Cooking for One

I need to write this post to make sure that my mom knows I'm eating well. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen since I’ve arrived in Japan. My most recent dishes have been a beef curry and a poached fish of some sort.

The curry was quite easy to make. I used this website here for directions: curry directions. In a nutshell, cook meat in a pan and then add chopped vegetables. I used potato, carrot, green beans, onion and green peppers. After cooking the vegetables for about 5-10 minutes, add enough water to cover. Cook for 30-40 minutes. Finally, add a block or two of “roux,” which is the Japanese curry flavouring. Let this cook for about 10 minutes, or until desired consistency, and it is ready to eat. Make sure to have some rice ready at this point.

Although the curry tasted great, it was not nearly spicy enough. Next time I will have to find some roux with more heat. For a spicy meal, check out Baba's. I of course cooked way too much curry and ended up freezing some. For about a thousand yen, I ended up with about 5 good-sized portions.

I’m not sure what kind of fish I bought, but it was some kind of flat fish. It was also my first time cleaning and gutting a fish, which I think I did a good job of considering I made it up as I went – and I have yet to buy a good knife. The only knives I have at the moment are slightly larger than a paring knife. I also need a toilet brush – although that’s for something completely unrelated.

My first try at poaching a fish went surprisingly well. I spent some time walking the isles of the supermarket looking for a cheap, but decent sized fish because I figured I would probably ruin it in some unforeseeable manner. To poach the fish, I boiled enough water to completely submerge the fish in. Turn off the heat and wait for the water to stop bubbling. Then gently lay the fish into the water and cover for… well this is the difficult part… I let mine cook for about 6 minutes and it might have been a touch too long. Afterwards, gently lift the fish out of the water onto a plate. Lay chopped green onions and ginger over top of the fish and then drizzle some oil and soy sauce over it. I spooned the oil and soy sauce from the plate over the fish a few times to make sure that it was covered.

I think this is the way my mom and my popo prepare fish. I believe it’s a Chinese style of preparation. Anyway, it’s always been one of my favorites. I remember my popo always buying a massive rock cod and cooking it at one of the many feasts that we had at her place. The first time I ate it, my mouth and throat were so full of small fish bones that I had to rinse it out with water. I can still remember seeing the hair-like fish bones stuck to the side of the sink. As we grew up, eating fish became an event where we would fight over who got to eat the cheeks (this is where the best meat is). I would also fish out the eyeballs to gross everybody out. Eventually though, the fish eyes started tasting quite delicious. Now, I even suck the meat off of the fins.

Last night I got to eat both cheeks and both eyeballs all to myself. The fish was also a bit smaller than I had originally thought. At the same time, I wouldn’t have minded having someone to share it with.