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Posts Tagged ‘carrot’

Kabocha Stew

Posted in Home Cooking, Meatless Monday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Sorry it took me a few days to put up this past week’s Meatless Monday. It’s been a pretty hectic week. Plus, I still have posts from Japan that I need to get up as well as other home cooked meals from both me and my wife. Soon enough my loyal readers (all three of you), soon enough.

At any rate, I had some kabocha that I need to use up so I decided to make a vegetarian stew based around it. It’s real simple to make, much like a pot of chili. It’s one-pot cooking at its tastiest.

I started by sweating some chopped onion in olive oil in a large pot. Then I added some ginger and garlic. After a few more minutes I threw some diced carrot and red pepper. Then I added some diced purple potatoes.  A few more minutes and then I finally added the star of the stew…the kabocha. You don’t want to cut the kabocha too small because it will start to become mushy and melt if you stew small pieces for too long (same with the purple potatoes).

After the kabocha was in there for about 5 minutes I seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, cinnamon, and a little curry powder. Then I poured in about a quarter cup of orange juice and a half cup of water (I added a little more later because it absorbed and evaporated a little quicker than I anticipated, no worries, you can always add water). Once that all came to a boil I turned the heat down to a simmer, covered, and let stew for an hour.

After the hour was up I threw in some lentils then covered it for another 15 minutes. Then I added a can of drained brown beans. Once the beans were heated through I turned off the heat and threw in a handful of chopped fresh parsley and squeezed a half a lime in.

I was just going to serve it as is with some bread on the side, but Yuki decided it would taste better with angel hair pasta. That sparked an idea. Instead of angel hair we should use udon noodles! The problem with that, though, is that we didn’t have any udon. So, angel hair it was.

The beauty of a stew like this is that you can really do anything you like. Vegetables you want and any seasonings you want. Just make sure the flavors will compliment each other. The only think really missing from this dish was nice, juicy, tender chunks of lamb!

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Chinese for Christmas

Posted in Restaurant, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 26, 2009| 1 Comment »

Being an atheist Jew who doesn’t celebrate the birth of fictional characters I always end up at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas day. I know that Saturday Night Live had their famous skit about Jews going to Chinese joints on Christmas, but it’s only funny because it’s true. Buddhists share the lack of blind faith in Jesus that we do. Plus, with every other restaurant and grocery store closed someone has to make money on this capitalist holiday!

I did countless research to find something new and interesting as Chinatown (other than Cafe Hoang) is really nothing special. Every website had Lao Szechuan and Phoenix as the best places in Chinatown. Honestly, neither of them excite me at all. They’re ok, but nothing special. One thing New Yorkers truly can claim is far superior chinese food than Chicago (I don’t buy their claims of having better pizza or hot dogs, oh, they do also have better bagels though).

Then I came across Han 202. A little 36 seat restaurant in the Bridgeport neighborhood, 605 W 31st street. They do 5 course meals for only $20! When I read that Phil Vettel, he of the Tribune’s food critiques, enjoyed his visits there I thought it would be better than typical greasy chinese stir-fry. It was!

I started with the Spicy King Crab Miso Soup. A basic miso soup with real crab meat and some spicy bean paste added. It wasn’t en fuego spicy, but it had a nice little heat to jump-start my taste buds.

After that I got the Green Apple Salad. Julienned granny smiths tossed in a mix of olive oil and truffle oil with just a hint of fish sauce. There were also a few capers for saltiness and some red peppercorns for a little bite.

Yuki got the Lemongrass Beef salad which turned out to be the exact same as mine but with extremely tender slices of lemongrass beef on top. Had I known they were the same salad but with the beef I would have ordered this since beef is my favorite vegetable. Oh well, what can you do?

For the appetizer course I ordered the Salt and Pepper Calamari. Deep fried slices of squid with diced jalapeno and green onions. The squid was cooked to perfection, nice and tender without any rubberiness (is that a word?). My only complaint would be that it was a little too salty, but with salt in the dish’s name I guess that was to be expected.

For my entrée I ordered the Duck Breast in Sichuan Hot Bean Sauce. This was the only dish that truly had an authentic Chinese aroma to it, so good! The duck was a perfect medium rare. I would have liked for the skin to be a little crispier, but I can’t complain since it was otherwise cooked the way a good duck breast outta be cooked. The sauce had a nice little tinge of spice. There was sliced bell pepper, green onion, carrot, some sort of chinese green, and some diced pineapple for a little sweetness. It was a very well-balanced sauce that matched beautifully with the duck. A really nice modern take on a classic chinese dish.

