Enchiladas al Horno

 Enchiladas is probably my most favorite dish of Mexican food (may tie against street Tacos...).  Unlike Tex-Mex Chicken Enchiladas of the previous Friday, this enchiladas is made following a authentic Mexican way, using corn tortillas.  It's a great way to makeover the leftover Pierna de Puerco (Pulled Pork) for "tortas".  Mmmmm loved the flavor of corn and zesty salsa!  Here's what I always think...I wish I had a super metabolism so I can eat as much enchiladas as I want!!!

-Mar. 28 grocery shopping € 6.88/ € 38.07 left

Ingredients (makes 16 small enchiladas)

16 corn tortillas

3 1/2 cups Pierna de Puerco
2 cups salsa (sauce from Pierna de Puerco) 
*if you don't have enough sauce from the pulled pork, you must make another batch of salsa of Pierna de Puerco or substitute with salsa ranchera HERDEZ or La Costena.
200g/7oz shredded cheese (I used Gouda)
1/3 cup jalapeno
1 cup vegetable oil

Directions
1. Drain pork but preserve the sauce.  In a bowl, combine 50g/1.8oz cheese, roughly chopped japapeno and the pork.
2. In a skillet heat oil and fry tortillas one at a time for 20-30 sec. each side.
3. Take tortillas out and dip in the sauce separated from the pork. 
4. Place the tortilla on a plate, put pork&cheese mix, roll and line in a baking pan.  
5. Pour the rest of sauce over the rolls and sprinkle 150g/5.3oz cheese.
6. Bake at 180°C/350 °F for 10-15 min. to melt the cheese.  

Fotomaki Matsuri Sushi (Sushi Roll Art)

 Futomaki Matsuri Sushi (pronounced 'zushi', to be exact) is a regional speciality from Chiba, where I come from.  This art of rolling sushi has been passed down for many decades and enjoyed at special gatherings such as weddings, celebration of child birth and funerals among families and communities.  Though it's still somewhat obscure local tradition, it's lately getting itself a name in Japan, thanks to the hard work of Prof. Eiko Ryuzaki, who did years of field research and wrote every technique down in her publications.     

I'm very happy to share the tradition of the place I grew up, though I am only a beginner at this and feel like there's a lot to improve! 

 -Mar. 26 grocery shopping € 1.39/ € 44.95 left

Ingredients (for 1 roll)
2 cups sushi rice (you'll need 425g/15oz cooked rice)
3 tbsp. vinegar
2 1/2 tbsp. sugar
a pinch of salt
pink food coloring

2 1/4 nori sheets
5 tbsp. sakura denbu (pink colored dried cod flake, should be available in Asian store)
5 stalks of boiled spinach

2 round cheese sticks

Directions
1. Cook rice.  Combine vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
2. While rice still hot, stir in vinegar mixture and cool down to room temperature.
3. Weigh rice and divide into 300g and 125g.  Add pink food color to 125g rice.  
 *Save the remaining rice for emergency!  
4. Cut nori sheets to make 5 strips of 1/4 width.

5. On the center of 1/4 width nori sheet, spread 1 tbsp. sakura denbu and layer with 25g/0.88oz of pink rice then 10g/0.35oz of white rice. 

                                        

6. Using sushi mat, make a tear drop figure.  Make 5 of them.  They become flower petals.

7. Assemble all 5 petal parts together around stick cheese.

8. Between each petal part, line boiled spinach. 

 *I had to use frozen spinach but it's better to use fresh stalks because it's easier to line and looks better in slices. 

9. Spread 200g of white rice on the mat, leaving 2cm/1.5'' bottom and above uncovered.

10. Place flower in the middle, rotate the mat 90 degrees and hold from the bottom.  Cover the uncovered top of flower with the rest of white rice (50g/1.7oz) and bring the both sides of nori completely together, adjusting to make a round roll.  (Sorry no photos...)

