Fish Trip Cafe

Light up Japan recipe –No.5

You know, red coloured foods make you feel lively.

This red sauce is made with full of red coloured ingredients, tahini and lemon juice. It has a refreshing taste, also the tahini brings nutty and rich flavour.

Rice vermicelli noodles takes only few minutes to soak in a hot water to cook, it’s a great energy-saving ingredient.

Full of red foods and full of pep.

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— Chilled Rice Noodles with Red Sauce (serves 2) —

200g rice vermicelli noodles (dried)

Some Italian parsley, chopped

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— Red sauce —

2 tomatoes

1 red pepper

1/2 red chilli (medium hot)

1 fresh squeezed lemon

2 tablespoons tahini

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon salt

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Soak the rice vermicelli noodles in hot water (follow the package directions). Rice well under cold water and drain well.

Place all the Red sauce ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

Mix the noodles and the red sauce in a bowl.

Garnish with chopped Italian parsley.

Light up Japan recipe –No.4

This unique appetizer has a cheese-like flavour and texture.

Just put a tofu into miso paste (fermented soya beans paste) and then miso does all the remaining work.

You can use any kind of tofu as you prefer. Firm tofu will be something like soft cheddar and soft tofu will be creamier. Also any kind of miso paste. Usually the light coloured miso has sweet and light flavour and dark coloured miso has strong mature flavour.

Very easy to make this rich and savory flavoured healthy snack. Suitable for vegans too.

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— Miso Marinated Tofu —

400g tofu

150g white miso paste

150g dark or aka miso paste

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Wrap the tofu in a clean tea towel or some layer of kitchen papers, and place a heavy thing (such as a pan) on top of it to force out excess water, then leave it for about 30 minutes.

Mix the white miso and the dark miso in a bowl.

Spread the 1/3 of the miso mixture into a container, place the dried tofu, and coat all side with the miso mixture, cover and refrigerate for overnight. You can marinate it up to 5 days. The longer marinate the tofu will be saltier.

Lightly wipe off any excess miso mixture, cut into bite sized pieces and serve.

* The miso mixture can be used 3 times for the marinade.

Light up Japan recipe –No.3

I was thinking about an energy-saving bread recipe for my friends in Japan, and I remembered English muffin! Yes!

You can make English muffins in a frying-pan, and it doesn’t take a long time to cook.

Eat a lot of smiley muffins, and you feel smiley : )

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— Smiley English Muffins (6 muffins) —

250g plain flour

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 &1/4 teaspoon easy dry yeast

1 tablespoon butter (room temperature)

200ml  milk (room temperature)

Some cornmeal for sprinkling

Some black olive

Some sun-dried tomatoes, sliced

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Place the flour, sugar, salt and instant dry yeast in a large bowl and stir together, mix in the butter and the milk.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface board and knead for about 10 minutes.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and roll to coat. Cover the bowl with cling film and and let rise about an hour in a warm place.

Punch down the dough and divide it into 6 pieces and shape into balls. Lightly coat the surface with oil and sprinkle with cornmeal, lay on a flat plate and cover the balls loosely with cling film and allow them to rise for about 40 minutes.

Arrange the black olives and sliced sun-dried tomatoes and make a smily face on the balls.

Heat a frying-pan until hot not burning, place muffins and cook them over low-heat for 5-7 minutes on each side.

Light up Japan recipe –No.2

This is another energy-saving recipe, for my friends in Japan.

It takes only a few seconds to pan-fry each side of the thin aubergine slices and then marinate in olive oil dressing at room temperature.

It’s a classic Italian flavoured side dish, enjoy and be happy!

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— Marinated Pan-fried Aubergine (serves 2) —

1 large aubergine

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 small red chilli, very finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

A pinch of salt

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Cut the aubergine lengthways into very thin slices.

Heat a non-stick frying-pan, fry the sliced aubergine, turning once until it’s soft (should be fry for a few seconds each side). Put them on a plate on top of each other, this helps them to steam and soften.

Place the minced garlic, the lemon juice, the chopped chilli, the chopped basil, a pinch of salt and the olive oil in a bowl and mix together.

Place the aubergine in a flat plate and pour over the marinade.

Marinate for 30 minutes.

Light up Japan recipe –No.1

It’s devastating to see what’s going on in my country Japan everyday.

I feel so useless that I live far away from Japan and unable to help people in my country…

I wish with all my heart that Japan will be alright soon and going back to a peaceful place like before.

A lot of my friends live in Tokyo, they try not to use electricity as much as they can, because they are having a serious power shortage, and they need to keep electricity for the disaster area.

So, today’s post is for my friends in Japan. This recipe doesn’t need to use energy for cooking.

I hope the disaster area will light up with electricity and people’s hopes soon.

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— Tuna and Avocado Salad (serves 2-3) —

1 can tuna, drained

2 avocado (medium size), stoned and peeled.

1/4 onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon lemon juice

A pinch of salt and pepper

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Chop the avocado into small cubes.

Place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix.

This is my pancake day recipe.

I added blueberries and mushed tofu in the pancake butter for my diet, because I decided to eat a lot of pancakes today (it’s pancake day!).

