Vegetarianism and Eggplants

That looks like a lot more cheese than it really was.

When you live in a rural area, seasonal food means food that is in season in your area or in areas not too far from you. Living in a metropolitan area, where you have far greater access to food from all over the world, means that you see food that is in season someplace else on the globe. If I see a ton of cheap avocados, it means they're in season in Mexico or Puerto Rico, not Japan.

I'm not sure where most of the eggplants in Tokyo are coming from, but recent shopping trips would seem to indicate that they're in season somewhere. They're cheaper than usual and plentiful. To be honest, I'm not a serious eggplant fan, though I do enjoy them on occasion and in moderation. The only vegetarian lasagna I ever made (for a friend who didn't eat meat) was made with eggplant and it turned out extremely well.

This particular friend worked several "busy seasons" as a temp. at my former office and was one of the few people aside from myself who brought her own lunch. She likely had little choice because vegetarian options are painfully limited in Japan. Even when you ask and are told there's no meat in something, there is often some sort of meat in it. It seems that the question is often interpreted by the Japanese to mean, "are there big hunks of meat in it". They'll tell you there's no meat in the dish if it's something which has minced meat in small quantities or meat broth. The notion of being a vegetarian is relatively alien in Japan. I do several lessons where I talk about food with students and the idea of giving up meat sounds incredibly odd to them. Invariably, they see the option as being one based in health benefits rather than ecological ones or philosophical beliefs.

A rare site in Tokyo, a vegan restaurant. It's not so rare as it once was, but it's still pretty rare.

Getting back to this former co-worker though, it was often the case that I'd ask this particular friend what she'd brought for lunch and one day she said "aubergine stew". Since my second language was not French (it was Spanish) and Americans rarely say "aubergine", I asked what that was to which my (Australian) boss replied that it was what snooty people called "eggplant." He was just kidding, of course. She wasn't the least bit snooty, and fortunately was a good sport.

All those bags full of eggplants in the shops and some serious boredom with my usual lunchtime options inspired me to pick up a bag of small ones and try to put them to use. The result is something which is pretty simple and I mainly mention it in my blog to inspire others to consider enjoying the same thing, not because it's an uncommon combination.

This recipe has the virtue of being very cheap and fast. I had an hour before a lesson and watched the clock while I made it. The "hard part" takes about 6 minutes with a further 5 minutes or so in the toaster oven.

Open-face Eggplant Sandwich:

• 1 small eggplant
• 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste (I used 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, and 1/2 tsp. garlic powder)
• olive oil as needed for frying
• 1/2 tomato (sliced)
• cheese as desired (Japanese natural "mixed" cheese is fine)
• French bread (or any other type of crusty bread)
  

Slice the eggplant into about 8-10 discs of about 1/2 inch (or a bit less). Place the flour, salt, pepper, and garlic into a small bag (or a shallow bowl) and mix. Place the eggplant slices in the bag and shake to coat. They should be a bit moist and the flour will stick, but if they are dry, you may need to give them a rinse and shake off the excess water to get the flour mixture to adhere to them. Heat a small skillet over medium flame and add about a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Fry the eggplant slices in the oil until they are browned on one side then turn them over and brown the other side. You may need to add more olive oil to the pan when you turn over the eggplant as it will absorb the oil.

While the eggplant is cooking, cut off a 5 inch section of French bread and slice it in half length-wise. Trim the top and bottom if necessary to make them sit flatter on the toaster oven tray. If the bread is tilted, the cheese will run off as it melts. Place the bread slices on the tray and put 4 or 5 cooked slices of eggplant on each piece. Top with slices of tomato. Season the tomato with salt then sprinkle the tops with cheese. It's tidier if you heap the cheese in the center so that it doesn't melt off the edges when you toast it. Toast (or broil) the sandwich until the cheese melts.

Note that it's very important to salt the tomato before adding the cheese or it'll taste rather bland and it doesn't work quite so well if you salt the cheese when the sandwich is done. Also, the topping for this sandwich is very soft so it's extremely important to use some good bread with heft and firmness.

So, I'm the Noisy Neighbor?

On a daily basis, I hear my upstairs neighbors going about the business of their daily life. I hear them dropping things, slamming doors, and seemingly tapping on the floor for no particular reason. On a few occasions, I've heard what sounds like someone tripping and falling like a dead weight onto the floor. Strangely though, I never hear any tenant's television, radio or telephone, so clearly only percussive sounds carry through the floor.

Part of living in a less than perfectly sound-proofed apartment is that these things are going to happen. I don't get mad at my neighbors or try to get them to quiet down. I also don't run off and complain to the landlord about it, though I have had to complain about former neighbors who threw dirty water onto their balcony and let it drip down onto my clean laundry that was hanging out to dry. Please note that I live in a 6-unit building (3 on top, 3 on the bottom) and I've only ever had Japanese neighbors. I know they're Japanese because it's the custom for new tenants to introduce themselves to nearby tenants in the same building upon moving in.

At any rate, I put up with daily thumping and banging and I don't moan or whine about it. About a month ago, between 9:00-9:30 pm, I was preparing dinner. On this particular occasion, I was making a chicken dish which required me to pound chicken breasts flat with a mallet. It probably takes about a minute to get each one to the desired thinness. Shortly after I started beating on the third breast, my neighbors started aggressively beating on the floor to let me know how bothersome I was being to them with my noise-making.

The implement of my evil noise-making, a rubber mallet, was actually a gag gift from a former co-worker who told me I could use it to beat some of my coworkers when I was frustrated. Little did he know I had more legal (thought certainly not more pragmatic) applications for his gift.

Not having much of a choice, I continued with dinner preparations and was treated to another round of listening to my annoyed neighbors beating on the floor. While I understand that it was probably no fun for them to endure 4 (separate) minutes of me pounding on something, keep in mind they weren't sitting in my living room (and it wasn't late at night). They are above me so there's a floor and some distance between us. Also, this was the pot calling the kettle black. I don't know what is up with their tapping, but it happens at least once a week for prolonged periods of time. It's like they're hanging hundreds of tiny picture frames on their walls one at a time.

This incident reminded me of something I've mentioned to my husband on more than one occasion while listening to my neighbors do routine things which cause us to hear lots of banging and thumping. I'm glad we're on the first floor. If my using that mallet bunched their tighty-whities, I can only imagine what walking around, dropping stuff accidentally and closing sliding doors would do to them.

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The chicken dish that I made is probably one of which many folks have a version, but I'm going to give my recipe for it nonetheless. It's very good fresh because the bacon gets a bit crispy, but is also good as leftovers. Note that my husband and I make it with American bacon which is saltier and smokier than Japanese bacon. My husband picks up about a four or so 1-lb. packages of Farmer John brand American bacon when he goes to Costco and they last us about 3-4 months. It can probably be made with Japanese bacon, but the taste will be a bit different.

