Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Mitsuko - II The Memory of Obaa-san (Grand-ma) and Nabemono

Many people usually don’t want to hear the story about death and funeral. However, this is the order of a good dream to dream at the first night (night of January 1st) of the year (1st-Mt. Fuji, 2nd-Eagle, 3rd-Egg Plants, 4th-Death/Funerals, 5th-Bathroom). If the dream be Mt. Fuji it will bring the best year, and so on. Even the death and funerals and bathroom dream bring a good luck in the year.
Please continue to read even though Mitsuko’s sad and shocking experiences of Obaasan’s death and funeral.

Obaa-san was living in Northern part of town called Yamagata, and Mitsuko’s family in Tokyo. Mitsuko’s family visited Obaa-san couple times a year. Mitsuko had wonderful time with Obaa-san each time Mitsuko’s family visited to Yamagata. Obaa-san loved Mitsuko and showed Mitsuko many things to do together: Picking up eggs here and there in the garden because many chickens were raised at Obaa-san’s house, so Mitsuko felt like doing ‘hide and seek’ with eggs; Giving the food (fu – like bread) to carps in the pond, then many carps would come up from the bottom of the pond and catch their food; and picking up daikon (Japanese turnips), carrots, and potatoes from the big hole in the field used for the dinner. Most of all, Mitsuko loved sitting down on Obaa-san’s lap to listen to the stories. The Obaa-san’s stories amazed Mitsuko for hours.

However, this time Obaa-san was lying down in the small room, and didn’t say anything. She had usually warmed Mitsuko up in her arms, and held Mitsuko’s cold hands with her warm hands. It was not this time. Her hand was getting colder and colder in Mitsuko’s hand. Uncles, aunties and cousins were crying and saying that Obaa-san was going to someplace over the river.

Japanese Buddhist funeral in Obaa-san’s times, the body was washed in the wash tub at the house with all the family members, and let the body to wear the paper cloth. The paper money for paying to a ferry man for crossing the river between this world to the other world, and two pairs of slippers made with straw for long distance walking to reach to the other world were placed in the barrel (coffin.)

Mitsuko can even see even right now that many men were trying to put Obaasan with paper cloth in a barrel. Mitsuko can still hear those men’s voice saying, we thought Obaa-san was smaller …, and pushed Obaasan in the barrel, and drove in the nails (Ton-Ton – sound of nail pounding in) and closed. Mitsuko can’t remember that she said anything or cried, but Mitsuko didn’t like what they did to Obaa-san.
The next scene Mitsuko’s rememberings were much dreadful and scary scene. They carried Obaa-san in the barrel to the top of the hill, and put the barrel on top of the crossed logs. Then, they lit fire on it.

Mitsuko doesn’t know what she did after that. Mitsuko knows that the incident affected her whole life till 33 years old. Mitsuko wanted to know that to where Obaa-san went, and how Mitsuko can go there. Mitsuko’s mother was talking to the family friends that Mitsuko is such strange daughter. Mitsuko didn’t want to go to the amusement parks or the zoos, she preferred to visit the temples and shrine.
There are so many things that happened in Mitsuko’s life till 33 years old. Mitsuko accepted Christ as her Lord, God, and Savior at the age of 33 years old when Mitsuko understood the resurrection of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mitsuko will be resurrected from dead as Jesus Christ resurrected. Now Mitsuko knows where she goes after her death. Mitsuko prayed to the heavenly Father God through Jesus Christ for Obaa-san’s salvation. From the Bible verses below, the Good News is spread to the other world. “… through whom also he (Jesus) went and preached to the spirits in prison” (I Peter 3:19 NIV).
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Nabemono – it is very difficult to translate in English. It may be like soup. Any soups are very preferable food on a table from autumn to spring. It is same idea that the Nabemono is very good to eat in cold weather. Here are the Nabemono recipes inherited from Obaa-san.
An electric frying pan 3 or 4 inches deep can be used to make any Nabemono in the United States.
1. Worldly Known Sukiyaki (for Four)
Ingredients
3Tbsp Vegetable oil
1/2cup Sugar (1/4 cup sugar will be acceptable)
1/2cup Shoyu (soy sauce)
2 lbs Thin sliced beef (sirloin roast or better quality than the roast)
1/2 of Hakusai (called Nappa in Jewel), large size – cut 1” long
1 bag Shirataki (Noodle made with Japanese vegetable. None of American food
market carries it) – cut 1” long
Substituted for Shirataki – Chinese saifun noodles
Note: The saifun noodle is made with rice or beans, so it soaks the juice.
2-cho Tofu – cut 2” square
1 bundle Green onion or scallion – cut about 1” long
These are the basic Sukiyaki ingredients. Any leafy vegetables (shungiku, spinach). any Japanese mushrooms (shiitake, shimeji), etc. are good to use and tasty to eat.
There are so many ways to cook Sukiyaki. All these Mitsuko’s recipe listed here are inherited from Obaa-san. However, Mitsuko changed the recipe here and there for the health.
The best Sukiyaki meat from Kobe is marbled with the red meat and the fat. The sirloin roast with not too much fat is delicious enough to use Sukiyaki and better for our health.
Cooking (DO NOT OVER COOK)
Heat the frying pan
Put the vegetable oil and sugar
Cook half of the meat in the oil and sugar 30 seconds
Add shoyu and cook another 30 seconds
Move the meat one side.
Add 1/2 the hard parts of hakusai first, then put leaves parts
Add 1/2 shirataki and tofu
Cooking each ingredients separate from others
Cover to boil
Put green onion or scallion just before eating.
Put remaining ingredients after everyone has eaten once
Add extra sugar and shoyu as needed
How to eat:
Crack a raw egg in a small bowl in individual salad bowl and mix the egg. Dip Sukiyaki to cool off with the egg (optional.)

