Foodarrific

I enjoy me a good cup of green tea every now and then. When I’m eating out at a Japanese restaurant, green tea is, of course, the default drink. At home, I sometimes brew a pot so my kids can have a few sips though they aren’t really fond of it.

Green tea is supposedly very good for you. It works as a detox and antioxidant. It lowers your cholesterol level, burns fat and fighting off major diseases. It promises countless other health benefits as well, too many to name. Who knows, it may even work as a Hormone replacement therapy but don’t quote me on that.

I love all types of tea and drink them for their taste. If they come with health benefits, then that’s definitely a bonus, isn’t it?

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Tempura is a hot favorite in our household and even more so now that I’ve started making it myself for our vegetarian days. With some miso soup to go with my yasai tempura (vegetable tempura), we’ve got an entire Japanese meal at home.

I’ve got my wasabi (green mustard), soy sauce and instant miso soup sachets in 3 flavors – tofu, seaweed and green onion.

The instant miso soup is so easy that I just need to add hot water and all those dried ingredients in the sachet instantly popped to life! The thing I love most is that it’s sodium-reduced too!

The tempura batter is easily whipped up in a large bowl with 1 cup flour, half cup cornflour, pinch of salt and pepper and icy cold water. I’m not one to measure ingredients to a T but these are just to give you an idea.

Mix everything together to a consistency thick enough to coat the veggies. I used sweet potatoes and broccoli here but you can use shrimp and any number of your favorite veggies. Deep fry till golden brown.

The dip is just some wasabi in a small dish with a drizzle of soy sauce stirred together. But be warned, will instantly send a powerful sting right up your nose. If you can get someone to capture that fiery moment on a digital camera casio, it will be priceless (just kidding ).

And there you have it, yasai tempura and miso soup for the whole family without forking out the big bucks.

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It’s Friday and it’s time to close my kitchen. As usual, we were trying to decide where to eat. Decisions, decisions. Lately Japanese has been the unanimous answer.

Whenever we do Japanese, we always order tempura. It was our first time at Sushi Zen in Midvalley. This is the ebi tempura (shrimp tempura) and yasai tempura (vegetable tempura) we had at Sushi Zen in Midvalley. I love the big shiitake mushroom tempura but the one made with enoki was pretty difficult to eat because of the long strands of enoki.

The unagi (eel) over rice was pretty good. When my youngest daughter is into her unagi, don’t bother asking her what does creatine do?, she’d be too busy savoring her favorite unagi.

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This is one of the dishes that I prepared for my son and stored in the fridge to be eaten later. It’s so easy and so healthy you’ve just got to try it.

I used:

• 2 heads of broccoli, cut into large florets
• 0.5 bag of baby carrots
• 1 clove garlic, finely diced
• 1 small slice of salmon
• mushroom/oyster sauce
• cooking oil
• salt and pepper to taste

First, I heated up some oil in a non-stick pan on medium to low heat.

Place the slice of salmon, lightly salted and peppered, in the pan and let it fry slowly first on one side, then flip over and allow to fry until cooked through and both sides are lightly brown. This should take roughly 10-12 minutes.

Remove the salmon to a plate. Using a fork, break up the salmon into flakes and remove the bones. Leave aside.

Add a bit more oil in the pan on medium heat and lightly fry the garlic for a 2-3 minutes till fragrant. Be careful not to burn the garlic or it will taste bitter.

Throw in the carrots and add a splash of water and leave it for about 5 minutes to soften up.

Add the broccoli, a dash of mushroom/oyster sauce and a sprinkle of pepper. Stir-fry for approximately 5-7 minutes till the broccoli is cooked. Watch closely to ensure broccoli is not overcooked or it will turn yellow.

Serve on a plate (or in my case, I placed in a Rubbermaid container for refrigerating) and top with the salmon flakes.

And that’s all there really is to it. It’s really tasty and goes well with pasta, noodles or rice.

My son had some fruits left over from the fresh fruit baskets we got for Christmas and he ate those for dessert.

Filed under: AsianFoodlish TalkFor College KidsHealthy EatingKid-friendlyQuick & Easy CookingRecipesSeafoodVegetables by Chili Queen - No Comments →

Once in a while, my aunt would whip up our favorite steamed yam cake for us if we beg hard enough. I haven’t got a clue how it’s made. I really should learn the recipe from her one of these days since my kids love it so much and the ones sold outside are somewhat watered down and not as yammy.

This picture of this steamed yam cake was taken before she sprinkled the chopped spring onions on top. So it looks rather bland with only chopped peanuts and fried shallots. But trust me, once you drizzle on the accompanying chilly and brown sauces, it tastes like heaven!

Steamed yam cake is a great one-dish meal usually served at lunch. It’s usually eaten slightly warm or at room temperature. I’ve never tried to subject it to the coolness of refrigerator filters but I doubt it would taste good cold.

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