Still here

No, I haven't been in hiding, nor sulking this time. Just been rather busy, and the school holidays have meant that by the time the kids are in bed, I am worn out and unable to string a sentence together, let alone remember what we've been up to. Back to school on Tuesday... WOOO HOOO! It's not that I don't enjoy having them all at home, not having to get up at 6.15am, etc., it's just that it's sooo noisy, and the house is a complete pigsty! Oh, and as they boys' favourite way to pass time is by playing 'explorers' out in the paddy fields, the washer has been running almost non-stop. Anyway, we have had rather a fun time over the last few weeks. For a start, we have added to our family:



Making their debut here today are Polly and Penny! Actually, their names could well change. K wants to call them Tinky and Winky (I don't think so), I quite like Thelma and Louise or Thomasina and Geraldine (Tom and Jerry), the boys want to name them after themselves... Any good suggestions?

I'm still trying to eat healthier, and came across some unusual choccie treats - vegetable chocolate! There was a whole range of different flavours, I picked up the following two to try out:



On the left is spinach and white chocolate, and on the right we have carrot and mandarin orange in dark chocolate. The verdict? A waste of money and calories! The carrot one was OK, couldn't taste much of the filling at all. The spinach one was absolutely disgusting, I took a small nibble and then passed it on to the children (who wolfed it down in seconds - I didn't tell them that it was made with spinach)!

I'd much rather eat my veggies in curry form - why ruin good chocolate? Speaking of curry, I made this healthy dish for dinner the other day (it was a Yoshikei recipe) and as it's so easy to play around with I will be making a lot more of the (I need to get my protein):



Tofu with curried vegetable sauce

2 packs of tofu, cut into large pieces
1 carrot, cut into juliennes
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 small bunch of nira (anyone know what this is called in English?)or spring onion, sliced thickly
1/2 tablespoon curry powder
240ml dashi (I used kombu)
30ml cooking sake
40ml soy sauce
40ml mirin
pinch of salt
1 rounded tablespoon cornstarch

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the vegetables and curry powder. Add all of the liquid ingredients and salt and heat to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat, mix the cornflour with a little water and stir into the vegetables. Heat again until thickened slightly. Arrange the tofu on plates and microwave to heat through, then top with the curried vegetables.

Lightly poached

Evening all! Apologies if this post is full of typos, but I can barely keep my eyes open... the after-effects of a long and busy weekend. The boys had school on Sunday (happyokai (performance) in the morning, followed by lessons until the usual time) with a day off in lieu yesterday. K decided to have the afternoon off work so that we could take the children swimming. There's a funky pool (complete with an onsen) not too far away, and K was very keen to try out their climbing wall (yeah, it's meant for kids, but there ain't a bigger kid that K):



I chose to soak in the various baths instead, the first time for me to venture into one of these since... certainly before having the children... I was very thankful to have my friend Laura with me, I would never have gone in on my own! We chatted away for ages, poaching in the hot jacuzzi, and I came out feeling the warmest I've felt in months. Now why didn't I do this sooner?! Can't wait to check out the radon hot spring in our town next :-D And we rounded off the day by stopping off for sushi on the way home, 'twas bargain day at only 88 yen a plate!



On the food front, made some tofu burgers the other day that got wolfed down in seconds by all three kids (including M, and she's turning into the picky one of late)! None of them even noticed that there were veggies hidden in them.

Tofu burgers

1 pack tofu, very well drained*
300g minced beef/pork
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 green peppers (Japanese peppers are very small, so just use one if they are large where you are), finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 egg
2/3 cup bread crumbs
3 tablespoons milk or water
seasoning

* The easiest and quickest way to drain tofu is to cut it into quarters, place it a couple of layers of kitchen towel on a plate, then microwave it at 500 watts for about 2 and a half minutes

Sauce

4 teaspoons sugar
3 tablespoons cooking sake
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons mirin

Mix together the sauce ingredients, turn off the heat and pour straight over the cooked burgers.

