Pork soup (豚汁)

Experiment: Pork soup (豚汁)

Introduction:

I mentioned a few days ago that I made dashi stock for something yesterday.  I have leftover dashi stock.  I flipped through a few magazines to see if there are any dishes that I would like to try.  I saw this "pork soup (豚汁)" recipe, and it happened that I have all the ingredients at home.  So... I made this soup for dinner.

Materials: (serve 2)

80-100g Sliced pork

1 tbs miso paste

2 tbs of chopped green onions

100g thinly sliced daikon
Shichimi tougarashi (七味唐辛子) to taste

Procedure:

1)  Cut the pork into small pieces, and cut the thinly sliced daikon in quarters.

2)  In a pot, boil the dashi stock. Put the daikon in the pot and let it boil for a bit.  Then put in the sliced pork.  When the meat changes colour, add the green onions and miso paste.  Stir the soup until the miso paste is well dissolved.

3)  Serve the soup in bowls.  Sprinkle the Shichimi tougarashi as you like.

Results:

Discussion:

1) I'm not a big fan of pork, and I really don't like cooking pork.  I always think that pork has a stinky smell, and I can't usually get rid of that taste/smell when I cook.  I wasn't expecting much from this soup, but when I tasted it... To my surprise, wow, this soup actually tasted very good!  Even Mr. Clam liked this pork soup.  :) 

2) By the way, in case you're wondering what Shichimi tougarashi (七味唐辛子) is... here's a picture of it:

This powder contains 7 ingredients, and it's spicy.  You can find it in most of the Asian supermarkets.  I usually use it on noodles, or bonburi (rice bowl dish) at home, and now I know I can use it on soup too.  :)

When I went to Japan in November, I went to a store that has been selling Shichimi tougarashi in Kyoto for 350 years.  They sell many varieties of powders... When I was thinking of which powder to get, I saw this:

Hahaha I didn't have to think which one to get as I am a BIIIG Hello Kitty fan! :P  I haven't opened it yet so I don't know how it tastes like... but I'll definitely post it up when I open this package! :)

Conclusion:

It was a good and easy soup!  Will definitely make it again! :)

Reference:

Lettuce Club (レタスクラブ) April 25, 2009, Vol. 671

Dashi stock 出汁

My friend is coming on Wednesday to make Zoni (雑煮), and we'll need dashi stock for it.  Since we'll be drinking the soup, I don't wanna use dashi powder to make the soup.  Well, I'm afraid that I'll screw up on Wednesday, so I decided to "practice" first.  If I fail, at least I can still use the stock powder to make the soup (of course that's not ideal... I don't wanna drink MSG soup). 

So, I made my very frist dashi stock from scratch. 

Dashi stock is not hard to make, it just takes time. To make the stock, you only need bonito flakes and konbu.

Konbu (left) and bonito flakes (right)

I was making about 2L of dashi stock, and I used about 20cm of konbu, and about 50g of bonito flakes.

1)  Wipe both sides of the konbu with a wet towel.  Then put the konbu in a pot with 2L of water, and let it sit for about 20 minutes.

2)  Boil the water.  Just before the water boils, take the konbu out.  Then put the bonito flakes in the pot.  Let it boil for a few minutes, then turn off the stove.

3)  Take the bonito flakes out.  It's not easy to take the small pieces out, so you can drain the stock through a sieve.

Tada!  That's the dashi stock!

When I first saw this recipe, I was reluctant to make it because a) it takes time, b) it's a lot of stock, and c) I usually only need a little for cooking,  so I don't know what to do with the rest of the stock. But I read somewhere that you can acutally pour the stock in an ice cube tray and freeze it.  When you need it, you just take the ice cube out and defrost it.  WOW, how come I never thought of it?  So now, if possible, I think I'll make my own dashi stock instead of using those powder! :)

Oyako-don (親子丼）

It's the last day of my "Christmas long weekend."  Things are supposed to go back to normal tomorrow... well not really, because this coming Friday we'll have another long weekend!  I think I'll still be in a holiday mood til the end of next week.  :P

Anyways, since I have to bring lunch tomorrow, I have to cook something that I can bring to work.  I decided to make Oyako-don (親子丼), which is a chicken and egg rice bowl.  In Japanese, Oyako (親子) literally means "parent and child".  I have asked a few Japanese friends why this dish is called "parent and child rice bowl," and so far I've got 2 explanations:

1)  Parent and child - that means the hen and the egg.  You're eating the "parent" and the "child."
2)  It is a very nutritious dish, so mothers should make this dish often for their children.

