Marla's Place

Earthquake here 3/11

2011-03-12T00:03:00.002+09:00

We are okay! We are WAY south, far from the major devastation. We are under tsunami watch and we do live near the coastline. It is midnight and I hope that I can bring myself to get some sleep at some point tonight.

But I just sat staring at a picture on the news of the tsunami hitting Sendai. In the foreground of the pictures sat calm and order. Nice rows of crops, cars parked in perfect lines in parking lots. Houses in their rightful place with yards and trees around them. And just inches away is the wall of the water bringing chaos and destruction. In just moments all that order and structure would be destroyed.

I can't help but feel that this reflects the internal condition of so many Japanese. On the outside by all appearances, they have it all together. Everything is orderly and calm. But on the inside, so often there is chaos and really broken hearts and shattered spirits rest on the inside, just inches away from that peaceful exterior.

Only God can heal a nation like this, both spiritually and physically. My deepest and loudest prayer is that this kind of tragedy will open up the Japanese spirit. That hearts would break and pour out. That many would stop hiding behind that hard, rigid exterior. That a flood of true emotion and repentance would break forth, and by God's power and grace, he would bring healing and put it all back together again!

Chicken Egg Stew

2011-03-10T23:28:00.000+09:00

So a couple months ago we were at a friends house (Hi Kiko! love ya) and she made this awesome stew. I was totally hooked when I saw her cracking eggs and putting them on top of the stew to cook at the end! SOOOOOO yummy! She said it is an Ethiopian dish she found in a cookbook a long time ago. She doesn't even follow the recipe anymore, so I asked how she makes it and then came home and started working up my own version.

I searched for a dish like this online, but couldn't find anything exactly like it. So I'm just gonna name mine Chicken Egg stew. It comes with the chicken and the egg, although it is also yummy with sausage weiners which is originally the way Kiko makes it. I'm also calling it chicken eggs cause my precious Daddy used to call eggs "chicken eggs". I never realized until much later in life how funny this term is for eggs. Nobody specifies that they are chicken eggs when talking about them, but shouldn't we!? There ARE all kinds of eggs out there! My Dad was a riot! Miss him so much.

Anyhooo, this was our dinner tonight. Are you beginning to wonder if the only thing I cook is stewed type stuff with lots of chopped up veggies??? I have a lot more up my sleeve, but the cold season is coming to an end and I LOVE these types of stews and it is the best way to get lots of veggies in my kids, so I have been cooking this way a lot lately. I hope to add some more variety into sharing what I cook with you soon. Especially more Japanese stuff!

First you will need...

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 Tbsp cooking oil

3 cups celery, chopped

2 onions, diced

2 carrots, diced

salt and pepper

1/2 tsp Paprika

1/2 tsp Parsley

dash of Cayenne pepper (I would add much more if we weren't feeding little ones, so add more if you like spice!)

1/4 tsp Cardamom

1/2 tsp Coriander

salt and pepper to taste

2 cubes buillion

2 cans diced tomatoes

Begin chopping the veggies. I started with my onion...

Then I remembered I forgot to put the rice on to cook. This is a tragedy if you realize it too late! So I paused to wash rice...

rinse and repeat, just like shampoo and conditioner!

Pop it in your handy dandy automatic cooker thingy

Push the button and do a little jig to the fun little tune it plays for you

and go back to chopping your veggies!

Next up, carrots! Same as you may have seen before, we want to dice them up and this is how I do it...

Make several slices along the length of the carrot

Roll it to the side and repeat again.

You'll get a grid like cut like this...

Lay her down there, and chop away!

Repeat all the way up the stem and try to run off the little munchkin that always shows up to steal when carrots are being chopped. Today she tells me, "Mommy, I'm a wabbit!" So cute!

now begin chopping the celery while trying to prevent too many carrot pieces from being stolen!

Distract the thief with your stealth tactics! Show her how pretty the base of a stalk of celery looks!

"Ohhhh Mommy, it looks like a rose!" Continue to distract by discussing how awesome God made the things around us.

Employ the thief, who now becomes your new assitant to chop some more veggies!

She's gonna be a professional chef one day! I just know it!

Chop up some garlic! (Facebook won't give me pictures of garlic from my past album at the moment, so now you know I cheat and don't take pictures of the same thing every time, LOL!)

