Japanese Curry

 Indian Curry was conveyed to Japan in the late 19th century,
and now Japanese curry is so common in Japan that it is one of the most popular menu in house holds.

Peking Chicken (北京チキン）

This is easy version of Peking Duck which is one of the most expensive dish in Chinese restaurants.
I used Japanese spring roll skin and Teriyaki chicken in stead of Chinese pancake and crispy duck.

Chicken Udon

Udon is wheat noodle, and you can buy it as dried form or frozen form.
You can boil it and mix with sauce or dip into soup.
I made "Dashi" which is soy sauce, soup stock, sake, and sugar, and added boiled Udon in the end.

Mozzarella Tomato Spaghetti

 Mozzarella cheese really shines in this dish.
By slightly being warmed up, Mozzarella become milky and chewy which is different texture from just raw Mozzarella.

Tandoori Chicken （タンドリチキン）

I put American BBQ spice rub this time as well as Tandori Chicken Masala.
It became more appetizing.

アメリカはよくBBQを食べますのでスーパーに行くとBBQ用のスパイスミックスが売っています。
今回はいつものタンドリスパイス（マサラ＝スパイス）に加えてBBQミックスをかけてみたところ、もっと味が複雑に美味しくなりました。

What you need:　
- Chicken (leg or drum stick preferred)　
- yogurt
- vinegar or lemon
- salt
- Tandori masala ( or you mix some red spices)　
- BBQ spice mix　

How to Make:
- Marinate chicken in yogurt, salt, vinegar(or lemon) and Tandoori masala over night.
- Bake it in toaster oven or oven in high temperature( ~ 400F). You can add BBQ spice mix on the top.
- Serve it with lemon.

材料
- 鶏肉。腿肉か上腕が美味しいと思います
- ヨーグルト
- 酢またはレモン
- 塩
- タンドリスパイスミックス。内容はちょっと調べてください
- BBQミックス。これは調べてみます。

作り方
- 鶏肉をヨーグルト、塩、酢（またはレモン）に一晩つける。冷蔵庫に保存。
- トースターかオーブンで焼く。BBQミックスを表面に振り掛けると美味しそうに焦げ目がつきます
- レモンを添えてどうぞ

Seaweed Salad

I soaked dried seaweed in water to make it soft,
then mixed with soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, and white radish sprout.
It's a real summer treat !

Indian Omelet

I mean Indian omelet by adding green chili and onion, and made it thinly.
I didn't know until I had this dish that purpose of adding green chili is actually to add flavor to dish but not to add spiciness. 
I top with melting cheese. It's light and good side dish.

Chirashi Sushi in Party Style

Yes, I know. I made it again. This time is for a small party, so I put more decoration.

Pâté au Poulet ( Chicken Liver Pate)

I love pate, and have been buying pate from shops up til now.
It turned out to be one of the easiest dish I've ever made.
It is wonderful that I have a lot of control in how much butter I add,
what sort of spice I add, and most of all I can make sure chicken liver look fine.

How to make:
1: wash liver and remove strange looking ones, and remove all the fat and strings.
2: chop liver into small pieces and soak into milk more than 30min which will remove smell from liver.
3: saute garlic and your favorite vegetable in a pan. I used celery, carrot and onion.
4: When all the vegetables are browned, add chopped liver.
5: Saute till outside of liver is cooked, and add whiskey or any alcohol you like.
6: Keep mixing till liver is cooked, but not over cooked. Most of recipe says till inside is slightly pink.
7: Put contents of the pan to mixer, and blend it while putting some butter, salt and pepper.
8: Taste it and adjust amount of butter, salt and pepper.
9: Keep in a container and put plastic wrap otherwise surface will turn to be unhealthy color.
French people put lard on it to prevent this oxidization.
10: Have it with something tangy and slice of baguette.

Cantonese Rice Polledge (Congee)

I finally did it !!!
I have tried this dish so many times in the past, and I've never got the characteristic creamy texture and flavor till today.
It's again chemical reaction between oil and rice starch. As I wrote before, one sort of tastiness comes from reaction between oil and starch such as white sauce, fried potato, etc...

How to make:
1: Marinate one cup of rice in oil for a day
2: Maximally boil a big pot of water, and add rice in it.
3: Don touch for 30min while you keep maximum strength of heat. During this process, surface of rice is heated up more than 100deg-C thanks to oil coating rice, and rice grain burst.
4: Mix from bottom and boil further while adding more water if it's necessary.
5: Serve with your favorite garnish. I added pidan ( blackened egg), green onion, and chinese pickles.

Chicken and Fried Egg Plant

I fried a lot of egg plant in one time, and keep it in fridge.
This is very useful in a busy week. I just need to mix it with chicken or shrimp or
soak it in some sauce.

Squash and Chicken Soup

Squash cools down your body according to Chinese medicine.
So it's good to eat it during summer.
I just boil chicken first and add squash later so that squash does not get so soft.
If I put dried scallop, it will be Chinese style.

Sour Cream Potato Gratin

I was lazy about making white sauce for potato glatin.
Instead, I used sour cream with garlic. That's it.
It became sour potato gratin !

