Japanese Rice Omelette "Omurice" (Sunday Brunch)

This menu is created in Japan in early 20th century. When Japan opened to the international world, many western things were introduced there including food such as omelette. They started to season rice with ketchup and add the omelette or scrambled egg on the top and called it "rice omelette". In this way the menu "omurice" was  established. Omurice is still very popular all over Japan. It is one of the best way to recycle leftover rice and veggies.

To see the omurice cooking, please watch a scene from a film, "Tampopo". 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu7amiPEJhU&feature=fvwrel.

Ingredients (for two people) 

2.5 cups of leftover rice (if it is frozen, please defrost in microwave for 40 seconds), 1/2 large onion, 4 eggs, 2-3 pieces of ham or sausage, 3 tablespoons+ ketchup, salt and pepper

Directions

1. Cut the onion and ham into pieces such as 5mm cube. 
2. Heat a large frying pan with one table spoonful vegetable oil and start to fry the onion
3. When the onion became translucent, add the rest of ingredients and keep mixing them well 
4. Add two table spoonfuls ketchup, salt and pepper and mix well until everything mixed thoroughly
5. Put the half portion of fried rice (for one person) into a bowl and press the surface with the spatula to make the portion dense. Cover the bowl with a serving dish and flip it upside down and reshape the top of the rice with spoon or cling film to make it flat (for the stable landing of the omelette)
6. Heat a small frying pan with one table spoonful oil and beat the egg in a bowl
7. Make a half done omelette and place it on the top of the fried rice
8. Add some ketchup on the top (in my Japanese family, they draw eachone's name on each portion. It is fun.)

Fry the rice and veggies thoroughly

Put the rice into a bowl densely 

Cover the bowl with a dish and flip them upside down

Flatten the top of the rice potion 

Place the omelette on the top

Total time for preparing: 20 mins
Total cost: 70p for two eggs and 1/2 onion

Pasta with Gorgonzola and pear with truffle oil, Balsamic Ox tongue salad (Dinner 23 June)

This pasta recipe was originally introduced by my Italian friend some years ago. Since then we became a fan of this. I modified it into my way as adding truffle oil. This is a marriage of rich and sharp flavour of Gorgonzola cheese and sweet and delicate taste of pear. The hint of truffle oil upgrades the dish to a luxury. In addition, this is very easy and quick to prepare.

Ingredients: 200-250g Rigatoni pasta, 1.5-2 fully ripe pears, 200g Gorgonzola cheese, truffle oil, olive oil, S&P

Pasta with Gorgonzola and pear with truffle oil

1. Boil plenty of water (more than 3 L) in a deep pan for cooking pasta. Add 1.5 table spoonful salt and start to cook the pasta for 10-12 mints
2. Peel the skin of pears and cut them into 1.5cm cube. Cut the cheese into the same size
3. When the pasta ready, drain the water with a net. Add the cheese into the pan and stir well to mix with pasta and allow the cheese melt. 
4. Add pieces of pear, black pepper and 1 tablespoonful truffle oil (I usually do not add any salt since Gorgonzola cheese tastes enough salty)

While boiling pasta, I prepared salad with staffs left in my fridge.

Mushrooms, paprika, cucumber and slices of ox tongue

I got some packs of ox tongue from Japan Centre. This should be cooked very quickly and served immediately. 

Ox tongue salad with Balsamic vinegar

1. Season the ox tongue with S&P
2. While cutting all veggies, heat a small flying pan and cook mushrooms with olive oil and a tiny potion of garlic (1/2 teaspoonful) 
3. Put the mushrooms into a salad bowl with other veggies and wipe the pan with paper towel. 
4. Add some olive oil and heat the pan into a high flame then cook the ox tongue very quickly such as for 20 seconds of each side and add 1 tablespoonful balsamic vinegar

As the weather was very bad, I stayed at home. To entertain myself, I made a dessert with oranges that Mr. Husband brought from his office. Recently oranges became his office snack since he started to concern his weight gain. Perhaps he became bit tired of healthy snack so decided to take them to home.  So, I remade them into un-boring way.

