Roast Chicken

Preheat oven to 230ºC (450ºF).

Clean all the little bits of gross stuff out of the interior of your chicken. Rinse it out and pat it dry with paper towels. Just before cooking, fill the cavity loosely, no more than ¾ full, with rice stuffing or whatever stuffing you prefer. Close the cavities with a skewer. Fold the wings back securely behind the chicken. Tie the legs together at the ankles with string.

Place chicken, breast side up, on a grill above a baking pan, and cover the top of the bird lightly with foil. Place the pan in the oven. Turn down over to 180ºC (350ºF). Roast for about 20 minutes per pound. Remove the foil towards the end of cooking to allow the top to brown. 

There are a few ways to be sure your bird is cooked:

Move one of the legs; the joint should feel loose.
Liquid that runs from a pricked bird should be clear, not pink.
If you have a thermometer, the internal temperature of the thickest part of the thigh meat (be careful not to let the thermometer touch the bone) should be 74ºC (165ºF).

When done, remove the chicken from the oven and place on a platter. Allow to cool 10 minutes before carving. 

While it's cooling, use the pan drippings to make gravy.

To carve, hold the knee with a fork, gently pull it away from the body, and use your knife to cut away the leg. Carefully separate the joint by twisting the tip of your knife between the 2 bones. Divide the thigh from the drumstick similarly. Slice the breast starting at the neck area, and cut thin slices against the grain along the length of the breast. Your knife should be somewhat parallel to the contour of the breast. Arrange artfully on a platter or serve directly to plates.

Roll Cake

This is not a sweet cake. The sweetness is in the fruit and cream. If you want it more sweet, increase the sugar in the batter by 2-4 T.

Preheat oven to 190ºC (375ºF).

Line a long, thin pan with cooking parchment. If you have a jelly roll cake pan (10½"X15½"), use that. I don't, so I just use what I have.

Prepare your ingredients. You will need 3 bowls (one for mixing the cake, one for whipping egg whites, and one for sifting the dry ingredients into). Two whisks are also handy, one for the cake, and one for the egg whites.

4 eggs
½ C sugar
1 t vanilla
2 t cornstarch
¾ C minus 2 t flour
¾ t baking powder
½ t salt
fine or powdered sugar (for dusting)

whipped cream
strawberries

Separate the eggs. Put the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another.

Whip the egg yolks until light and airy. Gradually add the sugar and then the vanilla. Set aside.

Place the cornstarch in a measuring cup, and add flour until you have ¾ C. Pour this into a sifter, then add the baking powder and salt. Sift it all together into a bowl.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Set aside.

Whip the egg whites until stiff (when you pick up your whisk, there will be little peaks). Use a spatula to gently fold the batter into the whites. Continue folding until the batter is one color. Do not overmix. Overmixing will cause the cake to become rubbery.

Spread the batter in your pan, and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned and bounces back when gently touched.

Loosen the sides with a knife and gently slide the cake onto a cooling rack. Get a tea towel, and sprinkle on it a very light layer of powdered sugar. Turn the cake onto the sugared towel, peel off the parchment, roll it up carefully, and put it on the rack to cool.

When the cake is cooled, unroll it, remove the towel, and fill with whipped cream and strawberries. (If you like, you can prepare the strawberries ahead of time by washing, cutting, and sprinkling them with a little sugar. Keep them in the refrigerator until you use them.) Of course, you can use other fruit, like kiwis, bananas, blueberries, etc.

Alternately, you could fill it with whipped cream mixed with 10-20 grams of dark chocolate, melted in the microwave with a little coffee liqueur or espresso, then cooled before whipping into the whipped cream.

Refrigerate the cake until serving.

PS This cake can be covered with a chocolate ganache made from shredded dark chocolate with a little simmered heavy cream poured over it. Try using the same amounts of chocolate and cream. Make it in a ceramic or glass bowl, let it sit until the chocolate is mostly melted, and then stir with a rubber spatula. Once it is mixed, stop stirring. When cooled to a good pouring consistency, pour it over the refrigerated cake.

Guacamole

Guacamole with minced garlic and salt

Put in a wide, shallow bowl:

1-2 T freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
A little salt

Wash, dry, cut, scoop out, then put in the bowl and mash with a fork:

1-2 ripe avocados

Add:

1-2 T finely minced onions
1 small minced tomato

Some other additions could be:

finely minced garlic
a little cumin
a little cayenne
cilantro
minced Jalapeno peppers

Serve with chips.

