Field Song Jelly Powder

Level of Difficulty: Easy

For those of you who like jell-o, but perhaps are tired of USA flavors or the use of gelatin, I have a recommendation. Field Song Jelly powder can be found your local Asian Market place. It's very easy and is made of seaweed abstracted, sugar, powder and perfumery. I bought Jasmine and Green Tea and I highly recommend them!

You can order this jell-o here, as well:
http://www.veryasia.com/fisojepo.h…

Ingredients
- Flavored Field Song Jelly Powder
- 2.5 cups water (600 c.c.)

Instructions
- Boil 2.5 cups water in a pot.
- Add Field Song Jelly Powder.
- Stir until all powder dissolves and mixture boils.
- Pour into desired containers and place in refrigerator until jelly.

Red Bean Smoothie

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Hey all! Living in Denver, I'm lucky to have some wonderful Asian markets around. It was at one of these markets that I first introduced myself to the wonderfully sweet taste of red beans, or azuki beans in Japanese. So, if you have never tried red beans, I suggest you do and this is an easy peasy recipe for you to start!

Red Bean Smoothie

Ingredients
- 4 1/4 cups water
- 1/4 LBS. red azuki beans (soaked in water for four hours)
- 2 1/4 c soy milk (plain or vanilla)
- 3 tbsp coconut milk

Instructions
- In a saucepan, bring water to a boil and add soaked red azuki beans.
- Let simmer over low heat for 1-1 1/2 hours until the beans are entirely cooked. (Alternatively, you could use canned red azuki beans to lessen the time!)
- Put beans and soy milk in a blender and puree.
- Pour into serving glasses and pour coconut milk over top.
- Place in fridge for 1 hour or add ice. Enjoy!

*Taken from Fresh Chinese by Wynnie Chan.

Veggie Tempura and Sauce

Level of Difficulty: Difficult

This is one of my favourite dishes to make! If you aren't familiar with Dashi, now's the time to be. This dish will introduce one of my staple ingredients and be an example for the use of Dashi. Don't be afraid to try ingredients you've never heard of, either! (IE: I wasn't entirely sure what Dashi was the first time I used or bought it! See my first post for reference.)

I gave this a rating of red/difficult because of the deep-frying at home aspect to this dish. Deep-frying at home can be dangerous if you don't realise just hot your oil truly is. (Let's just say, I once set off a lot of fire alarms....) By all means, I do not hope to discourage readers from trying this recipe, because it can be very quick and easy, but just be comfortable with deep-frying by doing a little pre-cooking research. A good site for how to deep-fry is located here: http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_deep_…


Tempura Sauce

Ingredients
- 1 cup Dashi stock (should be prepared)
- 1/4 c Low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 c Mirin cooking wine

Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over high until it boils.
- Remove from heat and let cool.

*You can add more Mirin if sauce is too bitter.

Veggie Tempura

Ingredients
- One box of Kurawangthip Tempura Batter Mix/ Bot Chien Tom. (Or you can make your own mix, but this is just a little easier.)
- 1 litre of Vegetable oil
- 4 or more Asparagus
- Half of a large sweet potato
- Half an Onion
- 1 yellow, green or red pepper

Instructions
- Slice sweet potato into bit-size slices and parboil in a pot of boiling water with added salt.
- Also parboil asparagus.
- Slice onion into medium sized rings.
- Slice pepper into strips.
- Prepare Tempura Batter Mix as the instructions on the box say.
- Place vegetable oil in large pot for deep-frying. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that the oil DOES NOT GET TOO HOT! If your oil is boiling, it is TOO HOT and I advise you not to use it. If you have a thermometer, 365 degrees F is perfect, but another test is if you drop a piece of white bread into the oil and it browns in 1 minute. (If you have never fried foods, this is a really good tutorial sight: http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_deep_… )
- Lay paper towels around the cooking area so that you can put your finished Tempura there.
- Once oil is heated, you can begin by taking the vegetables one at a time and making sure they are fully coated in batter, then putting them in the oil. Let them float around until golden brown and crunchy (about 1 minute).
- Remove from oil with a utensil (cooking chopsticks work great for this) and lay on paper towel to cool and drip off excess oil. If a lot of your veggie is left bare, you can coat in batter and fry again.

