My Kale week is still going on :)

Today, I cooked Japchae, the Korean noodle. 

Japchae is a popular Korean noodle dish made from sweet potato. Yes, it is GLUTEN FREE noodle :) stir fried with thinly sliced carrot, onion, spinach and mushroom seasoned with sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and sugar. Pretty simple! 

Dried Korean sweet potato noodle - boil for 10 mins before frying

Today’s Japchae

Kale, carrot and enoki mushroom

Kale is like spinach so no problem at all! 

Normally sugar is used for seasoning  but I used ” agave syrup” today for healthy option. 

Lower GI than sugar and contains full of nutrients unlike white refined sugar! 

Japchae is tasty either hot or cold. It is great to bring to office for lunch :) 

Another lovely kale cooking :)))))

This week is the kale week! 

Yuko told me her favourite kale dish is saute kale with lots of garlic in my Facebook page. 

so why not garlic rice with kale! 

Quite simple..

Kale, olive oil, sea salt and pepper  …and rice! of course! I used brown rice. 

I chopped kale stalk finely. I quite like Kale stalks. very crunchy! 

The key to this is fry the garlic very slowly to infuse the flavour into oil! gotta be patient! 

Then add rice and fry well then add sliced kale leaves and stalks.  Season with salt and pepper. 

Sprinkle extra raw kale stalks on top! Easy and healthy :) 

Broccoli is soo cheap now! Let’s have plenty of broccoli, the super food!! 

I made very simple broccoli soup :)  

Super simple broccoli soup

Serves 4

1kg Broccoli, cut into florets

Sea salt and pepper 

100g walnuts

some extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

some vegan cheese ( optional ) 

Method

Bring 800ml salted water to the boil in a pot, add the broccoli and simmer for 4min or until tender. Make sure the broccolis are still bright green. Drain, keep the liquid. 

Blend the broccoli in a blender, with enough of the liquid to half-fill the goblet, to give a velvety texture. 

Pour the mixture into a pan. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve with the nuts, pepper, (vegan) cheese and drizzle with olive oil 

I had stupid belief that Indian meal should be eaten at restaurant. It is impossible ( well, it is possible but I don’t want to ! ) to cook four kinds of curries and condiments. 

I go to restaurant to enjoy the meal that I can’t prepare at home. 

I will still go to Indian restaurant, but I will certainly start to cook Indian at home. 

I cooked Dhal since my pink lentil looked urgently need to be consumed.

Surprisingly I turned out wonderful and easy! so fresh! you know, getting freshly made curry can be just luck. I don’t think any Indian restaurant make all kind of curry everyday from scratch. 

Dhal is actually side dish but who cares, I can eat as main. 

Good thing about eating at home is to use little oil and put garnish as much as I want. Look at my dahl, covered with coriander! ( I added more later ) 

I just put yoghurt and cucumber instead of bothering to make raita ( yoghurt cucumber ) put more chilli and I am happy! 

I love Indian pickles! I can eat as much as I want at home! At restaurant, only a few will be served…

just put on yogurt…yum

Dhal 

Serves 4 as mail dish

Ingredients

500g red lentils

2 large onion, chopped 

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 TBSP chopped ginger

2 TBSP oil

1/2 tsp chilli powder

2 tsp turmeric

2 tsp cumin

2 tomato, chopped 

1 cinnamon stick 

sea salt to taste

Lemon juice

Method 

1. Soak lentils for 15min or more and cook in salted water until soft.

2. Place garlic, ginger and oil in a pot and cook over low heat until aroma comes out.

3. Add onion and cook until soft then add chilli, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon stick and chopped tomato and cook further. 

5. Add lentil and mix. While mixing, mash the lentil well. Water from tomato and lentil      comes out and keep simmering for 5 to 10 mins. 

6. Add lemon juice and salt again to taste. 

7. Serve with coriander leaves and pickles! 

Even though, I am not big fan of legume, I really enjoyed.