This dish is one of the few things I can make with chicken breast meat which my husband likes. Not only can you never go wrong with anything which is wrapped in bacon, but beating on it to flatten it out makes the chicken nice and tender. I will not be held responsible though if your neighbors complain when you make it. ;-)

Bacon-wrapped Chicken Breasts:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 pound/227 grams bacon (about 8 pieces) cut in half
• ~4 oz./113 grams mild cheese (I used Gouda or Mozzarella) cut into small chunks (about 1/2 inch or 1.27 cm)
  
• 8 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

The breast on the upper right was the first one. Notice how nice and smooth it looks. They are placed in counter-clockwise order and you can see that my work got shoddier as I progressed. The last one is a mangled lump.

Grease a baking dish and set aside. Sandwich a chicken breast between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound with a mallet until about 1/4 inch/.6 cm thick. Try not to beat it until it tears. Leave it a little thicker rather than thinner if necessary. Mix the flour and spices together in a large, shallow bowl. Rinse one chicken piece at a time and thoroughly shake off the excess water. Dredge a damp breast on both sides in the flour shaking off the excess. Place a piece of cheese in the center and fold the short side in first then the long side. Try to enclose the cheese entirely in the breast. This should form a ball that is closed on the bottom. If it doesn't hold together, secure the ends with toothpicks though be very careful to remove them before eating. Place each completed breast in the baking dish.


Place the half strips of bacon over the tops of the chicken to cover. Covering it will keep the breasts moist through the baking process. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour (or more). Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C. Bake the chicken (uncovered) for 50-60 minutes or until juices run clear and chicken is cooked through. This makes 6-8 servings depending on your appetite.


For my husband and I, half of one of these along with about 4 oz. (125 gr.) of rice and a vegetable makes a very nice meal, so it's not quite as evil as it may seem from a fat point of view. Half of one is about 2.5 oz. (70 g.) of chicken, 1 slice of bacon and .5 oz. (14 g.) of cheese. Most of the fat will cook out of the bacon and pool at the bottom of the baking dish so I recommend removing the breasts immediately rather than waiting until they get cold.

Pumpkin Bread

Look at all that carotene.

Back when I was working in an office, I used to make goodies for the entire office around Christmas time. Two particular items were a huge hit. One was my peanut butter cookies and the other was this recipe for pumpkin bread. The bread this recipe makes is very sweet, tender on the inside, and has a crispy outer shell when fresh. It's also quite moist. The surprise to me was that, despite how sweet this is, the Japanese adored it.

I hadn't turned to this recipe for quite some time because I'd forgotten about it and because it's a bit decadent with all the sugar. However, I've been noticing that the higher prices of butter in Japan are really starting to increase the cost of my home-made baked goods. While it's still cheaper to make my own than to buy things at bakeries (and for cakes, muffins, and cookies, my stuff is better), it's starting to approach a point where the money saved versus the effort invested make it not necessarily worth it from a financial viewpoint.

The advantage of this recipe over my old standby, banana bread, is that this uses Canola oil as the fat and it's rather significantly cheaper than butter. I make it with a 50/50 sugar/Splenda mixture, but I think you could safely reduce the sugar by a bit and it'd still be pretty good. However, I've never tried reducing the sugar. If you do so, I'd recommend a slow reduction starting with eliminating 1/4 cup and carefully testing the texture.

Pumpkin Bread:

• 1/2 cup Canola oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (American) pureed pumpkin
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 C. sugar (or a mix of 1 C. sugar and 1 C. granular Splenda)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder

Whisk the eggs, oil, vanilla and pumpkin puree together in a large bowl until well mixed. Add the spices, salt, and sugar (or sugar and Splenda) and whisk until well mixed. Sift in the flour and baking powder and whisk until just mixed. Do not overbeat the mixture or the bread will be tough from the gluten being overworked. Preheat oven to 355 degrees F./180 degrees C. Back for one hour or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

This freezes extremely well and makes a really nice breakfast if you want something sweet.

Sweet Potato Scones

As the New Year's holidays approach, shops start putting food on sale to clear their stock before they close up for a day or two. Usually, shops are closed at least on the January 1 and some for as long as 3 days from the 1st to the 3rd. Sales are also held from January 2nd at some department stores located near or on the way to the most famous or heavily trafficked shrines. Nothing stands in the way of a consumerist opportunity!

In preparation for their closure, one of our local markets was offering some moderate bargains on various foodstuffs, particularly fruit and vegetables that they didn't want rotting away during the holiday. Of paramount attraction to me was a bag of 5 small sweet potatoes on sale for ¥100 (89 cents). I didn't quite know what I was going to do with them, but I'm too big a fan of Japanese sweet potatoes to let an opportunity pass.

While perusing various baking sites, I came across a recipe for sweet potato scones and the idea seemed quite appealing. However, it needed adapting for Japanese sweet potatoes in my opinion. To me, a scone has to have at least a reasonable amount of fat in it to add texture and the recipe I found only had 1 tablespoon of butter. I also felt it was important to account for the difference in moisture of Japanese sweet potatoes as compared to American ones. To be honest, I was almost certain the result was going to be dense and tough the first time around, but they turned out beautifully. I credit what I learned from making traditional Japanese sweet potato cakes with helping me make the right sort of modifications for the scones to turn out so well.

I'm pretty sure that these can be made with American sweet potatoes, but you'll have to keep an eye on the moisture. Japanese potatoes are exceptionally dry and may make a different sort of dough. Using American potatoes may require you to use more flour.

Sweet Potato Scones:

• 3 tbsp. butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 4 packets Splenda or heat stable artificial sweetener (optional)
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• *1 cup mashed sweet potatoes (specially prepared-see below)
• 2 cups flour
  
• 2 tsp. baking powder

*To prepare the sweet potatoes, steam them until they are soft. Err on the side of overcooked rather than undercooked. Do not boil them as it will introduce more moisture. Peel them and press them through a fine sieve to mash them. This will remove any lumps or heavily fibrous portions and help make the dough lighter.

Cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer. Add the salt and Splenda (if desired) and eggs. Beat again until well incorporated. Add the mashed potato and beat again. Sift the flour and baking powder into the potatoes and mix. Knead it a little to make sure the flour is incorporated but make sure not to over-mix it as it will make the scones tough. Pat the dough into a rectangle about 3/4 of an inch thick and cut into triangular shapes. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees C./425 degrees F. and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 20 minutes (until the edges are golden brown).

Splenda adds more sweetness to the scones without upsetting the balance of the moisture absorption of the sugar. Using Splenda allows you to enjoy the scones without jam, honey, or other sweet spreads and makes it possible to mainly taste the sweet potato without any sort of spread masking the flavor. If you'd like a more traditional-looking flat, crispy-topped scone, you can brush the tops of the dough with an egg wash to keep them from rising. I just didn't want to waste an egg for such a trivial difference in the final result.

