Oyako Cooking

Broccoli Quiche

2011-01-27T18:05:00.000-08:00

Crustless Quiche, to be exact.

1/2 a 1 lb.package of frozen chopped broccoli, cooked and well-drained (or fresh)
4 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1-2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (or other cheese--I had some Mexican mix that I added)
4 oz. ham, chopped
half a package of mushrooms, sliced
1/2 an onion, chopped
sprinkling of shredded parmesan

Spray a pie plate with Pam or olive oil spray. Spread cooked broccoli in the plate. Spread the ham in the plate. Cook mushroom and onion in a bit of butter till softened and add to the pie plate. Sprinkle cheddar cheese over ingredients. Beat eggs and stir in milk. Pour egg/milk mixture over everything and stir to distribute everything. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Just before it is done, (set up but not totally browned) sprinkle Paremsan over the top and cook for 5 minutes more.

Mmmm chicken soup

2011-01-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

I want to write down how I made this soup, because it was good!

So I had 5 chicken thighs in the freezer. I defrosted them and removed the skin and excess fat.

I cut up 3 stalks of celery, 2 carrots, and 1 onion and lightly sauted them in oil in the Dutch oven pot. Then I put the skinless (bone-in) thighs in the oil and cooked them till both sides were lightly colored. I added 6 cups of water and simmered it all for about an hour, I think. I removed the chicken and let it cool, and meanwhile, I added a cup and a half of German noodles.

I removed the meat from the bones when it was cool and shredded it by hand into large pieces, then returned it to the pot. I added salt to taste. That's it! I liked the large slices of carrots.

A Couple of Recipes

2010-10-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

Ginger Syrup

3 c. water
2 c. sugar
6 oz. fresh ginger, chopped, unpeeled

Combine and bring to a boil. Simmer 20-30 minutes, till reduced by half. Cool, then strain and refrigerate.

1-2 tsp. in hot tea.
1 Tbsp. + seltzer water = ginger ale.

Mexican Hot Chocolate
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. chili

To use, combine 2 Tbsp. with 1/4 cup milk. 3/4 cup water, and optionally, stir in some chocolate syrup.

Kristen's Enchiladas

Prep time: 10 min. Cook time: 25 min. Total: 35 min.

INGREDIENTS
1 lb.	lean ground beef
1 can	refried beans
1 large can	enchilada sauce
10pk	8" flour tortillas
1 packet	taco seasoning
1.5 cups	shredded cheese
.5 bunch	green onions

Use Trader Joe’s Enchilada sauce.

STEP 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Brown the ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat until no pink meat remains. Stir the meat well while it is cooking to break up large chunks and make sure all of it is cooked through.

STEP 2: Add the taco seasoning and approx. 2/3 cup water (as directed on seasoning packet). Stir well and let simmer until the liquid evaporates and the mixture is thick and saucy.

STEP 3: Add the refried beans to the meat mixture and stir until it is well combined and heated all the way through. This mixture can get thick and sticky so stir well!

STEP 4: Using spray oil, coat the inside of a large casserole dish. If you skip this step the enchiladas will stick and you'll just have one big mess when you try to dish them out. Warm your stack of tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds to make them more flexible.

STEP 5: Take approximately 1/3 cup of the bean and meat mixture and put it inside of a tortilla. Wrap the beans up in the tortilla burrito-style (how to roll a burrito). Place the rolled enchilada in the casserole dish, seam side down. Do the same for the remaining 9 enchiladas and pack them tightly into the casserole dish.

STEP 6: Once all of the rolled enchiladas are in the dish, evenly pour the entire can of enchilada sauce over top. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the whole dish. Place the dish in the preheated oven (350) and bake for approximately 20 min. or until its all bubbly around the edges.

STEP 7: Sprinkle the chopped green onions all over the top and enjoy!

Spinach Olympia

Cook frozen spinach per package directions, drain. Saute with olive oil and garlic. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Serve, topped with crumbled feta and sliced kalamata olives.

Kristen's Pizza

Top 3 frozen Garlic nans from Trader Joe's with marinara sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and/or other cheese. Bake on cookie sheet for 10 minutes, till cooked and crispy.