Also full of spices mean, full of medicine. nnn…feel healthy! 

When I went to buy a coffee at cafe, the cafe was offering tomato quinoa soup, so I decided to cook one as well but I knew I had a cauliflower ( It’s so cheap at the moment!!!! ) at home so feel like creamy but not so creamy then decided to have creamy tomato soup! It went very well.

I recently bought quinoa flakes at Coles so wanted to try as well!

Quinoa flakes are steamed and rolled which means less cooking time compare to quinoa. 

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 cup quinoa flakes ( if you would like to enjoy risotto style add another half cup )

1 onion, chopped finely

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely

half cauliflower, chopped into bite size

2 stalks celery, chopped into small pieces

1 red capsicum, chopped into small pieces

250 g mushroom cut into half

1 tinned chopped tomato 

3 cup water

3 cup rice ilk

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp sea salt

3 tes vegetable stock powder

1. Heat frying pan with oil and fry onion and garlic.
2. Add mushroom and  fry then add tinned tomato, water, rice milk, stock powder and salt and bring to boil. 
3. Then add all veggies. ( you could put with mushrooms but I prefer less cooking ) and simmer until just cooked. ( if you use whole quinoa you can add it with veggies )
4. Then add quinoa flakes and simmer one to two minutes.
5. Serve with shredded celery leaves

I actually had parsley but decided to use celery leaves. They are great! 

I used whatever veggie I had in my fridge so you can use your favourite veggies such as fennel, carrot, broccoli …..

Also soy milk is great instead of rice milk, actually soy milk is better I mean creamier …but I had soy latte so decided to use rice milk instead.

Since I learn how cow milk is not great for our body at school I start to cut down cow milk. 

Only using soy milk can be over consuming so I start to use rice milk extensively in my cooking. I tried at least four brand but this is the best

I actually had beef stew and cheese cake that contains butter, cream cheese and sour cream ( yes, it is full of dairy ! ) , which I did not need to eat full portion since it was just tasting at work but I ate them all… greedy me! then I felt sick after this and constipated. After having this soup, gosh, I feel myself again. Thanks to high dietary fibre in quinoa with full of veggies!!! also it was really yummy. 

I hate to eat the same thing two days in a row or even the same week…

so have to change the dish slightly to make me happy

I got Yemista left over so decided to put bechamel sauce and cheese on top and bake again.

Did I make bechamel sauce ? No, I had frozen gluten& dairy free bechamel sauce !! Yay

Please check here to get the recipe of gluten & dairy free bechamel sauce

Whenever I cook miso soup for my friends, they get surprised because my miso soup hasn’t got tofu & wakame ( seaweed )

I think people think that miso soup always got the same things..that are very small cube of tofu and wakame which is not true! I put any veggies that are in my fridge. 

Well, it is true that tofu & wakame is quite popular though.

Anyway, I thought it would be good to give some idea what you can put in your miso soup…

Today’s miso 

Asian green & egg

To make miso soup,

1. Make dashi ( please check how to make dashi page links below) or put dashi powder into water.
2. Cook veggies ( cook root veggie from cold dashi / non- root veggie with hot dashi )
3. Add miso paste

I cracked egg after veggie is almost cooked.

Please make sure below to make lovely miso soup

* Please don’t boil after add miso!!!!!!!!!! ( To keep goodness of miso )

* Dashi powder need to be boiled to  enhance more flavour! 

I will keep reporting my miso soup….

Links 

how to make dashi 1

how to make dashi 2

This bechamel sauce is great! 

NO  BUTTER AND MILK  

AND 

NO GLUTEN

but taste fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!! seriously!!!!!!!

How good is that??????

Ingredients

400ml soymilk

40g glutenous rice floour ( sweet rice flour )

1/2 tsp vegetable stock powder

1 tsp sea salt

1. Put glutenous rice flour into a bowl and add 1/3 of soy milk slowly and mix very well
2. Add rest of soy milk and mix
3. Strain the mixture into pot
4. Heat the pot over medium heat and stir occasionally with a whisk 
5. When sauce get thick, turn off the heat

You won’t fail to make this one since it is so easy!!!!!! 

