Stir fried eggplant

Hello!

Finally it cooled down in Tokyo after many months of tropical weather. It feels so nice to walk outside in the day without getting sweaty. It was unusually hot this year in Japan. In the last few weeks, the temperature in Tokyo was hotter than any other main cities in the world!

Due to this heat, our gas use bill in the summer was nearly half of the usual time. I realised that I tried hard to minimize the cooking time in order to avoid the extra heat on my body... That means a lot of cold dishes were often on our dining table.

Ingredients:

egg plant
capsicum

soy sauce (2tbsps)

sesame oil

chili powder

1- Cut the vegetables.

2- Heat the sesame oil and stir fly 1. Powder the chili powder when you eat.


Please enjoy the taste of the egg plant with this simple recipe as egg plants go very well with oil.

Itadakimasu.

Cold eggplant for the hot summer

Hello!

How are you enjoying this summer/winter time? These days, I can't sleep well at night. The temperature around Tokyo goes up to around 35 degrees every day and doesn't cool down so much at night. Around 35 degrees doesn't sound as hot as some other dry places like southern Europe or Australia, but the actual feeling is worse in Japan because of the high humidity. I just want to escape to somewhere in the southern hemisphere!

In the hot climate, sometimes you don't feel like eating or even cooking! So today I will cook a simple and cold dish with eggplant.

Ingredients:

eggplant

ginger

soy sauce (1tbsp)

mirin (2tbsps)

soup (1cup)

1- Cut the eggplant roughly, cut the surface a little and boil. When it's cooked, wash it with cold water.

2- Boil the soup, soy sauce and mirin. Add 1.

3- When the eggplants are boiled, put it in the fridge to cool down.

4- Put the grazed ginger on top before eating.

Itadakimasu.

Ratatouille

Do you like karaoke? In your place, karaoke may mean a pub where you must sing old songs in front of many people who you don't know. But here in Japan, you usually sing all released songs at a small room just for your group.

The "karaoke box" used to be simple without food or drinks and mainly for the younger generation. However, I was surprised by the latest full-serviced-karaoke system such as family room, free drinks, party room with meal and free alcohol, lunch service for ladies etc. It seems like a total entertainment complex for whole generation to enjoy for a day!

Recently I feel happy to see many fresh summer vegetables this season. One of my favorite cooking styles using summer vegetables is ratatouille. Please add some red wine if you have some spare!

Ingredients:

tomato

carrot

egg plant

capsicum

onion

red wine (or some water)

salt

garlic
bay leaf

1- Cut the vegetables into small pieces.

2- Fry the chopped garlic and egg plant with some olive oil. Then put it away.

3- Fry carrot, onion and capsicum until it's cooked, then add tomato, 2, wine and a bay leaf.

4- Adjust the taste with salt.

Itadakimasu.

Fried and boiled eggplant

Lately I often see people riding electric bikes as it's helpful to go on long distance trips. They can ride in a hilly area, carrying a child or even their shopping. It also causes less impact on the environment when compared to a car. Recently some local governments started promoting electric bikes in collaboration with their specific eco-projects.

For example like the one above, there are a few solar power stations for a rental electric bikes in western Tokyo. That makes it easier for you to go shopping, commute and cycle around. The rental cost is only 300yen/day. Isn't it a good idea?

Today we are cooking fried and boiled eggplant.

Ingredients:

eggplant (2)

minced pork

sesame oil

ginger

garlic

soup(1cup)

soy sauce(1tbsp)

vinegar(1tbsp)

starch(1tsp)

sugar(1tsp)

1- Cut the eggplant and put in the water for about 10 min.

2- Stir fry the finely cut ginger,  garlic and minced pork with sesame oil. Add the eggplant and fry. (I added some cut mushrooms as well but not necessary.)

3- Pour the soup and add sugar, vinegar and soy sauce and boil until all is cooked.

4- Melt starch in 1tbsp of water. Splash it around 3 and stir well.

It goes well with rice!

Itadakimasu.

Cold udon with eggplant and pork

Jinbocho (map) is the place to go if you love books. It can be found in central Tokyo where the streets are full of old book stores. Lots of people stop by a shop, check books outside and read it for a minute. That's what you see in this town.

Each book store has its own specialty like culture, hobbies, math's, sciences, languages or laws etc. So the whole area is just like one big library. For example, there is a store mostly has Italian, Portuguese and Spanish books and another has just books of the Edo era (AC1600-1868 in Japan). There are even some places that specialize in a particular war.

It's a lot of fun just to walk along the streets, so I can always find interesting books.

For some reason, the street (Hakusan st.) crossed with the main book street (Yasukuni st.) contains many sports stores and it's popular to buy cheap ski-gear here as well.

Today I will introduce an udon recipe in a different style to tradition.

Ingredients for 2 serves;

udon

minced pork

egg plant
garlic

ginger
nutmeg

salt

sake (1tbsp)

vinegar (1tbsp)

soy sauce (1tbsp)

pepper

starch (1tsp)

1- Boil udon and then wash it with cold water. Drain the water.

2- Fry the minced pork with sesame oil, the finely cut ginger and garlic. Add the cut egg plant and fry till the pork is cooked.

3- Add a cup of water, salt, sake, pepper, nutmeg, vinegar and soy sauce. Boil until there is less water.

4- Melt the starch in the little water, put it into 3 and stir well.

5- Put 4 on the udon.

Sprinkle some red chili powder on if you like it spicy.

Itadakimasu.