Hot Dogs & Onions

Just your local-style small-kid time food - hot dogs & onions. Probably the first food I cooked myself many, many years ago when home alone on a Saturday. Rowena called it "nostalgia" food. It certainly is and still tastes good today.

Just sliced onion & hotdogs fried, then seasoned with garlic salt. Gotta be all beef hotdogs (I use Oscar Meyer). Maybe because never had all the different hotdogs have today - turkey, chicken, pork or combinations. Not shown but I eat it with lots of ketchup and some black pepper!

Pot Roast

Made pot roast yesterday. Took the whole afternoon, 4 hours very slow simmering. Simple reciple and so tasty & tender! The sauce which could be thickened was so ono over rice! The long slow simmering releases a lot of liquid from the meat and makes a lot of sauce.

Pot Roast

2 lb. beef shoulder or boneless chuck roast
1 Tbs. olive oil
salt, pepper, to taste
1 ea. lg. yellow onion, chopped or sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup red wine
several carrots, peeled, chunked

1. Use thk. bottomed covered pot (Dutch oven), lg. enough to hold roast & vegetables, heat oil on med.- high (to sear meat).
2. Sprinkle & rub salt & pepper all over meat.
3. Brown roast in pot, all over, several min./side (don't move roast while side is browning, or won't brown well).
4. When roast is browned, lift up meat, add garlic & onion to pan bottom, let roast sit on top.
5. Add red wine, cover, bring to simmer, then lower to lowest heat possible to maintain very low simmer.
6. Cook 3-1/2 ~ 4 hrs., until meat is tender.
7. Near end cooking, add carrots, cook until tender, ~10 min. more.

Soki Nitsuke Again

Made Soki Nitsuke again tonight. Oishii! But takes a long time. Posting the recipe I got from Kat this time.

Soki Nitsuke

1 lb. pork soki 豚ソーキ （あばら骨）

1/4 cup shoyu (しょうゆ)
1/4 cup sugar (さとう)
2 Tbs. mirin (みりん)
2 Tbs. awamori (泡盛)

1. Boil soki over med. in pot water ~2 hrs., skimming scum.
2. When soft, add shoyu, sugar & more hot water to cover.
3. Season w/ mirin & awamori, bring back to boil, simmer down a while, ~1 hr., basting occasionally.

This past week made some old time dishes - pork & beans with round onions, bacon & Vienna sausage, and sliced hot dogs with round onions.

Lazy Dinner

Very hungry and very lazy when I got home from work so just heated up a Banquet Fried Chicken Meal. Smaller then a "dinner". One of my emergency snacks for times like this. Wanted something fast! I actually like their fried chicken. Lots of pretty good tasting crispy breading and skin. One good-sized thigh, little portions of corn and mashed potatoes. Just right to "get the edge off." And actually very cheap too. Like maybe $1. So I have a supply handy in the freezer. Will probably get hungry later tonight and I'll make something else simple, like soup and a sandwich.

Kalbi Shortribs

Kalbi shortribs for dinner tonight, with just rice and kim chee. Real local-style meal. Recipe is from a friend back home, his mother-in-law's marinade. Did it on a grill pan. Love the koge! Taking a mess of it to work tomorrow. Someone else is bringing musubis! Usually like to make it with the other cut of of shortribs, the bigger bone ones, and butterfly the meat out in the normal kalbi-style. But didn't have that day.

Korean Kalbi
Jung-shi

5 lbs. shortribs (or chicken or pork can be used)

Marinade
2 cups water
1 cup shoyu
5 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. ginger
1 Tbs. garlic
1 Tbs. green onion, chopped
1/2 cup round onion, chopped
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. sesame seeds, toasted
1/8 tsp. chili pepper flakes

1. Combine, simmer Marinade 30~40 min.
2. Let cool, marinate meat at least few hrs. or overnight.
3. Broil, grill or barbecue.

Easy Corn Chowder

Quick and easy corn chowder. Nothing special but it's fits the bill of fast and good tasting. It's the local Hawaii-style that mothers quickly made for their family. Maybe from the days when there was no "ice boxes" as it was called then. Literally an "ice box" was a cool box with a block of ice. The ice man would come every couple days with a new block of ice. So everything was canned stuff. Maybe didn't even have bacon in long ago recipes. Maybe that's the reason for the use of Spam a lot of times.

Easy Corn Chowder

4 slices bacon, chopped, 1/2'' pieces
1/2 ea. onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, diced
1 can cream corn (14-3/4 oz.)
1 can whole kernel sweet corn (15-1/4 oz.), w/ liquid
1 can diced new potatoes (14-1/2 oz.), drained
1 can mushroom pieces (4 oz.), drained
1~2 cans Carnation evaporated milk (12 oz. ea.)