Chirashi Sushi & Chakin Sushi

I used Chirashi Sushi mixture sold in Japanese supermarket,
and decorate it with sweet egg and Denbu (sweet pink colored fish flake)

I also made Chakin Sushi (茶巾寿司）. Chakin (茶巾） means tea towel.
I made a thin seat of egg just like crepe, and wrap Chirashi Sushi with it.
Sweet and tender egg hugs Sushi nicely :)

Miso Chicken

 Marinate chicken in good Miso (Soy Paste), and saute it in a fry pan.
You can degraze  the pan with sake or water.
As of choice of Miso, darker the color, richer the flavor.

Garlic chicken, Brussels Sprout with Mushroom Sauce and Mashed Potato

Nice lunch to start a nice weekend !
I came up with Brussels Sprout with Mushroom Sauce today, and it turned out to be a hit number.

What you need:
- Brussels Sprout
- Mushroom
- Onion
- Garlic
- Milk
- Salt and Pepper

How to make:
1: Saute Garlic, Onion, and chopped Mushroom till it's really reduced and browned
2: Add chopped Brussels Sprouts, and saute a bit
3: Add Milk and Salt/Pepper.
4: Simmer till Brussels Sprouts get soft and milk is reduced.

Snap Peas with Aged Cheddar

Crisp Snap Peas topped with Aged Cheddar.

Peproncino

As far as I know, Peperoncino is the simplest and most flavorful.
I added Italian parsley or mustard seed to normal garlic and red chili combination.
It's really good ! I can taste all the ingredients are effective.
Then, I realized that I should play around with fewer kinds of  spices rather than mixing many many kinds altogether.

What you need:
- Pasta
- Garlic
- Red chili
- Mustard Seed (optional)
- Italian Parsley (optional)
- salt, pepper
- Olive Oil

How to make :
1:  Boil pasta to al dente with a lot of salt in boiling water.
2: In a fry pan, stir fry a lot of garlic, dried red chili, and mustard seeds in olive oil.
3: Add pasta and add bit more oil. Make sure there is enough oil so that it covers surface of pasta. When starch interacts with oil, tastiness comes up: e.g. fried potato, donuts, etc
4: Add pepper chopped Italian parsley if you like. You can add salt but since I added a lot in boiling pasta, you may not need it.

Bitter Gourd Chips

This is turmeric marinated bitter guard chip.
It gives a kick to the meal.

Egg Curry

Normal egg curry, but always tastes homey.

Purple Cauliflower Curry

There is purple and orange cauliflower in California other than ordinary white one !
I was just curious how it tastes like.
It turned out to be same taste as white one when you close your eyes and eat.
Interestingly enough, it tastes somewhat different when you open your eyes and taste it !

Mint Chutney

I love mint chutney !
It's just grinded cilantro and mint with chaat masala.
It's refreshing for a person like me who easily looses appetite from hot weather.
I add lemon to keep the color of green.
My Indian friend's mom serves this Mint Chutney as a soup or refreshing drink before dinner
after diluting and added some crispy rice topping sort of thing.
I usually mix with yogurt and eat with curry or put on chaat.

 

Chickpea Curry (Chole)

I used dry chickpea in stead of canned chickpea,
and it turns out to be much better !
Chole (chickpea) curry is eaten with fried bread in India which called "Chole Bhature".
I'll eat it with Malaysian paratha tomorrow since this paratha is also buttery and thin like Bhature.

Chicken and Green Beans

I was always wondering what is the "dried green beans" in the menu of Chinese restaurants.
Actual green beans coming out from kitchen is not dry at all, but the external skin is whitened.
One day my friend told me it's fried, not dried.
Today, I tried it and it worked out pretty well. It's really sweet and crunchy.
I deep fried green beans first, and separately fried chicken dusted with a small amount of flour.
I didn't add any spice or sauce, but it's already yummy when I combine two together with a bit of garlic and ginger.

Basil Eggplant

Is this Thai or Chinese ?
Anyways, preparing fried eggplant before stir fry it with basil is the key to success.

How to make:
1: Deep fry eggplant till it gets slight golden brown.
2: Put green onion, garlic and ginger in a fry pan, stir fry.
3: Put egg plant to the fry pan.
4: Mix with soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar (or normal vinegar), and Tian Mian Jian (甜面酱Black Chinese sweet sauce)

Mushroom Potage

This is made of only mushroom and onion, and so good !

Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki

This is okonomiyaki in Hiroshima style.
I put yakisoba, cabbage, pork, and cabbage inside.

Lentil Curry

Lentil curry is eaten as sauce on top of rice in India.
Yogurt is another common sauce for rice.
My favorite is yogurt and pickled lemon mixed thoroughly with white rice.

Dahl (Lentil)

 
How to make :
- Boil lentil and add your favorite vegetable and salt in the end.
- You can flavor it with spiced oil.

Baby Taro Curry

I didn't know that Baby Taro (Sato-imo in Japanese) is used in Indian curry till last week when I first time tried it in an Indian restaurant.
I improvised it today, and turned out to be yummy !
Pealing baby taro is a bit of work since it's slippery and makes hands itchy.
After microwave taros for 1 min in microwave, pealing them becomes much easier.

Cauliflower Curry

Cauliflower curry just by itself !