" - Winnie the Pooh
Cooking
I cooked my first Japanese meal tonight. It was chicken meatballs and mushrooms simmered in soy sauce and sake (from my "Quick and Easy Japanese" cookbook). I chose to serve it with rice, of course. We shared it with a friend from work that's in town for the week. Came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Trying to cook this meal brought about a new realm of difficulty at the store. No longer was I just trying to figure out what the mystery meat was and hoping I didn't bring home fish (worse yet, raw anything) for Chrys. Now, I actually had to find single ingredients.
First stop, though, was upstairs. Turns out there were certain things one needs for a kitchen that the rental company didn't put in their 'set'. I needed a grater for the ginger. I needed measuring spoons - of course, I forgot the measuring cup. Did I mention that I was almost out of cash and didn't have a way to get more that late in the day? Hmmm... I got the cheapest everything, but it will do for the year.
Armed with my translator and my phrase book, I started down the aisles. Fresh produce was unremarkable. I had done that area. I double checked ginger in my translator just to be SUPER sure, but it wasn't too difficult. I even made it through the meats and managed to get chicken translated by my book to match one of the packages on the shelf. Ground chicken, even...I was SO happy.
Once I left the fresh stuff, life got more difficult. I ended up foregoing starch because I couldn't differentiate from flour - they both seem to have the same symbol at the end. I got what I assumed to be dried shitake mushrooms, but we're not 100% certain as I gave up on translating - they were good and we're still alive so it couldn't have been too far wrong. I got a small jar of sake (labelled in rohmaji as such) instead of trying to locate a whole bottle. I gave up on mirin (sweet sake for cooking) and bought sugar to mix with my normal sake as suggested by my cookbook. Lastly, after having no success finding 'vegetable' oil, I grabbed the bottle with the vegetables and called it close enough - I think it's canola oil or canola and soybean...whatever, it's oil and I can cook with it.
That said...it was a good dinner. I have permission to leave it in the rotation which is really all I can ask for at the end of the day.
Trying to cook this meal brought about a new realm of difficulty at the store. No longer was I just trying to figure out what the mystery meat was and hoping I didn't bring home fish (worse yet, raw anything) for Chrys. Now, I actually had to find single ingredients.
First stop, though, was upstairs. Turns out there were certain things one needs for a kitchen that the rental company didn't put in their 'set'. I needed a grater for the ginger. I needed measuring spoons - of course, I forgot the measuring cup. Did I mention that I was almost out of cash and didn't have a way to get more that late in the day? Hmmm... I got the cheapest everything, but it will do for the year.
Armed with my translator and my phrase book, I started down the aisles. Fresh produce was unremarkable. I had done that area. I double checked ginger in my translator just to be SUPER sure, but it wasn't too difficult. I even made it through the meats and managed to get chicken translated by my book to match one of the packages on the shelf. Ground chicken, even...I was SO happy.
Once I left the fresh stuff, life got more difficult. I ended up foregoing starch because I couldn't differentiate from flour - they both seem to have the same symbol at the end. I got what I assumed to be dried shitake mushrooms, but we're not 100% certain as I gave up on translating - they were good and we're still alive so it couldn't have been too far wrong. I got a small jar of sake (labelled in rohmaji as such) instead of trying to locate a whole bottle. I gave up on mirin (sweet sake for cooking) and bought sugar to mix with my normal sake as suggested by my cookbook. Lastly, after having no success finding 'vegetable' oil, I grabbed the bottle with the vegetables and called it close enough - I think it's canola oil or canola and soybean...whatever, it's oil and I can cook with it.
That said...it was a good dinner. I have permission to leave it in the rotation which is really all I can ask for at the end of the day.
posted by Wynnie | 05:53
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