Dessert was vanilla ice cream with some mango-tomato sorbet on top. The ice cream was nice and smooth while the sorbet added a nice flavor to the spoon.

Overall, I find Han 202 to be one of Chicago’s absolute best values. Besides my enjoyment of the food, Yuki also had only positive things to say about her Scallop and Lamb Chops. Our friend who joined us also enjoyed her Tuna and Strip Steak. Having sampled everything, I have to agree with their assessments as well. We walked out fully satisfied but not overly stuffed. They could have easily charged us $35 per person (I’m glad they didn’t) and I still would have been satisfied.

They’re also BYOB, which cuts the cost of dining. No corkage fee and they kept our beer in the cooler for us. They also have nice pint glasses.

Next time you’re in the mood for some good Chinese food head south of Chinatown for an updated take on not only classic Chinese flavors, but also extremely reasonably priced pre-fix.

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Nyumen

Posted in Restaurant, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 3, 2009| Leave a Comment »

After visiting the temple complex at Muro-ji in the Kansai region, we had 30 minutes before the bus left back to the train station in order to catch the train to Hase-dera. With empty stomachs we needed food and we needed it fast!

As we walked through the little mountain town towards to bus stop we noticed this little ma & pa shop that served bowls of Somen Noodle Soup. It was cold and rainy and a nice hot noodle soup sounded about right.

The restaurant was a tatami room with traditional short tables and cushions to sit on. Fortunately they also had some short chairs for people like me who are unable to sit cross-legged for more than 2 minutes at a time.

The broth was a light, but flavorful dashi. Tons of perfectly cooked somen noodles. Mitsuba, sliced scrambled egg, shiitake, carrot, and tempura flakes all garnished the noodles. On the spoon was a yuzu-togarashi (citrus and red pepper) paste, my newfound love. Putting it on the spoon like that allowed you to swirl in as much as you like. In a small dish next to the soup were some pickled ferns.

It was so fresh and warming, it was exactly what we needed. Unbeatable at a price approx $6 per. We also got to the bus after eating with plenty of time to spare.

Enough time to grab a quick freshly cooked yaki-mochi dessert. Pounded glutinous rice with yomogi mixed in and filled with red azuki bean paste. Then cooked on a big round griddle.

Take that American fast food joints! I’d like to see you serve up freshly made, healthy, delicious food like that for $6 and in less than 30 minutes.

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Simple Spaghetti – without meat

Posted in Home Cooking, Meatless Monday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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I wanted to make my own spaghetti sauce this past Monday for our meatless dinner. I was disappointed that Stanley’s didn’t have any canned tomatoes Monday morning when I went shopping for my veggies. I was going to make a mushroom ragu with basil, but those plans went out the window because I didn’t feel like cruising to any other stores just for a can of crushed tomatoes. I knew I had an unopened jar of Whole Foods Marinara sauce, so I figured I’d just doctor that up instead of running around town all morning.

I diced up some onion, carrots, and cremini mushrooms then sauteed them in olive oil for about 5 minutes or so with garlic. Then I dumped half the jar of marinara and a half cup of red wine and let them come to a simmer. I tossed in some soft goat cheese and let it melt into the sauce. Seasoned to taste with salt and pepper. Turned off the heat and tossed in a bunch of fresh basil. Then I tossed it with al dente spaghetti. Easy as can be.

I still had a bunch of hummus left that I had to use, so instead of garlic bread we had toast with hummus instead. It worked well since there’s a ton of garlic in my hummus.

Next week’s Meatless Monday will be much more interesting. I promise.

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Japanese Curry with Tofu

Posted in Home Cooking, Meatless Monday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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I took the easy way out for this past Meatless Monday adventure. I found a packet of Japanese Curry in my cabinet and decided to use it up. I don’t know if you can buy Japanese Curry packets at regular grocers, but it is available at almost any Asian market. It comes in a box with two packets and comes in different spice levels. I like the spicy, but it does come mild and medium.

At any rate, we usually eat this with either chicken, beef, or pork as the protein. Being Meatless Monday I used tofu instead. Not all that creative, but still delicious and healthy.