Now giggle with your assitant as she continues to practice her newfound skill of lighting the stove and JUMPING every time the flame shoots out! I LOVE how far back she stands when she is doing this, LOL!

Ask your assitant to pour some oil in the pan and then turn your back for just a second to put something in the sink, then turn back around to "Mommy is this enough?" with six gallons of oil in the pan! Figure out later how to put some of that oil back in the bottle! LOL. Switch to another frying pan and borrow a little of the 6 gallons from the other pan. Then stash the other pan somewhere so it won't show up in all your pictures!

Heat garlic on low heat in the frying pan until it begins to sizzle.

Realize at this moment you didn't get pictures of the chicken being cut into bite size pieces cause you were too busy making sure no little fingers got cut off in the process. So add your chicken that was cut up earlier into the oil and brown it on the outside!

This beautiful collection of goodness should be waiting nearby.

Dump it all in and stir fry till veggies are tender.

Give a little darling a cup of milk! Marvel at how adorable he is! Don't marvel too long and forget about the 6 year old with fire behind you!

Once veggies are tender pour in the two cans of diced tomato. I always fill one can about 1/3 full with water, transfer the water back and forth between the cans to get all the good tomatoey yummines off the sides of the cans, and dump that on in the stew as well.

At this point add the two cubes of boullion and all the spices.

salt and pepper

1/2 tsp Paprika

1/2 tsp Parsley

dash of Cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp Cardamom

1/2 tsp Coriander

salt and pepper to taste

If you like even more heat, I wouldn't hesitate to add some red pepper flakes or more cayenne and Paprika. Pepper is YUMMY in this too, so don't be shy with the pepper if your family can take the heat.

Have your trusty assitant take a few shots, like one after the spices were added while waiting for it to come to a boil.

and one of you covering it with a lid and turning down the flame for this to simmer for about 10~15 minutes.

Stir occassionaly and then after about 10 minutes taste and adjust the flavor if needed.

Now, with the back of a ladel, press into the stew and create a little bowl for a chicken egg to rest.

crack one chicken egg and slide that little feller into the spot you created for him.

Do the same with an egg for each member being served. Master Kiko had SEVEN eggs in her stew the night we were at her house!

cover that with a lid to cook. I set my timer for 5 minutes cause we like our eggs on the runny side. If you like a firm egg yolk, I'd go with 8 minutes or even more.

Now arrange some rice on plate like this. Create sort of an ant hill type of shape here so the stew and egg can be served in the middle and won't run off!

When the eggs are done, carefully ladel out some stew and the egg into each rice hill!

Mine don't look so pretty, I tried really hard to make it look all professional and the harder I tried the more it seemed to fall apart!

I placed each plate on the table as I finished it, and I turned around to see Kai already in his seat and digging in before I'd served everyone and called them to the table! He LOVES this stuff!

There you have it, Chicken egg stew

Easy EASY cookies in Japan...

2011-03-08T23:31:00.001+09:00

So since I moved to Japan, I have never been able to get my American cookie recipes to work. Something about the flour here. I cheat and do it with American cake mix. My cake recipes don't work with the flour in Japan either, so I keep the cake mixes on hand. I order them a case at a time from the Foreign Buyers Club in Kobe.

So tonight we whipped up a batch. Enjoyed some for ourselves and took some over to the neighbors, who have now started the Japanese thing of exchanging little gifts back and forth. I took her some pie, she brought me some cute little hand towels for the kids, I took her some cake, she brought me some of the most delicious cherry tomatoes I've ever eaten, and tonight I took her some cookies! This is how you start a ministry to your neighbors ;P This back and forth exchange will probably go on now forever. and one of the things I LOVE is that Hana LOVES it! She loves cookie and she loves giving away what she cooked! This is like the beginning of a little ministry for my girl!

My basic recipe for cake mix cookies is 1 bag of yellow cake mix, 2 eggs and 1/3 cup of oil. Then I add whatever my little heart desires at the moment. I chop up a dark chocolate bar (chocolate chips are too expensive here and too hard to find), throw in some nuts, or some dried fruit, etc.

Tonight I wanted to add oatmeal. I was craving oatmeal cookies. So here is how Hana and I made the cookies tonight (sorry no pictures, I figure you have seen a cookie before, lol)

1 box of Yellow cake mix (I used supermoist butter Betty Crocker)

2/3 cup oatmeal

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil (if your mix is NOT the supermoist buttery kind like mine was, you could use butter instead of oil, if your living on the edge!)

