Lean Waldorf Salad with Canned Chicken (or Leftover Turkey!)

I love me a good Waldorf salad, but find all the mayonnaise in the dressing to be too heavy and rich for me. I came up with this healthy twist on the Waldorf that is lighter, but full of flavor and crunch. It has a lot of fiber and is nutrient dense to boot. And for times when life is crazy, but you want to make a heathy lunch without the labor, I give you permission to use canned chicken and bagged shredded cabbage like I did last week!

They have both at Trader Joe’s. 🙂 But you could probably find it at any large supermarket.  And at the end of the week, you’ll have all that leftover turkey that you will want to put to good use, so you could use that instead.

I always have my whipped cottage cheese at the ready, but if you don’t, you could use Greek yogurt instead. I didn’t have grapes on hand that are usually in a Waldorf, so I threw in some dried cranberries for some color and and extra layer of sweetness.

Melissa Iwai 2015

Wishing all you Americans a Happy Thanksgiving this week!

Lean Waldorf Salad

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1/2 cup whipped cottage cheese or Greek yogurt

1 12.5 oz. can chicken breast, or 1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey

salt and pepper to taste

4 cups chopped cabbage

1 Fuji or Honey Crisp apple, chopped

1/4 cup chopped, toasted walnuts

salad greens

handful of dried cranberries to taste

1.  Mix mayonnaise and whipped cottage cheese or Greek yogurt together in a medium sized bowl.  Add chicken and salt and pepper and incorporate. Mix in cabbage, chopped apple, walnuts and dried cranberries.
2. Serve over a bed of salad greens.
3. Enjoy!

Makes about 4 servings.

 

 

Chicken Katsu

My mom is here visiting again!  When she arrived from a day of traveling, I served Chicken Katsu for dinner (with rice, miso soup, and miso green beans – not a low sodium meal!).  It was comfort food Japanese style.  When I lived in Japan, this was a favorite dish to order at a mom and pop type of restaurant –the equivalent of a nice, hot diner meal here in the U.S.

Basically Chicken Katsu is breaded chicken served with a Japanese savory sauce made up of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.

I like to trim the chicken breasts to make them thinner using kitchen shears.  Then I pound them to an even thickness in a Ziploc bag.

 

To bread, I simply coat in flour, then egg, then panko (Japanese bread crumbs).

Then, I fry them up in a skillet and keep warm in the oven while I continue to cook all the chicken pieces.

Slice the chicken into strips at a diagonal and serve with sauce and hot rice!  Perfect comfort food. 🙂

Chicken Katsu

 

4 chicken breasts

kosher salt

½ cup flour

2 eggs or 1 egg + 1 white, beaten

1 ½ cups panko

about 1/3 cup canola oil for frying

 

¼ cup ketchup

1 ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

 

1. Trim tenderloin from chicken breasts. Place breasts and tenderloin pieces in a large Ziploc bag and lightly pound until each piece of chicken is uniform thickness, about 1/4 –inch.
2. Measure flour and place in shallow dish. Beat eggs in another shallow dish. Measure panko and place in third shallow dish.
3. Pat chicken dry, place on plate and lightly sprinkle with kosher salt.
4. Dredge a piece of chicken in flour. Coat in egg. Coat in panko. Set on clean plate. Repeat with remaining chicken pieces.
5. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
6. Heat a large skillet with about 1/3 cup canola oil. Test with a few crumbs of panko. When it sizzles, the oil is ready.
7. Place a few pieces of the coated chicken in the oil being careful not to crowd the pan. Saute on each side until golden, about 1-2 minutes per side. Drain on rack set over a baking sheet. Place chicken in warmed oven and continue to cook remaining chicken in skillet.
8. To make sauce, stir ketchup and Worcestershire sauce together until fully combined. Serve with chicken.

 

Yield: 4 servings

Omu Raisu (Japanese Rice Omelet)

I don’t know about you all, but I am so not ready for Christmas and the end of the year! I find myself juggling so many things to begin with, but then there’s presents to procure, work to finish, cookies to bake… Before we left for our travels to the midwest for Thanksgiving, we three enjoyed the Annual Children’s Book Festival at the Brooklyn Museum.  If you are in the area, it is a wonderful opportunity to meet Brooklyn authors.  It’s usually the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and it’s free!

It was packed like this all day. That’s me and Jamie on the bottom right.

My friend, Claude, took this of us.

I also did a book reading, craft, and signing this past weekend at Grace Church School in Brooklyn, where Jamie went to pre-school.  I can’t believe it’s been SEVEN years since we first entered that beautiful building!

