Red Tomato Chutney

You may or may not remember that I made chutney for the first time last winter. And we loved it! It is a Pear and Peach Chutney with ginger root in it that makes it nice and HOT! It is great with curry and rice!

So, when my friend at Shinshu Life published a recipe for red (vs. still green) tomato chutney, I was really enthralled! Just looking at the color made me want to rush out and make it. However, Shinshu Life cooking is based on their wonderful and HUGE gardening enterprise. My balcony garden, on the other hand, was recycled early on in the summer, and replaced with flowers. So, when I compared prices of "real" (fresh) tomatoes with canned, canned won out. Here is my version of Shinshu Life's school textbook's Red Tomato Chutney:



Red Tomato Chutney


2 cans whole peeled tomatoes - I roughly cut them up with a pair of kitchen shears
3/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. pickle spice wrapped in a mesh cloth - cloves are the ticket, I think!
1 cup sugar

I threw all of this (EXCEPT THE SUGAR) into a saucepan and boiled it till the liquid was reduced by about 1/2. About 20 minutes. Then I added the sugar and boiled it for about 20-30 minutes. Ryu (my husband), isn't a real vinegar fan, and found this to be a bit sour at first, so be sure to adjust the sugar to your own taste. This made 2-3 cups of chutney. The color is so rich and the flavor so robust! I love it!

We weren't sure what to eat it on but it would work with yogurt - REALLY! and cream cheese and crackers. It is also great with chicken and white rice. I think we will be finishing it up tonight! Mmmm! Thanks for the inspiration, Heather!

Sesame Dressing

We had only been married a little time before Ryu told me he liked Chinese food also. Wow! Learning to make Japanese food as well as Chinese - I recruited his help. We bought a Chinese cookbook at the 100 yen (Dollar) store and have used it and used it!

This is the Sesame Dressing for one of the dishes (whose name I can't remember or READ!)

The cookbook is Bon Cook #23 Chinese...Something. The recipe is on page 48.

Anyway, this is Ryu's dish to make, but, we are on a chicken eating frenzy, so I am always looking for ideas. The other day I decided to boil a chicken breast, tear it into shreds, steam some green beans and cut them in half, and pour this sauce over it all. We were ALL (meaning, Jun too!) in heaven!

Sesame Dressing

3 Tbsp. White Sesame Seeds - grind these up in a food mixer you can later add wet ingredients too for ease in preparation. (I'm sure you could use black too. We used roasted white ones.)
3 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp. Sugar
1 Tbsp. Vinegar
1/2 tsp. Sesame oil
1/2 tsp. rayu (very hot oil. We leave it out when Jun is eating with us - ALWAYS - though we love it!)

After grinding up the sesame seeds, add the rest of the ingredients and blend well. This is the first time I used our food grinder/mixer. Ryu does it by hand. Do as you wish, but I will always use our cheapo frustrating mixer after this! So easy!

This is great over chicken and pork. Also, over steamed veggies like broccoli, green beans or spinach. It would also be great over a salad or chilled tofu! Of course, you can adjust the flavor/sweetness to your liking, too! Try it!

Ginger Jam

I brought some Candied Ginger to church the other morning and a friend said she had just seen a recipe for ginger jam on NHK - our national TV station. Eagerly, I DEMANDED to know the ingredients. And...that is exactly what she gave me. I am not sure if the amounts are in US cup sizes or Japanese, and I have no idea of the proper way to make the jam. I looked on the Internet in English and Japanese. I couldn't find NHK's original recipe, but here is what I did. And...it is HOT and ohohohohoh so yummy! I've had it on toast and in yogurt. It could also be made into a tea.

GINGER JAM

100 gm ginger root
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup lemon juice (juice of 2 lemons)

Scrape the peel off of the ginger root with a spoon, and use a ginger-grater to grate it very very finely. Throw away any left over stringy things.

Throw the ginger in a saucepan with the honey and lemon juice. Simmer till it is the consistency of jam. Probably around 30 min. Don't let the heat get too high, and stir occasionally.

Japanese jam recipes don't call for pectin or other jelling agents. I don't know if this makes our (Japanese) jam less healthy because we simmer the heck out of the berries and fruit to reach jam consistency...or more healthy because it is just berries/fruit and sugar/honey. Hmmm. But, as I can't get the jelling agents easily - Japan style it is.

I did notice many other ginger jam and jelly recipes on the English Internet. Some add fruits such as pears or apples to the jam. This sounds yummy to me, as I love to use the ginger syrup, left over from the candied ginger I made, with a spoonful of applesauce in a cup of hot water.

I think I am just TOO into ginger root. But, if you have another way to use it...PLEASE share!

Sue, I hope it helps your hubby get over his flu! No fun!!!

Chutney

I found a recipe for peach and pear chutney in a holiday recipe book. I have never eaten, seen, or made chutney before. And, I didn't have most of the ingredients, but the idea stuck in my head. So, I looked to see what I DID have and made the following chutney. It is SOOOO spicy and delicious!