Dump all that into a bowl together and mix it up, until it takes on a cookie dough consistency. Then tonight we chopped some walnuts and also added about 1/3 cup of dried cranberries. You could add any kind of dried fruit, nuts or chocolate you want. I bet this would be yummy as white chocolate macadamia nut! Or just white chocolate (I love white chocolate).

So add in the extras, spoon it out onto a cookie sheet (or the little tray that comes with your convection oven in Japan). I cook my cookies on top of these handy little professional baking mats that I discovered a few years ago thanks to my brother the almost professional chef ;P

These cookies will not spread out, so I spoon them on the sheet and then press them down and shape them to the thickness I want before baking.

Bake at 190C for 10-12 minutes. Allow them to cook for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cook. Or before you eat about ten of them hot and gooey and then deliver the rest to the neighbors!!!

THAT's how you make good cookies in Japan!

Sloppy Moes

2011-03-05T22:28:00.001+09:00

This is a sloppy joe sandwich. I don't know much about the rest of America, but if you grew up in the south THIS is a classic meal! I remember eating it most at my grandparents' houses. It is yummy!

Well, that was way back in my younger years. I had all but forgotten about sloppy joes until early on in our marriage when I brought home a few packs of the seasoning from America and it became a big hit with first my husband, then his parents, and then his parents' whole church! We made it for lunch one Sunday for everyone in the church and they were all raving about it! Many of them took it home as left overs and came back the next Sunday raving about how awesome it is over rice!!! LOL!

I had no idea how to make it from scratch, and wouldn't have had a clue where to start without those seasoning packets. Then one evening many months ago when I was making my dry curry recipe, I decided to toss in a can of tomato sauce. I tasted the recipe BEFORE adding the curry and it was DEVINE! It was identical to what I remember a sloppy joe tasting like. So my home made version of sloppy joe was born. However, I call it "sloppy moe", because it is a sloppy joe with a whole lot "moe" in it! That is, more vegetables! I try to get veggies in my kiddos anyway I can!!!

Let's get cooking! You will need...

300 grams ground pork or beef (about 1/2 pound) I used pork this evening

2 cloves garlic

1 large onion, diced

2 large carrots, diced

6~8 bell peppers, diced (yields about 2 cups)

2 cans of diced tomato (400 grams or 14 oz)

1 Tbsp oil

1/3 cup worcestershire sauce

2 cubes of buillon

1 Tbsp of soy sauce (not pictured)

salt and pepper to taste

Take your two cloves of garlic and remove the peel

Then finely chop that up and set it aside for later!

Now we are going to dice the bell pepper just like we did in my dry curry recipe.

Slice them right down the middle

Pull out that spine, seeds and the stem on top leaving as much of the bell pepper as possible.

Slice it into long sticks like this, a.k.a. julienne it!

Then rotate it 90 degrees and chop away!

place all that aside in a bowl and lets ~~shed some tears~~ dice an onion.

We've done this several times recently in my recipes. Lop off the top, peel the outside and cut it in half down the middle (root to stem). Lay it on its side, then cut from root to top making narrow slices all the way across the onion leaving the root in tact.

Now rotate that onion 90 degrees and slice again for a nicely diced onion!

place all that diced onion aside in a bowl and lets move on to the carrot.

I like to make several slices down the length of the carrot this way.

Then roll the carrot on it's side so the slices you just made are now laying horizontally. Then cut again in the same away, along the length of the carrot.

This is what you should now have...

Now if we chop across the slices we just made, you magically get some nicely diced carrot.

repeat that process all the way up the stem of both carrots

Now we are ready to begin cooking!

Place a frying pan over low heat with about a Tbsp of oil.

Pour the garlic in and allow it to slowly warm until the oil begins to sizzle.

Now dump in all the ground meat, turn up the heat and brown it

Pour in all the veggies and stir fry on high heat until they are tender.

Dump in both cans of diced tomato, two cubes of boullion, 1/3 cup of worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil and let this cook well till all those flavors are married together and harmonizing better that the Gatlin Brothers! (DON'T tell me you don't know who the Gatlin Brothers are!!!!!!! Go look it up - NOW. Look on you tube! For the love of country music, go listen to All the Gold in California!!! If you don't this recipe won't taste very good!)