Me reading Soup Day — Jamie doing a great job not looking bored!

It is always very nostalgic going there.  My very first post on this blog was the Rocking Horse Cookies  I made for a Bake Sale there.  Time flies…

As for the Omu Raisu…  This is one of those common dishes that you could find everywhere in Japan — I haven’t been in ages, so I don’t know what it is like now.  It’s a Japanese version of a Western dish.  And as I saw when I lived there, way back in the 90s, “Western” often included ketchup.  I taught a cooking class there with my friend, Elaine, to some of my (adult) English language students.

We decided to do Crunchy Tacos– American style– as in, the kind you get at Taco Bell.  At the time it was pretty impossible to get authentic Mexican ingredients where we were living.  It was really fun, and the students loved the tacos, but the one thing I remember is them saying that it would be good with ketchup. lol

Anyway, one of my favorite scenes in the movie, Tampopo, directed by Juzo Itami, is when this hobo makes Omu Raisu in a deserted ship kitchen for Tampopo’s son.  View here.  It’s so cute!  The hobo’s version is not stuffed– he cooks a perfect omelet and puts it atop a bed of ketchup rice.

Here is a video on how to make a Miffy Lion Omu Raisu!!  I found this while searching for the scene in Tampopo.  OMG.  The Japanese are so good at cute.

Omu Raisu is one of Jamie’s favorite dishes — he’s a ketchup fiend.  I hadn’t made it in awhile, but while visiting my brother, he introduced us to this awesome YouTube channel, “Cooking with Dog”. We  watched numerous episodes on Apple TV while there.  I love that the dog just sits on a stool in the background as the chef cooks.  Here is the Cooking with Dog Omu Raisu episode.

My Omu Raisu is a simplified version.  I don’t use tomato sauce, just ketchup.  You can fill it with whatever meat and vegetables you like, but I like to use the traditional chicken.  I love white rice, but only had brown rice on hand.  As you can see, I have picky eaters to please, so I made different fillings for everyone.  I made a big batch of chicken and onions and rice first; doled out a portion for Denis in a bowl; then added the ketchup, peas, and corn (all things Denis hates); doled out a portion for Jamie; and then added cooked broccoli to the remaining filling for myself.  It was like a logic problem. Then I made omelets and filled with with each person’s filling!

Before I share the recipe, I just wanted to thank Chef Mimi for giving  me the I Am Part of the WordPress Family Award.

Thank you, Chef!  I usually don’t post about awards because I am extremely busy, and I always have a slight bout of anxiety thinking of gathering other links, notifying the recipients of the awards, and wondering what  they will do.   But I was so touched by Chef Mimi’s no pressure attitude.  Plus, she’s a self taught cook like me and learned along the way while raising and feeding her family.  She has a wonderful collection of recipes in her recipe guide on her blog, so check it out!

Omu Raisu (Japanese Omelet Rice) For three servings

4 teaspoons oil

Some onion — about 1/2 cup, diced, depending on your taste

about 1/4 cup cooked rice for each serving 1 chicken breast, chopped into small pieces about 1 cup of cooked vegetables

2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup ketchup, depending on how much you like ketchup 6 eggs (1-2 per person)

1)  Saute onions and chicken in 1 teaspoon oil in a non stick pan.  When it’s cooked, added cooked rice and cooked vegetables and ketchup.  Stir to incorporate.  Remove to a dish.

2)  Using a clean pan, heat 1 teaspoon oil and swirl around.

3) Beat 1-2 eggs in a bowl.  Add to pan.  Move around so that the egg covers bottom of pan.  When it’s almost done, lay filling on one half of egg circle.  Flip other half on top.  Put a plate on pan and flip omelet out onto the plate.  (The cooking with dog chef puts the filling in the middle and folds each side over — you can do this too, but my way is easier!)
4)  Serve immediately, garnished with more ketchup!

The Hungry Artists’ Recipes

Ok, I’ve had this blog for what, going on 3 years here, and I have never compiled a recipes page.  Major head slap.  People often ask me for recipes on the blog, and my feeble response is to “do a search”.   Really lame.

I guess when I began the blog, I didn’t know it would grow this big.  I should have had a recipes page on day one.  I realized this fact a couple of months ago, and the prospect of going back and linking everything and getting it all in ship shape paralyzed me.  I realized it is never going to happen unless I start NOW.  So, I am currently building it, but it will take time.  I have over a 100 recipes on the site to categorize and link.  And now is not the best time in terms of my book and illustration projects (though when is it ever, right?) I am currently involved in.

