Cooking! makes me happy when it comes out awesome

[zougla]

I just made a slamming mushroom soup. Mom was concerned that it would be like cream of mushroom soup (a la the can type), but it was all the way mushroom soup. It's kind of amazing how a huge pile of mushrooms will reduce to this wee stack once sauteed.


Mom toasted the bread I baked a couple days ago w/ olive oil and a little Parmesan cheese. That was also fabulous. My friend told me the secret to baking crusty bread, and apparently it requires me to get a dutch oven. Which is cool, cause I've wanted one for years.


Oh yeah! And yesterday I made green curry with conch and other various seafood items. The conch is surprisingly soft and had a nice flavor. Looks like mushrooms, actually.

 

Comments

[kels.livejournal.com]

Mmmm! the mushroom soup and crusty bread w/cheese sounds delicious! Wanna come over and cook things for me this weekend? :P

Or you could just email me some recipes... :)

[direpickle.livejournal.com]

Mushroom soup sounds great (and there are actually mushrooms available in Japan!) Any unobtainable ingredients?

[zougla.livejournal.com]

The only thing that may be hard to find is dill. But that is totally not necessary. I think parsley is better, which is what I used last time.

I'll give you the recipe, but I warn you that mushroom soup is actually labor intensive and time consuming... plus you need a food processor.

first slice mushrooms, and a little bit at a time sautee them in a frying pan with a little butter until they are golden. (the mushrooms absorb all the butter, but as they cook they will release it again and they will brown) If you put too many mushrooms in the pan at once, they will not brown, so this part takes a while with many batches.

While these cook, chop two onions and the parsnips (or whatever turnip you like, really. Just not daikon maybe) and puree them in a food processor. Once the mushrooms are done, puree those, then get a pot and sautee the onion-turnip puree in the pot until the onion starts to smell yummy. (here you may optionally put in dry white wine) Add the mushrooms and some water and let those all cook together adding spices. I like to put in cloves and cardamom and a little nutmeg salt pepper of course.

Let those simmer for 20 mins or so making sure there is water. Once that is all cooked, then you have to put the soup through the food processor again. Then bring it up to a boil again over the stove top, add the fresh herbs and like 3-4 tbsp or however much you like of half&half.

So, yeah. I think there are easier soups to make that are delicious... one simple one is egg noodles w/ meatballs. super easy. sautee ground beef balls, add onion, wine if you like. Add water. Put in egg noodles in. viola.

let me know if you need easy japan friendly recipes, I'll email you some.

[direpickle.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yeah, I don't have access to a food processor out here, but otherwise that really doesn't sound too horribly labor intensive. Maybe that'll be a thing to try when I get home (where I also don't have a food processor--but I'm sure someone does).

If you've got some Japan recipes to suggest, I'd love to see them. I've generally been cooking pretty boring stuff. I like boring stuff, but there're only so many times a week that you can eat onions+carrots+meat+white rice. ;)

[zougla.livejournal.com]

Well at least for a start there are plenty of "just add ground beef" sauces and "just add tofu" things that are actually really delicious in Japan. (i.e. not like icky hamburger helper, I am biased against that though...)

For example, there is a mabo dofu brand of thing. And also you're boring combo is perfect for adding block or two of Japanese curry, which is yummy, and not spicy if you don't want it to be.

Miso soup is great to eat too. Do you have a fish griller? You can make mochi snacks in that. they look like bars of soap before you roast them, but then it becomes chewy and delicious after. Wrap them in a piece of seaweed and dip in soy sauce.

I made a lot of stir fry, with veggies sliced meat, copious garlic & ginger. hot pot is good too.

Something super easy is to get like those Oden packs, and boil water, add the goodies and yum. I'm not sure how good you are at reading the labels, but these may require some of that. Alternatively you can get decent oden at 7-11. Go figure.

Also, fried egg on rice is delicious. I would skip the catsup, but you may like that sort of thing.

I randomly tried different things pretty much. Look for packages with items to mix with rice and such, like chirashi and such.

I'll let you know if I think of more things.

[direpickle.livejournal.com]

I actually have been doing lots of Japanese curry with that stuff above--I dig it, especially spicy. Stir fry's been another staple.

I'll have to hunt through the kitchenettes for a fish griller, but I don't think I've seen one. That sounds like it could be good.

I'm pretty bad at reading the labels--I can do katakana and hiragana, and I can locate a kanji if I have a particular one I'm looking for, but that's about the extent of it. I've never tried Oden, but I'll see what I can do there. I'm allergic to eggs, so that's been keeping me fearful of a lot of the things in the grocery unless I'm sure I know what's in them. :)

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll do extra digging at the grocery.

[zougla.livejournal.com]

The fish griller would be part of the gas range, fyi.

[lady-jenn.livejournal.com]

Man, that sounds delicious. I remember how awesome your cooking was in Japan, even with the limited selection.

[zougla.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It wasn't really limited, per se. Just there were different things to cook! Which I find exciting in any case. :)