Fish Trip Cafe

It’s a Japanese tradition to eat soba noodles on New Year’s Eve.

Soba noodles symbolize longevity because it’s physically long. And, Soba noodles are easy to bite and cut off, so it’s considered to sever any hardship that have happened during the year.

I was thinking it’s a strange custom.

But when I looked up the nutrition of buckwheat (the ingredients of soba noodles), I started to think that the custom might make sense.

Buckwheat is very high in rutin, an essential nutrient that is not found in other grains. Rutin is powerful antioxidants that fight free radicals which are responsible of some of the major health problems such as cancer, arteriosclerosis, strokes, and age-related senility. Also, buckwheat is rich in vitamin B1 making them a good option got those recovering from stress and wanting to regain a decent energy level.

Good. I eat soba noodles today, wishing good health and not to carryover any bad things to 2011.

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— Soba Noodle Salad (Serves 2) —

160g Soba Noodles

40g rocket

Some sesame seeds

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— For the dressing —

1/4 onion

5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons soya sauce

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

A pinch of salt

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To prepare the dressing, peel and grate the onion, place the grated onion, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, soya sauce and lemon juice in a bowl and mix well. Season to taste with a pinch of salt.

Cook the soba noodles in large pot of boiling water until cooked (follow the package directions). Drain and rinse well under cold water and drain again.

Transfer the soba noodles to large bowl. Add the dressing and toss to coat.

Add the rocket and toss gently.

Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and serve.

Mango has a beautiful cheerful colour and a scent.

I bought it and made this mango pudding to cheer me up.

Used soya beans milk for extra full of beans.

This pudding texture is silky rich, and it has simply wonderful mango flavour.

It also a non-daily dessert and suit vegetarian.

When I’ve finished a cup, I became cheerful like a mango.

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— Chilled Mango Soya Milk Pudding (5 cups)—

2 medium to large ripe mangoes

100ml soya milk

50ml soya single cream

50g sugar

3 gelatine leaves (or agar agar for a vegetarian)

Some soya single cream for drizzle on top

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Soak the gelatine leaves in a water until soft.

Peel and stone the mangoes and cut into small cubes. Place the mango in a blender and make a smooth mango purée.

Place the soya milk, 50ml of soya cream and sugar in a pan and slowly bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved, then remove from the heat.

Squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves, add to the pan and stir until the gelatine has dissolved.

Add the mango purée into the pan and mix well.

Pour the mixture into small cups. Cool and then chill in the fridge for couple of hours until set.

Drizzle some soya single cream on top and serve.

Usually, spring rolls are used different type of dough sheets.

But, Filo pastry sheets works very well for this salmon spring rolls.

Just a little bit careful when you handle the pastry sheets, because it’s a fragile.

Be gentle, and then, here is the delicate textured nice spring rolls.

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— Salmon & Spinach Spring Rolls (6 rolls) —

1 piece salmon fillet, boned and skinned

80g Cheddar cheese

100g baby spinach

1 teaspoons soy sauce

A pinch of salt and pepper

6 sheets of filo pastry

Lemon wedges for serving

Cooking oil for deep-frying

This is an easy, low-fat prawn cake. Just mix everything together, pan-frying and ready.

It isn’t used mashed potatoes or eggs as a binder. Great for a big prawn fan like me.

Shrimply!

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— Prawn Cakes with Lemon Yogurt Dip  (Serves 2)—

160g raw prawns, peeled

2 tablespoons spring onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon ginger, finely chopped

2 tablespoons flower

2 tablespoons corn flower

1 tablespoon white wine

1/4 teaspoon salt

A pinch of black peper

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— for the Lemon yogurt dip —

3 tablespoons plain yorgurt

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

A pinch of salt

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Coarsely chop the peeled raw prawn.

Place all the ingredients (prawn, spring onion, ginger, flower, corn flower, white wine, salt and paper) in a medium bowl and mix well with a hand.

Heat some oil in a frying-pan on a medium heat.

Wet your hands with water and shape the mixture into 2 balls. Put the mixture balls on a frying-pan and flatten each ball to make round flat cakes.

Pan-fry for 3 minutes on each side, letting them get golden and cooked through.

Mix well all the ingredients of Lemon yogurt dip in a small bowl.

I made Tofu chocolate cupcakes for bringing to a Christmas party at a friend’s house.

Tofu is made from soybeans, it has a lot of health benefits.

I and my friends are not a vegetarian, but adding mashed tofu gives the cupcakes much healthier and still taste good as normal chocolate cupcake (you can hardly notice that tofu is in it).

