I recently got a huge box from FedEx.

It’s light…  Hmmm….  No idea what it is…

The sender…  Foodbuzz.

I remembered a while ago, Foodbuzz solicited some featured publishers who want to test Newman’s Own products and create a video.  They even said “We’ll send you a HD Flip video to make the video!”

Of course I said Yes right away.  And forgot about it. Didn’t think I would win the video.

Well, I was wrong. I did.  So in the box, there was a Ultra HD Flip Video with a big Newman’s Own logo on it, 3 Newmans Own Pasta Sauce (Tomato &  Basil Bombolina, Cabernet Marinara, and Roasted Garlic), 3 dressings (Lighten Up Caeser, Lightened Up Raspberry and Walnut, and Family Recipe Italian), and coupon for Free Thin and Crispy Pizza (<- click this link for $1 off coupon).

Very generous!  Thank you, Uncle Paul, and Foodbuzz!

The guidelines for the assignment were

1. To create a video features a recipe suitalble for an everyday meal or that can accompany a pizza.
2. Recipe that can be created in less than 30 minutes, and video should be less than 5 minutes.
3. Humorous, edgy, fun and creative.
4. And of course, feature his product(s).

As I look at these huge bottles of salad dressings, I thought “Wonder if this raspberry and walnut dressing can work on raw kale salad to streamline the steps?”  Yes, I’m lazy by nature. I always think about making things easier and more efficient – save time and money while maximizing the outcome, so that I can use them for something fun.  That’s why my clients loved me when I used to be a  Global Logistics Consultant at FedEx.  For me, from the manufacturers in Asia to the end customers around the US, or from the store or our fridge to our table where the end customers are (my husband and I), it’s the same thing!

So I poured the dressing onto a little bit of kale!  It worked!

Normally, the kale are massaged with olive oil, salt and lemon juice, then add dressing later, but with this dressing the second step can be skipped. Sweet!

The sliced strawberry against kale is so pretty! It’s like Christmas!  It’s hard to see on the video, but if you cut the green parts with a paring knife in to a V shape, and slice thin, they look like hearts!

It totally lightened me up — especially because I got to use the hand to mix the sweet dressing into kale, and Mr. tough guy Kale totally lightened up by getting a nice massage by Ms. Newman – Raspberry and Walnut Dressing (and your magic touch of course),  then marrying luscious Ms. Sliced Strawberry….  And go nuts with the addition of crunchy Mr. Pican… and they lived happily ever after.  (They taste even better the next day after the “honeymoon”.)

Seriously, kale is one of the most nutritious vegetable, highly anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, plus anti-cancerous. According to Whole Foods Market’s ANDI (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index) system, it’s on top at 1000, but bitter and tough. With this salad,  the sweetness of the dressing lightens up the bitterness of kale, it will convert the green haters to kale lovers!  This will be a perfect accompaniment to Pizza!  Stick the thing in the oven (the Kitchen Wizard will say the toaster oven for bigger time-saving — no need to preheat), and while it’s heating, you can give a nice little massage to Mr. Kale.  Then both should be ready about the same time.

This salad  make a major contribution toward  5 servings of fruit and veggie goal, so you will live happily ever after… when you make this salad regularly.

Lightened Up Kale and Strawberry Salad

• 1 bunch kale – stems removed, chopped or torn small
• About 1/2 pack strawberries – sliced
• About 4 tablespoons Newmans Own Lighten Up Raspberry and Walnut Dressing
• 2 tablespoons chopped nuts (I used picans)

1. Pour dressing onto the chopped or torn kale and massage with hands really well for about 1 minute until the kale is soft and its volume is reduced by half.  Leave alone for about 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Add strawberries and nuts, mix gently and enjoy!  Serves about 4 depending on the size of the kale bunch.

Do you like root vegetables?

