But learning to cook for yourself (even if once in a while) is very important. It makes you more aware of what you put into your body. If you’re busy chasing money, you really do need an exceptionally strong and healthy physique.

So I simplified my Teriyaki Chicken recipe and make it in the Airfryer. Even if you don’t know how to turn on a stove, what more fry an egg, you can make this. It’s a matter of mixing a few seasonings into a bowl, and placing the chicken into the appliance. This recipe only took 5 mins hands-on time.

TOOLS

• Airfryer (using the grill pan) This is the model that I am using
• Paper towel (optional)
• Fork (optional)
• Small bowl
• Tablespoon
• Serving plate
• Mitten/ cloth (to remove bowl)

ACTIVE TIME

5 minutes

RECIPE CARD

SHORT RECIPE

Poke skin with fork & sprinkle 1/8 tsp of salt of 1 chicken thigh. Add in a bowl: 1 tbsp soy sauce + 1 tbsp mirin + 3/4 tbsp sugar + 3/4 tbsp sake + 3/4 tbsp honey. Place chicken skin-down on Airfryer grill pan. Set to cook @ 180°C for 5 min. After 5 min, put in bowl of teriyaki sauce to cook for another 10 min. Slice & serve.

COOKING TIPS

1. Crispy skin The original recipe marinate the chicken with sake for 10 minutes. However, to achieve the kind of crispy skin that I love, I omitted that step. I also make sure I pat dry the chicken and place the skin on the grill pan.
2. Slice and garnish for better presentation. The dish looks so much better after you slice it and garnish with some spring onions. I like to cut it with a pair of sharp scissors, and pluck spring onions from my mini herb garden at home. But its totally optional. After all, I came up with this dish for people who have very little time, but would like to cook something simple at home.
3. Using non-refined sugar. I try to limit the use of refined sugar in my cooking. I’m thinking to try using brown sugar or molasses. I believe it’ll taste good too.
4. Fish. If you don’t like chicken, you can use fish instead (actually that is my preferred choice). Try mackerel or salmon.
5. Non-stick pan. If you don’t have an Airfryer, you can still make this dish. I recommend that you use a non-stick pan.

Good luck and have fun!

The post Easy Teriyaki Chicken in AirFryer appeared first on New Malaysian Kitchen.

Understandably, in a typical Malaysian kitchen, we may not have dashi stock. But its really easy and convenient to make – you only need to boil kelp and bonito flakes, and both are dried ingredients that have long shelf life. I always make a huge batch ahead and keep it in the fridge.

MUST-HAVE INGREDIENTS FOR MISO SOUP

To have miso soup at home easily, just keep these in the kitchen:

• kelp
• bonito flakes
• wakame
• miso paste

First you need to make dashi stock with kelp and bonito flakes (find out how to make dashi stock here.) Then, its a matter of adding miso and soaked wakame into the stock. If you have other ingredients like tofu, radish, or spring onions; you could add it into your soup. You could also get pre-made stock off the shelf (though I don’t).

This is how I usually make my miso soup:

TOOLS

• Pot
• Bowl (to soak wakame)
• Spoon

ACTIVE TIME

5 minutes

RECIPE CARD

SHORT RECIPE

Heat 1 cup of dashi stock. Dissolve 1 tbsp of miso paste into stock. Add soaked wakame.

COOKING TIPS

1. Soaking wakame is optional At a cooking class in Tokyo, I asked why we must soak the wakame. I normally just chuck the dried seaweed in. My cooking instructor told me she does the same at home. Soaking wakame in cold water just gives it a better colour.
2. Get store-bought dashi stock. When I was staying with my host family in Japan, I see that they keep bottled dashi stock in the fridge. If you can’t make your own dashi stock, you can try those. However, it is not commonly found in Malaysia. I only found one ‘Ninben Shiro Dashi’ at Happy Fresh, an online grocer. It cost about RM 24 per 500 ml.

Enjoy!

The post Easy Miso Soup – 3 ingredients appeared first on New Malaysian Kitchen.