I wish my lovely friends the best of health and happiness.

Merry Christmas xxx

Christmas is coming. It’s a time to keep eating.

I can kind of understand how the feeling of foie gras goose at this time of the year. But how can I resist a beautiful christmas pudding with brandy butter in front of me?

So, I made super healthy dish for my stomach tonight and prepare for the Christmas dinner.

This Korean origin “Sesame & Garlic” seasoning goes well with many kind of vegetables. I picked up Wake seaweed and bean sprouts today’s recipe. Because Wakeme is amazingly healthy ingredient. It’s very low-calorie, rich in vitamins & minerals (cleanse the blood) and has a high iodine content which is great for controlling metabolism. The effectiveness of this iodine is doubled when the seaweed is eaten with oil.

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— Seasoned Wakame & Bean Sprouts (Serves 2 : side dish) —

3 tablespoons dried wakame seaweed flakes

150g bean sprouts

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 clove garlic, peeled

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 small chili, very finely chopped

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Soak the wakame flakes as it directed on the package. Drain rehydrated wakame flakes and set aside.

Add the bean sprouts for a large pan of slightly salted boiling water, cook 30 seconds. Drain the boiled bean sprouts in a colander, cool down and set aside.

Place the garlic, sesame seeds and sesame oil in a mortar, crush and pound them.

Place the wakame, the bean sprouts and the seasoning (in the mortar) in a bowl then add the salt and chili.

Mix everything well in a bowl and serve in a small plate.

Teriyaki sauce is a popular Japanese sauce and it’s easy to make.

The only problem is you have to make an effort to go to an Oriental grocery and get some special ingredients if you don’t live in Japan.

No. I don’t want to make a long journey to get them on a freezing cold day like today…

So, here is the easiest way to make the new Teriyaki sauce. Only 3 simple ingredients; honey, soy sauce and sake. It tastes good as traditional Teriyaki sauce.

And then, it takes only 10 minutes to make this Teriyaki fish dish.

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— Honey Teriyaki Swordfish (Serves 2) —

2 swordfish steaks

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons soya sauce

2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)

A pinch of salt

Vegetable oil

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Mix the honey, soy sauce, sake together in a small bowl and set aside.

Sprinkle a pinch of salt evenly over the swordfish.

Heat the vegetable oil (just a little bit) in a frying-pan, place the swordfish over medium heat, fry for few minutes on each side until almost cooked.

Turn down the heat to low. Pour over the mixed sauce on the swordfish, cook for 1–2 minutes until the sauce being to bubble, then turn over the fish and cook for 1 minutes (be careful not to burn the sauce!)

A total lunar eclipse occurred early this morning.

Unfortunately, London was covered by the thick snow clouds and I couldn’t see it in the sky.

I saw a picture of the lunar eclipse on a TV, it was a beautiful orange colour.

Also, today is the day of winter solstice.

I need to eat a pumpkin.

It’s a Japanese tradition to eat pumpkin in the winter solstice, and if you eat it you will not catch cold through the winter (maybe). Because pumpkin is a nutritious vegetable and good source of carotin. It warms you up on a cold day.

I decided to make a recipe which is used pumpkin today.

The dish came out well, it’s a beautiful orange coloured dish like the lunar eclipse.

Natural sweetened creamy pumpkin sauce match to the butter sautéed fresh sage leaves.

And I feel warmer now.

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— Pumpkin & Soya Milk Pasta (Serves 2) —

200g pumpkin, chopped small pieces

8 fresh sage leaves

1/4 onion, finely chopped

150ml soya milk

200ml chicken stock

2 tablespoons butter

Salt and black pepper

Some vegetable oil

200g pasta

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Place the butter in a frying-pan and heat over medium heat. Place the fresh sage leaves into the heated butter and cook until crispy (about 30 seconds each side. Don’t make them brown). Remove them on a kitchen paper.

Add some oil into a frying-pan, and sauté the finely chopped onion over medium heat until soft. Add the chopped pumpkin and mix. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the broth became half amonut. Set a side to cool.

Ladle the broth mixture into the jug of a blender and blent until smooth. Please the broth purée into a frying-pan and add the soya milk over medium heat, stirring until heated through.

Seasoned with salt and black pepper,

Cook the pasta as directed on the package, mix with the pumpkin sauce.

Finally, crashed the sautéed sage leaves (keep 2 leaves for garnish), mix with the pasta. Top with the sautéed sage leaf.