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Posts Tagged ‘soy sauce’

Modern Family-style Japan

Posted in Home Cooking, seafood, tagged avocado, bamboo shoots, cafe hoang, carrots, cherry tomatoes, chestnut, chicken, citrus, dashi, green beans, haiti, herb, japanese, konnyaku, kuri gohan, lemon, lettuce, lotus root, meatless monday, mirin, onion, panko, parsley, pepper, prosecco, rice, rice wine vinegar, sake, sesame oil, sesame seeds, shiitake, shrimp, soy oil, soy sauce, tempura, tokyo, tuna, vinaigrette, wii, yokohama 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 avocado, bin36, bittersweet chocolate, carrot, cherry tomatoes, corn, custard, dashi, egg yolk, garlic, ginger, heavy cream, hijiki, japan, jason meyer, konbu, lemongrass, lime juice, mexican chocolate, mixed green salad, olympic meats, onion, pots de creme, prosecco, red pepper flakes, rice, rice wine vinegar, sake, seaweed, sesame, sesame oil, shiitake, soup, soy sauce, spinach, strawberries, strip steaks, vegetable stock, vinaigrette, whipped cream, whole milk, yellow pepper 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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Nobu-style Fluke with Harumaki

Posted in Home Cooking, seafood, swine, tagged bamboo shoots, chicken stock, chinese mustard, chives, dashi, deep fry, fluke, garlic, ginger, green onion, harumaki, japan, leek, nobu mtsuhisa, oil, pepper, ponzu, pork, sake, sashimi, sesame oil, sesame seeds, shiitake, soy oil, soy sauce, spring roll, spring roll skins, starch, sugar, wakame on December 30, 2009| 1 Comment »

It seems like every other program on Japanese TV has something to do with food. One program that I watched featured the biography of Nobu Matsuhisa, he of the restaurant Nobu. One of the dishes he showed on TV piqued the interest of Yuki’s mom, so the next night we set out to try and replicate it…Fluke sashimi.

It’s really quite simple. Slice a piece of fluke as thinly as possible and arrange on the plate without overlapping each slice of sashimi. Mash some garlic and lightly brush a little over each slice. On top of that lay down thin sticks of ginger and chives. In a small pot heat up equal parts soy oil and sesame oil until smoking hot. With a metal spoon dish some of the hot oil on top of the fish so that it sizzles a little. Then, drizzle with some ponzu and toasted sesame seeds.

To go with it Uichiro made his special harumaki, spring rolls. He “took the two best recipes and combined them into his own which is now the best.” I won’t give you measurements so I don’t spoil his secret, but the harumaki contain shiitake, bamboo shoots, leek, pork, ginger, oil, sake, chicken stock, soy sauce, sugar, pepper, starch, and spring roll skins. Cook it all together, roll them up, then deep fry them to golden perfection and serve with Chinese Mustard.

There was also some clear broth soup with shredded green onion and wakame.

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Bakabuta Ramen

Posted in Restaurant, tagged bakabuta, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, chicago, eryngii, green onions, green tea, himeji castle, japan, japanes castle, miso, miso ramen, nara prefecture, ramen noodles, roasted pork, shinkansen, soy sauce, taqueria, tissue, togarashi, toothpicks, woodear mushrooms on December 15, 2009| 2 Comments »

We spent an afternoon at Himeji Castle before exploring some of the Nara Prefecture. If you only see one castle in Japan, you’d better make it Himeji. It is absolutely pristine. Easily the best preserved structure built in the 1300’s that I’ve ever been to. It is the quintessential Japanese Castle.

At any rate, it’s located about a 10 minute walk down the main street from the Shinkansen. We arrived about lunch time figuring that there’d be plenty fo food options along that 10 minute walk. Right we were. We decided to veer off onto a side street where a retail arcade was as there’s always cheap delicious food options a plenty in retail arcades. Instead of eating at one of those establishments we wandered into a typical hole-in-the-wall Japanese staple, their alter-ego of Chicago’s taquerias. We filled ourselves with Ramen Noodles.