As it gets colder, I long for root vegetables.  And we Japanese love root vegetables, including things like gobo (burdock) which many Westerners considers as “tree roots”.  When it’s cooked properly, it tastes great packed with earthy flavor, and mildly laxative, so excellent for your plumbing issues. : )

One of the most typical root vegetable dish in Japan is Nimono, literally means “braised dish”.  The veggies that are commonly used for this are: burdock (gobo), lotus roots (renkon), carrots (something red), green beans or snow peas (something green), dried mushrooms, and yam jelly cake called “konnyaku”. Sometime it has chicken in it.  After sauteing them briefly in salad oil, everything is simmered in soy and sugar based dashi for long time until everything turn brown.  Personally I thought it tasted somewhat old-fashioned, and didn’t like it much as a child, so rarely made it.

This update version I learned from a friend of mine from highschool who’s a renowned chef and Olive Oil Sommelier in Japan cooks much faster, and the flavor of each vegetables shines through.  It’s lightly seasoned, so you can transform this into other dishes easily as well.  Since konnayku is hard to get for most people, I skipped it. Also I happened have white radishes (not the Japanese kokabu, but western kind) that I wanted to use up, so I decided to add it instead of daikon.  The result was easy to make, super healthy, flavorful dish!  You will love it.

Sauteed Root Vegetables Japanese Style

Ingredients:

• Small white radishes – 8
• Carrot, medium – 1
• Lotus root, small – 1
• Green beans, 1/2 cup
• Shiitake mushrooms, medium, 4 -5
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2-3 TBS
• Soy Sauce, 1 TBS
• Mirin (Sweet Rice Wine), 1 TBS
• Sake, 1 TBS
• Salt and pepper – to taste

Method:

1. Boil water in a medium pot and lightly salt it.  Peel carrots and lotus roots.  Cut all veggies into bit-size pieces, then parboil each vegetables except shiitake.
2. In a hot skillet, heat EVOO and saute all the parboiled vegetables and shiitake, and add soy sauce, mirin, sake.  Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.  Add extra EVOO and mix gently at the end if desired.

You can double or triple the recipe because the leftover will be great chopped up, and transformed into soups, mixed rice dish, etc. later in the week.  Or add mayo and cooked shredded chicken to make healthy salad or sandwich fillings, or saute it with ground meat, season with miso etc. and top on tofu, or rice…. Or drizzle some ponzu and bake it until golden brown, serve with shaved bonito flakes or even Parmesan cheese on top…  Yum!

As you can see this is a super easy way to increase vegetable intake in your daily diet.  A plant-based dish like this is the reason why the Japanese dishes are considered so healthy, and their obesity rate is so low compared with many developed countries (3% vs 13~34% of other countries including the US among the highest).  Plus this updated version has about 1/3 of sodium and 1/8 of sugar of the traditional version — you should definitely try it.

So what’s your favorite root vegetable dish?

Have you ever ended up with tofu leftovers?  What do you normally do with it?

Do you want to know my secret?  Crumble with a fork, cook in microwave, then you can add to practically anything. For example, soup — not only for miso soup, but also other Asian style soup, mix with ground meat and make a healthier burgers, scrambled tofu, stir fry, stuffing for gyoza, with rice. You can even add it to smoothie or make desserts, if you use the kinu-goshi (soft or medium-soft).  You can also do this to extend the life for a few more days, when you have a fresh tofu that’s about to expire. (Tofu can be frozen in the pack or with water, yet the texture changes compeletely.)

And yes, in case you are wondering, you can make this first, and make the tofu scramble I shared with you on my last post.

Scrambled Tofu Base

1. Crumble a tofu with a folk and place it on the microwavable plate lined with a paper towel. Microwave high for 4-5 minutes.
2. Leave until cool to handle,  transfer to a tupper ware lined with paper towel. Store in the fridge.

One recipe I want to share with you today is called Shiro-ae. Literally means mixed with whites.

Shira-ae

Ingredients:

• Scrambled Tofu mix – 1 cup (about 1/2 block of tofu)
• Nerigoma (sesame paste), ground sesame seeds, Tahini or peanut butter – 2 TBS
• Sugar – to taste
• Soy sauce – to taste
• miso (optional) – to taste
• Salt – pinch
• Greens – 1 1/2 – 2 cups

Method:

1. Mix tofu, sesame paste, sugar, soy sauce and salt.
2. Steam or boil greens, shock in ice water, and squeeze water out well.  Chop in bite size pieces. Or just use leftover vegetables.
3. Mix 1 and 2 right before eating.

