People food for thought Part VI; Sandwich
In previous entry titled "Bento box culture in Japan ", I wrote that parents get up early and make Bento box for kids to bring to school. School usually have Bento box day once in a while and when they have special events like sports festival, parents bring the Bento box for family members and when kids got lunch time break from events, kids and parents sit around the Bento box and eat them.
Depending on each family, menu for the Bento box is different but,generally, you would find either bed of white rice or pasta or rice ball with 2-4 kinds of side dish (meat,vegetables), and kids usually bring second small container that contains cut up fresh fruits. Sometimes, sandwiches.
Recently, I was reading local newspaper about school lunch sandwich. The newspaper article was suggesting variation of school lunch sandwiches for kids, and it got me thinking that sandwiches you find in Japan and sandwich you find in the states are somewhat different.
How different you may ask?
As you already know, Japanese diet are based on rice (sticky white rice) and we do not eat a lot of sandwiches but when we do, what you would put in the sandwich is different. I find that sandwiches in the states seems to use a lot of cold cut meat or Deli meat such as Ham, Salami, Pastrami, Corned beef,Bologna,Bacon along with slice of cheese.
Cold cuts or Deli meat are tasty,yes, but are they good for you? In the next entry, I will write about Cold cut or Deli meat. Here, I thought it would be interesting for you to see what kinds of sandwiches you can find in Japan or at our house.
I remember now and then, when I was a kid, my mother used to make sandwich for lunch. Bellow are some of the sandwiches she has made for me and some are what I make now and then.
<Tomato Cucumber Sandwich>
** Smear mayo on bread,place thinly sliced fresh cucumber and fresh tomato
<Tuna Sandwich>
** To small bowl, put drained Tuna and add mayo,dash of Worcester sauce,mix and spread on bread
<Egg Sandwich>
1. Make boiled egg and peel off shell and break into half and put cooked egg york part into the small bowl and chop the cooked egg white to small pieces.
** How to make fool proof boiled eggs**
1.Place a couple of eggs in the sauce pan and pour cold water to the depth that are enough to cover the egg and turn the stove on-medium high.
2. When water is boiling,move the eggs around a bit.This is to ensure Eggs would not crack during the process of making boiled eggs.
3.After moving around the eggs in the sauce pan,put the lid on and turn off the stove. Keep the pan at where it is. Then,set the timer "10 minutes".
After 10 minutes, pour all the hot water out and pour cold water in and if you are not going to use it right away,keep in the pan until eggs becomes not so hot to touch.
If you are going to use it right away, hold the egg under cold running water to temperature down and when it becomes more easy to handle with temperature wise, start peeling off the shell under the cold running water. Peeling under the water makes easy to peel.
*****
2. Mash the cooked egg york and add chopped cooked egg white and add mayo and add dash of Morton's Nature's Season and add touch of paprika and mix well and smear on bread.
<Ham and cucumber sandwich>
** Smear butter and smear a bit of mustard on bread, and place thinly sliced cucumber and place a couple of Ham slices
<Potato salad sandwich>
1. ** Make potato salad**
Mash the Russet potatoes and add mayo,and add Morton's Nature's season, add sliced thin ham strips,add cooked carrots, add sliced cucumber and well and add touch of mustard and done.
2.Smear potato salad on bread
<Potato croquette sandwich>
Potato Croquette...
Potato croquette burger..
** Above is how my husband enjoyed potato croquette. For mine,I smeared ketchup as my mother used to make...
Now,here is how you make the potato croquette sandwich.
** Make Potato croquette **
1. Mash the 3 Russet potatoes and add Morton's Natures season and about 2tbs of heavy cream
2.Chop about half onion and cook with butter in skillet, add about half pound of ground beef and add hint of nutmeg to onion,ground beef mixture and add these to mashed potatoes
3.Form the patties and dredge the patties to flour, shake off excess flour and dip them into lightly beaten egg and roll the patties on panko bread crumbs and deep fry them to golden.
