Momokawa

Category: Tips

  • Squid Ink Handmade Pasta

    Squid Ink Handmade Pasta

    You can substitute squid ink handmade pasta with store bought one and cut the cooking time.

    Serves 2

    For pasta

    1 cup of semolina flour (1/2 cup Bread flour and 1/2 cupall purpose flour )
    1 medium size egg
    I teaspoon of squid ink
    1 tablespoon of olive oil
    1 tablespoon or less Water ( adjust the amount of water to size of egg, 1 tablespoon or less)

    For Sauce

    1 clove of garlic
    1-2 pieces of etiolate
    2-3 grape tomato (any tomato is good!)
    4-5 shrimps pealed and vein removed
    1 slice mushroom
    1 cup of dashi (Japanese bonito broth) or water
    2 tbsp heavy cream
    1/4 tsp old bay seasoning

    Instruction

    Pasta

    Put all the ingredients, except water, into a bowl.
    Mix well, add water until dough forms.
    Knead until black color becomes even.
    Wrap with plastic and leave in a fridge for 2-3 hours.
    Sprinkle flour on the dough and roll it with the pasta machine 2-3 times.
    You just made noodles!

    Make sure to sprinkle noodles with a lot of flour. This will prevent them from becoming sticky.

    Sauce

    Prep
    Slice vegetables, as pictured above.
    In the meantime boil water in a separate pan for your pasta.
    Add olive oil (1-2 tbsp) to a frying pan, grill shrimps until they turn red. Remove from the pan, put aside.

    Add garlic, shallot, tomato, and mushroom to the frying pan. Cook for about 3-4 minutes.

    Add dash or water. Simmer down until half of the liquid is left. Add salt and pepper.
    Bring the shrimps back to the pan and add 2 tablespoon of heavy cream. Cook at medium heat 2-3 min.
    Add salt and olive oil to the boiled water and add pasta. Cook for about  2-3 min.

    Bring the pasta into the sauce and stir well.

    Enjoy!

  • Why Do We Need To Eat Vegetable Salad First?

    Why Do We Need To Eat Vegetable Salad First?

    The simple answer is in these three words: Fiber, vinegar and lipid.

    When glucose level (blood sugar level) rises sharply with a meal, insulin is secreted into our bloodstream. Insulin has storing sugar as fat function. Excessive insulin secretion can result in weight gain.

    Among the three macro-nutrients (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates) the carbohydrate is equal to sugar and can easily lead to blood glucose level raise. Most of us tend to avoid lipids because they’re high in calories. But the truth is, it takes time for our bodies to digest and absorb them, so it’s hard for them to raise your blood sugar level. Vinegar also has suppressing blood sugar level function.

    Thus when we eat salad with dressing before main meal, we help suppress a sudden rise in blood glucose level from the meal. As a result, even with the same amount of food consumed, the way calories are absorbed is changed.

    One more benefit of having a salad, especially with Japanese food such as sushi, is that one of the component from the fresh greens called chlorophyll helps diminish and clear the fishy aftertaste in your mouth. That’s another secret of why our sushi give you a refreshing effect after the meal ☺

  • ORIENTAL PANINI

    ORIENTAL PANINI

    Ingredients

    1/2 medium size onion
    8 shiitake mushrooms
    1 teaspoon butter
    1 teaspoon soy sauce
    4 slices low-fat Swiss cheese
    8 slices whole grain bread
    Salt & pepper

    Preparation

    1. Slice the onion.
    2. Remove stems from shiitake mushrooms and clean them with a paper towel.

    Cooking

    1. Preheat a non-stick frying pan, add butter and the shiitake mushrooms.
    2. Make sure each mushroom is covered in butter, this will add to the flavor. Sauté for 2-3 min.
    3. Add the onions and sauté them together with the mushrooms until they have a sweat aroma. Season with salt and pepper.
    4. Add soy sauce just before removing mushrooms and onion from the frying pan (soy sauce burns easily). Set aside.
    5. Place Swiss cheese, onions and shiitake mushrooms on the sliced bread and sandwich it with the other half of bread.
    6. Place the sandwiches into a panini toaster at medium heat for 4-5 min. (If you don’t have a panini toaster just spray a pan with oil and place the sandwiches under a plate, as a weight).