Having one of these scones plain with tea or coffee for breakfast really hits the spot. :-)

Not So Much With the Stars

I've been endeavoring to diversify my home cooking menu and it's been rather difficult for various reasons. One of the major reasons is that my husband is a picky eater and can't tolerate hot and spicy dishes. Both of us enjoy Indian dishes though they have to be on the mild side for him. I read Mallika's excellent Quick Indian Cooking site regularly and have attempted to make the dishes she writes about there on occasion. The main problem I have is that some of the ingredients aren't available in Japan. Even when most of the ingredients are in a shop, I've found spices are pretty low quality. I'm guessing this is because they aren't used in traditional Japanese cuisine and sit around the store for ages.

I have made Mallika's chicken pulao recipe twice before. I had to substitute ground cumin for whole and a dried red chili for the green ones. The first time, it lacked flavor because my spices were so anemic. The second time, I doubled the dried, whole spices and it was better. This time, I'm considering tripling the cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and star anise to try and create some deeper flavor from what I'm sure are well aged spices.

A bottle of star anise, well, not exactly stars.

The only problem with my plans was that I was out of star anise. There's only one market nearby which carries it and I trekked over there and searched the spice rack. The only "star anise" they had was a bottle of smashed up little bits. While I'm sure this will add flavor just fine, it's going to make removing the anise (which is hard and bark-like) from the finished dish before eating rather difficult.

Nonetheless, the chicken pulao recipe is worth the hassle. If you're interested in trying your hand at some Indian cooking, it's a winner. If you live in Japan though, consider going a bit heavy on the whole spices.

Pork Roast

With the weather changing, my cooking inclinations also change. Instead of trying to cook light meals that take the shortest time and won't heat up the house, thoughts turn to warming foods like soup and baking seems like a far more attractive proposition than it did even two weeks ago. This change of feeling is what lead to my (first ever) pork roast yesterday.

My husband and I actually don't eat that much pork. We mainly have it as a way to break the monotony of consuming (greatly cheaper) chicken so frequently. When I headed off to the market, I knew I was going to buy what I needed for potato and onion soup but I wasn't sure what to make with it. I figured I'd let the selections in the meat racks "inspire" me with whatever was unique to us and relatively reasonably priced.

I found a largish hunk of pork for about 100 yen per 100 grams and decided to give it a try. As points of comparison, chicken breast is generally 39 yen per 100 grams, thighs about 59 yen per 100 grams and pork chops are about 89 yen per 100 grams. So, while this was a little expensive, it wasn't outrageous.

When I got home, I decided to mix several methods and recipes I'd searched on the Internet to prepare it. Here is what I ended up doing:

Pork Roast recipe:

2.4 lbs (1096 grams) pork roast (loin cut, I believe)
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 crushed cloves fresh garlic
1/2 tsp. dried sage
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
~1/2 pound thinly-sliced bacon (4-6 strips)

cotton twine for tying
plastic wrap

Preparing the work surface:

Stretch a sheet of plastic wrap large enough to wrap your roast on the table. Cut 6 lengths of cotton twine to size for tying your roast then place 3 lengths horizontally and 3 lengths vertically across the plastic in a criss-cross fashion. The strings need to intersect close enough to tie up your roast. Place strips of bacon horizontally over the 3 horizontal lengths of twine.

Preparing the roast:

Put the olive oil, garlic, sage, rosemary, salt and pepper into a small bowl and whisk together to mix well. Rub this mixture evenly over all sides of your roast.

Place the roast on top of the pre-prepared work surface. The bacon should cover all (or almost all) of the bottom of the roast and wrap somewhat up the sides when you tie everything in place. Place three strips of bacon vertically on the top and wrap them around the sides. Depending on the size of your roast, you may need more or less bacon. When the bacon is in place, tie the roast up (not too tightly, just tight enough to hold the bacon securely). Wrap the plastic wrap around the prepared roast and put it in the refrigerator for 2-6 hours.

Place a rack on a tray. Remove the plastic wrap from the roast and position it on the rack. I also put foil under the rack to make cleaning up easier but it's not necessary. The bacon fat will drip off into the tray and it will be very oily when the roast is finished.

Cook at 160 degrees C. or 325 degrees F. for 25-30 minutes per pound.

My roast was 2.4 pounds and cooked for an hour and a half. I also flipped it over at the 45 minute point when I noticed the bacon on the top was browning and crisping up faster than that on the bottom but this may not be necessary in a larger oven. You will want to cook a bit longer if you want a more well-done roast. My level of cooking was medium and safe but a lot of people are more comfortable cooking pork longer.

My husband was very, very pleased with the roast because it was exceptionally tender. For me, the center was a bit too juicy so I will eat only from the ends (which were still tender but drier) while he will stick to the rarer center.


Earlier, I had already cooked up about 6 servings of soup which we reheated and ate with the pork. Since the soup is a bit of a production, I wanted to get it out of the way before it grew too late in the evening. This soup doesn't suffer at all from being cooled and reheated and pairs very well with this roast.

Japanese Sweet Potato Cakes

Muffin-shaped Japanese sweet potato cake. Yummy!

The Japanese sweet potato (サツマイモ), which I've extolled the tasty virtues of before, is relatively cheap and easy to purchase year-round though it is cheaper in the fall. The main problem with them is that they are hard to cook and handle in a fashion which leaves you with a tasty result. This is likely more so the case if you're a foreigner and don't know how to prepare them though, if my students are any indication, most Japanese women don't know much about cooking these days either.

For this reason, I tend to get my sweet potatoes pre-prepared from more skillful hands but I can't help but recognize how much cheaper it'd be for me to make dishes with them myself. To that end, I decided to try and make Japanese sweet potato cakes. I've bought these from markets and had them as souvenir gifts from co-workers before and enjoyed them. However, there's a real quality difference based on the source of such pre-made "sweets" and I'm guessing I never had a top of the line cake.

The main problem with cooking Japanese sweet potatoes is that they are extremely dry inside. I've read that the peel is also quite bitter. If you bake them or microwave them, they become almost unpalatably dry. If you boil them, they tend to disintegrate too easily. I did some research on the internet and found a recipe from a Japanese woman (Setsuko Yoshizuka) on about.com which contained what I believe is an authentic recipe. I decided that I'd follow it to the letter as best I could and hope for the good results.

Japanese sweet potato steamed and peeled.

The first thing that she says you should do is steam two small potatoes before peeling them. This is something I've seen on Japanese cooking shows before but western people usually don't handle potatoes in this fashion. In the west, we tend to peel and boil, or, at best, peel and steam, but I've heard that it's better to steam all types of potatoes because they won't absorb water and diminish the flavor of the resulting product. I found that the skin easily peels off when you steam the whole tuber so you don't waste the flesh as you do when you peel a raw potato. The only down side is that it takes a long time to steam a whole potato to a tender state.

Peeled and sliced potatoes ready for mashing.

The peeled potatoes look a bit dirty and nasty because the purple flesh stains the outside and they're rather hard to mash because they are so dry.


At first, I tried to mash them just with a fork but it resulted in a lot of what appeared to be little pebbly globs so I added the butter in the original recipe to moisten it up a bit then started bashing it with a large whisk. While this was better, adding milk helped a bit. In the end, I decided to triple the milk from 1 tbsp. to 3 tbsp. because it was not very smooth. I think that this was because my sweet potatoes were not as small as they might have been (though, honestly, based on my experience buying these potatoes, they were quite small). In the end, it was still very stiff for mashed potatoes.