Tortas de pierna

 My husband has been talking about 'tortas' over a week saying "Oh I haven't eaten tortas for loong time...", "where would we get 'bolillo' (bread) for tortas?"   Message received.  I decided to make 'Tortas de pierna' (torta with pulled pork) for Wednesday night.  "Tortas" are Mexican version of sandwiches made with small French bread, 'Bolillo'.  They have many kinds of tortas but Lettuce and Mayonnaise are must.  Typical ones are stuffed with unique Mexican ingredients like pulled pork in Chile Ancho salsa, avocado, chiles and etc.  It's very popular for lunch throughout Mexico and I used to eat at least once a week in my exchange year in Monterrey.  Oh how much I miss Tortas las Sevillanas!!  Husband loved this taste of home and I'm inspired to try some other tartas (maybe 'Torta Cubana' is the next) for coming sandwich nights, we'll see!

 -Mar. 26 grocery shopping € 10.85/ € 46.34 left

Ingredients (for 8 small tortas)
 ...<for the pulled pork 'pierna'>
1kg/2.2lbs pork leg/ham
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 laurel leaf

 ...<salda for the pork'>
1 dried Ancho chili
1 dried Pasilla chili
5-6 dried Arbol chili
4 small tomatoes
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic 
1 tbsp. chicken broth powder
2 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. vegetable oil

 ...<for toppings>
8 small French bread (baguette)
2 Avocado
1 romaine lettuce
1/2 onion
some slices of jalapenos
mayonnaise

Directions
1. Place pork leg, garlic, onion, laurel in a large pot.  Cover with water and bring to boil.  Skim the foam&scum from the broth and cook for 2.5 hrs. until pork is tender enough to shred.  
2. Once the pork is done, cool a bit a shred.  Set aside.
3. Place tomatoes, onion, garlic and deveined chilies in a pot.  Cover with water and cook for 20-30 min. over medium-low heat until chilies are completely soft.
4. Using a blender, blend all the ingredients from step 3, together with 1 1/2 cup of water in which they were cooked. 
5. Heat oil in a new pot and add salsa from step 4, combine shredded pork and simmer for 10 min.
6. Slice mini baguette in half and take some of white part inside the bread (to create some room for the toppings!)
7. Chop lettuce.  Slice onions thinly.
8. Layer mayonnaise, lettuce, avocado, onion, jalapenos and then mayonnaise again, on the bottom half of bread.  Onto the other half of bread, spoon pulled pork with a plenty of salsa(so the bread soaks some salsa and softens).  Put them together face to face and done!  

Creamy Gorgonzola Cheese Risotto

There was still some Gorgonzola I used for Smorrebrod so I made risotto for Tuesday supper.  The salad to accompany creamy risotto was spinach&ruccola with coconut oil dressing.  I like using coconut oil for baking because it gives sweet aroma to my cupcakes, muffins and etc and most of all, it makes me feel less guilty than using tons of butter or vegetable oil.  Though I found it difficult to use for dressing as it's doesn't remain liquid on cold salad.  Every other ingredients have to be at room temperature since Coconut oil gets solid at 24 °C (76 °F) but I don't like soggy salad leaves...would there be any solution to that?  

 -Mar. 25 grocery shopping € 12.32/ € 57.19 left

Ingredients (serves 2-3)
1 cup risotto rice (I used Arborio)
1/2 medium onion
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cup chicken stock
150g Gorgonzola cheese
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup low fat heavy cream

Directions
1. Chop onion finely. 
2. In a nonstick pan or pot, cook onion with 2 tbsp. olive oil until translucent, for about 2 min.
3. Add rice to 3 and cook for another 2 min.
4. Add chicken stock, turn the heat very low and let it cook for 15-20 min. until rice is al dente.
*add water little by little if water dries up completely and rice starts to burn
5. Stir in milk, heavy cream and Gorgonzola and stir until Gorgonzola is melted. 

L'Orient

 A restaurant review from Sunday.  We had dinner at a modern Lebanese cuisine restaurant L'Orient.  I think this is one of the top restaurants in Hamburg, where good quality food is served.  The place is decorated pretty simple but the service was excellent and their Oriental-Western fusion menu will blow your mind.  The restaurant seems to be famous in Tripadvisor and local gourmet sites too.    

We started with 8 oriental appetizers.  I enjoyed the Humus flavored with cumin and freshly made crispy Farafel.      

