Pink boxing it

Just a lunch. Salad with cucumber, carrots, red onion and blue cheese. Spaghetti with random jar sauce and Li'l Smokies. The salad box clamps onto the pasta box.

Sometimes you wake up early

So, the day before yesterday, I woke up early. Like, three hours early. This bento was the result.

I tried to deep fry the pot stickers (having a left over pan of oil from making karaage) but it proved too hazardous. I ended up, gasp! microwaving them to completion. To be honest, the combination produced a hard and chewy shell over what was already a mediocre filling (mass produced freezer gyoza). I think I will stick with the pan frying method in the future.

The shrimp with broccoli in chili sauce is... exactly that.

The "yellow plate" as I thought of it, was sliced takuwan (pickled daikon) with tamagoyaki and peach (dipped in water laced with lemon juice to preserve color). The middle is a ball of miso which I dissolved into hot water at lunch.

Completed with white rice, this was one of the most satisfying lunches I have ever eaten.

The Redemption in a Roll

Recently I failed at making a pizza dough. We won't get into it, but excessive amounts of salt and guests being present were involved. To repair my baking reputation somewhat, I decided to bake some rolls.

After consulting this recipe, I tried my hand. It was rather cool in my apartment that day; an impetus for baking no doubt. I decided to put one of those terracotta, warming discs that you place under a basket of baked rolls under the bowl of my raising dough. This cut my rising time in half.

The dough was nicely plastic; not too sticky at all. I did not manage to cut the strips perfectly even, nor to get them to stack neatly. This is why my rolls looked a bit like a hybrid between butter flake rolls and monkey bread. Even so, I consider my baking skills redeemed from the previous fiasco.

In the end, the important part is to keep getting back on the proverbial horse and keep baking. And if they're really your friends, they'll eat that salty pizza crust anyway.

A summer day with you

My friend Lilian and I got together and drove around a bit. We went to the Yakima Fruit Stand (the one not actually in Yakima), we poked around a bit at a farmers' market inside of a set of delightful little stores catering to Americana. We finished off by going to a grocery store, picking up little cheeses, cream (for tea) and a fresh loaf of bread.



Returning to my house, we had open face sandwiches with olive oil, tiny tomatoes (from Lilian's parents' garden), thinly sliced cucumber and the aforementioned cheeses. We ate that while drinking Pakistani tea (sent from Spain by my friend Kishpike during his travels abroad) with cream and rock sugar.



If there is a moral to this story (which there may not be) it's that I can occasionally eat some very tasty things.

As You Like It

Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) has the kanji for "like" and "heat through" (grill, fry, fire up; that kind of thing). It is as to a pancake as an omelet is to a fritata. You make a better, have cut things small, and fry it up. This dish has about a billion recipes online.

I used a cheater method and used *gasp* an instant dough mix. I just didn't know where or how to find the "mountain potato" used to make the dough have the right consistency. Perhaps it's easily found in Japanese markets, but I don't have any locally. Despite being from instant, the resulting fritter was very delicious.

I used previously sauteed onions, katsuo (flaked fish used in lots of Japanese cooking), tenkasu (little bits of deep fried batter), finely shredded cabbage and bacon.

The method is drawing a disc of batter onto something hot and slick (I used my favorite cast iron) and to layer your ingredients with the meat on top and covering with a lid to let it steam cook the top while frying the bottom. The two video tutorials suggested brushing the batter on top of the bacon, but this seemed bothersome (http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifI only have one food brush). Instead, I scooted the okonomiyaki over, drew another disc of batter, and flipped it into the new batter disc. This worked well. While it's still on the griddle, you brush okonomiyaki sauce on top.

I don't have specific okonomiyaki sauce, so I used "Bull Dog" brand "fruit and vegetable sauce, medium sweetness". It's kind of like a Japanese barbeque sauce. Once I plated it, I tried to make an attractive pattern with squeezes of mayonnaise and sprinkled it with sesame seeds.

I wouldn't say that I'm up to "Okonomiyaki no Ucchan"'s standards, but I make a mean okonomiyaki.

The Queen of Hearts

probably didn't use salmon berries to make her tarts. More's the pity.

My friend Lilian, my new friend Irene and her mother (whose name escapes me) were kind enough to let me tag along with their berry picking expedition. We were after huckleberries, but we found a lot more salmon berries.



Salmon berries, for those of you thinking of extremely gross things right now, are simply called "salmon" berries because they are approximately the same color and are in season the same time as the fish. Worry not, gentle readers, my tarts are vegetarian.



I cheated and used a store bought pie dough that had been lying in my freezer. I lined tart pans and blind baked them until they were more or less done. Then I prepared a simple custard of six egg yolks and six tsp sugar (2 TB for the measure savvy) with a pint of whole milk with a split vanilla bean. I initially used the double boiler method, but I just couldn't get the custard to stand firm. So I settled for baking it in the cups like a Hong Kong tart. I scattered the salmon berries over the surface before baking (with extra sugar and a little bit of salt).

All in all I was pleased by the result. The slight ...well tartness of the berries with the creamy sweetness of the custard paired extremely well. I'll have to make some black tea to go with them.

