Matt Open Mic

GRANDMA, STEP UP TO THE MIC

My dad had the opportunity to share his experience of being a grandpa, and my mom shared her trip to Chicago to be on the Oprah show, but she hasn’t had the chance to share her grandma experiences yet. Now she’s able to do just that. Needless to say, I think she looooves being a grandma. I was lucky to have her as my mom, and now Ellie and Chloe are lucky to have her as their grandma.

THE JOYS OF GRANDMAHOOD

Grandma!  Ellie shouts as she comes through the door with a big hug and kiss.  It’s music to my ears and pulls at my heartstrings.

Friends and family who had grandchildren told me how wonderful it was to be a grandparent.  “It’s much different and better than being a parent”, they would say.  They were so right!  I LOVE being a grandma.

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Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Custard Pudding (カスタード・プリン)

Aya has found memories of her mom making this pudding when she would stay home sick from school. While her mom was here visiting she gave us a lesson on how to make. It’s pretty much the same thing as the flan, crème caramel. Aya said this custard pudding is extremely common in Japan.

400 ml whole milk
4 large eggs
100g (1/2 cup) sugar
1~2 drops of vanilla extract
2 tsp rum
<Caramel sauce>
4 Tbp sugar
1 Tbp water
2 Tbp hot water

  1. To make the caramel sauce, boil the sugar and water together in a small sauce pan and brown the sugar. Add the hot water, stir, and turn off the heat. While it’s still hot, pour about 1tsp each into the pudding molds.
  2. Beat the eggs and sugar together.
  3. Slowly add warm milk to the above and add vanilla extract and rum once the sugar has completed melted.
  4. Run the milk and egg mixture through a strainer to remove the bubbles.
  5. Gently pour the milk and egg mixture into pudding molds.
  6. In a 9×13 cake pan, fill boiling water half way and gently place the pudding molds inside.
  7. Bake in oven at 425 for 20 minutes.
Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Miso Glazed Tilapia

(I can never get fish to photograph to well. It tastes much better than it looks)

I found this recipe on the internet. I’m not sure I prepared the glaze correctly, but we did enjoy the flavor. The saltiness of the miso balanced out the citrus from the zest. As the instructions read on the blog, I just smothered the marinade on top and baked instead of doing the cheesecloth method. This was easy to do and I just  scraped off some of the marinade so it wouldn’t be too strong.

I served this with gyozas, seaweed salad, and rice. I was surprised how quickly I threw this together.

RECIPES:

Miso Glazed Tilapia

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Miso and Butter Sauteed Pork Donburi (豚肉のみそバター焼き丼)

I did get to eat this (that’s why the photo is from Aya’s phone) when Aya’s mom made it, but Aya loved it and said it was super easy.

300g (about 1/2 to 3/4lb) thinly sliced pork shoulder
2Tb butter
2 Tb potato starch
Sauce: 1Tb sugar, 4Tb miso, 4Tb Japanese cooking wine
1 small head of lettuce
8 shiso leaves
2tsp ground white sesame seeds
Rice

  1. Chop shiso and lettuce into thin strips.
  2. Slice the pork into bite size pieces and coat with potato starch.
  3. Mix A together.
  4. Melt butter in a pan and saute both sides of pork.  Add sauce.
  5. Serve rice in a bowl and top with the lettuce, shiso, pork, and sprinkle ground sesame seeds on top.