Mapo Eggplant 麻婆茄子

When I stopped by our Japanese grocery store, they had some genuine Japanese eggplants and I got two. I asked my wife what I should make, she requested “Mapo eggplant” 麻婆茄子. In the past I used to make this dish but I do not think I posted the recipe. I made it exactly like Mapotofu 麻婆豆腐 but instead of tofu, I used eggplant. Since I had some chicken thighs, I removed the meat from one of the thighs and hand chopped it into small pieces to use as a protein for this dish. The final dish was mildly spicy with the nice soft texture of eggplant. The chicken really added nice taste and texture. This is great as it is or over rice.

Ingredients:
2 small Japanese egg plants
One chicken thigh, skin and bone removed and chopped in small pieces or ground chicken
2-3 tbs peanut oil and 1 tsp dark sesame oil
1 tbs ginger root, skinned and finely chopped
1 tbs garlic, chopped
1 small shallot, finely chopped
3 stalks of spring onion
1 tsp Doubanjian 豆板醤
1 tsp Tenmenjian 甜麺醤
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp potato starch+2tbs sake or water to make potato starch slurries

Directions：
Remove the stem end, peel skin in stripes (to reduce the bitterness the skin may have) and slice into 1/4 inch thick pieces.
Heat up a wok and add 2 tbs peanut oil and 1/2 tsp sesame oil. When the oil is almost smoking, add the eggplant and stir fly until the oil is absorbed and the eggplant slightly browned (see below).
Remove the eggplant from the wok and set aside.

Add 1tbs peanut oil and 1/2 tsp sesame oil in the wok. When the oil is hot, add the shallot, ginger and garlic and stir for few minutes. Add the doubanjian and stir until fragrant for 1 more minute. Add the chicken and stir until cooked (2-3 minutes). Add the eggplant, tenmenjian, chicken broth and mix and cook for a few minutes. Add the spring onion and the potato starch slurry and cook on high flame until the sauce thickens. If desired finish with sesame oil and powdered sansho pepper.

You just can’t beat the taste and texture of Japanese eggplant. This dish was homey and comforting. The eggplant had a soft texture and the chicken added a firm contrast. It is hard to get the right level of spiciness. It can either be too hot or too bland. This version was perfect.

Cold Marinated Eggplant 冷製レンジなすのポン酢漬け

We recently got Japanese (or Asian) eggplant from Weee. Although  I posted quite a few dishes using eggplant, we have not had eggplant for a long time. We really love “grilled eggplant” or Yakinasu 焼きなす, it requires a charcoal fire to make it correctly, however. I decided to take a short cut and cook the eggplant in the microwave oven. I then marinated the cooked eggplant (see below) overnight in the refrigerator.

Just before serving, I topped it with “katusobushi” 鰹節 bonito flakes. This is very easy to make and tasted pretty good. This is loosely based on a recipe I read on line sometime ago but I could not find the original recipe so I made the dish from memory.

Ingredients:
One Japanese eggplant (picture below).
3 tbs ponzu shouyu ポン酢醤油
1/2 tbs or more to taste, x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce
1/4 tsp dark sesame oil
2 stalks of scallion, finely chopped

Directions:
First make the marinade mixing the ponzu, noodle sauce, sesame oil and scallion.
Cut off the stem end of the egg plant and peel the skin
Since it was too long to fit into the silicon microwave container, I cut it into two pieces and microwaved it 2-2.5 minutes until cooked and soft (in the picture below, I made the indentation when I pressed it to see if it was done).
I cut the cooked eggplant in to long strips and then cut crosswise into bite sized pieces
I placed the hot eggplant into the marinade
I sealed the container and refrigerated it for a few hours or overnight (I like overnight marination)

Just before serving, top the eggplant with bonito flakes.

This is a very easy to make and tastes pretty good. Its a perfect small appetizer dish to go with sake.

Ginger Cookie Crumb Muffin

This is probably the last muffin my wife will make from left-over cookies; Because she has used them all up. This time it was using thin ginger snaps. As before, she made crumbs from the ginger cookie and used it as part of the batter. She added finely chopped candied ginger and pecan for good measure. The first time I tasted it, I did not taste strong ginger flavor but the next morning when we had it for breakfast, I tasted much more ginger flavor. A good amount of the pecan also did a good job in adding a nutty flavor. Very nice muffn.

This was not quite following the recipe but she  made it very similar to the “Cookie and cream crumb muffin”. I will ask her to take over.

