Traditional Japanese Breakfast

In most manga and anime that I have seen I usually see characters eating a western style breakfast or a traditional Japanese breakfast.  A traditional breakfast usually has a grilled fish, soup, rice, pickles, and natto.  Here are some various breakfasts from different anime of a traditional Japanese breakfast.

The breakfast I made today had miso soup, grilled mackerel,  takuan, natto, and rice.  Most of these items can be bought in an Asian market.

Grilled mackeral

• Ingredients
• 1 whole cleaned Indian mackerel
• sea salt
• Directions
1. Put 3 angled slits on each side of the mackerel.
2. Salt the fish on outside and inside of the fish.
• Make sure not to put to much salt.
3.  Set a non stick pan on medium and put a little olive oil to coat the bottom.
4. Once the oil gets hot add the fish.
5. Brown each side until the meat is cooked.

Miso Soup

• Ingredients
• 16 oz dashi stock
• Miso paste
• 1/2 cup small chunk tofu
• some wakame seaweed or nori pieces
• Directions
• Heat up the dashi stock to a boil and turn off heat.
• Add 1 tbsp miso paste
•  Dissolve the miso and add more to taste.
• You do not have to add salt to this dish because the miso paste already has a slightly salty taste.
• Add a tofu and small amount of wakame seaweed
• Wakame seaweed is usually found in stores in a dried state.  When you add it to any liquid it tends to expand.  So make sure you do not add to much to the miso soup or you will just have only seaweed to eat. 
• Serve when ready.

The breakfast was very tasty, except the natto.  This is the third time I have had natto and I still can not get over the texture and taste.  The fermented soybeans is completely different than tofu or tempeh.  The texture is very slimy.  I think it is an acquired taste.  Supposedly, eating natto helps people lose weight. Also, takuan has pungent smell.  Some people might be put off because of it. Here is what my meal looked like.

Castle in the Sky - Beef Stew

The most famous dish in the film Castle in the Sky is the fried egg on a large piece of toast.  Many people have made that dish and I do not expect myself to make it any time soon.  To be honest, it is just a overcooked egg on toast.  There is not much flavor to the dish unless the bread is super soft and buttery.  So, I am making beef stew instead.

This dish can been seen being made by the main character Sheeta in Dola's galley.

The crews ends up gobbling the stew up within minutes.  They way they eat the stew makes it look so delicious.

Beef Stew

• Ingredients
• 1 1/2 lbs stew beef
• 1 large onion, diced medium
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 3 peeled russet potatoes, each cut into 16 pieces
• 2 pieces of celery, sliced into 1/4 in
• 2 peeled carrots, sliced into 1/4 in
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tbsp thyme
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 64 oz beef broth
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Olive oil or butter to cook with
• Directions
1. In a large pot add some olive oil or butter and heat it up on medium low.
2. Add beef and brown.
3. Add onion and saute for about 5 minutes.
4. Add garlic and saute for about 1 minute.
5. Add beef broth, bay leaves, thyme, potatoes, celery, carrots, peas, and corn. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir intermittently and remove foam that collects on the side of the pot.
• Make sure to remove foam throughout the cooking process.
6. Add Worcestershire and stir.
7. Remove 2 cups broth and mix in the cornstarch.  Make sure there are no lumps in the mixture.
8. Add the cornstarch broth mixture into the stew to thicken.
9. Once the stew gets to a good consistency add salt and pepper to taste.

 Beef stew is one of my favorite entrees to eat, especially if it is a nice cold day outside.

Ponyo-Ramen

I did not have much time this week to make a anime dish that was time consuming.  So I decided to make something that was quick and easy.  This dish was from the Studio Ghibli film Ponyo.  It is such a cute film where a little goldfish wants to turn into a person.  There is a scene where Ponyo eats a delicious bowl of ramen.

All you need is to get some bowl ramen, ham, a boiled egg, and some sliced scallions.  Cook the ramen and ham.  Then, assembled everything together.

I had some Asian soy milk and Pocky along with my ramen.  The meal was delicious in a unhealthy way.

Rozen Maiden - Hanamaru Hambagu

This is another dish from Rozen Maiden, which is the favorite dinner entree for all the dolls.  Their eye would light up at the mention of the name.  Hanamaru Hambagu is a Japanese salisbury steak topped with a circular flower.  In Rozen Maiden the flower was made out of a sunny side up egg.

I used the hambagu steak recipe from No Recipes.   http://norecipes.com/blog/hamburg-steak-hambagu/

You do not have the follow the recipe exactly.  I added two finely diced serrano peppers and I did not use any red wine.  It is all up to you.  I do recommend adding in the exact amount of tofu Marc has on his recipe.  The tofu helps keep the meat moist after you cook it.  However, if you add too much the beef mixture will become too soft and will fall apart.  Also, when you eat the patty the meat will have more of a mushy texture.

The hardest part of making the Hanamaru Hambagu is the sunny side up flower egg.   I had to remake the egg at least 4 times and it still did not come out the way I wanted to.