*Again, if you have not ever fried foods at home before, it can be very dangerous (I should know!) so please do a little research before trying this one at home.

Something New! Word of the Day!

I'm currently learning Chinese in school, studying Japanese on my own and I studied Hindi in India this summer, so I'm going to do a word or phrase of the week, day or month! (But it will be called "word of the day.") Haha! That is to say every now and again, I'll have a word or phrase for everyone in this journal.

They won't all have to do with cooking, but if you're interested in Asian cooking, culture (I believe) is intrinsically linked with a country's cuisine! So, to kick it off here we go:

Hindi Word of the Day

Bahoot Hai!
Pronounced "BA-hoot Hay".
Meaning: "Too much".

Mum's Carrot-Tofu Dish

Level of Difficulty: Some Experience

I grabbed this recipe from the UK produced version of Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat. It's very light and tasty.

Mum's Carrot-Tofu Dish

Ingredients
- 8-13 centimeter rectangles of usu-age tofo (or thin fried tofu)
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp sake
- 2 tsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
- 5 medium carrots cut julienne
- 1/4 cup toasted and ground white sesame seeds
- 2 tsp sesame oil

Instructions
- Bring water to boil in a small sauce pan.
- Add usu-age tofu and simmer over heat turning every so often for one minute.
- After one minute, remove from heat and drain to remove excess oils.
- Cut usu-age tofu diagonally in half and slice each half into strips.
- Combine vinegar, sugar, sake, soy and salt in a small bowl. Stir until all liquid.
- Heat rapeseed oil is large frying pan. Add carrots and usu-age tofu. Saute until carrots are tender, yet crisp (about three minutes).
- Reduce heat and add soy mixture. Cook carrots and tofu for 2 more minutes or until tender.
- Remove from heat and stir in sesame seeds and drizzle sesame seed oil over top.

Now, place in bento and enjoy! :]

Ladakhi Chapati/ Tagi Shrabmo

Level of Difficulty: Don't Try This At Home

Alright, now, even though I've given this a difficult rating, I only say that because if you haven't ever made bread before, this could be hard. Like me, I've never made bread before. But I did get to watch and see how this was made in a Ladakhi home and I must say, it is THE best bread I've EVER had.


Ladakhi Chapati

Ingredients
- 1 LBS. wholewheat flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 12 oz. cool water

Instructions
- Combine flour and salt in a large bowl or large cookie sheet pan.
- Make a little hole in the middle and add a small amount of water. Adding a little more water to make sure all the mixture is included, begin kneading the dough. (This will take some time and elbow grease.)
- Add more water if needed. You should have a spongy, moist dough when done kneading.
- Let sit for 15 minutes.
- Using a clump of dough, roll out to make small balls.
- Using a roller, roll the dough into a flat, round pancake shape.
- Using your fingers, extend the outer rims of the dough to make a flatter, larger chapati.
- Place on a hot pan to cook until bubbles appear.
- Flip over for a short time.
- You should have round puffed bread! Yummy with anything you pair it with.

Butter Tea

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Hey all! This is my first recipe for you since returning home from !ncredible India! I spent a fair amount of time in the North of India in a city that gets shut off from the rest of world for many months due to snowfall. Thus, the people who live there farm during the summer and gather enough food to last them through these harsh months. They also drink butter tea to give their bodies some fat for the winter. Butter tea was one of the more interesting things that I tastes while in India. If you like butter and need to gain a little weight, you might like this.

Butter Tea

Ingredients
- 1 cup Water
- 1 packet plain Black tea
- 1 pad or 1 tbsp Cow's milk butter

Instructions
- Boil water
- Add butter pad
- Add tea bag let steep for three minutes
- And there you have it. Just as it's called: Butter tea. I would advise drinking this with cookies or biscuits.