Orange jelly cup

1. Cut the oranges into half and squeeze the juice. Keep the cups and remove the skin of the meat
2. Gently boil 1/4 cups of water with1.5 table spoonful sugar
3. When the sugar is dissolved, add 3 leaves of gelatin (about 7g) and stir it till the gelatin is dissolved in low temperature
4. Add the orange juice and 1 teaspoonful lemon juice and mix well
5. Strain the jelly liquid with a net and gently power it into the cups of oranges into full level. Place them in a plate or small tray.
6. Deliver the tray to the fridge and store it there for two hours
7. Cut the orange cup into half or 1/3  for serving 

Total time for preparing: 30 mints

Total cost 5.03 pounds: 2 pounds for Gorgonzola cheese, 50p for pears, 2.23 pounds for ox tongue, 30p for other veggies

Bread Pudding, Asparagus Soup 

(Brunch 23 June)

Bread pudding, asparagus pottage soup, cabbage salad, tea

2/3 of budget was left from our steak date happened two days ago. Two apples were also left for a month and started to shrink. Bread pudding is one of the best way to recycle old bread and apple in tasty way.

In the previous night, I made caramel with dark muscovado sugar and powered it on the bottom of a baking pan (lightly greased with olive oil) and left it in the freezer. In Japan, muscovado sugar is one of popular healthy foods since  it contains high amount of mineral and vitamin B. It offers richer flavour and taste than that of caster sugar. I love using muscovado sugar for my daily cooking. 

Making caramel with muscovado sugar

One egg, 1 cup of milk and 2 tablespoonful caster sugar were mixed into a bowl  for soaking old budget sliced in 1cm

Old apples 

Old apples were peeled and caramelised with 1 tablespoonful caster sugar with a teaspoonful butter

While caramelising apples, heat up the oven into 160C. Place the soaked budget on the baking pan and put pieces of apples on the top with some dry fruits and nuts. Bake it for 40 mints.

While baking the pudding I prepared asparagus soup. I found a tiny piece of fennel left in the bottom of our fridge. Pottage soup is also nice way to use up old veggies.

Asparagus pottage

1. Cut off the hard part in the bottom and peel the skin of asparagus with peeler
2. Chop 
3. Cut 1/2 spring onion into pieces and fennel and fry in a deep pan with a tablespoonful butter.
4. When onion and fennel became tender or translucent, add a half tablespoonful plain flower and mix all the ingredient for another 2 mints
5. Add chopped asparagus and water to cover the ingredients. Allow it to boil and turn the heat weak, add S&P and leave it another 2 mints
6. When the asparagus became tender, turn off the heat and load everything into the jar of mixer (or star to  blend with a handy blender) for 3 mints.
7. Put the neat on the pan and drain the soup

When everything was nearly ready, I got a message from my family in Japan and chatted with them through skype... then, I burnt the pudding!!

Whenever I burned something in oven, I swore to remember switching on the timer with alarm before baking.... So did I in this time, again...  
Luckily Mr. Husband enjoyed the burnt part of the pudding and we emptied everything. 
Though slightly brunt, it was a very sweet branch.


Total time to prepare: 50 mints
Total cost: 2 pounds 80p for budget, 1 pounds for asparagus, 20p for other veggies

Cabbage salad, chicken and cashew nuts with oyster sauce, miso-cod (Dinner 22 June)

Cabbage salad, chicken and cashew nuts with oyster sauce, miso-cod, rice and miso-soup (deep fried tofu and Shineji mushroom)

I got a big pointed cabbage two weeks ago and still large portion was left. It needed to be consumed urgently. The best way to eat cabbage a lot at once is to boil or to pickle. This time, I chose the latter.