1. In 4~5 qt. pot, fry bacon until brown, add onion & celery.
2. Sauté ~2 min. until softens, add rest of ingredients.
3. Bring almost to boil, lower heat, simmer 10 min.

Could even add a can of chopped clams!



This pix is for all you of you out there in Japan who don't get to savor crispy thin American bacon. For you Kat. Cooked a package as I did for BLTs. Used a little for the chowder, froze the cooked strips for later use. Of course I had to eat a few pieces as I was cooking them. They were ONO!

Gyudon - fast meal

This was a very busy week at work this week. A whole lot of clean-up and immediate repair of damage caused by Super Typhoon Man-yi here on Okinawa. You wouldn't believe how many trees went down. And to think this just the start of the typhoon season. Feeling it's gonna be a bad year. For now everything is under control.

One meal I made this week was Gyūdon. Fast and easy. Maybe only 20~25 minutes. Cheap too. $1.60 for about 2/3 pound sliced sukiyaki beef (commissary), then an onion, shoyu, mirin, sake, water and instant dashi (all of which I had on hand). Plus some mushrooms. Got 3 servings.

Other meals were grilled ham/cheese sandwiches, microwaved premade shrimp scampi on linguine, pork chops with onions/cream of mushroom soup. Deciding what I should make this weekend as there is more time now. Thinking about kalbi and herbal chicken soup.

Banyan after the typhoon

I noticed this banyan tree in front of my apartment building this afternoon. Notice all the leaves are gone or dead on the left side and bottom of each limb? That was the side the 100 mph winds were coming from. Amazing power of the winds!

August 18 - Update



The banyan tree a month after the typhoon, making it's comeback.

Stuffed Bitter Melon

After the typhoon passed and getting power back, finally being able to bocha last night, felt like I needed a nice dinner today. So this morning went and got ground pork and bitter melon (goya). This is how I learned to enjoy bitter melon growing up in Hawaii - Cantonese-style dish that my mother made at home quite often, a regular dish. Seasoned ground pork stuffed into wide slices of bitter melon and steamed. I usually make it plain without the black bean sauce and just eat it with oyster sauce. Extra stuffing is put in foil cups.

Stuffed Bitter Melon (Gee Yuk Baang Yong Fu Qua) 苦瓜鑲肉

2~3 ea. bitter melons
harm ha (shrimp paste)
Chinese parsley, chopped, for garnish

Stuffing
1 lb. ground pork
1 ea. egg
3 Tbs. water chestnuts, chopped
3 Tbs. dried mushrooms, soaked, chopped
3 Tbs. green onions, chopped
1 Tbs. shoyu
1 Tbs. oyster sauce
1 tsp. cornstarch

1. Mix stuffing ingredients (w/ chopsticks, don't use spoon or fork), set aside.
2. Cut melon in 1-1/4" rings, remove seeds & pulp, parboil (optional).
3. Rub some hum ha on insides of bitter melon rings.
4. Fill bitter melon rings w/ stuffing, finishing w/ rounded top, place in shallow heat-proof dish.
5. Steam ~30 min., turn off heat, let stand ~10 min., garnish w/ parsley.

Black Bean Sauce (optional)
2 Tbs. peanut oil
2 tsp. garlic, minced
1-1/2 Tbs. fermented black beans, soaked, mashed
1 Tbs. Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp. cornstarch mixed w/ 1 tsp. cold chicken broth
1 Tbs. sesame oil

1. In wok or pan, 1st. heat peanut oil, add garlic & black beans, stir 1 min., add Shaoxing wine, chicken stock & salt.
2. Add liquid from melon steaming, bring to boil.
3. Thicken w/ cornstarch mix, flavor w/ sesame oil, pour over stuffed melons.

Super Typhoon Man-yi

7 am, July 13, 2007 - Conditions at Mihama at the approach of Super Typhoon Man-yi. And the eye is still south of the island. At the eye it's supposed to be winds of 155 mph, gusts to 190 mph. Have to wait and see how close the eye comes to Okinawa. Latest forecast is for it to come closest to Kadena AB at 33 miles.

Too bad you can't see the sheets of rain blowing horizntally or hear the howling of the wind. Kind of exciting! Obviously no work today. Just have to sit at home and hope the power doesn't go out. Otherwise no internet, no TV, and especially no cold beer! Big difference of view to my 4th of July picture.

Update - July 14





First a picture of Jusco yesterday about noon with it barely visible. Then the next picture through my sliding door, because the wind pressure was so strong I couldn't open the sliding door. Everything is hidden by the sheets of rain! This was in the afternoon.