***
Smear ketchup on bread, place lettuce and put potato croquette
Sometimes, sandwiches are made without ears (edge of bread). If you visit Japanese grocery stores early in the morning on certain day of the week, you could find bagful of bread ears. They are sold for dogs.
My mother used to go get a bag or two of bread ears. We did not have dogs but she used it to make fresh bread crumbs out of it or kids' snack or used it to make moist hamburger patties...
What are the secret for moist hamburger??
My mother taught me to add grated onion and bread ears that were soaked in a little bit of milk. When you add the bread ears soaked in a bit of milk,you need to squeeze out the milk so that you would not get very loose patties.
AND.. sometimes when you cook the hamburger patties, if you did not know one little secret for burger patties, you may end up bulged up burger patties.
How you can make nice flat burger patties?
When you make patties, after forming the patties, stick your second finger onto center of the burger patties all the way.It would have patties that has hold on the center.
After skillet comes up very hot, place the patties gently and cook through.
My mother's another little secret to know when the burger is done is that poke the burger with toothpicks and see if you see clear juice coming out from the hole or red or pink juice coming out. If you see the clear juice running from the hole,the burger is cooked through.
Or you can use the meat thermometer and take off the burger when it reaches to 160F.
I know some celebrity chef often say that make a dimple on the burger and then cook and I used to do that,but now I don't. I find that making the hole all the way was much better success for perfect flat patties.
Recent favorite sauce for burger for me is Jack Daniel sauce I just made today. I used ketchup, Worcester Sauce, Mirin (Sweet rice wine), Black Angus Steak sauce,touch of Jack Daniel Whiskey and heat through and put the cooked burger onto the skillet to coat the burger with sauce. At this moment, I did add this,add that to come to agreeable flavor and I did not take note to myself. Next time, when I make the same sauce,I will take notes and share it with you.
The Jack Daniel Whiskey burger patties came out so good!
What was our snack my mother used to make with bread ears??
Very easy,but just cut to manageable size and deep fry them and drain the oil on paper towel. Then,as soon as it comes out from the hot oil, she sprinkled white table sugars. It was good!
Here is the local newspaper article I was reading recently on variation o f sandwich.
What are your favorite sandwich to make?
Depending on each family, menu for the Bento box is different but,generally, you would find either bed of white rice or pasta or rice ball with 2-4 kinds of side dish (meat,vegetables), and kids usually bring second small container that contains cut up fresh fruits. Sometimes, sandwiches.
Recently, I was reading local newspaper about school lunch sandwich. The newspaper article was suggesting variation of school lunch sandwiches for kids, and it got me thinking that sandwiches you find in Japan and sandwich you find in the states are somewhat different.
How different you may ask?
As you already know, Japanese diet are based on rice (sticky white rice) and we do not eat a lot of sandwiches but when we do, what you would put in the sandwich is different. I find that sandwiches in the states seems to use a lot of cold cut meat or Deli meat such as Ham, Salami, Pastrami, Corned beef,Bologna,Bacon along with slice of cheese.
Cold cuts or Deli meat are tasty,yes, but are they good for you? In the next entry, I will write about Cold cut or Deli meat. Here, I thought it would be interesting for you to see what kinds of sandwiches you can find in Japan or at our house.
I remember now and then, when I was a kid, my mother used to make sandwich for lunch. Bellow are some of the sandwiches she has made for me and some are what I make now and then.
<Tomato Cucumber Sandwich>
** Smear mayo on bread,place thinly sliced fresh cucumber and fresh tomato
<Tuna Sandwich>
** To small bowl, put drained Tuna and add mayo,dash of Worcester sauce,mix and spread on bread
<Egg Sandwich>
1. Make boiled egg and peel off shell and break into half and put cooked egg york part into the small bowl and chop the cooked egg white to small pieces.
** How to make fool proof boiled eggs**
1.Place a couple of eggs in the sauce pan and pour cold water to the depth that are enough to cover the egg and turn the stove on-medium high.
2. When water is boiling,move the eggs around a bit.This is to ensure Eggs would not crack during the process of making boiled eggs.
