nairb codex

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: 20 minutes (plus marinade overnight)
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Yield: serves 4

For the chicken:
4 chicken legs (or breasts)
1-2 eggs
Flour to cover the chicken

For the western vinegar sauce:
4 Tbsp soy sauce
6 Tbsp sugar
5 Tbsp vinegar
Pepper to taste (for adults)
1 tsp ketchup (for children)

For the tartar sauce:
1-2 hard-boiled eggs (if you like)
1/4 onion (if you like)
1/3 cucumber or pickle (if you like)
5 Tbsp mayonnaise (if you like)
1 Tbsp ketchup (if you like)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp mustard grains

1. Chicken
   1. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces
   2. Salt and pepper to taste
   3. Roll chicken in the flour and dust off
   4. Dip the chicken in a beaten egg(s)
   5. Fry the chicken until cooked
2. Western Vinegar Sauce
   1. put sugar, soy sauce and vinegar into pan and put any piece of ginger, onions and carrots and boil
   2. if you want, you can add red pepper for adults and ketchup for kids
3. Marinade fried chicken in the western vinegar sauce to give it moisture and flavor
4. Make a Tartar Sauce
   1. Chop Boiled eggs and onions and cucumber (if it is good pickles), and add salt and pepper and ketchup and mayonnaise
   2. If you have the chopped parsley and lemon juice, whipped cream and mustard, whisked together and added to the above mixture, that makes it taste much better.
5. Put the tartar sauce over the chicken
6. Eat it

Although a very simple dish, the taste is amazing. The garlic chives flavor the eggs wonderfully. I’m always happy when this is what’s on the menu for dinner!

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: ˜15 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Yield: serves 2

1 bunch garlic chives
3 eggs
3 Tbsp Chinese soup stock
Salt, pepper, & soy sauce to taste

1. Chop the garlic chives into ˜3-inch pieces
2. Crack the eggs and combine with the garlic chives and Chinese soup stock
3. Transfer all ingredients to a medium-sized frying pan and cook over medium-high heat until finished (like an omelet)
4. Add salt, pepper, & soy sauce to taste

Note: If you prefer, you can add sliced pork belly (looks like bacon). Just cook the pork first, then add it with the rest of the ingredients in step 2 above.

I always used to think I didn’t really like soup. While I still think that’s partially true, a better statement is I don’t really like watery soups. With that said, Reiko made pumpkin soup yesterday (and again for breakfast this morning) and it was yummy! The hardest part of the whole recipe was the cutting and peeling of the pumpkin.

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: ˜15 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Yield: serves 3

400 g pumpkin (seeded, peeled, boiled)
250 cc milk
200 cc heavy whipping cream
Salt & pepper to taste

1. Take the seeds out from the pumpkin and cut into large, bite-sized pieces
2. Boil the pumpkin pieces until all the water has evaporated
3. Remove the pumpkin peel (if not already done)
4. Put the pot with the pumpkin pieces back on the stove and cook over medium-high heat (make sure there is no water left in the pot)
5. Put the pumpkin pieces and milk into the food processor until smooth
6. Transfer from the food processor back to the pot and XXX

This was ginger pork with a twist. It’s somehow ginger pork, but somehow tastes like homestyle cooking. It was really good and I really liked how all the flavors worked together.

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: ˜15 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Yield: serves 3

300 g pork belly (Bara)
2 Tbsp sake
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 onion
* 2 Tbsp okonomiyaki sauce
* 2 Tbsp soy sauce
* 2 Tbsp sake
* 2 Tbsp mirin
* 2 Tbsp ketchup
* 1 tsp sugar
* 2 pieces of ginger (ground)
* 1 Tbsp heavy whipping cream

1. Cut the pork into 2-inch pieces and mix with the sake and soy sauce for the base taste
2. Cut the onion into 1/4-inch slivers and sauté over medium / medium-high heat
3. Mix all * and boil
4. Put oil into the pan and stir in pork and onion
5. Cook until pork and onion are done

This is usually a simple, slow-cooked meal with your choice of meat and various vegetables (leftovers from the fridge). It’s very similar to the Japanese oden, and can probably be adapted to any culture by substituting the meat and vegetables for local favorites. This dish normally takes several hours to cook, however with a pressure cooker, the cook time is reduced from 3+ hours to less 20 minutes.

