BBQ marinades

Honey and Soy Marinade

1. In a plastic bag mix about:

- 1 teaspoon of honey

- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce

- 1/4 teaspoon of chili paste

- 1/8 teaspoon of ginger paste

2. Squish the mixture around with your hands to blend it.

3. Add the meat and squish it around to coat it evenly.

4. Marinate for 2 hours.

5. Grill, BBQ or fry. 

Herb Marinade for Chicken

1. In a plastic bag mix:

- a tablespoon of virgin olive oil

- chopped fresh herbs - thyme, chives, rosemary, sage, etc.

2. As above.

Tandoori Marinade
1. In a plastic bag mix:
- 3 tablespoons of tandoori paste (store bought)
- 1 tablespoon of yogurt

2. As above.

Ethnic Lamb Kebabs
Pork Spare Ribs with Honey and Soy Marinade
Chicken Wings with Herb Marinade

Chicken Thigh Pieces with Tandoori Marinade

Ethnic lamb kebabs

These kebabs are really easy to make, and really delicious - even if you normally don't like lamb. I guess that making them in Japan means they are a little expensive because lamb is expensive here, but you can buy the cheapest lamb or even mutton. I got the basic idea from lamb kebabs I ate at a local Nepalese restaurant.

If you look at all the steps, you might think these are troublesome to make, but actually they take less than 10 minutes! And then cooking is another 10 minutes.

I guess you could also use this same basic idea and change the meat to pork, chicken or even beef. Change the spices to suit the meat.


1. In a food processor, finely chop one green spring onion (ao negi), and a handful of fresh parsley.

2. Add the dry crust from one slice of bread. Chop it until the bread is also very small. Finally, add 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds and freshly ground black pepper.

3. Remove all the herb mix from the food processor and wipe the bowl with a tissue.

     

4. In the food processor, finely chop 150g of fatty lamb meat. Remove. Chop another 150g. 

5. Put all the meat back in the processor, add a pinch of salt, and whiz until it becomes sticky.

6. With a spatula, put the meat into a bowl with the herbs and mix it together. 

7. Divide the meat into 4 portions, put each one on a large piece of kitchen wrap.
8. Using the wrap (so you don't touch the meat) make long flat sausages.
9. Put a bamboo stick in each, wrap the meat around it and squeeze the kebab tightly.
10. Put aluminum foil on the ends of the stick so it doesn't burn.
11. BBQ or grill on high heat until each one is dark brown and cooked.
12. Serve with plain yogurt and chopped mint dressing.

 


NOTES:
1. The onion and parsley are to give the meat a "fresh" taste and to balance the heaviness and oiliness of the lamb.
2. The bread is to help bind the meat and to also lighten the mixture. DON'T put too much! The cumin seeds add fragrance and make the dish more "ethnic". If you don't add cumin, the dish is lamb patties.
3. The food processor should be clean when you add the meat. It is important for Step 5.
4. If you have a big processor, you can do all the meat together.
5. This is the MOST important step for making meat patties, hamburg steak, meat balls, etc. In Step 4, you just make minced meat/ground meat. In Step 5, you are making "sausage meat". Adding salt to meat will break the proteins in the meat and make it sticky. DO NOT add anything else such as herbs before you add the salt, or the chemical process can't work well.
8. Using kitchen wrap such as Saran Wrap means the meat is clean, and your hands are clean. Please try to keep the meat as cool as you can - this helps it stick and also the fat doesn't melt.
9. I think fresh bamboo sticks give the meat more fragrance, but you can use regular kebab sticks or even wooden chopsticks. Flat is better.
11. I usually make the meat, or make the kebabs, and keep them for a few hours before I cook them. This makes the flavor better.
12. The dressing is just plain yogurt with finely chopped mint, nothing else.

If you don't have a BBQ, use a grill on high heat. Or you could make small meatballs and cook them in a non-stick frypan. Lamb is oily, so you won't need any oil in the pan. These kebabs would be nice to make a kebab sandwich with some pita bread.

Honey orange chicken wings

This recipe is a variation of the marinated wings I posted about last time. The cooking method is the same, but the marinade was:
1. Juice of half an orange.
2. Finely grated rind of half an orange.*
3. A little honey.
4. A little soy sauce.
5. Black pepper.

