super easy cheese sauce

Monday, Satoshi went out with his tour guide friends so I needed to make (or buy) my own dinner.

Since I had opened a bottle of salsa when I made taco rice a couple of weeks ago, I thought about making taco salad or nachos

And with the somewhat cooler weather, I kind of also wanted cheese sauce.

So I found an easy recipe here

I made 1/4 or so of the recipe

Here’s the full recipe if you want to try : serves 6 : BBC Good Food

500 milliliters milk

4 tablespoons flour

50 grams butter

100 grams cheese : add your favorites to total 100 grams

Pour milk into large saucepan, add flour and butter

Turn heat to medium and start to whisk

Keep whisking fast as butter melts and mixture comes to a boil the flour will disappear and start to thicken

Whisk for another 2 minutes while the sauce bubbles then stir in cheese until melted

NOTES: so easy, once you turn on the heat, just whisk! and you’ll see the sauce come together in a couple of minutes.

I actually didn't read the directions and put the milk, flour, butter and cheese in all at one time and just whisked until the sauce came together.

ps I ended up making a chicken taco salad with some poached chicken from the freezer, avocado, baby leaf, salsa and a drizzle of the cheese sauce.

I would make this cheese sauce again.

covering all sorts of cravings

Most times whenever I make something, I get greedy and want to be able to cover all sorts of cravings all at once.

Like making this garlic cheese boule, I also wanted to try "Korean garlic bread"

According to what I've seen online since I’d never tried it before, "korean garlic bread" has a sweet cream cheese filling in it.

So, I bought a boule, sliced it to make it a "pull apart", stuffed it with 2 cloves minced garlic, some butter (couple of dabs), some olive oil (1 tablespoon) and shredded cheese (about 50 grams).

My bread knife sucks, so it was hard to cut this boule without smooshing it.

I baked it in a 350F (180C) oven for 30 minutes covered, then took the foil off and toasted it for 5 minutes.

Online I also saw how someone blended cottage cheese with some sugar and lemon to make a "sweetened cream cheese".

I thought this was interesting plus you can apparently get more protein from this concoction than actual cream cheese...

So I blended cottage cheese (200 grams) with 2 tablespoons sugar, zest of 1/2 a lemon and the juice.

It was my first time buying cottage cheese in Japan. 

I had envisioned the cottage cheese to be more liquidy when I opened it, but it wasn't, so when I tried to blend it, it took a while and didn't get smooth like cream cheese.

I think I need to add a little milk next time.

Instead of putting the sweet cream cheese into the garlic bread, we just used it as a spread while eating the garlic bread.

Overall though, Satoshi loved this, it was definitely worth trying.

I'll make this again adding a little more shredded cheese next time.

everything parmesan crusted potatoes

Saw someone's IG when I went down a Reel rabbit hole and came across these crusted parmesan potatoes.

Friday, Satoshi went out to drink with a friend, so I made myself one of these for my solo pupu party.

Adapted from a couple of online recipes.

Preheat the oven to 200C (400F)

Scrub the potato.

Cut it in half

Score the potato, but do not cut it all the way through.

On a parchment paper, put 1/2 a tablespoon of oil.

In a bowl, mix 1/2 tablespoon of parmesan, the "sandy" type, and 1/2 teaspoon of "everything" seasoning.

Put the cheese mixture onto the oil, mix it a little

Place the scored side of the potato onto the cheese oil  mixture

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

NOTES: so easy and so delicious.

Most recipes online make lots of these on a sheet pan in the oven, some use butter but this one used oil.

It probably doesn’t get as crispy but I like to use parchment whenever I bake so that I don't have to scrub anything afterwards.

If you don't like "everything" seasoning, use dried spices that you enjoy that match with parmesan cheese.

tofu "cheese"

Tried a new (to me) recipe that turns tofu into "cheese"

Recipe from Asajikan

200 grams firm tofu

2 chili peppers

2 cups olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

dried herbs: parsley, oregano, basil, rosemary

Set the tofu onto a paper towel with a weight on top to drain (at least 2 hours)

Cut into 1 centimeter squares and put into a 500 milliliter glass jar.

