A Veritable Feast

This is what my kitchen looked like the morning after I had friends over for dinner and made Japanese food for the first time in a long time. It would have been better if I'd taken snaps of the food as I'd prepared it, huh?

Please note the lovely retro kitchen. That's not a trendy reworking. It's original.

Anyway, want some recipes? I made:
Tofu in Lime-leaf Broth
Soy-marinated Salmon
Spinach with Sesame seeds
Teriyaki Chicken
Awayuki (Strawberries in Cointreau Jelly)

Tofu in Lime Leaf Broth
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp grated ginger
3 tbsp soy sauce
1/3 cup chinese cooking wine
6 shredded kaffir lime leaves
2 1/3 cups vegetable stock
1 bunch snake beans, cut into bite-sized lengths
500g firm (silken) tofu, diced

Place all ingredients except beans and tofu into a pan over a medium heat and bring to a simmer then maintain for 3 minutes.
Add the beans and tofu and stir gently for a further few minutes to heat.
Serve, for four.

Soy-marinated Salmon

1 tbsp oil
500g salmon fillet
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup lime juice
2 tbsp chopped dill
1 tsp cracked pepper
steamed bok choy

Heat the oil in a frypan, over a high heat.
Add the salmon and cook for 5 - 8 seconds on each side. (This is not a typo)
Remove from pan and place in a a shallow dish
Combine the soy, lime, dill and pepper and pour over the salmon
Cover and refrigerate for 2 - 4 hours, turning once
To serve, slice the salmon and soerve on steamed bok choy. Pour a little marinade over the salmon as a dressing.

Spinach in Sesame seeds

500g fresh spinach, deveined.
3 tbsp white sesame seeds
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbsp dashi stock (I use one made from a powdered product, not from scratch)

Heat sesame seeds in a non-stick pan until they smell toasty.
Set aside a good pinch of seeds to use as a garnish and grind the rest of them in a mortar and pestle.
Add sugar and mix well with dashi and soy.
Wilt spinach in a large pot of simmering water. Drain, cool and chop to 2.5cm lengths.
Toss or drizzle with dressing.
Serve and garnish with remaining sesame seeds.

Teriyaki Chicken - the way I like to do it

Teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup light soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin wine
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sugar

Combine ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.
Set aside. (This can be made several days earlier and stored in the fridge.)

Chicken breasts, skinless) for 4 - 6 people (I use three)
A little oil for the baking pan.

Cut each breast into 4 - 5 strips. (The chicken, not your own!)
Bake at 180C for 10 minutes with foil over the chicken, then 10 minutes without foil.
Remove any excess pan juices and set aside for use in a sauce or stock later on.
Toss the chicken pieces in the teriyaki sauce and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Serve with rice.

Awayuki

4 cups hot water
8g agar-agar powder
4 egg whites
1 punnet of strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Cointreau
1/4 cup milk

Place agar-agar and water in suacepan and bring to boil then simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes.
Add the Cointreau and sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Strain the mixture and set aside to cool.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold with the milk through the cooled mixture.
Pour into a square plastic mould.
Hull the strawberries and arrange in rows in the mixture. Place in the refrigerator to set and cool.
When set, cut into squares and serve with ice-cream, whipped cream or on its own.
I served mine with green-tea ice-cream made from a packet mix!