The reason you have to strain the mixture is to avoid lumps

****you can freeze this sauce *****

Of course, I used Bonsoy!

Yes, it’s a new blend!!!!!

I am so in love with this recipe!!! 

For me, this is much better than beef bolognese! ( maybe I should stop praising myself..)

It’s a sweet potato bolognese! In macrobiotics, we are supposed to eat vegetables with less water such as sweet potato, pumpkin etc in fall or winter. so it is great recipe for this season

Vegetarian Bolognese

Looks beef bolognese, doesn’t it???

half purple sweet potato ( about 300g ) chopped small pieces

100g mushroom, chopped finely

60g walnuts, chopped finely

1/2 onion, chopped finely

1 garlic clove, chopped finely

 * sauce mixture

• 150g tomato paste
• 2TBSP red wine
• 1TBSP miso
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1tsp soysauce

1TBSP olive oil

200ml water

200g pasta or gluten free pasta

parsely, chopped finely

method

1. Fry chopped onion and garlic over medium low heat until soft and brown
2. Add chopped sweet potato and with low heat until cooked.
3. Add mushroom and walnuts and cook until mushroom is cooked then add water then cook over high heat.
4. Add sauce mixture and cook over  medium heat until sauce get thicken
5. Serve with cooked pasta. Topped with chopped parsley

slow cook is the key to bring the sweetness of veggies. 

Also little ” Jap seasonings” bring richness of sauce. 

You could use Kumara but it looks like bolognese with lots of carrot so won’t be good for kids….I much prefer purple one.  Kumara does not exist in Japan. For me, Kumara tastes too carroty! but love Kumara mushed potato though.. ( have to be oven-baked not boiled potato! )

This taste great but only thing I don’t like is lots of chopping….

this is the size of sweet potato! then it looks like mince…

Well, I did enjoy chopping today. It is like meditation for me but don’t wanna chop everyday though.

You can make big batch and freeze. 

Enjoy cooking :)

I still have Japanese curry left over from Sunday so I made ” curry soba” for myself for lunch.

Curry soba or udon is very popular menu in Soba or Udon restaurants in Japan.

All I have to do, heat some dashi ( Japanese soup stock ) and curry sauce serve with cooked soba.

I quite often use dashi powder but I made dashi ( just soak shitake and konbu in the water ) a few days ago so I used ” real” dashi.

This is dashi! I like strong dashi so colour is bit darker than normal. 

Curry soba or udon in restaurants does not put much veggie but I add turnip and turnip leaves( I LOVE leaves!!!!). If I eat only noodle, I won’t be full also not so healthy….

Turnips are harvested in late autumn through the winter and into spring in Australia. They are season now!

Japanese turnips are white and much bigger so I feel wired to see purple colour…taste is nearly the same but Japanese one is sweeter and more juicy I think…

So what I did was…

Put chopped turnip, shiitake mushroom used for dashi , dashi and pinch of sea salt and cook.

Then add curry sauce, well let’s say two ladles…

Put cooked soba in the bowl then pour curry soup. 

So easy and yummy ! If you need little more ” kick”, you can add chili powder. It is good to add little soy sauce as well :))

Today, I added turnips but you can add Asian veggie such as Chinese cabbage, bokchoy and snowpeas, beans, carrot…whatever!

I LOVE Japanese curry! It is so easy!!!! and I can put any vegetable into it. so it is the best way to get rid of vegetables that are getting old or half used piece. 

Well, we ( most of us ) don’t make curry from scratch in Japan. We just use curry roux. 

There are so many kinds of curry roux available.

My favourite brand is ” House “

Vermont curry has been my favourite for long time but when I worked for food expo that House was exhibiting last year, one Japanese guy said Java curry is the best at House booth. 

I actually never tried … House booth was serving both Java and vermont curry so I ate both…then nnnn…Java is better!!!!