I just want to say that the recipe page is a work in progress.  It has been really enjoyable to go back and look at older recipes though.  Some I haven’t made in awhile, and I will definitely have to.  Especially the soup recipes!  As some of you might know, the impetus for starting this little blog was the publication of Soup Day, which I wrote and illustrated and came out with Henry Holt in 2010.

Here are the categories I came up with, and here is the recipe page for the whole collection (so far).  Also, there is now a RECIPES link on the header of every page and post! Thanks for your patience and hope you try out some old favorites!

Oyako-don: Parent-Child Rice Bowl

With the temperatures beginning to dip as we head into fall, it’s nice to have a steaming bowl of comfort for dinner.  Of course, for me, comfort food often involves food of my childhood, which is usually Japanese or Hawaiian.  But Oyako-don is something I never ate until I went to Japan as an adult.  Literally translated, it means “Parent” (oya) “Child” (ko) “Rice Bowl” (don or donburi).  The name refers to the chicken and egg in the dish.  It’s kind of a cute and not-so-cute image at the same time.  Regardless, this dish is so quick and easy to prepare and so tasty, it’s a nice weeknight choice for our family.  Even my son, who doesn’t usually care for mushrooms, will gobble up the shiitake mushrooms.  I use dried ones.  The hot water used to reconstitute the shiitake is delicious and can be added into the simmering sauce for a heartier flavor.

Dried shiitake mushrooms can be found in Asian or health food stores.

After soaking in boiling water for about 10 minutes.

We are big onion eaters, so I use a lot – 2 1/2 to 3 cups of sliced onions.  But you don’t have to use that much.  Also, we like a lot of sauce so that it becomes almost soup-like at the end to eat with the rice.  That too, you can adjust to your liking.

It all comes together in about 10-15 minutes!

See recipe below.

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This Saturday, we three will be at the Princeton Children’s Book Festival in Princeton, NJ.  If you are in the area, please stop by!  I will be signing TRUCK STOP with Anne Rockwell, and HUSH LITTLE MONSTER with my husband, Denis. The festival is from 11-4 at the Princeton Public Library.  There will be a HUGE array of amazing authors and illustrators (Avi, Sophie Blackall, Brett Hilquist, Roxie Munroe, Paul O. Zelinsky are among the 80 there) signing books.  Check it out here.

I’m hoping to make another batch of mini donuts.  Remember these?

Oyako-don

4 dried shiitake mushrooms

1 chicken breast (about 10-ounces), sliced diagonally into thin strips

1 onion, sliced thinly (1 1/2 – 3 cups depending on your preference)

4 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons mirin

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup water

4 eggs

hot cooked white rice

1.  Bring a kettle of water to boil.  Place dried mushrooms in a bowl and cover with hot water.  Place a smaller bowl on top to weight the mushrooms down.

2.  Meanwhile,  prep chicken and onions.

3.  Heat the soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and water in a large skillet on the stove and dissolve sugar.  Bring to a boil and add chicken and onions.  At this point, the mushrooms are probably softened.  Drain and reserve liquid.  Slice the shiitake caps into thin slices and add to skillet.  Depending on how soup-y you want your sauce, add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of the shiitake liquid to the skillet.  Turn heat down and simmer for about 3-5 minutes until chicken is cooked through and onions are softened.

4.  Beat eggs in a bowl with a fork.  Pour over skillet.  Cover and turn down to low.  Let cook a bit until the eggs are set — about 1-2 minutes.

To serve, mound piles of rice into deep bowls.  Divide the skillet contents into fourths, and top each bowl with a portion of the chicken, onion, mushroom, egg mixture.  Spoon extra sauce on top to your liking.

5.

Asian Quinoa Salad

Though it’s been oppressively hot and humid in NYC recently, we’ve still found opportunities to grill.  Well, Denis does the grilling.  🙂  I just do the prep!

Along with the requisite hamburgers and hotdogs, we often make our Hawaiian Huli Huli Chicken — an old favorite.

French Potato Salad is also always a crowd pleaser.

Last week I came up with a new recipe to add to the summer barbecue line up:  Asian Quinoa Salad.

I bought this bag of red quinoa awhile ago at Trader Joe’s and wanted to make something with it.

Any quinoa would work though.  This salad is simple:  Just cook the quinoa in liquid (I like using homemade chicken stock for the rich flavor).  Then add seasonings.  Voila! You have a refreshing summer salad side dish!  This recipe could easily be doubled.

Stay cool and enjoy!