The original recipe called for the cakes to be formed and placed in aluminum oval-shaped tins. You can get these disposable tins in most markets but I didn't have any on hand and I figured they're mainly for aesthetic purposes and for super easy removal. I buttered up 4 muffin tins and pressed the potato into them though not too firmly as I didn't want the cakes to be too dense. I ran a fork over the top for some sort of vague pattern and brushed it with egg and water as instructed. One tip I can offer is that you don't need to reserve any egg yolk for brushing as the recipe says. If you put the yolk in a small bowl and beat it a bit then pour it into the potatoes, there will be enough of a residue in the dish to mix with about 4 or so drops of water to use as a "glaze". In the picture above, the potato cake puffed up a bit above the lip of the muffin tin but the finished cakes sink back down after they have cooled. My main concern was about whether or not they'd un-mold cleanly from the tins but they were fine. However, I did butter them liberally so that was to be expected.

The original recipe recommended baking the cakes for 10-15 minutes at 190 degrees C. (375 degrees F.) but I felt that that wouldn't be long enough given the shape of my cakes. I believe the shorter time would work fine with the longer, shallower oval-shaped cakes but wouldn't allow heat to penetrate to the center of my muffin-shaped ones so I gave them 25 minutes. I mainly decided to monitor how brown the top got and to pull them out if they started to look dark.

The interior of the cake.

The top of the cake looked exactly like it was supposed to and the texture (moist but just a bit light) was precisely the same as the pre-prepared cakes I have had before. The only difference was that it was much, much better because it was fresh and did not have added chemicals in it for long-term preservation. No one could be more surprised than I that this was a complete success the first time out. I guess it was a tribute to the simplicity of the original recipe. It perhaps was hard to mess up.

The main problem with these cakes is that making them way I did by hand the entire way was very labor-intensive. I'm going to make them again but next time I'll use my mixer for the mashing. The main recipe is also very basic (2 potatoes, 2 tbsp. butter, 1 tbsp. milk, 2.5 tbsp. sugar, 1 egg yolk) and I think that adding just a little brandy (1-2 tsp.) might sharpen up the sweet potato flavor and add a certain richness to them. The only modification I made this first time out was that I used brown sugar instead of white sugar since I believe it pairs better with sweet potato.

Those who think of a sweet which is called a "cake" as being like, well, cake, may be disappointed in this. The texture is more like the filling of a sweet potato pie. That's not to say it isn't very nice. Like many Japanese sweets, the sweetness is light and there's more nutrition to them than the average western sweet. They make for a wonderful, filling treat with tea. If you have friends over who aren't fans of heavy sweets or who are watching calories and want to surprise them with a treat, this would be a super dessert. They also make a fiber-rich, carbohydrate-dense breakfast treat.

Rich (Stove-top) Rice Pudding

I haven't posted new recipes for quite some time because I haven't successfully been making anything new or noteworthy but last night I found myself with a taste for rice pudding and a new recipe was born.

Rice pudding is one of those things which I don't crave often but, when I do, I want something creamy and custard-like, not dry and eggy. In the past, I've tried a great many different on-line recipes both on the stove top and in the oven. I've been universally unimpressed so I decided to toss something together for myself. I'm sure this concept is not new though and someone (or many people) out there have nearly identical recipes but it was new to me and, by far, the most successful in making a lovely, decadent dish. It's especially good when cold and makes a great breakfast though it's also good when warm (though not as thick). For those of us in Japan, this is very easy as it uses one two-hundred gram container of pre-cooked rice. We can pick these up almost anywhere in Japan.

Rich Stove-top Rice Pudding:

• 200 grams (~1.5 cups) cooked rice
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2-3 tbls. sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
• dash of salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• cinnamon to taste as garnish (optional)
  

Place the egg yolks in a medium-sized saucepan and pour in the milk. Whisk this mixture until it is smooth. Whisk in the salt, rice, and sugar. It should seem very soupy with far more liquid than rice. Cook over medium heat stirring very frequently. As it starts to thicken, stir it constantly. If it starts to stick to the center of the pan, turn the heat down a little. Once the sauce has reached the thickness of Hershey's chocolate syrup, remove it from the heat and stir in the vanilla. It should reach this thickness just before or after it starts to boil. Sprinkle with cinnamon before serving if desired.


This makes 2-4 servings depending on whether it's a meal in itself or meant as a dessert. Also, you'll find it's much thicker when cold than when warm so don't panic if it seems a bit soupy at first.

Anisette Sponge Cake

When my husband came back from the U.S., he brought a package of Stella D'oro Anisette Sponge with him on the plane for snacking. He also brought back a bottle of anise extract. He has always liked Anisette toast and sponge cookies but you can't get them in Japan. This is very likely because they smell of licorice and, in my experience, Japanese people aren't keen on licorice.

I decided to try to create something similar to the anisette sponge cookies he brought back with him and I think I've come as close as I'm going to with a third experimental recipe based on a biscotti recipe. It's probably closer to cake than to cookie but it's definitely not as delicate as cake can be and can be easily eaten with fingers alone (and does not drop a lot of crumbs).

Anisette Sponge Recipe:

• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup Canola oil (scant)
  
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 tsp. anise extract
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• dash vanilla essence
• dash lemon essence
• dash almond essence
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup white flour
• dash salt
  

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. (175 degrees C.) Whisk the egg, egg yolk, milk, oil, anise extract, and all essences together. Whisk in the sugar and salt. Sift in the baking powder and flour. Stir until smooth. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a skewer in the center comes out clean. Allow to rest in the pan for 5-10 minutes and gently turn out onto a cooling rack. Slice when thoroughly cooled.

I recommend you allow the cake to cool completely and wait several hours before eating it because the anise flavor seems to need time to develop and is very subtle when consumed in warm cakes or cookies.

Semi-fredo Pasta (Vegetarian)

I hate to shop. There is something missing in my female genetic structure which renders me immune to the allure of looking at junk and wanting to fork over cash for it. I hate it so much that I haven't done any food shopping (aside from milk and the odd avocado or piece of fruit at the 99 yen convenience store down the street) since my husband left for the U.S. on May 21. The truth is I last shopped for food on May 18th.

With my husband not being here, I don't have to worry about what I cook suiting him so I've been scrounging to avoid heading to the market. On the surface, this must sound pretty pathetic but the truth is that it's been pretty useful in using up things that are around the apartment. From a certain perspective, food is an investment and, if you don't eat it, you throw that money away.

Given that I haven't shopped now for 8 days, you probably realize that I am scraping the bottom of the larder by now. I remain undaunted though in my attempts to avoid going food shopping even as stores of food rich in protein that I'm willing to eat dwindle to nothing. My husband has steaks and a chicken thigh in the freezer but I dislike steak rather intensely and am not a fan of dark meat. I think my dislike of these meats exceeds my dislike of shopping though, if nothing else, I wouldn't want to waste an expensive steak on the likes of me.