This was a very typical ma and pa ramen shop that you find everywhere in Japan. You walk in and are greeted by ma and pa themselves, “Irrashaemase!” There’s a vending-like machine near the door with the menu on it. It basically consists of a few different Ramen broths with a handful of different additions to choose if you so desire. Put your money in, press the buttons for what you want, and out comes your little order ticket.

Then, you walk in to see that there’s only 8-10 chairs along the bar. Grab a seat. Every few seats are trays of condiments, things like soy sauce, togarashi, toothpicks, boxes of tissue for the runny nose the hot ramen will give you. There’s also little spickets of hot water with tea cups and green tea for you to make as you like along with a cold water dispenser. Hand the ticket across the bar and ma and pa make your food.

I ordered the Bakabuta Ramen and Yuki got the Miso Ramen with mushrooms. Both were miso broth with loads of bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, green onions, and black woodear mushrooms. Both came with a slice of roasted pork. “Buta” in Japanese means pig, so mine had extra pork. Two big pieces of fall off the bone sweet fatty pork. Each bite coated your lips with fatty goodness. Yuki’s had extra woodear mushrooms as well as what I think were eryngii mushrooms. If I’m wrong Yuki will correct me after she reads this and I’ll correct the blog.

Since we both love pork and mushrooms we arranged a deal. I gave her some pork, she gave me a few more mushrooms. A fair trade I think.

It’s too bad that 25 cent packages of dried ramen noodles killed the idea here in America. A nice big bowl of fresh ramen like this is fast, cheap, filling but not overly heavy, and healthy. In fact, just thinking about it makes me crave some ramen. I think I’ll make some for dinner tonight.

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Shabu-shabu

Posted in Home Cooking, swine, tagged anchovies, beer, carrot, daikon, enoki, green onion, japan, japanese hotpot, kelp, konbu, konnyaku, kurobuta pork, mitsuwa, niboshi, ponzu, shabu-shabu, shanghai cabbage, shiitake, soy sauce, tofu, vinegar, white rice, yuzu on October 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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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Meatless Monday

Posted in Home Cooking, Meatless Monday, tagged beef, carrots, cauliflower, chickpeas, curry, garam masala, garlic, ginger, hard boiled egg, indian, juice, lamb, lime, onions, potatoes, rind, sesame seed, soy oil, soy sauce, spinach, vegetables, yogurt on October 13, 2009| 9 Comments »

So, we just started with an idea Yuki had a while back which is to not eat meat at least one day of the week. This is a very difficult concept for me to digest seeing as beef is my favorite vegetable followed closely by lamb. However, after going through the Food, Inc. the movie website I started to get on board with the Meatless Monday thing. Last night was the first installment.

Taking a cue from Indian cooking I decided to do a sort of vegetable curry type of thing. I got some cauliflower, chickpeas, carrots, onions, potatoes, and spinach and threw them together.

I first steamed the potatoes for a few minutes before cutting them into cubes so that the cooking time in the pan would be reduced. I threw some garlic and ginger in hot soy oil for a few minutes. The dumped in the onions and carrots. About 5 minutes or so later I added half of the head of cauliflower broken into small florets. A few minutes later went in the potatoes and some salt. Once everything was heated up I added the sauce I made.

The base of the sauce was a cup of plain yogurt. I added some garam masala and mixed it in. I have absolutely no idea how much. I dumped some in, stirred it around, tasted it, dumped in some more. Just add however much you like. Then I added some finely grated lime rind, a tablespoon or so of soy sauce, a pinch of salt, the juice of one lime, and some pepper.

Once the sauce fully coated all of the veggies I threw in some spinach and turned off the heat. I only wanted the spinach to wilt a little. Then I sprinkled on some sesame seeds.

I served it with some white rice and a hard boiled egg. Since an egg was never a living bird it’s fair game for Meatless Monday’s.

I think it will be hard to cook vegetarian, but I’m up for the task. Tonight I have to do something with the other half of cauliflower and the yogurt. I’ll let you know what I come up with.