Add the chili peppers

Add the oil, salt and herbs.

Soak in refrigerator for at least 2 days.

Keeps for 5 days.

NOTES: I have a tofu container that has a removable strainer basket within the container, (which I bought at the 100 yen store many moons ago), so I put my tofu into this with some paper towel and a weight on top and had it in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

Then I cut the tofu into cubes and put it into jars.

I filled each one using only a total of 3/4 cup olive oil.

Then I added 3 shakes of this herb mix into each jar and used a total of 1/2 teaspoons of salt.

It is not as firm as the marinated feta I have bought in the past and doesn’t taste like cheese, but it is a very inexpensive way to make this salad 

Also, if you cannot have dairy I think this is a nice substitute.

With the leftover oil, I will mix it with vinegar to make dressing and/or use the oil whenever I cook.

Next time, I would mix the salt, herbs and oil before adding to the tofu.

I would definitely make this again.

cream cheese soaked in tamari

Cream cheese worked better than mozzarella.

If you want to try, I would suggest soaking it in this mixture at least overnight.

Translated from the internet

2 tablespoons tamari shoyu

2 tablespoons mirin

1 tablespoons sake

36 grams cream cheese (2 pieces 18 grams each)

Heat mirin and sake and bring to a boil to burn off alcohol...about 3 minutes.

Take off the heat and add the shoyu

When everything is cooled, add your cheese.

NOTES: easy and tasty. 

The cream cheese I buy is in individually wrapped "cubes"/ squares that are 18 grams each.

When I made the sauce I thought it wouldn’t be enough and doubled it, so I had quite a bit leftover after soaking the cheese in it…(the recipe above is the original amounts.)

So, with part of the remaining sauce, I squeezed in some lemon to make ponzu and have been using the rest of the sauce as I would shoyu.

Something different but delicious.

I would definitely make this again.

mozzarella soaked in tamari

The other day, I was watching the news and the announcer was talking about pizza and how they had used mozzarella soaked in tamari to top the pizza.

It sounded delicious, so I searched online and found a recipe.

I bought some mini mozzarella and soaked it in the tamari mixture for about 6 hours as suggested.

We didn’t have it melted on pizza, just ate it as is.

I thought it would have more flavor but it didn’t, I guess mozzarella can be a bit bland?!

After a day of soaking, it had way more flavor.

I want to try soaking cream cheese in this next.

If it turns out, will post the recipe here.

Stay tuned.

pi-chee

Recently learned of this combo called pi-chee (peachy).

In Japanese, bell pepper is called piman (pee-mahn)...chee comes from cheese.

The bell peppers here are teeny.

Cut the bell pepper in half lengthwise and clean.

Fill with cheese then wrap with a thin slice of pork belly.

The way pork belly is sold, actually meat in general, is that everything is put into styrofoam trays so a lot of times you can't tell how long the piece of meat is, or how many pieces there are..which is why the pork belly I bought for this was too short...boo!

Salt and pepper to taste.

Cook for 4 minutes on low in a non-stick pan and flip over and cook for another 4 minutes.

Not really a recipe, yeah?!

NOTES: If possible, try to make sure there are no holes when wrapping the pork or your pi-cheese's cheese will leak out into the pan like mine did.

Also, when eating, be careful as everything inside the bell pepper is super hot!

I'm glad I tried this, it was easy and delicious.

I'll make this again.
 

burrata

1st time trying burrata...where have we been?

This cheese is creamy, buttery...so so good!

Recently I saw some at Kaldi (an import food store) and at the time didn't buy it, but when I went on Saturday, I picked one up.

It was frozen, so I thawed it out.

Since it is a fresh cheese, it has to be frozen to make the trip overseas...

I sliced it and put it onto some tomatoes.

Drizzled it with olive oil.

Put some basil.

And ground a little pepper.

I'm glad we tried this and have heard that some Japanese cheese makers are making burrata, so I will keep my eye to try their version.

Have you tried burrata? What is your favorite way to enjoy this?

boulangerie towaie

I thought I had posted about Boulangerie Towaie before, but it seems I didn't.

