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Posts Tagged ‘sesame oil’

Shogayaki

Posted in Home Cooking, swine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The other night I made a Japanese classic with some of my own additions. I made Shogayaki, ginger pork. Typically made with just thinly sliced pork, ginger, soy sauce, mirin, and sake, I added a few vegetables into the mix instead of serving vegetables separately. This is an easy dish to make and very flavorful.

We picked up some really nice Kurobuta (Berkshire) sidebelly while at Mitsuwa. It came thinly sliced which is prefered for this dish. It doesn’t necessarily have to be thinly sliced, nor does it have to be belly. You could get some nice chops and cut them thinly yourself, just try to make them no thicker than about 1/8 inch. I cut the pork sliced in half since they were as long as bacon. That wasn’t necessary, just what I felt like doing.

For vegetables I sliced half an onion, cut a carrot into half moons, sliced half of a yellow bell pepper, and slices a bunch of mushrooms.

For flavorings I, obviously from the title, used some minced ginger, a couple of minced garlic cloves, and a sauce of 3 tablespoons soy, 2 tablespoons sake, and 1 tablespoon mirin.

I started by tossing the ginger and garlic into a hot pan with 2 tablespoons of sesame oil and 2 tablespoons of soy oil. I let that go for just a few minutes until it became fragrant.

Then I added the onions for a few minutes. Followed by the carrot for a few minutes. Then the pepper for a few more minutes. And finally the mushrooms for another few minutes.

Once the vegetables were mostly cooked I added the pork. I mixed it all together and let it go for, you guessed it, a few minutes.

Then I dumped in the sauce along with some black pepper. I covered the pan and turned the heat down to medium once the sauce started to boil a little. Every few minutes I stirred everything around. After about 15 minutes I uncovered the pan and let the sauce reduce a little. I served it once the pork and vegetables were evenly coated by the slightly thickened sauce.

While the sauce was thickening I put a couple of baby bok choy that I had cut in half into the steamer. I let them steam for about 6 minutes. They were served next to the shogayaki with some white rice.

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Fried Rice, Tofu Shumai, and Miso Eggplant

Posted in Home Cooking, Meatless Monday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 25, 2010| 2 Comments »

Last night’s Meatless Monday certainly wasn’t the prettiest of all plating, but I do have to say, my fried rice was excellent!

First things first, making the shumai. I simply took a half a piece of tofu and mixed it together with a small carrot and three green onions that were all small diced. I folded it all into some wonton wrappers and then set everything aside to steam later. When it came time to steam them, I let them go for about 10 minutes or so. That left the carrots a little al dente to leave a little texture. For service, I drizzled the shumai with some ponzu.

The miso eggplant is a classic Japanese home dish called nasu-miso. To start, I took two large Chinese eggplants, chopped them up into bite-sized pieces, then sprinkled them with salt in a colander. I let them sit for about a half hour to allow the bitter juices to drip out. Then I rinsed them off and squeezed them dry.

In a really hot pan I heated up about 5 tablespoons of sesame oil. As soon as the oil was smoking hot I added the eggplant. I wanted to wait until the oil was super hot so that the eggplant didn’t absorb it all. I fried the eggplant for about 8 minutes and then added a mix consisting of 3 tablespoons of sake, 1 tablespoon of mirin, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. I let that boil down for a couple of minutes.

Once the liquid almost evaporated and absorbed, I added 2 tablespoons of miso that I diluted with 3 tablespoons of water. I mixed that all around and let it cook for about 2 more minutes before serving.

To make the fried rice I started by sauteing some ginger and garlic in peanut oil. After a few minutes when they became really aromatic I threw in a diced carrot and 7 chopped green onions. I let that all cook for about 7 minutes and then threw in a bunch of thinly sliced shiitake. That went for another 4 minutes.

Typically, when I make fried rice, I will first make some scrambled eggs and set them aside to add right about this point. I forgot to do that. So, I just dumped two scrambled eggs on top of the veggies and fried them. I still works, but it’s not how fried rice is usually made.

Once the egg was cooked I threw in 2 cups of rice that I had made earlier in the day and let cool. With a wooden spoon I continuously broke up the rice and stirred it all in to get an even mix and to allow all of the rice to fry a little bit.

Once the rice is was all broken up I added a few tablespoons of soy sauce along with some black pepper and mixed it in really well. Then I tasted it for seasoning only to see that I needed a little more soy. So, I added a little more soy. It’s always best to start with less than you think you need. You can always add more, you can’t take any back at this point. At any rate, the rice turned out fantastic!

Oh, right before serving the rice I mixed in a bunch of chopped chives. We were at my buddy’s new place out in Jefferson Park and they have tons of chives growing in their backyard. So they gave us some for our cooking pleasure.

