Leftover remake cooking: Croquette from Japanese style yam potato (Nishime)          

Got a tiny portion of nishime left from previous dinner. 

Portion is too small for two people.  

Small portion of Nishime.
What to do with this??

Here is today's menu.

Can you recognise where is Nishime used?

The answer is here. 
Nishime became croquette. 

In fact, Mr. Husband didn't realise it at all.

Direction of Nishime croqette

1. Chop Nishime into pieces and put into a bowl. Mash the yam potato into rough paste. Add chopped asparagus and combine all together

2. Make large bite sized, round flat shape with yam potato dough. Dust each piece with flour and dress with beaten egg and finally with bread crumbs. Please refer the direction of Potato croquette

3. Heat up a small frying pan filled with vegetable oil into 1cm depth. Deepfry yam potato pieces. Top with sauce (HB sauce or the sauce combined with ketchup and soy sauce) to serve.

We also had Juicy chicken breast with sesame sauce served with cucumber, mini tomatoes and spring onion.

I got a pack of  Korean spicy beef soup called Yukgaejang. 

I love Yukgaejang and I always order it in Korean restaurants.

This freeze-dry pack provide fresh spicy Yukgaejang with lots of root veggies. 

In this soup, I added sliced Iceberg Lettuce and some sprig onions. I don't think korean people put lettuce into Yukgaejang. However, the hot soup and the crispy texture of lettuce matched well.

I think croquette recipe can be applicable to the leftover of curry wit potato, or, of course mash potato. Truly enjoyable and economical dish. 

Time to prepare: 40 mins
Total cost: 4.35 pounds (2.65 for Yukgaejang, 0.7 for chicken breast, 1 for rest of veggies and rice)

Collagen Charge with Salmon 2 (Salmon skin sushi roll)

We had teriyaki salmon on 12 October. Teriyaki salmon features the flavourful sauce made of soy-sauce and mirin dressed over the salmon piece. The skin should be removed before seasoning salmon so that the teriyaki sauce covers the flesh thoroughly. I always store skin pieces in freezer whenever I prepare teriyaki salmon. 

Because,

Salmon skin is a great resource of collagen!!

Cannot be waisted!!

Teriyaki salmon, Nishime (Japanese style yam potato), tomato and asparagus salad, miso soup with tofu and spinach, rice

I introduce "salmon skin sushi roll" served in next day. 

Ingredients of salmon skin sushi roll

• 2-3 pieces of salmon skin 
• Soy sauce 1 tablespoon
• Cooked rice 1.5 cups
• Cider vinegar 1.5 tablespoons
• Sugar 1.5 tablespoons
• Salt 1/2 teaspoon
• 1/2 sized black seaweed paper 3 pieces 
• Shiso leaves 5-6 pieces (if available)
• Umeboshi 1 

Directions

1. place a grease proof paper on a oven tray. Heat up the oven over 250C and place salmon pieces on the tray. Grill them for 3-4 mins. Turn over the skin pieces to the other side and grill another for 1 min until they become crispy.

2. Take the skin pieces out from the oven. Dress soy sauce over them

3. Combine salt, sugar and vinegar. Microwave the rice placed in a heat resist container for 1.5 mins.

4. Pour the vinegar over the hot rice. Combine well until the moisture of vinegar disappears.

5. Place a sheet of seaweed black paper on a Makisu (a sushi roll utensil sold in Japanese food shop). Spread a scoop of vinegar-ed rice evenly over the black paper 

6. place pieces of shiso leaves and crushed umeboshi near through the front edge lengthwise. 

7. Start to roll up fro the front edge. Put some pressure over the makisu evenly to make the sushi roll tightly done.

8. Cut the roll pieces into 6 to serve.

I also made cream soup with broccoli cabbage and frankfurt sausage. Broccoli, especially in the stem part contains high amount of vitamin. 

Salmon skin sushi roll and cream soup with broccoli is a great beauty combination and also so tasty. 

The crispy part of salmon nicely matches with fresh vinegar-ed rice and the flavour of seaweed paper. 

I gained more beauty in this yummy dish, I believe. 

Time to prepare: 30 mins
Total cost: 0.5 pounds (0.5 for sausage, all other ingredients are free since they are leftovers)

Collagen Charge with Salmon 1

It's getting cold and dry. Bad weather for our skin health.  
A wrinkled face photo of Sarah Jessica Parker is offered to show the retouch technique in Free Photographing.com.

In fact, she is still very attractive with wrinkles. 

It is only because she is Sara Jessica Parker!!