They are a tiny bakery near the Senzokuike station on the Tokyu Ikegami line.

I bought their cheese maru (mah-roo)...a round (maru) piece of bread, the texture is like boule (which I think also means ball in French) and filled with lots of cheese.

Toasted, the cheese gets oozy...so so good!

I put half in the freezer for us to eat with soup.

I also bought slices of their stollen...

Was a bit disappointed as this was similar to toast.

Still I can see why their cheese maru is their number one seller...I'll be back.

Boulangerie Towaie
2-30-1 Kamiikedai
Ota, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6421.8825
Closed Mondays & Tuesdays
Hours: 7:00-19:00

ambiente

My friend Hiromi had some time off so she asked if I would join her for lunch at Ambiente.

They have many different lunch choices, but the most popular are their raclette & fondue lunches.

So that is what we ordered.

The lunch comes with appetizers...quiche, smoked duck and ratatouille.

Some salad. Some foccacia.

The raclette cheese is "poured" over chicken and veggies. The skin of the chicken was so crisp!

The fondue comes with many veggies (even hard boiled quail eggs) and some pieces of ham to dip.

To end, you can have coffee or tea.

It was a great lunch. I'm glad Hiromi asked me to join her. (Thank you!)

I want to go back to try other items on their menu...I'll be back.

Ambiente
1-10-5 Ishibashi, Tsuda Building 2F
Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: 072.762.1328
Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11:30-23:00, Friday-Saturday 11:30-2:00

recreated

Sometimes when you taste something, you know exactly how to make it again when you get home.

Such was the roasted onion dish we had in Awajishima last month.

All you need to make this is:
sweet onions
your favorite bolognese sauce
shredded cheese
a little olive oil

Grease the dish you will be baking this in with some olive oil.
Peel your onions then make an "X", don't cut all the way through.
Drizzle a little olive oil into the "X"
In a 400F (200C) oven, roast the onions (uncovered) for about 30 minutes.
Add the bolognese sauce and cheese (amounts up to you), then put back into the oven for another 20 minutes.
The cheese should be a little browned at the end of the 20 minutes, if not put it in a couple more minutes.

NOTES: super easy and super delicious! Satoshi gave this a thumbs up. I'm making this again.

fish cheese

Whenever we go on trips and there are "tasting" areas, Satoshi is always there "tasting".

So, on our recent trip to Mt Fuji, they brought us to a suisan (a place that sells seafood) called Ishihara.

It was actually our tour's chance to use the restroom and do a little shopping before getting back on the freeway to make our way to the Shinkansen(bullet train) station.

I'm pretty sure that no matter where you go in the world, the women's line is always longer than the men's.

So, by the time I came out and looked for Satoshi, guess where he was?

Yup, he was tasting stuff.

One thing that he got hooked on were these...cheese with seasoned katsuo (bonito) and with seasoned maguro (tuna).

The katsuo were in huge pieces whereas the maguro teeny squares...they look like candy, yeah?!

The fish is seasoned with a shoyu-sugar-mirin combo (sweet-salty) and the cheese isn't overpowering, maybe a mozzarella or gouda?

Paired together this is the perfect snack or beer chaser.

I think if we come across these again, we'll get more...so good!

croque mexican

A couple of lunches before flying out to Hawaii, I had this...a croque mexican.

One of my favorite bakeries in our area, À bientôt, had this unique "sandwich".

I read "croque mexican" on the tag in front of the tray and had to try it.

Thinly sliced bread. Chili. Lots of cheddar cheese and a slice of eggplant.

Kinda lasagna-ish.

I think the chili could have been a little spicier, but I still enjoyed this.

spice gouda

We recently came across this cheese at the market...spice gouda.

Cumin seeds generously sprinkled throughout this cheese.

Some might be put off by the smell of cumin but we like it.

A nice balance of spice to cheese.

I think it might be also delicious melted.

mich's brie with balsamic syrup

After seeing this on Jalna's blog, I had to try it.

You make a balsamic syrup reduction, and drizzle it over brie cheese.