Ume!

Ume are in season now. Ume are called Japanese plums, though I've heard that they are more closely related to apricots than actual plums.

In any case, these plums were meant for preserving, so that's just what I'll do.



Of course, the easiest way to preserve something is to submerge it in high proof alcohol and leave it there.

Umeshuu (plum liquor) is traditionally made with shouchuu, but I live in an area with a dense Korean population and thought that soju would make a poor substitute. I opted instead to use some vodka that was lying around my house.

The recipe I had called for a two to one ratio of plums to rock sugar (I used German rock sugar because it was what was handy). Then you fill your container enough just to cover the plums, making sure to leave half the bottle space empty. Why? Because the plums give up their liquid and will eventually explode a fully filled bottle.

Leave this in a DCP (dark, cool place) for three months, take out the plums (which I hear are a real treat) and return to its DCP for one to three years.



Now for the tricky part. If you have any interest in Japan at all (which you might not) then you are at least familiar with the sight, if not the name umeboshi. Umeboshi is that red, sour ball in your rice ball. It is the quintessential Japanese pickle.



You see, I am one of those people who is bad at waiting. Instant gratification more often than not is the biggest factor in my decisions.

So pickling? Better damn well be worth it. This is a project that will take roughly three months for the first stage, and up to three years for second.

I carefully hand selected the unblemished plums (the blemished ones went into the vodka) and carefully used a tooth pick to... pick out the stems. Then I washed them in several changes of water, making sure not to bruise them. I left them soaking over night to remove some of the bitterness, then dunked them in more vodka (I'm serious running out guys) and prepared a ceramic container by wiping it down with, you guessed it, vodka. I then weighed out around fifteen percent of the weight of the plums in course salt and layered it with the plums into my sterilized container. I put a weight (a duck taped plastic container full of water into a plastic sandwich bag) and will now wait for two weeks for the umesuu (plum vinegar) to ooze out.

As soon as my akashiso is big, I'm supposed to tear it into little bits and add it to the mix as well.

Wish me luck because I think I'm going to need it.

Is it really June already?

It's a week into June, and still I wear my coat to work.

The rain today was more of a constant, downward mist. It coated everything without the release of a shower.

I suppose I should be grateful. Stuck in the oven of my work, do I need sun unloaded heat?

It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!

A week later and my spinach is sprouting and my "micro tom" cherry tomato plant is filling out nicely with blooms.



I nearly missed the sprout, but I discovered it while picking pine needles out of my potting soil.



As my other plants do interesting things, I will do my best to report it.

How does my garden grow?

I suppose we'll find out together.

I've planted alpine strawberries, aka shiso, kale, Chinese mustard greens, lavender, two kinds of cherry tomatoes, spinach and poppies (just for fun). Sky Nursery was a very fun place to shop for plants.

The Boyfriend suggests we get a little table to add height to the plants and get them more sun. I agree, but this is all right for right now.

This is my first garden (technically I had another one as a child, but I basically put seeds in the ground and forgot about them), so I'm excited to see how everything turns out.

So...

I had to set up another entire blog just to be able to access this one. That was really a bother.

sakana nabe

I made nabe for dinner the other night. It was salmon, daikon, carrots, green onion, and beech mushrooms. The broth was a standard dashi. I cut the carrots and daikon into stars and maple leaves using tiny cookie cutters. The left over cut outs can be further cut up and used in stir fry.

I didn't really like the green onion this way. I guess it just isn't a vegetable to be boiled.

Another lunch

That was a lunch comprised of left over gyuudon (home made of course), edamame shumai (store bought of course) and rice balls. The two white ones were stuffed with more gyuudon and the colorful one was empty but rolled in a seasoning mix called furikake.

That gyuudon was made with onions, thinly sliced beef, soy sauce, mirin, sugar and vanilla rum. It was a very rich sauce.

I believe the monkey face is full of hot mustard.

The thing about hobbies

is that they take a back seat when your life gets busy.



This is a maguro-don that I made... two weeks ago?

You see, I've developed a weakness for raw fish. When cooking up some salmon for dinner I'll "trim" a small piece off, dip it in a little wasabi and eat it while I fry up the rest. I generally buy fish from the Korean market (because it's cheaper) and it's usually labeled "sushi/sashimi" grade.

"Maguro" means fatty tuna and "-don" means "on or in a bowl of hot rice" (roughly). So I cut up some raw tuna, added some shredded nori, some rice vinegar, some wasabi and some mentsuyu sauce. I gently mixed it up and then gobbled it down. It's for those of us who lack the knife skills of a sushi chef (which is most of us) and can't afford to get full at a sushi restaurant (which is most of us).

Two things.

One: sushi is generally supposed to be this "high", aesthetic experience where you eat one or two pieces and are very satisfied because they were so skillfully prepared. I have eaten that kind once (on my rich friend's dad's dime). Cheaper sushi is still delicious, but it's less of an experience and more of a "let's get an expensive dinner" kind of thing.