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Grilled Kurobuta

Posted in Home Cooking, swine, tagged berkshire, bok choy, corn, enoki mushroom, fish cake, garlic, ginger, kurobuta pork, mirin, mitsuwa, mixed greens, mustard, olive oil, onion, peas, pork chop, sake, soy sauce, tomatoes, white rice on September 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »

One of my favorite pieces of flesh to grill is a Kurobuta Pork Chop (aka Berkshire Pork). Those pigs are so tender and juicy, enough to make a fat man drool. About the only place I can regularly find Kurobuta is at Mitsuwa, so I almost always grab some when I’m up there.

This time I marinated it in the classic soy, sake, and mirin mix with some ginger, garlic, and stone ground mustard. Grill it up and it’s good to go.

The veggies are a saute of onion, enoki mushrooms, and bok choy in a little bit of olive oil. The other thing on the plate is a fish cake with peas and corn in it.

Round out the meal with some white rice and a simple salad of mixed greens with back porch tomatoes and you’ve got a well-rounded, fresh, tasty dinner.

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Gyu-don

Posted in beef, Home Cooking, tagged beef, beer, carrots, celery, corn soup, cucumber, garlic, ginger, gyu-don, hijiki, japanese, mirin, mitsuwa, mixed greens, onions, phalis, rice, salad, soy sauce, sugar, thai basil on September 18, 2009| 1 Comment »

Here’s my first attempt at making Gyu-don, Japanese simmered thinly sliced beef with onions on rice. It’s surprisingly simple to make, yet full of flavor and easy on the wallet.

The trick is to get the beef sliced as thin as deli meat. You can get it at Mitsuwa, but I’m not sure where else to get good quality meat in this fashion. I’m sure it’s available. I do know that it’s near impossible to get such even thin slices at home with a knife no matter how sharp it is.

So, take put a little oil in a medium-sized pot and cook some ginger and garlic for a minute or two. Then add an onion thinly sliced and sweat it for a few minutes. Add a couple cups of water, a quarter cup each of soy sauce and mirin, a few pinches of sugar and let it come to a simmer. Then add your beef and let it cook until the liquid is reduced by 3/4’s.

All you have to do then is put some white rice in a bowl and top it with some Gyu-don.

I served it with a simple corn soup garnished with Thai basil and a salad that Yuki made. She tossed some mixed greens, julienned carrots, celery, and cucumber (I left the cucumber out of mine, vile phalis!) in a homemade hijiki vinaigrette. All washed down with a cold beer.

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Middle Eastern Chicken and Chickpeas

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged carrots, chicken, chicken stock, chickpeas, cumin, eggplant, garlic, grill, healthy, lemon juice, lettuce, middle eastern, olive oil, onions, paprika, parsley, salad, soy sauce, tabbouleh, tomato, white rice, zucchini on August 8, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here’s one of my favorites. It’s healthy, delicious, and cheap.

Season boneless, skinless chicken thighs with olive oil, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper. Grill them!

Sautee onions with garlic, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, and a can of chickpeas. Season the veggies with cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper as well. Mix a little soy sauce (about 2-3 tbsp) with some chicken stock (about 1/4 cup) and dump into the veggies to add a little moisture as well as a little more depth to the flavor. If I had some fresh parsley I would have added it once taking the veggies off the heat, but I forgot to pick some up. I did squeeze a little lemon juice in it as well as on top of the chicken once taken off the grill.

Serve with white rice and you’re good to go. If you want, you can also serve it with a salad. A simple lettuce and tomato salad would do the trick, as would something more Middle Eastern like Tabbouleh.

All in all, this dish costs about $4.50 per person ($4.75 with salad).

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Dan Bites

Mangia bene, caca forte, e non aver paura della morte!

Posts Tagged ‘soy sauce’

Modern Family-style Japan

Thanks for the furniture

Nobu-style Fluke with Harumaki

Bakabuta Ramen

Shabu-shabu

Meatless Monday

Grilled Kurobuta

Gyu-don

Middle Eastern Chicken and Chickpeas

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