Hubby's fav

Ingredients:
3 chicken legs (Katuyo's book lists 3 boneless chicken thighs)
1 tsp fresh ginger juice
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sake
ground black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp sesame oil
3 to 4 heaping tbsp potato starch (I didn't have this on hand so I used tapioca starch which I felt was more crisp)
vegetable oil for deep frying
a few sprigs of parsley

1. Season chicken with ginger juice, soy sauce, sake, pepper and sesame oil. Coat chicken with potato starch.
2. Heat oil in fry pan to medium. Add chicken skin-side-down and fry until golden brown. Turn over.
3. Lower heat slightly and continue frying until chicken is almost cooked. Return heat to high and turn chicken over once more, to crisp. Remove from oil and drain well.
4. Serve with parsley.

Tip from cookbook: It is not necessary to use a lot of oil. If you fill a fry pan halfway with oil, the chicken pieces will be able to "air" during cooking, which makes them crispier.

The picture of the Japanese Pan-fried Chicken look so good and crispy that I just had to try and make it. Yep, this is another recipe in "The Quick and Easy Japanese Cookbook" by Katsuyo Kobayashi. This time I will be using sake that we had just bought. The ingredients list the items I used and if you would like to know the original then you should just check out the cookbook.

Hmmm ....

Ingredients:
2 boneless chicken thighs
2 tbsp sake + 1 1/4 tsp sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
broccoli
carrot

1. For the sauce, combine sake, sugar and soy sauce. Set aside.
2. Heat up the pan. Place the chicken skin-side down and fry over medium-high heat til crisp and golden brown. Turn the other side and do the same.
3. Add broccoli and carrots.
4. When meat is just cooked, add sauce. Turn chicken and vegetables repeatedly to develop the flavour.
5. When the sauce thickens, remove chicken and cut into bite-size pieces.

* The broccoli and carrots were my addition. Katsuyo Kobayashi's recipe had fresh shiitake mushrooms and shishito green peppers (or small bell peppers). She also listed optional seasonings which are Japanese sansho pepper and shichimi togarashi red pepper or chili flakes.

Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked rice (will last two meals for two of us)
2 2/3 cups water (I didn't really follow this measurement rather just added my own estimation)
1 small carrot - julienned (I love carrots so I added more)
1 section (7oz/200g) renkon lotus root or boiled bamboo shoot (I saw the lotus root being sold in TNT and they were broken up in sections and surprisingly the section I bought weighed exactly that amount) - sliced thinly
8 to 10 large shrimp (I added about 14 of the shrimps of the 51/60 size ... whatever that is)
1 tbsp rice vinegar + 4 tbsp rice vinegar
8 to 10 dried shiitake mushrooms (I don't know about dried shiitake mushrooms, I just used whatever dried mushrooms I had and they were big so I used only 6)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp sugar + 1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp sake
1 tsp salt

There were other stuff like the 4 inch strip dried konbu kelp which was optional and the 2 to 3 stalks mitsuba trefoil or italian parsley which I didn't have on hand. I didn't use these two but I did add in spring onions.

The instructions below were what I did since I didn't follow her instructions to the 'T'. If you would like to know the exact instructions, please refer to the book.

1. Wash rice and drain.
2. Julienne the carrot.
3. Cook the shrimp in a small pan of boiling water til they turn colour. Add 1 tbsp vinegar in the pan for flavouring, stir briefly and remove from heat.
4. Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water til they soften. Drain, cut of the stems and reserve the mushroom water. 5. Squeeze the mushrooms to let out any excess water and saute both sides in sesame oil.
6. Add soy sauce, 1 1/2 tbsp sugar and mushroom water to the mushrooms and simmer over medium heat. The mushroom water was just enough to cover the mushrooms. When most of the water have evaporated, cool and cut mushrooms in thin strips. Mmmm ... they were delicious ... just couldn't stop myself from having a piece. (Hubby says: "PIECES you mean! That means more than one piece!!!")

Ingredients all prepared ....

7. Mix sake, salt, 4 tbsp rice vinegar and 1 tbsp sugar. Add the mixture and water to rice in rice cooker or cooking pot. Stir briefly. Arrange the carrots, lotus root evenly over the rice then the shrimp.
8. Cook rice. Allow it to steam for about 10 minutes after it is cooked.
9. Mix the rice gently to spread the ingredients out evenly and serve with mushroom strips and spring onions.

Hubby's portion

What did taste like? Well, a bit vinegar-ry but it was different. I loved the mushrooms and the lotus root was nice and crisp. Would I try it again? Yes but the next time I am going to use sake instead of shaoxing wine.

