Versatile Napa Cabbage

Winter is upon us, and this is the season when Napa or Chinese cabbage prices go down. I usually get a quarter cut of a huge head and it’s enough for a few meals. Other than stir frying with other seasonal vegetables, this year I’m into cooking the following two ways. But there are many […]

Cooking with Spinach and Tomatoes and an Update Nov. 2020

It’s been a while. Again. Last month, things were rather hectic. While the college I teach at has been doing in-person teaching since June, the university just started doing so for the fall semester, at least for one-on-one and ensemble lessons. Already, there have been a few Covid cases confirmed, but other than a day […]

Cooking with Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut, a European side dish made of fermented cabbage. It’s tangy, salty, sour, flavorful and healthy, as all fermented produce are. Having grown up in Germany, it was just a thing that came with a lot of meals, was served everywhere from high class restaurants to pubs, bars and cafeterias. Spiced and prepared differently depending […]

Tateshina Beef

Every year, I spend a few days up in the mountains in Tateshina, Nagano prefecture, where we have a little old house. Old, because it was built the years before I was born. At 1300 meters altitude, surrounded by trees, it’s usually cooler up there. Known as the Shinshu region, they have great produce, all […]

Blueberry Pancakes

Pancakes with fresh blueberries, topped with syrup and more fresh blueberries on the side. Easy enough to make (even with a pancake mix sold in stores) and always satisfying for breakfast or brunch.

Summer Smoothies for Breakfast

These days, it’s ridiculously hot. In fact, today has got to be some sort of record, what with 35 degrees Celsius already at 10am. We hit about 39C in the afternoon. So the heat wakes me up every morning, way too early for my taste. But I get up and proceed to make my morning […]

Soboro: ground meat and egg over rice

Soboro-don: simple bento dish that’s filling and satisfying. Usually, one uses ground chicken meat, flavored with soy sauce, mirin and sake. Ginger can be added, as well as other spices. For a spicy taste, add any kind of chili sauce or powder. The egg is cooked separately, basically scrambled eggs. I use some white dashi […]

Ratatouille stuff

I love Ratatouille! It’s so versatile and healthy, I make it in different variations. The other day, I happened to have some of the ingredients in the fridge, and I made pasta with a ratatouille-ish sauce. The key to Ratatouille is of course the use of Herbs de Provence. Not too easy to come by […]

Jajangmyeon-Black Bean Noodles

Jajangmyeon、aka “ジャージャー麺” is a cold noodle dish with a miso based meat sauce, garnished with cucumber. I suppose one could say that it’s a tasty, Asian variation of pasta with meat sauce. For the sauce, I used ground chicken, ginger, sake, mirin, red chili paste, chili sesame oil, black bean sauce, dark miso and soy […]

Stay at home cooking

Just a gallery of some of my cooking during the past weeks Now that there is and end in sight of this stay-at-home period, at least for now, this shall be it for this particular gallery. Cooking was one of several things that I had more time to do during this time. This gallery is […]