Salmon Mushroom Rice & Chawan Mushi

Cooking For a Lazy Day

There might be some days when you are tired and all you want to cook is something really simple and quick. These two recipes are perfect when I'm having a lazy day. The ingredients are simple and  it takes no time to prepare them. So, if any day you need something easy but still tasty, try these! It's so good and easy, you won't believe it.

Salmon Mushroom Rice

 

Ingredients (Please measure your ingredients accordingly):
- A handful of Shiitake mushroom (soaked and chopped into small sizes)
- IMPORTANT: keep the water used to soak the mushroom as we need it to cook the rice.
- 2-3 Salmon fillets
- Japanese soy sauce + sake (I actually replace with Teriyaki Sauce)
- Salt 

Method:
1) After soaking the mushroom, use the water to cook the rice.
2) Add in the mushrooms and some Teriyaki Sauce or soy sauce  and sake accordingly. Don't add too much, you can always add more sauce after the rice is cooked.
3) Cook the rice in rice cooker.
4) While the rice is cooking, prepare the salmon by placing it on baking tray.
5) Add the Teriyaki sauce or soy sauce
6) Bake the salmon for 10 mins or until cooked
7) Once salmon is cooked, pick out the bones and add the salmon into the cooked rice and mix well.
8) Add Teriyaki sauce/ soy sauce/ salt according to taste

Chawan Mushi

Ingredients (The measurement is enough for 4)
- 4 large eggs (lightly beaten)
-1 1/2 tsp Mirin
-1 1/2 tsp Japanese soy sauce
- 2 cups of dashi stock
- 4 Shiitake mushrooms (soaked until soft)
- Add any seafood that you like (like prawn, fish cake or scallop). I added prawn and scallop this time.

Method:
1) Mix the beaten eggs with mirin, soy sauce and the dashi stock.

2) Divide the rest of the ingredients into 4 small bowls and pour in the egg mixtures. Cover the bowl with aluminium foil.

3) Steam the egg mixture on a high heat for about 5 minutes. Then reduce the heat to low and steam for another 15 minutes or until they are set. Serve immediately.

 

 

Japanese Crispy Curry Chicken

This is my second Japanese meal for the week and this doesn't include my sushi for lunch. There's never too much Japanese food for me.  So I decided today is Japanese curry day. I consider Japanese curry a healthier and milder version. For me, Japanese curry rice is an excellent comfort food. The sweet, rich and creamy flavour that blended perfectly with the rest of the ingredients. It's an addiction that doesn't leave me for long, after eating it I wish I could eat it again.

And this time I prepared some crispy chicken fillets to go with the curry. This chicken is inspired by Not Quite Nigella's Crunchy Southern "Deep Fried" Chicken.  There's something about using cornflakes in cooking that always catch my interest. I knew instantly I had to try this recipe. but instead of using chicken wing, I used chicken fillet and I didn't follow all the ingredients in her recipe.

As always, I like to finish my cooking fast, so I pan fried my chicken first before covering them with the flour and cornflakes. But I found this actually loses the flavour of the chicken. So if you have time, I suggest just grill the chicken raw, although it might take longer, but It will definitely keep the flavour in. And is up to you which part of chicken you want to use.

Cripsy Chicken with Cornflakes

Ingredients:

- 5 chicken thigh fillet

- A bowl of flour

- 2 eggs

- A handful of chopped Parsley (If you can't find fresh, just used the dried one)

- 3-4 cups of cornflakes (or just enough for your chicken)

-  Black pepper

-  Salt

Method:

1) You can either pan fry your chicken first or you can skip this step.

2) Pre heat oven 180C and line baking trays with parchment.

3) Place flour in shallow plate with salt and pepper.

4) Beat eggs in a bowl.

5) Place cornflakes in ziplock bag and bash the cornflakes until they quite crushed. Place in shallow plate, then add in the parsley.

6) Roll the chicken in flaour, then roll them in the beaten eggs then the cornflakes.

7) Place chicken on the tray and bake in oven for 15 minutes, take the chicken out and drizzle/spray abit of oil to the chicken. Put it back to the oven for another 5 minutes if you have pre cooked your chicken, otherwise bake until chicken is cooked.

The chicken was wonderful, it's crunchy on the outside but soft in the inside.

Perfect for snack too!

Japanese Curry Sauce

Ingredients:

- Japanese curry sauce mix ( block)

- 1 Carrot (bite size)

- 1 Potato (bite size)

- Half chopped onion

Method:

1) Saute onion over medium heat, add carrot and potato, cook for 5 minutes.

2) Add in water and  simmer until potato and carrots are cooked

3) Add in the Japanese curry cubes, stir until cubes dissolve. Add water if sauce is too thick.