Cream Soup and Spinach dish

2010-10-24T07:59:00.001-07:00

I was looking through a book called Vintage Notions, which had images and projects from the 1920s, and among them were two recipes for cream soups. When I went for lunch with Karen in Skowhegan, they had cream of spinach and cream of tomato soup on the menu, and the whole idea just struck me as something good. So last night I adapted the recips a bit and made home-made cream of spinach soup that was quite yummy:

Cream of Spinach Soup

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp (+/-) finely minced onion
2 cups whole milk
1 cup spinach puree (see details below)
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
additional half-and-half cream to taste, or enrich the 2 cups milk by substituting some cream
goat cheese for garnish (or sour cream, or feta, or maybe Parmesan)

The original recipe did not have onion or cheese, but I felt that taste in the 1920s was a bit more bland than today's taste, so I added them.

Melt butter in 2 qt. pan, add onion and saute till just translucent. Sprinkle with flour and cook together. Add milk gradually, stirring the whole time. Stir in spinach and stir well to distribute. Season and garnish.

For the spinach puree, here's what I did. I looked for spinach baby food, but there wasn't any at Albertson's (don't know if there is any anywhere in the world.) The original instructions said to force cooked spinach through a sieve, but that sounded like a mess and maybe a broken strainer. I don't have one of those cone-shaped sieves with a pusher thing. I contemplated the spinach issue for a while and finally did this: Cook a half bag (or whole box) of chopped spinach. Allow to cool, drain out any excess water, but don't squeeze. Place spinach in blender and puree. Yeah, it's a bit of a mess to clean up the blender, but the puree had a lovely texture. About a cup in all.

I had chevre goat cheese in the fridge, so I topped the soup with that.

The same book had another recipe that I want to try:

Cream of Tomato Soup
3 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. flour
2 cups whole milk
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes

make the white sauce as above. Add the tomato slowly to avoid curdling.

And also while I was in Maine, I had something called Haddock Olympia at The Last Unicorn, and the accompanying spinach was delicious and would make a lovely side dish on its own with fish or chicken or lamb.

Saute a pound of fresh clean spinach in olive oil and garlic. Add some lemon juice. Top with chopped kalamata olives and crumbled feta cheese.

I also want to try to make a seafood chowder like the one at the Red Barn. But I won't have a lobster claw, sadly. (Unless I cook a lobster....unlikely.) Maybe crab claw? It had sea scallops, white fish, and lobster, in what seemed to be simply milk, cream and butter.

Fonduta

2010-06-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

In Chicago, we went to Quartino, where we had a lovely meal that included Fonduta, the Italian version of Fondue. I wanted to try it at home, and found the following recipe online:

8 oz. Fontina cheese
2 cups whole milk
pinch of salt
4 egg yolks
8 oz. butter

I bought a piece of Fontina at Trader Joe's, and I also bought a bag of shredded mixed Italian cheese at Marukai. The mixed cheeses included parmesan, mozzarella, smoked provolone, asiago, romano and fontina. The shredded cheese smelled a lot sharper than the whole fontina, and I was a little torn as to which to use. In the end, I used mostly the mix, with an addition of some cubes of the Fontina.

I set up a small pan over a saucepan as a double boiler to melt the cheese and one cup of the milk. In another pan, I warmed a cup of milk, the butter (yeah, that's a lot of butter!) and the egg yolks. I was a little concerned that the egg would scramble, and there were no details about how to avoid that, and in fact, it did happen somewhat. Next time, I will maybe temper the eggs and add them at the end.

In any case, the finished sauce was not as smooth as it should have been, but the taste was very good. I jerry-rigged a serving mechanism that consisted of a small candle and a rack (from an old toaster over) supported on 4 small cups, to keep the sauce warm. It may not even be necessary, but it added a nice touch. This would be a nice meal on a cold winter night, but it tasted very good out on the patio tonight as well.

We used Spoon House bread cut into 1" cubes and a sliced Fuji apple. In the winter, I might add potatoes, but Papa really wanted to focus on the bread, which was very tasty.

It would be easy to cut this recipe in half, and this amount made too much for 2 people to eat as a dinner. I will see how the leftover sauce keeps and re-heats.

Super Bowl Buffalo Chicken Strips

2010-02-07T19:19:00.000-08:00

This is excellent food for the Super Bowl, as proven year after year.