For this batch I chopped up a whole onion into about 1/3 of an inch chunks. I also cut up a green pepper, red pepper, carrot, and some potatoes (all about the same size as the onion chunks). I wanted them cut a little larger since they’d be stewing for a while. If they’re too small they can disintegrate.

In a hot stew pot I put in a little soy oil and then the onions and carrots. After they sweated a little I added the peppers so they could sweat too. Then I added the potatoes. After about 5 minutes or so I added 3 cups of water. That was a bit of a mistake on my part. The package said to add 3 cups, but my wife told me that in Japan a cup is much smaller. Not sure why that is, but it was a little too much water. To fix that I just boiled it down a little longer without covering to pot to let the water evaporate. If I had the proper amount I would have covered it. Next time I’ll only add 2 cups.

Once the veggies were cooked through I broke up the curry cube into 4 pieces and added them one at a time to mix them in completely. You’ll want to let it simmer for a little bit to let the curry sauce thicken, otherwise it’ll be too soupy.

All the while this was going on I had taken some silken tofu and pressed it to firm it up a little and rid it of some water. To do this I took a plate and lined it with a few paper towels. I put the tofu on top and then covered it with a few more paper towels and laid a cutting board on top. I put some weight on the cutting board and let it press the water out of the tofu in the fridge for about an hour.

Once the tofu was a little firmer I cut it into cubes and stirred it gently into the curry. I let the curry cook with the tofu for about 10-15 minutes over a lower heat to let some of the flavors absorb into the tofu.

I served it simply with white rice and drank it down with a cold beer. Just for my friend Tsutomu I did not add a hard boiled egg. Actually, I never do for this type of Japanese Curry.

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Shabu-shabu

Posted in Home Cooking, swine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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It’s starting to get damn cold here in Chicago. In Japan, when it gets cold out, they start eating Shabu-shabu which is a Japanese hotpot. It’s called Shabu-shabu because of the sound the thinly sliced meat makes when you slosh it around in the broth to cook. I didn’t make this one, this dish is one of my wife’s responsibilities.

To start, she had to make the broth. Typically it’s Konbu (kelp) boiled in water. We didn’t have any Konbu, so she used Niboshi, dried anchovies. A good handful boiled in water for a bit and you get a really nice healthy broth.

To the broth she added shiitake and enoki mushrooms, green onion, and shanghai cabbage. That was left to cook for about 10 minutes in the boiling broth. If I hadn’t forgotten carrots at the store she would have added them as well. Daikon also makes regular appearances in Shabu-shabu.

After the veggies cooked a little she added tofu and konnyaku, a firm gelatinous cake-like ingredient made from yam starch. Then the pot was brought to the table and left to simmer on our table-top propane burner (something every Japanese household has).

In our bowls we poured a little ponzu, a soy sauce product with yuzu citrus juice and a little vinegar mixed in, and a couple ladles of the broth. Then we picked and chose which veggies we wanted and dipped them in our bowls before eating. All the while taking slices of the pork (we picked up some thinly sliced kurobuta pork at Mitsuwa) and sloshing them around the broth to cook. A side of white rice to complete the chow.

This a the perfect winter dish to have with a cold beer. It’s fun, delicious, and very healthy since there are no added oils or anything. Just make sure your meat, whether using pork or beef, is very thinly sliced so that it cooks quickly in the broth.

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Camping Soba

Posted in Home Cooking, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 9, 2009| 1 Comment »

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My wife and I went camping at Starved Rock a couple of weeks ago. Unsure of the grill situation at the campsite we decided to bring our little propane burner. While they had a grill, I’m glad we brought the burner so we could use the grill as a campfire and keep the flames high as it got pretty cold at night. I’m also glad we brought the fixins to make some Soba Noodle Soup to keep us warm and replenish ourselves after a full day of hiking.

Before we left I had cut up some onions, carrots, mushrooms, and cabbage. We also brought some fried tofu, a delicious addition to almost any soup. So, when we got back to the campsite to make dinner, I got the fire going while Yuki started the soup.

She boiled the water with the veggies so that we didn’t need to add any oil. Once the veggies were tender she put the noodles in and then the tofu. That ‘s all there was to it. The only thing we would have done different at home would be to boil the noodles seperately to keep the soup from being starchy. It was a little starchy, but tasted great and was extremely healthy. It also wasn’t too heavy so we were able to sleep comfortably afterwords (although not as comfortable as our tempurpedic at home).

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Go camping, and eat healthy!

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