Moving on to main course, I ordered "Lahmeh bel Looz''; Lambchop in almond crust with goat cheese&basil sauce.  It was serves with rosemary potatoes and roasted veggies.  Lamb was perfectly cooked and the rich sauce tasted like heaven.  

My husband ordered "Samkeh bel Zaitun"; grilled European seabass with olive&thyme sauce.  It came with lemon flavored mashed potatoes, which I found brilliant as a side dish for the fish.

 Great surprise was awaiting.  A dessert plate was served on the house!  Cardamon flavored Chocolate ice cream (never had it before!) and hearty semolina cake garantee you walk out the restaurant with a big happy smile!

L'Orient
Osterstrasse 146, 20255 Hamburg
Tel: 040 43 28 16 51

Cheese Fondue

 My husband took a day off from work so we celebrated a relaxed Friday night with Cheese Fondue.  Having had rainy, cold and gray weather all day, hot and cheesy Fondue with salad and wine was perfect menu for the cozy night.  The fondue we had on the trip to Chamonix was unforgettable so I tried to imitate their Fondue using only Comte Cheese.  I basically followed the instruction a French friend taught me but I had some radish left from Smorrebrod decoration and tried to fondue them too.  It was so fresh and went really well with heavy cheese like Comte!  I guess some root veggies or hard fruits like apple or pear will be nice and colorful addition for a Fondue party. 

   -Mar. 21 grocery shopping € 12.70/ € 69.51 left

Ingredients (serves 2-3)
400g Comte cheese
1 cup white wine
1 garlic
1 baguette

Directions
1. Cut baguette into bite size cubes.  Grate Comte cheese.
2. Slice garlic in half and rub the inside of the Fondue pot.  Discard used garlic.
3. Place the pot over medium-high heat and add wine,  let it simmer for about 2 min. to burn off alcohol in wine.
4. Turn the heat low and add grated cheese. Keep stirring for 2 more min. so the cheese doesn't get burnt at the bottom.
5. Transfer the pot to the table, keep it warm over a low flame in order to keep the liquidy consistency.   

Smorrebrod

 When we visited Denmark we tried to order Smorrebrod (Danish open sandwich) but unfortunately the restaurant couldn't serve them.  Since then I've been haunted by an idea of eating them somehow.  I am a very determined woman, when it comes to food...I finally made them at home for myself!  Generously buttered rye bread is usually used as the base, as a characteristic of this Scandinavian open sandwich.  What's special about them is that each one is beautifully decorated and is visually appealing like a piece of jewelry.  The typical toppings are pickled herings, marinated shirimp, roast beef, pate and etc.  I guess there is no point posting "how to make" so I'll just explain what I used for toppings of each Smorrebrod.  From left to right;
 -marinated shrimp on salad leaf, garnished with boiled egg, tomato&caper
 -Frikadellle(meatballs), radish&cucumber with mustard
 -salmon&creme cheese, garnished with sliced lime&garden cress
 -Gorgonzola, apple & crispy bacon with cream of balsamic
 -Iberico Bellota Pate & Tortilla Espanola (Spanish omelet) with cherry tomato

  -Mar. 20 grocery shopping € 14.58/ € 82.21 left

Tex-Mex Chicken Enchiladas / Beans&Butter Rice

I usually don't spend long time thinking what to cook for dinner because I plan weeks ahead and what I'm making each day is decided.  But sometimes I don't feel like eating what's planned and have to be creative on the instant, with what I have in the fridge.  Wednesday was one of those days.  I was gonna make Korean bibimbap using the rest of Nibuta but I had cravings for something cheesy.  It turned out perfect, I had just everything for Chicken Enchiladas; flour tortillas, chicken breasts, tomatoes, sour cream, chilies and cheddar cheese, which had to be used up quickly.  That's one of the most exciting moments of every day's cooking and meal planning, when you have a breakthrough coming up with a brilliant dish using ingredients you need to finish!  

Beans&Butter Rice is made with leftover Three Beans Soup, that I cooked on Flammkuchen night.  And those beans in the soup were also frozen-preserved from Bean Salad on Grilled Sandwich night.   Poor beans, who made such a long journey to be in the rice!  