Sunny Side up Flower Egg

• Ingredients
• One Large Egg
• Some oil for cooking
• Directions
1. Place a large metal flower cookie cutter in the middle of a frying pan.
2. Place some oil in the middle of the cookie cutter.  
• It is ok if it spreads out
3. Once the pan is hot crack a large egg in the middle of the cookie cutter.
4. Slowly cook the egg.
5. Once the egg is done transfer the cookie cutter and egg onto a plate.
6. Cut the egg whites the seeped from the cracks out of the cookie cutter off.  
• Make sure to follow the shape of the cookie cutter.
7. Slowly push out the flower shaped egg.
•  Make sure that you don't fry the bottom of the egg to a crisp.  This will make it harder to get the flower shape.
8. Place egg on hambagu

Well, this is what my dish looked like.

 I wish that the shape of my egg was better, but after so many tries I was getting a little frustrated.  The dish tasted really good though.

Rozen Maiden - Kanaria's Snack

Rozen Maiden is an anime series based off the manga created by Peach-Pit.  The story involves a middle school boy named Jun Sakurada who has agoraphobia. He spends his days at home buying cursed items online and returning them before the grace period ends.  One day he comes across a letter.  He circles yes to the question asked and places the letter into his desk drawer. It vanishes and soon after he receives a package.  Jun opens up the package and finds himself the owner of a living doll named Shinku. She must partake in the Alice Games with Jun's help in order to meet her creator.  During the games, the duo have many adventures together and meet many friends along the way.

One of the Rozen Maidens Jun meets is Kanaria.  She has a childlike personality, loves to spy on people, and uses a violin as her fighting weapon.

 During a spying expedition at the Sakurada household Kanaria decides to have a picnic.  She brings a bento that has sweet tamagoyaki, strawberries, and mini octopus hotdogs.

 

After viewing this scene I had to make this lunchbox.  It looks so cute and yummy.

Sweet Tamagoyaki Recipe  

• Ingredients
• 3 large eggs
• 1 - 2 tsp sugar (I used granulated sugar)
• pinch of salt
• Olive Oil (to cook with)
• Directions
• Take a small frying pan, place it on a stove top, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom, and slowly heat it up on medium low.
• In a bowl crack the eggs, add sugar, add salt, and mix well.
•  Make sure not to over mix the eggs or you will get lots of bubbles.
• Once the pan is hot pour a little of the egg mixture into it and cook until you get a nice layer of cooked egg.
• There might be some runny egg on top of the cook layer, which is fine.  You don't have to cook it all the way.
• Once you get the layer, start on one side of the pan and flip 1/3 of the egg over towards the middle. Then flip another 1/3 over until you "roll" the egg to the opposite side of the frying pan.
• On the empty side of pan pour in more of the egg mix, cook it and flip the already cooked egg over towards the other side of the pan.
• Make sure the egg mixture touches the already cooked omelette.
• Repeat until all the egg mixture is used and you get a nice cook rectangle looking egg omelette.
• On cutting board slice the egg  into pieces.

 Mini Octopus Hotdogs

• Ingredients
• water (to cook with)
• mini hot dogs aka cocktail sausages
• Directions
1. In a frying pan heat up a layer of water on medium.
2. On a cutting board take the cocktail sausages and slice 1/3 portion lenthwise until you get four tentacles.
3. Once the water is boiling add the sausages and cook thoroughly. 
• You can fry the hot dogs, but you get scorch marks on the sausages.
4. Once cooked put the mini octopus hot dogs onto a plate.

My bento ended up looking really similar to Kanaria's.

I chose Earl Grey as my tea of choice for this snack. It is a black tea, which is gives it a similar color as the tea Kanaria had.  I only used 1tsp of sugar for my rolled omelette, and it was not sweet enough.  I did not mind though because I tend to like more of a savory tamagoyaki.  If you want the egg to be more yellow I recommend adding two drops of yellow food coloring into the egg mixture. Also, I recommend finding cocktail sausages that are more of a red coloration. Overall, I am really happy on how the bento turned out.

Omurice

This is my first post on this blog, which is really exciting.  I have been wanting to post something for a while, but I have moved twice across country within the last 10 months.  So, as you can see, this has been postponed for quite some time.

In most anime shows the characters tend to eat omurice.  From the websites I have read the dish is really popular in Japan and can be found in most diners.  The dish is also popular in Korea.  This can be seen in the k-drama The Rooftop Prince where the characters eat the omurice with such ferocity you can not help but drool and wish you had some.  Omurice is a western style dish that was made more for Japanese taste buds.  It is a yellow omelette that is stuffed with a rice mixture and topped with ketchup.  Here is an omurice from Hanasaku Iroha.

To make the dish I got the recipe from the youtube channel of cookingwithdog.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcJlmhoYNfI
The cook is a real life Cooking Mama and the video is really easy to follow.

I have to say that my first attempt at making the omurice was a failure.  The egg ended up sticking to the pan and I could not fold the sides over.  This is what it ended up looking like.

My second attempt was more of a success.

I made sure that my non-stick frying pan was well oiled and I made sure the stove was not turned on too high.  If you turn the stove top on high then the omelette will brown.  We want to make sure that the egg has more of a yellow coloration. Put the stove top on medium low and slowly heat up a medium sized frying pan.  Once the pan feels warm go ahead and put in the egg mix. This method will ensure that the egg will not stick and you will have a nice yellow omelette.

For my personal taste I really like the dish.  The egg is nice an fluffy and the ketchup gives the whole dish a nice umami flavor. However, if you plan to make this for four people it will take a little bit of time. You could always use several frying pans at the same time to cook the omelettes, but that just causes more dishes to wash.