Ingredients: (makes 12 muffins)

For the muffins:
2 cups AP flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
3/4 cup roughly crushed ginger cookies
1/2 cup finely cut candied ginger (or to taste)
1 cup toasted pecans (roughly chopped)

For the crumb:
1/2 cup butter room temp.
1 tbs. honey
1/4 cup regular sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup of crushed ginger cookies.

Directions:
For the muffins: put the cookies in a plastic sandwich bag and using a meat pounder crush them into large pieces. (Otherwise the CuisineArt chopper has a hard time handling whole cookies. We found it’s attempt to do so is quite pyrotechnic.) Add the pieces to a cuisineArt grinder and process until the cookies are small crumb as shown in the picture below. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a 12 -cup muffin pan with liners of choice. Set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla extract, egg, melted butter, and sour cream until combined. 
Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Add in the crushed cookies and pecans and stir the whole mixture together with a spatula until there are no dry pockets.

For the topping : 
In a medium bowl, using your hands mix the butter honey, brown sugar, sugar, flour, salt and additional crushed cookies until the mixture is creamy and smooth. 
Evenly and generously cover each tin of muffin batter with the topping. Bake muffins for 18-20 minutes, or until just golden. A cake tester should come out clean. These muffins were very flavorful although it took several days for the ginger flavor to fully mature.

The topping was crunchy and the muffin itself was tender in texture with a bright ginger flavor. The pecans added a nice nutty texture and taste. Another great breakfast addition.

Canned Mackerel, Cabbage and Egg Stir-fry サバ缶とキャベツの卵炒め

We found a few cans of mackerel (Japanese.style cooked in water) which were approaching the BUB (best-used-by date) tucked away in the pantry. We bought these and other canned items during the height of COVID when protein shortages started to materialize. Those times have thankfully passed so I decided I could use the “emergency” mackerel to make a small appetizer. I have made and posted a few dishes made from canned mackerel. This is not particularly original but it worked well. Since I recently got fresh quail eggs, I used them to make miniature fried eggs and topped this dish. As a result, in the picture the mackerel part of the dish, is a bit obscured by the fried quail egg.

The below is the picture of another serving a few days later. I added boiled quail eggs which had been marinated.

This is based on the recipe on line (in Japanese).

Ingredients:
One can of mackerel in brine or “Saba-no-mizuni” 鯖の水煮
3-4 leaves of cabbage, thick vein removed and cut into bite-size square
2 shiitake mushrooms, stem removed and sliced (optional)
1 egg
1 tbs vegetable or olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:
Make scrambled egg and set asdie
sauté the cabbage for few minutes
Add the mackerel and stir for few more minutes
Plate and top with the scrambled egg
Season with salt and pepper

This is an ok dish to use up the canned mackerel…actually tasted pretty good. It was even better the next day with the marinated quail eggs.

Mango Chutney Almond Milk Rolls マンゴーチャツネとアーモンドミルクロール

This is another example of my wife’s major morphing of a recipe into her own version. She saw the sweet roll recipe in Washington Post which used almond milk, marmalade filling, orange juice and  orange zest for glaze. Since we did not have Almond milk we ended up making it, although in retrospect, we are not sure why the recipe even calls for Almond milk. We had marmalade but did not have orange zest or orange juice. So my wife used Major grey’s mango chutney instead of marmalade and omitted the orange juice. Since she had some sweetened condensed milk left over from making milk bread she decided to use that in the filling too. This is quite different from the original recipe but when substitution of ingredients is needed, my wife is very inventive. The mango chutney worked very well. In any case, this roll is very tender and slightly sweet and perfect for breakfast.

Ingredients:
For the dough
3 1/2 cups flour, plus more as needed for rolling the dough
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. Salt
2 1/4 yeast
2 1/2 cups almond milk (not sure why almond milk is required next time I’ll just use regular milk)
4 Tbs. Salted butter
1 egg

For the filling:
30-50 grams sweetened condensed milk
30 grams butter softened
2 tsp sugar
3 Tbs. Major Grey’s mango chutney

Directions:
Add the dry ingredients; flour through yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the wet ingredients; almond milk through egg. Mix until smooth dough forms. Knead for 10 minutes. Turn out onto floured surface and shape into a loaf. Put in a bowl, coat the surface with vegetable oil. Cover and put in the dough proofer at 78 degrees until doubled in size. Punch down the dough. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make the filling by mixing together the ingredients for the filling. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle (#1). Cover the rectangle with the filling then roll it up as tightly as possible without squeezing out the filling (#2). Cut the roll into 14 to 16 equal slices. Put the slices cut edge down in a greased pyrex cooking dish. (Note: it is rather hard to cut the slices; they tend to squish. Out of frustration I just made the last part of the dough into a loaf and cooked it on a small cookie sheet. (I did not take a picture of this.) The loaf turned out just fine and could be cut into slices after it was baked. I might do this in the future instead of trying to make the rolls. ) Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown (#3, #4).

