Homemade Japanese Curry Sauce

Yes.
You can make Japanese curry from scratch using all natural ingredients (in fact none of the ingredients are Japanese). Only new item I had to add to my pantry was curry powder.

Cooking time: 45 min
Servings: 4-5

Ingredients:

For the roux (a thick curry paste)

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
  
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
  
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoons ketchup (or tomato paste)

For the curry:

• 2 teaspoon oil
• 2 large onions roughly chopped
  
• 1 1/2 lb of boneless beef short ribs or chicken
• 2 carrots cut into chunks
• 4 cups water
• 1 large potato or kabocha squash
  
• 1 big fuji apple peeled cored and pureed (I used a blender)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  
• 1 teaspoon curry powder

Step 1: In a big pot, add oil at medium heat and saute onions until translucent and slightly brown. Add the meat of your choice and cook until the skins are caramelized.

Step 2: Add carrots, potatoes or squash, salt, curry powder, pureed apple and water. When the whole thing starts to boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 25 min.



Step 3: For the roux, in a separate sauce pan, melt the butter at low heat and add the curry powder, flour, cayenne pepper, and ketchup.

Step 4: Add liquid from the simmering pot to the roux and whisk.

Step 5: Add the finished roux into the simmering pot and stir. Add more salt or ketchup to taste.

Serve over white rice.

Maple Blueberry Jammy

I thought making jam at home was a long and arduous process, but this one is super easy and yummy ! Best of all, this is made w/ all natural ingredients (no pectin, no sugar) and the finished product is gooey and not watery. This will taste amazing on toast or on fresh cold yogurt in the morning !

Cooking time: 30 min
Serving: 1 small cup of jammy

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen & thawed blueberries
1/2 cup maple syrup (mildly sweet) or add more if you like it very sweet
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (or juice of half lemon)
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice (or juice of half orange)


Step 1: In a sauce pan, add the blueberries and smash them down a little so the berries will release their juice.
Step 2: Add maple syrup and turn on the heat at low. When it starts to simmer, add the lemon and orange juice and stir.

Step 3: Let the mixture bubble at low heat for about 30 min. Stirring occasionally.

Step 4: Turn off the heat after 30 min and let the mixture cool. It will thicken naturally as it cools down. Put it in a jar and keep in the refrigerator.

Spicy Nak-Ji Bokum (Spicy Octopus w/ Veg)

Perfect winter dish that will warm you up instantly !

Cooking time: 30-35min
Servings: 5

Ingredients:

Baby squid or octopus ( 1.5 lbs) - I get mine from Chelsea Market. Super tender when cooked !
1 carrot
1 head of broccoli
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
some rice cake (optional)

Spicy Red Sauce: (this could be prepared in advance & kept in refrigerator for a week)

1 tablespoon of go-chu-jang (korean red pepper paste)
1 1/2 tablespoons of go-chu-ga-ru (crushed dried red pepper)
2 tablespoons of mirin
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon of honey or agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon of minced ginger or ginger powder
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of warm water


Step 1: chop up all vegetables in bite size. Rinse the octopus in cold water and drain. Cut up the octopus in bite size.

Step 2: In a frying pan, add olive oil or vegetable oil and cook the vegetables.
Step 3: In a small pot, boil water to cook the octopus. When the water starts to boil, drop in the cleaned and cut octopus for about 1 min (be careful not to overcook. It will taste rubbery) then drain the water.

Step 4: Combine the drained & cooked octopus into the cooked vegetables and stir in the spicy red sauce. Cook for about 5 min until well incorporated.

Serve w/ a bowl of rice and some pickles !

Galbi-jjim (Braised Short Ribs)

Cooking Time: 1 1/2 hr
Serving: 6

This is my go-to dish whenever I have special guests over. Truly hearty and tasty braised short ribs that melt in your mouth !

Ingredients:
Boneless short ribs 1.5 lbs
Bone-in short ribs 1.5 lbs
1 Daikon (medium size)
1 carrot
1-2 heads of broccoli
2 yellow onions
1 fuji apple
4-6 mushrooms (any kind)
2 jalapenos
4 garlic cloves
1 inch ginger (your thumb size)
1 cup of soy sauce
1/2 cup Agave syrup
1/2 cup honey



Step 1: If you are using bone-in short ribs, dunk them in cold water for about 30 min and discard the water. This will get rid of impurities and will make the dish taste very clean.

Step 2: Cut up the meat (bone-in and boneless short ribs) into bite size and trim the fat wherever necessary.