-Mar. 19 grocery shopping € 16.44/ € 96.79 left

Ingredients (for 4 medium size Enchiladas)

4 flour tortillas

2/3 cup sour cream

250g/7oz shredded cheese (Colby Jack is recommended)

400g/14oz chicken breast

 ...<for salsa>

2 large tomatoes

1 Chile Pasilla

3 Chile Arbol

1 small onion

1 tbsp. chicken broth powder

1 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions

1. To make salsa; devein and remove seeds of Chile Pasilla and Chile Arbol.  Cook those chillies, tomatoes, onion in a small pot with water, for about 20 min. 

2. Blend 1 in a blender until smooth.

3. Heat oil in a medium pot.  Add salsa(2), chicken stock and salt.  It's right if you get fizzling at the beginning!  Cook for about 10 min. stirring occasionally.

4. Cook chicken in boiling water.  Drain, cool and shred.

5. Combine shredded chicken, 2/3 of cheese, sour cream, 2/3 of salsa in a large bowl.

6. Wrap 5 with tortillas and place in a baking pan.  Pour the rest of salsa over, then the rest of cheese.

7. Bake at 180/ for about 10-15 min. until cheese is slightly browned.

Miso Cha-Syu Men

 The best way to use Nibuta should probably be for Ramen.  I used soup paste from an instant noodle package so there's no recipe for today...  I see many English Ramen noodle recipes online but none of them come close to real Ramen in Japan.  Of course, the master Ramen chefs spend 3 days or up to 1 week to make the perfect broth for the soup in a gigantic pot.  Some make home made noodles fresh in the same morning, which thickness and texture is perfectly made to match their soup.  Proper Ramen is almost impossible to make at home.  But we love Ramen so much and wanna have it available any time we get hungry.  That's how first instant noodle was invented in 1958.  Since then, dozens of companies have been trying to replicate the taste of master chefs and we can found very good "instant noodles" nowadays.

My recommendation is to buy one with thick fresh noodles, not cheep dried instant noodle.  Topping are boiled spinach,hard boiled egg, chopped spring onion, Nori and Nibuta from the other day.  Sauteed bean sprout, corn, a drop of butter are also perfect for Miso-Ramen. 
      

-Mar. 18 grocery shopping € 8.48/ € 113.23 left 

Spaghetti Carbonara

 Another week has started with Spaghetti Carbonara.  This pasta is definitely my speciality and I started my history of trial and error as young as 14 or 15 year old.  It's every kids' favorite spaghetti and probably one the most eaten spaghetti in Japan.  I remember my best friend from high school always used to order Carbonara in a popular Italian diner Saizeriya.  It's a simple pasta with only 4 ingredients, yet there are some crucial techniques to obtain perfect texture and rich creaminess without giving yourself awful heartburn after meal. 

Trying to set off cheesy pasta, I had a big bowl of green salad on the side.  I made Honey Mustard Dressing as always because three bins of mustard are waiting to be used up quickly but I don't have many ideas to use mustard creatively...spareribs? steak sauce?   Let's see what I come up with the coming days...

-Mar. 17 grocery shopping € 8.47/ € 121.71 left 

Ingredients(serves 2)
200g/7oz Spaghetti
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup heavy cream (15-20% fat is ideal)
1/3 cup law fat milk
1/2 cup Parmiginano Reggiano
150g bacon/5.3oz panchetta
salt&pepper to taste

Directions
1. Slice bacon into strips (or cut into cubes if you prefer).  Separate egg yolk from white.  Grate Parmigano cheese.
2. In a bowl, combine egg yolks, heavy cream, milk, cheese, salt&pepper* and set aside.
3. Cook spaghetti as package instruction.
4. Meanwhile, cook bacon in a skillet until slightly crispy but still chewy.
5. In the same skillet put cooked spaghetti and cream mixture.  Immediately turn off the heat.  Stir to combine for about 20 sec.  
*Omit salt if the bacon is salty enough.