As being ordinary, I need to take more collagen and vitamin C, the best combination to prevent getting wrinkled, from our daily food! 

As I introduced, chicken wings and the soup made from the chicken wing stock are my regular way to charge collagen.

Dinner on 7 October:

Chicken wings, hot and sour soup made of chicken wings stock and chilli oil, salad, rice

This time, I introduce another beauty food, SALMON!!

Salmon has gained a reputation to be a wonderful food to maintain our physical and mental health as well as our skin beauty. 

It is rich in Vitamin A, B, D, E and it also contains high amount of astaxantin that is effective to anti-oxidisation (a detailed information can be seen here). 

Near the skin, DHA (omega-3 fatty acid) and EPA can be gained. 

Importantly, the skin got high amount of COLLAGEN!!

Salmon can be the very retouch method!!

8 October: salmon belly and cabbage 

Got salmon belly pieces in 1.9 pounds in Japan Centre. According to the shop seller, they get very fresh pieces from the restaurant Toku run by the same owner that locates next to them.

Small pieces of salmon were grilled in oven temperatured at 250C for 5 mins. 

They were topped with chopped shiso leave and dressed with soy sauce to serve.

 I also made cabbage salad. Cabbage provides high amount of Vitamin C. With 3-4 large leaves of cabbage, you can get the essential amount of vitamin C of the day. It also rich in Vitamin U that helps to restore mucosal membrane. 

The combination of salmon and cabbage is wonderful meal for our skin beauty!!

Salmon belly, cabbage salad, ox tongue with sesame oil and lemon, miso soup with fried tofu and spinach, rice

Total time to prepare: 40 mins

Total coat: 3.5 pounds (0.3 for salmon, 1.5 for ox tongue, 0.7 for deep fried tofu, 1 for the rest of veggies)

The art of space in serving pasta: basil pesto (Oct 6)

These days we can get fresh basil leaves very easily throughout year.

Basil pesto is a quick and economical pasta menu when I run out dinner ideas. The perfume of basil and the rich garlic flavour certainly enhance our appetite!! It always secures Mr. Husband's contentment. I truly appreciate Italians who invented this!

Ingredients

• Fresh basil leaves (75g)
• 1 clove of small garlic
• 2 tablespoons of pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese (instead, I used 15g of halloumi)
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• black pepper
• 6-7 mini tomatoes for topping

 Directions

1. Boil 3-4L of water in a large deep pan

2. Cut basil leaves into rough pieces. Process all ingredients except salt and tomatoes for 10 seconds. Open the lid and taste it add salt if necessary (sometimes cheese is very salty). Process it another 10 seconds

3. boil pasta as directed and dress with the pesto. Top the diced tomatoes to serve.

Let me introduce some cost performances in this dish.

Cost performance 1: price

Let's calculate how much is this home made basil pesto.

• Basil (25g): 0.89 pounds
• Halloumi (15g out of 250g offered 2.5 pounds): 0.17 pounds
• Pine nuts (10g out of 250g offered 3.85 pounds): 0.15 pounds
• +garlic and olive oil

This pesto (around 100g for two people) might cost less than 1.4 pounds

In comparison, ready made basil pesto products likely cost 2.7-3 pounds for 100-120g.  

For instance, Sacla basil pesto is offered 

in 2.75 pounds!!

They are fine products but not as fresh as basil leaves. 

Therefore, these products got less flavour but more chemical and salt. 
In addition, they are more expensive. 

Cost performance 2: presentation, the art of space

I serve cappellini or spaghetti in our largest plate as restaurants do

albeit the fact that the dish doesn't fit in our dish washer.

I love the remained space of the dish 

that surrounds food. 

It brings an elegance and romance

in home dinning. 

The below image is from Sacla website introducing recipes of using their products including Basil Pesto.

Looks nice and homely. 

However, even the taste is nice, 

it looks quantitive.

So, what about this?

Same quantity but it looks more tasty!! 

(sorry Sacla)

From this space effect on the serving dish, I can interpret that at restaurants, we pay the space of dishes in addition to ingredients, tenant fee and involved man power. 

At home, the space of dish is free!!

Total time to prepare: 20 mins

Total cost: 3.1 pounds (0.7 for cappellini, 1.4 for pesto, 1 for the rest of veggies and fruit)

The art of Japanese bento: tasty in cold, balanced nutrition, and quick to prepare

Bento is known as the Japanese lunch box. People love to create a tiny cosmology in such small space. 
The recent Lego Bento is a crazy example of bento-deco-fetish and I have to say that we don't have such detailed decorative bento every day. 

