Thick Carrot Sweet Potato Taro Soup 厚いのスプ

厚い "atsui" : cordial, kind, warm (hearted), serious, faithful, thick, deep, heavy, serious, abundant, brazen, shameless.

I think Atsui Soup is a fair name for my most recent creation. It's thick, heavy, heartwarming, and shamelessly tasty. It's also surprsingly good for you, with a complex mix of Asian flavors imbued into a classic Western winter favorite. And it's easy to make! This is twenty times better than the carrot soup recipe I tried from the Silver Spoon book. And that one I made after comparing at least a dozen similar recipes on the internet! To be fair, that old carrot soup was also one of the first things I tried to cook here in Okinawa. I guess I must have leveled-up enough in experience to make something truly delicious.

The key to the sinfully creamy quality of this soup is the potatoes, which the first recipe I tried did not call for. Since I had taro and sweet potatoes (and carrots) lying around from the beef stew, I knew I had to make this!

This recipe requires only 1 pot, unlike others that make you sautee onions, take them out, blend the carrots, re-add them, etc, etc. And I think it tastes even better than those more involved recipes.

Oh, and to save time, I usually don't start cutting my vegetables until the cooking process has begun, much unlike the chefs I always see on TV. While something else is cooking, I'm cutting the next thing. AND for this recipe, since everything is going into the blender, you don't have to worry about cutting the garlic and onions as carefully as you otherwise might! Anyway, Now for what I did:

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic, diced
1 onion, diced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 carrots
~1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled
1 medium taro (~0.5 lb)
3" ginger, diced
1 package (~1 tablespoon?) soup dashi--other soup stock can be substituted
1 gouging teaspoonful miso
water
milk

Recommended Spices (Probably not mandatory, but, y'know):
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. allspice
1/2 t. tumeric
1 t. sweet basil
black pepper
red chili powder

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add garlic. Add onions. Add brown sugar. Carmelize all. Meanwhile, dice the carrots, sweet potatoes, and taro into small pieces. Add them to the pot.**alternatively, leave root vegetables in bigger pieces, but cook for longer time.
2. Add enough water to just cover the vegetables, about 5 cups. Add soup dashi, ginger, and miso. Season with maple syrup, cinnamon, allspice, basil, tumeric, black pepper, red chili powder. Simmer until carrots are soft and potatoes are fully cooked, adding water if it dries up too much, about 15 minutes.
3. Optional: remove a portion of the cooked vegetables from the pot, to reserve as "chewable pieces" in the blended soup. After blending soup, re-add vegetables.
   
4. Transfer soup to a blender. Cover blender. blend to desired consistency.
   
5. TO SERVE: Just before serving, to thin soup, add milk. My soup was so thick, I added milk in a 1:1 ratio. Optional: garnish with plain yogurt, parsley (it won't need the extra flavor!)

Note: If you're going to save some in the fridge or freezer, do not add dairy! It will separate. (And it takes up too much space in the fridge). Reheat dairyless soup, then stir in milk or yogurt just before serving.

I can't stop myself

I know I shouldn't post when I have no pictures and when I can't even make what I ate, but I am so continually impressed by Okinawan school lunches that I have to remember them somehow.

Today, we had a marvelous soup. It was a thick, creamy, rich pumpkin chowder made from kabocha, with lots of little pieces of kabocha and potato swimming inside. Very thick and rich. It also had yummy bits of chicken breast, parsley, onion, and other unidentified tasty things swimming in it. The jumpy yellow-orange color was also quite striking.

The other course was just as good! It was a kind of frittatta (spelling?), made with sweet onion, bacon, spinach-like veggies in small amounts, and red beans (sounds weird, i know, but it was really good!). It was covered in something like katsu/barbeque sauce. Delicious.

I ate the above in a sandwich with the seasame-covered dark-what-sweet hamburger-style bun that was already cut down the middle for me. The bread was surprisingly wholesome for Japanese bread.

Salad was marinated won bok, sweet and slightly salty, with grated carrots and some kind of sausage (peppercini-like?), cut into pieces. I love how the flavors of it all melded together beautifully. I need to learn to marinate vegetables.

And, of course, a pint of milk.


