Mentaiko Spaghetti (明太子スパゲッティ)

Mentaiko Spaghetti (tarako spaghetti) is a very common and popular Japanese yoshoku dish or in other words a Western-influenced dish. It's simple preparation and full flavour makes it a very easy weekday supper. The preparation is very simple and hard to mess up, with pollock roe adding a wonderfully salty and savory flavor, butter doing its usual thing of making everything taste good, and spaghetti serving as the carrier.
I use spaghettini instead of spaghetti since it's thinner and picks up the flavors better. You can typically find pollock roe in the frozen section of Asian grocery stores - it comes in several flavors (mild, spicy, etc) - experiment and see what you like best.

Mentaiko Spaghetti (明太子スパゲッティ)

300 grams of spaghettini, or about 2/3 of a box of spaghetti
2-3 sacs of pollock roe, or mentaiko (明太子)
4 tbsp of dashi (optional)
3-4 tbsp of butter
1/2 lemon
10 shiso leaves (紫蘇)
1 sheet of roasted seaweed, sliced into thin strips (or you can use the precut kind)

Recipe Steps:

•Cook the spaghettini al dente.
•Split the sacs of roe down the middle, then slice in half. Take a teaspoon and scoop out the eggs, leaving the sac. Chop the shiso leaves into thin strips, and also chop the roasted seaweed similarly (unless you are using the pre-chopped strips).
•Melt the butter on low heat in a large wok or saucepan. Turn off the heat. Add the roe into the pan and stir thoroughly.
•When the spaghettini is done, strain and add immediately to the pan with butter. Add the dashi (or if you don't have dashi handy, then use 4 tbsp of the water that the spaghettini was boiling in). Mix well so that the roe is evenly distributed. Taste and add salt if needed. (I tend to like things pretty salty to I actually used salted butter). Squeeze the lemon over the and toss again well.
•Split into serving size portions, then garnish with shiso and seaweed -- serve immediately so the seaweed strips don't get soggy.

Enjoy !

Strawberry Jogurt Popsicles

With this weather finally getting warmer, it is very natural that my boys want ice cream or popsicles. One is very tempted with the heat getting higher and higher. Why bother buying some popsicles filled with tons of sugar and weird colours, when you can do it yourself !! I had bought some very sweet strawberries from Costco, so I decided to make some strawberry yogurt popsicles. Ethan and Timothy both were part of this project and loved adding things like watermelons into it. Since they are the one eating it, I thought: Why not ? No harm right ?? Honestly, you could add anything to it ... as long as you enjoy it.

I don't own any fancy popsicle molds and I remember, how my dad always made mine in a loaf pan. It works out just perfect and honestly, I think it looks way nicer. Kids don't really care what form it is as long as they get to eat something icy and kind of sweet. This recipe is perfect for some parent-kid-project .... and you will be very surprised, how healthy it is !!!

Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles

2 cups vanilla yogurt (not non-fat)
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
Juice and zest of 1 lime
Watermelon cubes (about 20 cubes, 1/2-inch each)
8 to 10 wooden popsicle sticks

Step 1:

Prepare a loaf pan by lining it with plastic wrap. Have your popsicle sticks on hand.

Step 2:

In a blender combine the yogurt, strawberries, lime juice and zest. Puree until well combined. Pour the yogurt blend into your prepared pan. Drop the watermelon cubes into the mixture, making sure there are a few cubes in each pop. Place the popsicle sticks into the pan, spacing them evenly. Freeze for about 6 hours, until the pops are completely frozen.

Step 3:

When you want to serve your pops, take the pan and run warm water over it to loosen the edges. Take the plastic wrap and lift the frozen "loaf" out of the pan. Use a sharp knife to cut in between the popsicle sticks. There you have it, Strawberry-Watermelon Yogurt Ice Popsicles!

Note: If you use a yogurt with a low-fat content the popsicles will be a bit icy and have a tendency to break easily. They're just as good, just a bit fragile.

Enjoy !!!!

Oven-Baked Chicken Tenders with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

Does it scare you when you buy frozen meat packages ?? It totally freaks me out as I have no idea what they put inside. Most items contain such high salt content in them, it turns me off right away. So what do I do when kids scream for chicken tenders ?? You whip up some of your own. Here is a simple recipe, you can follow even on work nights. If you double the batch or happen to have too many, freeze them unbaked on baking trays layered with some parchment papers. Once they are frozen, you can transfer them into zip-lock bags.

Oven-Baked Chicken Tenders with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

For the Chicken Fingers:
1/2 pound chicken breast fillet strips
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup panko

1/4 teaspoon paprika powder

1/2 teaspoon Parmesan cheese powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

salt & pepper to taste

For the Honey Mustard:
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp mustard
2 tbsp honey

For the Chicken Fingers:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place the beaten egg with all the seasoning powder on one plate for breading, and the panko on another plate. For each chicken tenders, dip it first in the egg, and then in the panko, and place it on a wire rack over a baking sheet (like what you would use to cool cookies). If you don’t have a rack, just place the chicken directly on a baking sheet, but you will need to turn them halfway through baking.

Bake the chicken tenders for about 10 minutes, and then increase the heat to 450 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes. Serve warm, with honey mustard dipping sauce.

For the Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce:
Whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard and honey, and serve immediately or chill until ready to use.

Enjoy !!!