I scrounged further and decided that I'd make a semi-alfredo sauce and serve it over pasta with pine nuts (which is where a nice portion of protein comes from). It turned out very well so I thought I'd share the recipe. By the way, there's no picture because I don't have my camera right now.

Semi-fredo sauce recipe:

• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1.5 cups whole milk
• 3 oz./85 grams gouda cheese
  
• 3 oz./85 grams mozzarella cheese
• 3 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. coarsely-ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. parsley
• your choice of pasta (6 servings worth)
• 1 cup toasted pine nuts
  

In a heavy-bottomed medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter then stir in the milk over low heat. While the milk is heating, toss all the cheese, spices, and flour into a small bowl food processor and process until the cheese is grated as finely as possible. Turn up the heat under the saucepan to medium and add the cheese. Stir constantly with a whisk until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth and thickened. Serve immediately over hot pasta. Garnish lavishly with toasted pine nuts.

I had this over organic whole wheat pasta and it was very good. You may want to adjust the types or amounts of cheese (particularly the Parmesan as it's pretty strong) depending on your preferences.

Faux Vanilla Milkshake (Sugar-free)

The other day I was in the mood for something cold and sweet after dinner, no doubt as a result of the warming temperatures. I wasn't really in the mood for the cocoa flavor of my cocoa frappucino so I decided to attempt to modify it to turn it into something more akin to a vanilla shake. The results were surprisingly good.

The exotic ingredients in this recipe can be purchased from the FBC in Japan.

Faux (Vanilla) Milkshake recipe:

• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 tbsp. powdered skim milk
• 1 tsp. pectin
• 2 tbsp. Sugar-free vanilla Da Vinci syrup
• 1 packet Splenda sweetener
• 2 dashes of vanilla essence (or less if you don't like strong vanilla)
• 1 cup of ice
  

Depending on your options for ice, you may need to crush the ice before or after the next step. Some blenders have ice crushing attachments. Mine has one which fits on top so it crushes ice into the beverage below. If yours crushes ice in the bottom of the blender, you'll have to crush it first, remove the ice, mix the ingredients and then add the crushed ice back in.

Put all the ingredients except the ice into a blender and blend for about 30 seconds to get it mixed well. It should look a little frothy on top. Add the crushed ice and blend for about a minute. The ice particles should be evenly mixed in such that the drink looks sludgier and does not have tiny icy bumps. If the ice particles are too big, blend it longer. It should resemble melted ice cream. Serve immediately.

I think this recipe could be modified to use other flavors of Da Vinci syrup with varying results. I'm not sure how well the fruit flavors would work but I'd guess the caramel syrup would probably be quite good. However, the other flavors have the drawback of not having an easy to buy essence to enhance their potency like vanilla does. If you try other flavors, you may need to increase the syrup to 3 tbsp. and skip the extra packet of Splenda.

I'm guessing that there may also be a pretty nice variation of this sort of thing using plain yogurt and crushed ice somewhere but I haven't tried one yet.

Icebox Chicken "Doria"

About 8 years ago, my husband and I used to go to a "Mexican" restaurant a very short distance from our apartment. It was only Mexican in that tacos were included as part of the menu. Other than that, the entire menu consisted of various steak dishes (small steaks, smaller steaks, small steaks with an egg, even smaller steaks with an egg, hamburg steak, small steak with rice, etc.) and one chicken dish, chicken doria.

When we went there, it was very unusual to find more than one other patron in the establishment. In fact, it wasn't the least bit uncommon for us to be the only two people there. The restaurant seriously reminded me of the type of place I mentioned in a recent post which doesn't appear to do much business but stays in operation regardless. In fact, they continue to have very few patrons but are still going.

Since I actively dislike steak, I'd always have the chicken doria. It was expensive but rather nice and the place was quiet and spacious. The only other non-steak option, the tacos, were very anemic things. It was a soft corn tortilla filled with what seemed like beef paste, a bit of tomato, a bit of onion, and some overly tangy sauce pretending to be salsa.

Eventually, the restaurant installed a large screen television and a big karaoke set-up. This resulted in them closing off the place for general patronage sporadically so we couldn't eat there just any time. At some point, they completely changed the menu to a Korean barbeque and all the food we liked, such as it was, was gone and we never went there again.

This evening I was sitting around with leftover chicken from a whole bird we'd baked last night trying to think of some tasty way to use it up. While I enjoy chicken in general, I tend to find baked chicken really boring as leftovers. I remembered the doria that I used to have and decided to give making something similar a shot.

I researched doria recipes on the Internet but mainly found seafood recipes or recipes that included things I didn't have or couldn't buy because I live in Japan. In the end, I raided the refrigerator and my pantry to come up with something which I really enjoyed and was similar to what I used to have though I'd guess one wouldn't technically call it a true "doria".

Icebox Chicken "Doria":

• 400 grams cooked rice (about 4-5 cups)
• 1 very large chicken breast (cooked and cut into small pieces)
• 1 can of Campbell's condensed chicken soup
• 1 cup of white wine
• 1 cup of low fat milk (or full fat if you prefer)
• 1/2 small onion (diced finely)
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 cup shredded (mild) cheese ("mixed cheese" in Japan is fine)
• pepper (to taste)
• one small can of mushroom slices (optional)
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C. Spray a glass baking dish (or metal if that's all you have) with cooking spray or grease very sparingly.

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Melt the butter in the pan then add the diced onion. Cook the onion until it is soft and starts to caramelize just a bit. If you want mushrooms, drain the canned mushrooms, rinse them, pat them dry and stir them into the butter and onion mixture and cook for a short while.

Stir in the diced chicken. Add the wine, milk and soup. Heat until hot but not boiling. Stir in the rice until it is warmed and evenly mixed (heating cold cooked rice will break it apart). Pepper to taste and stir. Pour the rice mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the top with cheese. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes on a center rack. It should be bubbling hot but the cheese should not be browned except perhaps at the very edges. Serve with Tabasco sauce if desired.

Note that the rice should be slightly wetter than you're going to want it to be in the finished dish. If it seems too dry while you're heating the mixture in the saucepan, add more milk. You don't want the final dish to be dried out. It should be creamy but still hold it's shape to a large extent when served. It's better to err on the side of making it too wet than too dry.

You can use any type of cheese you like but something with a milder taste (Gouda, for instance) is better than something overbearing like cheddar.

White Castle Pie (low carb)

That's not cheese veined throughout the ground chicken. It's an egg mixture. That is cheese on top though.

For those who don't know about White Castle, it is a chain of fast food restaurants which is famous for relatively tiny burgers and for being America's oldest burger chain. Personally, I've never had a White Castle burger because there are no shops in Pennsylvania (where I was born), California (where I lived for a year), or Japan (where I am now). I'm not even sure why this recipe is called "White Castle Pie" but I'm guessing it has to do with the onions and fat content of the original incarnation of this recipe (which was for beef and used cream).

