Random Recipes: Japanese Favourites by Angela Nahas (Number 2): Beef and Asparagus Skewers and Grilled Leeks with Miso and Sesame

Apologies, this cook book has been reviewed previously but due to brain fog or very bad planning (or both) it accidentally was reviewed again.  To make up for this there is a bonus recipe for Butter Rice included.

This book was purchased the first time Lindsay and I went to Japan which is a number of years ago.  Eating in Japan was a challenge due to allergies to fish and seafood (and seaweed), pork and other ingredients commonly used in Japanese food but I did fall in love with the egg sandwiches found in most 7 11, Lawson and Family Marts.

One thing which attracted me to the book was it provides an explanation about commonly used ingredients for example burdock with which I was not familiar.  However it does label umeboshi as pickled apricots when in fact they are usually pickled plums and an acquired taste.

For this Random Recipe, it was decided to choose two recipes so the book could immediately know its fate, rather than be on tenterhooks of whether it retained a place on the book shelf or not.  (No discussion on whether books have feelings will be entertained.  You can have your own beliefs and I can have mine.)

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To accompany the two recipes chosen, Butter Rice was chosen as the ingredients were available and it takes little time to prepare.  A quick recipe of the butter rice is included.  (Thank you Midnight Diner.)

Beef and Asparagus Skewers and Grilled Leeks with Miso and Sesame were chosen as the recipes are simple and looked appealing.  Vegetable stock was substituted for the dashi stock.

In the usual tradition of Clean the Plate the recipes were not completely followed: first the dashi stock substitution and the beef and asparagus where not placed on skewers.  The asparagus was very thin, due to the season and Oyster Blade steak was purchased from a local Korean Supermarket.

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After brushing the rolls with the sesame oil and soy sauce, the steak was wrapped around the asparagus and placed under the grill.  Due to their size they took little time to cook.

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The leeks were grilled at the same time but took a little longer because of their size.  The preparation of the Miso and sesame sauce to accompany the leeks was also simple.

Butter Rice Recipe

30-50 grams butter

1 cup cooked rice

¼ cup frozen peas

¼ cup frozen corn

1-2 cloves garlic

Splash of mirin

Shallot/spring onion if desired

Soy sauce to taste (and if desired)

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Method

Melt butter in frypan.

Add peas and corn.  Cook until no longer frozen.  (If shallots/spring onion is used add them at the same time.)

Add garlic and rice and mix thoroughly. 

When heated through add a splash of mirin and mix thoroughly before serving.

The Eating

Usually with butter rice I place the soy sauce on the table rather than add it while cooking so each person can make their own adjustment.

The leeks were pleasantly charred on the outside and the sauce was tasty and judged to be a good mixture of flavours and textures.

It was felt that the asparagus should be larger if prepared in future but the mixed flavour of the beef, asparagus, sesame and soy sauce was very good and the simple tastes were very pleasing when combined.  I decided that in future sandwich steak should be used as the local butcher makes one without fat or gristle which needs to be removed as was the case here.

Harper happily ate as much as possible but leftovers remained, which tasted pleasant when later consumed.

Verdict

“Whose Cuisine reigns supreme?”  (Iron Chef Japan)

The book will remain, not only because it provides pleasant memories but it also contains other recipes including Stuffed Cabbage Rolls and Chicken Braised in Sweet Soy which sound interesting.

Japanese Favourites while you may not reign supreme, because the other cookbooks will become jealous and no infighting is permitted on the bookshelves in my kitchen, you have earned you place. 

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Further apologies. Currently I am not well acquainted with the latest iteration of WordPress and find the constant changes to picture files, blocks etc confusing. With furt

Random Recipe: Apple Pie From “Whirlpool Cookbook for Microwave Oven with Grill and Crisp” (Author Unknown)

Apologies for the many delays in updating the blog. As may be noticed it is a little more difficult at present to provide reviews of restaurants (thank you COVID 19, not) for while we have eaten some takeaways, most of them have been from restaurants we have reviewed previously e.g. Blackfire, Sammy’s, et al. which impressed us when we ate there.

I have to admit to a certain amount of laziness in testing recipes, but there is also the added fun of trying to obtain ingredients. Recently I almost did a random recipe on a mushroom lasagne but as every mushroom used was a substitute, as were a number of other ingredients, it did not seem fair. (It was a very good lasagne but was very labour intensive.)

This recipe is the opposite of labour intensive. There were apples in the fruit bowl which were nearly past their best and not wanting to waste food while Harper was hinting often that Apple Pie is a favourite), the challenge was to find a recipe which did not mean a visit to the supermarket.

(Please, not the supermarket! I’ve recently changed where I shop for food to a place which is much quieter than the larger supermarkets, but it does not always stock the things required. But it is an independent supermarket which is preferable to the big chains.)

The Recipe

Enough waffling and onto the recipe. Basically there are 3 steps:

1. Make the pastry and let it rest before rolling it out and lining the ‘Crisp” dish.

2. Peel and cut the apples and arrange them on the pastry before sprinkling with sugar and cinnamon.

3. Cook in the microwave.

Once I made pastry very often but not often recently. (However, we recently purchased a pie maker, so who can tell?) Sometimes it seems it is made weekly but there has been quite a gap of late (because flour is not always available).

The Preparation

Despite leaving the butter out of the refrigerator for a few hours, it was hardly soft. In some ways it almost seemed it hadn’t softened at all. This can be explained by the recent cold weather (as it will soon be Winter in Australia), which made rubbing the butter through the flour a little time consuming.

The quantity of water mentioned in the recipe was too little so another half a teaspoon was added in order that the pastry did not crumble when it came time to roll it. Then another half a teaspoon and so on until the pastry became malleable.