Note: My favorites are broccoli or spinach, yet other vegetables such as carrots and sea vegetables especially hijiki can be used for this dish.
What’s your favorite way to eat tofu?  Please share as comment below.

What dish speaks to you “HOME”?

For me, it’s iri-dofu, Japanese tofu scramble. It’s one of the most typical Japanese home-cooked dish, and you probably won’t see it served much at restaurants (unless it’s more casual “Izakaya” type place.)  With a chopsticks full (?) of this fluffy tofu and tuna mixture with steamed rice, I breathe in the delicate scent of soy sauce, green onion, and sake, and am  immediately transferred back to Tokyo.  This version is a bit different from what I ate growing up with julienned vegetables, but it combines my other childhood favorite of tuna and green onion, and it’s more flavorful and easier than more traditional version. It only uses 4 main ingredients of widely available products (for some people, always on hand), and not much chopping.  If you don’t have sake, use very dry white wine.

Iri-dofu 　いり豆腐 (Tofu Scramble)

Ingredients (Serves 2-3 as main dish, 4-6 as side dish)

• Tofu (Momen, in the US, use medium or medium firm)  1 block (about 400g)
• Tuna 1 can (6oz 170g), packed in olive oil kind preferred, DO NOT DRAIN OIL
  • If its in water, drain water well, use 2 TBS Olive Oil in step 3.
• Eggs 2, beaten
• Green onions, sliced 1/2 c (about 3)
• Sake, 1 1/2 TBS
• Soy sauce, 1 1/2 TBS
• Kosher Salt, pinch (optional.  If not using, increase the amount of soy sauce to 1 ts to 1/2 TBS)

Method:

1. Drain water from tofu in a strainer for 5-10 min.  To make the next step faster, I scramble tofu loosely and put in a microwaveable container with a lid and a plastic strainer to collect water. Microwave for 3-4 minutes on high.   If your container doesn’t have a plastic strainer, create a bridge with two chopsticks, and place whole tofu on top, so that the water will drain.
2. Heat a pan or skillet with relatively wide bottom and short sides (to allow the water evaporate faster), then scramble the drained tofu with a wooden spoon on high  until water is evaporated.
3. Add the entire can of tuna with olive oil from the can.  If using the tuna packed in water, add the olive oil to tofu before adding the drained tuna.   Mix well and continue to cook to coat the oil well with tofu.
4. Add Sake, Soy Sauce and sliced green onions.  Continue to stir so that it will not burn.
5. Add a pinch of salt in beaten egg, and pour it around the tofu.  Stir the tofu quickly with 4-5 chopsticks until egg gets firmer.  Serve hot.

Note: A note about the microwave:  As many of you know, the more powerful your microwave is, the shorter you need to cook.  Ours rotates, but is a very small one, the type that barely fits a dinner plate. So, if you have a newer, powerful microwave, please start with half of the time suggested, and add time little by little to obtain desired results.

Variations:

• Vegetarian version:
  1. Instead of tuna, use 4-5 small dried shiitake mushrooms soaked in water for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. To quicken the process, remove the stems, break it in half, soak in water with a pinch of sugar mixed with right side up, and top it with a small plate so that mushroom will submerged in water.  Microwave for 2 min.  When the shiitake are soft, squeeze the water out, and slice them thinly.  Save the juice for later use since it adds a lot of umami (savory flavor) to many Japanese dishes.
  2. Slice other vegetables such as carrots and snowpeas/green beans (for color and vitamin A and C) thinly and about 1 inch long. The total amount should be about 4 oz.
  3. At step 3, add oil and vegetables instead of tuna.  You may want to add a little more soysauce and some sugar (about 1/2 TBS) to add more flavor.
• You can also use soaked and squeezed hijiki seaweed with other veggies.
• For crunchiness, also try gobo (burdock root) or renkon (lotus root).  They oxidise easily, so as you cut, release them in water mixed with a bit of rice or white vinegar.
• Instead of tuna, try ground chicken (or you can add this to vegetarian version.)
  1. After step 1, heat oil in a pan or skillet, cook ground chicken until well crumbled.  Then add carrots, vegetables and saute briefly.
  2. Add tofu and follow the directions, 2, 4 and 5.