However, we concern a lot about the balance of nutrition in bento. Varieties of contents represents the many different foods and ways of preparation involved. Also, we do not spend much time to prepare in busy morning. Sometimes we use leftover, or we prepare in previous night. 

Therefore, bento should look colourful with many different contents and is to be prepared in short time. Besides, it should be tasty when it gets cold.  
That's the art of Bento. 

Today's bento contents and the main nutrition and calories of each is:

• Japanese style fried chicken 70g: protein and fat (250 Kcal)
• yam potato in Japanese style: carbohydrate, fibre (from yam and konjaku), beta-carotene (from carrot) (50 kcal)
• cucumber, tomato and halloumi skewered  salad: vitamin E, beta-carotene, fat and calcium in cheese (40 Kcal)
• 1/2 Boiled egg: Vitamin D, E (38 Kcal)
• 1/4 Apple: kalium, Vitamin E, C (20 Kcal)
• rice: carbohydrate (260 Kcal)
• dried shiso leaf to dress rice: solidum (2 Kcal)

Total calories: 680 Kcal
Total price: 2.4 pounds (1 for chicken, 0.4 for egg, 1 for the rest of veggies)

I seasoned chicken in previous night and also boiled an egg. In the morning, I deepfried chicken pieces in a small frying pan while skewering veggies. 
Rice and yam potato dish were leftover from previous dinner. 

In this morning, as usual, I spend less than 20 mins to complete this bento.

Another bento example is this.

 Contents, nutrition and carories  

• Potato croquette: carbohydrate, fat, vitamin D,E,C, (326 Kcal)
• Omelette with spinach and cheddar cheese: fat, carbohydrate  folic acid, Vitamin A, D, E, K, calcium (210 Kcal)
• 7-8 Cherries: carbohydrate, Kalium, Vitamin D, (60 Kcal)
• Cucumber, apple, halloumi cheese salad:vitamin E, fat and calcium (40 Kcal)
• Rice: carbohydrate (250 Kcal)
• Seaweed: fibre (nearly 0 Kcal)
• Umeboshi: sodium, Kalium (2 Kcal)

Total: 688 Kcal
Total price: 2 pound (0.6 for cherries, 0.4 for egg, 1 for the rest of veggies)

I usually add varieties of veggie dishes but not just salad. Cooked and seasoned veggies taste nicer if served in cold. Whereas salad becomes soggy or dry hours later after the preparation. Skewering small-cut cucumbers, cheese, mini tomatoes, apples makes Bento cute, easy to pick and fun to make.

Let's compare my bento with other popular take away food.

McDonald's lunch (french fry, cheese burgar and diet coke)

French fry (135g): carbohydrate, fat, Kalium (454 Kcal)
Cheese burgar (122g): fat, carbohydrate, sodium, Kalium, calcium (323 Kcal)
Diet coke: sodium (0 Kcal)
Total calories: 777 Kcal
Total Price: 2.90 pounds

Pret A Manger's lunch (BLT sandwich and cappuccino)

Blt sandwich: wholegrain bread, bacon, tomatoes, salad leaves, mayonaise:
fat, carbohydrate, protein, fibre, sodium, Vitamin E (493 K cal, 2.50 pounds)
Cappuccino: carbohydrate, fat, calcium (231 Kcal, 1.79 pounds)
Total: 724 Kcal
Total cost: 4.29 pounds


They got higher calories and certainly additive but less varieties of nutrition either contents. You need to add fruit or salad. Also, they are more expensive.


I introduce one of the most popular Bento contents -Karaage, Japanese fried chicken

Karaage:

Cut chicken thigh into large bite sized

Season the chicken with soy-sauce, mirin 1 tablespoon each, and grated ginger and a clove of garlic.
All are done in a zip-bag.

Close the zip and leave the bag in the fridge overnight. 

Good morning! Start to cook! Heat up a small frying pan and power vegetable oil in 1 cm depth.
Remove the liquid from the bag, take out the chicken and wipe the extra moisture with kitchen paper.
Dust each piece with cornflour.

Deepfry all pieces for 2 mins each side over medium temperature.
While deepfrying the chicken, cut cucumber and tomato into small bite sized and skewer them with a toothpick.

Pack everything tightly!!
Otherwise contents will play football while they are carried in underground.

Bento is ready to go!!

If you need to make bento every day, it is hard. 

However, if you don't, better to make it sometimes. That's the best way to enjoy making bento.

Besides, the person who eats your bento appreciates it more when it happens occasionally. 

When I need to make bento everyday, I'll create more ways to enjoy making it. 

The art of bento will be continued.