Savory pancake (okonomi-yaki)

お好み焼き

Have you seen this week´s `Master Chef´?
Wow, I was so impressed with the participants who had to make Japanese dishes that they had never tasted, and probably never seen, before.  Namely they were `dango (mitarashi dango, correctly)
and `okonomi-yaki´.
I make both dishes at home and particularly okonomi-yaki is a regional dish where I come from.
So here is my version of okonomi-yaki recipe.  One needs special ingredients to make the taste right but it´s possible to obtain them in Oslo.

Serves 4

500 g cabbage  

4-5 spring onions

4dl flour (fint malt)

4ss potato starch (potatmel)

2ts dashi powder 

1ts baking powder

2 pinches salt

4 eggs

3-4dl water

Vegetable oil

300g non-smoked thinly sliced bacon (or pork belly)

okonomi-yaki sauce

mayonnaise

bonito flakes / powder (katsuobushi)

green-seaweed flakes (aonori)

1 Chop the cabbage and spring onion and put in a same bowl.

2 Conbine flour, potato starch, dashi powder, baking powder,  salt, and water well in a separate bowl.
Then mix in the chopped cabbage and spring onion (the flour mixture is just covering the vegetables).
And add the eggs well.

3 Heat generous amount of the vegetable oil in a frying pan.
Reduce heat to medium then pour the okonomi-yaki mixture on the pan and shape into a round pancake.
Top with the thinly sliced bacon or pork belly.

4 Cook until the bottom begins to brown then turn.  Put a lid on and cook further for 4-5 mins.
Keep medium - law heat!  I want to have a steam-cook affect here so the vegetables shall be cooked through.

5 Open the lid then turn the okonomi-yaki for last time.
Keep brown for 1 mins or the bacon looks crispy.

6 When cook through brush on a generous coating of the sauce and mayonnaise.
Then sprinkle with the bonito flakes and green-seaweed flakes.  Serve immediately!

As shown in the TV show, we don´t normally use carrot in the okonomi-yaki.  And instead of sprinkling chopped spring onion on the pancake, we mix it in the dough.  Point is that we enjoy the sweetness of cooked cabbage and spring onion!

One can also use raw prawns, squid… etc, in addition to the pork belly.

If you can obtain red vinegared ginger, chop finely and add in the dough.

I can´t emphasise the importance of dashi /  dashi powder here.

All in all, it was a very interesting program for me… I can try some carrots in the pancake and use milk instead of water.  Probably more nutritious and tastier?  Why not!

Dear Kjartan and Gregory, please invite me to the program as a special judge when you make okonomi-yaki again ;-)

Sesame dressing salad with broccoli

ブロッコリーの胡麻和え

This is a very simple recipe but always a success whenever I serve this :-)

It´s best to toast and grind sesame seeds yourself.

But of course you can buy toasted sesame seeds at supermarket and use a blender.

Serves 4

1 bouquet of broccoli

dressing

5 ss / tbs toasted white sesame seeds

1 ss / tbs soya sauce

1 ts sugar*

1 ts grated ginger

1. Cut the broccoli into bite size.

Cook them in lightly salted boiling water for few minutes (2-3 mins).

Then soak in cold water (stopping further cooking process).

2. Grind the sesame seeds by using blender.

3. Combine the sesame seeds and the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

4. Drain the broccoli, taking out the excess liquid as much as you can.

Add to the dressing and toss well, then serve.

*sugar can be substituted by 2 ts maple syrup

New Year soup with rice cake (Zoni)

お雑煮

A Happy New Year!

One of the dishes I´m always looking forward to have for New Year is a soup with rice cake, called `zoni´.

Rice cake `mochi´ is made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and moulded into shape.

`Zoni´ is an important part of New Year dishes in Japan and there are many varieties in shapes of mochi, in type of stock …etc. 

As I come from Kansai region of Japan, Zoni must have white miso, a round shaped rice cake and a couple of vegetables.

I tried to recreate the dish with the ingredients available where I live (Oslo!).

Serves 4

4 Rice cakes (mochi)**

8 dl / 800 ml Dashi stock (made of kelp and bonito flakes but powder type can be also used)

6 SS / Tbs miso paste (white type)*

4 slices of carrot (make it round.  symbolises sunrise!)

few slices of kohlrabi (kålrabi)

and

vegetables of your choice

1. boil the carrot and kohlrabi slices until tender.

2.  Put the miso paste in a pan.  Then pour the dashi stock into the miso little by little and mix well.

3.  Place the pan over medium heat.  Bring to a boil then lower the heat and add the rice cakes then cook until the rice cakes are tender.

4.  Add the vegetables.  Once the soup is warm, serve immediately.

*white miso paste can be bought at Helios Colosseum (Middelthuns gate 23, 0368 Oslo)

**rice cakes at Obento (Bernt Ankers gate 4, 0181 Oslo)

Traditional New Year dish

お節料理

Like Christmas in Norway, for many people new year is a family-gathering event in Japan.