The pancakes are fluty and fluffy, not overly sweet and I love the fragrant of maple syrup.

It was a great afternoon treat.

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— Tofu and Blueberry Pancakes (about 5 pancakes, 4 inch size) —

150g blueberry (keep some berries for garnish)

200g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

150g tofu (soft)

200ml milk

3 tablespoon sugar

A pinch of salt

Some butter for frying

Some maple syrup

Some vanilla ice cream

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Place the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl and whisk together.

Mush the tofu in a separate bowl, add the egg and milk, whisk together.

Add the flour mixture in the egg mixture, and whisk just until combined. Add the blueberry and gently mix with the butter.

Heat the frying-pan, melt a little butter over low heat, pour the butter onto the pan spacing the pancake a few inches from each other. Cook them until the bottom of the pancakes are golden and bubbles start to appear on the top surfaces, then turn and cook another 3 minute until golden. Repeat with remaining batter.

Serve with the maple syrup, garnish with the rest of blueberry and vanilla ice cream.

This dish is used an unusual technique of marinating meat. Marinate a duck breast in miso paste after it’s cooked.

Sounds a bit strange?  But this is a quite popular duck appetizer in Japan.

Miso and honey give the cooked duck more flavour and to tenderize it at the same time. Marinate the cooked duck over night, and then you can just take it out of the fridge, slice and eat it like a ham next day.

The combination of the savoury miso flavoured duck and the sweet and sour mango is great, and I really enjoyed this new bruschetta.

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— Miso Duck and Mango Bruschetta —

1/8 Mango

40g rocket

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Some baguette

Some ground black pepper

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— for the miso marinated duck —

1 duck breast

100g miso paste

1 tablespoon honey

Some salt and pepper

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To make the miso marinated duck: Mix the miso paste and honey in a small bowl, set aside.

Season the duck breast with salt and pepper.

Heat a little oil in a flying-pan, place the duck breast skin-side down over medium heat and fry for 15-20 minutes until the skin became brown and crispy

Turn the duck breast and fry for 6 minutes until browned,  then turn off the heat, cover with foil and leave the duck in the pan to rest (this will result in meat that is slightly pink in the middle)

Coat all side of the cooked duck with the miso mixture and cover with cling film, refrigerate for over night.

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Mix the olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a bowl, add the rocket and toss.

Peel and thinly slice the mango.

Lightly wipe off miso mixture from the marinated duck, and thinly slice.

Slice the baguette and toast them.

Topping the rocket salad, the sliced mango and the sliced duck. Sprinkle with some black pepper.

This is a unique, creamy low-fat pasta dish and it’s suitable for vegans.

Soya milk and miso (fermented soya bean paste) go well together, because they are made from same ingredient. And a spoon of miso paste brings a great savory and richness to the sauce.

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— Miso & Soya Milk Pasta with Mushrooms (serves 2) —

160g shiitake mushroom & shimeji mushrooms (Shiitake mushrooms: sliced. Shimeji mushrooms: base discarded, mushrooms separated. )

1/2 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped

200g tagliatelle

1 tablespoon miso paste

300 ml soya milk

2 tablespoons white wine

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

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Cook the tagliatelle as directed on the package. Drain and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a flying-pan over medium heat, add the garlic and mushrooms and fry for 3-4 minutes.

Add the white wine into the flying-pan, bring to a boil over high heat.

Turn the heat to low, pour in the soya milk and heat until piping hot. Add the miso paste and stir until the miso is melted.

Add the cooked tagliatelle and chopped parsley into the flying-pan, tossing everything together.

I found a plum tree started to bloom when I opened the window this morning.

Little pink flowers.

I felt a bit spring-like and I decided to use a plate with pink flowers paint on for today’s dish.

This classic combination of basil, cheese, tomato and chicken is certainly delicious, and it goes with the plate : )

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— Folded Chicken with Tomato Sauce (serves 2) —

2 chicken breast fillets

4 slices cheese

12 leaves basil

Some salt and black pepper

Some flour

Some olive oil for flying

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— for the tomato sauce —

1/4 onion

1 clove garlic

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon chicken stock powder or cube

1 tablespoon olive oil

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To make the tomato sauce: finely chop the onion, mince the garlic and chop the tomatoes into small cubes.

Heat the olive oil in a small pan, add the chopped onion, minced garlic and sauté 5 minutes over medium heat.

Add the chopped tomato, the chicken stock and bay leaf and simmer for 15 minutes over low heat.

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Slice the chicken fillets in half widthwise to the other edge.

Lay down the sliced chicken fillets on a cutting board, cover it with plastic wrap and pound the chicken to 1/2 inch thickness, season with salt and pepper.

Place 3 leaves of basil on top of the chicken and place 1 slice of cheese on top of the basil leaves.

Fold the chicken fillets in half, season both sides with salt and pepper and lightly dust both side with flour. Make the other folded chickens in the same way.

Heat some olive oil in a frying-pan, sauté the chickens over medium-low heat on each side until cooked and golden.

Transfer to serving plates and pour the tomato sauce over the chickens.