Deep fried tofu with chicken thick sauce, pork miso soup, grilled salmon jaw, etc. (Dinner 2 July)

Deep fried tofu with chicken thick sauce, salmon jaw, salad, pork miso soup, rice, pickles 

 Although Mr. Husband demanded pasta menu, I chose Japanese. These days, we had quite heavy european dishes such as at Heston. To recover from salty, oily outside dinning, Japanese is very helpful!! The strategy is, how to balance between the mild taste of Japanese and Mr. Husband's appetite for oily, salty food...

I got a very fresh, nice deep fried tofu at Okinawa Day 2012 (an annual event  showcasing okinawan and other Japanese culture) last weekend. This tofu was brought from Iwate Prefecture where was devastated by the massive earthquake and tsunami last year. 

Deep fried tofu with chicken thick sauce

Ingredients: 1 deep fried tofu, 1 piece of chicken thigh or minced chicken breast (60g), green beans (40g), soy sauce (1.5 tablespoonful), mirin (1.5 tablespoonful), sugar (1 teaspoonful), salt (a pinch), grated ginger (1/2 teaspoonful), starch flower (1/2 tablespoonful)

Prepare one cup of Japanese soup stock (or dissolve 1 teaspoonful stock powder with one cup of water. I will post the detail of Japanese soup stock later)

1. Heat up the stock in a small pan and add soy sauce, mirin, sugar, salt (if you have 1 tablespoonful sake) and allow it to boil
2. Put chicken minced or chopped roughly and beaten with a knife and add into the pan to cook while stirring the meat to separate into pieces. Skim the scam appears on the surface
3. When the soup get translucent, put the tofu and shimmer gently for 5-6 mins
4. Add green beans to cook until they get tender (for 2 mins)
5. Put the starch flower in a small cup and dissolve it with 40cc water and add into the pan to make the sauce thick
6. For serving, put the tofu first in a slightly deep plate and cover it with the hickened chicken meat sauce and finally top with the green 

Here is the ingredient of pork miso soup (Ton-jiru) today. Except the pork, other contents are different from family to family. In Japan we can easily find the very thinly sliced meat whereas here in London, they are hard to be found except in the Japanese food shop. I got a nice frozen block of pork belly bought in a cool butcher, Ginger Pig. I defrosted it into halfway then sliced in 1mm. I wish I could get the cool German meat slicer and also a larger kitchen to accomodate it! I think thinly sliced meat is very convenient and healthy since we can just use a small portion to add to the dish. 

Contents of miso-soup: pork, yam potato, spring onion, carrot, shimeji mushrooms,  Konjac (a jerry look like cake made of yam potato, the dark collour  staff in the right corner)

I think more than 15 different kinds of vegetables were taken at today's dinner. Salmon jaw was very yummy with plenty of fish oil. In salad, I put some slices of Hallumi cheese, Mr.s Husband's favourite contents. Even I made a mild Japanese dish against his wish, I coud compensate for it by involving the oiliest part of salmon and his favourite cheese. As a result, both of our stomach were very happy!!

Total time to prepare: 50 mins
Total cost: 5.25 pounds (1.25 for a piece of salmon jaw cut into half, 0.5 for yam potatoes, 2.5 for tofu, 1 for other veggies)