Sukiyaki

 
When the weather gets cold, sukiyaki or shabushabu is comfort dinner. And I like it because the preparation is minimum. Sliced onion, spinach or shungiku, tofu, shirataki and beef. Everything is cooked in a pan with soy sauce, brown sugar and sake. Very satisfying meal.

Cioppino

 
I had variety of frozen seafood in my freezer like two piece of salmon, one medium piece of cod and 5 large shrimp and mixed seafood. I thought cioppino was a good way to use these seafood. Actually this is a very good way to cook frozen seafood especially fish. I am pretty happy with the today's result.

24 hour Beef

 
 
I got a sous vide for Christmas 2 years ago and it was neglected for a long time. Then we had 24hour cooked beef at the restaurant Chez Shea and wondered how it was so perfectly cooked medium rare even though it was cooked for 24 hours.It took me for a while to figure it out, but I finally thought it must be the sous vide cooking. So yesterday I bought tough cut of Angus beef and cooked for 24 hours in the sous vide at 140 degree. The result was, "Yes, I was right." The beef was perfectly medium and tender. If I could make demi sauce like Chez shea, and they must have good butcher to get better cut, but it was close, at least I think so. Anyway, it was delicious and I am so happy that I could finally use my sous vide.
I made my own sauce with onion, mushroom, butter, red wine, beef stock and tomato paste and it was OK.

Halibut with Lemon Cream Sauce

 
I seared halibut fillets and finished cooking in 350 degree oven. I made cream base sauce with lemon zest, lemon juice and tarragon. It tasted like bearnaise sauce. It was my creation, but I don't think it was quite successful. I often make up my own recipe and sometimes I fail. But it is fun to try. I am thankful that no one does not complain.

Thanksgiving Dinner

 
 
 
 
It is Naomi's first Thanksgiving dinner and she could have a little taste of some dishes, like kabocha pumpking soup, mashed potato and turkey breast. She liked everything.
The first course was crab cake, then kabocha pumpkin soup. Turkey was ready much earlier than expected, but it was very tasty. Yooki's gravy was very good. I really liked roasted Brussel sprouts. I got this recipe from Sharon and Kathy and it was easy and really delicious.
For dessert we had crepe cake (from Koji and Kim) and an apple pie. The cake was wonderful.

Baked Mackarel

 
I always feel sorry that our local stores don't sell fatty, delicious, full of omega3 mackarel. Usually I grill or pan fry them and served with daikon oroshi (grated daikon radish). But I wanted to do something different today, so I baked them with sliced onion and lemon with olive oil. It was very good. Downside is after cooking whole house smells like fish.

Chilean Sea Bass

 
Chilean sea bass is one of the best fish, I think. Black cod may be the next. Unfortunately it is the most expensive fish and you rarely see them in the store. I happened to find it at Albertson. I marinated it in saikyo miso mixture over night. The recipe is from the Nobu Cook Book. It was delicious!!

Pan Roasted Salmon with Lemon Caper Sauce

 
Kathy gave me this delicious caper hand picked in Italy. It has distinctive flavor which you can not get from regular caper in a jar. I used it for the sauce for salmon. It is similar to picata sauce. Butter, white wine, lemon zest and caper. The caper made a big difference and was really delicious.

Halibut Cheek

 
 
 
I found halibut cheek at Costco. I've seen it on the menu at the restaurant, but I have never had it. I looked for the recipe, but I could't find good one. So I pan fried it and made lemon butter sauce with dill. I think it worked pretty well. Next dish is Chapche, Korean stir fried glass noodle with vegetables. The last one is Nikujaga, stewed potato with beef and onion.

Dinner at Yooki and Nora's

 
There are many reasons why I like San Francisco so much, but one is their farmer's market. The vegetables and fruit are so fresh and they have so many varieties. I got sweet plums and nectarines, mushroom, cherry tomato, mix green and fresh pasta and mild goat cheese. I also got beautiful sea bass. Pasta for lunch and sea bass for dinner. The sea bass was fresh and very tasty. I got asparagus and eggplant from the supermarket, but I have never seen veges as fresh as these in Gig Harbor.

Poached Halibut

 
I got this recipe from the NY Times. I think it is a Japanese recipe of nizakana. First bring to boil the mixture of soy sauce, sugar and sake and add fish fillet and scallion and gently poach until the fish is cooked through. Remove the fish from the pan and reduce the liquid until it gets thick. Pour the liquid over the fish. Very easy and fail proof.

Shabu Shabu

 
 
 
This is last night dinner with Maki.
Shabu shabu is a good family dinner in cold season. Beef should be sliced paper thin so that when you put the meat in a hot pot and swish a couple of second and it is cooked. You may cook any vegetable you like. I usually use nappa cabbage, spinach or shungiku, carrot, and enoki mushroom and tofu. I made two dipping sauce, one is gomadare (sesame) and the other one is ponzu.

Rib Steak

 
 
Yesterday's dinner was rib eye steak. Those were really big pieces of meat from Costco and were tender and delicious. Served with roasted yucon gold potato and carrot, green beans and spinach.

Fried Oyster and Albacore Sashimi

 
 
Maki is home this weekend. I am not sure this menu was Maki's idea or Shinho's,(maybe Shinho's), but everyone enjoyed the dinner. Panko breaded oysters were crispy and delicious. We tried both tartar sauce and Japanese tonkatsu sauce and we thought tartar sauce is better.

Albacore sashimi was very good, too.

Sward Fish and Salmon Kama

 
 
Shinho bought salmon heads from Albertson. Fish head is a sort of delicacy in Japan. We had Hamachi head (we call it kama) at the restaurant Satsuma and it was really good. Shinho grilled it and it sure was delicious. Very fatty.
I made grilled sward fish. I marinated fish in soy sauce, lemon juice and cumin and curry powder.

Dinner at Chez Shea

 
 
Shinho and I had a wonderful dinner at the restaurant Chez Shea. Since this week and next week are "restaurant week" in Seattle and many upscale restaurants are participating and offer $28 prix fix menu. We went Chez Shea this spring and liked it a lot, so we went back. Everything was delicious. Top photo is my appetizer, Ahi Tuna Crudo, next one is Shinho's Wagyu Tataki. For Main course Shinho had 24hour Braised Beef and it melted in your mouth and demi sauce was outstanding. I had potato gnocchi and prawn. The cream sauce was delicious and prawn was perfectly cooked. The owner of the restaurant came to our table and said that she remembered we came in May. She is a wonderful hostess. This is really highly recommended French restaurant.

Citrus Ginger Salmon

 
I made this sauce with soy sauce, mirin, grated ginger and lemon juice. Mix all the ingredients and bring to boil and simmer for several minutes, then add a tablespoon of butter to finish. Pan roast salmon fillet and pour the sauce over the fillet.
Vegetables are asparagus with black sesame dressing, spinach ohitashi and miso soup.

Cabbage Roll

 
Is this originally a Portuguese dish? It is interesting how it became so popular in Japan. Everyone knows it as rolu kyabetsu and it goes well with rice. When it is cold outside, this is perfect dinner to warm you up.
Side dishes were avocado with nori and wasabi, broccoli salad and carrot scrambled egg.

Sesami Chicken

 
This was our children's favorite Chinese dish when they were young. I was making karaage (Japanese fried chicken), then I came up with sesame chicken. First, I deep fried chicken, then coated them with soy mirin mixture and add sesame seed. It was a little different from Chinese sesame chicken, but I think it was successful.

Side dishes were miso soup, sunomono, spinach namul, potato salad.