Miso Soup

Miso soup made with Kagoshima white miso

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1/2 t dashi powder (bonito dashi is used traditionally, but konbu dashi works as well)

2 C water

2 T miso*

Your choice of ingredients (see below).

Place water and dashi powder in a pan and bring it to a boil. Add vegetables and cook until tender. Dissolve the miso in the broth. Don't boil once the miso is added to preserve its probiotics and aroma.

Serve.

*Pretty much any miso that you find at the supermarket will be fine. There are many varieties, and some are more robust than others, so adjust the amount of miso according to taste.

Some miso comes with dashi already added. If this is the type that you buy, then obviously you won’t need to add any dashi.

Some combinations to add to basic miso soup:

Tofu chopped in ½-1 cm squares, dried cut wakame seaweed.

Shiitake mushrooms, tofu.

Kabocha squash chopped in bite-sized pieces (this take a while to cook), shiitake, tofu.

Thinly sliced potatoes, thinly sliced onions.

Mixed mushrooms (shiitake, shimeji, etc.)

Bamboo shoots, wakame seaweed.

Diagonally sliced leek, tofu.

Spinach, tofu, green onions.

Whatever you have in your refrigerator.

Tips:

Add wakame close to serving time. Wakame left a long time in the soup tends to get a bit slimy.

Less is more. Keep your ingredients few. It’s not stew, it’s soup.

If you want to make miso soup with a mushroom base, which is very delicious, soak 2 dried shiitake mushrooms (for 30-60 minutes) in the water you will use for the soup. Take them out, remove the stems, slice them, and return to the pan. The mushrooms make a nice soup base, so you may not need much dashi. Continue cooking as for basic miso soup.

Erinn's Butterscotch Brownies

½ C butter (110 gm)

2 C brown sugar

2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1½ C flour

¼ t salt
2 t baking powder
1 C chopped nuts or a mix of nuts and chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Melt the butter by placing your metal mixing bowl in the preheating oven. While you do that, get your other ingredients ready.

When butter is melted, add all the other ingredients. (Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together to be sure there are no lumps.) Mix everything together, combining well.

Spread into 9X13" pan lined with cooking paper and bake for 25-30 minutes, until dry on top and almost firm.

Cool 10 minutes and cut into squares.

Lemon Chicken

Remove skin and any fat, then slice into ¾ cm lengthwise slices:

about 500 gm chicken breasts

Marinate for 30 minutes or more, in:

1 T soy sauce

1 T sesame oil

1½ t cornstarch

1 egg

½ T finely grated ginger

¼ t pepper

Prepare:

Canola or other oil for deep frying

Cornstarch (in a wide shallow bowl) for dredging before frying

Heat about 1cm of canola oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan. Remove chicken one-by-one from marinade and dredge with corn starch. When a wooden chopstick put into the oil bubbles a little, the oil is hot enough to use. Reduce heat to medium-low, and fry chicken slices for about 1 minute on each side, or until golden brown. Drain on a grill with newspaper underneath.

Sauce:

¼ C lemon juice

2 T water

¼ C honey 

A pinch of salt

1 T cornstarch - mixed with 3 T water until smooth

(Thin slices of lemon)

Please feel free to change these measurements according to how much sauce you want and the strength of the sauce you prefer. 

Heat lemon juice, water, honey, and salt. When very hot, add cornstarch mixed with water. Keep stirring until slightly thickened. (Add lemon slices and allow them to soften.) Pour over chicken right before serving.

Serve with rice.

Pasta with Cream Sauce

Serves 2-4.

A couple hours before you want dinner, place in a heavy pan:

1 chicken breast
300 ml water
1 chicken bouillon cube

Bring to a boil, and simmer over a low flame, covered, for 5 minutes. Turn off fire and leave the pot until it is cool.

Put on water to boil linguine or whatever noodles of your choice, and cook according to package instructions. Cook the noodles while you make the sauce. 

To make the sauce

1 T olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely minced
½-1 C chopped shiitake or other mushrooms
¼ t oregano
¼ t basil

Heat oil in a frying pan and gently stir fry the garlic, mushrooms, and spices. When they are fragrant, set aside.

In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat:

2 T butter
1 T olive oil

When the butter is melted, slowly add while whisking:

3 T flour

Continue to cook over a low flame, whisking constantly so the flour doesn't get lumpy. Let cook until you can smell that the flour is cooked (a few minutes). Then, very slowly add while whisking:

200 ml chicken broth + 200 ml milk (or whatever combination you prefer)

Continue stirring over a low flame until the mixture has thickened to your liking. Adding more broth, if necessary.