Taste it and adjust the flavor. Sometimes it may need a little more salt and pepper. Tonight I added about a Tbsp of soy sauce and it added the perfect finishing touch!

Cook this down until much of the liquid is gone and it is sloppy joe consistency (i.e. it'll all stay in the burger, and won't make a runny soggy mess of the bun)

I had some dinner rolls form Costco so tonight we had them like tiny little burgers, I think they call these "sliders" in the states at many restaurants? Did I get that right?

One just looks way too lonely...

THERE, that is much better. Only most of us went back for seconds and thirds. Hana and Kai were just eating the sloppy moe filling alone by the end of the meal.

I threw in a coke to try to really feel like I was back at home. Only things is, Granny always only had Pepsi at her house. And Memaw always only had Dr. Pepper. But my sugarpie went out and bought that coke especially for me, so it was PERFECT, since we are at HOME... in Japan!

Spinach and Tomato Quiche

2011-02-28T22:13:00.001+09:00

Quiche!!! I don't remember having quiche before coming to Japan. For some reason a savory pie just sounded... weird. Oh what I was missing out on! During my first two years here in Japan, me and a girlfriend (hey Kathryn) loved to go to a tea shop called Auntie's. Their lunch set had quiche, scones, salad, tea and a cake! I fell in LOVE with quiche. If I had known it is so easy to make at home all those years ago, I could have had it more than 2 or 3 times a year ;)

I have a base recipe of ingredients for quiche and then for the meat, veggies and toppings I vary it every time I make it, depending on what is in the fridge or what was fresh at the market. I love how moist and yummy this recipe always turns out, and my FAVORITE topping in the whole world is tomatoes!!! Give it a try...

First you will need pie crust from my grandmother's pie crust recipe. Roll one portion out and prepare it in a pie plate for the quiche filling. All those instructions are in Granny's pie crust recipe.

Or I GUESS you could try store bought pie crust, but just don't tell me you used store bought pie crust. We'll pretend it never happened. A note for those living in Japan, store bought pie crust here doesn't go well with this recipe. It gets all mushy, it isn't strong enough to hold up to this quiche recipe, so I suggest making the pie crust from scratch.

For the egg mixture you will need the following ingredients...

4 eggs

1/2 onion

1~2 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup grated cheese (use your favorite kind, I love Goda)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup cream

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp oregano

1 Tbsp flour

Veggies and toppings...

in the pic above you can see that I used bacon, spinach and tomato

other yummy suggestions..

asparagus

mushrooms

avocado

zucchini

or be creative with the things you love!

Let's get started on making this one. In a large bowl break 4 eggs and beat them slightly with a fork.

We'll need half an onion, so take your onion and peel it, and cut it in half.

Store half of that onion for something else later, and then finely chop the other half for the quiche.

Take that chopped onion and just dump it into the egg.

Take one or two cloves of garlic and peel them.

Then grind it. I love my litle egg plant shaped grinder that I found in the first house we lived in and have kept all these years! I hope it lasts a lifetime, it's so handy for garlic!

Throw away the root that is left!

Scrape the ground up garlic into your bowl.

Then add the cheeses. Just dump them in there!

Add 1/2 cup milk,

and 1/2 cup cream,

again just dump it in there, or have your mini-me do it! ;) Isn't her sweet little hand the cutest!

Dump the spices in (feel free to add any fresh herbs you maye have, or an italian seasoning mix, or just go with a salt and pepper flavor if you prefer). I didn't use basil on this day, but I love putting in basil leaves!

Add salt and pepper to taste.

And 1 Tbsp of flour to act as a bit of a thickening agent to hold the whole thing together when cooked!

Now have your mini-me mix that up to her heart's content while you chop a couple veggies and bacon.

I first cut up the bacon into smaller pieces and put that into the egg mix.

Next I prepared the spinach. I always wash the stems and leaves before cutting the root.

Then lay it down and cut the root portion off, and rinse again around the exposed stem area to get any remaining grit out that may have been trapped in there with the root still on.

Now begin to chop it into the pieces about one inch long like so...

I chose about three stalks of spinach and they yielded about one cup, packed, of spinach.

I also dump this into the egg mixture and mix it in.

Now take your empty pie shell...

and dump it all in there!!!

Next I sliced a couple of tomatoes because I LOVE love LOVE the flavor of baked tomato! So tart and bold, MMMMMMMmmmMMMMM!