Well, if you read the recipe, actually you're supposed to fry the cheese to get it oozy, but I took the "lazy man" approach and just took the easy parts of the recipe.

I made the reduction, cutting the recipe to 1/4.

I sprinkled roasted & chopped mac nuts onto our brie slices.

Then drizzled the balsamic reduction on.

So good!

I think our apples are bit too sweet for this combo but it does work with toasted baguette.

Really nice with red wine.

I'm making this again.

zippy's fresh strawberry summer salad

I know, I know by looking at the title you're shivering if you are reading this in wintry climates, but strawberries are kinda in season over here (for Christmas), so it was the perfect chance for me to try this.

While in Hawaii this past summer, I scribbled down this recipe by Zippy's, a popular local family style restaurant.

I adapted the dressing because I didn't have dry mustard, I also added more "stuff" to the salad...here is what I did...

Adapted Zippy's Fresh Strawberry Summer Salad (MIDWEEK 9/11/2013): serves 2

Salad
2 generous handfuls of baby leaf mix (washed and shaken dry)
10 strawberries, tops taken off and sliced in half
1/2 a package of maitake
10 shrimp, deveined, rinsed and butterflied
some yellow bell pepper, cleaned and sliced thin
some glazed pecans*
some bleu cheese

Dressing
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
some grated onion
grinds of pepper

Glazed pecans
handful of pecans
1 teaspoon maple syrup
Tossed and baked in 325F (165C) oven for 10 minutes

Sautee the shrimp and maitake in some olive oil on medium heat until shrimp and maitake are cooked, set aside
Toss the baby leaf, shrimp, maitake, yellow bell, strawberries in 2 tablespoons of dressing
Top with cheese and nuts

NOTES: This was delicious! I think the bleu cheese I used needed to be a little stronger, but all the other flavors went nicely. The dressing is a bit puckery, sweet-sour. I think the next time I make this dressing, I'll add a little dijon or whole grain mustard.

I'm making this again, but during Spring...

It's Friday here, I hope you enjoy the weekend!

langherino

We recently tried this Langherino.

An Italian cheese made with cow & sheep milk. The rind is whitish and very thin.

At 125 grams it was quite small, but perfect for sharing.

We liked how creamy this one was.

c-h-e-e-s-e

It's Winter which means it is perfect weather for cheese...melty, oozy goodness.

I thought I had talked about this cheese but figured out I hadn't. We actually had this Rosso di Langa back in October.

It is made from sheep & cow's milk. This cheese was a bit pricey...880 yen for that piece in the photo.

After trying it, I thought this one wasn't as creamy as the carboncino we tried, but still delicious.

Then, when I had lunch with my host brother's wife, she mentioned Kannonya's cheesecake.

She said, "if you go into trying it thinking it is "cheesecake", you'll be disappointed"...

Actually, I've been meaning to try this for many many years, but hadn't gotten around to until recently.

From the directions, you'll know off the bat it is different.

You'll need to heat it up before eating...

The cheese needs to get melty (but not burnt--said the directions)...

Spongecake topped with Denmark cheese (I think it is similar to the type of cheese used in fondue).

Pop it into the micro and nuke for a couple of seconds...until melty.

Yup, it is really "cheese" cake.

Sweet-Salty. Nothing like the cheesecakes I have ever tasted.

Super delicious with wine.

I'm glad we finally got to try this. I think these would be a great gift for wine lovers.

What foods are you eating this winter?

carboncino

We recently tried this cheese called Carboncino.

It is an Italian soft cheese made from the milk from cows, sheep & goats.

The outside is coated with an edible vegetable ash.

I really liked the creaminess of this cheese. It reminded me of butter.

This cheese really went nicely with a glass of Bordeaux by Chateau Campet.

It's Friday. A typhoon is passing by as I type this and we are expecting lots of rain today and tomorrow.

Hope you have a nice weekend!

teddy's

Teddy's heard my wish for "chili cheese fries"...

Actually they have a chili cheeseburger running for the month of August, and if you want, they'll put the chili cheese onto your fries instead...whoo!

Thanks for lunch BFF!