Chicken Cutlet Milanese

Milanese do this dish with Veal normally.  We don't have much Veal here in Hong Kong and to save money, you can make with Chicken as good as veal.  Slide a knife on one side of Chicken breast and open into one piece.  Then place cooking sheet or plastic wrap on top and pound it to make it thiner.

本来は子牛で作られるこの料理だが、コストも考えて鶏胸肉で代用。胸肉を開いてさらに肉たたきで薄く薄く広げる。ミラノで頂いたカツレツは皿いっぱいの大きさで驚いた。

Viva Yakisoba!

Everyone loves Yakisoba, all the Japanese and many foreigner too.  I make this instant Yakisoba noodle for lunch on weekends and my husband loves it.  Our friends tells me the their kids love this noodle as well.  Most of Japanese has their favorite Yakisoba brand, and mine is definitely Nisshin.  Its' size of the noodle and the taste of the sauce is really perfect.

我が家の焼きそばは絶対に「日清」。写真はチルド版だが、この細麺とソースの味がとてもいい。

Poulet saute sauce Champignons de Paris

White mushroom sauce mach very well with Chicken breast.  It's good to use a lot of mushroom.

Saute thin slice of mushrooms with butter, when the liquid from the mushroom disappear and mushroom starts to color light brown, scrape wish dash of white wine.  Then add some chicken stocks.  It's important to reduce the stock and concentrate the taste when the stock is reduced enough, then add some cream.

鶏胸肉とマッシュルームクリームソースの相性は抜群だ。日本のホワイトマッシュルームは小粒で高価なので、マッシュルームのみを使うのは難しいかもしない。しかしその他の日本のキノコ類、椎茸、しめじなどは味に少しえぐみがありクリームと合わないと思う。　

マッシュルームをバターでソテーし、水分が蒸発し色がつき始めたら、白ワインでデグラッセする。チキンストックを加えて半分以上の水分を飛ばす。十分に味が凝縮されたら生クリームを加えて少し煮込む。

Dressy Tuna Salad

I believe Tuna has bit of Sourness when it's cooked, probably due to it's high content of iron.  Because of this special taste, it seems difficult to mix with other taste.  In fact French cuisine hardly use Tuna besides to eat as Salade Nicoise or Tuna stakes.

This is Tuna and some boiled potato tossed with mayonnaise and mustard.  It's very typical tuna salad but it looks pretty with little bit of imagination.

Karaage Nibitashi

This is my fusion cooking between Chinese and Japanese.  I'm reluctant to use a lot of oil for cooking, there for I came up with this method.

Slice chicken breast then prepare Karaage marinade souce; sake, mirin, soya, ginger juice, then flour them and saute with not  too much oil.  On the other hand, boil some Dashi (Typical Japanese stock made from Kelp and dried Benito)  Blanch the lettuce, mix chicken and the lettuce together.

中華料理では肉と野菜と別々に素揚げして最後に組み合わせることが多いが、日本流にアレンジして油を控え目に仕上げる。忙しい時には日清の唐揚げ粉を使うとあっという間にできる。

Steaks Frites avec Petits pois

I don't remember where I encounter this Petits Pois recipe, but this is a great side dish which is very easy to make.  Saute slice of onions with butter then add peas, pour some chicken stock and cook until it softens.  In the end of cooking add some lettuce.  You can also saute lardon of bacons in the beginning.

グリンピースは日本では決まって季節ものだが、ここではアフリカ物のグリンピースが一年中輸入されている。しかしサヤから既に外されているせいか、香りがあまりない為にこのような煮込みには合っている。豆ごはんはやはり季節のフレッシュなもので頂きたい。

Pizza Pizza!

Pizza is one of the greatest invention Italian had found.  Everyone loves Pizza from the west to the east.  Also Pizza taste amazing when you do it by yourself.  Actually, it' not that hard to make Pizza at home, if you have energy to set the dough couple hours earlier.

This is my secret recipe of home pizza dough:

400g of Bread flour（強力粉）
100g of All purpose flour　（薄力粉）
4g of Dry Yeast
280cc Water
10g of Salt

Weight above ingredients and put all in large bowl, then bring all together by using your hand.
Continue to pound by hand for 5 minutes.  Place the dough back in a bowl and wrap it.  Let it set to raise the dough for two to three hours depends on room temperature.

Once the dough is raised, you can start using one.  Make sure to heat up the oven to the highest temperature and make it the oven tray really hot.  Form the pizza dough, spread pizza sauce and arrange toppings you like.  Place your pizza onto the cooking sheet then place on the hot oven tray.  Cooking time depends on your oven, mine is 12 min.

