Lunch on 07/04/08

Menu: Hiraya-chi with lots of vegetables.

I used these ingredients to make my style hiraya-chi. Hiraya-chi is like Okinawan-style Okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes), by the way. When we make our normal style hiraya-chi, we would use flour, water, nira (it's sort of like spring onions), and some people use tuna as well.

My daughter loves this!

Dinner on 03/04/08

Menu: Indian take-away

It was my husband's birthday, and I treated him with the food from our favourite Indian restaurant.

Before trying Indian food here in the UK, I wasn't too keen on it, to be honest. I still remember the Indian restaurant I went with my sisters near Tokyo about 12 years ago. As some of you might know, I'm a huge fan of Freddie Mercury, and whenever I met somebody from India, I used to get really excited.
My sisters, especially my older sister, didn't like the idea of having Indian for lunch, but I pursued her, and we all went there. The food wasn't too bad, but some of the curries tasted really bad, and my sisters couldn't eat them. My older sister wasn't wise enough to put a little amount on the first plate as I did:) She put a plate full! Then we noticed the sign saying "Please don't leave the food. Otherwise, you'll be charged" (I can't remember the exact price). So my sister tired so hard to swallowed the food down her throat. She was sitting at the table facing the kitchen where the chefs were looking at customers, so she had to keep the straight face, which made it really funny. She was suffering. Then the owner of the restaurant came to us, and I was very excited and asking about India. He showed us some photos and brought Indian desert to us. I can't remember what it was exactly though. My sisters gave me a funny look. I could see in their eyes saying "Oh my God, more food." I think it was dried, so they wrapped it up with tissue and put it in their bag.

Anyway, since that day, they hate Indian food. Shame, isn't it. I would like to change their mind though. Maybe, I can take a jar of curry sauce when I go back to Okinawa, and cook for them.

I really enjoy Indian food here in the UK.

Dinner on 31/03/08

Menu: vegetable soup with salmon

Whenever I need to use up the food in the fridge, I would normally make soup. On the night, I used carrots, celery, potatoes, leek, garlic, and added tinned salmon on top. It was really simple, but nice.

Lunch on 06/02/08

Menu: Somin champuru

This is one of the typical Okinawan dishes called Somin champuru. In Japan, they have somen (this white noodle) with a cold dipping sauce, but in Okinawa, we fry somin (means somen in Okinawan). We do eat it in a Japanese way as well, but we love this dish!

I simply boiled the noodles (don't boil them too long!), and riced them in cold water and drained well. Then I fried some thin sliced onions and added the noodles, tinned tuna (the one in sunflower oil), and sprinkled some spring onions and a pinch of salt to taste. Some people add soy sauce, dashi stock etc..., but traditionally we only use salt to taste. I sometimes use a bit of dashi stock, but never use soy sauce. I like the simple flavour of this dish.

Dinner on 01/02/08

Menu: Stir-fry on rice noodle with hot soup

I stir-fried cabbages, onions, carrots and shiitake, and put on the hot noodle. I will write the details later.

I'm off to do Christmas shopping now.

Dinner on 25/11/08

Menu: Roast chicken with lemon & garlic, roast potatoes and boiled vegetables

I made a simple roast dinner using the leftover from the previous night. I was out in central London and bought a pack of roast chicken at Marks & Spencer on the way back home. I was feeling a bit peckish and had a piece on the train :)

Anyway, I heated up the chicken and an interesting idea came into my mind - sort of caramelising with lemon juice and garlic in a pot. I know you can roast chicken with lemon and garlic, but I simmered lemon juice and garlic (I used garlic granules) in a pot and quickly mixed the sauce with the pre-cooked (already hot) roast chicken. I sprinkled black pepper to taste.

As I've been having a problem with my right wrist, I try to cook something easy these days. This was a really easy dinner, and really tasty!

Mushroom salad

Before I forget, I will write about the tasty salad I made a few days ago.
We had some white mushrooms which had to get used soon, so I thought of making something interesting, something different.
I know that it's quite common to use mushrooms in salad in the west, but in Japan or Okinawa, we don't eat them row - we normally cook them. Besides, mushrooms are quite expensive there, so we rarely buy fresh mushrooms. Well, as you might know, we have different types of mushrooms (e.g. shiitake, maitake, enokidake etc...); these are quite cheap, and we use them lots, but not the western ones.

Anyway, as I was looking in the fridge, yellow peppers and carrots caught my eyes. Then I thought of making mushroom salad using peppers and carrots. I cut peppers in strips, mushrooms in chunky pieces, shredded carrots, and made Balsamic vinegar dressing. For the dressing, I used Balsamic vinegar, virgin olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper to taste. And then, I thought it might taste better if I put in some fried onions. Yes, my guess was right. It was really nice! Fried onions and the dressing went really well together!

Sorry, no photos and a recipe for it yet.