Tag Archives: ハムバーグ

Korean Cuisine: Home-Made Gochujang

April 1, 2010 dragonlife 6 Comments

Gochujang is a savory and pungent fermented Korean condiment. Traditionally, it has been naturally fermented over years in large earthen pots outdoors, more often on an elevated stone platform, called jangdokdae (장독대) in the backyard.
It has been made at home in Korea since the 16th century, after chili peppers were first introduced. The making of gochujang at home began tapering off when commercial production started in the early 1970s and came into the mass market. Now, homemade gochujang can hardly be found.

Not only the Koreans, but the Japanese use it a lot when they make their own-style Korean food!

Here is a simple home-made recipe that should help everyone control the ingredients.
And it has the merit to be vegan/vegetarian!

INGREDIENTS:

-Water: 270 ml/cc
-Brown sugar/cane sugar: 250 g
-Miso: 300 g (try use more than 1 kind!)
-Korean Chili pepper powder: 100 g
-Salt: 1 tablespoon
-Japanese sake or Korean soju: 1 teaspoon
-Rice vinegar: 1 teaspoon

RECIPE:

-Pour water in a large enough pan. Add sugar. Heat until all brown sugar is dissolved.

-Add miso. try and use a combination of a few miso pastes. It will add to the taste. Keep heating, stirring with a wooden spatula all the time until mixture is smooth.

-Once most of the water has disappeared, add Korean Chili pepper powder. Mix well. Keep heating and slowly stirring untl water has disappeared and big bubbles start bursting at the surface.

-Switch off fire. Let cool until about 25~30 degrees Celsius temperature (your own skin temperature!). Add salt, sake/soju and rice vinegar. Stir well. This last step at this temperature will insure that all yeasts are killed and will prevent further fermentation.

-Secure inside a vessel and leave inside the fridge. Can be kept for a whole year inside the fridge.

USAGE SUGGESTION:

Korean-Style Fish Carpaccio

Mix some gochujang with red miso, rice vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, Japanese sake or Korean soju and sesame oil. Stir the lot well and pour over a plate of sliced fish such as pike mackerel/saurel!

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Chinese Cuisine: Home-Made Sweet Bean Paste/Tiánmiànjiàng

March 31, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Sweet bean sauce also known as sweet bean paste, sweet soybean paste, sweet flour sauce, or sweet noodle sauce, is a thick, dark brown- or black-colored Chinese sauce made from wheat flour, sugar, salt, mantou, and ground fermented yellow soybeans (that is, what is left of the soybeans after the fermentation of soybeans into soy sauce).

Not only the Chinese, but the Japanese use it a lot when they make their own-style Chinese food!
You can avoid looking for it by making it yourself and at the same time control the ingredients.
Here is a simple suggestion for a home-made recipe!
And it has the merit to be vegan/vegetarian!

INGREDIENTS:

-Red miso: 600 g
-Sugar: 300 g
-Soy sauce: 5 tablespoons
-Japanese sake/Cooking sake: 3 tablespoons
-Water: 3 cups/600 cc/ml

RECIPE:

-Pour all ingredients into a large enough pan and stir well.

-Switch on fire and cook over low fire stirring all the time.

-The water will gradually disappear. When large bubbles break out on the surface, switch off fire and let cool completely.

-Transfer into a vessel you can securely close and keep in the fridge.
The sauce can be preserved for 4 months in the fridge.

USE SUGESTIONS:

With tofu:
Vegan, vegetarians can fry vegetables with tofu and sauce.
Omnivores can add minced meat fried beforehand.

With noodles:
Vegan, Vegetarians can fry vegetables and nuts in the sauce before topping the noodles (non-egg noodles)

Can be added to stewed beef (and sprinkled with some chopped leeks just before serving).

Can be used in sauce for “Hayashi Rice”, a typical Japanese beef and rice dish.

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Chinese-Style Sashimi!

March 25, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

Sashimi is not and should not the sole property of Japanese gastronomy.
After all, carpaccio is nothing but a varietyof sahimi!
I remember savouring this Cinese=style sashimi for the first time in Shizuoka City in a great French restaurant!