Peach and Pear Chutney

1 can peaches - drained and diced
1 can pears - drained and diced
3/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 Tbsp. pickles spice (see note below) put in a cheesecloth or tea holder.
2 Tbsp. finely chopped raw ginger (at the request of Ryu. I diced it, and it was a bit too big, I guess.)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup reserved syrup/juice from peaches/pears.

Place all in a sauce pan and cook over low for 1-1 1/2 hours or so, until liquid is nearly gone, all fruits are soft, and yummy! I put a lid on it till the fruit was soft, then took the lid off and simmered it till the liquid was reduced.

This chutney is QUITE spicy, and wonderful with curry. I want to try it with cream cheese on crackers too.

**Pickles Spice. I used a pickle spice mix that contains: bay leaf, chili pepper, cinnamon and cloves.

Eggplant - Hot & Sour

Sachiko also taught me this recipe. Ryu, who hates vinegar, loves this. Go figure!

Eggplant - Hot & Sour

3 Japanese eggplants (trim the tops off them. Then make 2 2-inch-deep cuts - like an "X" in the top of them. Wrap each of them in wrap and pop them in the microwave for 4 minutes. When they are done, CAREFULLY unwrap and, using the cuts as a start, pull the eggplants into four long strips.) NOTE: I actually use this method of cooking eggplants for other dishes that I don't want to use oil to cook them in.

1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp. vinegar
1/2 Tbsp sesame oil
a little rayu (very hot red oil with a sesame base) The link has a recipe for rayu, if you can't find it in your super. EVERY Japanese supermarket has it, I'm sure.

Mix the sauce up and then stir in the eggplant so each piece is coated well. Put in the fridge and serve chilled. Yummy and easy!

NOTE: I haven't used this sauce on other steamed veggies, but, it just might be delicious!

Goma Ae - Sesamae Sauce

My friend, Sachiko, also taught me this "essential" recipe for use when feeding a Japanese husband. And, HEY! He likes it!

The word, "sauce", is used very loosely. It never turns into a sauce, but mixes nicely with the slight moisture left in the cooked veggies.

I made this last night after NOT having made it for awhile. Jun asked for a taste. I gave her one. I asked her to let me put it in the fridge to chill. She said "no". She asked for a spoon. I gave her one. She stood there eating spinach! A beautiful sight for this mother's eyes! After watching her shovel in carrots with her lunch curry - influenced, I am sure by Auntie Yoko-chan, who babysat yesterday morning while I was at "oshigoto" - work, I was a truly happy Mama!

This mixture is wonderful when mixed with boiled and squeezed spinach, and good with green beans, asparagas, sweet peas (in the pod kind), and...well, try it on whatever you like.

When I made this last night, I was making it from a poor memory. Jun's love for it showed that I had, indeed, put too much sugar in it, so here is a better version I came up with!

Goma Ae

2 Tbsp. roasted sesamae seeds ground up. You can buy them like this, you can roast them on your own and grind them with a pestal and motar, or you can use a handy dandy grinder on your blender, etc.
1/2 Tbsp. sugar - I used 1 Tbsp. last night. Daddy loved it too! Too sweet, though.
1 tsp. soy sauce
a dash of salt

Mix this all up in a bowl and add 100-200 gm of cooked veggies. Mix gently with a fork or chop sticks. Put in the fridge, and you have a nice semi-sweet salad for dinner.

Niku Miso - Meat and Soy Bean Paste Sauce

My friend, Kaoru S., made this for a potluck and it was so yummy, I asked her to show me how to make it. Of course, she doesn't use a recipe, so I stood next to her counting scoops and trying to get an estimate as to how much of what she put in it.

She put small spoonfuls of this sauce on sauteed eggplant, mixed some in with slivered cucumbers and somen (thin noodles) for a salad, and uses it as the sauce for pork and cabbage saute. It is also a great dip for raw cucumber and carrot sticks. So yummy!

Niku Miso

130 gms Akadashi Miso (see pic.)

130 gms ground meat - she used pork/beef mix this time.

2 1/2 Tbsp. Mirin (sweet rice wine)

2 1/2 Tbsp. Sake

7 large Tbsp. Sugar - REALLY!

1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

She mixed the raw meat with the other ingredients in a small sauce pan. Turned the pan on low, and mixed till all was blended and cooked. Then it was ready for use.

I loved the taste of this, but mixing raw meat with the miso just doesn't sound all that safe to me, nor does it seem like it would last very long in the fridge, so, I kind of remade the recipe for us. I call it Niku Nuki Miso. Meat and Soy Bean Paste Sauce without the Meat! I figure you can always mix the sauce in with cooked meat later (or raw).

Niku Nuki Miso

50 gm. Akadashi Miso

1 Tbsp. Mirin

1 Tbsp. Sake

3 1/2 Tbsp. Sugar

1/2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

Mix and cook till blended. I store it in the fridge and take out a Tbsp. when I need it. It doesn't make too much, and will last much longer, I think.

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.