More japanese beauties arrived ... ;-))

Two new japanese kitchen beauties arrived: a Yanagi (240mm, white steel) and a Kamagata Usuba (180mm, white steel). Both custom made for left handed by Shinichi Watanabe. All knives are single beveled and sharp like razor blades.

Beef filet and oven baked tomatos

Today we had beef filet and oven baked tomatos. The tomatos were deskinned, quatered and deseaded. They were put on a plate sprinkled with olive oil, custard sugar, pepper and salt. Some garlic and rosmary were added. Everything was put for around 1.5 hrs. to the oven at 100 deg. celsius.
The beef was pan fried at strong heat (two minutes each side). Afterwards the beef was put for 45 minutes to the oven at 100 deg. celsius.
The sauce is made with sherry, mushrooms, green pepper and cream.

Tom Yum Kung Soup

Tom Yam Kung Soup is a thai sour, spicy soup with prawns and straw mushrooms. The recipe in short is: de-shell and devein the prawns. Keep the shells and heads. Heat oil in a huge pot and roast the prawn shells and heads. Add 1L of water and add lime leaves, lemon grass and chilies. Boil for 5-6 minutes. Drain the stock through a sieve into another pot. Add mushrooms, tomatos and prawns. Add finely chopped coriander, sliced spring onion, sliced chili, fish sauce and lime juice.

Amaebi Miso Soup

Today I tried a new variant of miso soup. I de-shelled and deveined some fresh tiger prawn. They were coated in some cornstarch and afterwards slightly boiled in salt water for 2 minutes. The prawns are arranged in a small bowl together with some carrot decoration, wakame seaweed and sliced spring onion. The miso soup is poured carefully over the prawns.

Again - vegetable soup

Today I prepared again vegetable soup. Some frozen vegetable soup stock was still in the freezer. Together with some fresh potatos, carrots, mushrooms, and pies a very nice vegetable soup. Helen added some egg noodles. I had some sliced, smoked sausage added, that gives a nice salty, smokey flavour. As garnish some finely sliced spring onion.

The new kitchen beauty arrived ...

After some hassle with the German custom I have now my new kitchen beauty. It is a custom made deba knife made by Shinichi Watanabe (http://www.watanabeblade.com). It is honed at the left side so that lefthanders can cut properly with this single beveled knife. Another optional feature is the octagonal ho wood handle. I am looking very much forward to use this knife.

Forelle Blau (trout blue)

This is a traditional receipe from south germany (Baden). It is called "Forelle blau". It is poached trout. The stock (Court-Bouillon) is constisting of carots, fennel, leek, shallot, garlic, parsily, thyme, white pepper corns, bay leaf, juniper berry, salt, Noily Prat, and white wine vinager. The trout is poached for 15-20 min in the stock.