Lay those out on top of the quiche in a nice little wagon wheel pattern!

I like to slightly submerge the tomato and let a little egg run in on top of it. It makes the final product look yummy!

Now sprinkle a little more cheese right on top!

And bake at 160ºC (325ºF) for one hour. When you remove it from the oven, shake the pie plate back and forth gently and if the middle of the quiche jiggles like jello, it still needs to bake a little longer. Put it in for another 5 minutes or so and check again. If at this point the top is beginning to look too done or the crust is starting to burn, you should cover it with foil for the remainder of the baking time.

Savory yumminess in a pie shell. H.E.A.V.E.N. in the kitchen! YUM!

Pie crust recipe

2011-02-22T00:29:00.001+09:00

The enduring and classic pie crust recipe passed down to me by my grandmother. No telling how many generations this recipe has been in the family! Enjoy! It is great for pecan pie, apple pie, quiche, and a WHOLE lot more!!!

You will need...

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter (one stick, 1/2 of a Japanese block of butter, or 100 grams)

1 cup shortening (200 grams)

1 egg

1 Tbsp vinegar

5 Tbsp ice water

Place flour in a large bowl, and mix in 1 tsp of salt.

Just PRETEND that butter isn't in there yet. It is all in your imagination. No butter has entered the picture yet!

Measure your shortening. In Japan it comes in all kinds of crazy different containers and amounts. Today the one I found was in a tube, and I just cut the thing up to get it all out.

Have you ever tried to squeeze shortening out of a tube. You'd have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger.

LOL!

I put my shortening in the fridge for a bit because it was getting warm since I had the heater going. We want it to be pretty firm and cold.

Measure your butter. Try not to link your fingers too much while you measure. You know, germs and all! ;P

Now dump the butter into the flour, you can cut it into some smaller pieces just to speed things up a bit.

and the shortening in.

If you have one of these handy dandy little dudes called a pastry cutter (or ペストリーブレンダー in Japanese), the next part of this job is gonna be pretty easy. If not... um you could use two knifes, slicing parallel to each other through the mixture, or you could use a large fork? Try something! Just get in there and cut that shortening and butter up a lot, so it'll turn into little pebbles covered in flour!

smash and twist and mix until it looks like a bunch of tiny little pebbles.

Once it looks like this (I tend to leave some pretty good chunks in there, I like it that way)

Now you are ready to add the vinegar. If someone could explain to me why vinegar makes a pie crust so crisp and yummy, I'd love it... no on second thought, it doesn't really matter. for some reason folks, vinegar makes pie crust really crisp and yummy. I've tried making it without, and it just ain't the same. Go for the vinegar!

I make pie crust with a fork. Don't know why, but it is what works best for me. So with my fork I mix in the vinegar a little.

Pour in the egg and mix it around well.

NOW, this is the part that takes a little practice. The recipe says 5 Tbsp of ice water, but on some days you may need 3 and others you may need 6. It depends on how humid it is, the temperature of the room, the shape of your bowl, how long your fingernails are and the phase of the moon (or something like that). ;P And unfortunately at this point my hands were too dirty to take many pictures so...

So one tablespoon at a time, pour in that ice cold water, and mix it around with the fork. the dough will begin to pull together. Don't over mix, but between each Tbsp of water, mix the dough around. When it starts to clump together in bigger clumps, take some in your hand and see if it will all stick together when you squeeze it in your hand. if some of it crumbls away, add a little bit more water. Be sure that all of the flour gets exposed and mixed, and if some powdery area still remains, add one more Tbsp. and so on until you can form a ball with it. I have NEVER had to add more than 6 Tbsp of water, so I wouldn't go there probably.

Now stick your hands in there and just press it together into a ball. No need to knead it (LOL no pun intended), just press it all together. If some of it is still a little dry crumbles away, dribble a tiny bit of water on that spot. Be careful not to add too much water or to over mix it.

Now take the dough out of the bowl onto a slightly floured surface and divide it into 3 equal parts.

I bag each part and put it in the fridge or freezer. If you are going to use it right away, put it in the fridge for AT LEAST 30 minutes if not more. If you are going to use it three or more days later, I would freeze it. It freezes beautifully. Just take it out and put it back in the fridge about 12 to 18 hours before you need it again.

Now get a pie plate.

Generously flour the surface where you will roll out the dough.

