Lunch delivery - California rolls

Having started out with the SPAM musubi, this time it was California rolls - $3.50 each.


Ingredients: Sushi rice, seaweed, avocados, imitation crab, tobiko (fish roe), cucumbers.

I recommend to use Japanese, English or Persian cucumbers. American cucumbers are not suitable for sushi - too rubbery. A friend of mine told me about Persian cucumbers. The texture is pretty much like Japanese cucumbers. Good to know...

SPAM Musubi fans coming out

It's been a while since I made and delivered california rolls, simple bento boxes and SPAM musubi for lunch at work so decided to start out again with SPAM Musubi ($1 each).

My challenge was to target American customers who love SPAM but don't have the courage to come out as SPAM fans. Well, I got 74 orders and it turned out that a half of them was from non-Asian customers. Guess there must be a lot more secret admirers of SPAM out there...

If you have been to Hawaii, you might have found SPAM musubi at local grocery stores or even tried one. It's a very popular snack over there, and the combination of teriyaki pressed meat and rice is a no-brainer hit item for Japanese.

Here is my version of SPAM musubi. It might be slightly different from the regular SPAM musubi but I got the recipe from a Japanese lady who's been living in Hawaii for years and I loved it!

Ingredients: A slice of SPAM sauteed with Huli Huli sauce, pickled radish, bonito flakes, seaweed, rice

Personal Chef Night:Eel stew, green bean salad, tofu salad, blueberry cake

(Hopefully folks have been checking out my Japanese site to see the pictures at least.)

I am working as a personal chef once a week for my co-worker, who's a Japanese working mother. Usually I start cooking at 6pm and serve dinner around 7pm. One hour is really tight honestly so sometimes I do some prep work the night before at home.

Last night was a belated birthday special for my client; I made a dessert (which I usually don't).

Menu:

Eel egg stew
Ingredients: broiled eel, eggs, gobo (burdock), mitsuba greens, dashi (fish broth).

Green bean salad with walnut paste
Ingredients: green beans, carrots, shiitake mushroom, walnuts, soy sauce, sugar, salt


Power Tofu Salad
Ingredients: tofu, okra, boiled eggs, green onions, roasted sesami, shiso leaves, ginger,dressing(Ponzu, sugar, sesami oil)


Blueberry cornmeal cake
Recipe from "Fine Cooking" magazine.

Japanese new wave - Soup Curry

Curries are mainly represented by Indian and Thai cuisine here in the U.S., but "Curry" is a big deal in Japan and it's part of the main stream of Japanese comfort food.

You might have seen this type of curry at Japanese restaurants in Seattle (below is "Katsu Curry"). A typical curry sauce rather has thick consistency and often times some dairy products such as butter, milk, yogurt and cream can be used to enhance the richness of the sauce.

Now there's a new wave of Japanese curry called "Soup Curry" . It's not quite the same as a curry soup, which refers to a soup with curry flavor. The difference is that in the soup curry, "soup (or soupy)" is used as a qualifier for the curry. So it's still a curry dish.

The curry sauce is very light but presents a strong statement of the variety of different herbs and spices, so the taste is not bland at all as it might look. You can't stop eating rice with the sauce(Warning: It could be very dangerous if you are on a low carb diet).

I made this curry using the curry paste that one of my Japanese friends gave me. You can pick any vegetables of your choice. Eggplants must be excellent for this type of curry.

Ray's season is here

Well, I am talking about Ray's Boathouse.

When I start driving over to Ray's Boathouse cafe, that's a sign of the beginning of summer in Seattle to me. I love the view of the Olympics over the Puget Sound from the deck off the Ray's cafe, which is definitely the picture of the Summer Seattle.

I have heard that "Black Cod Sake Kasu" was first introduced by Ray's to Seattlites, but to me its signature dish is the Fish'n Chips. There are not many places that serve "breaded" fish(using "panko"), instead of battered fish, which is more popular in the U.S. I believe.

Panko is a Japanese name for bread crumbs. Yes, Amerians now say "Panko" in Enlish :-)


On another note, the french fries served with the fish and chips were super crispy. Definitely "Passed the test".

My favorite nigiri - Kohada

There are different translations for "Kohada", and I don't know which one is officially used, but here is one of the names I found on the internet.

Kohada
Gizzard shad. This fish, categorised as shining tane, is related to herring and mackerel. Seasoned with salt, soaked in vinegar, then allowed to drain for half a day before serving.
(http://www.asiafood.org/glossary_1.cfm?alpha=K&wordid=3004&startno=1&endno=25)

Anyway, this is Kohada Nigiri (and Ume Maki - pickled plum roll) I made last night.



There are not many sushi restaurants in Seattle that serve Kohada. I recommend Chiso in Fremont. They do not always have kohada but when they do, the quality is excellent. You can try Kisaku in Greenlake too.

