My first Teppanyaki experience was at Tanaka of Tokyo restaurant in Oahu, Hawaii. We just randomly picked this restaurant and at that time we were totally ignorant about teppanyaki. At first,  I thought teppanyaki was some kind of Japanese name for some dish . Anyway my hunger didn’t allow me to do any research about this and all I wanted was to eat something real heavy.  As soon as I entered the restaurant, I felt something different. We sat along with other people in front of an iron plate. I looked at my hubby with a curious face and asked him: why are we sitting in front of an iron plate. At the same time I was eager to find out what was this all about. Then the waiter came and introduced us about teppanyaki and it’s origin. Teppanyaki  is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word “teppanyaki” is derived from teppan, which means iron plate, and yaki, which means grilled, broiled or pan-fried.

It didn’t take me so long to figure out that it was not just ordinary cooking. Highly talented chefs performed a real show, which included juggling utensils/knifes, flip a shrimp into his/her shirt pocket, catch an egg in his/her hat, toss an egg up in the air and split it with a knife, flip flattened shrimp pieces into the diners’ mouths, or arrange onion rings into fire-shooting volcanoes.

Only thing that disappointed me that day was that, after all day site seeing in Oahu, my camera ran out out of charge and I couldn’t capture all that cooking fun.

At the end, I realized if we hadn’t gone to that restaurant we would have missed some real fun, this definitely added an extra fun to our Hawaiian tour of 2007.

After coming back from Hawaii, I did some googling about teppanyaki restaurants and to my surprise I found out that the famous teppanyaki restaurant is just minutes away from my house. I couldn’t be happier, once again we headed to the teppanyaki restaurant. This time I made sure that my camera was in full charge Here is the video I captured from Benihana. This would clearly explain everything you want to know about teppanyaki and the performances done by the chef. Enjoy.

I always wanted to make a dish with whole mushrooms. Whenever I came across whole mushrooms in the grocery store, I wasn’t quite sure what to make with that. So this appetizer had to wait for so long. But as soon as I had the first bite of it, I felt I shouldn’t have waited this long to make this delicious dish. Anyway I am so glad that I did finally give it a shot.
The mushroom was very tender and the stuffing also tasted good, it literally melted into my mouth. This is really a fun way to make mushrooms.

Ingredients:

• Stuffing mushrooms- 12

For stuffing:

• Mushroom stems chopped – 1/2 cup
• Finely chopped onions- 1
• Finely diced green pepper -1/4 cup
• Finely diced celery- 1/4 cup
• Garlic cloves minced-2
• Butter- 2tbsp
• Bread crumbs- 1/2 cup
• Parmesan cheese-1/4 cup
• Dried oregano leaves-1tsp
• Parsley leaves chopped
• Pepper powder-1/2 tsp
• Salt- as needed

Preparation Method:

• Remove the stems from the whole mushrooms, there should be enough room for the stuffing.
• Chop the stems and keep it aside, we will be using this while making the stuffing.
• Preheat the oven to 400F.
• Bake the mushroom caps for 10mts so that the water oozes out of the mushrooms.
• Combine the bread crumbs, pepper powder and olive oil and roast it until it turns golden brown.

For making the stuffing:

• Heat a deep bottomed skillet.
• Add the butter, when the butter melts, add the onions and saute the onions till translucent.
• Now, add the garlic and all the other veggies, diced celery, diced green peppers, chopped mushroom stems and saute.
• When the veggies starts to brown up, add dried oregano, parsley leaves, salt and pepper powder.
• Mix well and add the roasted bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese, mix everything well.
• Our stuffing is ready, let it cool down.
• Place 2tsp of stuffing into the cap of the baked mushrooms.
• Bake the stuffed mushrooms for 20mts until the mushrooms become tender and the stuffing turns golden brown in color.

My mom shared this recipe with me a few years ago. I am always in search of easy breezy recipe and so this recipe really fits my criteria. It’s easy and delicious. This dry and spicy (you could alter the spice level accordingly) dish is just great for any kind of occasion. Dragon chicken could be served as a side dish or as a main dish and goes well with fried rice, plain rice, rotis and chapattis.

Ingredients:

• Chicken(boneless) – 1 pound(cut long)
• Ginger(finely chopped) – 1 tsp
• Garlic(finely chopped) – 1 tsp
• Red chilly flakes – 1 1/2 tsp
• Tomato sauce – 8 ounce
• Soy sauce – 2 tsp
• Sugar – 1/2 tsp
• Cilantro chopped- 1 handful
• Green onions, chopped- 1 stalk
• Vegetable oil for deep frying

For marination:

• Ginger paste – 1 tsp
• Garlic paste – 1tsp
• Pepper powder – 1 1/2 tsp
• Egg white – 1 no
• Corn Flour – 2 tbsp

Preparation Method:

• Marinate the chicken pieces with the above mentioned marination ingredients and set aside for 15 minutes.
• Fry the marinated chicken in oil until golden brown and crispy.
• Pour 2 tsp of oil used for frying in a skillet.
• Saute the finely chopped ginger.
• Add finely chopped garlic followed by red chilly flakes and tomato sauce.
• Add Soy Sauce and sugar.
• Add the fried chicken pieces and mix well.
• Cook for some more time until everything is mixed well.
• Garnish with spring onions and chopped cilantro.
• Serve hot with Fried rice or Rotis.

Tips:

• If sugar added is more, add more of the tomato sauce to compensate the sweet taste.
• This is more of a dry dish, if you want more gravy add more of the tomato sauce.

I have already baked this cake many times in just three months. One of my dear friends, Shinu gifted this cake to us on Christmas eve party. As soon as we got home, we unwrapped the gift and tasted the cake. Believe me, in no time my hubby and I finished this cake. It was so delicious and one of the best dates cakes I have ever tasted in my life.
Since then baking this cake in my kitchen was my only intention. This is the easiest cake to make and the Caramel sauce poured over the cake enhanced the taste of the cake greatly. I had made this cake for my friends and my cousins, they all loved this. I had to share the recipe with almost everyone who had a bite of this cake. Here, I am sharing the recipe with you guys also.

Ingredients:

For Dates cake:-

• Chopped dates – 1 cup
• Water – 1 cup
• Baking soda – 3/4 tsp
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Butter – 1/4 cup
• Eggs – 2 nos
• All purpose flour – 1 cup
• Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

For Caramel sauce:-

• Brown sugar – 3/4 cup
• Butter – 1/4 cup
• Heavy cream – 1/2 cup
• Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Preparation Method:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• Boil 1 cup of chopped dates in 1 cup water.
• Remove from the stove and let cool down.
• Add 3/4 tsp of baking soda to the dates, combine well and keep aside..
• Using a electric hand mixer, cream the sugar and the butter together.
• Add eggs to this and whisk well.
• Add vanilla essence to this and add flour and fold to this mixture.
• Add the cooled dates mixture to this and mix everything well.
• Grease the baking pan with butter and pour the dates mixture to the pan.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a fork inserted into the middle of the cake comes out smooth.

Caramel Sauce:

• Mix all the sauce ingredients together and bring to a boil.
• Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes until it gets a thick consistency.
• Pour the caramel sauce generously over the dates cake.

Decorate with dates and enjoy the delicious dates cake!

Tips:

• After 45-50 minutes of baking, if the center of the cake is not firm enough, keep the cake on the upper rack of the oven and bake it for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool down for 10-15 minutes to set.
• This cake with the caramel sauce tastes incredible after chilling it.