already had some flavour, so I only added a dash of soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil to taste. For vegetable stir-fry, I used onions, carrots, cabbage and aubergine. It was very simple, but really nice.

Dinner on 13/05/10

Menu: Thai-style stir fry on rice

While looking through the freezer, a pack of prawns caught my eyes. I love prawns, and fancied some that evening. Originally, I was thinking of making prawn fried rice along with vegetable stir-fry, but I changed my mind when I saw a bottle of sweet chili sauce in the fridge.

"Might be interesting to use sweet chili sauce in a stir-fry," I though.

I'm not that familiar with Thai dishes, to be honest. I know the basic ones like Thai curry, Pat Thai (my favourite Thai dish!), tom yum soup, but that's about it, I think. I'd had sweet chili sauce for dipping, but not for stir-fry dishes, and thought it would be interesting to experiment.

I fried garlic in a frying pan, added prawns, and then put in celery, lettuce, peas, and the sauce. Mixed all in together and Bob's your uncle! It was really easy, but extremely tasty. I sprinkled spring onions on top (not on my bowl though. I'm not too keen on fresh onions.) You could use coriander instead of spring onions (I'm not too keen on coriander either.)

Dinner on 10/05/10

Menu: Penne pasta with Bolognaise sauce

I bought aubergine and courgettes in our last shopping thinking I would be making ratatouille soon, but it didn't happen. We had a pack of mince beef in the freezer, which had to get used to make some space. I used a fair amount of vegetables, so it doesn't look like a proper bolognaise sauce - oh well, never mind. It tasted nice though.

Dinner on 9/05/10

Menu: Bread with balsamic vinegar & olive oil and Hazelnut vinaigrette, garlic bread, salad, pasta pesto

We were invited to my brother-in-law's for dinner. As a starter, we had really nice bread dipped in vinaigrette. I like dipping bread in olive oil, but never had hazelnut vinaigrette before. It was amazingly delicious!! I'm sure he said that he bought it from an oil shop in (or near) Bluewater. If it was the one in Bluewater, then it must be this one.

We couldn't stop eating the bread and hazelnut vinaigrette. I like simple food like this.

Lunch on 9/05/10

Menu: Welsh rarebit

My husband made Welsh rarebit for lunch that day. He put on cheese, chopped onions and tomatoes on toast and grilled it. WE sprinkled some Worcester sauce to taste. It was really nice.

By the way, how come it's called Welsh rarebit? What does rarebit mean anyway? Any ideas? Rarebit sounds like rabbit, but is it something to do with rabbit at all? It hasn't got rabbit meat on though.

Dinner on 8/05/10

Menu: Teriyaki chicken on rice, fried aubergine and onions with grated ginger, miso soup

We got home quite late after helping my brother-in-law that night. I had no idea what to have for dinner. While looking through the fridge, I found enough ingredients to make a lovely meal. The dish with aubergine is really easy to make. You just pan fry aubergine, and sprinkle some grated ginger & soy sauce on top. Onions are optional. My husband was really impressed with this dinner, and enjoyed it very much. Well, so did I.