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Grilled Ginger Pork Chop

Posted in Home Cooking, swine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Whole Foods had these fantastic looking bone-on pork chops for sale yesterday. With the weather being nice and all, I thought “I gots to grill me some of those!”

To start, I made a marinade for the chops. I grated an inch of ginger and two garlic cloves into my baking dish (I wasn’t baking at all, but it fit the chops in an even layer). To that, I added 5 tablespoons of soy sauce, 3 of sake, and 1 of apple cider vinegar. I mixed in about 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and some fresh cracked black pepper. I coated the chops, covered with plastic, and marinated in the fridge for about an hour.

For veggies, I did some sauteing in butter. I melted 2 tablespoons of butter and then threw in 3 crushed garlic cloves and let cook down for a few minutes. Then I added a chopped carrot. A few minutes later I threw in a red bell pepper that I sliced as well as 8 chopped green onions. Then, a few more minutes and I added some green beans and shiitake. I let it all cook together for a few minutes and then added a few tablespoons of soy sauce. I let the soy coat all of the veggies and then covered it and turned the heat down to med-low. I let the veggies sort of steam in the soy butter while I grilled the chops.

Since the chops were bone-on, the meat stayed a lot juicier than a boneless chop. I do want to mention that I took them out of the fridge about a half hour prior to throwing them on the grill to bring them back to room temp.

Some white rice and we were ready for dinner.

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Yonshoku Bento & Miso Soup

Posted in beef, Home Cooking, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Yuki did the cooking last night. There’s a popular bento dish called Sanshoku Bento, or three-color bento. It’s basically rice topped with some sort of ground meat, scrambled eggs, and some sort of vegetable. Hence, the name three-color. Drawing off of that, she ended up doing Yonshoku, or 4 colors.

For the meat we picked up some really good ground beef. Whole Foods had 85% grass-fed on sale, so we took advantage of that. She cooked it up with some garlic, ginger, sugar, soy, sake, mirin, and a little sesame oil. Not sure what measurements she used though.

For the eggs she simply scrambled a couple.

We had a Chinese eggplant in the fridge that needed to be used up, so she cooked it in soy, sake, and mirin.

For the green she used two vegetables. First, she boiled some broccoli. Then she wilted down some spinach in a little bit of soy sauce.

Not wanting to waste the broccoli water, she added the spinach juice to it and then boiled some mushrooms, carrot slices, green onion, and wakame in it for about 10 minutes or so. Then she added a little soy sauce and just a touch of sesame oil. Just before serving she mixed in about a tablespoon of miso.

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Skirt Steak

Posted in beef, Home Cooking, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last night I made the dinner that my brother-in-law probably would have preferred over Meatless Monday, I grilled up some skirt steak!

I got a steak that weighed about 1.3 lbs. For it to fit in my largest dish to marinate, I had to cut it into thirds. I marinated it in a mix of 6 tbls of soy sauce, 4 tbls of sake, 2 tbls of mirin, 1 tbls of sesame oil, 5 minced garlic cloves, a bunch of chopped cilantro, black pepper, and nanami togarashi. I wrapped it and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour. I took it out about 30 minutes before grilling to bring it up to room temperature.

For vegetables I found these great little sweet onions at Stanleys. I halved them and set them on the upper rack of the grill so that they’d get real sweet but not burned. They also had some great little purple potatoes. I quartered them, drizzled them with olive oil, threw some salt and pepper on, then grilled them as well. They get a nice crisp skin and get real soft inside. I love grilled potatoes! I also cut a couple of red bell peppers into disks. I waited until everything was about 10 minutes from being finished on the grill. Since they were pretty thin, I didn’t want them to burn.

I served everything with some sliced avocado and halved cherry tomatoes. Some cilantro garnish, a beer, and we were set! Yuki had to have some white rice too, she has white rice with everything.

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Okonomiyaki

Posted in Home Cooking, swine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last night we made Okonomiyaki for dinner. Well, Yuki made it, I was her sous chef. She also made a Korean spiced soup to get more vegetables into the meal. That and she loves soup.

To start off she cooked thin slices of Kurobuta Pork that we got at Mitsuwa in a little sesame oil. Any pork will do as long as it’s thinly sliced. You can also bacon or any bacon-like substance. Or, no meat at all.

Then, she poured the batter on top to make a pancake. I’m not real sure what kind of flour she used, we have a few different kinds on our pantry, but all-purpose will do, about a cup. She mixed it with about 3/4 cup water and a couple of eggs. Then she mixed in a bunch of thinly sliced green onions and a cup of thinly sliced Napa Cabbage.