I almost forgot to mention! Some very kind friends got me a birthday cake today, made from a fruit (I don't remember the name) all the way from Peru! My goodness! It was delicious. It was a 2-layer cake, with maple whipped cream frosting, and a dark, sweet cream layer made from the fruit, which is apparently like a persimmon but with the texture of an avocado. It was quite delicious.

Really, Really Slow-Cooked Beef Stew

This beef stew cooked for almost 24 hours. I kid you not.

I decided to experiment with the "slow-cooker" temperature and "slow-cooker" mode on my convection oven (the only oven I have). So, at 6:00 p.m., I slid in the stew. At 10:30 p.m., I checked on it to see if it needed more water. Nope. The carrots weren't even getting cooked! I thought maybe "slow cook" meant 10 hours or more, so I left the oven on as I slept. The next morning, the carrots still weren't cooked! I turned up the heat to 325 degrees and put the oven on "bake" mode instead of "slow cooker." When I came home from work, I had a thick, rich, delicious, flavorful beef stew. This is what's inside:

Ingredients:
olive oil
1 pound beef, cubed
3 carrots, in 1" pieces
1 onion, roughly diced
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package mushrooms
2 small sweet potatoes, cubed
2 taro (about 1 pound), cubed
8 cloves garlic (I really love garlic), diced
1/3 cup cornstarch
6 cherry tomatoes

Spices: (I just liberally sprinkled a lot of all of them into the stew...you can use whatever spices you want, really. I might have gone overboard, but it came out tasting really good!)
2 cubes chicken bullion
1 package Japanese ramen dashi (it was all I had for stock!)
2 cups water
salt
black pepper
basil
oregano
parsley
cinnamon
coriander
cumin
nutmeg
allspice
clove
paprika
chili powder
honey
thyme (used more sparingly than the other because I don't like it)

Method:

1. Mix cornstarch with liberal amount of all spices. Dredge cubed meat in cornstarch mixture. Heat wok over a huge flame with 3 tablespoons olive oil. When oil is hot, add half of diced garlic. Add beef when garlic is golden. Brown meat, only letting each cube brown once per side. Use chopsticks to turn meat. Set meat aside in baking dish. It doesn't matter if the garlic is burned, it'll still taste good later.
   
2. Clean wok. Heat oil. Add remaining garlic. Add onion. Sprinkle sugar over onion. Carmelize. Meanwhile, cut remaining ingredients. Add all to baking dish.
   
3. Boil water in UNWASHED wok. Dissolve bullion and soup stock in boiling water. Pour over ingredients in baking dish. Liberally add more spices such as basil, honey, pepper, and salt.
   
4. Cover baking dish and cook for a REALLY, REALLY long time on 300 degrees. stirring and adding water occassionally. Turn up to 325 for last two hours. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes if the stew is too water. Add cornstarch mixed with water to stew if it's still too watery, or just bake uncovered for a longer time.

Serving Suggestions:
Eat with french bread. I totally ate half a loaf for dinner.
Because I had a lot of leftover taro (my baking dish was too small), I sliced the taro, pan fried it, and poured pan-reheated stew over it. Mmm!

Captain Kangaroo

A 2-minute walk from my house, there is the wonderful, laid back, delicious, classy burger joint called CAPTAIN KANGAROO. It's awesome. I love it. I go there about once a week. Their wedge fries and BBQ burger are superb in their own right, not to mention that you simply can't get either good fries or barbeque sauce of any sort in Nago.

Their taco burger is amazing as well. It's a sweet sesame toasted bun with a hamburger, cheese, seasoned taco meat, taco sauce, guacamole, and sour cream. All of the above ingredients are nigh impossible to find in Nago. Get the "set" with fries. Wedges are the best! They also give you a spice rack of about a dozen powdered spices to doctor your fries and burger. My favorite is the Matcha Salt, which is salt with green tea powder mixed in.

You can also get a wide variety of drinks for only 100 yen! Most of these drinks would be 400 or 500 in other restaurants, including various flavors of Italian Soda, Mango juice and Guava juice.

In the picture is my most recent favorite, the chicken rice with a ridiculously long name that I can never remember. The official name is something like Sweet Hot Crispy Fried Chicken Rice, abbreviated on the menu as SHCFCR, which is just as difficult to pronounce and remember. It's delicious, though. They fry their chicken to perfection, and the rice, like all rice in Japan, is exquisite. Top it with the sweet chili aioli sauce, lettuce, tomato, and a garnish of nori, serve it on a large square white plate and you have a winnder, people!