1/3 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 c. milk
1 lb. chicken tenders
corn oil
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup Franks' Red Hot Original

Dip chicken in milk and then flour. Saute in oil. Turn off heat and cover. Mix hot sauce and butter. Remove chicken to serving plate and drizzle sauce over it. Serve with blue cheese and celery sticks.

Shrimp Curry and Snow Peas

2010-01-07T06:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry, no picture--we ate it all up too fast! But here are the instructions for Shrimp Curry. This started out as a recipe in The Key to Chinese Cooking as Fillet of Flounder in Curry Sauce, and has had ingredients crossed out and the flounder changed to shrimp, so by now, the recipe is a little hard to follow in the cookbook!

1/2~1 pound fresh shrimp (medium size)
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 onion, chopped fairly large
3 Tbsp. oil
1 Tbsp. American curry powder
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 cup water and 2 tsp. sesame oil

Remove shells from shrimp and slice back and remove black "vein." Heat oil in frying pan. Saute onion for a few minutes, then add garlic and continue sauteing. When onion is nearly soft, add shrimp and cook till pink. Stir curry powder into shrimp/onion mix and stir and cook for a bit. Add soy sauce. Stir up cornstarch mixture and pour into pan. Cook and stir for a few moments until sauce thickens up. Turn off heat and let rest while you prepare snow peas, then reheat and serve. To make a single serving, probably .25 to .33 pound of shrimp would be enough, and you might cut the cornstarch/sesame/water and curry powder down.

Snow peas: Pinch off ends of snow peas and pull off any thick strings. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in pan and drizzle a small amount of sesame oil in as well. Add dry snow peas and sprinkle with salt. Saute on high heat till wilted and slightly browned.

Creamy Wild Rice and Turkey Soup

2009-11-28T17:31:00.000-08:00

This cannot make any claim to being health food, but it turned out really delicious. Mostly from the Reese wild rice package, as adapted by me (they didn't think of adding turkey!)

Wild Rice Soup

1/2 a stick of butter
3/4 cup onions
1 cup celery
1/4 cup flour
1 quart whole milk (I fortified it with some half and half I had in the fridge)
a cup, more or less, or cooked wild rice
cooked turkey in bite-size pieces (2 cups? I don't know, I didn't measure)
chicken base
1/8 tsp. white pepper (or black)

Melt butter but do not brown. Saute onion and celery till soft but not brown. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and stir well. Slowly add milk, stirring continually till thickened. Add cooked wild rice and turkey and barely simmer for a few minutes. taste and add bits of chicken base, dissolved in a spoon in the hot soup, to taste. Add white pepper. Do not allow to boil. Makes about 6 cups.

Chirinabe for a chilly night

2009-11-13T19:52:00.000-08:00

This turned out so good! Ingredients cost about $27.

Broth:
1 quart of water
1 packet of dashi no moto
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sake

Mix broth in a large bowl and pour into two nabes and heat.

Add, in this order, cut into large chunks:

enoki mushrooms
chicken tenders
salmon
black cod (could skip next time)
king crab legs (3/4 pound, 2 pieces, cut into sections)
large sea scallops
(next time include clams!)
a few leafs of nappa
large pieces of green onion

Simmer till fish is just cooked through.

Simply Spaghetti

2009-11-04T18:23:00.000-08:00

Papa developed a craving for spaghetti this evening, and I pulled together a simple sauce that turned out fantastic:

1/2 pound ground beef (80% lean)
1 fresh sweet Italian sausage, cut open and chopped into pieces
1/2 ~1 onion, chopped
1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained, reserve juice
1 fresh green pepper, chopped
1 24 oz. jar of Classico Tomato and basil sauce
1 lb. Trader Joe's spaghettti

Yes, right, I had the half-tube of ground beef and a leftover Italian sausage in the freezer, and I quickly defrosted them in warm water. Not the recommended method, but that's what I did. When the meat was defrosted, I sauted it in the frying pan, chopping and breaking it up with a wooden spoon. When it was just about done, I added the onion (half an onion because that's what was in the refrigerator. a whole onion would be fine too) and green pepper and mushrooms and sauted a bit more. I didn't add (or subtract) any oil, what came out of the meat was just right. Stir with a wooden spoon till the onion and pepper start to soften. Pour in the jar of sauce and thin with some mushroom juice. Simmer for a half hour or so, adding more mnushroom juice as needed. Cook spaghetti, serve with sauce! It was yummy! I only cooked 3/4 of a pound of the spaghetti, but there's excess sauce, so it's enough for a whole pound.