Marinate and grill. If you are worried the wings will burn because of the honey, cook them until golden on both sides using a non-stick pan. You can put them under the grill for a final 2 minutes to make the skin crisp.

* I only use organic oranges and lemons when I grate rind. Regular supermarket citrus have a wax coating on them.

The marinade sauce that is left over after you remove the chicken can be heated in a pot and thickened with a little potato starch to make a dipping sauce.

Lamb Chops

Lamb chops are expensive in Japan. 4 chops cost about 1,000yen, which is much more than I usually pay for the meat dish for dinner. (The same amount of chicken would be about 500y).

But there could be nothing faster and easier to cook!

1. Heat a little olive oil in a pan.
2. Add chops, and sprinkle with dried herbs.
3. Cook on a high heat until seared on the first side.
4. Turn over and cook the second side until just brown.
5. Take out of the pan and rest for a few minutes.

Total time, 7 minutes!

Please only buy chilled meat, never frozen lamb because it becomes tough and smelly. And lamb is quite a heavy meat, so it is best served with salad or simple steamed vegetables.

Kumquats (kinkan)

I don't remember eating kumquats in Aust, so my first experience was here. They were preserved ones in a sugar syrup and for some reason were really bitter - like medicine!

Two weeks ago I bought fresh ones and was surprised to find you can eat them whole, skin and all. They tasted exactly like oranges. I've been told the nutrients in citrus are in the skin, so eating the skin is good for you :)

I was trying to think of something nice to cook that would suit the freshness of the kinkan and decided to match them with chicken sasami and macadamia nuts (for saltiness and crunch).

Chicken Sasami with Kinkan and Macadamia Nuts
1. Heat a little olive oil in a non-stick pan, with a few leaves of rosemary, until the oil is fragrant.
2. While the oil is heating, pound chicken sasami (tenderloins) to about 1cm thickness.
3. Cook the chicken on one side, until just golden. (Don't overcook.)
4. Turn the chicken over and repeat.
5. Top with crumbled macadamia nuts and slices of kinkan.

Mince meat omelette

This omelette can be for breakfast or an easy lunch.

1. Put one pack of pork or chicken mince in a non-stick pan. Spread it out.
2. After it has become slightly brown, add 4 beaten eggs.
3. Cook for a few minutes, then cover with a glass lid.
4. Fold in half and serve on a plate.

NOTES:
2. I don't add any milk, etc to the eggs. Just simple beaten eggs!
3. If you cover it with a lid, you don't need to flip it over.

You could add finely chopped onion to the mince if you want to. And if it is too plain, top it with roasted cherry tomatoes.

It is okay in a lunch box in winter, when you don't need to worry about the temperature.

Pork chops with apple and onion

Apple goes well with any pork dish. Most people buy applesauce but you can just eat real apple :)

1. Heat a little water in a pan, simmer snap peas for 1 minute.
2. Dry the pan, add a little olive oil and lightly fry 1 chopped apple with 1 chopped onion.
3. Push the apple/onion to the sides and fry two pork chops. You don't need more oil.
4. Serve with black pepper.

Sauteed chicken

Absolutely the easiest way to cook chicken, and one of the most delicious :)

1. Heat a non-stick pan for a few minutes.
2. Put one boneless chicken fillet skin side DOWN, into the center of the pan.
3. Sprinkle over some freshly chopped herbs and black pepper.
4. Cook on medium heat until the skin is golden and crunchy.
5. Turn over and cook the meat side for a few minutes.
6. Take out of the pan and leave it to sit on a warm plate for a few minutes.

NOTES:
1. Please use a non-toxic pan. If you don't have one, don't heat your regular teflon pan to high heat.
2. You MUST put the skin side down first. This way you don't need any oil at all and the skin will be crunchy.
3. You can skip the herbs, or change them for grated lemon rind, etc.
4. & 5. Don't cover the pan or the skin won't be crunchy. That means it is better to choose a flat fillet, not a thick one. Flat fillets will cook quickly and evenly.
6. Resting meat at the end is very important.

In this photo I'm serving the meat with mango chutney. It is breaking three of my rules: imported, unhealthy, and processed :(  But the ingredients are only spices, mango and sugar. Sometimes it is okay to be bad if the main dish is very good!

This chicken is very nice cold or in a lunch box.