So what’s your favorite home-cooked meal?   I look forward to your comment.  : )

Do you want to know the secret to our last-minute gourmet lunch in Seattle I covered in last two posts?

1. Pre-prep some versatile base, and keep it in fridge or freezer.
2. Build a efficient and versatile pantry that’s easy to mix and match to whip up different dishes.

I talked about Stuffed Tomatoes last time, so let’s talk about the rest — Bruschetta with Olive Tapenade and Farmer’s Market Salad with chickpeas.

The Olive Tapenade we used was from Trader Joe’s, but you can easily make it.  Great use of leftover olives from a jar.  If you want to know how to make it, click here. It’s packed with umami, boosts  flavor of many things, such as pasta, sauce, salad dressing, on top of meat, fish, etc etc.

Another big time-saving is that we had all the French bread pre-sliced thin, and toasted, again ready to go.  This “Ready to Go” concept is pretty powerful.  When you do have things in this state, you use them.  When you don’t, you don’t, and end up wasting it.

By just reading it, you’d think “Of course I know that, Mari!”  But when you actually pre-prep some extra, keep in the fridge (or freezer), and experience how convenient they are, you’ll really KNOW what I mean and get hooked with this method.  It’s because when our mind sees it as work we have to do, it convince us “Gosh, too much work!  I don’t wanna do this.”  However, when it’s already done, it will tell us “Oh, look!  It’s already done for me, ready to be used. I should use it!”  Shall I call it the “Convenience Factor”?

When there are more baguette rounds than you can use in a few days, they can even go in the freezer to extend their shelf life and be ready to be used for last minute appetizers and lunch.  With these, and pre-caramelized onion in the freezer, you can make a beautiful French Onion soup, just like those you have in Paris in 1o minutes, instead of hours! Thanks to this trick, I can make it throughout the year, when it’s freezing in the middle of the summer in the Bay Area.

Oh yes, the farmer’s market salad.  All you need are assortment of chopped vegetables, a can of chickpeas, and lettuce.  We used cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots, just because we had them, but it could be anything you have in the fridge.  Cherry tomatoes and baby carrots require virtually no chopping.  If you are short with time, always keep them instead of regular tomatoes and carrots.

These pre-cut cucumbers from the day before also cut our prep time.  Here’s the Kitchen Wizard Tip.  Regular American cucumber have very thick, waxy skin, and huge seeds, so both pretty much need to be removed — meaning extra time prepping.  If you use English cucumber, or better yet, Japanese or Persian cucumbers which has thinner skins and smaller seeds, you can save that time and effort.  They also have lower water content, so they seem to last a bit longer, especially after they are sliced. Because of this, you never see a regular, American cukies in my fridge.

A can of chickpeas is very handy.  All you have to do is open a can and drain.  They add good fiber and protein, and delicious. Good in salads, soups, curry…  Yes, with it, you can make hummus at home!  (I’ll post a recipe soon.)

As you see, what kind of produce you use often determine how much prep you’d end up with.  So when you go shopping, think from efficiency and versatility stand-point, and select accordingly. You’ll be glad you did.  As a rule of thumb, think small and thin when you want to save time, because they require in no (or less) chopping and shorter cooking time.  Keep these versatile produce (and of course, pre-prepped items) in your fridge, so that you can make many different things in very short notice.

For more pantry tips, check out this post.

What do produce do you keep in your fridge that save you time and effort?  Share your favorite with the world!

Cold Japanese Nooodle Salad with Strawberry Soy Vinagrette

Remember my post a while ago about Marinated Strawberries and Radishes?

Did you make it?  It was super easy, refreshing and delicious, wasn’t it?

So what did you do with the leftover pink vinaigrette?

I normally use things like this as salad dressing, but I wanted to try something new and wild!

It was a hot day, so I was craving something cold!   Most of the houses (and even restaurants) in the Bay Area, especially those closer to the bay like ours do not come with air-conditioning, because it’s not supposed to get that hot.  Well, it seems like global warming changed that, and we often have days which we desperately need something cold for lunch.