Remove one piiece of dough from the fridge and place it in the middle of the area. Also flour the top, and the surface of your rolling pin

Rol it out until it is a little larger than your pie plate. check often to be sure it is not sticking to the counter. Or better yet, roll it out on top of oven paper or parchment paper. I normally do this, but I was out of paper tonight. if you do this, be sure and wet the counter top underneath you parchment paper with a few drops of water so it won't slide around.

slightly rub some flower on the top of the dough when you are ready to transfer it to your pie plate and then roll the dough up on your roller like this. Be sure it won't stick to itself!

Now transfer it to your pie plate.

center it...

You will probably have a raised edge in several spots

We want to fold this in between the pie shell and the pie plate to create some thickness for the edge of the crust.

Now press the top edge down a bit and rotate your way around the plate until you have an edge with uniform thickness all the way around. Don't be afraid to push on some of the the thicker areas to disperse the dough to an area with less thickness.

Now you can do anything to the edge you like. You can just use a fork to score it. Or you can create a wave in it like I did...

place your pointer finger and middle finger on the surface of the crust edge on the far side of the pie plate. Put your thumb in between your pointer and middle finger and pinch.

Now place your pointer finger in the groove where your middle finger was, and move your thumb and middle finger over to a portion of the crust not yet pinched, and pinch again!

and so on..

and so forth...

until you start to get this little wave!

Continue to pinch the edge all the way around until you have something like this...

It took me 10 years of making pie crusts for it to start to look like that! and you know what, no matter what it looks like, it tastes scrumptious just the same!!!

Kawara Soba (Roof Tile Soba Noodles)

2011-02-19T23:16:00.001+09:00

So this evenings dinner is probably my 2nd favorite food in Japan! Second only to Hamakatsu restaurant's chicken katsu! Kawara Soba is literally translated roof tile soba! One of my FAVORITE things about Japanese houses are the roof tiles! I love the effect of these concave clay tiles laying in perfect rows across a roof top. My favorite ones are the bright blue ones but they come in other tones as well.

If you eat kawara soba at an authentic restaurant, the soba is served on the bottom side of a HOT roof tile (see picture above) which is why they call it roof tile soba! Of course not eating it off of a roof tile will not affect the flavor one single bit and I don't have any extra roof tiles hanging around! So tonight we are whipping out our hot plate and having this simple but delicious meal!

THE NOODLES

If you live in Japan this recipe is going to be a cinch! At your grocery store in the section where refrigerated noodles are sold, look for this package or one like it. The character for roof is 瓦、so the package will say 瓦そば. Inside this package are the noodles already prepared AND the soup broth! All you have to prepare are the toppings.

If you don't live in Japan but you want to try this, for the noodles you will need

"green tea macha soba noodles"

I found them at amazon.com here...Kanesu Cha Soba Japanese Matcha Noodles
At Global Rakuten... Cha Soba Noodles
If you search more on the internet for "cha soba noodles" or "green tea soba noodles" you may be able to find a better deal!
Check your local Asian Market as well!

But you know what, regular soba noodles or even udon noodles would be tasty with this recipe!

THE SAUCE - Tsuyu

For the sauce (if you don't have access to the sauce included packages)...

Once again Amazon has it here, Tsuyu. Pay attention to the package directions, some of them are more concentrated than others.

If you want to try to make it on your own, this will get you pretty close to the flavor you want but it won't be the same.

2 cups water
1/4 cup mild soy sauce
1/4 cup mirin
3 Tbsp cooking sake
1 inch of dried kelp (optional)

Combine all of that in a small sauce pan and simmer for 5 minutes, set aside.

MOMIJI OROSHI - that pink stuff on top

Also, IF you want to be really authentic, you might want to get your hands on some of this stuff Momiji Oroshi もみじおろし (literally grated maple tree) It isn't really ground maple tree. Actually, it is daikon and Japanese red pepper flakes grated together. I think because the color is so much like Japanese maple, they named it so. The recipe to make this outside of Japan if you want it, is included at the end of this post, however it will still be good without it.

So let's get started...

If you are preparing from dry noodles, boil the noodles acccording to package instructions, drain and set aside for later. We want them to drain well too, so do this first thing! You may even want to cook them slightly underdone because you are going to stir fry a little bit later.

You will need...