Peking Enten Haus

 On Sunday night, we tried Peking Duck at Penking Enten Haus, that we wanted to try for a long time.  The menu is around €25-30 per person, with prix-fixe entree, dessert and coffee.  To be very honest, it was not the best Peking Duck I've had, probably because they don't use best quality duck, besides their unelaborate presentation; the slices were just heaped up on a small plate instead of being layered neatly.  Though the sauce to go with duck and veggies were very tasty!  Other than Peking Duck, I enjoyed the original cocktails using Chinese plum wine, mmm nice weekend pleasure!!

ORIGINAL Peking-Enten-Haus Hamburg

Rentzelstraße 48, 20146 Hamburg
Tel: +49 (0)40 45 80 96
Fax: +49 (0)40 244 24 59 80

Nibuta-Don

 It was about time for making Nibuta.  I love this tender and juicy slow cooked pork because it looks gorgeous elaborate main course, well it certainly takes time, but in reality you don't have to do anything once you throw all the ingredients in the pot.  It's recommendable to cook 2 batches if you have a large enough pot, (you don't have to double the seasoning liquid) and you can preserve in freezer just fine for later use like for Ramen, fried rice and whatnot, ONLY IF there are any left:)  Doing so, you can economize relatively expensive (if you live outside Japan) Japanese ingredients like mirin and sake!   

I used Pork Shoulder which is lower in fat but usually Pork Beclly is used.  After cooking, let it rest in the soup for about half a day, if time allows.  It will make your pork even juicier and tastier!  Here is the recipe.

-Mar. 14 grocery shopping € 17.64/ € 130.18 left  

Ingredients
1000g/2.2lbs Pork Shoulder or Pork Belly
1/3 soy sauce
1/4 sake for cooking
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup mirin
2 pcs. star anise
50g/1.7oz ginger
3-4 stalks spring onions

Directions
1. Peel and slice ginger.  Cut spring onions into 5cm/2'' length.  
2. In a large pot, put water, meat, star anise, ginger and spring onion.  Bring to boil and skim off as much scum and foam as possible. 
3. When the soup is clean, add soy sauce, sake, sugar, mirin.  Lower the heat and simmer for about 3 hrs.  
4. Slice and serve on top of warm rice, pour some soup over.  You can garnish with thinly sliced spring onion if you like.

Tori Namban Soba

 

 Second day on "under 1400 calories diet".  I chose Soba for my dinner and thought of having something more unique than simple Zaru Soba.  Usually duck is used for this version of Soba (it's called Kamo Namban Soba) but chicken is more accessible and I personally prefer the taste of Tori(chicken).  Also, it's supposed to be warm soup Soba but I made it in dipping style just because I like the firm cold noodles.  If you are making in traditional way, double the amount of Dashi for the below recipe and serve Soba already in the soup.    

I don't have Soba without Shichimi chili mix.  Shichimi literaly means "seven flavors" in Japanese and it consists of ground chili pepper, chili powder, black sesame seeds, hemp seeds(!), poppy seeds(!), dried mandarin peel, nori.  It gives pungency and add a great fresh aroma to plain Soba/Udon soup.  Don't forget to put it in your shopping cart when you find one in Asian stores, it can be used for many more Japanese dishes!   

-Mar. 13 grocery shopping € 5.55/ € 147.82 left  

Ingredients (2 servings)
200g/7oz Soba
300g/10.5oz chicken thigh
4-5 stalks of spring onions
450ml/15oz Dashi (*double the amount if you're making warm soup style)
4 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. Mirin

Shichimi chili powder to sprinkle

Directions
1. Cut spring onions into 5cm/2" length, chicken into bite size.
2. In a skillet heat 2 tbsp. vegetable oil and grill spring onions and chicken until slightly browned.  Take them out and set aside.
3. In a small pot, combine Dashi*, soy sauce, sugar and Mirin and heat (don't boil).  Put chicken and spring onions. 
4. Meanwhile, cook Soba with a plenty of water as the package indicates.  When it's done, drain and cool immediately under cold running water.  Drain.
5. Serve soup in a bowl and Soba in a plate.  
*I used instant Dashi powder dissolved in warm water.