Unfortunately the recipe did not mention that the pastry should be covered while it rest because it is known to dry out which again makes it difficult to roll. Reusable beeswax material was used to cover it while it was in the refridgerator.

Rolling the pastry is always a good way to work out any residual anxiety/anger etc. but to not be too enthusiastic in ridding yourself of these emotions as it may have an adverse effect on the pastry. It is best not to think of politics or world events while doing so.

 

Peeling and cutting the apples, it was time to reflect how often the microwave is used for cooking. At one time it was used regularly until someone complained.

Arranging the apples was fun and soon the sugar and cinnamon decorated the top and it was placed in the microwave.

 

The Cooking

After cooking for 10 minutes the apple was still a little under cooked. The pastry remained pale and the pie was returned for another 6 minutes. After this the apple seemed cooked.

The Eating

It looked okay, the pale pastry was somewhat off-putting, but it was crisp and did not crumble. The filling looked appealing.

While it was not the best apple pie I’ve ever eaten, it was quite nice.

Harper yummed the pie down. Lindsay abstained as sweet things do not tempt Lindsay.

The Verdict

The cookbook will be kept as it does have recipes specifically for the microwave. There may be further recipes attempted in the future depending on availability of ingredients, time and inclination.

 

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog.  I hope you and those you care about are safe and well.

Chicken Divan from “Weight Watcher’s Microwave Cookbook”.

(The author’s name is not included anywhere I can find in the book, hence the omission.)

I was curious what the meal containe and how it differed from the Women’s Weekly similar recipe which was not a success. This is normal as whenever I hear, read, watch a person praise a recipe or meal some investigation is warranted. Often there is disappointment; for example when you find out a cookie is a biscuit, a biscuit is a scone, Oreo’s are not as good as Delta Creams, etc. (A Delta Cream is made by Arnott’s and, in my opinion, is better. Oreo’s actual biscuit is gluey and the filling reminds me of the filling of Tootsie Rolls or Twinkies, which were another disappointment.)

Random Recipes: Stuffed Zucchini (Hobakseon) From “Korean Home Cooking” by Soon Young Chung.

Korean food can be very good, if you like octopus, kimchi, seafood or potato chips with sweet cheese. Unfortunately I am not fond of any of the previously mentioned food but do enjoy some recipes from Korea e.g. Bibimbap.

This cookbook has been on the shelf for some time and in the immediate queue of 5 cookbooks which are due for the Random Recipe test.

The people tasting this meal, Lindsay and Harper were not averse to the idea of this recipe (which is good as Lindsay did not show any interest in one of the previous choices. In that instance Lindsay was correct.)

Random Recipes: Marinated chicken with red pepper (capsicum) From “Chopsticks on Tour” by Pamela Chen Moore.

This is the second dish taken from the cookbook last reviewed. For those people who have been experiencing stress or distress from the suspense, hopefully this will bring some closure.

Random Recipes: Egg and Tomato Stir Fry from “Chopsticks on Tour” by Pamela Chen Moore

There will be two recipes reviewed from this very small cookbook. There are only 12 recipes and is a recent addition to the cookbook library as I had the good luck to watch Pamela Chen Moore cook some of these recipes.

Malaysian Hot Noodles with Tofu (Mie Goreng) From “Great Vegetarian Dishes” by Kurma dasa

Warning: The format of this review will be slightly different because I want to change the style.

This book is written by a chef of the Hare Krishna movement.  He had a television show in Australian a number of years ago which is why this book ended up in my cookbook library.  At the time I had aspirations of becoming a vegetarian and this book did not really help with that aspiration.

The use of asafoetida is very evident in the recipes and I recall keeping the powder in a glass jar as the smell is very pungent.  In my opinion the taste did not compare with the use of garlic, onion etc. which are not used by the Hare Krishna movement.

I used the book on a number of occasions and can remember all too well the attempt to create Polenta (Italian Fried Corn Bread).  Briefly the process took over an hour and the result was disappointing.

This is a long preamble but it seemed wise to give some background on this book as it was given one final chance to remain on the cookbook shelf.

(Impatient people who cannot stand the intolerable suspense of the fate of the cookbook may skip to the final decision, if they so wish.)

Random Recipe: Curried Vegetable Pie from “Perfect Pies and Pastries” by Robyn Martin

It is Winter in Australia because we are located in the Southern Hemisphere. While some countries in the Northern Hemisphere are suffering extreme heat, in the ACT it is cold. (It may shock some people to be told that parts of Australia can indeed be cold and that snow falls in some areas.)

When it is cold, warming food: pies, stews, cake, casseroles etc, become a focus. For one of us, as you may know, cake is always a focus. There is nothing wrong with cake (until it becomes an obsession).

Random Recipe: Turkish Cookery by Inci Kut

I believe this cookbook was purchased overseas by a family member who knew of my love of Turkish food. It took up room on the bookshelf, basically untouched for a number of years.

Turkish food can be wonderful, with a lovely play of flavours and interesting ingredients. I looked forward to using the book and finding new recipes which could become favourites.

Random Recipes: North Indian Curried Cauliflower and Potatoes from “Vegetarian Dishes” by Kumar daal

 

This is a rarity among the cookbooks.  It was purchased new after watching the cooking series on SBS (a television station in Australia) years ago.  This coincided with a short vegetarian phase.  The few vegetarian cookbooks owned at the time were a mixed bag of old or impractical as it was not possible to obtain many of the ingredients or some of the recipes were too difficult.  One recipe sticks in the mind as it requested two cups of soy sauce.  Needless to say the resulting meal was inedible even though only one cup of soy sauce was used.  (Since that disaster common sense is used if the measurements for a recipe seem wrong, unless it is for the purpose of this blog.)