As a native Japanese, my favorites for days like that are cold noodles.  We eat them all summer long, both Japanese and Chinese types, and now even cold capellini and rice sticks.  Cold noodles are so refreshing and go down so easily!   The most traditional kind of cold noodles in Japan comes with many condiments like shiso leaves, ginger, wasabi and shichimi togarashi peppers, but not much else, which makes it very high-carb.   With some julienned veggies and protein on top,  you can turn this into more  balanced, healthier, one-plate meal.

On that hot day, my  (hungry) gut told me that the strawberry vinaigrette would go great with cold noodles!

I used somen noodles, the thin, summer favorite wheat noodles to compliment the delicate strawberry flavor.  Buckwheat soba noodles would be too strong.

It’s basically salad on top of cold noodles.  So use whatever vegetables or protein you have in your fridge that would create some nice color contrasts.  Traditionally we do this on Chinese noodles, with julienned toppings; paper-like egg (kinshi-tamago), ham or chicken for protein, cucumbers (our summer favorite!), wedges of tomato, and sometimes wakame seaweed.

Since to me, this is more of a salad (because of the strawberry vinaigrette) than noodles, plus because of what I had in my fridge, I used more unusual vegetables like peppers and radish (guess why), along with julienned turkey.  I also like julienned lettuce on top as well.  You will only need a little bit of each to adorn the top.  If there’s any left, you can make another one the next day, (possibly with different kind of vinaigrette or noodles), or make salad without the noodles.

Cold Japanese Noodle Salad with Strawberry Soy Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• Japanese somen noodles (thin) or Capellini — 2.5 – 3 oz/person
• Strawberry vinaigrette leftover from marinade — about 2 TBS/person
• Mentsuyu Japanese Noodle Soup Base  (follow the label instruction whether you have to dilute) — about 2 TBS at diluted strength
• Assortment of toppings, preferably in various colors – enough to cover the top, about 1/2 – 1 cup (4 or 5 kinds, 1-2 oz each):
  • julienned vegetables
  • Julienned protein, such as cooked chicken, turkey, ham or egg

Method:

1. Julienne all the vegetables and protein.
2. If using egg (about 1/2 per serving):
   1. Beat egg with a little bit of salt and sugar, make a very thin omelet (just like you would make a crepe) in a non-stick pan.
   2. When the egg is almost set, let it cool a bit (it will continue to cook in the pan with residual heat), roll it up and cut into thin strips.
   3. Or just use wedges of boiled egg.
3. Mix the strawberry vinaigrette and diluted mentsuyu noodle soup base approximately 1 to 1 or to taste.
4. Boil the noodles according the package instruction.  Drain and wash in cold ice water until the noodles are very cold.
5. In a salad bowl, pile up cold noodles in the center, and arrange shredded chicken/ham/egg and julienned vegetables attractively.  Pour generous amount of vinaigrette around the top and serve cold.

Note: When I try something completely new like that, I mix a small amount first, make sure I like it, and proceed with the rest.  Also add mentsuyu noodle broth gradually, so that you’d know how much you like in yours.

This is a versatile, go-to recipe for the warmer months.  You can create infinite possibilities by changing vinaigrette, topping and/or noodles — meaning whatever you have on hand.  One of my favorite variation is Hiyashi Chuka, Cold Chinese Noodle Salad.

What’s your favorite topping or vinaigrette for summer pasta or noodles?  Please share and leave a comment below for everyone!

Marinated Strawberries and Radishes

“I got the best adult toy ever.”

When I said that on the Facebook, some of our friends got overly curious about what it is.

What do you think it is?

I got an Iphone, finally. It’s a lot more easy and fun than I thought, and to my surprise, it saves me a ton of time. As you know, I like things easy, efficient and fun.

One example is taking a photo for my blog.

OK, the quality of the photo may not be as good as it could be, but just being able to take a photo, upload it on Facebook immediately without downloading and all that hassle, AND be able to use it for my blog post right away. I’m writing this post as a reply to my email with that photo on my IPhone. Wordpress has this great feature that if I send it to a particular email ID, it gets posted on my blog immediately. It’s amazing as soon as I push “Send/Receive” on my Outlook, I will find an email from Wordpress that a new article is posted on “Secrets of a Kitchen Wizard”.

