Thursday, January 14, 2016

Easy Japanese Tamago Sushi (Sweetened Egg Rolls)


It's been a while since we last had any Japanese meal at home, I decided to surprise the little ones by making some of their favorite sushi - sweet beancurds, Tamago and teriyaki salmon, serve with a pot of home brewed mint tea - mix of spearmint, peppermint, Indian borage and lemon.

I bought the sweet beancurd from Aeon mall @ RM7.90 for 6 pieces, but for the Tamago, a kind of sweetened Japanese egg rolls, I decided to make it myself as I often find the store made too sweet.

My grill pan is my best companion now. Cook all these with just 1 pan (and rice cooker for the sushi rice), washing is minimal and save me so much time!


Simple Jappy lunch, for the 3 of us.


While I was preparing the tea, E decided to surprise me with his food art. Lol, what a cute old man!


Making of the Tamago sushi is easy...

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serving for: approximate 10-12 Tamago sushi 

Ingredients:
Tamago
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon mirin (Japanese vinegar)
• 1 teaspoon soyu (sushi sauce)
• 1 teaspoon sugar (can add more up to 1 tablespoon)

Sushi Rice
• 1 cup Pearl rice (short grain rice)
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon mirin 



The Making:

1. Wash the rice and cook as usual (1 cup rice to 2 cups water). Once done, let the rice rest for about 10 min in the pot then scope out to let cold down.

2. While the rice is cooking, beat the eggs lightly. Add the rest of the ingredients, beat lightly to mix well.

3. Using a square pan (I used my grill pan), pour the egg mixture, slowly fold inward using a spatula until it forms a roll.

4. Let it cook for about a minute, move the egg roll to a clean cutting board and cut into equal slices of about 1" thick each.

5. Mix the mirin into the rice, mix well using a spatula then shape them into rolls of equal size using your palms.

Serve the egg rolls on sushi rolled rice (wrap with some cut seaweed sheet if you have any, I forgot to buy them!) or with sliced cucumbers, prepare some Japanese soya sauce for dipping. That's it, you are done!

Itadakimasu!

Need more idea for sushi? Refer to my previous post here. The kiddos love any kind of sushi as long as they are mommy made.

Psss... This is also ideal to be packed for their school lunch box ;-)

Friday, January 8, 2016

Super Easy Grilled Chicken & Veggie Platter


I bought a new grill pan during our recent visit to Langkawi, it was so much cheaper than the price in town and I could not help but ask myself... why did I not bought this earlier?? It is light, nice to hold, non stick and the food cooks evenly. I should have gotten this loooong ago.

Anyway, I made this Full Platter Grilled Chickens and Veggie for our dinner in just 30 minutes, everyone loved it and the kiddos enjoyed assembling their own burgers - I just served them the buns, grilled chicken fillet and veggie. With the ease of preparing and cleaning, this will definitely be one of our usual meals. ;)




My portion, with a glass of chilled Chardonay.... Heavenly.

The next morning, I made a big breakfast with the leftover ingredients.  

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serving for: 4 persons

Ingredients:

Ingredient A
• 600gm chicken fillet, washed
• 8-10 brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 clove garlic, roughly sliced
• 1 bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, cut cubes
• some broccoli, cut into bite size 
• some asparagus, use only the spears (stems are too fibrous)
• 4-6 dinner rolls, cut half 
• butter 
• Salt & black pepper 
• olive oil

Ingredient B (Chicken Marinate)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 table spoon teriyaki sauce*
• 1 tablespoon Shao Xin wine
• dash of black pepper 
• 2 pricks of fresh rosemary or dried rosemary leaves (and extra for garnishing)

Note: *you may replace teriyaki sauce with equal amount of soya sauce and a tablespoon of honey.


The Making:
 


1. Rub the chicken fillets with salt and marinate with ingredients B evenly. Set aside in fridge for about 30 minutes before cooking. 

2. Heat up the grill pan, drizzle with some olive oil. Toss in the garlic and follow by the chicken fillet and mushrooms, grill each side for about 2-3 minutes or until it turns golden brown. Drizzle some teriyaki sauce if the fillets are getting too dry. Scoop aside.

3. Toss the broccoli and carrots into the grill pan, let cook for about 2 minutes on each side then add the asparagus and bell peppers, cook for another 1-2 minutes (check to make sure carrots and broccoli are soft enough to your liking). Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and black pepper onto the veggies, shake the grill pan to mix well. Once done, scope the veggies aside.

4. Cut dinner rolls into half, melt a small lump of butter on the grill pan and lightly grill the dinner rolls for about 45 seconds to get the golden crunch.  

Arrange all grilled goodies in a plate, garnish with some Rosemary and serve hot, best to go with a glass of wine or cold juice. 

Enjoy!


Xoxo,
PH