Chicken Ole'

This is a delicious casserole that I've made for years at home, but find I can make it with just a few substitutions here in Japan as well.  In recent years, taco seasoning is sold in Japan, so I substituted that for the chili powder.  I substituted tomato paste with water for tomato sauce.  I can't find canned black beans here, but I did find some canned kidney beans.   I couldn't find canned green chilis, but I just added some salsa (from Costco) and that worked great!  It's fast and easy!

Chicken Ole'
2 chicken breasts, cut up in chunks
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder or garlic granules
1 teaspoon salt

1 large can tomato sauce
1 can green chilis (4 oz)
1 can black beans
1 can corn

Corn Chips or Tortilla Chips
1 cup or so of grated Monterey Jack Cheese
1 can black olives

Mix together the chili powder, garlic powder, and salt.  Sprinkle the mixture over the chicken and, using your hands, mix them together well.  Let sit for a couple of minutes, then fry the chicken in a large, sided skillet in olive oil.  When the chicken is done, add the tomato sauce, green chilis, corn, and black bean.  Heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  Serve over crushed corn or tortilla chips.  Top with cheese and olives.  Dinner is ready in about 20 minutes!!

Omurice

Every Tuesday evening here, members of the branch at church gather for family home evening.  It’s kind of Japanese “Chopped” as two and sometimes a third always do the cooking.  Another lady in the branch donates vegetables, then these two ladies figure out what to make with them.  One goes shopping while the other starts chopping and cooking.  They come up with delicious meals.  One evening, this omurice was the delicious result.  It is easy, quick, and you have everything you need for it right now- probably.   Living here, we nearly always have leftover rice, but you may not.  But other than that, you’ve probably got everything.

This will make dinner for 4.  It’s easy to expand or reduce, depending on how many you need to feed.  It’s basically one cup of rice and one piece of meat person. 

Omurice

4 cups of cooked rice

1 onion, chopped

1 piece of meat per person, ie: chicken thigh cut up, 1 hot dog cut up, 1/3 lb. ground beef, bacon slices cut up, etc.  You can use as little or as much meat as you wish.  The one they served us just had a little bit of hot dog in it.

Oil (I use olive oil)

Salt and pepper

½ cup ketchup

½ cup frozen green peas

4 eggs

Heat some oil in a large fry pan. Add the meat and cook until done.  Add the onion and fry on medium heat until golden and translucent.

Add the cooked rice and stir and fry together for about 2-3 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Push the rice to the sides of the pan and pour the ketchup in the middle.  Spread the ketchup and cook just the ketchup alone for about 30 seconds, then stir the rice and ketchup together and cook another 2-3 minutes.  Add the peas and cook for 2 more minutes.  Divide the rice mixture into 1/4ths.  Put each ¼ into a bowl or other mold.  Traditionally, omurice is a sort of oval shape.  Turn bowl upside down on a plate.

  Repeat for all four bowls of rice.  Beat 1 egg with some salt and pour it into a small fry pan and move it around like you were making a crepe.  You want a crepe-like thin round sheet of egg.  Cook on one side til done, then gently turn it over.  When done, put the cooked egg over the rice like a blanket.  Tuck in the sides.  Repeat for the other three.  Serve immediately. 

No Bake Cookies Candy

No-Bake Cookies

We do a lot of visiting to homes as we serve here in Japan.  I like to take a little treat when we go.  I love making these into little balls so they look more like little pieces of chocolate candy and keep them in a plastic container in the fridge.  Then we’re headed out on visits, I can put several in a pretty little bag and it makes a nice, little gift.

No-Bake Cookies

Lay out parchment paper or waxed paper on a countertop or table.

In a mixing bowl, put:

3 cups oatmeal

¼ cup cocoa

½ cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Set aside.

Combine in a saucepan:

2 cups sugar

1/3 cup butter

½ cup milk

Heat until boiling.  Boil for 1 minute.  If it’s a humid day, boil a bit longer.

Pour the boiling liquid over the oatmeal mixture, melting the peanut butter.  Stir well. 

As soon as it’s cool enough, roll little balls in your hands and put them on the parchment to set up. 

Lemon Bread

This bread was a hit as refreshments at a recent English Class. 