Cabbage salad ingredients: 

Cabbage, shallot, dill, paprika (instead, I love to use carrot), (if you have, fennel), olive oil, cider (or white wine) vinegar, salt and pepper

Cabbage salad

1. Slice cabbage, shallot, paprika as thin as possible. Using a slicer is helpful. Chop dill into pieces. 
2. Put all veggies into a large bowl. Season them with vinegar (1.5 tablespoon) and olive oil (one tablespoon) as well as salt (1/2 teaspoon) and black pepper.
3. Mix well and leve it for 10 mints before serving.

Miso seasoned black cod from Japan Centre is very convenient and tasty. This is one of Mr. Husband's favourite Japanese dishes. I always got two or three packs of this for "backup dish". Just heat up the oven into 250, place the cod in a try with baking sheet, put into the oven for 4 mins and turn the heat off. Leave it for another 3 mins.

Chicken with cashew nuts is usually a main. But not today. I wanted to use this one piece of chicken thigh left in the freezer. Cashew nuts were storen from Mr. Husband's beer snack.

chicken and cashew nuts with oyster sauce

1. Cut chicken thigh and spring onion into 1cmx1cm cube.
2. Put chicken, chopped garlic, grated ginger, oyster sauce and soy-sauce (1 teaspoonful each), mirin (1 teaspoonful each). 
3. Take pieces of chicken out from the sauce and place them into the paper towel and power starch flour (1 tablespoon ful).
4. Heat a frying pan in high temperature, and add chicken and spring onion. Cook it for 4 minutes till they are done then add the sauce left int the bowl and two tablespoonful hot water. Allow all the ingredient simmer till they get gooey. 
5. Serve it with some green (some coriander, lettuce or  thinly sliced cucmber)

Total time for cooking: 30 mnts

Total cost 10.35 pounds: 7.15 pounds for miso-cod, 1.20 pounds for chicken thigh, 2 pound for the rest of ingredients.

Steak Date (sirloin steak, tomato salad with shallot and par sauce, potato gratin

Dinner on 21^st June)

Sirloin steak, tomato salad with shallot and pare, potato gratin, more salad and bugget 

As we had fishy mains these days, Mr. Husband demanded sirloin stake. We usually get nice pieces from a Yorkshire based cool butcher Ginger Pig in Marylebone. Allens in Mayfair also offers very good quality meat. Once we had a blind taste and concluded, Ginger Pig is for us!! We call our steak dinning as a "date" although it happens at our place. 

Shostakovich Piano Concerto No 1. in C minor, Op.35 is an essential BGM for our stake date  and it ritualises the flavour, texture and the atmosphere.

Tomato salad with shallot and pare is popular menu at our dinning and never missed appreciations. As tomato season started, let me introduce this menu.

Ingredient: mini-tomatoes (8-10), shallot (1/2), pear (1/4), dill, cinder vinegar, olive oil, salt and black pepper

Tomato salad 

1. Boil water in a deep pan while preparing cold water in a deep bowl
2. Chop shallot as small as possible, soak these pieces into water in a bowl with a teaspoonful salt for 3 mints. Then drain them with a net and place them on a paper towel to remove the moisture
3. Put tomatoes into the boiling pan and keep heating them for 20 seconds then immediately take them out from the pan and place them into the prepared cold water. In this process, you can easily remove out the skin of tomatoes
4. Chop dill into pieces
5. Put tomatoes without skin, pieces of shallot and dill, olive oil and cider vinegar (teaspoonful each), S&P into a bowl and grate the piece of pear and then mix everything well. Leave it at least for 10 mints before serving.

This tomato salad is very convenient especially when we invite guests or take it for picnic. Unlike the leafy salad, we can prepare it in the previous night and store it in the fridge. In addition, the process of peeling the skin of tomatoes allow them absorve the pear-sauce and maximise the flavour of tomatoes.

For his slavic gene, according to Mr. Husband, potato gratin must be with our steak. I'll introduce this menu later. 

I make a larger portion of salad with the combination of different kinds of vinegars such as cinder and balsamic. Vinegars are considered to lower our blood pressure when they are taken with food. Therefore, they are essential ingredients for our dinning where we consume at least one bottle of wine each time. 

