Japanese bounty from NYC lol

Lol just as the title says, everytime we go to NYC I buy lots of asian food - half of it (as pictured) is usually Japanese.
From left to right: wasabi, salmon rice seasoning, nori-tamago rice seasoning, two different types of natto, meiji mini chocolate sticks, super-thin pocky, brazilian pudding flavored pudding, flyfish roe, fresh udon noodles in a bowl.
top row: tea-cakes, fresh sashimi (yum!), sweet tofu shells for riceballs, miso soup mix

Low-fat yoghurt hummus

Ingredients Result

Ingredients: (for a basic hummus base)

- 1 tbsp lemon juice

- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- 1/3 cup yoghurt (plain)

- 3/4 cup chickpeas (if you use dried chickpeas like I did make sure to soak them according to the instructions on the back of the packet as well as cook them thoroughly)

- 2 cloves garlic, crushed and roughly chopped

- 2 tsp sesame seed oil

Additional (optional):

- parsley, tomatoes, cucumber (anything of your choice) to garnish

Method:

1. Put chickpeas and garlic in a blender (if you have an open-top blender where u can keep adding ingredients then start pulsing the chickpeas and garlic - if you have a cocktail blender or a bullet blender then put all ingredients in at once). - if the latter option, beat until roughly smooth and serve cold with or without garnish.

2. If the former option, add remaining ingredients gradually and then spoon out and serve cold with or without garnish.

Alternatively you can make a hummus with 1/3 cup olive oil, chickpeas, and garlic in the same fashion. Just two different types of bases.

Natto and mini onigiri-like things

I am currently in love with natto =] left: chopped natto (it came chopped) on daikon w/ spring onions. Right: mini-onigiri made from a mold, topped with rice-seasoning in salmon flavor and nori-tomago flavor.
Full-beaned natto on rice w/ spring onion.

Soo... I'm absolutely obsessed with eating natto for some reason... initially I thought it was the most disgusting thing ever, then I started craving it... and now I want it on a regular basis. <3

Natto = an acquired taste, but definitely worth acquiring!

Mandarin roast chicken with celery hearts

The seasoning ingredients
Mandarins and peel soaked in water underneath the rack
The roast - before baking
End product - yum

So I wanted to make some kinda chicken roast... so I pulled out the chicken and some ingredients I had on hand and whipped up this recipe. The chicken came out surprisingly tender, fragrant, and flavorful so I'm definitely sticking to this recipe from now on =]

Ingredients:

- 1/2 a chicken (just double the ingredients if you use a whole chicken - I just happen to only need to feed two peopl and had half a chicken in the freezer)

- 2 tbsp honey

- 2 tbsp dry sherry / chinese cooking wine (I had wolfberry wine on hand so I used that instead)

- 1 tbsp white vinegar

- 3 tbsp cornstarch

- 1/2 cup parsley (broken up by hand)

- 2 tsp sesame seed oil

- 2 mandarins / clementines

- 2 celery hearts

- 3 slices ginger (2 mm thick)

- 2 tbsp soy sauce

- 1/3 cup hoisin sauce (oyster sauce) mixed with 2 tbsp water

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

1. Peel mandarins and place peels face down and 1 1/2 of the mandarins (pulled apart and crushed) in some water in a roasting pan, place rack on top of pan.

2. Pierce chicken all over with a fork so that the sauce can soak in.

3. Mix together honey, wine, cornstarch, sesame seed oil, soy sauce, and vinegar. Brush onto chicken inside and out.

4. Stuff celery hearts, remaining half of a mandarin, and ginger inside the chicken (if using half a chicken tie up with some kitchen string so the pieces stay in - if possible, this isn't necessary).

5. Sprinkle parsley all over.

6. Place in oven and bake for 45 minutes (until golden).

7. Turn up heat to 400 degrees fahrenheit, turn chicken over and bake for 30 minutes.

8. Open up chicken and remove celery, mandarin, and ginger - bake for another 20 minutes.

9. Remove from oven and slice up while hot (don't burn yourself :p)

10. brush with hoisin sauce and water and serve.

Making Kimchi

Day one of making kimchi =] basically the nappa cabbage (Chinese cabbage) is put in a brine solution of 3 tbsp: 4 cups of water.

It's left overnight to let the cabbage get salty and shrivel a bit.

Sorry guys, I forgot the exact recipe for this, basically there's:

fish sauce, spring onions, chilli sauce (korean stuff), chilli powder, sesame seed oil... ahh... yeah.

It tastes good though hehe =]