White Castle Pie is a low carb cooking mainstay the recipe for which appears on many web sites. I'm not sure who first created it but I will cite the original recipe that my modification was derived from the recipe on Linda's Low Carb Menus and Recipes site. Her picture turned out much better than mine but a big reason for that is that mine is made with (lower fat) chicken and real vegetables whereas hers is made with beef and spice/soup mix. My filling doesn't hold together as tightly as hers because of the veggies and is quite pale.

This is another cheap meal which you can make ahead of time and eat leftovers from for at least a few days (if not more). It freezes well so you can stash some of it away for a lazy day. I can't say that it's the healthiest main dish but I have done what I can to reduce the fat content and increase the nutritional content. It's quite filling and high in protein so you don't need a huge portion. It's great with a plain, steamed strong-tasting green vegetable like broccoli.

I usually make enough for two pies at once so I can freeze a fair bit for the future but this recipe is enough for one pie (which makes 6 servings for those with a relatively average appetite).

White Castle Pie recipe:

• 500 grams (1 lb.) ground chicken or turkey
• 2 garlic cloves (minced)
• 1/2-3/4 medium onion (finely-diced)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup low-fat milk
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup shredded cheese (natural mixed cheese is o.k.)
  
• olive oil (about 1 tbsp. for frying)
• salt and pepper to taste
• yellow mustard (for serving)

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add enough olive oil to just cover the bottom (a scant amount). Add the minced garlic and cook it for just a minute or two then add the diced onion and cook until it just starts to soften. Stir frequently for even cooking.
2. Add the ground poultry and stir the onion and garlic into it. Cook until the meat is cooked through. Thoroughly drain any juice or oil from the pan. It helps to use a lid to drain once, shake the pan, then drain again. Shaking the pan between draining attempts tends to get more juice and oil to come out.
   
3. Break the eggs into a medium bowl and whisk briefly. Add the milk and mayonnaise to the eggs and whisk until thoroughly mixed.
4. Salt and pepper the meat mixture to taste. I usually use about a 1/2 tsp. of pepper and 3/4 tsp. of salt (though I don't actually measure it). Stir 1/2 of the cheese into the meat mixture then spoon the mixture into a pie tin. Press it down if necessary to make it no higher than the top of the tin.
5. Pour the egg mixture over the meat mixture then sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese.
6. Bake at 180 degrees C. or 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes.
7. Serve topped with yellow mustard.
   

I'm pretty sure one could reduce the mayonnaise quantity from a 1/2 cup to 1/3 without any serious impact on the dish. It's possible it could be cut down to 1/4 but I've never tried that. While a 1/2 cup may seem like a lot, it's not so much when it is spread across 6 servings. It's 1.3 tbsp. per serving which probably isn't much more than people slather on sandwiches. Considering that mayonnaise is practically its own food group in Japan, it's a modest amount of mayo by the standards of Japanese cuisine. ;-)

Pear Pine Nut Cake

This excellent bit of food porn is brought to you by my white Konishiki tea towel which blocked the flash and allowed me to take a decent picture. Click on it for the large version and drool. ;-)

I've been posting recipes less frequently compared to my earliest posting habits. It's not because I've stopped cooking but rather because most of what I cook has already been written about or is too mundane to mention.

Sometimes you want to make something unusual. Sometimes you want to use up stuff you bought which has been in storage longer than it should. And, sometimes you can wed these two concepts and produce a happy marriage. The pear pine nut cake pictured above is one of those occasions.

I've had a can of pears under my cabinet for a few months and had my husband pick up pine nuts last time he went to Costco. For those who are not initiated into the delights of pine nuts, they are like plump sunflower seeds minus the shell with a buttery, light, almost creamy texture. Imagine a somewhat lighter version of a macadamia nut with a richer depth of flavor from the "pine" portion. They are wonderful plain as a snack or toasted as a garnish or part of a dish. They are commonly sprinkled on salads or used to make pesto. Pine nuts are somewhat expensive and, as far as I know, only available from Costco or import stores in Japan. However, they are worth the effort and expense.

This cake is reminiscent of pineapple upside-down cake without the sugary goo and with a nice crunch from the pine nuts. The cake is very delicate, has a great texture and a more sophisticated and complex flavor than most desserts while still being quite simple. It'd be a nice ending to a meal with coffee or possibly with the right type of wine.

Pear Pine Nut Cake recipe:

1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
2 small eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 dashes almond essence
1 tsp. vanilla extract (or 3 dashes of essence)
6 tbsp. plain (unsweetened) yogurt
2 tbsp. milk
1 can pears in syrup (or water if you can get them)
1/2 cup pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease a loaf pan or spray it with cooking spray.

Pour the pine nuts into a dry skillet and toast them under low to medium heat until delicately brown on both sides. Turn off the heat and allow them to cool.

Drain the pears and rinse them in cold water. Discard the syrup. Use a paper towel to blot the pears. They will be moist but shouldn't be overly wet. Dice the pears into smallish pieces. Set aside.

Put the softened butter into a large mixing bowl (or use a standing mixer) and mix until creamy. Add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix again. Add the yogurt, milk, vanilla, salt, baking powder, and almond essence and mix until incorporated. Finally, add the flour and mix until the batter is creamy and smooth.

Fold the pears and pine nuts into the batter. Pour into the greased loaf pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs.

Mustard-Dill Burgers

I'd been holding off on posting this recipe until I made these burgers again and could use a picture in the post but I took ten pictures and they all pretty much turned out badly. My biggest problem with shots of food (because I have a consumer-level camera and am not an especially great photographer) is that the flash is so strong that it blows out all the detail rather easily.


With a burger which is relatively pale in color anyway because it is made with chicken, this can look like quite the wash-out. The picture above was the best of the shots and I had to try and burn in some details using Photoshop's adjustment features and tools (which is why the cheese looks an odd color) and it still didn't work very well. Photoshop is great but it can't bring out detail which isn't already there.

Anyway, try not to let the picture dissuade you from trying this recipe. If you like burgers with dill pickles and mustard, you will probably like this. As always, you should consider adjusting the spices to suit your preferences.

Mustard-Dill Burgers:

• 1 kg. or approximately 2 lbs. ground meat
• 1 tbsp. yellow or brown mustard
  
• 2 tbsp. sour cream
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tbsp. onion powder
• 2 tsp. dried dill
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• olive oil (small amount for frying) or cooking spray

Place the ground meat in a large bowl and add all the other ingredients. Use a large spoon to work everything together as evenly as possible. Working in the sour cream will be difficult though so you may want to put on food-handling gloves and mix it with your hands or you can soften the sour cream a bit in the microwave to aid in the mixing. I recommend gloves because the mustard may stain your hands and will definitely get under your nails. Shape the burgers into patties (I make 6 but it depends on the size of the burgers you prefer). Wrap each patty in plastic wrap and allow it to sit in the refrigerator. This will help them hold their shape better while cooking as well as allow the spices to work their way in. Fry the burgers, covered, in a large lightly-greased skillet until fully-cooked. Serve with cheese and mayonnaise if desired.

