今日は久しぶりの雨で、寒さが緩んで最高気温が１１度（最低気温は２度）もありました。予報ではこの先しばらく似たような気温（最低気温が上がるのでもう少し暖かくなる）であまり良いお天気ではなさそうです。少し晴れ間があれば、早くお庭のマルチングを終わらせたい。ずっと寒過ぎて土が凍っていて出来なかったのです。寒いお陰でその後球根の芽は出てきていない様子なのが何より。
It’s been a while since we had rain but today was a very rainy and wet day. The cold spell seems to have gone for now and the temperature went up to 11C. The lowest temperature is still quite low, at 2C, but it’s expected to go higher tomorrow and then the weather seems to stay similar for the next 10 days or longer. Sadly it’s expected to rain most of the days but we’d like to mulch the rest of the garden when there is a dry day, we haven’t been able to do that because it’s been so cold and the soil has been frozen. At least I didn’t see any more bulbs to come up (not many anyway), though.
今日の夕食は昨日からの予定通り、昨日のお鍋の残りでキムチ鍋でした。キムチ鍋ってそんなに昔から日本で食べられていなくてよく見かけるようになったのは比較的最近な気がするのですが、どうなのでしょう？実は、わたしも夫もキムチ鍋は一度も食べたことがなく、今日が初キムチ鍋、でした。なので正解がどういうものなのか全く知らないのですが、ズームでいつも受けているお料理教室の一環で教えていただいたキムチ鍋のレシピの調味料を調整しながら（コチジャンが違いますしお鍋の水分量も違うので）入れて、こんな感じかなと作ってみましたが、とても美味しかったです。日本の方はシメにご飯を入れたるラーメンやうどんを入れたりする方が多いと思うのですが、夫は乗り気じゃないのです。多分、お腹がある程度膨れている時にご飯や麺類を食べたいと思わないのだと思います。なので途中でお餅を１個ずつ入れてみましたが、お餅も美味しかったです。いつものお鍋も好きなので、次回からも今回のように初日は普通の鶏団子鍋、２日目はキムチ鍋にすると思います。そして、まだそこそこ水分が残っているので、明日のランチにラーメンを入れようかと。ちなみに、キムチは本物のキムチとは随分違うスーパーでも買える瓶入りのものを使ったので、日本で作るほどコクはないと思います。もっと美味しいキムチもどこかで手に入るのだとは思うのですが、そんなキムチでも美味しく食べられました。
Today’s dinner was Kimchee Hot Pot as we planned yesterday, to finish the left-over of the hot pot we had yesterday. Neither of us have had Kimchee Hot Pot before, but it’s been very popular in Japan for quite a while. I used the recipe I had from the cooking class I take on Zoom, but needed to adjust the amount of seasoning since the Korean chilli paste we get here is more spicy than what they get in Japan in general and of course the amount of liquid is different from the recipe – so I just had to wing it. As I say, I’ve never had Kimchee Hot Pot so it’s a bit difficult to know what it’s supposed to be like but I just made it the way I thought tasted good. Usually, Japanese would put rice (or sometimes ramen or udon noodles) in at the end but my husband isn’t keen on the idea, I think he doesn’t feel like something like rice or noodles when he isn’t hungry enough. So, instead, we had one mochi each with the other ingredients and it worked well. We love our usual mince chicken ball hot pot as well, so it seem seems good to have the usual one first then this kimchee hot pot on the 2nd day. There is still some liquid left so we are planning to cook ramen in the soup for lunch tomorrow. Incidentally, I’m quite sure Kimchee Hot Pot in Japan has much more complex flavour because we used one of those jar of Kimchee you can get here in supermarket. Not really real kimchee. I guess it’s possible to get better one somewhere but even with such kimchee it tasted good in this hot pot.
