Mayo's Jap Curry Rice

Now who doesn't have cravings for Japanese Curry rice every now and then? Well I had one today & decided to go for a no frills home-made version. Firstly, lazy me whipped out the ready mixed & packed Japanese Curry cubes from any decent supermarket. Note the proportion of water to the cubes as you wouldn't want the curry to be too watery. I chopped some fresh carrots & nagaimo (Japanese Yam) in odd sizes & threw them into a pot of hot water before adding in the curry cubes. Leave in pot to simmer, stir occasionally for around 20-25 minutes to get them nice & soft.

While letting the curry simmer, I took some tomatoes, sliced them & pan fried them burning the edges of the skin. Season with a dash of salt & pepper for taste. I took out thick sliced chicken meat that I pre-cut from my fridge and mixed them in light egg batter & coated them in Japanese bread crumbs before letting them pan fry over a some hot oil in a pre-heated large pan.

Mayo needs her daily intake of veggies hence I finely sliced some cabbage & mixed it up with a dash of olive oil, Mayo's home made wasabi mayonnaise & topped it off with some Jap bonito flakes. Neutralizes the overpowering curry gravy & lends a refreshing aftertaste.

Tip: Mayo prefers her curry slightly spicy & if you noticed, Jap Curry is usually more sweet than spicy, so take some time & read the variations available, know your preference & your meal will taste so much better. I want it fast but I won't settle for sub standard food being served. :)

Fried chicken with bread crumbs

Sliced cabbage with wasabi mayo & bonito flakes.

Mayo's Cold Soba with Bonito Sauce

The weather is always kind of erratic over here. Can you imagine a hot day of 30-34 degrees with high humidity as well? For times like these, I would recommend a nice cold home styled Soba meal. It is nutritious, fulfilling & delicious. It's nice to stay in for a bit & create this dish to reward yourself. Here's how...

Cold Buckwheat Soba with Bonito sauce

~Ingredients~
Buckwheat soba/Green tea soba
Fried egg (sliced)
Ham (sliced)
Bonito/seaweed flakes
Bonito sauce
Sesame oil
Wasabi
Salt (optional)
Spring onions (chopped)

~Method~
1. Boil a small pot of water with a little bit of salt added and add in the soba & leave to boil for 5-7mins.
2. Get ready a bowl of ice cold water with ice cubes when the soba is ready & transfer it to the cold water.
3. Prepare sliced ham and fried egg slices and put them aside first.
4.Mix the soba with bonito sauce, sesame oil, wasabi & a dash of salt.
5.Add in sliced ham & egg slices.
6.Add bonito/seaweed flakes and chopped spring onions for topping to finish dish.
7. Mix well & eat for instant happiness. :)

Tips: If you don't like soba you can replace it with pasta or a noodle of your choice.





Buckwheat soba version


Green tea soba version

Mayo's dinner #6

Recently I've been dragging myself to work everyday and facing a boring job with some people that live in their own dream world yet they want to control people's creativity & direction! Everyone keep telling me what they want but no one is asking what I want! Mr K has been asking me what happened to my designs lately? It's below par & not my style at all. Well, my answer is that I'm creating whatever they want instead. I guess my passion is gone for my job but I've move my new passion into food, trying to learn how to cook food in a creative way, experimenting in all sorts of food & styles, trying to read as much as I can about food, nutrition & facts about the combination of ingredients, trying to learn how to style the food in a tastier way, the lighting, the color, little info about the chef... Basically everything about food. I have never really gone through any cooking classes at all but what I cook comes from the heart & I listen to the comments before I cook therefore creating something that satisfies the stomach & warms the heart. I'm wondering if my new found passion is a experimental phase or is it because of the unhappiness of my job? But cooking & creating new food for people really makes me happy as I can control everything according to what I want. Although so far only a handful of people get to taste my cooking but hopefully someday everyone can get to sample it too!

Here is a random creation of mine which is sauteed brinjal cooked with dried shrimp & garlic. The added taste that I have used here is a dash of Thai fish sauce which can be easily bought from any supermarket.

Japanese white beech mushroom (Bunapi-shimeji)

Soba with Bonito broth

Stay tuned for more home cooked soul food from Mayo...