Meat N Potatoes

2009-10-10T18:47:00.001-07:00

Beyond simple. Russet potatoes in one pan, (peeled) sweet potatoes in the other. Total of 1/3 cup of oil (some olive oil, some corn oil, to save $$), and one packet of onion soup dry mix. 450 degree oven, 20-30 minutes.

And wagyu meat, cooked in butter for seconds.

Friday Night Lights

2009-10-10T07:38:00.001-07:00

Pork Shabu-shabu, about to be enjoyed!

Thinly sliced Kurobuta (black pig pork, the good stuff), white mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, tofu, and spinach.
I never have pictures of the finished food because when the food is ready to eat, I forget all about cameras and documenting what I am eating!

And Old Faithful: we received this electric frying pan as a wedding gift 30 years ago. It is used for shabu-shabu, sukiyaki, and fried chicken, and it has never let me down yet. The temperature gauge is no longer readable and it's crusted in some sort of gunk, but it is irreplacable!

Greek Salad on a stick

2009-09-26T18:16:00.001-07:00

For Deborah and Jeff's annual garden party, I decided to create a recipe based on a picture I tore out of a magazine. the original picture showed red onions, black olives, feta cheese and cherry tomatoes. I went to the farmer's market with that in mind and stopped off at Eliki's stall for my favorite feta. I told the guy what I had in mind and he had me taste test both black and green olives as well as roasted sweet red peppers. Sold!

So on each skewer I had a chunk of red onion, a chunk of good feta cheese. a grape tomato, a black olive, a chunk of red pepper and a green olive. I decorated the tray with fresh oregano. In a jar, I mixed together the juice of a home grown lemon, some olive oil, and some dried oregano, along with several grinds of pepper and sea salt. I poured that over just before serving. It was very well received--only a single skewer was left, and I pawned that off on someone so that I could take home the fabulous 99 cent store tray I served it on.

Deborah has many interesting friends and there was lots of good wine, good conversation, and tasty food.

Summer Squash

2009-08-19T10:46:00.001-07:00

When I lived down south, summer or yellow crookneck squash was commonly served. Around here, it's mostly only gardeners who do much with summer squash. But I saw some at the farmer;s market today, and dragged out this old recipe, which I call Mrs. Rush's Squash Souffle, because I learned it from a lady named Mrs. Rush in Auburn, Alabama when I lived there. My husband really liked it, and my daughter, who thought she hated yellow squash, declared it good. I agree.

Mrs. Rush's Squash Souffle

4 cups (1 lb.) yellow squash cut into small pieces
1 small onion, finely chopped (maybe a cup?)
1 cup fresh white bread, torn into small pieces
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 egg beaten
3 T. whole milk or evaporated milk or half-and-half cream. (use nonfat at your own risk)
2 Tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
2 tsp. bacon fat (saved from previous bacon cooking. or cook bacon to have on the side, if you don't have any bacon fat. Or maybe cook 2 strips of bacon and crumble them in?)
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Cook squash in lightly salted boiling water till tender. Drain out well in a colander. Put squash in a 2 qt. casserole dish and mash with a fork. Add uncooked onions and all other ingredients and stir well. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. It doesn't puff up like a souffle, but it does firm up and brown nicely. Makes 3-4 servings (about 4 cups total.)

Sukiyaki in the Summer

2009-08-14T19:58:00.001-07:00

We recently discovered the joys of Wagyu beef, and decided to try it in sukiyaki. Usually we only make sukiyaki in the winter, but it's been a cool summer and besides, we discovered the joys of wagyu beef!

What is wagyu? The word means simply Japanese beef, and it's actually a breed of cattle indigenous to Japan. The Japanese, although they didn't begin eating beef till the mid 19th century, have raised it to a fine art. But the most surprising thing about wagyu is that it is naturally low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fat. Usually monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature, while saturated fats, like butter and lard, are hard or at least solid at room temperature. Well wagyu beef, if you leave it at room temperature for a short time, almost begins to melt.