 In the very end of cooking the steak meat, I put a tablespoonful balsamic vinegar as well as the same amount of soy-sauce. Balsamic vinegar makes the flavour of fatty meat something light and fresh. Soy-sauce enhances the meet flavour.

Total time for cooking: 20 mins (excluding seasoning steak with salt and black pepper for at least 2 hours)

Total cost: 22.7 pounds (20 pounds for steak, 1 pound for tomatos, 1 pound for other veggies, 70p for bugget).  This number looks a bit expensive as one home dinner, however, this is a "date". If we consider to have it at a steak restaurant, this can be reasonable. 


If we eating out for steak, we usually go to Gaucho Grill http://www.gauchorestaurants.co.uk/. Their selection of meet and the preciseness of cooking (rare, medium rare, etc.) are amazing.

Spicy tofu stir-fry with Korean-miso 

(Dinner on 19th June)

 Deep fried tofu stir fry, Sashimi, Miso soup with winter cabbage and rice

I had an active day around Mayfair area. Attended a ballet class at Dance Works, had a nice coffee with my friend in a cute caffe Taylor St Baristas in Brook Mews, then did shoes hunting in Fenwick. I got a bit tired and decided to have sashimi for the main for today's dinner. I usually get fresh sashimi in Atariya. There are some branches of Atariya including the one near Bond Street Station. We can dine there as well as get some take aways of sashimi or sushi. After Atariya, as usual, I dropped to Waitrose in John Lewis to top up more food stuffs. Mayfair area is quite convenient for food shopping.

Sashimi is a quite mild dish. To satisfy a male stomach (of Mr. Husband), I needed to add a slightly strong flavoured dish. Stir-fry with korean miso (you can get it any oriental food shops) was the solution.

Spicy deep fried tofu stir fry with Korean-miso  (1/3 paprika, 1 Spring Onion, 1/2 Deep fried tofu, sliced pork, ginger and garlic, starch flower, soy sauce, mirin and Korean miso)

1.  Slice veggies thin, chop pork 1cmx5cm and cut tofu in the same length of other staffs
2. Put pork into a bowl and add soya sauce and mirin (1 tablespoonful each), then grate half cube of garlic and same amount of ginger and mix well
3. Prepare Korean miso (the red box in the photo) by putting into a small container and add 2 tablespoonful hot water and dissolve it
4. Take the pork out from the bowl and place it on the paper towel, then power a tablespoonful starch flower (keep the seasoning)
5. Heat a large frying pan with high temperature and put all the ingredient. Keep mixing until the pork is done (roughly for 4 mints)
6. Add the pork seasoning and Korean miso water and allow the ingredient to boil for 1 mint till the sauce gets gooey
7. Serve them with some coriander (if you have) on the top

I usually prepare other dish (rice and miso-soup) first and start to cook stir fry dish in the very end to serve it in hot.

Total time for cooking: 20 mints

Total cost: 2.2 pounds 

1.4 pounds for Tofu (1/2 of 2.80), 30p for pork (1/6 of 1.80), 60p for spring onion, 10p for paprika and other (excluding 21 pounds of sashimi).

 

How to dispose used oil?

When you see any deep-fry recipes, a question might arise  “so, what to do with the oil left in the pan after cooking??”  
Environment Agency offeres some nice tips. 

I usually store these paper containers of juice or milk that got a layer of aluminium inside. This kind of juice packs cannot be taken for paper recycling. They are very strong and very good for disposing used oil.

Disposing used oil

1.   Cut and open the top of the container and let it stand on the sink

2.   Power the oil (cold) into the container

3.   Wipe the pan with a paper towel (instead, I often make pieces of cloth for wiping with my husband’s old, worn out office shirts or t-shits. After washing them with a tiny drop of breach, cut into pieces) and throw into the container

4.   Close the mouth of it and bind it with a rubber band

5.   Put into a plastic bag and place it in the bottom of the bin bag

*Please power the oil when it gets cool down. Don't do this straight after the cooking!!