So when I made this new dish my friend Fumi told me about, I took a photo with my brand new IPhone and posted on Facebook immediately, as a practice. Yes, it’s the dish those who came to my class last Saturday get to sample. : )

She found this recipe from a new Japanese movie called “Eatrip” that I’d love to see.

The combination of strawberries and radishes sounds a bit strange, but it’s really nice and refreshing. Best to eat it when it’s marinated for about 3 hours, not too long (it gets limp.)

Marinated Strawberries & Radishes (from Japanese movie “Eatrip“)

Ingredients:

• 1 pack strawberries (cut in half or quarter if big)
• 1 bunch radishes – about 10 (sliced thin)
• 2 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
• 2 TBS Red Wine Vinegar
• 2 TBS Turbinado or Brown Sugar
• Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Mix EVOO, Wine Vinegar, Sugar well in a container with a lid.
2. Add Strawberries and radishes and mix gently to coat them well with the vinaigrette. Season with a little bit of Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Cover, and let it marinate for about 3 hours in the fridge.

Note: You can use the leftover juice as strawberry vinaigrette for salad. I mixed it with mentsuyu noodle soup base for my cold Japanese noodle salad the next day, it was delicious! (and yes, my leftover sliced radishes also adorned this pretty dish.) I’ll share the recipe on the next post!

By the way, it’s still not late to sign-up for Diageo Wine-Pairing Teleseminar on Friday, and get access to their great Employee Wine Sale.

Want to know more? Check out this post.

Or sign up immediately from here.

Feel free to share with your friends and family who’d love to stock up great wine for great price!

So what’s your favorite function or apps on your IPhone? Please share with me.

Happy New Year!

2009 was a challenging year, for our economy, as well as many of us, including our own.  So I am excited to have that year behind us.  I read somewhere that 2010 is good year in Fen Shui, so I’m excited about what the new year has to offer.

As we look forward, one thing I want to know about is the trend prediction of 2010, you guessed it, about food.

1. Eat Fresh, Eat More Vegetables!

On recent Iron Chef, First Lady Michelle Obama opened the super chef battle of Bobby Flay & Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford of the White House vs. Mario Batali, Emeril Ragasse.  The secret ingredients were vegetables from the White House garden, to inspire Americans to cook and eat more vegetables.  I heard that Mrs. Obama actually don’t cook much even before she moved to the White House, yet the First Lady herself is involved in a major TV event like this is HUGE!  I see more and more focus will be placed on eating fresh, especially vegetables, rather than prepared food as well as meat and carbohydrates.

Given the obesity rate of the US is epidemic 33% for adults and 16% for children, 2 in 3 adult Americans are considered overweight,  this is truly a welcoming trend, and will change life of many.  The key is, it needs to happen on everyone’s home, not just on TV or at the restaurants.  We as a nation, need to change our eating habits.  The challenge is to show the general public eating vegetables are not just eating these raw celery from veggie platter, or plain boiled (and possibly cooked to death) broccoli. If that’s the only thing they know, of course they won’t want to eat much vegetables.  There are many easy, more flavorful options, if they are willing to experiment.

One of the easiest and tastiest is roasted and/or grilled vegetables.  My trick is to stick a whole vegetables like eggplants and sweet potatoes (the Obamas’ favorite veggie, according to the First Lady) in toaster oven at 400F while I’m cooking something else.  Compared with an conventional oven, it doesn’t require much pre-heating, so it’s much faster, and reduces energy as well.  Then I have them ready to go in the air-tight container in the refrigerator for various dishes later in the week. 

Click here for my super easy and healthy eggplant appetizer recipe I posted this on SFGate.com site.  It takes less than 5 minutes if you already have grilled/roasted eggplants.  You’ll love it!

Stay tuned for more posts about the food trends in 2010…

What food trend do you predict in 2010?  What’s is your new year’s resolution around food?  Leave me a comment, I’m interested in hearing from you.

PS: Is “Eating Healthy” one of your new year’s resolutions?  Then join us for my free class this Saturday, January 16th in Oakland.  Hope you can make it!