Oyakodon (chicken and egg rice bowl) recipe

Oyakodon (chicken and egg rice bowl or chicken and egg donburi) is another staple in Japanese restaurants which you can prepare at home. It's a comfort food for me since I love chicken. There are other ways of doing this dish but here is my recipe, combined from several versions of recipes found on the internet. Please feel free to estimate the ingredients as most of the time I don't measure when I cook. LOL.

How I cook my oyakodon:

Prepare your boneless chicken pieces and season with salt and pepper. You have the option of dipping them in flour. Fry the chicken until almost cooked and get rid of excess oil.

Next, saute the onions until transparent. Add soup or chicken stock and slowly simmer.Dashi is preferred, but in its absence, try mixing soy sauce, grown sugar, Japanese sake and mirin in the right quantities to make your stock/sauce. Add chicken pieces and let boil again until flavor of the soup is absorbed.

In the meantime, beat the eggs and add to the chicken mixture. Eggs should still be tender, not overcooked, when transferred to the steaming hot bowl of steamed rice. Top with chopped green onions, if desired.

Katsudon recipe

Japanese food is most people's favorite, but it can get quite expensive. Here is one fool-proof recipe to satiate your craving for katsudon which is one of the most popular Japanese dishes. Veer away from the usual lunch or dinner and serve this on the table. You are likely to elicit praises for a dish which is quite easy to make ;)

Ingredients:

Four pork chops, preferably boneless

Black pepper to taste

2-3 tbsps. flour

one egg

1-2 cups panko or breadcrumbs

Cooking oil for frying

One large onion

1 tbsp. sesame oil

four to five eggs

leeks or green onion, chopped

dry seaweed or nori

For sauce:

1 tbsp. sugar

50 ml. Japanese sake

50 ml. mirin

50 ml soy sauce

100 ml. dashi or soup stock

Procedure:

1. Make shallow cuts along the rim of the prok chops to prevent them from contracting. Sprinkle with black pepper and dip in the following order: flour, beaten egg then the panko or bread crumbs.

Deep fry pork chops. Once cooked, cut in serving size while still hot.

2. Slice the onion and fry in the sesame oil until they become transparent. Pour sake, mirin, sugar, soy sauce and the dashi to the onions and bring to a boil. Add the tonkatsu slices and simmer for a few minutes.

3. Lower the fire so the sauce doesn't evaporate. Add the well-beaten eggs and onions. Eggs should not be too cooked.

4. Put katsudon on top of a bowl of steamed rice and heap with more sauce. Serve hot.

Sticky date pudding recipe

I used to believe that I am not a pudding person, until I tasted the sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce in Cafe Juanita. It was love at first bite, and I decided to look for similar recipes. I have the Assumption High School Class of '79 Cookbook (Pearl Edition) and found a related recipe for Sticky Date Pudding by Marivic Puyat Limcaoco. Okay, this may not be as moist as the Cafe Juanita version but it's also good. My only problem was finding dates in the grocery ~ good thing the hubby found me a huge jar in the Metro Gaisano grocery in The Fort's Market!Market!

Btw, this cake is great with coffee!

1. Put 170 grams pitted dates in a bowl, sprinkle with 1 tsp. baking soda, pour with about 1 1/4 cups boiling water then set aside.

2. Cream 1/4 cup unsalted butter and 3/4 cup brown sugar - approximately five minutes.

3. In another bowl, beat together two eggs and 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla. Add half of the egg mixture into the butter mixture and beat until fully mixed. Add remainder of the egg mixture and mix well again.

4. When done, add 1 1/4 cups self-raising flour and mix at low speed. (In the absence of self raising flour, substitute with the same amount of all purpose flour, then add 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt.)

Fold in dates. Pour batter in greased loaf pan, bundt pan or 8-inch round pan.

5.Bake in preheated 360F oven for 25 minutes or until done (insert toothpick in center to check doneness).