And in your mouth? It does melt.

The vegetables are also yummy: enoki mushrooms, shirataki (sort of noodles), nappa, green onions, tofu, bamboo shoots.

Unfortunately, I was too busy cooking and eating to take any pictures of the finished sukiyaki. But trust me, it was good.

Very good Semi-Homemade Pizza

2009-07-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

1 package Trader Joe's Plain pizza dough
1 container Trader Joe's pizza sauce (used less than half)
1 lb. Trader Joe's part-skim low-moisture shredded mozzarella cheese (used 1/3 or less)
1 pkg. Johnsonville Italian Sausage (not hot) (used half the package)
1 small can mushroom stems and pieces
1 can sliced black olives
1 onion, cut in half and sliced thin
1 green pepper sliced thin
olive oil Pam

Rest dough for 20 minutes per package directions. Use gravity to stretch it into shape. Spray pizza pan with olive oil Pam. Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Remove sausage from casing. Put a small amt. of olive oil in fry pan and break up and saute sausage meat. When sausage is almost done, add green peppers and mushrooms. At the very end, mix in onions and black olives and turn off heat.

Spread sauce onto dough. Sprinkle with cheese. Top with all ingredients. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes.

Exceptionally good Supreme pizza! Trader Joe's pizza sauce has some herbs and oil in it and is really tasty. Their dough makes a nice 12" size pie. I haven't tried the herb dough, but it also seems like a good plan--maybe bread sticks?

Somen Salad

2009-07-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

Somen Salad is a great choice for a hot night. The noodles can be cooked in just 2 minutes, early in the day, and the whole meal can be assembled and refrigerated several hours before you eat. It looks so festive that it makes a great party dish, as well. More than 20 years ago, I received this recipe from my husband's co-worker, who was from Hawaii

Somen Salad

14-16 oz. package somen noodles, cooked for 2 minutes in boiling water, then cooled
shredded iceberg lettuce
3 slices ham, chopped
2 eggs, scrambled
1/2 a kamaboko, chopped (fish cake) or krab sticks
2 stalks green onion, chopped
1 Japanese cucumber, chopped
1 Tbsp benishoga (red pickled ginger)

Dressing:
2 Tbsp. sesame seed
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup corn oil
3 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce

Spread cooled somen in 9 x 13" pan. Garnish with remaining toppings. Shake dressing up in a small jar and pour over.

These ingredients make enough for a party-sized serving, although in that case the dressing should be doubled. For a family of 3 next time, I will use the 8 oz. package of somen noodles, and keep the other ingredients and dressing as stated in this recipe. We added miso salad dressing as we ate it, which was delicious!

Pineapple Fried Rice

2009-07-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

This turned out to be delicious!

1 pineapple, cut lengthwise, cored and chopped
8 oz. chicken tenders, cut into small pieces
5 oz. fresh shrimp, shelled and cut into pieces
1/2 an onion, chopped
3 green onions chopped
1 Tbsp curry powder
Thai fish sauce
soy sauce

Mini Cheesecakes

2009-07-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

made for friends

Broiled Sanma with Kimpira

2009-07-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

We've been planning a food blog for months now, and we keep forgetting to take pictures of our meals before we eat them. But today is the day.

Oyako literally means mother-child in Japanese. It's the name of a Japanese dish called oyako donburi, which is chicken and egg. And it's what Paul Simon was alluding to in his song Mother and Child Reunion. So this is the food blog for Kristen and Kristen's mom.

Friday nights in our house are always special meals-- usually Japanese dishes, always with rice. Tonight it was broiled sanma, known (if it is known at all) as "saury pike" in English. We cooked this shio-yaki, which just means sprinkled liberally with salt and broiled. The fish is oily, dark, and delicious. If you bite into the part that is the guts, it is bitter, but a tiny touch of that bitterness is part of the experience.

On the side, we had kimpira, stir-fried gobo and carrot with some seasoning and red pepper, as well as grated daikon, which is the perfect and necessary complement to fish. Eaten on the patio on a cool summer evening--what could be better.

Cooking by Mama, photography by Kristen.