Simple Roast Pork

Roasted meats are generally not too difficult to prepare texture and flavour are mostly dependant on what cut of meat you can get. I made this whilst living in Japan using a rather small microwave oven with a convection oven mode.

Preparation time 2h

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

350g skinless pork loin (ロースin Japanese generally refers to the loin on any meat, good for roast)

Finely chopped Herbs and spices (parsley, basil, black pepper, salt) experiment don't be shy

Onions

Place Herbs and spices in a large bowl and rub into the meat until the entire loin is covered. Next sear the entire loin on a very hot frying pan, this will lock in the moisture during roasting. Place sliced onions on the bottom of a roasting dish, This will add further flavour to the meat and provide a rich liquor to make a sauce from. Place the Loin on the Onions and cover with tin foil. Heat at 180C (350F) For 90min after which remove the foil and allow the meat to rest for about 5min before slicing and serving. 

My favourite part of making roast pork is dealing with the leftovers the next day. Roast pork sandwiches, with the pork reheated in the roasting liquor or liquefied sauce from the previous day.

Enjoy  

Vegetarian Tomato Cream Pasta

Another very simple pasta dish using a frying pan instead of a saucepan to make the cream sauce. This results in a much thicker neutral sauce allowing the natural flavour of seasonal tomatoes to come through.

Preparation time 20-30min
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients:
Onion
Fresh Coriander (Cilantro)
Brined Black Olives
FRESH!! tomatoes, do not use canned for this recipe as the colour will 'bleed'
200ml Cream
water
Salt, pepper

The quantities are less important here as you can add more or less based purely on your tastes and on what is available in your garden or local produce market

Butter fry diced onion and olives until brown then add water, cream and season. Heat till bubbles are visible then add sliced cilantro, diced tomatoes and boiled penne. Fold the mixture, over heat, until even.

Serve and enjoy

Cream pasta

Pasta should be the easiest thing to cook in the kitchen, after all you are just adding it to boiling water. The sauces that go with the pasta however can get a little involved but once you know how to make a basic sauce from what you can buy from the supermarket, your options for pasta dishes will increase dramatically.
Today we will look at the simplest cheese sauce you will ever make.

Cheese Sauce
Preparation time: 5 min
Serves: Depends on the pasta but generally 2-4
Ingredients:
200g cream cheese
1 tsp salt
150ml cream or milk

Heat whilst whisking all of the ingredients until all cream cheese has melted into the sauce.
End.

To make a Carbonara style dish, to the sauce, add diced pancetta or if unavailable, pan fried diced bacon. Add herbs and spices to flavour (Tarragon, basil, white pepper)
To boiled pasta stir in 1 egg yolk before introducing to the sauce.
Stir pasta into the cream sauce and serve.


Your options for flavour are endless once you have the base sauce, you could try:
Chicken and mushroom
Beef Mince, tomato and olives
Go vegetarian, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, spinach
Go Japanese Fusion, Tarako(fine roe)


Generally speaking you will want a thicker sauce for noodles and a finer sauce for penne, tortellini etc.
Finally you will want to add a small amount of water if you intend to use the sauce for a pasta bake

 So same again heat and combine cream cheese, salt, milk, and 100-200ml water.

Because the pasta will be eventually baked you need to cook the pasta till just before "firm to bite" add the HOT pasta to the sauce and bake for 20min at 180c

Beef Lasagne

Beef lasagne with rich cream cheese

There are many variations of the classic Lasagne, none of which are really that difficult to prepare. You can use fresh or dried pasta. Here we will look at a very simple but decadently rich beef lasagne.

Serves: 2-4
Preparation time: 20-40 minutes

200g Beef mince
1/2 Onion
Cream cheese
Sour cream
1 small clove garlic
2 good sized tomatoes (you can use cut canned tomatoes)
Lasagne Sheets or pieces (can be fresh or dried)
Some cheddar cheese
Fresh parsley

On high heat, brown the diced onions and finely diced garlic, add mince. Season with salt, sugar, coarse ground pepper, and tarragon. Finally add diced tomatoes and continue to heat at low temperature.
Pasta needs to be pre-cooked to a point before "firm to bite."
Whilst pasta is being cooked, mix together sour cream, cream cheese, and very finely chopped parsley. This will act as the cheese sauce.
When the pasta is done do NOT crash cool with water, as we want the pasta to still be cooking.
Layer the Pasta, meat sauce, and cheese sauce in this fashion.

Cheddar

Pasta

Meat Sauce

Pasta

Cheese sauce

Meat Sauce

Pasta

Cheese sauce

Meat Sauce

The order is not really important and will mostly depend on the size of your serving tray. It is more important to be sparing with the meat sauce and use a spatula to spread the cheese sauce over the hot meat sauce (it will melt slightly and make it easier to work with). Generally a Lasagne with more pasta and cheese will have more structure but will be drier. 

Once the lasagne is layered, place into an oven at 180 Celsius for 20 minutes. Allow the lasagne to rest for at least 10 minutes and then serve.

Enjoy

Chunky Tomato Soup

Chunky Tomato Soup with crispy fried salmon

Yet another very fast meal with little skill required. This soup is brilliant for showing off the quality of your home grown tomatoes or simply for enjoying the taste and bite of a real tomato.