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: ˜15 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Yield: serves 4

3 medium-sized potatoes
2 carrots
2 onions
1/2 head of broccoli
200 g leftover vegetables (cabbage, radish, green onion, celery, etc.)
1 bag of sausage
2 cubes chicken consommé
1 laurier leaf (a.k.a. bay leaf)
salt & pepper to taste

1. Peel all vegetable and cut in bite-sized pieces
2. Make several puncture marks in the skin of the sausage so it doesn’t burst while cooking
3. Put the vegetables, sausage, and laurier in the pressure cooker
4. Dissolve the chicken consomme in a little hot water and put in the pressure cooker
5. Fill the pressure cooker with enough hot water to cover all of the ingredients
6. Begin to cook over high heat
7. After steam starts to come out from the pressure cooker, cook for an additional 10 minutes (low pressure=10 minutes, high pressure=8 minutes)
8. Remove from heat and release the pressure
9. Add salt & pepper to taste

Note: You can substitute sausage for bacon block or chicken wings. You can also use thyme & parsley to enhance the aroma of the dish.

Reiko invited me over for dinner tonight and on the phone, she said it would be “nothing really” and made it seem like it would be something really simple (I’m thinkin’ miso soup or salad or something along those lines). I didn’t mind, because I was hungry. =P~ When I got there, much to my surprise, she had prepared several tasty dishes for dinner.

My personal gourmet chef made:

• a salad with mizuna, lettuce, Reiko’s homegrown alfalfa sprouts, and grape tomatoes with Shoyu Pietro Dressing
• a side dish made of cabbage, oil, and sesame seeds
• eggs with garlic chives
• whole Japanese cucumber with garlic-miso dipping sauce
• genmai

“Nothing really” my ass! It was a great dinner and I enjoyed it a lot!

Normally during the week, Reiko cook’s our meals. It’s probably a good thing, because I seem to be rather slow when I cook, plus I really like everything she makes for us. Weekends are the time when I try to cook for her (since I need more time than her). This weekend I made a seafood casserole that was super yummy and chicken cordon bleu with parsley rice. The chicken was really good, but I’d like to improve on the cheese inside (need me some melty, cheesy goodness when I bite into it!). I know that aspect of it could be a lot better. I also want to try stuffing the chicken breasts instead of cutting them in half, more for the looks once it’s finished. The recipe for the chicken came from Emeril (hence the reason for this post’s title), with only a few slight changes based on what I like and what I could get in the grocery store. I’m coming to realize that Emeril has a lot of really good recipes and his style closely matches my palate. I also used his recipe for making the strawberry ice cream I made awhile back.

Reiko and I have talked about taking some cooking classes, but we haven’t found anything in our area yet. I think some knife & prep skills would especially help me in being faster and more organized when in the kitchen. A few months ago Reiko bought a Japanese cookbook for me. I haven’t yet made anything from it, but I keep planning to. When paging through the cookbook, it looked like there were a lot of dishes that I would like to eat and I’m sure Reiko wants to eat them too.

About half the things I’ve made for Reiko have been my mother’s recipes. I think she now loves Midwest cooking (casseroles, “salads”, etc). If you’re not really familiar with casseroles and “salads”, I’d highly recommend reading (or listening to) How to Talk Minnesotan: A Visitor’s Guide for a ridiculously hilarious explanation of the common food dishes in Minnesota.

In the next week or two, we should be able to start eating all the vegetables we’ve been growing (minus the arugula, which unfortunately died due to excessive heat). The baby bok choy and the lettuce and Mesclun mix look amazing. They’re getting sooooo big! I think I can safely say that we’re both really excited to start eating our beautiful vegetables.