Add:

1 shredded chicken breast
¼ t freshly ground pepper
salt to taste

Just before serving, add:

¼-½ C shredded cheese

Top with fresh basil. Salt and pepper as desired.

Chicken Potato Salad

This is best to prepare ahead of time so that it will have time to cool before serving.

Remove the fat and skin from: 

2 chicken breasts (about 500gm)

Place in a pan, and add: 

300-600 ml water
1-2 chicken bouillon cubes

Boil on a low flame, covered, for 5 minutes. Turn off fire, and leave until cool. Remove the chicken and save the broth for Tofu Egg Soup, which goes nicely with this meal.

When chicken is cool, shred it and set it aside.

While the chicken is cooking, wash thoroughly (no need to peel) and cut into roughly 1½ cm cubes:

About 1 kg potatoes

Place in a deep, heavy pot, and almost cover completely with water. A few little bits sticking out from the top of the water is not a problem.  

Add:

1 t salt

Cover and boil until soft. Test by sticking a fork into one of the bigger pieces. It should go in easily.

Remove from heat and drain in a sieve or colander. Set aside to cool.

Mix in a large bowl:

¼ C mayonnaise
¼ C thick yogurt (like Greek yogurt)
2 T French mustard
2 T German dill pickle juice
½ C finely minced onion*
½ t freshly ground pepper
½ t salt

Then add and mix in any combination of, or all, of the following:

2 thinly sliced dill pickles
1 small thinly sliced cucumber
¼ C sliced black olives
other vegetables of your choice

Add shredded chicken and mix in, then add potatoes and stir until everything is mixed thoroughly. Place in an airtight container in the refrigerator to cool until serving.

*If you prefer your onions soft and slightly cooked, add the chicken and potatoes to the dressing while they are still a bit hot. Their heat will suffice in cooking the minced onions. Add the other vegetables after the salad has cooled.

Chili

2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic - minced
1 onion - minced
250 gm ground chicken*
1 bay leaf
(¼ t cinnamon)
¼ t chili powder
¼ t black pepper
¼ t basil
2 t cumin
2 t taco seasoning (or chili powder)
¼ t salt 
250 grams cooked beans** (mostly mashed)
1 carrot - finely grated
1 can (400 gm) of chopped tomatoes 
1 can of water (use the tomato can for measuring)
1 chicken bouillon cube

Heat oil in a frying pan and sauté onions and garlic for a minute or so. Add meat and break it up with your spatula and stir it around. As the meat is cooking, add the spices. When the meat is done, add the beans, carrot, tomatoes, water, and bouillon. (If you're in a rush, blend the tomatoes together with ½ of the beans, then add.)

Simmer over a very low fire, stirring occasionally, for about 30-45 minutes until the chili thickens a bit. Taste it, and add a little more salt if needed (maybe ¼ teaspoon).

Serve with cheese, rice, chips, or whatever you like. Or be like Columbo and serve it with crackers.  

*You can use ground beef if you prefer, but if so, cook the meat separately first, drain the grease, then add it to the sauce.

**As explained on the page Kitchen Staples:
To cook beans, first rinse them and soak them overnight in about twice as much water as beans. Rinse them and soak them some more. When you're ready to cook them, rinse them and add fresh water. Boil gently until they are soft. Depending on the type of bean, it can take from 30 minutes to an hour. Light colored beans cook faster; black beans take longer.

Shoga-yaki (Ginger Pork)

Prepare:

450 gm thinly sliced lean pork
1 onion, sliced thinly from side to center (making thin crescent shapes)

Mix in a bowl:

2 T grated ginger
3 T soy sauce
2 T mirin
1 T sake

Marinate pork for 5 minutes or more. Heat a little (½ T or so) canola or olive oil in a frying pan, and cook the onions. When they are nearly cooked, add the meat and marinade, and stir fry until cooked thoroughly. (If necessary, add 1 T of water.)

If you're making it for an obento, using the following non-oil method makes it so there is minimal grease. This is better for when you're eating a room-temperature obento.

1 onion, sliced thinly from side to center (making thin crescent shapes)
2 T grated ginger
3 T soy sauce
2 T mirin
1 T sake
1 t konbu dashi
1 C water

Place ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil. Skim off any scum, and simmer until liquid is almost all gone.