Mediocre food day

I should really just dedicate a blog to Japanese school lunch. It's so good. Today I went to 水安島　to teach. Their school lunch is great because it's HOT! It's made on the island, and for only 5 students and a dozen teachers. Superb.

Crispy panko-battered salmon fillet

Bacon Potato Chowder soup, thin for chowder but I don't know how else to describe it. Potato, onion, pig/bacon pieces, cabbage, corn. I want to make chowder.

molasses bread (not as good as it sounds. NO Japanese bread is as good as it sounds, I find. It's always fluffy, light, airy, slightly yeasty, and has little to no flavor nor substance.)

cooked spinach (or maybe ong choy?) and corn salad, nice and salty

milk

I have to proclaim it and resolve it here and now. After Lunar New Year and after my birthday (they just happen to be on the same day) NO MORE GLUTTONY. Meaning, my goal is to lose my excess weight by March. Proclaiming it publicly will hopefully motivate me. I need to a) cook less frequently; b) cook less (eg cook portions sized for 2 meals, not ten); c) cook healthier; d) not eat brownies for breakfast, snack. lunch, snack, dinner, and snack; e) eat in moderation. Lofty goals.

Good School Lunch

The school lunches here never cease to amaze me. They are always surprsingly good considering the mass-production and distance they travel.

Today the main course was Okinawa Yakisoba, which is udon noodles stir-fried with shiitake mushrooms, carrots, greens (spinach?), bamboo shoots, fishcake, and onion.

We also had a taro croquette, which was sweet, slightly chewy, and creamily rich in taste. And fried. Mmmm, fried.

Then there was the salad. It was the good kind of seaweed (dark green, soft, easy to bite, very mild/nonexistant taste, small rectangles...sorry I don't know what it's called), corn, white thingie that I think might be daikon, very tiny slivers of carrot, and little packets of delicious sesame seed dressing to go with it. American salad dressing never tasted so healthy or delicioius. Nor did they ever bother to give it to us in individual-sized serving packets.

Dessert was a mikan, which I cannot differentiate from a clementine, tangerine, satsuma, or other small orange with thin skin. When's the last time you had fresh fruit in your US school lunch? Please don't tell me you're counting the browned, mushy-gross banana chopped into your corn-syrupy fruit cocktail.

And milk. Although today I almost didn't want to drink it because I was cold. Now tell me that doesn't sound more appetizing than many things you've had in a cheap Japanese restaurant. I was reading about the Okinawan diet yesterday, and why the 100-year-olds have arteries with the elasticity of 60-year-olds. Their diet involves meat as a flavor more than as a main course. They add little pieces of it to noodles and vegetable dishes. Most of their protein comes from soy. They eat a lot of sea plants, soba noodles, and goya (bittermelon). But so far, eating school lunch in the quantities they feed me has only made me fat! They give A LOT!

Speaking of which, I ate a lot of chicken tikka masala leftovers already! Heat it up and chop some cucumber into plain yogurt with mint to make raita--the perfect compliment for the flavors in this dish!

Yesterday, I splurged and spent 751 yen (~$8.00) on a tiny bottle of Canadian Maple Syrup. French toast or banana pancakes, here I come!

Chicken Tikka Masala & "Indian" Spiced Rice

Finally! I cooked an Indian dish that actually tastes good! Good thing it's my favorite one: Chicken Tikka Masala. I did my research on this one. I watched several videos on YouTube to learn some of the techniques, and I searched the internet for many versions of the recipe. I ended up pretty much following this one, with some changes:

Ingredients

MASALA MARINADE*

1. 1 cup plain yogurt
2. 5 garlic cloves, minced (I love garlic!)
   
3. 4 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger (I also love ginger--my theory is the more spices, the better!)
4. 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
5. 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
6. 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
7. 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
8. 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
9. Salt and freshly ground pepper

*I used maybe twice as much of all the above, excluding the yogurt. I watched a few Indian chefs make this dish, and when they said "1 teaspoon," they dumped in about 2 tablespoons of spice. I think the reason all my previous Indian dishes didn't turn out is because I didn't use enough spice! THE MORE THE BETTER!

