Butadon 豚丼

It's hard to dine out these days with a baby, so I try to cook at home as much as possible and experiment with new recipes. It's going to be challenging next month when I go back to work part-time. I seriously don't know how Mummy B is going to juggle between work and family... I will tell you more in 2 weeks time.

Butadon, or "pork rice bowl", has thin slices of pork and onion simmered in a sweet broth and served on top of a bowl of rice. This is a quick and easy pork recipe, and the pork can be replaced with beef slices to make gyudon (beef rice bowl).

Ingredients
1 onion, thinly sliced
300g pork fillet, thinly sliced
1.5 tbsp mirin
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup dashi stock
1 tsp sugar
Cooking oil
2 stalks scallion, finely chopped

Method
Heat oil in pan and saute onion till soft. Add pork slices and stir-fry for a few minutes till brown. Combine mirin, sugar, soy sauce and dashi. Pour mixture into pan. Reduce the heat and simmer the pork, covered, for 5 minutes.

Serve over Japanese rice. Garnish with chopped scallion.

Yakisoba 焼きそば

This was our Sunday afternoon snack - Yakisoba, or Japanese fried noodles. It's a popular street savoury in Japan and easy to make at home. We were happily slurping this away while watching Japan Hour. ~Bliss~

You can get Yakisoba in the Japanese grocery amd most Chinese grocery stores. The Chinese grocery stores here are well-stocked with Jap stuff. This is how the noodles look.


Ingredients
2 packets Yakisoba
Few tbsp Yakisoba sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1/4 head small cabbage, cut into small pieces
1 small carrot, julienned
200g pork, sliced and marinated with soy sauce and corn flour
6 prawns, cleaned and de-veined
1 medium onion, sliced
Cooking oil
Ao-nori (seaweed flakes)
Pickled ginger

Method
This is a 3-part cooking.

Heat oil in frying pan and saute some onions. Add pork slices and stir-fry till brown. Move pork to one side and stir fry prawns. Dish and remove pork and prawns.

Heat oil in pan again and stir-fry onion, cabbage and carrot. Add a little water to soften the vegetables. Stir-fry for about 4-5 minutes till vegetables are soft yet crisp. Remove vegetables and set aside.

Stir fry noodles with some mirin and Yakisoba sauce. Return vegetables, pork and prawns. Add a little water and mix all ingredients well.

Dish and garnish/serve with some ao-nori and pickled ginger.

Salmon Sashimi Don サーモン丼

We went yum cha with friends at Fisherman's Wharf Seafood Restaurant today. Who will expect to find a yum cha restaurant at Sydney Fish Market (SFM)? I certainly didn't but I am so glad I joined! The food and service at Fisherman's Wharf are comparable to Zilver, if not better.

I'll talk about my yum cha experience another day. I'm going to share with you our dinner tonight, which is also B's favourite - Salmon Sashimi Don.

You see after our yum cha session this afternoon, we decided to buy some fish and seafood before heading home. Trips to SFM are not complete without buying some seafood and sashimi home. My shopping today include half kg of seafood marinara mix for $10.90/kg which is so much cheaper than Coles, salmon sashimi for $6.30, a packet of marinated seaweed for $2.50. There is also a fruit and vegetable market there and guess what? They sell Japanese pumpkin for $0.99! Needless to say, I have gotten one and bought a head of cos lettuce ($1.99) for making Caesar salad tomorrow.

I am sounding like an old maid now, excited over cheap and fresh groceries. -__- Let's not deviate from the topic today.

Here's a picture of the sashimi we bought the other time because I have forgotten to take pictures of the salmon I bought today.

Maguro, salmon and toro sashimi - $16.00

Ingredients
1 cup short-grain/sushi rice
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1.5 tsp fine sugar
1 tsp salt
1 packet Japanese seaweed
Salmon sashimi
Kikkoman soy sauce
Wasabi

Method
Click here for a detailed recipe on making sushi rice.

Cook rice in a rice cooker. Prepare sushi vinegar by mixing rice vinegar, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Microwave the mixture for 10 seconds to dissolve the salt and sugar.

Once rice is cooked, scoop rice into a bowl and lightly fan rice while adding the vinegar mixture over it. Fold the rice gently and be careful not to break the grains.

Arrange sashimi and seaweed on rice. Serve with wasabi and shoyu (soy sauce).

Okonomiyaki お好み焼き

Ingredients - make 4 pieces
150g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
170ml water/ daishi stock
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 bowl cabbage, cut into fine strips
4 bacon strips
Toppings of your choice
5 shrimps, shelled and minced
Parsley flakes
Japanese mayonnaise
Okonimiyaki sauce (I didn't buy)
Cooking oil


Method
Combine flour, water or dashi stock, egg, salt and baking powder in a bowl and mix well. Add the cabbage and shrimps, a bit at a time until all are covered with batter. Let the batter stand for about 20 minutes.

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet, pour the batter and make a 8-inch disk. Put a slice of bacon or your preferred toppings over the batter.

Check the botton after about 5-8 minutes of cooking, turn the pancake over and cook until the other side is golden. Flip it onto a plate and sprinkle parsley flakes over pancake.

Serve with mayonnaise and/or Okonomiyaki sauce.

Summer Food - Cold Soba ざるそば/ 日式蕎麦凉面

There's nothing more refreshing than eating a plate of cold soba on a hot summer evening. It's light and easy to prepare, no oil, minimal cooking, no fuss.

My first attempt in cooking cold Soba was many moons back on a Saturday afternoon back in Malaysia. I cooked it again yesterday, this time I have chilled the cooked soba and tsuyu in the fridge for an hour before serving.

The Japanese loves noodles and I guess part of the enjoyment comes from the joy of slurping. Yes, slurping noodles is considered proper etiquette in Japan. Some say slurping is a means of expressing appreciation to the hosts or chefs, who served the noodles. So do your part, twirl, slurp and savor your noodles.

Chicken Katsu Curry Rice 日式咖喱炸雞扒飯

I had a deep craving for Japanese curry last night, and remembered that I still have some curry roux left in the kitchen cupboard. And so chicken katsu curry it shall be, our dinner tonight. Check out my previous post and recipe on Japanese curry rice here.

Bon Appétit.

Japanese curry rice - Get “curried” away 日式咖喱

This recipe is flexible and easy to make, just use whatever vegetables or meat you desire. Onions, carrots, potatoes, celeries, beef, chicken, lamb or pork, the list is endless. I only had potatoes and chicken so those were the ingredients I used. This is the first time I used S&B “Golden Curry” mix (medium hot) and it turned out pretty good. I have dashed in some chili powder to give a slight kick of spiciness and made it more flavourful.

Ingredients
2 bowls of cook rice
Boneless skinless chicken thigh, diced
2 potatos, cubed
1 packet of Japanese curry sauce mix – medium hot
Ground chili powder – Cayenne pepper
Oil of cooking
5 bowls of water
.

Method
Heat oil in wok over medium-high heat. Stir fry chicken till browned. Add chili powder if you like it spicy. Remove chicken, set aside. Cook potatoes in wok for 3 minutes. Add water and once it boils, simmer potatoes over low heat for 10 minutes.

Break the curry mix bar into smaller pieces and add to the wok, stirring constantly until curry cubes are completely melted. Add more water if the curry sauce is too thick. Return chicken to wok. Stir and cook for 5 minutes. Serve on a bed of plain rice.

Also check out another version of chicken katsu curry rice here.