Step 3: Peel and clean all vegetables. Combine roughly chopped onions, garlic, ginger and apple into a blender (or food processor) w/ 1 cup of soy sauce and 1/2 cup Agave and 1/2 cup honey. Puree the whole thing, then taste. It should taste well-balanced sweet & salty. Add more soy sauce or honey/agave if necessary.

Step 4: Place the meat in a big pot and pour the soy sauce mixture (step 3). You can stop here and let it marinate for 2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator or can move on to the next step. Allowing time to marinate will give you a deeper taste but cooking it right away won't make a big difference.














Step 5: Place chopped vegetable on top (daikon, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, more onions optional) of the meat and start cooking at low heat for about 1 hr to 1.5 hr.
















As the vegetables cook down and release their juices, it will start to smell amazing ! Serve with a bowl of rice.

Crunchy Nutty Bar

This snack bar is full of nutty goodness. I used my fav nuts- almonds, walnuts & pistachio- to create this crunchy nutty bar. Enjoy as your breakfast on-the-go or power bar before a big workout.

Baking time: 30-35min
Yields: 20-25 bars

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose-flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup (mildly sweet) or 3/4 cup (very sweet)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamon (optional)
1 3/4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup coarsely chopped almonds
1/4 cup coarsely chopped salted pistachio
1 egg at room temp
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter melted in microwave 30 seconds
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 F. With parchment paper, line a 9 by 13 by 2 inch metal baking dish and lightly spray the paper w/ veg. oil cooking spray.

Step 2: In a large bowl, mix together, flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and the oats.

Step 3: On a baking sheet, toast the nuts - almonds, walnuts, pistachio- in the oven at 350 F for 5 min.

Step 4: Mix melted butter, egg, vanilla extract in a separate bowl and set aside.

Step 5: Stir in the toasted nuts from Step 3 into Step 2 flour mix. Then add the maple syrup and the butter mixture (step 4) until the dry and wet are well incorporated.

Step 6: Pour the combined mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 min until light golden. Cool for 30 min before cutting into bars and store them in a airtight container up to 3 days.

Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies with Jam

I am probably the only person who does not like peanut butter. So I created this lovely marriage of almond butter, jam, and cocoa for myself, and my hubby thinks this is actually better than the ones I made with peanut butter for him.

Baking time: 11 min
Prep time: 15 min
Yields: 24 cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon fine salt
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temp.
3/4 cup creamy almond butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 light brown sugar
1 egg, at room temp
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup blueberry, or blackberry jam

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375F and mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside

Step 2: Beat butter, almond butter, white & brown sugar together with a hand or stand mixer until smooth for about 30-40 secs. Add the eggs & vanilla extract and blend well. Add the flour mixture gradually until everything is well incorporated. The dough should come together nicely and should appear very moist.
Step 3: Form the dough into golf ball size balls and place them on baking sheets with parchment paper. Using the back tip of a wooden spatula, make a hole in the center of each ball of dough, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch deep. Spoon 1 teaspoon of jam into each hole.

Step 4: Bake for 11-12 min until you start to see the surface of the cookies a little crackled. Cool the cookies completely about 15 min before serving.

Blueberry Morning Bread

This is the most amazing blueberry bread you will ever taste. This bread is full of fiber (whole wheat flour) and antioxidant from the blueberries. Just make sure you have the best blueberries you can find. My blueberries were freshly picked from a farm in NJ and froze them for baking.

Yields: 3 small loaves
Baking Time: 45 min

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat or white all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 stick of butter
1 1/3 maple syrup
2 organic eggs
2 zest of lemons
4 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/2 buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk + 1/2 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice)
1 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries

Step 1
Preheat the oven 350 F. Take out butter, eggs, maple syrup & buttermilk out of the fridge to room temp.
In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder + soda, salt and set a side.

Step 2
In a separate bowl, beat butter w/ maple syrup (they must be room temp!) until well combined and add in eggs, lemon zest & vanilla extract scraping the sides. (I used an electric hand mixer)

Step 3
Add half of the flour mixture into the combined wet ingredients and add a splash of buttermilk. Repeat with the remaining flour mix with the rest of buttermilk.
You will start to see everything coming together, nice and gooey.

Step 4
Dredge the frozen blueberries in a little bit of flour (just enough to coat them all so they don't sink or stick together as they bake in a loaf pan). Fold in the blueberries into the flour mixture above.

Step 5
Butter the 3 mini-loaf pans (or use olive oil). Grease them well.
Pour the batter into each loaf pan filling 2/3 of the pan. Put them in the oven for 45 min or until a toothpick inserted into comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the pans (about 30-40 min) before taking them out onto a cooling rack.

Enjoy with a cup of creamy latte or a glass of cold milk in the morning !