Asian Quinoa Salad

3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed

1 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

Kosher salt to taste

1 scallion, minced

1/4 to 1/3 cooked edamame

2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

1.  Place quinoa in stock in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer, covered for about 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is cooked (try tasting a bit).

2.  Whisk sesame oil and vinegar together.  Toss with quinoa and other ingredients.

Makes about 6 small side servings.

Chicken Karaage

Chicken Karaage (pronounced approximately: kada ahgE) is basically Fried Chicken, Japanese style. It’s often found in dinner “sets” in restaurants along with miso and salad, and in bento lunches in Hawaii and Japan.

I had never made Chicken Karaage until last week when my mom was in town celebrating her 83rd birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

We had planned to grill chicken our favorite way — and make Huli Huli Chicken. But alas, Mother Nature wasn’t be cooperative. I had already marinated 5 pounds of chicken thighs and I wasn’t about to not cook it for my mom’s celebration.  I remembered that the nice guy, Eric, who had given me the Huli Huli Chicken recipe, had told me he cooks it by dredging in corn starch or flour and frying it.  So I decided to give it a try.  I skinned the marinated chicken and cut into 1-inch pieces.  I tossed it in flour because I was out of corn starch.  The traditional way is to use potato starch if you have it.  I then fried it in a skillet in about 1/2-inch to 1-inch of oil.  You could also easily deep fry it.

The chicken was superb!  You would think that marinating for 24 hours would be overkill, but it is perfect.  The lightly fried chicken was tasty and had a thin delicate crust.  I served  it with hot white rice and Miso Green Beans.  My mom loves when I cook for her rather than going out, so I was happy to be able to pull it together even though it wasn’t exactly what we had planned.

Have you ever had Chicken Karaage in a Japanese restaurant?  Try it out — or better yet — make it yourself! 🙂

Chicken Karaage

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup sugar

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon sake

10 slices ginger

5 large garlic cloves, smashed

1 tablespoon sesame oil

4-5 lbs. chicken thighs, de-boned, skin on

About 1 cup of flour, corn starch, or potato flour

1.  Mix soy, sugar, vinegar, sake, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil together until sugar dissolves.   Marinate chicken in mixture for 24 hours in refrigerator, turning once or twice.

2.  When ready to cook, skin chicken thighs and chop into 1-inch pieces.  Toss in flour until completely coated.

3.  Heat about 1 inch oil in skillet (or more if deep frying).  Fry chicken on each side for about 2 minutes each or until golden brown.  Drain on a rack over a baking sheet.  Serve immediately.

Enchilada Remix

Oh my gosh, people, I do believe, I am back!  Thank you all so much for your words of support and encouragement!  It’s been a long haul…

In my last post, I mentioned a wonderful way to cook chicken and make delicious broth at the same time.  This is one of the meals I made with the fruits of those labors:  Chicken Enchiladas.  So easy and yummy.  I did a post a couple of years back on Chicken Enchiladas that I made with my mom (I grew up with this dish), and I think I’ve improved it (sorry, mom!)!  My friend, Judy, of Bebe Loves Okazu (check out her beautiful, beautiful blog!) had mentioned she had made it but sauteed the onions.  Also, she wanted a thicker sauce.  I was keeping this in mind when I redid this recipe.  I also streamlined it a bit and instead of spraying and softening the tortillas in the oven, I just covered 6 at a time with a damp paper towel and heated in the microwave.

Sauteing the onions gave the dish a sweeter, milder flavor, and made the sauce tastier.  I reduced the amount of broth and increased the tomato sauce, which made the resulting sauce thicker — perfect for serving at the table.

Hope all of you have a wonderful Saint Patrick’s Day this Sunday!  I plan to relax with my family and just enjoy being. 🙂  Here is an image I did for the occasion with the same kids from Valentine’s Day.

May good luck flow your way!

Chicken Enchiladas (revised)

1 medium onion, diced

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 15 oz. can tomato sauce

3 cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon (or to taste) chili powder

kosher salt to taste

12 corn tortillas

About 4 cups shredded cooked chicken

About 8 oz. or more (to taste) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  Saute diced onion in oil on stove in a large pot.

3.  When onions are softened and translucent, transfer about 80% of them to a bowl and set aside.  To the remaining cooked onions in pot add tomato sauce, chicken broth, chili powder, and salt to taste.  Bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, until thickened.

4.  Heat 6 tortillas at a time, covering with a damp paper towel, in the microwave for 45- 50 seconds, until warm and pliable.