Saito in Belltown also serves Kohada, but I had a bad experience there recently and have been boycotting the place since then. Warning - VERY expensive. The sushi quality is great though. I am just emotionally reay to go back...

Brunch at Cafe Campagne

It's still a breakfast with eggs and meat but a la francaise. You won't find greasy bacon and trans-fat-coated hash browns on your plate. Bread? Demi-baguette or brioche, of course.

I ordered the "Eggs scrambled with herbs and served with pork and herb sausage".

The potatoes were nice and crispy, and the pork sausage was very flavorful even with little fat content. My only complaint was the eggs. They seemed slightly overcooked (or maybe not enough heavy cream), though they tasted nice with the right amount of salt.

My friend's choice was the "French French Toast" (Brioche fried in bourbon egg batter, served with maple syrup). I didn't taste it because I am not a big fan of french toast (or any kind of sweet meal) but smelled wonderful. The dish was approved of by my two friends at the table.

In Seattle, it's not easy to get cafe au lait,because many coffee shops serve only cafe latte (well, I don't drink coffee regularly so probably I just don't know where to go to get cafe au lait). Cafe Campagne does serve one (you might want to make sure that you get it in a large cafe au lait cup though).

The cafe is on the Post Alley. If you want to take a break from sleeping in on weekends, meeting with your good friends for a french breakfast after buying fresh flowers at the Pike Place market could be a good way to start your weekend for a change once in a while :-)

The best part is leftovers

Unless you're are Prince Kobayashi, most people usually end up taking some portion of the 12 oz of Rib eye steak home (See the size of the Daniel's steak), but I love the leftover steak because my favorite dish "garlic pilaf with the rib eye steak" is on the way.

Ingredients: diced leftover steak, leftover steamed asparagus, 2 cloves of garlic, green onions, rice, butter, salt and pepper

1. Heat canola oil in a pan and saute the steak and garlic. Be careful not to burn garlic.
2. Add green onions and asparagus. Add rice.
3. Season with salt and pepper. Drop butter at the end.More butter, more flavor of course :-)
   

My signature Shrimp Toast

Nearly twenty years ago, back in Tokyo, I tried a wonderful shrimp toast from a Chinese dim-sum menu. It was one of the most popular items at the restaurant.
A few years ago, I had a hankering for the shrimp toast. After searching for some info on the internet, I came up with my original shrimp toast recipe, and it worked great.

Since then, I don't know how many times I have made it, but people seemed to like it a lot. So I am sharing the recipe here. It's very simple yet the flavor is pretty intense!

Ingredients: 1 lb raw prawns(black tiger, white prawns, whatever is available at the store) peeled and deveined, 1 egg white, potato starch, salt, pepper, white sesame. Thinly sliced sandwich bread(3-4 pieces - I use Japanese bread).

1. Clean the prawn and dry them with a paper towel.
2. Chop with a knife or mince the prawns in a food processor.
3. Put in the egg white, potato starch (1 tbsp), salt and pepper and combine the mixture well.
4. Trim the crust of the bread and spread the shrimp paste on it so that the spread in the center is a litter thicker than on the edges. Sprinkle white toasted sesame on the spread
5. Deep fry the shrimp toast with mid-low heat (bread tends to burn easily) and turn up the temperature slowly.
6. Cut the toast into four squares.

Here you go!

Daniel's Broiler

My vote for the best steakhouse in Seattle is Morton's. However, the restaurant could be very pricy so I have some backup choices when I am the one to treat dinner. This time I picked Daniel's.

Daniel's in Eastlake used to be excellent. I loved their Rib eye steak. Over time, the quality has become sort of hit or miss and I had some reservations about my choice this time, feeling as if I was playing a Russian roulette.

But it turned out be a good one :-)

Well, the best part is yet to come! To be continued...

Pickled Eggs Japanese Style

Pickled eggs are one of those southern favorites in the U.S., but as you might know, Japanese love to pickle everything too.




Here is a recipe from my favorite Japanese cooking magazine. If you're familiar with Miso(soy bean paste), then that's the only Japanese ingredient you need to get at an Asian grocery store (like Uwajimaya).

Ingredients:Miso paste, Sugar, Yogurt, and of course boiled eggs(I prefer soft boiled eggs).

1. Mix the Miso paste(3 to 4 tbsp), sugar(3 tbsp) and Yogurt(3 tbsp) well until the mixture is smooth.
2. Put the peeled boiled eggs in a container and pour in the miso mixture.
3. Leave the container in the room temparature for 2 to 8 hours.

The recipe is super simple, and you'll be amazed at the richness of the egg yolk combined with mild miso flavor. You can sprinkle some red chili pepper (Shichimi) on them. Great with beers :-)