Serves: 3-4
Preparation time: 10 minutes

4 good sized tomatoes

1-2 cloves garlic

Fresh Coriander (cilantro)

1 onion (red for sweeter/ white for spicy)

1/2 Cup of water

To a To a VERY HOT wok or fry-pan (i.e. do NOT use Olive oil) lightly brown diced onions and finely diced garlic. Add diced fresh tomatoes and water with constant stirring adding salt, pepper and spice (Habanero...) to flavour.  Take off the heat and gently stir in chopped coriander. Serve as if or with topped with a fried fillet of salmon as shown.

Enjoy

Variation: Creamy Tomato soup

Creamy Tomato Soup with Crispy fried Salmon

Serves: 3-4
Preparation time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

4 good sized tomatoes

1-2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup of Milk

1/4 tsp Baking soda (bicarb of soda)

1 pack (4 medium size heads) of salad use Japanese Spinach 

1 onion (red for sweeter/ white for spicy)

To a VERY HOT wok or fry-pan (i.e. do NOT use Olive oil) lightly brown diced onions and finely diced garlic. Add diced fresh tomatoes with constant stirring adding salt, pepper and spice (Habanero...) to flavour.

The tomatoes will break up a little bit and start to 'juice' you can add a small amount of water here.

Take off the heat and gently stir in chopped spinach (to prevent skinning your tomatoes).

Add a ¼ teaspoon of baking soda and SLOWLY add the milk with constant stirring (the baking soda will stop the milk from curdling)

For an extra creamy tomato soup stir in mascarpone cream (whipping cream will also work) a table spoon at a time until desired.

Serve as if or with topped with a fried fillet of salmon as shown.

Enjoy

Roasted Chicken & Buttered Vegetables

Roasted Chicken on a bed of buttered carrots and spinach

Quite possibly the fastest and laziest roast chicken you will ever make, perfect for last minute dinners or for athletes craving nourishment but have little energy for complicated cooking techniques.

Serves: 1
Ingredients:
200g chicken thigh
1 medium sized carrot
2 heads of Japanese spinach
Salt, Pepper, Butter

Rub salt and pepper onto both sides of the chicken and leave to rest, whilst preparing the vegetables.
Slice carrots and spinach being sure to keep both ingredients separate.
Sear and colour the Chicken on a pre-heated oiled frying pan, stop frying once the Chicken skin is "near crispy" place immediately into the Microwave oven for 2.5min at 500W. (depending on the state of your microwave is it may actually take 2-3minutes)
Place carrots, butter and a little salt into a separate frying pan with the lid on. after a minute remove lid and check for caramelisation turn and repeat, keep heating the carrots with the lid on until the chicken is finished.
Once the chicken is finished allow it to rest (DO NOT CUT!!!) add the sliced spinach and fry at high heat with continuous stirring for about 30seconds (to prevent spinach from "dying")

Plate the vegetables and finally slice the chicken to place on top.

Enjoy
  

Comfortable working space and the Japanese apartment.

Compared to the much larger kitchens I am use to back in New Zealand, the Japanese kitchen provides many challenges and opportunities for innovation to maximise usable space.

My Japanese kitchen is tiny

Although common essentials such as a small refrigerator, microwave/convection oven, toaster oven, gas range, rice cooker, are available I have yet to find a large household oven for making large pizza's and roast meat.

Another "feature" of an older Japanese kitchen is the bench top and basin area, The assigned preparation area is so small that the drying rack alone barely fits the "working area." To make matters worse a bench size of only 800 mm means that  I will often strain my back during washing up. Japanese kitchens are not designed for 167 cm westerners.

Draft 1 and Draft 5

What I needed was a total kitchen renovation, however rental rules in Japan require that no permanent changes may be made. Solution: make a work bench at a comfortable height, that can be dissembled.

So drawing upon my primary school(elementary school) wood work skills, I began drafting ideas to build a bar/counter top. I allowed for a budget of 80000JPY (800 USD) based on the cost of a professionally made counter top that I could have bought from a local store.

The first draft was based solely on ground measurements and desired bench/bar heights.
The Final draft, possibly draft number 12, took into account everything from drinking glass dimensions, available wood sizes, mobility of modular construction, ergonomics, ease of cleaning and most importantly cost of materials.

Ready for service... almost

After about 8 weeks of planning and 2 weeks of construction. The bar was complete, I now had a very comfortable work height of 900 mm and a massive 2.4 m long workspace that's a massive 7ft10in two tiered standing bar. I placed a chilly bin (ice box) in  the centre with a pull through hole for ready beer access and ease of drink retrieval during TV sport days. The set of cupboards on the left are actually a clever set of rubbish bins I had inherited from the previous occupant. and the "bar" section is actually made from excess number of book cases I had in the apartment.

The total bill for construction, wood, cutting fees, power drill, screws, brackets. from a budget of 800 USD was only 400USD, only half the cost of buying a pre-made bar at 800 USD and only half the size!

The bar now only needed a bit of stocking, waxing, cleaning. To be ready for service in time the AFL grand final.