The Japanese restaurant in Selangor Club Bukit Kiara is my go-to lunch place. I like that the food is homey, the location is quiet, and the price is reasonable. I’ll normally order salmon shioyaki, beef teppanyaki, or mix seafood set – all which comes with a bowl of chawanmushi.

Peculiarly, I am not a big fan of chawanmushi. I always request for it to be changed to agedashi tofu. My thoughts of chawanmushi changed when I make it from scratch at home. Homemade chawanmushi tastes so much better. I’ll credit it to concentrated homemade dashi stock and fresh kampung eggs with sunset coloured yolk. Quality ingredients really does make a difference!

If you like chawanmushi, this is a simple recipe that you could try. If you don’t, do try making this anyway – it may change your mind. The original recipe from a cookbook I bought in Tokyo includes 200 g of soft tofu. It’s also topped with mitsuba leaf (which can be replaced with coriander leaves) to make it prettier.

However, I don’t always have tofu or herbs at home, I only use 5 ingredients that is almost always available in my kitchen: eggs, dashi stock, dried Chinese mushrooms, soy sauce, and salt. Despite its simplicity, this dish is packed with natural flavours. I love its soft, velvety texture too.

TOOLS

• Wok with lid + steam rack + steaming tray
• 3 – 4 bowls for steaming
• Sieve (for straining egg mixture) – optional
• Aluminium foil (to cover egg mixture)

ACTIVE TIME

5 minutes

RECIPE CARD

SHORT RECIPE

Whisk 2 eggs. Add 300 ml dashi stock. Strain. Add 1/2 tbsp soy sauce + a pinch of salt. Place sliced mushrooms into bowl. Pour egg mixture into bowls. Steam at high heat for 3 minutes. Reduce heat and steam for 10 min or until set.

COOKING TIPS

1. Make dashi stock in advance. Dashi stock is integral in Japanese cooking. It’s very easy to make and can be kept in the fridge for up to one week. On top of making chawanmushi, it can also be used to make miso soup and Japanese Spinach Salad. Recipe: Japanese Dashi Stock

Enjoy!

The post Chawanmushi (Japanese Steamed Egg) – 5 ingredients appeared first on New Malaysian Kitchen.

When I came back from a short stay with my Japanese host family, I was encouraged to eat like a Japanese for breakfast. The huge traditional meal which consist of plenty of greens kept me full and energetic until late noon. Okaasan serves the same breakfast everyday: rice, miso soup, fried egg, salad with sesame sauce and pickles. Though I normally do not like salad, I found incredible joy in eating them because the lettuce and tomatoes are planted and harvested from Otoosan’s farm.

When I’m back home, I did make Japanese breakfast once in a while. But I realise that I always skip making the salad; raw vegetables from the market don’t taste the same as those harvested directly from farm. “Wakame is green right?” I lied to myself, as I ate my ‘vegetable-less’ Japanese breakfast.

So in my attempt to eat more leafy vegetables, I learned to make a simple Japanese Spinach Salad (ohitashi). It is just cooked spinach topped with dashi stock, soy sauce and bonito flakes. So easy to make, yet so tasty from umami-rich seasonings!

If you prefer cooked vegetables over raw salad, and like to eat more vegetables but lazy to cook elaborate meals, this is the recipe for you.

TOOLS

• Large bowl (to wash/soak spinach)
• Wok/ pot (to boil spinach)
• Sieve/ chopsticks (to remove spinach from wok)
• Mixing bowl (to wash spinach and place cold water)
• Spoon

ACTIVE TIME

5 minutes

RECIPE CARD

SHORT RECIPE

Boil 100 g of baby spinach for 2 min. Squeeze excess water. Arrange on plate. Pour 1/2 tbsp dashi stock + 1/2 tbsp soy sauce. Top with bonito flakes.

COOKING TIPS

1. Buy organic baby spinach. The original recipe uses regular spinach which comes in a bundle. After squeezing the excess water, it’s then chopped into 1.5 inches long. But for convenience, I buy a packet of organic baby spinach instead. Each packet is 100g – the exact amount of this recipe. Not only do I not have to wash the vegetables throughly, I don’t have to chop it either.
2. Make dashi stock in advance. In Japan, it’s easy to buy pre-made dashi. My host mother keeps a bottle in the fridge at all times. When I know I’ll like to have Japanese at home, I’ll make a big batch of dashi stock and keep in plastic bottles. It can keep in the fridge for a week. Recipe: Japanese Dashi Stock

Enjoy this simple but delicious plate of vegetables!