Two: Mentsuyu sauce is a soy, mirin, dashi mix that is generally used for eating somen. It is handy to keep around and add to savory things. I especially like it on pan fried broccoli.

In conclusion, raw fish is delicious and you shouldn't let your wallet or your knife skills prevent you from eating it.

Hair and Such

This is a hair style inspired by one of a Regency style. Of course I did it to myself (not having any hand maidens or the like) so it's a bit messy. However, I think that the messiness adds a bit of charm.



The Boyfriend was my willing photographer.



And to satisfy those who read my blog for the food, here was a lunch that was very satisfying. It was a tuna fish sandwich (laced heavily with wasabi for safety's and taste's sake). There was celery sticks and apple slices (since everything was in baggies it didn't make much sense to take the effort to cut them into bunnies). In the glass jar was potato and leek soup. I heated it up in the microwave at work. It was a very filling and tasty lunch.

Another Day, Another Bento

This was rice mixed with hot mustard and left over salmon bits. Gyoza with a fish bottle full of soy sauce. The quick miso pickle. Some more of the ubiquitous apple bunnies. I tucked a little more of the left over saury in the corner, but it's a dark fish in a dark container, so it's a little hard to see.

It was pretty tasty. Let's see how long I can keep this up.

Hisashiburi da ne obento san!

It's been a while since I've packed a lunch for work. I think I will start doing it for various reasons, not the least of which is nutritional.

There's a potato salad that I made from the fried veggies that were part of a pot pie. I scooped them out of the pan (plucking out the chicken bites and putting them back in the pan). I let it cool down and dressed it quickly with some mayo and apple cider vinegar.

The green salad next to it is actually a quick miso pickle. You thinly slice some veggies (grated carrot and sliced cucumber), rub them with salt, let them weep for a while, let them sit in some miso for a while, and rinse the whole thing off. I poured a little rice vinegar over it. The white bits are rice from the organic white miso (it's a strange brand I won't buy again). Next time I think I'll leave the carrot shreds to the last. They don't really need to be salted or anything.

You can't tell from the picture, but the slices of apple are cute to resemble rabbits. There are various tutorials about the internet.

I also added half a saury which I cooked simply in a pseudo teriyaki sauce (sake, soy sauce, sugar). I took the bones out prior to packing to make for neater eating.

That thing in the plastic is a miso ball. You scooped some miso into a plastic bag, (adding some goodies if you like) and add a little hot water to make a thin, but enjoyable miso soup. It's a technique I picked up from Just Hungry which is a valuable Japanese cooking site.

The plan is to keep packing my lunch. Wish me luck.

Kobe Wellbeing Tonkatsu

(Black Bean Katsu, picture from the internet)


Yesterday was my day off, and so I dragged The Boyfriend with me to the mall. It was a nice day, so we walked.

After considerable walking to the mall, and inside the mall, we (or rather, I) got hungry. The problem is that the food court is rather... lacking. We decided to head across the street to another food court, one located inside H Mart.

Kobe Wellbeing Kotatsu, despite having a Japanese name and serving Japanese food, has a menu covered in Korean with a little English here or there. always find this ironic, but the quality of food is very good.

I tried the sweet potato stuffed tonkatsu. I believe they cook the sweet potato, grind it into a paste, and sandwich it inbetween two thin layers of pork before breading and deep frying. A word of warning, even if the meat seems cool enough, the potato will still be molten lava.

It was very delicious, but super filling (even more than regular katsu). It also came with miso, a green salad, rice and pickled daikon two ways (yellow pickled, and kimchi pickled). They always put a spoon in the miso, which I understood should be slurped- excuse me, sipped from the bowl while using your chop sticks to push the goodies (tofu, green onion) from the bowl into your mouth.

The Boyfriend ordered a katsu burger with a side of fries. The fries were thick cut, and didn't deflate in thirty seconds, but over all were just fries. The sandwich came on a bun with lettuce and tomato and katsu sauce. I imagine it would have been better if they had served it with shredded cabbage instead of lettuce.

All in all, it's moderately priced, fun and good for when you want some fast food Japanese. It's a place we'll habit.

Tetsubin

As I'm sure all of you are aware, I have a certain fondness for Japanese items. Today I purchased a cast iron tea pot (not kettle!) from Teavana. It was on clearance and I've had my eye on a cast iron tea pot ever since the Good Eats episode "Trew Brew II".

I purchased four cast iron cups to go along, but instead of the wave pattern I decided to go with the hob nail pattern. I felt that the hob nail pattern would add a little... shall we call it friction? I wanted it to contrast ever so slightly against the pot to add visual and textual interest.



I brewed some sencha which I also purchased at that same store. It wasn't fantastic, but it made a good pot. I will probably look other green loose leaf teas or look at more matcha. To be honest, I'm not sure if matcha is supposed to be brewed in a pot or mixed in directly to the cup, which is going far more into chado than I feel I can do alone.

In any event, I had added another cast iron creation to my kitchen collection. Isn't it pretty?

Lesson Learned

Don't slice onions with your super sharp knife while talking to your sister over the phone about extremely distressing family news in the middle of the night.