Christmas '08

The new year is almost upon us! We had a great time celebrating Christmas with a couple of friends at our place on the eve of Christmas. Needless to say, I had my hands pretty full for the whole week before this event, taking care of the baby and preparing for this roast lunch. In true Aussie style (as it was for Rob's family anyway), we made sure there was an excess of food to ensure that everyone could have their fill, and then some. The turkey turned out well, for a frozen unbrined turkey, and we all enjoyed good company. Christmas eve and Christmas day this year fell on weekdays, and since Japan does not recognise Christmas as a holiday, it limited who we could invite (Rob had to take leave from work). Joining us was Kim who had flown in to Tokyo from the Noto (we realised that she had celebrated the past two Christmases with us in Japan), and my ex-student Yuki and her cute 16-month-old daughter. Yuki had not eaten roast turkey before, so it was great introducing the traditional Aussie-style Christmas meal to her. Yuki brought a delicious seafood quiche, and Kim brought "Christmas" cake, which in Japan does not mean the traditional fruit cake, but usually some sort of layered sponge heavily frosted with whipped cream. I'd planned to do a self-saucing chocolate pudding for dessert, but I was so thankful for Kim's cake because I was already running around like a headless chook trying to get everything together.

Anyway, I hope that everyone had a great Christmas, and I wish you an awesome and fantastic Year 2009!

Zak in the play pen, enjoying the warm heated floor. Yes, the floor is heated! Just like the heated toilet seat, a blessing during the cold winter months:


The snacks table loaded with fruit mince pies, choc almonds, shortbread, cheese, crackers, giant popcorn, vege sticks + homemade dip, and dried fruits and nuts. It was a popular spot to wait for lunch to be ready:


Rob carving the turkey; and the table with some of the food. The turkey was of course too large for four adults, but it was the smallest I could find at 4kg or 9 pounds, which incidentally is Zak's birthweight!


The gorgeous seafood quiche, curtesy of Yuki, and the chocolate cake that Kim brought:


At one point before lunch, I couldn't see Yuki's little girl anywhere.. but here she was, enjoying the warmth of the heated floor. I thought it was just so cute!

Savoury Muffins

I can't believe it's almost Christmas already! Where did the time go? I know 9 months of the year was spent baking a little bun in the oven, but even that 'little' bun is now more than two months old! I'm amazed at how much time is taken up just taking care of one little baby, and I hardly have tme to do chores, much less my own leisure activities. To celebrate Christmas this year, we'll be having a small gathering at our apartment tomorrow to share a roast turkey lunch, which I will blog about when I have the chance to.

Last Tuesday we had a potluck-style Christmas lunch at the weekly young mothers' Lifegroup meeting that I'd only recently started attending. I needed an easy dish that takes less than an hour to prepare, which is usually the length of Zak's daytime naps. These savoury muffins were great, which I adapted from this taste.com.au recipe, but I felt they were not bacon-y, cheesy nor leek-y enough to actually have the title Bacon, Leek and Cheese Muffins. In fact, because I'd used EVOO instead of the 'extra light' variety specified in the original recipe, the flavour of the olive oil was on par with the flavours of the savoury ingredients. So I call these simply Savoury Muffins. The Japanese girls at lunch didn't know what "savoury" meant, so I simply said that it means ama kunai which is Japanese for "not sweet".

I made these muffins slightly more healthy than the original recipe by using less sugar, less oil (but more milk to make up the liquid volume), and plain yoghurt instead of sour cream. And of course I used ingredients more readily available to me in Japan such as negi (Japanese leek) instead of the normal leek, plain flour plus more baking powder instead of self-raising flour (which I've yet to find in Japan), and gouda cheese instead of the garish orange (American?) cheddar that is popular on the shelves here. I thought that these muffins tasted better the next day because the savoury flavours had developed further and were more pronounced.

Anyway, I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and hope you have an awesome New Year in 2009!

Savoury muffins

Ingredients

4 bacon rashers, finely chopped
1 stalk negi (Japanese leek), finely chopped
2 cups (250g) plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoons caster sugar
1/4 cup coarsely grated gouda cheese
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup plain yoghurt
2 eggs
pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°C.
2. In a frypan over medium heat, cook the bacon for a minute until some fat has been extracted. Add the leek and continue cookin and stirring for a few more minutes until leek is soft and bacon is crisp. Drain and allow to cool.
3. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl, then stir in sugar, cheese, pepper and the bacon mixture.
4. In a jug, combine the wet ingredients (milk, oil, yoghurt and eggs) and whisk lightly.
5. Add the wet mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and combine well.
6. Spoon mixture into a 12-muffin tray to only 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Stand for 5 minutes in pan before turning onto a wire rack to cool.
8. Best enjoyed fresh and warm out of the oven, but tastes great the next day too!

Beef Goulash

I don't think I've ever had Hungarian goulash before, but when I stumbled upon a goulash recipe, I was attracted by how simple it is, especially considering how little time I have now with my hands full due to the recent addition to the family. Besides, winter is upon us here in the Northern hemisphere, and there is nothing more warming than a hearty meal. I'm not a big red meat eater, but this dish is a relatively good way for me to get some haem iron, which is a very important mineral for a new-ish breastfeeding mum. This dish is also suitable for freezing, which is a great timesaver for busy days or when you are too tired to cook a full dinner.