CHICKEN

1. 450 grams chicken breast, pre-cut into 1 1/2" pieces thanks to the Japanese style of grocery store
2. Salt and freshly ground pepper
3. 3 tablespoons butter
4. 2 tablespoons olive oil
   
5. 1 1/2large onion, finely chopped
6. 5 garlic cloves, minced
7. 4 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
8. 1 1/2 tablespoons garam masala
9. 1 1/2 teaspoons pure chile powder
10. 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
11. 2 dried red chilis
12. 1 tomato, diced
    
13. One 35-ounce can tomatoes, juices reserved
14. 1/4 cup of sugar
15. 3 teaspoons salt
    
16. plain yogurt and milk
    

Directions

1. MAKE THE MASALA MARINADE: Combine the yogurt, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, cardamom, cayenne and turmeric, ingredients together. Put into large ziploc bag with chicken pieces. Coat well. Season with salt and pepper. Marinate overnight.
   
2. PREPARE THE CHICKEN: Preheat the broiler or barbeque grill. Remove the chicken from the marinade. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and spread the pieces on the rack. Broil/Grill the chicken, turning once, until just cooked through and browned in spots, about 17 minutes.
   
3. In a large enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the remaining oil and butter until shimmering. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until tender and golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garam masala, chile powder, red pepper, and cayenne and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes with their juices and the sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cover partially and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Add the leftover yogurt marinade and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 10 minutes longer. Stir in the chicken; simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, and serve.
4. Variation The marinade and sauce here are also delicious with shrimp, lamb and vegetables.

Make Ahead

The Chicken Tikka Masala can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Reheat gently before serving. I also sprinkled some coriander leaf on top.

Indian guy making it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPCwH8uJawA&feature=channel. I wish I could make his version, but I don't know where to find fresh spices. I know dried ones are inferior!

It took me two hours to make this and the accompanying "Indian" spiced brown rice & grain mixture. I got this nice mix of brown rice and other grains from Jusco, and this is the first time I'm using it. Because I only have 1 burner on my stove, here's what I did:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup rice and grain mixture
1 1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon each of:
cinnamon
cardamom
coriander
black pepper
sugar
1 teaspoon tumeric
2 tablespoon salt
dash of clove, nutmeg, allspice
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 an onion
2 tablespoon sugar
4 cloves garlic
2" ginger, grated, plus the pieces you couldn't grate because your fingers would've been minced

Method:

1. Wash rice & grains. Soak in water for 20 minutes (next time, I will soak it longer). Drain water off.
   
2. Mix cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, clove, nutmeg, allspice together in a little cup.
   
3. Heat butter and oil in a heavy pot.
   
4. Add dry spices mixture and stir for a few seconds.
5. Add garlic, ginger, and onion. Add sugar to onion to carmelize it. Stir until slightly golden brown. Add tumeric and pepper.
6. Add drained rice & grains. Stir about five minutes, until the color change to kind of translucent.
7. Transfer to rice cooker pot, add 1 1/2 cup water and turn on rice cooker. If you are lucky enough to have more than 1 burner on your stove, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes in the same pot on the stove.

Serve with Chicken Tikka Masala and plain yogurt with mint! (Halfway through eating, I also added some of those organic greens from Kushi Elementary, just to force myself to eat salad)

Wow, that was really involved and seriously took me over 2 hours. I listen to podcasts as I cook. Today I heard about the slave trade in young girls in Cambodia. It's TRULY HORRIFIC. I wanted to cry. They electrocute the girls, beat them, hold them in dungeons, don't pay them anything, force them to act like they're enjoying it. One girl, tricked into slavery at 13 and the victim of 2 abortions at 15, was in so much pain she asked for some time off. The brothelmaster gouged her eye out with a piece of metal. WTF. I also heard about a mariner who is certain China "discovered" the New World a thousand years ago, and the evidence for and against his theory. He made a lot of anthropologists very angry. This week is also the birthday of Darwin, so I heard from Scientific American about evolution and little-known facts, as well as some myths about Darwin. Then I heard an interview with a man who wrote a book about Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream speech," where the speech's influences come from, who King borrowed from, how the actual speech is different from King's written version, and why all of it is significant. Podcasts, learning, and cooking. What a good Sunday!

I have to go to work to teach a special English class for 3rd graders--I'll be back later for tikka masala leftovers!