2. Yudofu (Cooked tofu in hot water)
i. Yudofu (for four) - This is basic Nabemono
Ingredients
2 cups Water – other recipes recommend to use chicken or fish or kobu stock. Mitsuko’s Obaa-san used water only.)
1 strip Kobu* (seaweed, not nori – cut 1” square with scissors)
2-cho Tofu – cut about 2” square
1 medium size Hakusai (Nappa), – cut about 1” long
Pinch Salt
Note: *Kobu strip (sea-weeds)
Cooking (DO NOT OVER COOK)
Put the amount of water in the frying pan
Place the Kobu in the bottom of water – eating the kobu same as other ingredients
Start to boil the water
Put pinch of salt to prevent tofu becoming harder and having air holes
Put ½ amount of Tofu
Put ½ amount of Hakusai
Put cover to boil
Dipping Sauce:
Put shaved bonito, chopped green onion or scallion, and shoyu in medium-size sauce pan and cook till boil, and add lemon after cooked
(Those who are watching salt - use ½ cup Shoyu and ½ cup vinegar or lemon)
Note: **Shaved bonito can be purchased from Japanese or any oriental food markets)
How to eat:
•Put tofu, hakusai and kobu in a medium-size soup dish and pour the sauce over
•Put the dipping sauce in a medium-size soup dish, and take the amount of the any ingredient one can eat and dip in the sauce.
(Japanese likes to eat from the same pan together.)
Shichimi (7 Japanese herbs with hot pepper) used with sauce makes tastier for those who like spicy food..
ii. Yudofu plus fish and shell fishes
Same ingredients of Yudofu
Plus any white fish, Tara; cod or whiting, or any white meat fish, scallops, shrimps, crab legs, fresh shell fish, clams, mussels
Sauce:
Same as Yudofu plus juice of Yuzu (use Lime as substitute)
Cook same way as Yudofu (DO NOT OVER COOK)
Eat same manner as Yudofu
iii. Yudofu plus chichen
Same ingredients of Yudofu
Plus chicken breasts or chicken tenderloin
Sauce:
Same as Yudofu plus juice of lemon and grated ginger
Cook same way as Yudofu (DO NOT OVER COOK)
Eat same manner as Yudofu
iv. Party with Nabemono
Ingredients
Purchase tofu, hakusai, green onion or scallion, shaved bonito and shoyu
Ask your members to bring anything they want to eat
meat, fish, shell fish, scallops, shrimps, crab legs, and any leafy vegetable
Cook same as yudofu (DO NOT OVER COOK)
One electric frying pan can be served 4 to 5 people, so more than 5 or 6 use two frying pan.
Using seasoned water: fish or chicken broth, seasoned with shoyu and shaved bonito is easier for many people.
Put all the ingredients in the seasoned broth and cook with cover.
Use chopped green onion or scallion, grated ginger, lime or lemon juice, some hot sauces as condiments.

3. Vegetable only (DO NOT OVER COOK)
The following vegetables can be added to Yudofu
Cabbage, spinach, any colored peppers, string beans and any other leafy vegetables
Daikon (Japanese radish), carrots, potato – cooked prior to put into a frying pan
For the vegetable only it is better to use Yudofu sauce.

4. Shabu-Shabu (for four)
This is really new line of Nabemono (about 50 years ago), so Mitsuko’s Obaa-san or even mother had never known this cooking. Mitsuko don’t like beef smell, so she cooked Shabu-Shabu only three times in her life. But here is the basic of Shabu-Shabu.
Use an electric frying pan. If possible the pan made with the earthenware has better result.
Ingredients:
2 cups water or chicken broth
1 strip of kobu
2 to 3 lbs. Thin sliced beef (refer sukiyaki)
1 Hakusai
1 bundle Spinich
2 cups Shiitake mushrooms
And any other vegetables
Cooking
Boil the water or the broth in a frying pan.
In this boiled water, individually, do like washing (swishing) the meat to cook and dip in the sauce to eat (DO NOT OVER COOK).
Shabu-shabu means the sound (unamatamia) like washing in the tub.
Sauce:
Yudofu sauce plus lemon and hot pepper
Daikon Oroshi (grated Japanese radish)
For this cooking any vegetable should be cooked before.

