Onsen tomango, Japanese hot spring eggs achieve a perfect balance between cooked and raw: the white with a texture like delicate custard, the yolk firm but bright yellow with a creamy texture. I cannot duplicate the slow cooking in a natural hot spring. Soft cooked eggs are the closest, and very delicious topping toast, noodles, or salads. But they are very tricky to cook to exactly the balance of cooked but runny. Until Mr. Tess brought home a gift of these wonderful silicone “poach pods” I thought poached eggs were beyond my kitchen skills. They work like magic! And are easy to clean, and don’t take up much kitchen drawer space.

This is a recipe we have often enjoyed.
In 2004, I copied it from The New York Times, from Mark Bittman’s Minimalist column called
“Crossing Over to the Dark Side” (July 14).
My old computer still has some files (recipes, emails, pictures) we occasionally want to look at: No matter how many times I print this recipe, it gets lost. I want to post this favorite recipe on my blog so it will be easier for me to find in future. And I hope you appreciate it as well.

This recipe is an interesting variation of the classic combination of umeboshi and shiso with chicken. By adding sauteed onions to a paste made with umeboshi and shiso, the flavor becomes richer, a little like a French sauce, yet clearly retaining its Japanese character. This chicken is roasted in the oven so it’s easy to prepare, but tastes as if you spent hours in the kitchen.

Cool foods in summer, simply prepared, and served casually, make it possible for us to survive this extraordinary heat.

Cooking once for two meals, planned leftovers, makes the time spent in the kitchen efficient. Sandwiches come to mind as a second chance meal. And noodles are quick to prepare and easily transform a meat dish into a lovely soup or salad sort of meal very different from the original.

Vacation: Fourth of July!! Grilling, and pool, and family party time! mmmmm…: chicken breast rolls filled with umeboshi and shiso. Sounds very exotic, but everyone loves this recipe.

Many thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for inviting us to their beautiful home in Missouri. They had to put in a few appearances at work, we prepared food for dinner. My brother has a “secret” grilling technique for indirect heat on a Weber kettle grill: perfect for this recipe. He covers the charcoal with a cheap pizza pan punched with holes so the heat of the grill is tempered.

Itadakimasu! (ee-tah-dah-kee-mahss) I humbly receive / Gochisousama deshita! (Goch-sou-sah-mah-desh-tah) thank you for the meal.

I love fried chicken, but deep frying is scary. I was inspired by a Japanese recipe which makes a nice crisp crunchy baked chicken. In the original recipe, bite-sized chunks of chicken breast are dredged in potato starch (katakuriko), and allowed to rest so the starch adheres. Then the chicken is dipped in egg white, then coated with black sesame seeds or crushed peanuts.

Nuts get snacked on so they are not a pantry staple, but breadcrumbs are. Panko and potato starch make lovey crispy chicken baked safely in the oven.

The first time I made this Japanese crab meat omelette, Mr. Tess said it tasted just like egg foo young! Wikipedia notes that creative Chinese cooks in the U.S. invented egg foo young in the 1930′s. (see this note.) Eggs are beaten together with minced ham, crab, or chicken, then fried and served with a chicken stock-soy sauce gravy thickened with cornstarch. Since the 1950′s kanitama-don is a popular dish in Chinese restaurants in Japan. It’s a fine example of a well-traveled yoshoku (multi-cultural!) recipe: a recipe sort-of-from China, to the U.S. and then to Japan.

This year I missed the year crossing toshi koshi noodles and Mr. Tess greeted the new year with the company of his laptop. He did use a very nice chopstick rest! Yes?

This is an easy to make recipe for your lucky long-life new year’s crossing noodles.
Happy 2012!

At work the other day we were looking at a “scrap-booking charm” someone had donated. My co-worker asked, “Is that a roll of toilet paper?” Yes: there in a miniature reproduction made of plastic, was a roll of toilet tissue mounted in a tiny faux ceramic holder! We wondered why anyone would want to put such a thing into an embellished to-be-remembered-forever scrap-book page. What sort of pictures would you want to commemorate with a roll of toilet paper?
Ah. but this is a food blog, so enough about TP…

Snow is falling almost invisibly, like drizzle, yet suddenly I notice the snow is becoming thick on the grass. The mild spice in this Japanese noodle dish is like that: you aren’t conscious of its heat until you realize you are warm from the inside out. While this recipe is usually eaten in the summer because it is served cold or at room temperature, the pepper makes you forget about the chill.

Chicken and chestnuts simmered in a salty sweet satisfying sauce is a favorite meal at this time of year, enjoyable for dinner guests—even folks who are not familiar with Japanese food). While a French fricassée of chicken might include olive oil, butter, garlic, herbs, and chicken stock or even some white wine, this Japanese recipe is both familiar and exotic with the flavors of saké, sweet mirin and caramelized sugar, soy sauce, and black pepper.
It’s a savory party in your mouth!