Cabbage and egg soup

What is wrong with me?! I`ve been neglecting my lil` box these days. I hope you do still remember me....err...do you?
My crappy ceiling is still on my top list of things to be blamed for, but honestly, I could have just whipped up something edible if I was on a better weather.
By the way, this has nothing to do with the kitchen, or food, or anything, but this is me sitting outside after (accompanying him) taking pictures of a shrine at 9 pm  before finally got bored and hungry again. We had our dinner just 2 hours before.

And some people did come to the shrine to pray on that kind of time! New Year in Japan is time for people to go to the shrine, pray, write down their wishes on a wooden board, and hang them on a provided place. It`s really interesting to know what people wish for. Hey, I should have gotten one too and asked for a disaster-proof kitchen! Maybe next time.

Yes yes, I remember this is a cooking journal. And since I didn`t cook anything (showable to you) recently, let me just give you something from my "unpublished" folder. No, I just made that up. But I`m seriously thinking of making that folder.

So, one morning I woke up feeling sick. Sick like someone just punched my stomach. Maybe it was Monday. I can`t remember, but I have some kind of uncured Monday allergy. I knew I needed something warm and soft. And yummy of course.

Start with preparing dashi or Japanese soup stock. Garlic and I are BFF, so I started with sauteing minced garlic with olive oil, poured in water, and threw in dried shiitake mushroom and kombu. Some notes here:
1. Skip the garlic if you`re not into it
2. Soak the shiitake mushroom in water for like 3 hours to get more flavor before you use it if you got time (I didn`t)

While simmering up your dashi, get some cabbage. Wash it and chop up.

When your dashi looks ready, toss in the cabbage and let it get wilted.

Crack an egg (I used two) into a cup, beat up, and pour into the soup.

Stir up until the soup gets thickened by the curdled egg.

Season it with salt and pepper and the soup is ready. You heard me right. Salt and pepper only are just perfect for this soup. But you certainly can add any seasoning or condiments you like.

As I need more calories to start up my day, I had it with rice.

Pour in the soup, top it with benito flakes, and enjoy your morning!

I completely forgot about my stomach feeling sick earlier.

Ingredients:
Garlic, minced
Dried shiitake mushroom
Dried kombu seaweed
Cabbage, chopped
Whole egg, beaten
Water
Benito flakes for garnishing

Goodbye 2010 and Hello 2011!

It`s January 1, 10 pm in Japan and I hope it`s not too late or too early (is there any place where it`s still Dec 31, 2010?) to greet you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011!!
Year 2010 gave me so many memorable events and moments for these reasons:
1. I (finally) graduated (after all those years)
2. I (finally) turned 30 (oooopsss..!)
3. I got married
4. I fell in love with cooking
5. I started writing this blog

I`m sure you too have your own precious moments last year (and before that too) and let`s wish for more great moments to come in our lives!

As for our New Year`s celebration, we didn`t exactly doing any celebration. My kitchen still needs to get fixed, but water already stopped dropping for now at least. On New Year`s eve, we actually had our dinner outside and each of us had a bowl of beef udon. Back home and when it was nearly 11 pm, he said he was hungry (again!).
So I checked out the fridge and I`ve got wonton skins, which I bought before the kitchen incident, some cheese, and canned tuna. Alright, wonton pizza it is!

Crunch crunch crunch! Yes, I`m shamelessly showing you what we had for our New Year`s eve. This is not a festive treat, but definitely a delish one, I tell you. Very quick to whip up too! Crunch!

So, how was your New Year`s party??

Nasi goreng sambal ijo (green chili fried rice)

Good news: Holiday is officially starting tomorrow for me. Yaaay!
Bad news: My kitchen`s ceiling has been leaking. Water is dripping everywhere. Since last night. Forget the yaay.
Another bad news: The soonest I get my kitchen repaired will be Jan 5. That`s the soonest.

No, I won`t let myself complain on this. Having my kitchen flooded with water from the neighbor above (on long holidays!) does suck. But it`s not her fault. Our building is just old.
The universe is probably telling me to stop cooking for a while. The kitchen is now filled with buckets and towels for the leaking water making it impossible for me to cook there, indeed. I can only hope that the leaking will not get worse or spread to other room.

And in my efforts to cheer up, I just remembered that I have one dish I`d like to share with you. Oh yes, sharing the happiness (and deliciousness) in my life always cheer me up.  It`s not a fancy dish, but I llllllove it. I`m 70% sure that you`ve heard of Indonesian fried rice called "Nasi goreng". The general idea of nasi goreng is mixing sambal with leftover steamed rice and cooking them altogether. Meat, seafood, vegetables, or eggs are common as additional ingredients. It`s often recommended to use day-old cold steamed rice, not the fresh hot one, as the old rice has less water content and thus making the nasi goreng lumps-free and nicely dry. However, perfection isn`t my thing. I would have run away from the kitchen if I just let it bother me. And in fact, nasi goreng in our house usually comes without a plan. So, I inevitably always use hot steamed rice. I really don`t mind having my nasi goreng a bit mushy. Few lumps don`t bother me and him either.

So, if you happen to have old steamed rice, use it. Or if you purposely spare it, even better. I salute you. But if you want to be spontaneous, don`t hold back. You`ll still be happy with your nasi goreng.
Now, first thing to do (after you make sure that you have steamed rice), we need to prepare sambal ijo. You can check out the preparation here. But, this time I made some changes: 1, I didn`t steam the ingredients prior chopping and 2, I omitted dried shrimps. But I`m sure your nasi goreng would be equally (or more) tasty if you use sambal ijo prepared like I did before.
So, after chopping chilies, garlic, and onion, saute them with olive oil on medium heat and toss in shrimp paste (optional).Good fishy smell!

And I use this tiny white fish, which I completely forgot the name in Japanese (despite how frequent I use this in my dishes) and have no idea what it`s called in English. I`d be really glad if any of you can help me with this.

To the sambal toss in the fish.

Add fried tofu strips to the pan and toss again. Now is time to season it. I used soy sauce, fish sauce, salt, and pepper. You can add cayenne pepper if you need to spice it up. Remember that you`re going to add rice to this mixture, so you need to a little bit overseason it.

Bring in the rice. Hot or cold (not fridge cold, though), it doesn`t matter. For me. Apologies to any of you who`s about to scream at me on this. Keep stirring, try breaking any lumps, and adjust the taste. The more rice you stir in, the more powerful your arm and spatula need to be. Good luck.

Look what you`ve earned! A plate (or two, or three. I won`t judge) of green chili fried rice. You can top it with fried egg and add some shrimp crackers for crunchy kicks.
Fun fact: whatever the meal is, and whenever possible, Indonesian always eats with savory crackers or chips. And sambal. It`s in our genes.

Ingredients:
For sambal (for this nasi goreng)
Green chili
Garlic
Shallot
Shrimp paste
Salt pepper
Fish sauce

Fried tofu strips
Fish
Steamed rice