The power went out at 10:30 am yesterday morning. I just got power back on - 12:30 pm, after 26 hours! No water either. Was a boring afternoon and night yesterday. With just a flashlight for my companion. One news report said winds of 125 mph were recorded at Naha when the eye passed near Naha at 10 am, then it moved out to sea a bit. Then recorded 99 mph at Nago. Mihama is about 1/3 the distance between Naha and Nago.

Gyudon (Beef Bowl)

Made Gyudon tonight. Simple, quick and easy Japanese fast food. Made of thinly sliced beef, round onions and shiitake mushrooms, simmered in shoyu, dashi, sake and mirin, served over rice. Usually eaten with beni shoga (pickled ginger) but didn't have so ate with rakkyo (pickled shallots). Almost like plain sukiyaki.

Gyudon - 牛丼 (Beef Bowl)

10~20 oz. beef, thinly sliced, cut in bite-size pieces
1~2 ea. round onion, thinly sliced
ginger juice (optional)
garlic (optional)
1 tsp. instant dashi powder
4 Tbs. shoyu, or more to taste
4 Tbs. mirin
4 Tbs. sake
2-1/2 cups water
cooked rice
beni shoga (optional)

1. Put water, dashi powder, shoyu, mirin & sake in pan.
2. On stove, heat, add onions, bring to boil, simmer 8 min.
3. Add beef, simmer 2 min. more, turn off heat.
4. Put on top rice, serve w/ beni shoga (optional).

Notes: I buy thinly sliced sukiyaki beef, and add a handful of dried sliced shiitake mushroooms (soaked). I don't use garlic or ginger. And there's lots of sauce to eat with rice which I enjoy. So quick and easy to prepare besides being tasty.

Shoyu Chicken

Made Rainbow Drive-In Shoyu Chicken taking the hint from Kat of Our Adventures in Japan, and not having made it in quite a while. Mine comes out darker since I use regular Kikkoman shoyu and simmer it longer (the full 40 minutes) to get the nice flavor on the outside, turning often. Great with rice! And my usual canned corn. Bento tomorrow for lunch!

Happy 4th of July from Okinawa

Beautiful 4th of July day on Okinawa! Sunny, hot, rains didn't come, though a bit humid. Made Spaghetti Casserole tonight.

Leftover Stew & Kim Chee

Leftover stew from the other night with all the bottom of the pot morsels. Plus kim chee I had made the same day but didn't get to eat until last night. And instead of rice, ate the stew with King's Hawaiian Sweetbread Rolls.

I make kim chee with NOH package mix but also add Park's Brand Kim Chee Sauce that I bring back from Hawaii (primarily for Chicken Alice's Wings). Also add crushed chili pepper flakes to give more of a punch. Sometimes I add ground Korean chili pepper powder that I also bring back which adds a huge kick. And I use Chinese cabbage. I like the texture and crunch of it more so than regular cabbage. And really like the soft leafy parts. Comes out almost like the Halm's Kim Chee of back home.

Kau Yuk (Chinese Pot Roast Pork)

Pretty common Cantonese dish in Hawaii, especially as one of many dishes at special occasion dinners. A cheaper dish but so tasty. Usually served with soft white buns to eat as a little sandwich-thingy. Doesn't look like the normal because I didn't add red food coloring. Another comfort food of times growing up.

Takes a long time to cook (3 hours steaming), so cooked this on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Was hot out today – sunny and 91 degrees here in Mihama, Chatan, but thankfully the humidity was only 40%. But the sun here is scorching, much more so than in Hawaii. Thank goodness for A/C!

Parboiled, then browned pork belly, marinated in all kinds of stuff (red & yellow bean curds, sugar, star anise, hoisin & oyster sauces, 5-spice & garlic), then steamed three hours.

Kau Yuk (Chinese Pot Roast Pork)
June Tong, "Popo's Kitchen"

3 lbs. belly pork
3 Tbs. oil
Chinese parsley, chopped, for garnish

Sauce
4 cubes red bean curd (nam yue)
2 cubes yellow bean curd (tofu mui)
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1 tsp. Hawaiian salt
1 ea. whole star anise (bhat kow)
2 Tbs. hoisin sauce
2 Tbs. oyster sauce
1/2 tsp. 5-spice
2 cloves garlic, minced
few drops red food coloring

1. Cut pork into 3 strips, parboil, rinse, pat dry.
2. Puncture skin well w/ skewer or sharp point of knife.
3. Heat oil in hvy. pot on med., brown pork until skin is very crispy, remove, dunk in cold water, drain, pat dry.
4. Cut pork in 5/8" slices, marinate in Sauce 30 min.
5. Arrange in bowl, skin side down, steam 3 hrs.
6. Remove bowl from steamer, place another slightly smaller bowl over, using towel, grab both bowls, flip over, garnish.