I served these Rocomoco-style, over rice, shredded salad and cherry tomatoes, and topped with a drizzle of Kewpie mayonnaise, a sprinkling of sesame, and a fried egg.

Feet futons

OK, I have to stop complaining about how cold I am - I've just read about the Arctic temperatures over at Heather's place (http://shinshuulife.blogspot.com/2010/01/wed-be-better-off.html) and she wins! And actually yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day, even though we've once again woken up to a very heavy frost (and solidified olive oil). The weather here is so fickle, but I really appreciated the reminder that Spring will soon be on it's way, especially after such a cold spell.



I took Heather's advice and invested in some warmer footwear for inside the house:



They are effectively feather futons (duvets) for feet (modelled here by M - I should have bought them in any other colour than pink!). They are doing the trick, warm toes = happy mummy. And these, teamed up with the huge, cosy fleece house coat sent to me by a very sweet friend up in Hokkaido (I owe you, Vicky!), are making me far more pleasant to live with.

Something else that made me happy this week was being asked to sample some prototype food products which have been developed with a view to becoming new '名物' (meibutsu, local speciality) for Kotahira. It's very much a Japanese thing, the desire to have a unique product which might become synonymous with the place of it's origin. If they can come up with just the right kind of product, they could rake in millions as the tourists come in their hoards to buy their omiyage (souvenir goodies). The powers that be of Kotohira have decided that they want their town to become famous for... garlic! I was given a bottle of garlic infused soy sauce, and a jar of garlicky miso to experiment with:



They are branding it 'Garlic Zamurai' and I rather like the package design. The soy sauce has a very pungent garlic smell, so I used it in recipes that called for garlic but without adding any, any they turned out great! The miso is far more interesting, not your average miso at all. It's chunky and spicy (I thought that the slivers of green were negi (spring onion) but they turned out to be sliced green peppers!), delicious actually, although I could probably use more of it if it didn't have quite so much kick to it. I tried it out on K the other night, making a sauce to spoon over some pan-fried tofu:



I can't quite remember what went into it, but it went something like this:

2 tablespoons miso
60ml dashi (stock, I used kombu)
1 tablespoon sugar
a splash of soy sauce
a splash of cooking sake

Mix the ingredients together in a small pan and simmer gently until reduced.

Noodles

I've been procrastinating. So many things I could have posted about, but by the time the children are in bed asleep K has downloaded the most recent episode of Hell's Kitchen ('Yes Marco!') and I can't seem to drag myself away from the sofa. But, if I don't get back into the swing of things this blog could well end up simply clogging up cyberland, so...

Today is Kodomo no Hi (Children's Day, but more for boys than girls, and a national holiday), and the countryside is spiked with koinobori, proudly swimming in the breeze:



It also happens to be Golden Week, and the nation is going quite mad (really) in their desperation to do something 'special' over the break. Like this:



This was taken at 10am this morning, it's a drive-by shot and I can assure you that the queue went waaay back. Oooh, such excitement in our sleepy little town, go on, have a guess... Here's a clue:



And the answer is... noodles! Udon, to be precise. This grubby little shop (yes, the grey building at the back is a restaurant) was featured on TV about 10 years ago for having the best Sanuki udon in the country. Will have to check it out for myself after the crowds have subsided, I didn't believe it before as I'd previously driven past and seen the owner flat on his back asleep on a table... at lunchtime!

We were treated to a fabulous lunch over in Niihama with extended family - SIL's DH's father is so generous and decided to splurge his government handout money on a slap-up meal for us all! We went to a Japanese-style restaurant, the food was simply stunning. Lots of small dishes so was a little shy to snap each one as they came, but just to give you an idea here's the Okosama set (kid's meal):



W was slightly freaked out by the enormous prawn being served complete with it's head, but M (being only 19 months old) was none the wiser and happily munched her way through it. K also helped out by eating the ikura (some kind of roe, maybe salmon) that was sprinkled over the rice balls. The boys both ate nearly everything. Was very happy that neither of them kicked up a scene with cries of 'I don't like it' - they've come a long way!

