Food Theories

I recently went to an international luncheon. We talked about food! Really! One woman was from Korea. Her husband is also Korean. A number of years ago, he became ill and had to have surgery. Since then, she has been very very careful about the food she makes for him. Two years and 8 months, no eating out, no salt for most of that time, etc. She talked about the microbiotic diet they were on. She has definitely thought and read a lot about food.

She read that people are healthiest if they eat the food of the country they are living in. Not the food of their birth country. Live in Japan, eat Japanese. Live in Korea, eat Korean.

I noticed back in the early '80's, when war orphans were returning to Japan from China to visit their relatives, that they looked NOTHING like their relatives. Of course their clothing and hair styles were Chinese, but even their faces and bodies resembled Chinese people of that time, rather then their relatives. I began to think about how our diet, rather than DNA affects the way we look.

Then, I read an article about babies who tend to like what their mothers' ate while they were pregnant with them. The study was about carrots. The moms who ate lots of carrots while they were pregnant, gave birth to kiddos who loved carrot juice much more than other kids.

This article interested me, because, Jun's birth mom probably ate a lot of Japanese food while she was pregnant. And, Jun really prefers Japanese food to western. Now, maybe it is as the study says, and maybe she likes the strong salty and sweet flavors of Japanese cooking, but...hmmm.

I also read something about food memories. Regardless of the junk we may eat during college and single years, most of us tend to return to the food our parents fed us during our growing up years when we settle down and raise our own families. I told one relative this and she looked at me, shocked. Her sweet girls were chowing down a bag of tortilla chips with root-beer! HAHAHAH!

How about you? Any Food Theories?? Bring them on!

Mamatouille

I have recently been enjoying the food blog, Mamatouille. Abagail is a wonderful person, and always answers comments. It has been fun to exchange ideas and recipes. She even takes and POSTS pictures! Please check her blog out and leave a comment for her.

Chocolate Truffles

Valentine's Day is nearly here! In Japan girls and women give chocolates to the boys and men! We don't get much, but those we give to have to give us a return present on March 14th, White Day. So, what goes around comes around!

A few years ago, when one of my students was in 6th grade, we enjoyed cooking together. She found this recipe for Truffles in a girl's magazine and taught me how to make them. Yum! Choose the sweetness or bitterness of the chocolate to fit your, er, umm, the man in your life's taste.

100 gm bar chocolate chopped very finely
10 gm butter chopped into small pieces. Add to bowl with chocolate.
60 cc. cream. Heat to boiling and add to the chocolate. Stir till chocolate melts. Then pour into a flat sheet pan and put in the refridgerator until nearly hard. Then shape into balls and roll in cocoa, powdered sugar, etc. Store in a cool place.

Variation: Truffle Sauce

I increased the amount of cream to 100 cc, and we poured the hot sauce over vanilla ice cream. Yummy.

Homemade Sausage

We are on a quest for a homemade sausage recipe. I have one from a friend and some from the internet that we are adapting to my husbands image of breakfast sausage. This is where country of origin plays a big part! The smell of one of the spices I've used so far reminds him of moth balls. Hmmmm. If at first you don't succeed, try try again!

Ginger Cookies

Jun and I were at a community center where I took a child's CPR class. In the lobby they happened to be having a kind of bazaar. There was a table selling cookies. I hope the organization I so felt impressed to help support was a good one! I bought a package of four cookies the size of a quarter for one dollar. There were various kinds for sale. Chocolate, chocolate-chip, tea, etc. But, I wanted something I thought Jun could eat too, so got the ginger cookies.

Now, please forget your image of ginger cookies. These cookies are WHITE! And, they take raw ginger root! And they are really yummy!

I found a great recipe for these cookies.
3/4 cup of butter/margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup chopped raw ginger
2 cups flour

Cream the margarine and sugar together. Stir in the ginger. Then add the flour. By the time the flour is all in, you will be mixing with your hands. You can roll these cookies out after refridgerating, or you can roll the dough into snakes 1 1/2 inches thick or so, and then refridgerate. When they are firm, slice them 1/2 inch thick and bake for 20 minutes at 170C. (Preheat your oven.) They don't brown or rise, so you can put many on one cooking sheet.

So, if you are thinking of making a new Christmas Cookie, please give this a try and let me know how you liked them!

Strange Crispy Chicken Bites

I really love to try STRANGE recipes. Not those that take things I can't pronounce, but ones that take everyday things and combine them in an unthinkable way. Well, someone thought of them, but...not me.

I got this recipe from a Japanese television program and shared it with my Japanese students. It isn't exactly Japanese - at all, really - but it's pretty good.

Take boneless skinless chicken legs and cut them up into bite-sized pieces.

In a bowl, combine a little bit (maybe 1/2 cup or less) of mayonnaise, a teaspoon of salt, and some garlic paste in some form or other. Mix it well and stir in the chicken pieces. Cover and let it set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Longer is fine.

In another bowl, crush up some kind of non-sweetened cereal. Take the chicken pieces out of the mayo, one at a time, and roll them in the cereal. Place as close together as you need on a cookie sheet or pan. Cook at 400F or 210C for about 20 min - depending on your interpretation of bite-sized. When done, remove to a paper towel, and eat hot!

Nice and crunchy!

Berry Sauce

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out how to make this sauce. However, my mother, who has PLENTY of common sense and cooking experience, loved this sauce so much, she asked me how to make it. Thus, the recipe - if you can call it that.

One package of frozen blueberries
One package of frozen raspberries - the same amount as the blueberries.

Dump both packages in a saucepan, put the lid on and turn the heat on as low as possible. Go about your morning fixing pancakes or toast. Forget about the berries. Notice the great smell just as the berries boil over. Rush to the stove. Pop off the lid. Get out the potato masher and smash the berries all up. Dump 1/2 cup of sugar, or however much you like, into the pan and stir it nicely. Then, crank the heat up a bit and glance at the clock. Wait for the sauce to boil for a minute, turn it off, and WALA - berry sauce.

This sauce is great over plain yogurt and Japanese Corn Flakes - harder than ones in the States and don't get soggy as fast. My baby dumped all of her pieces of pancake in her bowl with yogurt and berry sauce, and that has become her breakfast of choice. I too must admit that the slightly burnt flavor of those pancakes is best hidden by something, and something with fruit is always a nice something.