I used both Java and vermont today. It is nice to mix! 

By the way, I always get bulk curry roux that restaurants use so you won’t find this packet most Asian shop.  ( I found bulk size roux at Thai kee supermarket in China town  )  I think normal packet is yellow..In little packet, I think only 300g or something. Mine is 1kg! which is very big but shelf life is long ( I think more than one year ) so I prefer to buy big size.

Roux is like that

Only bad thing about bulk size is roux is too thick so I can’t break the roux by hand. So I smash the roux on the bench …but best way is use knife to cut..more elegant way.

I thought curry roux definitely contains beef stock or something animal but actually it  doesn’t ! Yay!!!!

Just one thing….it contains MSG….no wonder I can’t stop eating…MSG actually makes you eat more and more…like Doritos…can’t stop! 

Also contains dairy so, not good for vegan.

I know it contains MSG but I eat with loads of veggie so….

Today, I put all veggie that I want to get rid of are:

onion ( I had half used one )

potato

pumpkin

zucchini

carrot ( they are getting wrinkled… )

red capsicum

 Start from frying onion, ginger, garlic ( ginger and garlic is optional ) slowly until golden then add all veggies, then put water and simmer until all veggies are cooked. 

Then add roux and cook until sauce is thicken.

That is it! I always like to put bay leaf for extra kick. 

I added zucchini and red cap later. The same time as roux today since I don’t want to over cook them and to keep colour and nutrition. 

I used to add tomato sauce , worcestershire sauce and soy sauce to add a subtle touch to meat curry but I don’t need  anymore because all veggies have lots of flavour already! Well, it depends on what sort of veggie I use though. Today, red cap did a great job! fab flavour! 

Typical curry ingredients are beef, carrot, onion and potato. Not much veggies but now I put more variety of veggies. It is great! I still added soy sauce in the end though. 

Well, please try Jap curry! I have never met someone who don’t like this! 

Ten years ago, there were a few ramen restaurants in Sydney and quality was awful.

Now there are so many ramen restaurants in Sydney and quality is much much better than before but still can’t beat taste of ramen shop in Japan.

BUT…I am now shifting to vegetarian so I better keep away from ramen…because I don’t know where to eat vegetarian ramen …

Well, you might say, there are ” vegetarian ramen” or ” tofu ramen” available most ramen shop but the stock is made from either chicken or pork bone. So not totally vegetarian.

I am ( better say was?! ) crazy about tonkotsu the pork bone soup base….very fatty thick soup but actually good for skin because of high contents of collagen…Well, forget about that! ramen is not healthy meal anyway! so it is great to keep away from it.

Ramen is full of carb and very small or almost none veggie with lots of refined salt and MSG!

NOT GOOD!!!!!!

Well, I said to give up going to ramen restaurant but have not given up eating ramen.

This is actually very tasty! only problem is ”  I have to cook it!  ”

syoyu ( means soysauce ) ramen

serves2

2 fresh ramen noodle ( boil just before soup is done )

half onion, sliced thinly

10g ginger, chop finely

800ml water

2 TBSP sesame oil

2 tsp konbu dashi powder ( I used konbu & shiitake dashi powder )

2 TBSP soy sauce

1/2 tsp sea salt

Asian veggie ( I use 2 bunches of bak choy and 2 bunches of choi sum today )

some tofu ( deep- fry with potato starch )

1. To make soup, place sesame oil, ginger and onion in a pan and fry at very low heat and cook slowly until onion is cooked ( VERY important! )
2. Add water, dashi powder and salt.
3. When boiled, add Asian green. 
4. When Asian green is cooked add soy sauce
5. Pour onto cooked ramen.

Today, I add deep-fried tofu but you can use bamboo shoot, tofu skin or mushroom instead. 

Please adjust soy amount. If you like to put lots of veggies like me, you need good amount of soy sauce but if not, reduce a little.