Chicken herb roll

Sometimes I want to make something a little more elegant, but still simple. For Christmas, I decided to make rolled chicken. The inspiration came from when I was a teenager in Australia - at that time, frozen boneless turkey rolls were sold for Christmas. It is a pity I can't buy turkey fillets in Japan, but chicken is great!

For something more gorgeous, get some expensive brand name chicken. This time I cut costs by using some "a little expensive" meat plus some "very expensive" meat. In this case, the fillets were "jidori" and the sasami fillets were "red meat jidori". I forget the price but the red meat jidori was not something I can buy every week :)

I try not to cook in the oven so much because it takes time and electricity is expensive. If you make this dish, try to cook other oven foods such as roast vegetables and a baked pudding after that.


Preheat the oven to 210 degrees.
1. Put a flat chicken fillet onto a cutting board, skin side down.
2. Put a 5mm slice of butter in a small dish and melt it in the microwave.
3. Add some chopped herbs into the butter - chives, thyme, rosemary, sage.
4. Spread the herb butter over the meat side of the fillet.
5. Put two sasami chicken fillets in the middle of the big fillet.
(Make sure you put the sasami with two different ends together - one thick end and one thin end so it is one even log.)
6. Wrap the big fillet around the sasami and tie up with meat string in 4 places.
7. Top with some more herbs and black pepper.
8. Bake on a tray in the oven for 40 minutes.

These rolls are best hot because the skin is crunchy. The are also nice cold in a lunch box or as picnic or party food.

Ginger roasted pork

 I like to watch some cooking shows on the Internet, but I rarely take the time and trouble to make anything in real life. Just before Christmas I saw Nigella making some ginger baked ham. Well, we can't buy a leg of cured ham to cook here in Japan so I just used pork and changed things around a little.

This dish was another rule breaker and honestly, even though the taste was great, I would change it to something easier next time.



1. Buy a big block of pork. I used the kind of pork that is used for "tonkatsu" steaks and asked the butcher for a block, not steaks.
2. Put the pork in a big pot and cover it with ginger ale! (Yes, ginger ale.)
3. Boil it for one hour.
4. Drain the pork, and preheat the oven to 220 degrees.
5. Mix about 150g of ginger jam with 50g of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard, and 1 teaspoon of whole cloves.
6. Put the pork in a baking dish and cover with the jam mixture.
7. Roast for about 30 minutes until the jam is golden and the meat is firm.
8. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes.

1. This roast meat is nice cold, so buy a big block.
2. This is not healthy! Next time I will use water and dry ginger powder, plus a little honey.
3. She boiled hers for 4 and a half hours!!!
5. I got the ginger jam from Kaldi Coffee. Maybe you could use fresh chopped ginger and honey? She used powdered mustard but I didn't have any. She also used powdered cloves, which would be better.

This roast meat was really nice but not ham :)  All that sugar is bad, but for Xmas it was something special.
If you want to check Nigella's actual recipe, please search for "ginger glazed ham".

Pork patty

 Hamburger patties are easy to make but they usually include breadcrumbs and milk. I only want to use meat, vegetables and spices. If you make small patties there is a risk they will be dry - the answer? Make a big one!

1. Roughly chop 1 brown onion.
2. Put the onion, one clove of garlic, pink peppercorns, and fresh herbs into a food processor.
(chives, sage, rosemary, thyme). Whiz until onion is very small.
3. Remove onion.
4. Put two small packs of 100% pork mince into the processor and whiz until sticky.
5. Put the onion back in and add one egg. Whiz 10 seconds.
6. Heat olive oil in a pan.
7. Lightly cook one apple, green negi leek and thyme. Remove.
8. Put the meat mix into the pan in one big patty. Press the middle down.
9. Cook on both sides until done.

I cut it into quarters and we ate a quarter each for dinner. The other two quarters went into our lunch boxes for the next day.

It does take a few times to get used to eating this type of meat patty instead of one made with breadcrumbs. My type is "meatier" but is still very juicy. Of course, it is healthier and lower in carbohydrate.

Apple is very good with pork. Many people would have some kind of apple sauce, but real apple is simpler, faster and healthier. Cooking it with the green part of the negi leek gives it a nice savory fragrance. The apple is also nice cold in a lunch box.


When cooking, I try to use the least number of items. In this case, just a knife, cutting board, food processor, one bowl, and one pan.

Cook the vegetables in the pan first, while preparing the meat. (I cooked green beans in water in the pan before adding oil and cooking the apples.)