5.  Pour some sauce into a 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan to coat bottom.  Lay one of the warmed tortillas in dish and coat both sides with sauce.  Then fill with  a handful of chicken, sprinkle of sauteed onions, and a bit of shredded cheese.  Roll up into a tube seam-side down.  Continue with five more warmed tortillas.  Then warm the remaining 6 tortillas and fill these in the dish, adding sauce to coat, as needed.  For the last two enchiladas, you may want to coat, fill and roll in another dish because there isn’t much space left.  I find that doing the bulk of the filling and rolling in the backing dish itself helpful though, because you don’t have to worry about the tortilla breaking and spilling mid-transfer!

6.  When all twelve enchiladas are arranged in baking dish, cover with cooked sauce, and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Alternatively, you could also refrigerate up to this time and bake later.  We did this, and baked it for about 30 minutes.

Makes 12 enchiladas.  Serve with extra sauce.

Not Normal

Still not back to normal around these parts… but hopefully soon.  This project has dragged on and on, and I have been overwhelmed with the work, I have had no time to do anything else.  I am truly exhausted.  My family has been so supportive. I don’t know what I would do without them!

Here is a painting I did while waiting for ginormous files to save, export and upload.  I am donating it to my son’s school auction.  It’s called Meditating Lion, and it’s pretty much the place I want to be in!

Will be back with recipes soon.

Here’s a good one that  I was introduced to by the person I’m working with.  It’s so simple I was able to  make while waiting for my computer to restart:  Take a whole, rinsed chicken. Chop it up into pieces so it can fit into a large pot.  Fill pot with water to cover chicken pieces by about an inch or two. Add some salt.   Boil for 90 minutes.

When it’s done, you have amazingly tender chicken that can be used for soup, burritos, tacos, salad, etc.  And you have AMAZING broth.  I strained it and chilled and skimmed off the fat (which people would be horrified by — the schmaltz  gives it the rich flavor).  It is very soothing, and I think helped to stave off an oncoming cold.

I made this soup and used the chicken broth and added the shredded cooked chicken at the end.  I didn’t have time to take a picture, but it was excellent, and the broth makes all the difference! It looked like this, but I put cooked rice in it instead of noodles.

By the way, my book, Soup Day, was released in Korea recently!  I love how they incorporated the soup spoon in the title in Hangul.

I only have to sell about 600 more copies before I can start on the sequel!  If you want to help me out, please do!  It is in stores and here.
Thanks for your patience and support ….  be back soon!

Easy Weeknight Pork Enchilada Casserole

Ooey and gooey, and yummy

Imagine this:  It’s a weeknight and you need to make dinner fast.  Instead of take out (which actually takes some time because you have to order and then go pick it up or wait for it to be delivered), make this!

view the recipe for slow cooker pork

I used leftover slow cooker pork shoulder, but you could easily use shredded rotisserie chicken instead.

I was inspired by this recipe from Cooking Light.  Instead of seasoned ground beef, I used pre-cooked pork, and instead of the enchilada sauce, I got really lazy and used bottled barbecue sauce.  We love Trader Joe’s Bold and Smoky Kansas City Style Barbecue Sauce.  It’s tangy and tasty, but not spicy (for the little one). 

Saute some onions, and mix in the pork or chicken and the barbecue sauce.  Add a handful of cheese.  Layer mixture in pie pan with flour tortillas. Top with a bit more sauce and cheese and bake until melted.  Easy peasy!

In the pie pan

Cut into wedges and serve.

Easy Weeknight Pork Enchilada Casserole

Non-stick spray

¼ cup onion, diced

1 teaspoon oil

2 ½ cups leftover pulled pork (see recipe here) or shredded rotisserie chicken

1/3 cup barbecue sauce

4 flour tortillas

1/2 cup grated cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a pie dish with spray. Set aside.
2. Sauté onion with oil in a large pan until soft.  Add pork and 1/3 cup of the barbecue sauce. Stir together to combine and sauté gently until heated through.  Stir in a handful of the grated cheese, and remove pan from heat and set aside.
3. Place one tortilla in pie dish.  Spread 1/3 of pork mixture on top. I divide the mixture in the pan first by making a “peace” sign with three equal portions, so I have a clear idea of what 1/3 of the total is.   Cover with another flour tortilla.  Continue to layer with another  1/3 of pork mixture, another tortilla, and last 1/3 of pork mixture.  Cover with last tortilla.
4. Spread rest of  barbecue sauce on top layer.  Sprinkle with grated cheese.  Bake in oven for about 10 minutes until cheese melts.  Cut into wedges and serve.