Kabocha

What has turned out to be very popular on several occasions is Japanese boiled pumpkin. It’s cooked with sugar and dashi, which gives it its unique taste. Some people even remarked that it almost tastes a bit like marroni, and I can see (or rather taste) the similarity.

Ingredients:

1/2 pumpkin (best to use kabocha pumpkin, if they have, or otherwise some other green skinned pumpkin)

3 cups dashi (1 tsp. dashi powder)

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

1 tblsp. salt

Preperation:

Peel the pumpkin, unless it is very young and tender in which case the skin can be left on. Cut into large pieces. Pour the dashi into a saucepan, add the pumpkin an bring to the boil. Reduce to medium flame and cook until the dashi has reduced about a third. Add the sugar, soy sauce and salt and continue to cook untill the pumpkin is tender. Serve hot.

This is the way it’s written in a cooking book. I prefer to add all ingredients right at the beginning. This will give the pumpkin a richer and sweeter taste.

Okonomiyaki

Für 2 Portionen berechnet:

Tempura Mehl   1 Tasse (200ml)

Wasser                ¾ Tasse (150ml)   – Zusammenmischen

Ei                           1

Salz                       1 Prise

Kabis                    200g     – In feine Streifen schneiden, daruntermischen

Andere Zutaten je nach Geschmack:

– Fondue Chinoise Fleisch, Schinken oder Gschnätzletes (das zuerst

anbraten),

– Fisch roh oder Ebi (kleinere oder grosse Crevetten, diese kurz

kochen)

– Auch andere Gemüse (Rüebli in feinen Streifen, Peperoni, Pilze etc.)

In die Pfanne etwas Oel giessen, etwas erwärmen, dann den Teig aus Mehl, Wasser, Ei, Salz und Kabis beifügen. Oben drauf noch andere Zutaten beifügen. Deckel drauf und braten, bis der untere Teil fest ist. Dann versuchen, das Okonomiyaki auf die andere Seite zu wenden mit Hilfe von zwei Holzkellen oder mit Hilfe des Deckels. Auch auf der anderen Seite etwas braten. Ev. muss noch etwas Oel nachgegossen werden, damit es nicht anbratet.

Wer will kann auf das fertige Okonomiyaki eine Sosse giessen aus einer Mischung von Majonnaise-Ketchup-Sojasosse, aber sparsam (Gefahr, dass es einem schlecht wird)! Nur Sojasosse ist weniger kalorienhaltig und eher zu empfehlen.

Wer will und es auftreiben kann, kann auch Fischflocken oben drauf streuen. Ist jedenfalls ein Hingucker, wenn die Flocken sich auf einmal zu bewegen anfangen und der Fisch neu zu Leben erweckt wird!

finally back blogging!!!

ok… I haven’t posted anything for an small eternity! now what could I blame for…

Well, maybe… since my last post was before the summer break and I was supposed to write my written thesis over summer, it might be due to that. Maybe I got the feeling I had to save all my literate energy for that and not spend it on blogs… stupid, since I didn’t manage to write the thesis over summer anyway! but it’s due soon, so… why am I starting to write for the blog again?!?

It’s funny how one loses the fun of writing when one HAS to write, and how one enjoys writing for something unimportant. And how one always finds a new interesting topic when reaching the final stage of the current thesis. Like now, I’m writing on editing and narrative styles of three Japanese animations in comparison. But now during my research for the introduction I really slipped deep into Japanese traditional theatre like Nō , Kabuki and Bunraku (or Ningyoujoururi, Japanese puppet theatre). It’s really interesting to compare their narratives and communication tools with Anime and its codes! Well, this topic will have to wait for an other occasion…

One reason, why I’m posting now is that a friend of mine suggested to cook okonomiyaki at his place so we can use up his huge bucket of mayonnaise. That’s why the following post are manly cooking based posts with recipes and tips, mainly from the Japanese cuisine, which I have rediscovered (or discovered for the 1st time for my own cooking) recently. Oh yes, right, so I haven’t been doing nothing while dust was settling on my blog: I’ve tried and trained myself in lots of different dishes!!!