3.After moving around the eggs in the sauce pan,put the lid on and turn off the stove. Keep the pan at where it is. Then,set the timer "10 minutes".
After 10 minutes, pour all the hot water out and pour cold water in and if you are not going to use it right away,keep in the pan until eggs becomes not so hot to touch.
If you are going to use it right away, hold the egg under cold running water to temperature down and when it becomes more easy to handle with temperature wise, start peeling off the shell under the cold running water. Peeling under the water makes easy to peel.
*****
2. Mash the cooked egg york and add chopped cooked egg white and add mayo and add dash of Morton's Nature's Season and add touch of paprika and mix well and smear on bread.
<Ham and cucumber sandwich>
** Smear butter and smear a bit of mustard on bread, and place thinly sliced cucumber and place a couple of Ham slices
<Potato salad sandwich>
1. ** Make potato salad**
Mash the Russet potatoes and add mayo,and add Morton's Nature's season, add sliced thin ham strips,add cooked carrots, add sliced cucumber and well and add touch of mustard and done.
2.Smear potato salad on bread
<Potato croquette sandwich>
Potato Croquette...
Potato croquette burger..
** Above is how my husband enjoyed potato croquette. For mine,I smeared ketchup as my mother used to make...
Now,here is how you make the potato croquette sandwich.
** Make Potato croquette **
1. Mash the 3 Russet potatoes and add Morton's Natures season and about 2tbs of heavy cream
2.Chop about half onion and cook with butter in skillet, add about half pound of ground beef and add hint of nutmeg to onion,ground beef mixture and add these to mashed potatoes
3.Form the patties and dredge the patties to flour, shake off excess flour and dip them into lightly beaten egg and roll the patties on panko bread crumbs and deep fry them to golden.
***
Smear ketchup on bread, place lettuce and put potato croquette
Sometimes, sandwiches are made without ears (edge of bread). If you visit Japanese grocery stores early in the morning on certain day of the week, you could find bagful of bread ears. They are sold for dogs.
My mother used to go get a bag or two of bread ears. We did not have dogs but she used it to make fresh bread crumbs out of it or kids' snack or used it to make moist hamburger patties...
What are the secret for moist hamburger??
My mother taught me to add grated onion and bread ears that were soaked in a little bit of milk. When you add the bread ears soaked in a bit of milk,you need to squeeze out the milk so that you would not get very loose patties.
AND.. sometimes when you cook the hamburger patties, if you did not know one little secret for burger patties, you may end up bulged up burger patties.
How you can make nice flat burger patties?
When you make patties, after forming the patties, stick your second finger onto center of the burger patties all the way.It would have patties that has hold on the center.
After skillet comes up very hot, place the patties gently and cook through.
My mother's another little secret to know when the burger is done is that poke the burger with toothpicks and see if you see clear juice coming out from the hole or red or pink juice coming out. If you see the clear juice running from the hole,the burger is cooked through.
Or you can use the meat thermometer and take off the burger when it reaches to 160F.
I know some celebrity chef often say that make a dimple on the burger and then cook and I used to do that,but now I don't. I find that making the hole all the way was much better success for perfect flat patties.
Recent favorite sauce for burger for me is Jack Daniel sauce I just made today. I used ketchup, Worcester Sauce, Mirin (Sweet rice wine), Black Angus Steak sauce,touch of Jack Daniel Whiskey and heat through and put the cooked burger onto the skillet to coat the burger with sauce. At this moment, I did add this,add that to come to agreeable flavor and I did not take note to myself. Next time, when I make the same sauce,I will take notes and share it with you.
The Jack Daniel Whiskey burger patties came out so good!
What was our snack my mother used to make with bread ears??
Very easy,but just cut to manageable size and deep fry them and drain the oil on paper towel. Then,as soon as it comes out from the hot oil, she sprinkled white table sugars. It was good!
Here is the local newspaper article I was reading recently on variation o f sandwich.
What are your favorite sandwich to make?
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