Photo/Illutration Honey mustard chicken (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.

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A cooking expert who goes by the name Yummy used to work as a salesperson at a Kaldi Coffee Farm store, which sells imported foods and other items.

To Yummy, it was a place that sparked her curiosity.

What she enjoyed as much as working there were the breaks she took in the breakroom equipped with a microwave oven.

She often made pasta sold at the store that could be cooked in the microwave. After a while, she began cooking with raw meat.

For example, she made keema curry using ground meat she bought at the supermarket with canned tomato and curry powder she bought at Kaldi. By trying various items on the shelves, she was able to recommend them to the customers.

One day, when she was sharing a meal, a co-worker told her, “You should put out a book.”

Yummy was in her late 20s at the time. Although she worked at a company as a textile designer after graduating from an art university, health problems had forced her to quit.

She had promised her parents that if she was unable to get a stable job by the time she turned 30, she would return home. Yummy was trying to discover what she really wanted to do when her co-worker’s words inspired her.

She began a blog in 2006 introducing recipes incorporating ingredients sold at Kaldi. Her stove in her kitchen had only one burner, while the microwave oven served as the only equipment available in Kaldi’s breakroom. Thus, microwave recipes born of “inconvenience” characterized Yummy’s creations.

“I learned how to master it through trial and error,” says the cooking expert.

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Yummy (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

Publishers contacted her after noticing the blog, and Yummy had her first recipe book published in 2007. She was exactly 30 and the path to becoming a cooking expert opened before her.

This week’s recipe is one of many created in the breakroom during her Kaldi years and features Dijon mustard sold at the store. The mustard is characterized by the refined pungent and full taste and goes well with sauteed chicken or steak as well.

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Yummy is a cooking expert born in 1976. Her cooking blog drew attention, and she had her first recipe book published in 2007. Her recent book is “Yamisanno ouchide sekaiisshu reshipi” (Yummy’s around-the-world recipes at home), published by Shufunotomo.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (Serves 2)

5 to 6 (about 300 grams) drumettes (tebamoto) of chicken, 1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper, Seasoning A (2 Tbsp honey, 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp curry powder)

1. Make incision along bone of the drumette with kitchen scissors, place in heat-resistant bowl and knead in salt and pepper.

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Make an incision along the bone of the drumette with kitchen scissors. (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

2. Carefully knead Seasoning A in (1), line up drumettes so they do not overlap. Leave for about 10 minutes if you have time.

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Place in heat-resistant bowl so they do not overlap. (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

3. Cover with plastic wrap, microwave at 600W for 3 minutes. Turn over and microwave for another 3 minutes without kitchen wrap. Mix well so sauce coats all pieces. Serve with leaf lettuce to add color.

About 290 kcal and 1.2 grams salt per portion
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)

Unlike whole-grain mustard that is made by coarsely grinding the mustard seeds, Dijon mustard is produced by finely grinding the seeds into a cream.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Jinsei Reshipi (Life Recipe) column

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