Fried chicken with lime leaves, pumpkin in soy sauce with minced pork and Japanese pickled vegetable "Takana"

   
Photos included: Fried chicken with lime leaves
                          Pumpkin slices with minced pork
                          Japanese pickle "takana"
                          Kiwi and orange slices with choco fondue


   Here is a simple meal that I have prepared recently. One is fried chicken made tender by boiling in  water with lime leaves over slow to moderate fire. I did not put so much water when I boiled the chicken meat so by the time it's tender, most water has gone, leaving only the meat fat. I fried the boiled chicken meat by transferring it  into a frying pan with 2 tablespoons or less of olive oil pre-fried with crushed garlic to add flavor to my meat.  I didn't drench the meat with any bread crumbs or flour; that leaves out extra calories for weight-watchers like me. It is just meat with salt and pepper.    



Fried chicken with kefir leaves

     I also prepared a very easy dish - pumpkin with minced pork flavored with soy sauce. As the name suggests, it is pumpkin (the uncut one) boiled over moderate fire. The soft pumpkin is cut into several pieces. The minced pork is sauteed in olive oil pre-cooked with slices of garlic and onions. The pumpkin slices were added along with a tablespoon of soy sauce and a dash of black pepper. I added some dashi broth to make the taste more tasty (dashi broth is water obtained by boiling bontio flakes in water; the mixture is drained to get ony the liquid portion).

Pumpkin in soy sauce (with minced pork)

To perk up these viands, I purchased a Japanese pickle called "takana".  It is a vegetable similar to mustard and tastes very much like it. The pickle is spicy because of the added chili and savoury as well due to the sesame seeds in it.  I remember eating a similar kind of pickle when I was a child. My mother prepared home-made pickled mustard and added it in meat dishes.



"Takana" pickles (it is spicy hot because of the chili in it)

The whole meal is presented on the table like this:



The whole dinner except rice and dessert (The dishes also go well with bread instead of rice)


For dessert, slices of oranges and kiwis were placed on a plate. Melted chocolate (melted bitter-type chocolate bar with milk) or choco fondue served as the dip for the fruits.



Orange and kiwi slices with choco fondue