torakris

I am not a lentil eater either. (I do love squashes though!) I want to like lentils! I try them and try them but they always taste the same. I do have two recipes that I do make occasionally one is an indian dish from Madhur Jaffrey with red lentils, green beans and chicken all in one pot and the other is a lentil salad. I wasn't really happy with my lentil soup, it wasn't bad but I wouldn't be repeating it. I added a gremolada to brighten up the flavor, but it just didn't go right. Later I was thinking maybe I should have sauteed the chicken, bacon, and mushrooms together and then served them on a bed of lentil puree and then topped with the gremolada.

When camping we sometimes make scrambled eggs in ziploc freezer bags with out a problem. Don't know how they would work with longer cooking potatoes though

I wasn't feeling very good last night felt like I was coming down with a touch of a cold, so made up one of those 15 minute dinners: Thai curry with tofu, bamboo shoots, and snap peas witha handful of kaffir lime leaves thrown in avocado, chunked and tossed with lime juice, EVOO, salt and white pepper shrimp shumai (frozen and heated in the microwave) leftover chocolate cake

I tried my hardest to get this into one meal and think I succeeded. Lentil soup with bacon, potatoes, chicken, and mushrooms and topped with gremolada ----Sauteed bacon and onion, addd stock and lentils, simmer until tender adding potatoes near the end of cooking. Then separately sautee boneless chicken thighs cut into bitesize pieces and mushrooms cut in half, add to teh soup and top each serving with a gremolada (garlic, lemon peel, and parsley) napa cabbage pickles ----napa cabbage is thinly sliced, combined with salt, water, lemon rind, lemon juice, dry chile pepper, and kombu and then placed into a Japanese pickle press. (I usually make this with yuzu, but the lemon made is taste more "Westerny") seared nut crusted tuna on a bed of grilled kabocha ----the kabocha was thinly sliced tossed with olive oil, S and P and then grilled on a griddle pan ----the pecans were ground and then mixed with finely minced jalapenos, S and P and then patted on to the tuna, this was brushed with olive oil and then seared on the griddle pan, sliced on the diagonal and placed on top of the kabocha, the dish was than sprinkled with lemon juice and olive oil Unfortunately our digital camera is broken and we are not going to get another until my birthday (March) so no pictures for now. As to peeling kabocha, if it is going to be used in a soup or otherwise pureed, cut it in half remove the seeds and then pop it into the microwave for 3 to 5 minutes.

When I first came to Japan 12 years ago, those thick pieces of bread were the most wonderful thing! In Japan the loaf of bread is cut either into 4, 6, or 8 slices. The 8 slice per bag bread is pretty similar to the size of American sandwich bread, but that 4 slice stuff to so wonderful as toast. Butter is the only thing to spread on this!

Those are them! They are actually quite cheap here. I really like the meaty texture and the fact that you can use the entire mushroom with no waste. I have never had oyster mushrooms so can't compare, but i enjoy their mild flavor especially in contrast to the shiitake. However because of their slightly bland flavor I rarely use them alone rather in combination with other mushrooms. I do like them sauteed with bacon though!