Once the curry sauce is ready, pour over the crispy chicken.

You gotta try it to love it!

Oh, remember to serve warm with steamed rice!

Matcha (Green Tea) Shortbread

Green That Makes Me Grin
 
Tea is a work of art and needs a master hand to bring out its noblest qualities. We have good and bad teas, as we have good and bad paintings -- generally the latter.  (KAKUZO OKAKURA, Book of Tea)

  

I can't remember when was the first time I had Matcha (Green Tea), but one thing for sure it was the beginning of my love to it and  it only keeps growing ever since. I've tried every green tea flavour food that I've came across, from green tea chocolate to green tea cakes. I'm never a good baker, but I've been seeing this matcha shortbread recipe online, so I decided to give it a go (Just because the recipe sounds easy).

Lucky, it was a successful attempt! The texture was right with the perfect green that made me grin. This unpretentious cookies are buttery, melty and rich with the taste of green tea. I was very generous with the matcha powder and less with the sugar, as I like the bitterness of the green tea. So if you prefer your cookies a little sweeter you can add more sugar and less green tea powder to the recipe below.

Matcha (Green Tea) Shortbread

Ingredients:

- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose-flour

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 225 Gm unsalted butter at room temperature (cut into pieces)

- 3 tbsp matcha (green tea) powder (Add less if you don't like your cookies too bitter)

- 1/2 cup granulated sugar ( Add more if you prefer)

Method:

1) Sift the flour and salt together in a bowl, set a side.

2) Beat butter on medium-high speed until creamy (approximately 3 minutes). Sift matcha powder in gradually. Beat until butter and the matcha powder mixture very creamy. Add sugar gradually and continue beating on high speed until mixture is light and fluffy. 

3) Add about one-third  of the flour, then mix. Gradually add remaining flour, mixing until well blended. The mixture will look crumbly, if you squeeze it between your fingers, it will come together. Gather it together into a ball with your hands.

4) Roll out dough on a baking sheet. Cut out as many cookies as possible using the cookies cutter. Re-roll remaining dough  and repeat until the dough is used up. Refrigerate at least one hour if possible.

5) Preheat oven to 160 celcius. Bake for about 15 minutes or until cookies are dry and firm to touch. Make sure the edges don't turn brown.  Cool the cookies for a couple of minutes, then carefully transfer cookies to and store at room temperature in air tight container.

Stir fry udon with chicken and scallop

Today I made Stir fry japanese udon with chicken and scallop. This  recipe is where Japanese meet Chinese,  it actually mixes both Japanese and Chinese ingredients/sauces in the cooking. When you see the ingredients below you might think this recipe is too troublesome as you need to prepare so many stuffs, actually you can always add/opt out some of the ingredients I used.

When I cook, I tend to add a lot of ingredients and sometimes I just add them to clear the stuffs in my fridge. Trust me, this is a really simple and satisfying dish.

The measurement of this recipe is just an approximation and my measurement is enough to serve 3-4 people, so please do your own multiplication accordingly.

Stir fry udon with chicken and scallop

Ingredients:

- 750 gm of Japanese Udon

- Scallops (amount you desired and you can change to prawns if you prefer)

- 2 chicken thigh fillet (chop to your desired size)

- 1 red capsium (Julienned)

- 1/2 carrot (Julienned)

- Enoki Mushrooms

- 4 garlic cloves (chopped)

- 1/4 of cabbage (shredded) 

- A handful of bean sprouts (optional)

- A handful of fresh chives

- Cooking oil

Seasoning (Please adjust the sauces according to your taste):

- 2 tbsp Terriyaki Sauce

- 2 tbsp Oyster sauce

- 1 tbsp Sweet(dark) soya sauce

- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Shao Xing)

- 1 tbsp Sesame oil

Method:

1) Marinate the chicken in teriyaki sauce and set aside.

2) Blanch the udon over boiling water (make sure udon is not too soft) and drain. Set aside.

3) Heat up wok and add cooking oil. Fry the Scallop until it turns golden. Set aside.

4) Heat up some oil again and stir fry the chicken until cooked. Set aside.

5) Heat up some oil again and add in the red capsicums and carrots until tender, before turning off the heat add in the enoki mushroom and give it a quick stir. Dish up and set aside.

6) Heat up some oil again, add in the garlic and then add in the ingredients from (4) and (5). Add in the cabbage and bean sprouts. Give it a quick stir, and then add the seasoning sauce according to your taste. 

7) Add in the udon, stir and mix well. Add sauces if required.

8) Toss in the chives, give it a quick stir and turn off the heat.

9) Dish up to serving plate/bowl and add the fried scallop on top.