So next time you get your hands on a nice piece of fresh white-fleshed fish, why don’t you try experiment?
Below is the method. Do experiment with quantities!

Chionese-Style Sashimi!

INGREDIENTS: For 2~people

-Sole, Seabream, Snapper: a large fillet
-White leek: 1
-Fresh coriander: as appropriate
-Wantan, wonton, wuntun wrappers: as appropriate
-Peanuts: as appropriate
-Fresh ginger: as appropriate
-Lettuce: a appropriate
-Lemon or lime: as appropriate
-Peanuts oil: 2 tablespoons
-Sesame oil: 2 tablespoons

Sauce:
-Soy sauce: 3 tablespoons
-White leeks: 1 tablespoon (Chopped finely)
-Red chillies (sliced thin): 1
-Coriander (finely chopped): 1 tablespoon (chopped finely)
-White Sesame oil: 1 tablespoon

RECIPE:

-Cut the fish into thin slices.

-Cut the white leek into very thin strips, leave in water for a while and drain well.

-Cut the lettuce into 1 cm wide strips.

-Cut the wanton wrappers into 1 cm wide strips and deep-fried until crispy. Place them on a kitchen paper to absorb excess oil and cool down.

-Crush the peanuts in small bits.

-Cut the fresh ginger into very thin strips, leave in clean water for a while, then drain thoroughly.

-Prepare the sauce. in a bowl drop the soy sauce, chopped white leeks, thinly sliced red chili, chopped coriander and white sesame oil and mix well. If you warm this sauce up a little before pouring it over the fish, the flavours will be enhanced.

-On a serving dish (look at the picture!), place the slices of fish on a bed of lettuce and sprinkle with a very small amount of salt and pepper.

-Top with a much as you want white leek strips, ginger strips, deep-fried wanton wrappers, crushed peanuts, appropriately cut fresh coriander, lemon or lime slices and pour the sauce all over.

-As a last optional touch, heat peanuts oil and sesame oil (2 to 1) until it smokes and pour it over the top! You could also press a lemon over the top and add more spices in the sauce!

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Steamed Sushi

March 25, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

A new foodie friend of mine, Michelle Karam, whom I met on Social Culinaire, was just mentioning she could not wait to come to Japan to eat sushi, as it was just frustrating and terribly expensive in her own country.
Well, why not making it yourself, then?
“It’s too difficult and one cannot get the ingredients!”
Really? There must be enough stores all the world by now which sell the basics. So why don’t you try this simple recipe for a start!

Steamed sushi!

INGREDIENTS: For 3~ people

-Rice: 3 cups/600 cc

Sushi vinegar:
-Rice vinegar: 3 tablespoons
-Sugar: just under 3 tablespoons
-Salt: 1 teaspoon

-Conger eels (anago/穴子): 3 (can be bought frozen
-Soy sauce: 2 tablespoons
-Mirin/Japanese sweet sake: 2 tablespoons

-Dried shiitake mushrooms: 3~4 (medium-sized)
-Dashi/Japanese soup stock: 1 cup/200 cc/ml
-Sugar: 1 tablespoon
-Soy sauce:1 tablespoon

-Trefoil or Italian Parsley: 1 bunch

-Eggs: 5
-Sugar: 1 teaspoon
-Salt: 1/2 teaspoon

-Amazu jinja/ginger marinated in sweet vinegar: as appropriate for decoration/seasoning

RECIPE:

-Wash rice and steam in the normal way

-Unless you can buy the conger eels already cooked and seasoned, vut their heads and tail, cut in half lengthwise and across again into one-bite sized pieces. Fry slowly with soy sauce and mirin/sweet sake until cooked and well-impregnated with seasoning sauce. Set apart.

-In a pan pour the dashi/Japanese soup stock. Add the dried shiitake and stew until the mushrooms have become soft. Add the sugar and soy sauce. Keep simmering until all liquid has disappeared. Let cool. Cut into fine slices. Set apart.

-Drop the trefoil in hot salted water for a few seconds. Drain well and cut into 2 cm long pieces.

