Not a carrot ...

I try to buy new and unusual vegetables from the farmer's shop near my house. Mostly it is okay because I read what they are, but sometimes I just grab something without checking the label.

I bought this nice vegetable thinking it was a kind of red carrot, which was in season, but when I cut it, I found out it was a long radish! Inside was pure white and it tasted like a normal radish. Oops!

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".

A new fry pan/skillet

Recently I bought a new fry pan. I know that is not very exciting, but a good fry pan is important for cooking well without too much oil. And less oil is healthy, right? But I have to tell you something important before you get too interested ... I IMPORTED the fry pan from the USA! Crazy? Maybe, but here are my reasons:

I've been looking for a good fry pan for YEARS! About 7 years to be precise. I want something that is easy to cook with, so I tried many kinds of non-stick pans. Even the expensive ones were not so good after just 1 year or so. The non-stick coating slowly wears off. The second to last pan I bought was an expensive one from America that I bought from a local kitchenware shop. It was expensive and the box said the coating would last for many years. Well, it lasted for 1 :(  In the end it was no different to the next pan, a cheap one from a local home-center store.

The other reason I am worried about pans is that actually I don't want to use Teflon coated ones. There is some research that says the coating is toxic and very bad for our health. I don't know if that is true or not, but I don't want to take any risks. Anyway, if the coating comes off little by little, where does it go? I surely don't want to eat it!

So then I bought a stainless steel pan like chefs use in a restaurant. It is nice if you cook food on a high heat with much oil, but honestly it is difficult to use in daily life. If you are not careful, the food sticks very quickly :(

Then one day I was looking around on Amazon.com and the site was promoting kitchenware. I had some free time so clicked on the pictures just to see what kind of things are popular in the USA. After a few minutes of browsing, one brand of cookware caught my eye. It is a brand more famous for food processors, so I was curious about the pans.

Take a look at this site and you can see a selection of pans and also watch a video.

Before you decide you want one too, I have to tell you that you CANNOT buy them in Japan. Cusinart Japan doesn't sell this particular type of pan with ECO "hard anodized" coating. So why did I want THIS pan, and not one I can buy domestically? It's because the ECO pans are totally non-toxic even at high temperatures.

The pan itself was on sale for less than 5,000yen but shipping from the USA to Japan cost that much again. Was it worth it? YES! Great to cook with and the handle doesn't get hot at all - just like the video said. I highly recommend it. Now I just have to wait and see how many years I can use it :)

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.)

Red turnips

Recently I bought something from the farmer's shop expecting it to be a kind of beet (beetroot), but when I cut them I found out they were red turnips.

This meant suddenly thinking of something new to cook. Simple and easy is best, so here is the recipe:

1. Peel and quarter turnips.
2. Cover with water in a small pan.
3. Add one sachet of organic vegetable stock.
4. Simmer until just soft.
5. Remove the turnip.
6. Simmer the stalks until just soft.


 The stalks were nice too, a bit like crunchy spinach. I ate those as a side dish. The turnips went into my lunch box for the next day.

By using a small pan, and only a little water, you won't lose all the nutrients into the liquid. In the final photo, you can see there is only enough water remaining to cover the bottom of the pot.

White fish soup

I had the inspiration for this soup from making Japanese "nabe" (a dish cooked in an earthen-ware dish on the table). Nabe are almost always water based, but white fish goes well with milk, especially for people who don't like a fishy smell. Soy milk can be substituted for milk.

1. Put 2 tablespoons of good quality olive oil in a pan. Turn on the gas to low-medium heat. (Point: oil olive burns easily so don't make it too hot. You can use other oil like canola, but olive oil is healthier.)
2. Add two cloves of chopped or crushed garlic.
3. Add one half of an onion, thinly sliced.
4. While the garlic and onion are frying on LOW HEAT, do the next steps. You should stir the pan sometimes.
5. Slice some potatoes very thinly. (About 2mm, with a hand-held slicer). Add the potatoes to the oil and mix. Be careful not to break the slices.
6. Cut the ends off some green beans and cut them into 3cm pieces. Add to the pan and toss in the oil.
7. Add half of a very thinly sliced carrot. (Again I use the slicer.)
8. Add about a 5mm slice of butter. This is to give extra depth and fragrance to the soup. To cut calories, skip this step.
9. Add some milk a little at a time while mixing, about 700ml in total. DO NOT BOIL IT!!!
10. Add two fillets of white fish. I like cod (tara) and I rinse the fillets under water first. Cook on a low heat for a few minutes until the fish becomes white. DO NOT BOIL!

The total time from start to finish is less than 15 minutes because I prepare the next thing while the first things are cooking.
This is delicious served with a simple green salad. You can use salmon fillets for variation or add a pinch of curry powder to the cod soup. It is also nice the next day for breakfast! If you make it thick like stew, using a roux, you can change it into gratin by putting it in a baking dish, adding cheese to the top and baking. Or put the stew on top of toast, add some cheese and bake it.