6. In the meantime, make caramel sauce by mixing together in a saucepan 1 1/2 cups thick cream, 2 cups packed brown sugar, 250 grams butter and 1 1/2 tsps. vanilla extract.

7. When pudding is done. let cool and prick all over with a skewer. Drizzle with caramel sauce and return to the oven for two more minutes.

8. Serve pudding warm with caramel sauce, vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Ricotta blintzes

I saw a very attractive picture of Ricotta Blintzes in The Essential Dessert Cookbook (1998, Murdoch Books) and vowed to make them. Problem was, ricotta cheese wasn't readily available in my supermarket. Thankfully, they sold it in Rustan's. I had a choice between buying the imported one and the local ricotta made by this producer called Malagos Farmhouse.I settled for the latter.

According to my cookbook, blintzes are filled pancakes which are Jewish in origin. They are best eaten during breakfast or early dinner. Basically, they are pancakes or crepes filled with cheese mixture and then baked. If you're looking for something new to taste, try it sometime. The husband, who loves cheese, liked it so much ;)

Ricotta blintzes recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 315 F. Sift one cup all-purpose flour. Make a well and in this center, whisk in two eggs and 1 1/4 cups milk (about 315 ml) until batter is smooth and free of lumps. Stir in melted butter, transfer to a container, cover and let stand for 30 minutes.

2. In a greased nonstick pan, pour batter and swirl quickly. Cook until set. Invert unto a plate. Stack crepes between parchment paper or anything grease-proof to prevent them from sticking together.

3. Next, mix 2 oz. raisins in a bowl and add 1 tbsp. liqueur (Grand Marnier or Cointreau). Set aside for 30 minutes. Beat 12 oz (375 g) ricotta, 1/3 cup caster sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice for one to two minutes until smooth. Stir in raisin mixture.

4. Heap enough filling on the center of each crepe then fold. Place the crepes, folded side down, in a greased ovenproof dish in a single layer. Brush each crepe lightly with melted butter and put in oven for 10-15 minutes or until hot. Dust with confectioners' or icing sugar before serving.

Beef bourguignon (beef in red wine, a la Julia Child)

I chanced upon a recipe of beef bourguignon and remembered our trip to Coron, Palawan - one of my favorite places in the Philippines. The dish happen to be offered in Bistro Coron, inarguably the best restaurant in the island. The presence of a bottle of red wine in the house made me decide to finally try the recipe, which was adopted from simplyrecipes using Julia Child's version.

I noticed there are a lot of recipes for beef in red wine sauce (I even consulted my French cookbook) but this version is simply SUPERB! Kudos to Julia and simplyrecipes :) Sauteeing the beef in bacon (and bacon fat) and mixing pearlized onions and mushrooms just as the beef stew is about to be cooked makes all the difference.

Ingredients:

6 pieces of bacon (I used the smoked variety, local brand)

olive oil

beef cubes

salt and pepper

sliced onions

carrots or baby carrots (I used the latter)

about 2 cups of red wine

beef stock

chopped tomatoes

herb bouquet (in its absence, I just added chopped garlic and bay leaf into the boiling pot)

*better if you have herbs like parsley and thyme

more sliced onions

butter

button mushrooms

1. Blanch bacon in boiling water, drain and dry on paper napkins or towels. Slice bacon into one-inch pieces and saute in its own oil. Add olive oil, then brown beef cubes in mixture of bacon fat and oil. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a Dutch oven or casserole pan.

2. Add sliced vegetables to the pan and deglaze with wine. Pour enough stock to cover the meat. Add tomatoes, garlic and onion.

3. In a separate pan, saute chopped onions in a mix of olive oil and butter. Add chicken stock or water, brown sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer till the onions have absorbed most of the water. Set aaside.

4. Next, saute sliced mushrooms in olive oil and butter.

5. Fold the onions and mushrooms into the simmering stew. Serve with steamed rice, bread or potatoes.Blanch bacon in boiling water, drain and dry on paper napkins or towels