When i first started reading this I was thinking, 'Japanese pantry'?, there's nothing special that you need to cook Japanese food. Just shows I have been cooking this stuff so long that these have become staples in my house. To start off with: soy sauce ( I find the Yamasa brand unpalatable, and would stick with Kikkoman but not the American made one; buy one at a Asian grocer. I like the marudaizu kinds for a slightly more complex flavor) If you don't cook to much Asian food just stick with one type of soy, you don't need the usukuchi (light) or tamari. Actually these 2 are used more in US cookbooks than Japanese ones. I finally decided to go on a hunt for tamari a little while ago and actually had a hard time finding it, and I live in Japan! sake a true drinking sake is your best bet, similar to using a real wine vs a 'cooking' wine mirin look for one called hon mirin for the same reasons as above rice vinegar mitsukan is a good brand, just get the regular one not the seasoned, it is better to season the sushi by yourself dashi no moto (instant dashi) I would estimate about 85% of Japanese use instant dashi, in most cases it is fine. the only exceptions would be when the flavor would really stand out, in clear soups, etc miso I am not too sure of the types they have outside of Japan, but yur best bet would be a light brown miso, I actually prefer to cook with either the white or red, but the common brown one is just that the most commonly used especially in soup making (the white tends to be too sweet and the red too strong) These would be the main things, the Japanese use very few 'spices' although it would be nice to have shichimi (7 spice powder) and sesame seeds panko is nice to have because it has applications in any type of cooking other things including various seaweeds etc could be picked up on an as needed basis The Japanese use a lot of premade sauces that I find unnecessary to buy, they can all be made with the above ingredients, I do however use a yuzu flavored ponzu and an okonomiyaki sauce (I prefer this flavor over the tonkatsu sauce and use it the way one would use tonkatsu sauce) I know I am missing some major things here, this seems too short Anyone else have any ideas?

They look like this: http://www.nasu-net.or.jp/~mohsugi/eringi.html In my search i have found the English spelling to vary elinki eringi elingi etc etc

Still working my way through 20 some copies of Cooking Light from 1993 to present and boy have they changed! Most of the older stuff is going straight into the trash without even one recipe removed, butsome of the most recent stuff I am tearing out the whole magazine! For me not worth subscribing to (overseas subscribtion), but if I was in the US I would probably pick up an occasional issue anfter glancing through it.

Monday night: wild mushroom risotto with romano cheese using a nice mix of shiitake, shimeji, enoki, and a new mushroom to Japan that they call elinki (they say it is from Italy but I am not sure of the real name, a truely delicious mushroom) potato and avocado salad tossed with kaiware (daikon sprouts) and lemon juice and olive oil tuna tartare (tabasco, salt, EVOO) served on thinly sliced toasted baguettes chocolate cake with chocolate frosting

How were the scones? I just got the book and so far have only made a chicken dish and was wondering what to try next. Yesterday was the coldest day Yokohama has seen this winter (the high was only 4C) and it was pouring rain all day. Being from Cleveland I can stand the cold (heck in Cleveland 4C is warm!) but I hate cold rain! I really wanted to bake something , so I made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and although I was disappointed with the recipe my family loved it.

Bread is becoming quite popular, but no traditional breads to speak of. Very few make it at home though, I would estimate only 30-40% of Japanese homes have an oven and even in those that do it is one of those oven/microwave combos and the oven is probably only used for gratins. Nowadays, especially in the 40 and under crowd bread is the most common breakfast food. Back during the occupation bread was seen as more nutrious than rice and was served and became the staple of the school lunch program. Even today's school lunches sees bread served 3 times a week and rice only 2.

Cool!

In Japan, this sort of competition is no joke. They train obsessively and they have their own televised contests in which the contestants (combatants?) are put through challenge after challenge until only one is left. So they might start the show out by eating 20 rolls of sushi in a minute and as soon as that challenge is finished they'll all have to drink 2 liters of water within 10 seconds or so. Then they roll out the next challenge without much of a break. Any one of these challenges is usually met with very impressive skill, but when one stops to think about all the food already consumed, it's just mind boggling. Oh yeah, and for some reason, the fat Japanese guys usually lose out to the skinny Japanese guys too! Eating contests are HUGE here in Japan, These guys are celebrities! I rarely watch TV but when Thursday night's TV Champions is having a eating contest, I'll never miss it.It is amazing the amount of food these tiny people can shove into their bodies. And it isn't just one single contest, it is usually 3 to 5 usually with only a short bus ride in between the gorgings.

OOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Now I want one too! The grinder, not the husband (already got one of those!)