I made a couple of modifications to the goulash recipe I referred to, like not using the oven and adding chilli for a spicy kick. Rob said it tasted good, but I don't know how authentic it is since I've never eaten goulash before.

Beef Goulash

Ingredients

1/4 cup plain flour
1 tablespoon paprika
some salt and pepper
800g beef, trimmed, cut into 3cm pieces (I used what was labelled 'thigh' in Japanese - not sure what cut that would make it)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large brown onion, halved, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon chilli powder (optional)
425g can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup water
200g button mushrooms, sliced

Method

1. Place flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a shallow dish, and coat beef pieces in seasoned flour.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat, and brown the beef pieces in two batches, for a few minutes until browned. Set aside.
3. In a stock pot, saute the onion and garlic with some oil over medium heat for a few minutes until onion is soft and translucent.
4. Stir in the beef, soup, chilli powder and water, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes or until beef is tender, stirring occasionally to prevent the bottom.
5. Stir in mushrooms and cook for a couple of minutes.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve with brown rice, pasta or couscous with vegetables on the side for a complete meal.

Onion and Eggplant Yoghurt Dip (or how to turn a flop into a success)

On Tuesday, Zak and I were invited to the JLH Tokyo Mums' Christmas party, and we were to each bring something to share for lunch. I figured everyone would be bringing relatively unhealthy food since it was for a party, so I thought that bringing a veg dip with vege sticks would be good and healthy finger food. The other mums loved the dip, and they weren't just praising for my sake in front of me because most of them didn't know it was mine.

So why the flop? Well, the original dip was meant to be a Roasted Eggplant Dip, but it didn't turn out very well perhaps because I didn't have all the right ingredients, or perhaps because it was eggplant which tend to be one of those things you either love or hate. For one thing, I used Japanese nasu, which is one of the Japanese eggplant types (there are a few variants to choose from) and I'm not sure how it's different to the eggplant usually used in dips because I have never used eggplants in my cooking before (Rob dislikes eggplants). I also didn't have tahini in my pantry, but figured I could use sesame oil in place of the tahini and olive oil. Anyway, I really didn't like the resulting dip (the texture was soggy and the taste was really lacking as eggplants usually are) so I started making an onion and yoghurt dip instead. While I was cooking the onion in the pan, I felt it would be a shame to throw away all that effort gone into the eggplant dip, so I chucked the eggplant 'dip' into the pan with the onion and pan-fried for a couple of minutes until it was dry. After the onion and eggplant had cooled, I put them in some yoghurt, seasoned with some salt and pepper, and voila! it actually tasted good! One of the mums was very surprised to learn that I used nasu and yoghurt.

I didn't bother taking a photo since dips are not photogenic. But here's a photo of 8 week old Zak meeting Santa for the first time - never mind that Santa was female and Japanese, and that Zak was asleep!



Onion & Eggplant Yoghurt Dip

Ingredients
Eggplants (I used 3 small ones, total ~300g)
2 cloves garlic, skin on
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup plain yoghurt
salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. Roast the eggplants and garlic in an oven at 200degC for 30 minutes or until eggplant is soft. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes.
2. Cut eggplants in half lengthways, scoop out the flesh onto a chopping board and roughly chop. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Squeeze the flesh from garlic into the bowl of mashed eggplant, add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and mash to combine everything.
4. Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon oil in a fry pan and cook the onion over medium-low heat until softened and slightly caramelised (about 5 minutes).
5. Add the eggplant mixture into the pan with the onion, and cook for a couple of minutes until the resulting mixture is dry. Set aside to cool.
6. Place the onion-eggplant mixture and the plain yoghurt in an airtight container, and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Refrigerate until ready to serve, and serve with vegetable sticks like carrot, celery and capsicum.

Update

Wow, it's been over a month since I last posted online. My parents have since returned to Australia, hence I've had my hands pretty full for the past few weeks. Zak is 8 weeks old tomorrow, and we've been amazed at his quick development both mentally and physically. He is now almost 6kgs, and he is a very chatty boy. He's a night owl like his daddy which is not so good for me because he keeps me up awake at night AND wakes me up early in the morning when it's not so easy for me to go back to sleep. He's got my appetite, and has this inate ability to wake up crying for milk just when our dinners are ready and plated. This happens everytime (and I'm not exaggerating), regardless of how early or late I prepare dinner. The smell of food cooking must be whetting his appetite even in his sleep!

He's also a crying/pooing/peeing/spewing machine, and a very successful one at that! Last week, we had a mini photo session using a tripod and the self-timer function on my dSLR to get a family portrait to update the one taken at the hospital when he was only a couple of days' old. During that short session, Zak had managed to spew up a few times, not only messing his clothes, but mine as well. We have some good photos, but I wanted to show this one that caught Zak in the action of a spew, but failed to capture our reactions just a millisecond after the camera went off.



Obviously we haven't had any opportunity to dine out, and probably won't be able to do so for awhile so restaurant-related posts on my journal will be somewhat limited. However I will continue to try new recipes and post them online, so do keep checking back!