I wasn’t sure what to make for dinner last night. The only thing I knew is that I wanted something leafy in it. I decided on meatball and veggie udon soup.  It really hit the spot. I made the meatballs quickly but forgot the miso. I love putting miso in meatballs that go in soup because the flavor adds something extra to the soup. The meatballs weren’t bad but they could have been better. The rest was perfect.

In the soup:
fish stock
salt

Add-ins:
carrots
Chinese cabbage
udon noodles

In the meatballs:
ground pork/beef mix
grated ginger
cooking sake
soy sauce
panko (bread or cracker crubs would work just as well)
grated carrot
salt/pepper
egg

 I dropped the uncooked meatballs into gently boiling fish stock and kept at a gentle roll until they were cooked, skimming off the foam once in a while. Then I added the carrot and Chinese cabbage stalks. when they were almost done I added the noodles and Chinese cabbage leaves. Yum.

I’ll be writing a regular column for Being A Broad online and my first one was published on January 23rd. You can find it here.

After some feedback regarding chopstick position I decided to get someone at Gigtask to make something very similar but with the chopsticks on the same side. What are your thoughts?

I love shirataki in nabe. It must be the texture because it doesn’t really have a flavor once it is in something. I could do without the alcohol-like smell that appears when you first open the package. These babies are a dieters dream at 8 kcal per 100 gram package. That’s a few less than your average noodle. Just drain, rinse and add them to your favorite nabe and enjoy the firm jelly texture.

My mother-in-law made this nabe on New Year’s Eve. It is not a traditional dish so you can make it anytime without feeling like you are infringing on something. I was at my in-laws for five days and I belive we ate nabe four times – I was in heaven.

The soup

fish stock (dashi)
a dash of cooking sake
salt

The add-ins

enoki mushrooms
Chinese cabbage
negi
gyoza
chicken
shirataki (devil’s tongue jelly noodles)
daikon radish

Dipping sauce

ponzu (likely yuzu flavored)

I made a logo for Cooking in Japan. What do you think?

I had a vegetarian friend over for dinner this week so I decided to find something on the internet to make. I had never looked at Japanese vegetarian blogs and thought it was about time. I came a ”[Nakaya] no Gohan” – a great resource for vegetarian cooking in Japan. The blog is in Japanese and they update almost every day. There are a few of their recipes on my to make list. 

These onions would be good as a side dish, as a hamburger topping or added to your favorite salad. I mixed them up with barley and lentils for a nice little side dish.

Carmelized Ginger Miso Onions

Original recipe here on [Nakaya] no Gohan

2 onions, sliced thinly
1 1/2 tablespoons miso
1 tablespoon grated ginger
2 tablespoons ground sesame seeds

Add the onions to a sauce pan with one tablespoon of water. Top with the ginger and miso. Cover and cook on low heat (stirring occasionally) until the onions have carmelized. Turn off the stove and add the sesame seeds. Serve.

I like my IH flat top stove but was really disappointed last year when I couldn’t use my donabe (clay pot for hotpot). Really. Disappointed. I didn’t look to see if they made special clay pots for IH stoves last year so I couldn’t tell you how long they have been available. I bought a cheapie at Nitori this year and am in love. Some of the differences are: the bottom is completely flat and it comes with two plates that must be used in the bottom.

I have been using it for everything that doesn’t require frying or is gloopy. I would make oatmeal or barley in it but I cringe at the thought of cleaning oatmeal out of the holes in the plate. I bought the 1-2 person size and wish I had gotten a size bigger (they were out of that size) because the plates take up valuable real estate.  The boxes are clearly marked as using a regular clay pot can have disastrous results on a flat top stove. New flat tops have sensors to avoid problems – mine won’t even turn on unless it senses the right kind of pot. Look for IH対応土鍋 (IH たいおうどなべ　IH taiou donabe) on the box. Many non IH-friendly donabe boxes will have IH with an x over it.

This is one of the two desserts I make at Christmas. This wasn’t part of my Christmas tradition growing up but it has been for the last few years and it is here to stay. It tastes fabulous still warm from the oven topped with custard. I usually just use some birds custard powder but I’m out this year so I will have to actually make custard this year. I’ve been meaning to post this for two years but have yet to have pictures that turn out.  I made this one especially for the picture, not that I’ll mind eating extra this year.

Gingerbread

Source unknown

1/2 cup soft butter (I used cooking oil this time)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 /2 cup molasses
1/2 cup corn surup (mizuame 水あめ works well for those in Japan)
1 cup boiling water
2 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F. Mix the butter, sugar and egg together in a large bowl. Next add the molasses, corn syrup and boiling water to the butter mixture. Sift the dry ingredients and then stir into the wet ingredients. Whisk until you get rid of the lumps. Pour into a greased baking pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool just enough so that you don’t burn your tongue before serving. Top with warm custard.

For those of you in Japan:

I’ve found that molasses is not too hard to get but rarely see corn syrup around. I tried using mizuame (水あめ) this year and found it a perfectly good substitute. It should be available at almost every grocery store, mine was in the sugar section.

This is the first time in a while I made something that required me going out to buy every ingredient (except spices). I added thyme to the omlette for the first time, fabulous.

In the omlette: mushroom, green pepper, tomato, cheese, basil, oregano and thyme.