-Make a thin omelette with the eggs beaten with sugar and salt. Cut into thin threads.

-Once the rice has been steamed, transfer it into a large vessel (wooden preferably, but a large ceramic dish will do). add the rice vinegar, sugar and salt evenly over it. Mix by “cutting in” the rice with a wet paddle. Add conger eels and their juices, shiitake mushrooms and mix lightly.

-Place an equal amount of the rice into bowls and steam (with a lid on) for 15 minutes over a strong fire. Open the lid, placean equal amount of eggthreads and steam again for 1 more minute.

-Serve topped with trefoil and sweet vinegar marinated ginger!

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Japanese-style Hamburger: Basic Recipe

March 24, 2010 dragonlife 6 Comments

The Japanese, like almost everyone in this World, love their “hamburgers”!
But the way the Japanese go at it is slightly different in concept, design and taste from more “regular” types found on the American and European continents.
The Japanese name reflects the difference as it is usually called “nikomi Hambaagu/煮込みハムバーグ”, meaning “stewed hamburger”
Below is the basic recipe, or more aptly said, the way to go about iit. I only explained the ingredients and the method. I purposedly omitted to cite the proportions and weights as this is where all individual “secrets” reside. Do experiment!

INGREDIENTS:

-Panko/Bredacrumbs
-Milk
-Minced meat: Pork or beef, or if you are Japanese a mixture of both
-Finely chopped onion
-Egg (s)
-Pressed tofu (take out as much water as possible)
-Thyme (powder)
-Nutmeg (powder)
-Salt
-Pepper

Sauce:
-Red wine
-Water
-Chicken bouillon (powder/cube)
-Tomato paste
-Ketchup
-Worcestershire sauce
-Sugar ( only a little!)

Accompaniment:
-Shimeji mushrooms
-Onion

RECIPE:

-In a bowl imbibe panko with milk.

-Add minced meat, chopped onion, egg, tofu, thyme, nutmeg, salt, pepper. Mix well by hand. Fashion hamburgers between your palms. Press the middle to create a small “valley”. Fry hamburgers on a frypan over a medium fire covered with a lid. When juices come out of the hamburger inside the valley, it will be almost ready.

-Take the hamburgers out and preserve them between two hot plates. In the same frypan, flambe the red wine, then add water, chicken bouillon powder, tomato paste, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, a littke sugar. Mix and cook until the sauce has reached the state of your preference.

-Fry the onion and shimeji mushrooms in a separate frypan.
When 80% cooked add them to the sauce with the hamburgers and stew for a while.

-Serve with mashed potatoes and boiled greens!

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French Cuisine: Sauteed Landes Duck Foie Gras with Madeira Sauce on Truffles Risotto

March 11, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Service: excellent and very friendly
Facilities: great washroom, great cleanliness overall
Prices: reasonable, good value.
Strong points: Interesting wine list. Great use of local products.
entirely non-smoking!

Another reason for visiting Pissenlit on a regular basis is that Chef Tooru Arima is capable of using the most extravagant ingredients and still offer them at a very reasonable price.

This Duck foie gras (how about that, Arnie?LOL) from the Landes area, South Western France) was fried/flambe to perfection. It sounds easy, but the timing is extremely difficult. I should know as I cannot count the times I have failed.
Now the Madeira sauce was in perfect balance with the foie gras, whereas the truffles risotto offered the salted counterpoint to the sweetness of the foie gras and sauce!

Alright, how much? Less than 30 US $!

PISSENLIT
420-0839 Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Takajo, 2-3-4
Tel.: 054-270-8768
Fax: 054-627-3868
Business hours: 11:30~14:30; 17:00~22:00
Closed on Tuesdays and Sunday evening
Homepage (Japanese)
Credit Cards OK

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French Cuisine: Landes Duckling and Orange Salad at Pissenlit

March 11, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

Tooru Arima is a lucky chef:
He has access to some of the best organic vegetables and fruit all year long in this country.
No wonder he can prepare this succulent salad with duckling from the Landes area in France and cook it to perfection before letting it cool down and cut it thin slices to be served with oranges from Shizuoka. As for the green leaf vegetables inclkuding trefoil, luccolla and others are all organic and from our prefecture.
Customers are lucky, too, aren’t they? LOL

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French Gastronomy: Mosaic Vegetables Terrine at Pissenlit

March 11, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Tooru Arima has a special love for anything vegetables and is constantly on a quest to serve them in an original manner!