The post Japanese Spinach Salad (Ohitashi) – 4 ingredients + 5 min appeared first on New Malaysian Kitchen.

But my host mother I fondly call Okaasan made really delicious home cooked Japanese food. Since then, my love affair with Japanese food and its culture began, and strengthened after I visited my host family again recently.

I stayed in a traditional Japanese house with sliding doors and carpeted with tatami mat. It’s right next to the family temple as my host father (Otoosan) is a buddhist priest. Every morning at 4 am, Otoosan, who is now a grandfather of five, would drive to work on his farm just a few minutes away. Okaasan would make breakfast, and it always comes with a bowl of miso soup.

Miso soup, I’ve learned, must be made with dashi stock. In fact, it’s a base for noodles like soba, and many other Japanese snacks such as dashimaki (sweet omelette) and takoyaki (Octopus balls). If you want to learn to make good Japanese food, first and foremost, you must learn how to make a good dashi.

This recipe is not a shortcut. It’s one which method help extract the most umami out of the kelp and bonito flakes.

TOOLS

• Saucepan/ pot
• Scissors (to cut kombu, or kelp)
• Chopsticks
• Sieve

ACTIVE TIME

5 minutes

RECIPE CARD

SHORT RECIPE

COOKING TIPS

1. Add more kelp and kombu. You can add more kombu and bonito flakes for an even more concentrated stock (Suggestion: 10 g dried kombu and 20 g dried bonito flakes). However, for an everyday and budget-friendly meal, the above measurement is good enough. That is especially since we preserve and extract the most umami flavour out of our ingredients.
2. How extract the most umami flavour? Cut the kombu into smaller pieces. Then, let it sit in the water (which we will use to cook) for 20 minutes before heating it. You can also simmer kombu for an hour (instead of 10 minutes).
3. Storage. You can keep it up to a week.
4. Keep dashi stock for making other Japanese dishes. Dashi stock is integral in Japanese cooking; it’s a base for many Japanese dishes. On top of making miso soup, it can also be used to make chawanmushi and Japanese Spinach Salad.

Enjoy!

The post Japanese Stock (Dashi With Kombu & Bonito Flakes) – 3 ingredients appeared first on New Malaysian Kitchen.

The best part is it’s so easy to make. Frankly, I do not have much patience in baking (even when I cook, I’ll like to get it done as soon as possible). The entire idea of my website and my book, Malaysian Meals in 30 minutes, is to make easy, quick and delicious recipes. This recipe from ‘New Japanese Kitchen’ by Kyoko Rabbetts is something I foresee I’ll make again and again.

TOOLS

• Oven
• Stand mixer/ large mixing bowl
• Cake tin (15 cm x 10 cm x 7 cm)
• Sift
• Mixing bowl (to sift flour, baking powder and green tea powder)
• Parchment paper
• Aluminium foil

RECIPE CARD

SHORT RECIPE

Whisk 120 g butter until pale. Add 110 g sugar – whisk 5 min. Add 3 tbsp milk + 2 large eggs + 90 g sifted cake flour + 2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt + 2 tsp matcha powder – whisk until light & fluffy. Pour half the batter into cake tin. Add 4 layer tbsp of Nutella. Pour the rest of the batter. Cover tin with foil. Bake for 25 min at 180C.

BAKING TIPS

• If you don’t have a stand mixer, stir the batter in a large bowl and spatula (When I was little, this is how we make cake). A stand mixer only make baking faster. Nowadays, many of us seem to think that we can’t bake a cake because we don’t have a machine! Though honestly I will be very reluctant to bake a cake without it…
• If you don’t want your cake to be too sweet, you can omit the Nutella. This is probably what I’ll do the next time I bake it. I can always slather Nutella on the cake after baking it.

Enjoy!

The post Green Tea & Nutella Cake appeared first on New Malaysian Kitchen.