Instead of making 4 smaller ones, we made two big ones. I had to use a plate to get that thing flipped over when it was time to cook the other side. It’s ready to flip when the bottom is a nice golden brown color.

While the bottom is cooking you pour the on top. First pour on Bulldog Sauce. A popular sauce in Japan commonly used on Tonkatsu, fried pork cutlet. Then squeeze on some mayonnaise.

Feel free to paint your okonomiyaki with the sauces.

Then top it with a bunch of katsuo-bushi, dried bonito flakes.

Finally, top it off with some ao-nori, ground seaweed.

For the soup, Yuki started by boiling some light dashi broth. She added some green onions, thinly sliced carrot, enoki mushrooms, aburage, broccoli, komatsuna (Japanese Mustard Spinach), and small diced tofu. Once everything was cooked  she swirled in a couple of tablespoons of tobanjan paste (Korean hot chili paste). It was that simple.

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Vegetable Stir-fry with Tofu

Posted in Home Cooking, Meatless Monday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last night’s Meatless Monday was quite possibly the most simple one yet. Not feeling up to doing too much in the kitchen for some reason, I decided to keep the cooking minimal and quick. The answer? Stir-fry!

I first pressed the water out of a block of tofu. Lay some paper towels on a plate, set the tofu on top, cover with more paper towels, put a cutting board on top of that, and lay a weight of some sort on top of the cutting board. I kept that in the fridge while I cut up the rest of the vegetables.

I cut a bunch of asparagus, green onions, a yellow pepper, a red pepper, and about a half pound of fresh shiitake mushrooms. I let the shiitake sit in a sunny window for about an hour before cutting them up. Sunlight helps the mushrooms produce higher levels of vitamin B.

To start, I fried an inch of minced ginger and two chopped garlic cloves for about 3 minutes. Then I added the green onions, followed by the peppers, and then the asparagus. After a few minutes I added the shiitake sliced in quarter inch strips. I let that all stir fry up for a few minutes then added about 4 tablespoons each of soy sauce and sake along with some black pepper.

While the liquid was reducing a little I cut the tofu into bite-sized pieces then threw them into the stir-fry. I let the tofu absorb the flavor, then took off the heat and drizzled some sesame oil in it, and then served with it white rice.

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Chiles Rellenos Japonese

Posted in Home Cooking, Meatless Monday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been mulling this recipe over in my head since my trip to Merida. I wanted to somehow make a Japanese flavored Chiles Rellenos. Last night, for Meatless Monday, I gave it a shot. Not sure it’s exactly the way I had originally planned, but it turned out pretty good.

First thing I did was roast the poblano peppers on the open flame of my stove-top till the skin was completely charred. Then I let them steam themselves in a bowl covered with plastic-wrap for about a half hour.

While that was going on I made the filling. I sautéed some green onions and garlic in a little vegetable oil for about 5 minutes. Then I added one teaspoon of mirin, two teaspoons of sake, and three teaspoons of soy sauce. I also threw in some chili powder. Once that was all mixed together I dumped in some diced tofu and let it simmer for a few minutes and absorb some of the flavors.

Next, I peeled the skin off the poblanos and made a slit down one side to remove the seeds. Once the poblanos were all cleaned out I stuffed them with the tofu and set them aside.

The sauce was very simple to make. I first sautéed a half onion, diced, in some vegetable oil for a few minutes until soft but not burned. Then I added some grated garlic and let that cook for a couple of minutes. A couple tablespoons of red wine, a couple tablespoons of soy sauce, a can of diced tomatoes, and a few dashed of chili powder then let it simmer till it thickens up a bit. Just before serving I turned the heat off the sauce and added a little sesame oil and some chopped cilantro.

For the veggies, I just doused some yellow string beans and maitake mushrooms in some olive oil, salt, and pepper and threw then under the broiler for about 10 minutes. For the last few minutes I also put the peppers under to heat them back up.

I served everything with white rice, slices of avocado, cilantro garnish and a simple salad. The salad was green leaf lettuce and cherry tomatoes with a shiitake-sesame vinaigrette. It all turned out better than I expected.

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Modern Family-style Japan

Posted in Home Cooking, seafood, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 2, 2010| 1 Comment »

I have to apologize to the environment as well as my physical well-being. There was no Meatless Monday last night. Cafe Hoang is sending all proceeds from yesterday’s take, including tips, to Haiti in order to help feed those who need. For my part I figured the least I could do was to eat some tasty food for charity. From what their website states, they’re doing it again next Monday, the 8th. I encourage you all to take part and keep my boy Jason Tran busy as hell cooking his ass off.

