Enoki Bacon - Video Recipe

This is my favorite food that my mom cooks at home. At my home, we eat it with ponzu sauce which is a citrus-based sauce. It is very tasty and refreshing, so please try it out in this way if you have never tried it! It's a great recipe for bento, too :D


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq1ASXYj81U

In this tutorial, I use Lékué (pronounced LAY-KWAY) Silicone Steam Case. Lékué is unique because it is made from 100% pure food-grade platinum silicone, built to exceed FDA standards. It's microwave, freezer, dishwasher and oven safe up to 260C (500F) degrees.　It costs about 50 bucks in Japan but becoming very popular these days.

Another popular product released this year (in 2011) is jelly ponzu (ハウス のっけてジュレ ぽん酢). Jelly ponzu can be spread on anything while traditional ponzu runs over.

Of course you can use ready-made ponzu, or I will show you how to make ponzu sauce from scratch.



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Enoki Bacon

Difficulty: Very Easy
Time: 10min
Number of servings: 2-4

Necessary Equipment:
microwavable cookware OR oven safe cookware

Ingredients:
200g (7oz.) enokitake (enoki mushrooms)
4 bacon strips
A
* 1 tbsp. lemon juice
* 1 tbsp. soy sauce

Directions:
1. Cut off the roots of the enoki mushrooms and separate them into 8 bundles.
2. Cut bacon strips in half and wrap enoki mushrooms.
3. Place the enoki bacon seam-side down, microwave for 3 minutes at 500w OR bake for about 10 minutes at 200C (390F). When it's done, let it steam for about 3 minutes.
4. Mix A and make ponzu sauce.
5. Pour the ponzu sauce over the enoki bacon just before serving.

↓レシピ（日本語）
http://cooklabo.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-post_1990.html
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Enjoy :D

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Microwave Cooking Safety

Do you think microwave cooking is unsafe?!
Do you think microwaving food in plastic wrap or container is dangerous?!

Long time ago, I once heard it is unsafe but nowadays I don't. Microwave cooking is very popular in Japan, and I think we don't care about it. So, I was very surprised to receive a lot of comments regarding the safety of it (after posting my microwave cooking videos).

Therefore, I contacted my microwave manufacturer (National / Panasonic) and my plastic wrap manufacturer (Asahi Kasei) to hear what they would respond.

Microwave Safety:
- The radio waves would never leak from microwave and of course it is not visible. (The light in the microwave is to check if the food is done or not.)
- It would never cause chemical transformation into toxic forms. Microwave is out for more than 40 years and there is no such an issue.
- The major drawback of the microwave oven is that food doesn’t heat evenly, which means bacteria and other micro-organisms can thrive in the cold spots. Therefore, microwave oven can be dangerous if foods are cooked unevenly.

Plastic Wrap Safety:
- They don't use harmful substance.
- Just make sure the upper temperature limit before you use microwavable plastic products. However, even if it melts, the food is edible.

These are the answers I received for the products I use, so just make sure with your manufacturers to ensure the safety.

My Conclusion:
Overall, it seems safe if you cook foods thoroughly using microwave.

But who knows what would be said after many years. Therefore, I would say it is better not used for the main source of cooking if you are skeptical about the chemical transformation on foods cooked in microwaves. Since microwave is very popular, I believe our government (in Japan) would never drill down on issues related to it.

Everyone has their own ideas on this issue... What do you think?!

(I feel like doing a summer vacations homework. LoL)

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Hello Kitty Art Exhibition

My mom gave me free tickets for Hello Kitty Art Exhibition (ハローキティ アート展) held in Ginza, so my darling and I've been there while typhoon is approaching. haha Luckily it didn't rain :D

The exhibition was a display of some modern Hello Kitty artwork by Yamaguchi Yuko (3rd Hello Kitty designer), history of Hello Kitty designs since it was born in 1974, and some local Hello Kitty collections nationwide. It was interesting but what I thought was not worth paying 10 bucks per person. haha

We were not allowed to take pictures at the exhibition, so I have only one pic to share, which I took at the entrance.



Of course, I headed to the huge sanrio shop in Ginza after this and enjoyed Hello Kitty there again. hehe

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