ホームメイドピッザは意外に簡単、ピザソースはパスタに使用するトマトソースでOK。トッピングを豊富に乗せて贅沢に作ろう。それでもホームメイドは外食ピザより格安に出来て、美味しさもコストパフォーマスも抜群。

Sea bass saute with Spinach ravioli

One of the trick to make your dish look like as restaurant plate is to mount high.  It's not always easy to eat this way, but this is a trend of modern cuisine.  This sauce is made from concentration of pineapple juice and balsamic vinegar.  The key is to concentrate the juice before adding vinegar.

あまりおすすめする訳ではないが、料理を縦に盛るとトレンドっぽくみえる。特にナパヴァリーの有名フレンチ「The French Laundry」ではこのようなプレゼンをよくする。コルドンブルーでこのような皿を提出したら、「なんでまたこんなに食べにくい盛り方をするんだ」と怒られそうである。

上記写真はラザニアパスタとほうれん草のソテーを重ねたなんちゃってラビオリ。タンポポのサラダはヴィネガーとオリーブオイルでさっぱりと仕上げた。

Avocado and Shrimp salade

It's good to have at least one mold in your kitchen.  It makes your simple dishes look so much more like professional!

Chicken Karaage

This is the easiest and most delicious fried dish that all the Japanese love.  Marinate the chicken thighs in the marinate sauce; soya sauce, sake, mirin(sweet sake for cooking), grated ginger and garlic for 1/2 hour.  Coat the chicken with 1/2 flour 1/2 potato starch mix then deep fry them in medium heat.

揚げ物をするときの一番の留意点は揚げすぎないことだと思う。トンカツなども揚げ過ぎは肉汁が逃げてしまって美味しくない。唐揚げを美味しく揚げるコツは写真の様な小さく切った場合には中火から揚げてふたをする。仕上げに火を強くして外をカリッとさせる。大きいサイズで骨付きの物は二度揚げする。

Tail Stew

I feel it's very cold this year even in Hong Kong.  Hong Kong apartments are not well equipped with heating devices, in fact we must buy electric heaters, which most of the time are not powerful enough.

Stew style dishes always warm you up.

Beef tails softens quite well after 2 1/2 hours of cooking.  Its' gelatin part  and the meat melts in my mouth.  It's always better to marinate beef a night before with some rock salts and herbs to concentrate the taste of the meat.

今年の冬は例年になく寒く、シチューをよく作るようになった。

シチューを美しく仕上げるためには、煮込み用と飾り用の野菜を分けるとよい。肉と一緒に煮込んだ野菜は最後にこしてソースにし、人参、マッシュルーム、ポテトは別鍋にてバターと若干の水分で蒸し煮にする。

Spaghetti alla Pescatora

I use good quality of seafood mix for this tomato pescatore sauce.  It's a bad idea to cook any kind of seafoods for long time even they are frozen mix.  The trick to make this sauce tasty as using real seafood is not to over cook.

Usually seafood mix, frozen or not frozen contains a lot of water. Drain well if they are frozen, then season and flour them lightly.  Saute them in olive oil not to move around, when they're cooked remove from the pan.

Separately parere you tomato sauce, personally I just love the can of  Delmonte Tomato sauce.  You can saute some garlic, basil leaf or some olives to the sauce and add back the seafood mix.

簡単トマトペスカトーレのコツはシーフードミックスを煮詰めないこと。水分を切って味付けをし、小麦粉にまぶしてオリーブオイルで炒める。このときも中の水分を逃がさないようにあまり動かさずに外をコーティングする感じ炒め、火が通ったら一旦プライパンから取り出す。トマトソースを用意する。こくを出すためにはオリーブオイルでにんにくを炒めた所にソースを加える。お好みでバジルやオリーブを加えて最後にミックスを戻してパスタに合える。

Beef and Bell Pepper Stir fry

This is very well known Chinese dish that Japanese love.  It calls "青椒牛肉糸" and I believe that the original of this dish, beef and the vegetable have to be cut much more thiner than my plate.  I'm not too confident to share Chinese recipe to be honest, since I haven't learned the real way of Chinese cooking.

First I marinate the beef in mix of soya sauce, ginger juice, Chinese wine and potato starch.  First to fry the vegetable and once remove from the wok to remove the excess oil and keep them aside.  Next, stir fry the beef same way.  Then put all back together and toss with mix of Oyster sauce, soya sauce, Chinese wine and Chicken stock.