Kawara Soba Noodles with broth (or make it from the recipe above)
3 eggs
1/2 to 1 pound of thinly sliced beef (200-500 grams) depending on how much your family likes meat!
2 Tbsp soy sauce (not pictured)
2 Tbsp cooking sake (not pictured)
lemon, sliced
nori (this is totally optional)
6-8 thin green onions, chopped into chives
momiji oroshi

Prepare the Egg

To prepare the egg, you will need a small non-stick pan. Mine is rectangular in shape but round is fine too

Crack and beat all 3 eggs well in a bowl or large measuring cup, preferably with a pour spout.

Heat the pan on a medium flame (I like to brush just a TINY layer of oil onto the pan with a folded paper towel because mine is old and the non-stick surface is no longer doing his job, someday I'm gonna fire him and find another). Once the pan is hot, turn it down to a low flame.

Pour in about 2 Tbsp of beaten egg, pick up the pan by the handle and swirl it around until the eggs runs all around and it makes a thin layer all over the surface. If there wasn't enough egg to cover the whole surface and little wholes are left, fill in those whole with a little bit more egg. The goal here is to have a thin layer all over the pan. Then put it back over the flame and do not to touch it! Just be patient and let that underside cook. This is the hardest part for me, the suspense always kills me, I want to pick at it, cause it needs my help to cook, right!?

If it starts to bubble, turn your flame down lower!

When the sides start to pull away from the pan and the top looks done (no longer wet), flip it out of the pan onto a cutting board. (You can turn it over and brown the other side if you are extra dilligent, unlike me ;)

Repeat this process until you have a bunch of little thin layers of cooked egg stacked on top of one another like this!

ignore that slice down the middle, that isn't supposed to happen until later ;)

Now let those eggs cool.

2. Okay, now on to the meat which is SUPER easy!

In a frying pan just dump the meat in and cook it! See I told you that was easy! I don't add oil because the meat produces a little of it's own from the fat.

While occassionally stirring that meat, slice a lemon into thin slices and set these aside.

And slice the green onions to make chives. Seperate into about 1/2 cup to use as a topping and the rest for each individual to add to their dipping sauce if they like.

When the meat is done, flavor it with your 2 Tbsp of soy sauce and 2 Tbsp of cooking sake. Stir fry that until most of the liquid is gone and set aside to use as a topping when we are ready to serve..

Now back to the egg which has hopefully cooled enough to handle by now. Cut the stack of layers into a managable size (I cut mine in half).

then I slice to make long thin strips of egg.

Set this aside in a bowl to use as a topping when we are ready to serve.

I like to cut up the nori so it is easier to eat and mix in with everything.

3. Time for the finishing touches.

Now, open your noodle packages or take the prepared noodles that have been drained. Heat your hot plate, medium/high setting (We like to do this right in the middle of the table so the noodles stay hot and get crunchy like they would on the roof tiles at the restaurant, so get our your extension chord and put the hot plate ON your table if you have one. If not, just do it on the stove in a large skillet, and put the skillet right on the table when it's ready.)

If you are using the packaged noodles, just use your hands to pull the noodles apart and put them on the hot surface (you'll notice they are slightly coated in oil to keep them from sticking together in the package, so you don't need any extra oil). If you are using freshly boiled noodles, add about a Tbsp of oil to the pan or hot plate.

sorry for the low lighting in those pics!

Stir fry the noodles until they are heated all the way through and even some places are beginning to get a little crunchy (THIS is the good part)! Turn the setting on your hot plate down, OR take the skillet off the stove and pile on your toppings.

First the meat, spread it out so everybody hopefully gets a little!

Then the egg.

Then the nori if you are using it. You can use it just as is, in large rectangles, OR you can cut it into strips to make it easier to eat (I prefer cutting it). and the 1/2 cup chives you divided after chopping.

Lay lemons on top of that, and the momiji roshi!

Warm the sauce, and put into seperate small bowls for each individual.

I like to add more chives and the momiji oroshi to my sauce too!

and dig in!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what your hot plate should look like at the end!!!

Below is the home made recipe for the closest thing to momiji oroshi if you can't get the good stuff in from Japan!

Momiji Oroshi recipe

3-ounce piece daikon, cut a into small pieces

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

Dice daikon and put it in a blender with 2 tablespoons water, purée. Strain the mixture and drain 5 minutes. Transfer daikon to small bowl. wisk in cayenne pepper and paprika.