Trying Japanese Recipes

Dear Readers,

If you follow my Instagram account, you would see a sudden surge of food pictures.  I am trying to find new ways to add more vegetables to my diet so I tried to cook Japanese dishes.

It is really fun to discover new spices and ways of cooking!  Now I am addicted to the Japanese grocery store!  I can't read Japanese but the people working in the store are always very nice and they showed me where to find the food I was looking for!

At first I was a little afraid to see so many unfamiliar ingredients, sauce, and vegetables I have never heard of.  But the following websites were really helpful!  And their videos are really well-done and easy to follow.

Just One Cookbook by Namiko Chen 

Blog

Youtube Channel

Ochikeron by Ami Nishimura

Blog

Youtube Channel

These are my favorite go-to bloggers for learning about Japanese cuisine.  Their instructions are in English and their recipes are delicious!

I sometimes have to change the recipes slightly because of my diet restrictions.  In general, I would modify the recipes to use leaner meat cuts, less fat and less salt.

Below are some of the meals I cooked.  I didn't take picture of every single recipe I tried though.  Sometimes it's a miss and sometimes it's a hit!  It's all part of learning so I don't expect to like every new recipes!   

Do you eat Japanese food?  Would you try to cook them at home?

Soba noodles and Tsuyu soup base

Green tea soba buckwheat noodles with grated daikon, wasabi, scallions and tsuyu dipping sauce

Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) lots of cabbage in this!

Teriyaki chicken and shiro miso soup

Takoyaki (octopus balls)

Tamagoyaki (japanese omelette), steamed brocoli, fried okra, roasted seaweed, miso soup

Tempura shrimps and green beans with tsuyu dipping sauce

The Joy of Cooking

Dear Readers,

How was your weekend?  Mine was simply fabulous!  The weather was perfect! The sun came back and it was finally warmer.  I took my children to a kite festival on Saturday located in a beautiful park downtown.  And on Sunday, we went to another park and took our bicycles along.  The children's cousins were there as well so they just ran around and played for 4 hours each day.  We came home exhausted but happy.  Everybody slept very well at night.

The running and fresh air did good to my old body LOL  My cough is still there but I feel less dizzy than usual and it was a good workout to run around with the kids.  

I came home more energized than ever and did something I don't do often: cooking!  I am not a good cook and I dread cooking meals because I am so afraid it will turn out bad.  I grew up never learning to cook because my mom didn't want me to "waste" my time in the kitchen while I should be studying to earn my university degree instead.  So she never taught me and never wanted me in the kitchen with her.  She firmly believed that cooking could be learned later.

She unfortunately passed away before teaching me any of her wonderful recipes.  I don't know if that's why I was always reluctant to want to cook, because it would always remind me of my mother and how I'll never know how to cook the meals she cooked for me.

Also, I used to have to share my home with other people and my kitchen was never really my kitchen.  The "others" cooked ALL THE TIME so I didn't feel it was my place at all to cook and I didn't even have any space left for my own food.  But there are excuses really.  I am just a failure at cooking!

I am lucky to live next to my relatives who cook for the whole family and my children are always eating at their cousin's house where they stay while I am at work.  But my boy is getting increasingly picky with his food and my baby girl is growing up quickly and wanting to eat adult food now.

So I finally decided to buy a good cookbook: the JOY OF COOKING by Irma S. Rombauer.  There are so many cookbooks out there so I didn't really know what to get but I trust Melissa's advice from JULIA'S BOOKBAG because she often shows wonderful pictures of food she cooked based on the recipes from that cookbook.  

Photo credit : Amazon.com

I didn't think getting a cookbook would matter.  I always relied on recipes found on the internet or recipes from colorful cookbooks I already have at home.  But I lacked the technique and I also lacked the inspiration.  Joy of Cooking if a very heavy book, full of tips and information on how to cook almost everything you could think of.    

The first time I opened the book, I read it like it was an encyclopedia.  Very interesting read and not dry like I thought it would be.   I cooked a few recipes and my family seems to respond well.  I will have a lot to learn still so I can't say I am a good cook (yet) but this book sure helps me getting a decent meal on the table for my family :)

I have JULIA'S BOOKBAG to thank for this change in my life!  Big hugs to you Melissa! xoxoxo

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