I believe it is extremely important to use an authentic black iron wok for Chinese cuisine.  To cook in very high heat is necessary to make them crispy.  The results are completely different if you use a frying pan.

チンジャオニュウロウスだが、切り方が随分太い。何となくあまり細く切らない方が油っぽくならないかな、と思って。中華料理のコツはやはり油通しだと思う。少量の油で炒めると中華鍋を使っていても、全体的に火の通りが遅くなり、肉や野菜から汁が出てきてしまう。しかしきちんと油を切らなければ油っぽくなってしまうので、これがなかなか難しい。私の中華テクはまだまだ。

Mini Tomates Farcies

This is mini tomato stuffed with potato salad.  If you have a mellon baller, you can easily remove the seeds and scrape insides.  It's better to choose the tomato small enough to eat in one bite.

To let them sit on a plate, you can slice the bottom very thinly, so extremely sharp knife is needed.  Whenever my knifes cannot easily go through tomato skin, it's time to sharpen them.

ポテトサラダの残りをミニトマトに詰めたもの。トマトの種を取り除くためにはメロンボーラーを使うととても簡単に出来る。トマトが座らない場合は底を薄くカットする。

Tuna sesame Tataki

Coat one side of Tuna with sesame and lightly sear both sides.  The dressing is based on Soya sauce and sesame oil, you can add some onion, bell pepper mince.

刺身用の新鮮な赤身をアレンジするのは少し勿体ない。これは海外で出会うそこそこな鮮度のマグロを頂くのによい方法。ものによってはツナステーキ用に売られているマグロの方の鮮度が良かったりするのでよくこの方法で頂く。

Potato Manju

Manju is usually name of Japanese sweets but I'll call this dish as Manju referring to its texture.

Boiled and mashed potato is seasoned with Miso paste then coat with flour and deep fly them in oil.  The sauce is made from Dashi and it's thickened with some starch.

写真はじゃがいも饅頭。私はこのような少し手の込んだ居酒屋料理が大好き。茹でたジャガイモをマッシュして、小麦粉を付けて揚げる。上にのせた生姜がよく合う。

Aji and Avocado Tartar

Aji, according to the dictionary it's translated to Japanese horse mackerel.  This fish only exist in the sea near Japan.  Wiki says they live in Pacific ocean north west, Japan sea and East China sea.

This is one of the most delicious and most reasonable fish Japanese eat commonly. The taste is much more delicate than mackerel and has some luscious fat in their season.  It's best to eat as Sashimi.

We have some fresh sashimi imports from Tsukiji market here in Hong Kong, unfortunately they are not as fresh as I have them when I'm in Japan.  Therefore, Tartar is the alternative to accommodate its so-so freshness.

日本でよく食べられている鯵は実は日本近海でしか捕れない固有種であるらしい。確かにNYの魚屋やフランスの市場で一度も見たことがない。こちらでは築地から空輸された刺身を買う事が出来るが、なんとも鮮度が落ちているのでタルタルにして頂くことが多い。エシャロットやゆずこしょうをまぶしすと美味しい。

Tarte aux Prunes

"Pate Sucree" is convenient to make two portions at one time and keep them frozen.  The filling is "Creme d'amandes" with mastering these two basic of Patissiere you can make any kind of tart with different filling.

「パートシュクレ」はタルトを焼く毎に作るのが面倒なので、何回分かを一気に作り冷凍しておくととても便利だ。「クレーム・アマンド」を使うタルトは色々中身の果物を変えてもとても美味しい。プラム、ネクタリン、杏の他にリンゴ、洋梨などもよい。

Osechi 2010

Above is the "Osechi" Japanese New Year speciality.
This is my first time to make the complete three layers of boxes.  All of the ingredients carry certain meanings of fortune and good life of a new year.  Such as herring roe symbolizes a wish to be gifted with children, black beans for the good health.

In our tradition, women prepare these boxed before the new year and the family have them on first of January to the third.  The contents are mostly without raw foods and can keep up several days.  This meant for women to rest from the kitchen for couple days in new year.

今年は初めておせちを作ってみた。
おなます、伊達巻き、海老などが抜けていてまだまだ。弁当箱並みの小さなお重のおかげでなんとか埋めることが出来きた。

おせちは夫にかなり不評で、結局一人でつまむことになるが、日本の伝統を忘れないためにこれからもめげずに毎年作ろうと思う。