Food History & Recipes

Pickled Ginger
Pickled Ginger Ingredients:
* 2 lb fresh young ginger (shin shoga)
* 3 cups rice vinegar
* 2 cups sugar
* 2 tsps salt



Pickled Ginger Cooking Instructions:
* Wash young ginger root and rub off skin.
* Slice the ginger thinly and salt them. Leave salted ginger slices in a bowl for one hour.
* Dry the ginger slices with paper towels and put them in a sterilized container/jar.
* Mix rice vinegar and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil.
* Pour the hot mixture of vinegar and sugar over the ginger slices. Cool them. Pickled ginger changes its color to light pink. (*If you are using old ginger, it might not turn pink naturally.)
* Cover the jar and store it in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:
* 2 1/4 cups Japanese rice
* (1/4 cup vinegar, 2 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt)
* 3 eggs and 1/2 Tbsp sugar
* 1 cucumber, julienned
* 1/2 lb tuna sashimi slices, marinated in 2 Tbsp of soy sauce and a little bit of wasabi (if you would like)
* 8 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in 2 cups of warm water *keep the water for cooking
* (1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp mirin)
* 2 oz imitation crab, shredded
* 2 Tbsp white sesame seeds



Chirashizushi Cooking Instructions:
* Prepare sushi rice.
* Remove stems from shiitake and slice thinly.
* Heat 2/3 cup of the water used for rehydrating shiitake in a medium pan.
* Add shiitake and soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Simmer shiitake on low heat until the liquid is almost gone. Set aside.
* Beat eggs in a bowl and add 1/2 Tbsp of sugar. Oil a medium skillet and pour a scoop of egg mixture and make a thin omelette like a crape. Make a few sheets.
* Cut the omelettes into thin strips. Serve sushi rice on a large plate or invividual bowls.
* Spread simmered shiitake, cucumber, imitation crab meat, and omelettes strips over rice.
* Place tuna sashimi on top. Sprinkle sesame seeds. Serve pickled ginger on the side.

Miso Soup Recipe:
Miso Soup Ingredients:
* 3 cups dashi soup stock
* 1 block tofu
* 3-4 tablespoons miso paste
* ¼ cup chopped green onion



Miso Soup Cooking Instructions:
* Boil the dashi soup stock in a pan.
* Cut the tofu into small cubes and add them to the boiling soup. Simmer for a few minutes under low fire.
* Scoop out some soup stock from the pan and dissolve the miso paste in it.
* Add the dissolved miso paste gradually back into the soup. Stir the soup gently.
* Remove from fire and add the chopped green onion.

Miso Soup Cooking Tip:
* Do not boil the soup after you have added the dissolved miso paste already.

Lumpiang Shanghai Recipe
Lumpiang Shanghai Ingredients:
* 1 tablespoon soy sauce
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* ½ teaspoon salt
* pepper to taste
* lumpia wrappers
* cooking oil
* ¼ kilo ground pork
* 1/8 kilo chopped shrimp
* ¼ cup singkamas (yam bean or jicama), finely chopped
* ¼ cup carrot, finely chopped
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 egg, slightly beaten
* 3 tablespoons chopped onions



Sweet-Sour Sauce Ingredients:
* ¼ tablespoon salt
* 2/3 cup of water
* 2 tablespoons soy sauce
* ¼ cup sugar
* ¼ cup vinegar
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/3 cup water
* 1 tablespoon oil

Lumpiang Shanghai Cooking Instructions:
* Mix all ingredients for the lumpia filling. Wrap small portions with the lumpia wrappers like sticks.
* Deep fry until crispy. Cut each long piece into 3.

Sweet-Sour Sauce Cooking Instruction:
* Mix all the ingredients for the sauce and boil until consistency thickens.

Sautéed Mongo Recipe
Sautéed Mongo Ingredients:
* 1 glass of mongo
* ¼ kilo pork
* 1 onion
* 3 cloves garlic
* 1 bunch of ampalaya leaves (bitter gourd leaves)



Sautéed Mongo Cooking Instructions:

* Boil the mongo in a casserole until seeds are already tender.
* While boiling the mongo, boil in wok with 2 cups of water the pork until the water dries up and the natural oil of the pork comes out.
* Brown the garlic in the same wok then add the onions.
* Add the mongo from the first step together with the stock in which the mongo was boiled and sauté everything. Boil until cooked.
* Lastly, add the ampalaya leaves and season with salt.

Tip:
Soup must be thick in consistency for a tastier dish.