And this was my favourite dish, simmered aubergine sandwiched together with light tofu:



The thinly sliced and fried renkon (lotus root) was wonderful, must make some at home!

Overindulging

The washing is on the line. The house is clean. M is asleep. I've got dinner in the bag. What's the catch? I'm never this organised, and it's only Tuesday! I'm sitting here in the freezing cold living room (although the sun is shining outside), having just watched huge flakes of snow fall thickly from the sky. Two days ago, spring was here! Am I actually awake?

Anyway, the Valentine's dinner was a massive hit. M polished off the wagyu burger, mmmmming throughout, and K was massively impressed. Mine looked nothing like NQN's creation, but as there was not even a smudge left on any of the plates, I think is is safe to say that they tasted better than the usual fare:



Very, very cute friend Hiroko called round with some delish choccies she'd made, which rounded off the dinner nicely. I was reminded of a scene from Monty Python's 'The Meaning of Life', when Mr Creosote dines in a restaurant - 'But Sir, it is only wafer thin!'. Fortunately, no-one exploded.



Consumed copious amounts of chocolate over the weekend. There's still a lot left in the house, which as we know is fatal when dieting, but it's time to try and get back to healthy eating!



This meal consists of my usual marinaded tofu, with stir-fried shimeiji mushrooms, spinach and kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) simmered in milk and topped with some grated cheese. See, I am trying!

Something fishy

It's been a pretty uneventful day here. K went back to work, so there was certainly less fighting and crying than usual (and therefor less shouting, too), so it was actually somewhat peaceful! I made a start on getting the house back in order, but have sooo much to do before Wednesday morning, when our 'Mama & Me' group will play host to a gospel singer/musician giving us a mini concert! There'll be loads of kids (they don't go back to school until Thursday), so I'm looking forward to a good baking session tomorrow to be able to feed the ever-hungry hoards.

I decided to just cook something light for dinner tonight - my body is groaning from all the junk I've been eating over the past week. So I marinated some tofu, which got pan-fried and served with o-chazuke:

Marinade

3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar (any kind, but brown is best)
1 tablespoon cooking sake
1 clove garlic, crushed.

Mix together and marinade your tofu (or chicken, pork chop, salmon, it works well with pretty much anything!) for as long as you fancy. You can boil up any remaining marinade and reduce it to a sauce, if you like.

O-chazuke (serves 4)

1 salted salmon steak (about 100g, a little goes a long way!), cooked and flaked
steamed rice
some nori (toasted seaweed), shredded
a pot of freshly-made green tea
wasabi

Divide the rice into serving bowls and top with the salmon. Pour over some tea and sprinkle nori on the top. Squeeze a dab of wasabi onto the inside of the bowl. Dekiagari (done)! There's no reason why you couldn't substitute the salted salmon for ordinary, or a different fish altogether.



I made myself a veggie version using umeboshi (pickled plum) in place
of the salmon. I also had some of my persimmon chutney with the tofu, ooh it was tasty! This was so easy, this'll probably make it onto the weekday breakfast menu.

While rooting through the fridge I stumbled upon a pack of taiyaki!



That's what happens when a man goes shopping - he buys all sorts of things and doesn't tell you. But it was a very nice find - I stuck them under the grill for a few minutes to warm up and toast, and they got wolfed down for pudding. For those not in the know, taiyaki are a bit like waffles stuffed with sweet azuki bean-paste (anko) and shaped like fish. And now that I've grown accustomed to anko, I quite like them. When I first came to Japan I couldn't stand anko, mainly because it kind of looks like chocolate and I was left disappointed on many an occasion. They put anko in everything - are you sure it's a jam doughnut?