Lemon Bread

½ cup shortening or ½ cup butter (because I can’t find shortening here)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

½ cup milk (You can use part fresh lemon juice if you want.  It makes it more lemony)

1 ½ cup flour

1 teaspoon salt (maybe a scant teaspoon)

1 teaspoon baking powder

Rind of 1 lemon, grated

Juice of 1 lemon

½ cup sugar

Mix all ingredients except the lemon juice and ½ cup sugar.  Start by beating the softened butter with the sugar.  Then add the eggs one at a time and beat until fluffy.  Add the milk.  Turn off the beaters and add flour, salt and baking powder.  Slowly beat in the dry ingredients.  Bake at 350 (180 C) for about 45-60 minutes or until light golden brown.  Remove from oven and prick top with a fork.  Mix together the lemon juice and ½ cup sugar and pour over the pricks.  It is delicious!

Freezer Peanut Butter Cookies

Best Peanut Butter Cookies

I bake a lot in Japan.  We like to take treats when we visit people- which is often.  I provide refreshments for English class and sometimes bring dessert to FHE.  These cookies have probably been the greatest hit- these and the Snickerdoodles.  Everyone loves them.  I think because they don’t get much peanut butter here.  It is available, but a small jar costs $5.00.  I got big ones at Costco in Yamagata.  What I love is that you can make the batch of dough- make up however many cookies you want now, then freeze the rest of the dough in logs to cut off and use whenever you want.  The dough freezes really well. 

Peanut Butter Freezer Cookies

1 cup butter (236 grams)

1 cup shortening (I can’t find shortening, so use all butter.  I’m guessing margarine would work as well)

2 cups sugar

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla   

4 eggs

5 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking soda

Cream together butter, shortening, sugars and peanut butter.  Add vanilla and eggs.  Mix well.  Add the flour and baking soda.  Form dough into logs and wrap in plastic wrap.  I usually wrap it in aluminum foil as well.  Freeze. When you want to bake the cookies, thaw the dough, cut into slices ¼ to ½ inch thick. Put some sugar on a plate and press each cookie in the sugar on both sides.  Place on a cookie sheet and slightly flatten each cookie by pressing with a fork one way, then perpendicular again.  Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes.  At home, I like to make up about half now and freeze the rest for later.  It makes a big batch.

Japanese Green Salad

Japanese Green Salad

Green salads in Japan are a little different than in America.  You can buy lettuce, but most often cabbage is used.  There are many different kinds of cabbage.  Grated dikon (big Japanese radish) is nearly always part of a Japanese green salad. 

Mushrooms are also plentiful in all of the stores and there are many, many different kinds of mushrooms.  The cucumbers are petite and delicious.   Salads are usually served like this- arranged with each vegetable separate.  The most common dressing is Goma dressing- roasted sesame seed.  It is delicious, but they have others as well.  We often make a salad like this and add chicken, making it our meal.  Enjoy a Japanese green salad!

Beans and Ham Soup

Beans and Ham

One of our favorite wintertime soups is beans and ham.  I had the ham bone from our Christmas ham frozen and wanted to make beans and ham with it.   In Japan, I had a hard time finding dry beans like I was used to.  I usually use white navy beans, but couldn’t find any white beans at all.  I could only find red beans and little black, round beans.  I bought the black beans.  They were absolutely delicious.  I have never tasted a better bean in my life.  I soaked them overnight, then cooked them with the ham bone and vegetables.  It’s hard to describe, but their texture was smooth and creamy and just delicious.  At home I usually use white beans or pinto beans.  But now I know that black works, too!  You can also make this with a ham steak, and I have many times.

2 cups beans (navy, pinto, black or a mixture)

1 meaty ham bone or a ham steak

Bay Leaf

1 onion, chopped

2 or 3 carrots, chopped

2 or 3 stalks celery with leaves, chopped

About 2 quarts water or chicken stock

Wash and sort the beans, throwing out any bad ones.  Put them in a bowl and soak them overnight.  In the morning, or several hours before you want to eat them the next day, drain them and add the 2 quarts water and the vegetables.  You can do this in a pot on the stove or in a crock pot.  Put the ham bone( if you’re using a ham steak, you can add it later.)  Cook until the beans are soft (the time it takes varies by what beans you use.)  Remove the bone and take off the meat and chop.  Discard the bone.  Add the meat back into the soup.  Serve hot. 

This is the same dish made with white beans in America:

I like to serve it with grilled cheese sandwiches or slices of homemade bread.