Japanese Theme

It seems like a no brainer in the selection of my second book to devote another month. To get everyone to like what's on the table, the basic criteria is that it must be Asian theme. So this month's cookbook is The Encyclopedia of 200 Delicious Japanese Styled Dishes.

I had probably bought this book from Japan during one of my trips last year but had not really tried any dish from it. One of the reason being that some of the popular Japanese recipes are so ubiquitous in almost every good Japanese cookbook I have. So don't be surprised to see some repetitions from my previous Japanese foray in this blog this month. But of cos, the auxiliary reason for this little project is to tingle with new foods, so I will try to cooking something different and interesting.

Yesterday I made two dishes from it. I think I like to start with a big bang.

肉じゃが

(picture taken from this website)

Please excuse me while I borrow photos from all over the place. I will try to remedy that by taking photos of my own food going forward, but until then, I doubt you will suffer an eye irration since these photos are much MUCH nicer than mine.

This dish is generally known as the Meat and Potato dish, which I have made a version of previously. I usually make mine with Russet potatoes which will disintegrate after stewing. My little princess loves it this way, so I see no need to reinvent the wheel. Simple to prepare and easy on the stomach.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I've seen this dish available in restuarants. Hmm ... Have you?

The next dish is one which I have eaten while in Japan. I remembered loving the texture of this particular tofu and had a hard time finding out what's the name of it. And even after finding out what's the name, the other problem was locating it in Singapore. Thank goodness for Mediya.

So here's the Freeze-dried tofu with Shiitake mushrooms. Totally meatless but the interesting tofu will placate even the most meat craving mouths.

高野豆腐としいたけ

(picture taken from this website)

Cooking Japanese is quite easy, provided I can translate those instruction correctly! Time to polish up my Jap.

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肉じゃが　(にくじゃが) - niku jaga; meat potato

高野豆腐としいたけ　(こうやどうふとしいたけ) - kouya doufu to shiitake; freezed fried tofu and shiitake mushrooms