Even though I did not have much time, I have been continuing to cook once a week. Here are the dishes I made this past month:
Week 16 – Cucumber and seaweed dressed with vinegar, Japanese spinach tossed with ume sauce.
Week 17 – Nikujyaga (A famous Japanese dish meaning “meat and potatoes”)
Week 18 – A Japanese ‘teishoku’ consisting of Macro teriyaki, pea sprouts and tuna dressed with vinegar, miso soup and rice,
Week 19 – Chinese cabbage, tofu and tuna Ankake,
Week 20 – Flowerless frozen banana and peanut butter brownies.
On weeks 16, 17 and 18, I had chose to make on Japanese home cooked meals rather than typical dishes from restaurants. I found this very enjoyable and they are actually one of the dishes I was the most satisfied with. They, especially nikujyaga used to be my favourite dishes my mom would make, and now I am making them for my family! I also learned many different ways and tips of cutting vegetables (e.g. cutting off the edge of the potatoes for a visually better shape) and the basics of Japanese seasonings from my mother. I will definitely continue exploring these rather ‘local’ Japanese meals.
The recipe of the brownies I made in week 20 was what I found from a blog on the internet, and they were very fudge-y and addictive! It was also very easy, as I only had to blend frozen bananas, peanut butter and cocoa powder and heat it in the oven for 20 minutes. Here is the link to the source.
For the next few weeks, I would really like to focus on the typical dishes that would appear in a Japanese home. Additionally, I want to challenge myself with cuisines from other countries as I was not able to do that this past month.
I am also thinking of making something like slide show to record all my photos, recipes and research I had done of each dish I have been making.
