Tacchan's Chahan (Tacchahan)

Friday, January 25th 2019
Chahan

Japan-Hiroshima-Kure-Kurahashi-Honura Town

I've been staying in Kurahashi for the last few months and a chef at a nearby cafe Tatsuya Ihara (CAFE SLOW) showed me how to make his special Chahan rice.

Ingredients
1 Egg
Pork or some type of meat
Green Onion
White rice
Salt/Pepper/Cayenne/Parsley

Heat up a frying pan with some oil in it. There needs to be enough oil so that the ingredients won't stick to the pan.

Add the egg once the oil is hot. Cook half way through.

Add white rice (can have varieties of juurokukokumai).

Mix white rice with egg by flipping in pan (chef style)

Add pepper and salt for taste.

Add pork and continue mixing

Add green onion

Add spice to liking, (Cayenne ect)

Top with parsley for appearance.

Tacchan has made this dish many times and every time it is delicious!!

He is working on his English everyday and has become able to say many things since we first met! Looking forward to see what he does with his life.

I"m very greatful to have a place like this to come to and enjoy spending time with friends. Today helped out in the kitchen and learned lots of new stuff about cooking. Will continue to do that. Every time we get together is always fun.

Saba Ginger Rice

2 cups white rice
16 Kokumai 1 (30g)
Mugi Rice pack 1 (50g)
Canned Saba (Mizuni)
Fresh Ginger
Shirodashi
Konbudashi

Rinse two cups of white rice
Add 16 kokumai and Mugi rice packs
Peel/cut ginger in thin slices like small french fries
Take out big bones in center of Saba pieces and pour into rice thing
Add ginger/Saba to rice mix
Add 3 table spoons of Shirodashi
Add 4 table spoons of Konbudashi

Cook in rice cooker

Can add raw egg like Tamago Kake Gohan.
Cayenne pepper recommended!

Mashed Pumpkin

This is a tasty side-dish recipe from Yuki that she adapted from a mashed potato recipe she learned from a fancy restaurant. Highly recommended for pumpkin lovers!

Cut PUMPKIN and skin too in small pieces

Boil with just enough water to cover the bits of pumpkin with foil on the top until soft. Drain half of the water while leaving remaining in pot.

Add about as much milk as you took out of water.
Add salt to taste

Put foil on and continue cooking.

Gently mix with spoon and keep integrity of the pumpkin pieces.

ENJOY

Houto (Yamanashi)

The first time having HOUTO was in YAMANASHI before the UTMF race. It is a delicious, nutritious vegetable stew type of dish with this noodles. Will continue to make this in JAPAN! Can say this is my favorite food in Japan!

PUMPKIN-(cutting off skin in optional)

CARROT

DAIKON

Cut into bite size pieces and boil for 8-10min in Nabe pot. 

Add

ONION

SHIMEJI 

MAETAKE

ENOKI

Continue boiling for another 3 min.

Add

SHIRODASHI-2 laddles

KONBU NO TSUYUU-1 laddle

Add HOUTO NOODLES several at a time while mixing so that they dont stick together.

Depending how much the vegetables have sucked up the water, may need to add some additional water. 

Cook with lid for 6 minutes.

Adding Cayenne Pepper and Cinnamon makes it tasty!

Grandma Shirley's Pickled Beets

Holidays have a special way of capturing memories. Family, and food are two things that are completely inseparable for our family. It seems like more than most, our family seems to bond over food. This particular recipe, my Grandma and I are a few of the family members that love.

When I was a kid, I always was afraid to eat the beets during Thanksgiving and Christmas and it wasn't until I was 22 or 23 that I really started to appreciate the pickled beats my Grandma made. Now, nothing makes me genuinely laugh more than the amount of satisfaction my Grandpa and I get enjoying my Grandma's pickled beats. The face my Grandpa makes when he eats them or even just talks about them, makes me know I'm related to him. They are delicious!

This recipe is from an old cook book my Grandma has been using

Begin by boiling small sized beets until tender. (This was 5 bundles of beets)

Bring the following to a simmer:

2 cups of Sugar

2 cups of Water

2 cups of strong Vinegar

1 teaspoon of Cloves (fresh if possible)

1 teaspoon of Allspice

1 thinly sliced Lemon

1 tablespoon of Cinnamon

A bit of fresh horseradish is recommended too

Pic of Grandma and Gramps

Smell the sweet smell of the beets and the stringent smell from the warming brine.

Combine freshly cut beets with the brine

Let simmer for 15 minutes

During this time you can prepare the pickling jars

Take as many as necessary pickling jars and boil the jars, lids and caps together.