Hubby and I had recently watched a documentary on the Passionate Eye entitled "SuperSize Me" on the horrors of fastfood and somehow it turned us off burgers. We had some time ago bought of ground beef to make burgers but I didn't quite like having buns since we already have had bread for breakfast so when I saw this recipe in the cookbook "The Quick and Easy Japanese Cookbook" by Katsuyo Kobayashi, a popular television cooking personality in Japan, I thought, why not have this instead.

No buns, please ...

Ingredients:
400 g ground beef
1/2 tsp salt
ground black pepper to taste
1/2 onion - chopped finely
vegetable oil for frying
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 cup breadcrumbs
2/3 cup water
3 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp sake (I substituted shao xing cooking wine for this)
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp butter

1. Season the beef with salt and black pepper.
2. According to the recipe, saute the onion in a little oil until transparent and set aside which I didn't. I left it as it was, uncooked.
3. Mix the egg and milk.
4. Add in the breadcrumbs to the egg and milk mixture and set it aside for the flavours to mingle.
5. Add the mixture above and the onions to the beef and mix lightly with your hand.
6. Divide into 4 portions. The cookbook recommends "tossing each portion from one hand to the other, as if playing catch, to remove excess air and shape into 4 hamburgers, indenting the middle of each with your thumb".
7. Fry the patties in a little oil over medium heat until brown on both sides.
8. Add hot/boiling water to half cover the patties. Cover pan, simmer until cooked.
9. Remove cover and allow any liquid to evaporate and remove patties.

For sauce, in the same pan,
Add water, ketchup, sake, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and butter. Simmer til slightly thickened and ladle over hamburgers.

The cookbook recommends serving it with your favourite vegetables. I served mine with mashed potatoes and salad.

It's a change from eating beef hamburgers in a bun and I would definitely cook this again in the near future

Best of pals

I love the Siberian tiger. I found him in a Shang Ri La laundry bag in the hall of the house where I used to live back in USJ, Selangor, Malaysia. I used to say to hubby that if only his tail was battery operated and could swing to and fro, he would definitely scare any unwelcome visitors

The koala bear was a gift from a friend who migrated to Australia years ago. I have lost contact with her for some years now and hope that she is happy and in good health.

The brown lion belonged to my younger sister or was it one of my nephews or was it ... well, whatever, he was lounging around my mom and dad's so I decided to take him in and along the way, gave it to Hubby to watch over him when he was alone in Canada.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
1 cup warm water
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 packet yeast (3 tsp)
*1/8 cup or more sunflower seeds (optional)
*1/8 cup flax seeds (optional)
*1/8 cup or more raisins (optional)

*you can experiment the amount you like and add in others as well

First, put the milk, honey, warm water, vegetable oil, yeast and salt into a mixing bowl.

The wet ingredients

Next, put in the flour, the sunflower and flax seeds.

Flour is in

I usually use a spatula to mix them all together or you can use the beater.

All mixed together with the spatula

Turn on the stand mixer to 2nd speed for about 7 mins to knead using the dough hook.

Dough all kneaded

Let the dough proof in a warm place til it doubles in size. Then punch down the dough. Divide into two, shape the first one and put in a greased loaf pan. Add in the raisins to the second one. Proof the dough a second time.

Going in ...

Put the dough in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 mins or so. Tap the underside of the bread for a hollow sound.

Cooling down ...

I usually freeze one since it is only two of us. When the first one finishes, I would defrost the other one and reheat it in the oven.

Raisin bread

You can find the original recipe at Whole Wheat Bread Recipe.

1 1/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp butter (melted)
1 tsp salt
3 cups all purpose flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat and 2 cups APF)
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1. Proof the yeast with sugar and warm water in mixer for about 10 mins.
2. Add the melted butter.
3. Add dry ingredients.
4. Switch to dough hook and knead for about 7 - 8 mins.
5. Proof once in the mixing bowl and another time in the loaf pans.
6. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 mins.

Going in for a tan ...

All nice and brown

We also had them with homemade mushroom soup.

Going in for a dunk!

All my hearts ...

I love butter cookies! I remember that when I was a child, I used to go for those Danish butter cookies with the sprinklings of sugar on them. They were heavenly!

I check out a few recipes but wasn't too satisfied with them, they were okay but just okay. Then I came upon this recipe which was in RecipeZaar, under the heading the World's Best Butter Cookies. They turned out nice and buttery ... hmmm ....