...the river now in circles ran, round the land of endless sand...
The banana-tofu mix was ok. Taste was good but could do with more work on the texture. Need to mash the stuff better to make it smoother, although the present texture (crumbly? lumpy? undefined) is quite interesting too. Possibly use less beancurd and more banana.
Placed remainder in freezer to see if it tastes better when even colder.
Fried sausages and cucumber slices the other day. Simple and it works. Only threw in the cucumber slices towards the end since I did not want them to get too soft, but I think I still left them in the pan for slightly too long.
This morning I was faced with two overripe bananas. Time for some experimental cooking. How about a dessert type of dish? Heated a very small amount of water. Added the bananas, mashed them. Continued to heat over a low flame. Added tofu. Mashed tofu. Tofu released lots of water (did not have time to let the tofu sit and drain beforehand as this was impromptu). Boiled off water. Added sugar and nutmeg in the meantime. Tasted good while hot. Allowed to cool. Placed in fridge (was the freezer a better option?).
Seem to have done something like this before. That didn't turn out all that well, if I recall correctly. Maybe this one will be better.
Last night just dumped fish, carrots, a little garlic and some soya sauce into a pot with water and boiled over low heat. Soup was sweet and tasted of fish, but needed more body to the flavour. Needs stock. Well, kept it simple since I did not have that much time.
Have been eating out for the last few days. On Friday had dinner at a Korean restaurant, Saturday went out with friends, and yesterday went out with a friend and had Okinawan food for dinner. Ordered ゴヤチャンプル, which was basically sliced bittergourd fried with egg, luncheon meat, bean sprouts, etc. Tasty. The bittergourd wasn't too bitter, perhaps it has something to do with the cooking method, or it might be just the variety of bittergourd they use.
Dish for yesterday : heated olive oil and garlic butter in a frying pan on low heat. Add chicken pieces, turned occasionally until surface was cooked. Cover with lid and allowed to braise/steam for a few minutes, added asparagus and cooked for a short time together.
Verdict : good smell, good taste, chicken was tender enough and asparagus crunchy, not soft. Still needs improvement.
For yesterday's dish, fried garlic and belachan in the wok, added chicken, and finally added beansprouts. Haven't used chilli for quite some time, so although the end result was not very well-balanced, it was satisfying.
Beansprouts : why is it that the packets I get from the supermarket always give off a strange smell when first opened? Is it a natural odour that's just been concentrated in the airtight packaging?
Haven't made anything I would like to write about these few days. Maybe I'll just share how I make salted eggs. Prepare water and salt in a ratio of 4:1. For example, 4 cups of water and 1 cup of salt. Bring water to a vigorous boil. Add salt and dissolve. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Place raw eggs and salt solution in a container, making sure the liquid covers the eggs. Cover and wait for 4 weeks. That's all!
Notes : Duck eggs are normally used but I have no idea where to obtain them here so I use chicken eggs instead. Not so big, oily or tasty, but sufficient. As for the time of 4 weeks, in my opnion a few days more or less should not make too much difference. However, there was once that I left the eggs for too long and they turned too salty, so don't forget when you started the process!
This morning, stirfried chicken and えのき/golden mushrooms. Added soya sauce at the end. Average, no-fuss dish.
I have no idea why, but to me えのき gives off a strange flavour, especially apparent when raw. That's why I prefer to fry it with sesame oil or some other seasoning. Having it in steamboat or soups is fine too, possibly having it boiled in stock obscures that particular mild taste. Boiling golden mushrooms alone still leaves it stronger than desired though.
Today's meal : stir-fried chicken with にら/韮菜. Sprinkled nutmeg and salt. Verdict : OK, light flavour that I think goes well with chicken.
What's the name of nira in English? I think it's chives, but a quick check shows that it's known as Chinese chives, Chinese leek and also garlic chives. Well, it appears that onion, garlic, chives, leek and 韮菜 all belong to the same botanical family.
Had dinner today at a tempura place near Yoshizuka station with friends. Good meal, lots of interesting conversation as well. For tempura, sotong/squid/イカ and mushrooms (shiitake, しめじ, etc.) still remain my favourites. The place we went to today was not a posh place, just your average down-to-earth chain-store, but they serve each piece of tempura once it's done, so you get it piping hot.
It's a great feeling to drink warm tea and eat steaming-hot tempura while the heavy rains of the season pour down outside.
Woke up this morning to find out that instead of setting the timer for the rice cooker, I had started the cooking cycle last night. Which means that cooked rice had been sitting, drying out and coalescing for quite a few hours. Ate some of it and then put the rest away until I figure out something to do with it. Steam it and hope for rice cakes maybe?
The weather turned fine today so went for a short drive with my friend to do some errands of his. Helped him to repot his banana tree (minature specimen compared to the ones back home).
Had dinner on the way back so I will deal with the rice tomorrow.
Rain.
For today, just stir-fried chicken and 小白菜/チンゲンサイ/pak choi. Turned out so-so.
Pak choi belongs to the Brassica family, which includes, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, choy sum, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, to be more specific, bak choi, chinese cabbage (大白菜/はくさい) and quite a few others all belong to the same species Brassica campestris. Of course, all this information is suspect since there is a lot of confusion over vegetable species. So many of them are simply varieties of the same species, add to that the presence of hybrids and it's hard to classify them properly.
Yesterday, went to an aquarium with friends. Had dinner at Kaikan later, altogether six of us.
Dish 1: Stir-fried diced potatoes and added brinjal slices, added in oyster sauce near the end, dosed with pepper and salt. Verdict : good
Dish 2: Soup - boiled ginger and shiitake mushrooms with dashi stock. Added fish (karei/sole?). Near the end added tomatoes. Finally before serving stirred in a beaten egg. (花蛋）Verdict : not bad
Dish 3: Stir-fried bean sprouts and spinach. Didn't have a hand in this dish.
Dish 4: Take beancurd, pour soya sauce over, sprinkle chopped green onion, result : instant dish. No need for a verdict as it takes no preparation. You know it's got to be good.