Pour simmered brine and beets into piping hot pickling jars.

Seal them off tight and see how long until the desire comes to eat them.

I've loved eating pickled beets with spinach salads, white rice, and just grabbing some out of the jar for a snack. Also, the leftover brine can be used to pickle hardboiled eggs or it also taste good as a salad dressing.

Mom's Homemade Baked Brown Beans

Recipe from Grandma Shirley to Mom

Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved my Ma's Baked Brown Beans.

They were always super thick, sweet and delicious. Decided to ask my mom how to make them one day when we made two batches of them. This is kind of a rough version of the recipe since she added more of the Molasses/Sugar and water throughout the cooking process but I'm sure with this recipe below, they will still be more than sweet enough for most peoples pallets.


Ingredients:
1 1lb bag Navy Beans
1/2 large onion
1 lb of Bacon
1/4 cup Blackstrap Molasses
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
Honey
Baking Soda

Recipe:

Soak beans overnight

Rinse and put 7 cups of water in w/ the beans

Simmer beans 1.5 hours
Add 2 table spoons of baking soda at beginning and scoop out gassy bubbles and throw away

Add 1/2 chopped larged Onion
1lb Thick Cut Bacon
1/4 cup of Blackstrap Molasses
1/4 cup of Brown Sugar
Some honey

Cook at 350' for 3 hours mixing every half hour

ENJOY

Curried Black-Bean Sweet-Potato Soup

I found this recipe online just browsing along looking for comfort vegetarian foods. The ingredients sounded awesome and it was a "chilly" day in Hawaii so gave it a go.

With having had meal plans in the University Dining Hall for 4 years, I never gave myself many opportunities to explore cooking much of anything. A chef(y) day for me was making ramen and adding an egg to it, and if I was feeling wild, perhaps a few vegetables. 

Now I look forward to making and trying different nutritious meals. Here is one I will definitely be making (or some variety of) often.

Ingredients: (4 Servings)

(picture features double the ingredients i.e. 8 servings)

(Veg)

1 Sweet Potato (cooked and peeled)

1 Can of Black Beans (drained)

1 Cup of Chopped Onion

2 Cloves of Garlic

Handful of Chopped Cilantro

(Spices)

1 Teaspoon Curry

1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (less for less bite)

1 Teaspoon Ground Ginger Root

1 Teaspoon Cumin

(Other)

1 Can of Light Coconut Milk

1 Cartoon of Vegetable Stock (Can substitute half cartoon and use water as the other half for those trying to limit excess sodium)

Olive Oil

Directions:

Using a tidbit of Olive Oil, cook the Onion/Garlic together until Onions are semi-transparent.

Add in the spices and let them sit for a couple minutes.

Add Beans, Sweet Potato (mashed), spices and cook for a few more minutes.

Add Vegetable Stock, Coconut Milk.

Add Cilantro.

The instructions I followed say to use an immersion blender to make the soup light and creamy but due to not having this, skipped it.

Cook until soup starts to boil and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle Cilantro on individual servings for aesthetic appeal (and delicious taste!)

Most important part! Serve with Rice. I am partial to sticky white rice but any rice or something to compliment the soup (such as a bread-bowl) shall work. That's the fun thing about cooking is you can do whatever suits your fancy.

Personally, I like to divide my dish up in sections so rather than stir the rice in with the soup, I partitioned them, but again, whatever suits your fancy.

Reflection:

This was a fun/quick recipe to make and the only thing I would change about the recipe is including chunks of Sweet Potato in the soup along w/ the mashed ones the recipe calls for.

Reflection pt 2.: Putting crunchy peanut inside made it taste so great! After trying these I decided it this combo created one of my favorite foods..

Extra ramble section.

This was an awesome meal and ate quite a hefty amount of it. Probably could have survived without eating the 5+ pieces of bread on top of getting 4ths and 5ths on the soup/rice but hey, it suited my fancy. The problem is, I don't use my brakes or discipline very well when it comes to consuming things I like (in this case, the soup!).

Later on this evening after indulging in this comforting meal, ate 10 (yes 10) of Uncle P's Chocolate Chip Cookies, followed by a bowl of Breyer's Vanilla Ice-cream. I semi-justified the ok-ness of this compulsive eating to running in the woods for 5 hours last night, however, I still got the same guilty feelings after going to far (in this case with eating), again.

I have been weighing myself everyday just to keep track of how my weight has been changing with the decisions I make.

Until next delicious delight! :)