Also if you use soy sauce from Spiral, you can reduce as well since Spiral soy is stronger than any other soy sayyce. Spiral soy is more expensive than others but actually last long since you don’t need to use much.

Very important thing to make good soup is cook onion and ginger slowly to infuse flavour and boil the dashi powder to enhance more flavour.  This little thing make a big different. 

Enjoy cooking :)

Avocado is now in season!!!! ( from May to November )

It is an autumn and winter ” fruit”

Steamed avocado may sound funny but it is real nice. Avocado get softer and get bright colour. 

Steamed tofu & avocado with wasabi mayo

This is super easy !!!

You need:

tofu

avocado

wasabi

soy sauce

mayo ( not sweet one please! you can check this page for mayo recommendation )

1. Peel avocado and put on top on tofu and steam
2. make wasabi mayo by combining wasabi and mayo
3. Eat steamed tofu and avo with wasabi mayo and soy sauce

Mayo, wasabi and soy is fab conbination. so you can simply eat avocado with this.

 I normally put this on top of rice. I steam rice together if I don’ have hot rice. A great way to avoid microwave rice! When I do that, I cut tofu and avocado into small pieces.

I sometime ( maybe always..) feel lazy to get a steamer especially just cook for myself so I use a stainless  colander and put on a pot with hot water and put lid …

I hope you like it :)

This is the laziest miso soup! 

When I am hungry at night, I make this since I don’t want to eat something naughty or carb after 8pm.  It is great since I don’t need to use any pot, knife and chopping board. 

It is surely better than eating naughty chips or toast. 

This miso soup is especially great for vegetarian or vegan people. The little packet of instant miso contains bonito which is fish. Some vegetarian people don’t know that. So be aware for the instant miso which got fish and quite often MSG…

I had dinner with Hiromi san last Wed. She always has some interesting ideas to try. 

This time is ” aloe rice “ 

She told me about a documentary about Okinawan ( southern part of Japan ) lady who refuse to use chemical products. No medicine, processed food and cleaning substance etc.. She wash her hair wiith pounded hibiscus and wash in the river…very friendly to earth! 

She showed her favourite breakfast..that is ” Aloe rice “

Ingredients

Brown rice

Aloe

soy sauce

bonito flakes 

very simple!!!

She is not vegetarian since she uses bonito flakes. 

Bonito is a type of fish, it is dried then shred to make flakes. 

Bonito flakes is used quite often in Japanese cuisine since Japanese basic stock is made from bonito flakes and konbu ( kelp)

This is bonito flakes

I was really scared to eat aloe even though I had aloe yogurt ( very popular in Japan )

and aloe drink but I am not sure which kind of aloe they are using.

Hiromi san told me the lady was using aloe has not spikes…my aloe has spikes…

oh, well, I have eaten many wired staff  so now I can use my courage to eat unknown plant, what is the big deal? 

First, wash and get rid of  ” spiky ” part

Then take skin out. This curved knife is perfect for this! I felt like I am filleting fish …

Slimy fresh!  I licked the flesh gingerly…bit bitter…

Then put the flesh on top of the brown rice and pour good soy sauce which is very important!!!

Yamasa soy sauce is one of my favourite soy sauce. Yamasa is one of the oldest soy sauce company in Japan. It is nearly 400 years old! Good chefs in Sydney use yamasa not Kixxman …..

Taste????

Surprisingly, great! I really like it. Great texture! 

I think most Japanese would like it because we are used to have ” slimy” thing like okura, natto and ginenjyo on top of rice. I am not sure other nationality though…

Just in case…

Vegetarian option :

Omit bonito flakes and have with wasabi 

Maybe put aloe and wasabi on side and melt wasabi with soy first and marinade. Then put on top of rice…In this way, you won’t need to eat chunk of wasabi which can be dangerous..

I use only three stalks for one but I will put more next time. It is yummy!!! 

I am sure that aloe has great nutrition value..I will check out soon.

If anybody try, please let me know :)))

Thank you Hiromi san for great info!