No Fuss Banana Bread

One thing you tend to see a lot of in Tokyo are bananas that rapidly get overripe. One reason for this is that they are imported and have often been sitting around for awhile. Another is that it's relatively warm most of the year and bananas ripen rapidly most of the time.

Most banana bread recipes are roughly similar so there won't be anything unique going on in the ingredients for this one. However, it is greatly simplified in the preparation with the help of a food processor. You're spared manually mashing the bananas or combining the fat with the dry ingredients.

If you make this recipe in Japan and use Japanese brown sugar, you'll notice it is much lighter in color than what is pictured above. Also, you won't get the little dark fibers in the banana bread that you remember seeing back home when your mother or grandmother made it. The flavor is better with western-made brown sugar but it's still good with the Japanese type.

No Fuss Banana Bread:

• 1/2 cup room temperature butter (1/2 a Japanese brick or 1 stick in the U.S.)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 3 quite small or two large bananas
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbsp. milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees . or 175 degrees C. Cut the butter up into cubes and place in a food processor. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Process until the butter is fully integrated with the dry ingredients. It should look like yellow flour and clump easily. Add the brown sugar and process until well mixed.

Empty the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Peel and break the bananas into largish pieces and put them in the food processor bowl (you don't need to wash it between the wet and dry ingredients). Process the bananas until they're pureed. Add the eggs and milk and process again until fully mixed.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just mixed. Don't over-mix it or worry about lumps. Just make sure all the dry ingredients have been moistened. Pour the batter into a lightly-greased loaf pan and bake for 40-50 minutes (until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean). Allow the banana bread to sit in the pan for about 5 minutes then run a butter knife around the edge. Remove it from the pan and place on a cooling rack.

Variations: You can reduce the sugar down to 3/4 of a cup or you can cut it in half and augment it with granular Splenda. The less sugar you use, the more bread-like the texture of the banana bread will be. It'll also lose some of its glossy appearance with a 50/50 sugar/granular Splenda mix.

What I Learned From Teppanyaki

My husband had a life in Japan without me before he had a life in Japan with me. He worked for a year in Kita-senju while we both conducted our romance at a distance by exchanging what I'm sure were hundreds of cassette tapes of ourselves talking. During that time, he socialized on occasion with students and got to know a few of them fairly well.

When we both moved to Japan together (after about a year in California and our wedding), one of his students who worked for a major car company took us both out to an expensive teppanyaki restaurant in a major hotel in Ikebukuro. This particular place specialized in steak much to my husbands delight and my complete indifference. The steak was grilled in little cubes and served with individually cooked slices of garlic and onion. I remember their scraping down the grill between rounds of tiny servings and artfully pouring oil over it with what resembled a tiny, fine-spouted coffee pot.

The chefs cooked everything with great care and to perfection and it was reflected in the price. My husband recalls that his student paid 22,000 yen (about $190) the first time around. We went back a few times on our own dime and it cost between $100-$140 and I wasn't exactly tucking in.

These days, we'd never spend that sort of money on a meal but that was when we were still willing to pay a premium to have a variety of cultural experiences. I did take something more than a lighter wallet (and a dissatisfied stomach) away from these meals. The way in which they prepared the garlic in particular stuck with me and I do my best to follow a similar technique to this day when I make steak for my husband.

I know I talk a lot about eating cheaply but every meal isn't about cheap chicken and ground meat. My husband goes to Costco every 6 weeks or so and buys a few packages of their relatively (about an inch) thick steaks. While it costs about 600 yen ($5.15) for an 8-10 ounce steak and that's no "cheap" meal, it's still about half of what you'd pay for about half as much steak at a Japanese shop or restaurant. You can't really hope to do better when it comes to having steak in Tokyo.

These steaks keep well in the freezer when we wrap them individually first in plastic wrap and then in foil. After an overnight thaw, they're ready for a turn in the frying pan. The element I carry over from the teppanyaki is the garlic preparation.

As preparation, take about 5 fat garlic cloves and remove the tips and the paper then slice them as thinly to make garlic chips. I also clean an onion and slice off two medium-sized slices.

Heat a large (empty) frying pan over medium heat until it is thoroughly hot then add just enough olive oil to coat it. (Note that Japanese chefs do not use olive oil. I believe they use soybean oil.) You don't want to overdo the oil because it'll saturate the garlic and make it soggy and be absorbed by the onions. Heating the pan first ensures that the smallest amount of oil will coat the bottom since the oil flows more freely when warmed.


Place the onions on the hottest part of the pan and scatter the garlic such that each individual slice is separated from the other. Here is where you have to exercise great care. Keep an eye on the garlic chips and turn them over when they are delicately brown around the edges. You'll have to turn each chip over at a different time since they will likely be different thicknesses and be on hotter or cooler parts of the pan. Cook the onions until they are caramelized on one side and turn them over.

Be very careful when you cook the garlic slices so as not to burn them in the least. Garlic becomes bitter if it is burned so it's always better to err on the side of making it too pale than too dark. Since the garlic essentially makes the meal (the chips are eaten with each bite of steak), you don't want to spoil it.

When the garlic is just browned on both sides, you can either remove it from the pan or you can push it off to the side so that it stays warm but no longer cooks. My husband prefers it warm so I push it out of the way and position the pan on the burner such that there is no direct heat under the side with the garlic. You then add the steak to the hottest part of the pan and finish cooking the onions. The nice thing about this is that the garlic has already flavored the oil in the pan so the steak is cooking in naturally flavored oil.

When the steak is done, remove the chips and blot them with a paper towel if they're a bit too oily. My husband loves this particular meal with a can of Kirin happoshu.

Cashew Chicken Salad (Low Carb)

This is a rare recipe that is all my own creation rather than a derivative or modification of another recipe. However, I can't say that the concept of combining cashews and chicken is exactly a novel one and I'm sure that there are recipes out there like this one. There is one relatively unique ingredient though.

I created this recipe because one of the cheapest types of meat you can buy in Japan is chicken breast meat for 29 yen (24 cents) per 100 grams (3.5 oz.). Unfortunately, to get this price, you have to buy a large bag with about 6-8 (half) breasts (1.3-2 kg. or 2.8-4.4 lb.). I'm pretty sure that this chicken has also already been frozen and thawed so it cannot be re-frozen raw. This is more chicken than two people can eat before it goes off and my husband doesn't care much for white meat on the whole.

In order to take advantage of this very cheap meal resource, I came up with a way to use up a good portion of the breasts in a manner that my husband would enjoy. He has this salad for lunch about once every month or two. This recipe makes 4 quite large servings or 6 more modest ones.