Above is a beautiful example of his imagination.
Served with a red sweet pimento mousse, it makes for the best appetizer in town with a great white wine!

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Japanese Cuisine: Nankotsu Tsukune

March 10, 2010 dragonlife 4 Comments

I have already introduced many ways to make “Tsukune”, or chicken patties in yakitori fashion.

Nankotsu/軟骨/ means cartilage or cartilageous parts of the chicken (and other animals) bones. The Japanese eat them as such in yakitori, but they also add great taste to patties. Moreover they are very nutritious, so do make a good use of them if you can get your hands on fresh ones!

INGREDIENTS: For 3~4 people

-Chicken: 200 g (minced)
-Nankotsu/cartilage: 90 g
-Onion: 1/3 of a medium-sized one
-Fresh ginger: a piece of 5×5 cm
-Salt: a pinch
-Black pepper: a pinch
-Cornstarch: 1 tablespoon
-Japanese sake: a little (for boiling wate)
-Water: for boiling
-Soy sauce: 2 tablespoons
-Sugar: 2 tablespoons
-Japanese sake: 1 tablespoon (for seasoning/cooking)
-White sesame seeds: for seasoning before serving
-Leeks: cut to length appropriate for skewers

RECIPE:

-In a food processor drop the minced chicken, onion, ginger, salt and pepper cornstarch. Let turn for a little while. Stop and drop in the cartilages/nankotsu. Turn until the cartilages have been broken into small pieces.

-Make chicken balls either by hand or with two spoons. Boil them in water added with alittle Japanese sake. Scoop balls out once they have started foating on the surface.

-In a small frypan pour the soy sauce, sugar and sake. Fry the chicken balls with pieces of leeks (broccoli is fine, too) in the sauce till they are well coated.

-Skewer the chicken balls and leek as shown on top picture. Grill them in toatser or oven until they attain the right colour and crispiness. Baste them with the remaining sauce half way!

Makes for a great snack withh beer, or a good addition to bento!

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Tofu & Chicken Burgers

March 7, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

The Japanese love hamburgers, or any burger/patty for that matter, but they are not afraid to experiment and make them lighter and healthier.

Here is a simple recipe that can expanded and enjoyed by anyone, whatever their age!

Tofu & Chicken Burgers!

INGREDIENTS: for 10 small burgers

-Tofu: 1 block/400g (kinu/silk tofu)
-Eringe mushrooms: 1 large (if not available, chose a large and soft mushroom)
-Shiitake: 6=7 small ones (fresh if possible. If not, soften them in lukewarm water first)
-Panko/Breadcrumps: 1 and a half cups/300 ml/cc
-Boiled burdock root (or salsifis): 100 g
-Chicken (breast if possible): 100~200g (according to preferences)
-Onion: Half a large one.
-Egg: 1
-Black pepper: a little
-Daikon (grated): as much as you like
-Ponzu: as much as you like (can be replaced with soy sauce)

RECIPE:

-Rub some salt on the tofu, place a weight on it, and take out as much water out of it. Chop the eringe mushroom, onion and shiitake finely and separately. Drop the chicken and burdock root in a food processor and mince.

-Leave the chopped onion in a microwave for 4 minutes at 500W. This way,you won’t have to fry it separately. Definitely healthier!

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-In a bowl, drop all the ingredients except the daikon and ponzu.

-Mix well by hand.

-Make 10 small realatively thin burgers/patties between your palms, and press them in their middle.

-Fry them in a little oil in a non-stick frypan over a low fire.

-Fry them slowly on both sides until they attain a nice brown colour.

-Mount them on a bed of greens. Press the water out of the grated daikon. make a ball of it and place it on top of the burgers. Pour some ponzu (or soy sauce) on the grated daikon ball, just enough to colour it.