These muffins were quite good. The dough had a crunchy crust but a soft interior. The filling formed a light custard like texture which was slightly sweet but with a lovely hint of spice from the chutney. Several large pieces of mango from the chutney provide a moist surprise burst of flavor. These were perfect flavorful pastries to have for breakfast with coffee.

Almond Milk アーモンドミルク

This is an offshoot from my wife’s baking project. We never took interest in non-dairy milk except for soy milk (to make tofu). While she was pondering what to bake (not because we need more baked goods but just because she likes baking), she came across a sweet rolls recipe in the Washington Post but the ingredients included “Almond milk” and “orange juice and zest” (in the glaze), both of which we did not have. So, using her inventive mind, my wife decided to “make” almond milk (since we had almonds in the freezer) and “substitute” other ingredients for the orange juice and zest and omit the orange juice. We never had or even tasted almond milk but quickly found several recipes for home-made almond milk on the internet. We deviated a bit but in the end, we came up with a white liquid that was completely tasteless. (It didn’t even taste of almonds.) We could not figure out why the recipe called for almond milk instead of cow’s milk. The recipe also called for butter and eggs so it was not a vegan recipe. In any case, the below is the almond milk we made. If you are to drink this, certainly, some sweetener such as honey and a flavoring such vanilla may be needed…otherwise drink water. Thinking that  maybe our homemade version was lacking while the commercial version might be better, we subsequently got a commercial unsweetened Almond milk. Although it was indeed unsweetened as advertised, some vanilla flavoring had clearly been added to this product. If not for the vanilla, it too would have been totally flavorless. So our home-made almond milk was not off the target. I wondered if besides avoiding cow’s milk for a lactose intolerance or some other reason, there is any advantage using Almond milk in bakiing.

This is based on many recipes available on line. The basic recipe is to soak the almonds in water overnight. Drain, add more water and grind it in a high-speed blender and strain/press it to remove the pulp. It appears there are two types of recipes; one is grind the almond with skin on another is removing the skin after soaking over-night and then grinding it. The latter produces a minimum amount of plup residue. Since we had skin removed and slivered almond in the freezer, we decided to use this.

Ingredients:
1 cup almond, skin less and slivered (picture below)
2 cups water

Directions:
Soak the almond overnight in water
Drain the water
Place the almond and the water in a blender (we used Vitamix on the highest speed) for 2-3 minutes

This produced a rather thick almond milk with a good amount of pulp which was creamy. The recipe we saw added 2 more cups of water and blended it again.  Many recipes call for a pinch of salt. Since we were going to use it for baking we did not add more water or salt.

As metioned before, this is rather tasteless. Beside keeping the dishes vegan, we just did not see the point of Almond milk.

Root Vegetable Stew 根菜の煮しめ

“Nishime” or “Nitsuke” 煮付け, 煮しめ is a type of traditional Japanese cooking method in which food items are simmered in seasoned broth. I have posted many variations mainly based on what was simmered in the seasoned broth. I understand that there are differences between “Nishime” and “Nituske” but that is too esoteric for me. The broth can be based on either vegetarian (kelp, dried mushroom and vegetables) or more commonly including  bonito flakes, kelp, and other dried fish. The basic seasonings are soy sauce, mirin, sake or sometimes sugar. Food items in nitsuke could be vegetables especially root vegetables, mushrooms, fish cakes, tofu, chicken or fish. I made this because I had a package of boiled renkon lotus root 蓮根 which I needed to use. I also got assorted frozen fish cakes for oden and boiled frozen “satoimo” 里芋 taro root (this is the first time I got this, I usually get fresh ones and prepare them myself) and also a package of “shirataki” noodles tied into a knot called “musubi-shirataki” 結び白滝.  Using these ingredients, I made this without much effort. It was nothing special but a homey, gentle and comforting dish. The picture below shows daikon (left), renkon (center), satoimo (bottom left), fish cake (bottom righ). I also added blanched green beans and carrot.

The layer below shows three different kinds of fish cakes (straight chikuwa ちくわ), chikuwa with squid ika-chikuwa イカちくわ, ganmodoki がんもどき(all cut in half) and a knot of shirataki “musubi-shirataki 結び白滝”. Please notice, the taro “satoimo” is perfectly shaped since this is frozen packaged one.

Using prepared vegetables and assorted fish cakes, makes it much easier to make this dish. Beside using prepackaged items, the recipe is essentially the same as I previously posted.