    Nutrition Comments

    Shiitake mushrooms contain the hypocholesterolemic agent eritadenine, which is known to reduce cholesterol. Shiitake mushrooms are high in fiber, and sometimes hard to digest.
  • AQUA PAZZA

    AQUA PAZZA

    Ingredients

    For Fish

    1 whole white fish or filet with skin (either branzino, snapper or sea bass)

    Salt & pepper

    1 teaspoon chopped tarragon

    1 teaspoon olive oil

    For Soup

    6-8 little neck clams

    2 sticks celery, cut

    1 medium sized potato, cubed

    2 cloves garlic, crushed

    5-8 grape tomatoes

    5-6 green olives

    Salt & pepper

    1 teaspoon olive oil

    3/4 cup water used to blanch clams

    1/4 cup chicken broth (alternatively fish broth or kelp broth)

    For Garnish

    Sliced paprika

    1 teaspoon chopped tarragon

    Preparation

    1. Sprinkle fish with salt and set aside to drain on a paper towel for 15–20 min. This is to expel the excess water in the fish.
    2. Remove drained fish from the paper towel and sprinkle with tarragon.
    3. Wash clams with a brush thoroughly and soak in salted water in a stainless steel bowl, overnight. Instead of soaking clams overnight, you can blanch them in 2 cups of water.
    4. Once the shells have opened, remove from the bottom of skillet and wash each clam individually in the same water used for blanching.
    5. Strain the water into a separate container. This water will be used for the clam soup.
    6. Cut all vegetables into small pieces.

    Cooking

    1. Heat olive oil in a skillet and add garlic, celery and olives. Sauté for 5–6 min. on medium heat.
    2. Add clam soup (strained water from earlier), chicken broth and a potato and simmer until the potato is tender.
    3. In a large frying pan heat olive oil and add fish. Fry on medium heat until fish is browned. Depending on the size of the fish it’ll take 5-8 min.
    4. Add the entire soup content, including clams, tomatoes and paprika into frying pan. Cover and simmer on medium low for 5-7 min.
    5. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Note: Fish and clams make a tasty and flavorful broth, so salt is usually not needed.

    Nutrition Comments

    Fish is rich in protein and low in fat. The fish oil is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EDP. Clams contain a lot of minerals and taurine that helps reduce and stabilize high blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, fortify the liver and can also act as a preventative means for diabetes.

  • Food for People with Chronic Pancreatitis and Elderly People

    Food for People with Chronic Pancreatitis and Elderly People

    Pancreatitis means the inflammation of the pancreas. A proper diet for pancreatitis is really difficult to establish. The pancreas is the organ that produces enzymes, which brake down food, during digestion.

    Besides helping to digest foods the pancreas also produces insulin. People who have Pancreatitis suffer from the problem of the enzymes produced by the pancreas, which don’t reach the stomach to digest food, but digest their own organ instead, the pancreas.

    One of the solutions for this problem is to cut the intake of oils and fatty foods. According to clinical researches, many people feel better after switching their regular diet to a low fat one, eating smaller portions (about 1oz maximum at the time), more often throughout the day.

    It is also important to avoid alcohol and foods made with alcohol. Include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low or non-fat dairy to your daily diet. Also eat protein with every meal, like lean beef, chicken without skin, fish, beans, soy etc.

    The pains caused by the consumption of certain food are due to the pancreas having inflammations, also known as “fibrillation”. With each inflammation the organ shrinks.

    Fortunately there are some simple means to prevent such discomforting symptoms that result from eating the wrong food.

    Consume the foods that do not stimulate pancreas to produce too many of enzymes which lead to its dysfunction. One should consume foods that are nutritious and easy to digest.

    1. Avoid foods such as: caffeine, alcohol, spicy foods and oily foods. Also avoid fatty tuna, salmon, black cod, yellow tail, Chilean sea bass because these fish are very fatty, or foods rich in fiber like seaweed and mushrooms.
    2. Eat more: White fishes or chicken breast, as these are the best choices.
    3. Reduce the portion of each meal and eat more times threw out the day.
    4. Cut your oil and fatty food consumption. But since the body needs some fat, try to divide your fat intake among the smaller portions of meals, throughout the day.
    5. Choose non-irritant ingredients. Choose foods that contain a lot of their own enzymes.

    Most of the above mentioned foods are also suitable for the diet of elderly people.
    When the pancreas inflames, it can help to do a short period of fasting to calm down the organ or try to consume liquefied food. The best way to liquefy you foods is with a blender or a juicer.

    However to prevent weight loss and promote the proper function of the organs, you need to consume enough calories from carbohydrates and proteins. These should come from non-fat foods that are easy to digest.

    People who have diabetes should always pay attention to the calories they eat and follow the amount of calories suggested by their physicians.

    The recipes in this book for pancreatitis are only suggestions. Their main goal is to minimize the amount of fat and oil consumed with food. The recipes are also intended to be a guide for choosing ingredients that are easier to digest. Aside from that they are also examples for consuming the right amount of protein and other nutrients to build up muscle and organ tissue.

    However, in the case of pancreas inflammation one should reduce the amount of proteins derived from milk products, such as cottage cheese, non-fat cream cheese, because these are harder to digest compared to other ingredients.

    These recipes cannot replace the advice and treatments from your medical physician.