Cashew Chicken Salad recipe:

• 4 (half) chicken breasts (with skin is best)
• salt, pepper, onion powder (to taste)
• 1-2 tbsp. olive oil (for frying)
• 1 cup cashews
  
• 1 medium onion (diced)
• 4-6 tbsp. mayonnaise
• 1-2 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon

Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, and onion powder. Heat a large skillet. Add the olive oil and tilt the pan to coat the bottom with oil. Place the breasts skin side down in the skillet, cover, and cook over medium heat until half done (it may help to split especially large breasts for more even cooking). Turn over and finish cooking. Be sure to keep the chicken covered at all times to keep the juices inside. When the chicken is just finished, remove it from the pan and allow it to cool enough for it to be handled comfortably. Reserve the juices in the pan.

Place the cashews in the bottom of a very large bowl and coarsely crush them (I use the bottom of a large, sturdy cup). Add the diced onion to the bowl. Remove the skin from the chicken and cut it into bite-size pieces. Add it to the bowl then sprinkle it with garlic powder and cinnamon. Pour the reserved juice over the chicken. Add the mayonnaise and stir well. The juices and mayonnaise will combine to make a savory dressing. If necessary, add more salt to taste. Serve warm or cold.

This recipe will require a bit of experimentation to meet your specific seasoning and consistency desires. Some people may prefer more or less mayonnaise and/or cashews. I like a lot of garlic and my husband actually likes a great deal of cinnamon on it. After I add the initial one tablespoon, he has me pour more over the top of his serving.

Cinnamon may seem an odd seasoning for chicken but it works very well. My sister, who is a member of the SCA, told me some time ago that cinnamon was used frequently to season various meats in the middle ages. If you're squeamish about using it, I'd recommend at least adding a teaspoon and sampling it before giving up on using it. It really does add greatly to the taste of the salad.

If you're living in Japan where cashews are expensive and sold in tiny packets, you may want to consider a trip to a Costco . A very large cannister of them can be had for 1200 yen. Even considering the cashews, this makes for a very cheap meal at around 200 yen a serving for 4 substantial servings. If you consider many people spend around 500-1000 yen for lunch everyday, you can see where this would be very economical.

Slow Cooker Chicken Paprikash (Low Carb)

I do an English lesson occasionally from an old textbook called "Speaking for Communication." The lesson basically has students look at a picture, describe it, read a paragraph about the picture, then answer some questions. One of the pictures is of an old stove with a bottle of soy sauce, a saucepan, and a coffeepot on it. To the right of the old stove is a slow cooker (or "Crock Pot" as it is known by many people). When my students describe this picture, they invariably look at the slow cooker and say, "rice cooker?" Such is an indication of the popularity of slow cookers in Japan.

I didn't even know you could get a slow cooker anywhere in Japan up until about 2 years ago. I found out that the Foreign Buyer's Club offers them through it's Deli store for a very reasonable price (about 5000 yen). I bought one for my boss for his birthday a few years back and shortly thereafter got one for myself.

The benefits of using a slow cooker, particularly for foreigners who don't often make an investment in an oven, are plentiful. You can set up the cooker before you leave for work and let it cook all day for some dishes. Also, there are a lot of dishes that would require an oven which can be made in a slow cooker. For instance, you can make bread, cakes and bar cookies in a slow cooker with the help of a greased coffee can. You can make a lot of the type of meat dishes that are usually baked in an oven. It's great in the winter for stews and an easy way to make a large enough portion to ensure leftovers for the following evening's meal. You can also use one in the summer and not heat up your apartment or slave over the stove. It's generally a slice, dice, and spice then forget it for several hours affair.

I've had a Crock Pot for a little over a year now and have been relatively incompetent in making what I'd consider "good" dishes with it. Last night, I experienced my first unbridled success. I researched slow cooker tips and discovered an important point that I'd overlooked before. A slow cooker does a much better job if you use it to cook meat that still is on the bone.

This presents a somewhat tricky situation for us in Japan compared to those in the U.S. In Japan, meat is usually sold boneless with skin. In the U.S., it's usually sold skinless with the bone. I'm guessing one could probably get cuts of chicken with bone (and without skin is best if you want to reduce fat) from local butchers if one was inclined to ask and to pay a bit more.

The most common form of chicken sold on the bone in Japanese markets is tiny little legs in 4 or 6 packs. We bought a pack of 4 of these and cooked them with some larger pieces to see how they fared. For the record, they did fine, but I'm guessing the overall cooking time can be reduced if you only use these tiny legs. Additionally, I would never cook such small pieces skinless.

My husband secured some adequately-sized leg-thigh combination pieces from a local market so I was ready to dive in with a modification of a recipe I found on Epicurious. The original recipe was fussy in its preparation and called for ingredients I didn't have. It also was in large enough quantities that the two of us could never eat it in two nights.

Slow Cooker Chicken Paprikash:

• 4 large pieces of chicken with bone (skinless if desired)
  
• 2 medium onions (thinly-sliced)
• 2 cloves of garlic (peeled and cut in half)
• 1-2 tbsp. butter
• 2 tbsp. paprika
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 can (approx. 3/4 cup) chicken soup stock
• 2-3 chicken consomme or bouillon cubes
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 2-3 tbsp. cold water
• 50 grams (about 2 tbsp.) sour cream

Scatter the sliced onions over the bottom of the slow cooker. Sprinkle with half the paprika (1 tbsp.) and stir with a wooden spoon. Salt and pepper the chicken pieces then rub them with the garlic halves. Layer the chicken pieces on top of the onions. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with the remaining paprika and dot with butter. Place each of the 4 garlic halves on a piece of chicken. Pour the chicken stock over the chicken. Cook on "high" for 3-4 hours or cook on "low" for 5-6 hours until the chicken comes away from the bone easily. Remove the cooked chicken from the pot and cover it with the cooker's lid to keep it warm. With the temperature set to high, add 3 consomme (or bouillon) cubes and the cornstarch mixture and cook until thickened. Taste it to see if it is salty enough. If it seems a bit bland, toss in the third cube. Stir in the sour cream until it dissolves into the sauce and is hot. Serve the chicken with the sauce.

Note that the sauce preparation step might be a little slow in the cooker itself if you cooked on low or if it isn't all that hot on the high setting with the lid off. It may be faster to pour the sauce and onions into a saucepan for thickening.

Incidentally, chicken stock, which is necessary for this recipe, is not sold in most Japanese markets but you can buy it at Costco (99% fat-free McCormick brand) or from the Foreign Buyer's Club. You have to buy a case at a time but it's very handy for a variety of recipes (including homemade curry and the potato and onion soup I previously posted a recipe for). You can freeze portions of a can for later use if the recipe doesn't call for its entire contents. If you just can't be bothered to find canned stock, you can make it yourself by boiling chicken bones or parts. The easiest route though is to modify the recipe by using 3/4 cup of very hot water and 3 consomme or bouillon cubes for the stock and omit adding them later when you add the cornstarch.

My husband loved this. I liked it and thought the flavor was excellent, but I'm not a great fan of dark meat. The onions were incredible prepared this way. They were sweet and silky. I think the sauce would be great on potatoes and will probably try it with them when we have leftovers this evening. As it was, it went great with carrots.