Anna Panko are made basically with the same kind of bread as regular bread cumbs, the difference lies in the size of the bread crumbs. Regular bread crumbs tend to be very fine, while the panko pieces are quite large more similar to homemade bread crumbs. Think of it as JAPANESE bread crumbs rather than JAPANESE BREAD crumbs. I spent a while online looking for info about the Shirakiku bread honey panko and it seems this only a US Japanese grocery product. I couldn't find any information about this company or its products in Japan, they seem to be soley in the US.

Spent yesterday picking strawberries with my family at a small village about 2 hours form Yokohama. Besides strawberries this village is also very famous for their green tea and wasabi, and lo and behold right there in the gift shop was a package of green tea-wasabi potato chips. Unfortunately I was not adventurous enough to give them a try.

Went to the store yesterday to look at the snack foods, I normally only wander down these aisles once a year or so, so I hadn't checked them out recently. Came home with bags of Thai BBQ chicken flavor and umeboshi flavor. I ate the Thai ones yesterday and was very disappointed, they tasted like nothing, not even a hint of spice. Some that I left on the shelves included: cheese fondue onion gratin soup wasabi and many others I have now forgotten (I told myself to write them down, but my self answered back that I would never forget them!)

last night was a Thai inspired meal: boneless chicken thighs marinated with oyster sauce, nampla, lemon grass, lemon juice, and honey broiled then sliced and placed on a bed of mizuna and surronded with slivers of avocado (tossed with lime juice and salt) and mounds of a grated carrot salad (tossed with lim, nampla, sugar, chili sauce) a plate of grilled (in a griddle pan) kabocha and asparagus, tossed with salt, white pepper, oil before grilling and then tossed with soy sauce and lime juice after Japanese rice cake leftover from yesterday

Here are some more yummy Japanese ones: http://www.greggman.com/japan/chips/japane...ato%20chips.htm I am off to the store today to see if I can find those nankotsu ones (deep fried chicken cartilage)

That reminds me of one of my first food-related memories. I was about three years old, and I had a bowl of rice and a bowl of miso soup in front of me. I thought, "I like them both, so if I combine them it would be awesome!" I dumped the rice into the miso soup, and it indeed was awesome. Emboldened, several days later I poured orange soda into my bowl of rice. Gack. Maybe that's the culinary logic that your two-year-old was following??? most likely! His sisters had taught him a little while ago how to make chocolate milk.

A couple of days ago I gave my 2 year old a snack of peeled edamame (green soybeans) in a small bowl. I left the room to attend to the laundry and when I came back he was squeezing a bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup over them. I couldn't help but laugh when he took his first bite. There was no second bite! I have no idea what possesed him to do that.

Last night I had this uncontrollable urge to eat Mushu Pork so made up a nice rendition with: pork eggs dried shiitake dried wood ear chinese cabbage scallions I tried it with out the hoison, but ended up slathering it on after the first couple bites. To my American taste buds it didn't taste like Mushu with out it. also had a carrot salad Thai style with lime juice, nampla and sugar for dessert I made a wonderful cake from the Fine Cooking Holiday baking issue, sort of a mix of a vanilla cheesecake and a chocolate flourless cake.

Living in the country of bizarre snack foods, Japan, I happen across these all the time. New potato chip flavors come out every week. He are some of the varieties just one company has: http://www.yamayoshi.co.jp/web/03shopping.html Since most people won't be able to read the flavors I will translate some of them for you The newest flavor debuting last month was tanshio lemon flavor, tanshio is a popular yakiniku dish of tongue sprinkled with salt then grilled and dipped into a lemon sauce. nori (seaweed) not so unusual and actually quite good wasabi beef mayo beef black sesame seed consomme yakitori, including both salt and sauce flavors kimchi kalbi (another yakiniku dish) karaage (fried chicken) garlic pringles makes these very interesting curry flavored chips and it is scary how much like curry they reall taste!

Here is some more info on kusaya and funazushi: http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_di...iets/japan.html scroll down to fermented foods This article also reminded me of one moer food that will never pass my lips: amazake ewwwwwww!