So, instead of a Meatless Monday post I’m going to tell you about a dinner we had at Yuki’s sister’s condo in Tokyo with her family last November. As you can see, it was family-style with some authentic Japanese flavors and some not-so-Japanese.

We had some shrimp tempura. Pretty simple, just fresh juicy shrimp deep fried in panko. Yuki’s mom scattered some cherry tomatoes, parsley, and little pieces of lemon around the plate. A squeeze of citrus, a dip in soy, some herb….makes me a happy man.

There was some Kuri Gohan, chestnut rice. This is a common dish throughout Japan. A favorite as chestnuts add a great flavor as well as nutrition to rice. Simply add the chestnuts to the rice while it’s cooking and then sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

This is a Raw Tuna Salad that Yuki’s brother-in-law Jun made. Chunks of fresh tuna, avocado, and thinly sliced onion that’s been soaked in cold water to remove the rawness tossed in a vinaigrette. I forget exactly what he put in the vinaigrette, but it was something like sesame oil, soy oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and pepper. He lined the serving dish with some lettuce leaves and dumped it on top.

This one is a classic Japanese home cooked dish. Not sure what it’s called, maybe Yuki will leave a comment and let us all know. Yuki’s mom simmered some lotus root, bamboo shoots, green beans, shiitake, konnyaku, carrots, and chicken. Again, I’m not completely sure what the simmering liquid was, I think it was a mix of soy sauce, sake, and mirin. Maybe some dashi. Always delicious (at least when Tamiko makes it)!

We drank it all down with some Prosecco and some fantastic sake that we picked up on the way to the condo. After we ate we took turns kicking each others asses in Wii.

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Thanks for the furniture

Posted in beef, Home Cooking, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2010| 4 Comments »

A good buddy of mine, Jason Meyer, gave us a couple of tables he made a while back. He’s a very talented sculptor/furniture maker/badass dancer that I used to work with at Bin36 back in the day. In order to show gratitude Yuki and I invited he and his fiancée over for dinner the other night. We figured that he gave us something that he made so we should do the same.

We started off with some Lemongrass Corn Soup with Avocado garnish. The soup was actually purchased and I didn’t make it (shhh, don’t tell Jason). It did taste exactly like something I would make though. Had I made it I would have simmered some corn and onion in vegetable stock with some lemongrass until the kernels were nice and soft. Then I would have discarded the lemongrass and blended the rest of the ingredients until smooth and strained it back into the pot. A little salt and pepper and there you go. I did make the rest of the meal. Well, that’s not entirely true as Yuki did some of it.

Then I served a simple salad. Mixed greens with cherry tomatoes and a sesame vinaigrette. Vinaigrettes are easy to make. This one had soy sauce, sesame oil, a touch of rice wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Next was the main course. I went to Olympic Meats for some good strip steaks. The steaks were pan-fried in nothing but olive oil. No salt or pepper added. Once I got a nice seer on each side and they were cooked about medium rare or so I put them on plate to rest. While they were resting I doused them with a sauce I had made. The sauce consisted of grated ginger and garlic, soy sauce, lime juice, red pepper flakes, and pepper. No salt since there was plenty of soy. I made the sauce way in advance to let the rawness of the ginger and garlic mellow out a little in the lime juice. By pouring it on the steaks while they rested it allowed the flavors infuse into the meat and keep them nice and juicy. I served the steaks on top of baby spinach with roasted yellow peppers and shiitake.

On the side was some hijiki rice that Yuki made. In the rice cooker she added to the rice some diced carrot, hijiki seaweed, cooking sake, soy, and konbu dashi. It’s one of my favorites as hijiki adds a wonderful flavor to almost anything. Plus, it’s extremely healthy as most seaweed is.

For dessert I made some Mexican Chocolate Pots de Cremes. What better to follow Asian flavors than Mexican chocolate? I made these the day before to let them set in the fridge overnight. I used egg yolks, heavy cream, whole milk, Mexican chocolate, and bittersweet chocolate. You first have to heat the cream and milk without boiling it, just a slow simmer for a few minutes. Then you incorporate the egg yolks, beaten, very slowly constantly mixing so that the eggs don’t scramble. Once it’s thick enough to coat the back of the spoon add the chocolates in pieces so that they melt completely. Once you have a nice smooth thick custard pour it into your serving dishes, cover, and chill for at least 4 hours and preferably overnight. To serve, I sliced some strawberries and added a little whipped cream.

Jason brought a bottle of Prosecco that we enjoyed with the soup and salad. After that we opened up a special bottle of Sake that we brought back from our last trip to Japan. Everything worked out extremely well. Portions were perfectly sized as none of us were hungry afterwords yet we weren’t stuffed either. I hope they enjoyed because it would be a disaster if I had to make them a table!

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