Hmm... I don't wanna think about number 1, because it sounds so cruel.  Unfortunately I think that's a more common explanation.  >.<  ANYWAYS...

Here's the recipe for today's Oyako-don: 

Ingredients: (serve 4)

6 bowls of rice

400g of chicken, diced

1 bunch of mitsuba

4 eggs, beat in a bowl

Sauce:

1.5 cups of Dashi Stock

3 tbs of soy sauce

3 tbs of mirin

1)  Wash and chop the mitsuba into small peices.

2)  Mix all the sauce ingredients together.

3)  Stir fry the diced chicken in a fry pan.  When it's almost done, pour the sauce into the fry pan. 

4)  When the chicken is done, pour the egg and sprinkle the mitsuba into the fry pan.

5)  Cover the lid, and turn off the stove.  Let it sit for about a minute or two.  It's almost done!

6)  Put rice in rice bowls.  Put the cooked chicken and egg on top of the rice. 

I sometimes use onions or green onions instead of the mitsuba... mainly because mitsuba is not easy to find, and it's quite expensive.  Onions and green onions are cheaper substitutes.  Also I've seen some people substitute tofu or seafood for chicken, but then... will it be still called Oyako-don?  There's no more parent and child relationship...

Apple Snow Ear Dried Fig Soup

It's been cold these few days in Vancouver.  And after having so many Christmas meals, I want something that's soothing for the body. I saw that there were a few apples in the fridge, so I decided to make this Apple Snow Ear Dried Fig Soup.

When I was young, my mom always made this when the weather was cold and dry.  It's supposed to "moisturize" your body according to the Chinese medicine theory.  It's really easy to make, you just need the following ingredients:

4 - 5 Apples

Dried snow ears - 2

Dried figs - 3

Ginger - 3 - 4 thin slices

Sweet and Bitter almonds - a bunch (Optional.  I didn't use it this time)

Water - 3 - 4L.

1.  Soak the dried snow ears in a big bowl for about 30 minutes or so, until the snow ears are soft.  Cut out the hard part at the bottom out.  Cut the snow ears in small pieces.

2.  Peel the apples, core them and cut them in quarters.

3.  Wash all the other ingredients.

4.  Boil the water in a large pot.  When the water bubbles, put all the ingredients in the pot.

2.  Boil the soup with high heat for about 15 to 20 minutes, then turn it to low heat.

3.  Boil for another 1.5 hours.

4.  DONE!

One pot usually lasts me a few days.  I like to heat it up in the morning, and put it in a thermal cup and bring it to work.  It feels SOOOO good when you drink it warm on a cold day.   :)

Omurice (Omelette rice)

I had a takoyaki and okonomiyaki party over the weekend.  I didn't realize that I bought way too much food, so... I had lots of leftover.  Well, I had those red ginger, diced ocotpus, chopped green onion, cabbage, etc. I had to think of a way to cook them so that they don't go bad.  Well, the best way would be... stir fry them with rice!  Whenever I have food that I don't know how to cook them, I just fry them with rice and make fried rice! :P  What an easy meal.

Fried rice itself isn't that interesting.  So I decided to make Omurice, which means "Omelette Rice" in Japanese.







Here are the ingredients and condiments that I used for the Omurice... which are the leftover stuff for Okonomiyaki and Takoyako:

Ingredients: (serve 4)
Rice - 4 bowls
Shredded cabbage - 1 cup
Chopped red ginger - 2 table spoon
Diced tako (octopus) - 1/4 to 1/2 cup
Chopped green onion - 1/4 cup
Okonomiyaki sauce - 1/4 cup
Eggs - 4

Condiments:
Shaved bonito flakes
Dried seeweek flakes
Japanese mayonnaise
Okonomiyaki sauce

Method:
1) In a medium size frying pan, stir fry the shredded cabbage until it's soft.  Add the rice.  When the cabbage and rice are pretty well mixed, add all the other ingredients, except for the eggs.  When the fried rice is ready, put them into the rice bowls.
2) Beat all the eggs in a bowl.  In a small frying pan, pour in the 1/4 of the egg mix.  When the egg is ready, put it on top of the rice.  Do the same for the remaining egg mix to make 3 more fried egg. 
3) Put the Japanese mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce on top of the fried egg.  Sprinkle the bonito flakes and shaved bonito flakes on top.
4) EAT!

It's actually a very easy dish, and it's very tasty.  There's no skill at all (except for frying the egg, and put it on top of the rice WITHOUT breaking it).  That's why I like to make this dish whenever I don't know what to make for dinner.