5. There are so many different kinds of Nabemono in Japan. Yudofu and any meats
with Kimchee is delicious Nabemono.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Squirrels – Created Recipe

Squirrel buries nuts and waits for decaying shells. The photos proved the story.
There are so many holes in our lawn.

There is none of the holes in our neighbor’s lawn.

Squirrel waits for my husband coming out to buy the newspaper every morning. Squirrel gets the nuts, and takes the nuts somewhere. Of course sometime they eat the nuts there. The snow has melted in March, and then, there are so many holes in our lawn. Squirrels buris the nuts and digs the nuts out during the winter time.
Shiho-san saw these lawns and said to us, you shouldn’t give nuts to feed squirrels, because you’ll have problems in your garden. She is right. Squirrels had always been a problem biting into tomatoes and cucumbers from the vegetable garden grown by my husband with great care. However, the squirrels are waiting for nuts with cute face and seem to be asking for the nuts with two hands (or front legs) together as if praying.
When God made animals He gave an important wisdom to live, for the squirrels burying the nuts and for other animals something different things. Mic-san told the story about the coarse tongue of cat family. Mic-san, please write about it. Thanks!
Please read the Bible verses – Matthew 6:25-26
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Well, God gave human being fire for cooking our food. Let’s be creative and exchange our ideas to make delicious food.
Creative salad ideas

4 pcs. Thick fried tofu
- charcoal with gas or electric, and cut them up to bite-size squares
Use this as croutons
Make green leafy salad, and put these cut-up fried tofu

Use home-made dressing (Ponzu)
Squeeze 2 limes – about ¼ cup juice
2 tsp. soy sauce
Pinch of sugar
Mix these three ingredients

Do you know to whom these nests belong?
In the front of our apartment

At the back of our apartment

Don’t you think it seems like the birds’ nests? It is squirrels’ nests. My husband was standing by the front window one summer morning, and then, a squirrel was in and out of the nest. He thought the squirrel was taking the bird’s eggs out, but no, it was wrong. Squirrel picked the dead leaves and some little branches from the ground and took them up to the nest. Squirrel repeated these actions. So, my husband determined those are squirrels’ nests. There are so many.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Ohina-sama - Curry Recipe

On March 3rd, the Ohina-sama were taken out from the box and displayed.

Last year the Ohina-sama were taken out after boxed for 25 years. The Ohina-sama seemed to be crying at the time, but they were taken out again for the presentation to the children on the Children’s Day, May 5th, at one of the Chicago elementary schools.



On that day Keiko asked me for my curry recipe. Curry recipe was posted on my Japanese blog http://ishimaru92.blog105.fc2.com last year. Here is translation of the recipe.
It is good to first make a pot roast first and use the leftovers of the roast for the curry. (It is very good for busy people when you can prepare for two different dinners with one dish.)
1. Pot Roast
Buy inexpensive pot roast double amount enough for curry (4 or 5 lb. for 4 people)
Take out fat from the pot roast (expensive roast has no fat)
Brown the pot roast
Cook pot roast with small heat (slow cooker or 250° oven can be used) about 5-6 hours
Seasoning for meat:
1 cup wine
1 tsp black pepper, garlic (or 4 cloves)
½ tsp each chicken and beef stock powder, red pepper
1 pinch rosemary
1 can diced tomato
Cook the following chopped bite-size vegetable in the cooked pot roast last half hour or until vegetables are soft
2 carrots
4 stalk celery
1 pepper
1 zucchini
1 onion
2. Curry
Use left over pot roast meat
Cook the following chopped bite-size vegetable first with seasoning and water
1 carrot
2 stalk celery
1 potato
Seasoning:
1 cup wine
1 tsp black pepper, garlic (or 4 cloves)
½ tsp each chicken and beef stock powder, red pepper
3 Tbsp curry powder
Put the pot roast meat in the above softened vegetable
(chicken can be used for additional meat)
Make sure there is enough juice. If not add 1 or 2 cup water
Dissolve 2 Tbsp corn starch into 1 cup water
Mix the cornstarch water into the curry
3. Is there left over curry? If so, make Curry Soba (buck wheat noodle)
Pour diluted curry over cooked soba

Are we going to eat and drink in the Heaven?
Please read the following Bible verses. Yes, I believe we'll be feasting at banquets with Jesus. Rev. Oyama used to say that in heaven everything will be a hundred times better than on earth. Well, then, that means foods will be hundred times more delicious than what we are eating now.
Luke 13:29, 30 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.
Isaiah 25:6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine --- the best of meats and the finest of wines.
Matthew 22:2-3 The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.