Traditional Japanese new year dish is an important part of this occasion.

Probably you´ve heard of `O-mochi (sticky rice cake)´ that sends quite a few people to hospital every new year days because they clog the throat with the o-mochi?  It´s my husband´s favourite story when he explains about this sticky substance!

But it´s very tasty and I don´t know anyone who dislike it in Japan!

Recently I was a little tired of baking all the `julekaker´ (Although I love them a lot and am quite good at it!)

Then I suddenly come up with an idea to make a Japanese new year dish for family and fiends BEFORE Christmas.

I didn´t whether it´s possible to make traditional Japanese dishes in Norway, but here we go, this is the result and I´m very satisfied.  Except kuromame (cooked black beans) and thick konbu (kelp), I obtained the ingredients in Oslo.  So year 2015 I´d like to update all the recipes if someone wants to try.

They will be delivered to my dear friends.

Hope they enjoyed them :-)

I wish you a great holiday season and a happy new year!

God jul og godt nyttår!

Deep-fried aubergine with miso sauce

茄子田楽

This miso sauce is easy to make and very versatile to any sort of food.

I like to combine the sauce with zucchini, figs, tofu or aubergine as here.

Serves 4

Vegetable oil for deep-frying

1 aubergine

1ss toasted white poppy seeds (optional)

MISO SAUCE

80 g miso paste (red or white)

1-2ss sugar

2ts mirin

2ts water

1 Combine all the miso sauce ingredients in a pot.

Over low heat, stir until the sauce thickened the consistency.

(NB: it´s easy to burn.  Stir constantly!)

2 Pour vegetable oil to a pan about 1 cm, then preheat.

3 Cut the stems off the aubergine.  Slice into 2 cm rounds.

Piece with a fork in several places or use knife if you prefer.

4 Deep-fry the aubergine until tender.

(They won´t be crisp)

5 Drain the aubergine well then top with the sauce,

sprinkle with the poppy seeds.

Cooked minced chicken with rice in lunch box

鶏そぼろ弁当

Minced chicken meat cooked in sake, soya & sugar is a classic topping on white steamed rice.
With scrambled egg and cooked green vegetable a Japanese tricolour lunch box is ready to go!

Serves 4

200g minced chicken meat

1/2dl sake

2ss sugar

2ss soya sauce

1/2ts grated ginger

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1ss sugar

1 pinch of salt 

50g green beans

4 bowls (ca. 500g) cooked rice

1 Cook the chicken meat, sake and 2ss sugar in a pan.

Stir constantly by using 4-5 chopsticks.

Add the soya sauce and ginger then simmer further until the meat is well cooked.

2 Make scrambled egg.  Add 1ss sugar to lightly beaten eggs then cook.

Stir constantly by using 4-5 chopsticks.

3 Boil the beans in lightly salted water until just tender (ca. 2 mins).

Drain and cool under cold running water.

Cut in 0.5cm length.

4 Divide the rice among 4 lunch boxes (or rice bowls, if you prefer),

and top each with the chicken, scrambled egg and green beans.

Sweet-vinegared ginger goes very well this dish.

Enjoy!

Prawn & pork meatballs with oyster sauce

海老と豚肉の肉団子・オイスターソース

Oyster sauce… yes, it´s a Chinese thing. 

But we love including Chinese and Korean food for everyday meals.

This is one of my recipes that, whenever I make it, all are gone at once!

Enjoy!

Serves 4

300g pealed prawns

100g minced pork

4 small shiitake mushrooms (preferably dried)

1ts chopped spring onion

1 egg

2ss potate starch (potetmel)

1/2ts salt 

1ss sake

1ss sugar

freshly  ground pepper

for sauce

1 garlic clove

1dl water

2ss oyster sauce

1ss sugar

1 Sork the mushrooms in cold water until they get soft if one use dried ones.

Place the prawns, minced pork, mushrooms and spring onion in a food processor.

Blend until the prawns are coarsely chopped.

2 Transfer mixture to a mixing ball then add the egg, potato starch, salt, sake, sugar and pepper.

Blend until smooth.

3 Roll the mixture into meatballs that are about the size of a small apricot.

4 Heat oil in a large frying pan, add the meatballs and fry them until browned.

Remove the meatballs from the pan, transfer to a plate.

5 To make sauce, clean the frying pan with kitchen paper then heat some oil.

Crush the garlic clove by using side of knife.

Fry the garlic until brown then remove from the pan.

Add the water, oyster sauce in the pan, sugar, mix well.

(Be careful!  The water can splash with the heat!)

Return the meatballs to the pan and cook further for 7 mins.

6 Transfer the meatballs to a serving plate.

Decorate them with thinly sliced white-part of spring onion.

(we call it `shiraga negi´)