Crispy Fried Chicken
This dish was definitely a hit with Hubby coz he just loves fried chicken, more so, crispy fried chicken. This recipe is taken from Katsuyo Kobayashi's "The Quick and Easy Japanese Cookbook". Her ecipe calls for boneless chicken thighs cut into bite size pieces but I decided to go with the chicken legs which I slit on one side and spread the meat out.
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.
Japanese Pan-fried Chicken
Why is it that the picture in cookbooks always always look so much more attractive then the real thing that you cook in your kitchen? Hubby says it is all in the touching up of the pictures. Well, sometimes, I wonder.
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.
Mixed Rice with Shrimp and Vegetables
This is second recipe I am trying out from "The Quick and Easy Japanese Cookbook" by Katsuyo Kobayashi. This dish is also the first recipe in the book. I don't have any sake so according to the an internet page, I can use shaoxing wine instead. Hmmm ... wonder if that will work.
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.
Japanese-Style Hamburgers
Instead of always looking online for recipes, I decided to borrow a cookbook, a Japanese cookbook. Hubby drove me down to the nearest library which had a selection of Japanese cookbooks. I was looking for a sembei recipe but did not find any so I just borrowed a couple of books which seemed to have simple and easy recipes.
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 
Fluffy Whole Wheat Bread
I have tried a few recipes for 100% whole wheat bread and I have been dissatisfied until I came across this recipe. The bread came out fluffy and soft. It was so good that when I took it out of the oven, we would have eaten the whole loaf if we did not stop ourselves. The recipe is good enough to make two loaves since I used the medium sized loaf pan. I use the KitchenAid stand mixer for the dough.
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.
Bread with Rolled Oats
I found this recipe some time ago and decided to give it a try with the packet of oats we bought for breakfast.
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!
Butter Prawns Malaysian Style
Butter prawns is one of my favourite dishes and I thought maybe I should try it out myself. I did my research via internet and came across some interesting recipe and being Malaysian, I decided to try this one out. You can find the recipe here at RasaMalaysia.
Hmmm ... smells so good!
Hearts and Butter Cookies …
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 ....
Cooking rice the normal way …
We bought a rice cooker after the old one was retired. Not long after, the new one opted for a very, very early retirement. We couldn't, for the life of us, decide what was the course, it wasn't like we were overworking it???
Anyway, I didn't think we should run out and buy one since rice can be cooked on the stove. I used the rice cooker pot.
This post contains the steps to cooking rice for Hubby, who likes to have things all written down, filed and cataloged 
Currently we are using Thai Scented Long Grain rice which we buy from Chong Lei in a 40 lb sack. It looks and taste really good, believe me (nope, not being paid to advertise by the producers).
1. First, I usually rinse out the rice and let it drain while the water boils in the rice pot. I used to use the stainless steel sauce pan but I opted to use the rice pot then I could use the sauce pan for something else, like soup.
2. Bring the water to a boil and add in the rice. Put it on low to medium heat (for our stove, '5') for 10 mins.
3. After that, I usually like to fluff the rice with a chopstick and leave it on low for another 10 mins.
4. We are done!
