Halibut

 

Yooki, Nora and Naomi came to visit us for this holiday weekend. Yooki suggested fish, so halibut again. Today I marinated halibut in citras soy sauce and pan roasted. One of the sides is Nora's favorite glassnoodle salad.

Mabo Tofu

 

Mabo Tofu is tofu with hot spicy meat sauce. It is another easy and quick dish. It only takes about 15minutes from start to finish. Sides are spinach namul( boiled spinach with sesami, garlic dressing), Kimpira celery (julienne celery and carrot stir fried in mirin and soy sauce), snap pea salad.

Karaage

Karaage is Japanese version of fried chicken. We use boneless thigh and cut into bite size pieces then marinate in the mixture of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sake, black pepper and salt. Sides are from the top, cucomber and seaweed salad (sunomono) broccoli with sesami dressing (goma ae), Japanese egg drop soup. This is one of my typical dinner when I don't have enough time for planning.

Rattatuille

The main dish is grilled rock fish with lemon garlic butter sauce. I have never seen rock fish in New York nor in Japan. First time I saw it at the supermarket, it looked like a kind of snapper, so I tried it and liked it. I think this is quite tasty fish. It goes very well with brown butter.








During the summer I like to make rattatuille. If I can get really fresh eggplants, this will taste much more delicious. Some day, I would like to eat this dish in Province.

Shrimp with hot chile sauce

This is a very popular Chinese dish in Japan. I happened to have chopped clam in my fridge, so I used it in the sauce and came out really delicious. This is very easy and quick dish. Peel and deveine large shrimp. Mince garlic, ginger and chop scallion. In a small bawl mix 1/2 cup chicken stock, 3 Tbs ketchup, 1 Tbs hot chili sauce, 1 Tbs sake, 1 Tbs soy sauce. Heat canola oil in wok or frying pan, add garlic, ginger and scallion, then add shrimp. Sautee 2-3 minutes until the shrimp turn to red color in high heat, then add the mixture of chicken stock. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add green peas if you like. Finally, add potato starch mixture to make the sauce thick. ( 1Tbs starch and 1Tbs water)
If you try this recipe, don't measure exactly, always adjust the taste as you like, because I don't measure when I cook. I always eye bawl everything.

I also made Chicken and broccoli stir fry. This is also very easy dish as you may know.
I marinate chicken first in sake, ginger, salt and pepper. This makes chicken more flavorful.

The last dish is Asian cole slo.

Japanese Dinner

I wanted to have something light tonight, So I chose tofu for the main. Agedashi tofu and three sides. Celery and chicken salad, lightly cooked spinach with soy sauce, green beans in sesami dressing. I like this Celery and chicken salad. First marinate chicken tenderloin in soy sauce and garlic mixture for 15 minutes then sauteed in frying pan. after cooled shred the chicken. Cut the celery into 1.5 inches long and thinly slice. Dressing :1/4 cup mayonaise, 2Tbs chicken stock, 1 Tbs white wine, 1 Tbs wasabi, salt and black pepper as you like.

Panko breaded scallop

When we were in New York, Shinho always called home before he left his office. "I will take 7:05( some time earlier, sometime later) train. What's for dinner today?" And when our children came home, the first thing they said was "what's for dinner, Mom?" In those days I think I was cooking more willingly because they seemed looking forward to coming home for dinner. Yooki was always the best critic and he still is. Actually he probably is better cook than me now.



Tonight I peeked into my freezer and spotted large scallops. So I decided to make Panko breaded scallops. Japanese like panko. They deep fry anything with panko. Shrimp, pork, beef, chicken any kind of fish, oyster, you name it.



The sides are (from the top) miso glazed eggplant and green bell pepper, oven roasted broccoli with mushroom and red bell pepper.

Prime Rib Dinner at Kelly's

Today my kitchen was closed for dinner. Shinho asked me to go to the Kelley's at Gig Harbor. They serve Prime Rib Dinner on Thursday for $13.99. I have never eaten at the Kelley's, but I found out it is a decent family eatery. Their food is nothing like fancy or extra ordinary, but fairly good for the price. I had crab cakes which were deep fried, so a little bit heavy side. Shinho liked his prime rib and wished there were another piece on his plate.

Correction: Thomas Keller, not Kelly  How could I forget one of the best chef in the U.S?  Eating at his restaurant in Napa is one of my bucket list.

Halibut

I thought it is time for fish. I got fresh halibut from Costco, so I pan roasted it. I read Thomas Kelly's recipe and followed it. The fish has to be room temperature. Heat canola oil in the oven proof pan and seared the fish both sides 3-4 minutes each side, then put the pan into preheated oven (350 F)and bake about 5 minutes or until it is done.
I served it with sauteed green beans and corn relish. I think this is perfect dish for summer.




I also made Asian lettuce cup salad. Inside the Boston lettuce, chopped chicken breast, red bell pepper and celery stir fryed with garlic, ginger, hot chili sauce and oyster sauce. This is good with rice.




The last dish is spinach with tofu sesami salad.

Ultimate Beef Burger

Koji sent Shinho 3lbs. berger meat from Williams Sonoma for Father's Day. The ground beef is Ultimate Beef Burger Blend and is used at the top restaurants in NYC.

I simply seasoned the meat with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and grilled and top with caramelized onion and garlic mashroom. Pan roasted asparagus and oven roasted tomatoes were good companion. Very simple menu. When I roasted tomatoes, I drizzled extra virgin olive oil and valsamic vineger on the tomatoes.

The berger was really delicious! It was juicy and had a lot of flavor. You don't need a bun. You may want to eat it as a good steak. Cabernet Sauvignion was a good pair with the beef.

Ginger Pork

June 20, 2011

Gignger pork ( Buta no shogayaki) is also a popular dish in Japan. It is very simple to make.
Mainade thinly sliced pork in the mixture of soy sauce, grated ginger and mirin and pan fried. I like to serve it with fresh green salad.


Sides are broccoli and bacon salad, cucomber and seaweed (sunomono) and asparagus with sesami cream sauce.

Korokke

June17, 2011

I found it is not easy to take pictures of the food. They don't look so delicious. Maybe I need better camera?
Tonight I made beef and potato croquet(korokke). Japanese people love this dish. I don't know why but they always serve korokke with shredded cabbage. I remember Maki hated the cabbage when she was little. The sides were spinach oshitashi, Daikon and fried beancurd, miso soup.

Kalbi night

June 19, 2011


Grilled kalbi beef(bulkogi) is typical Korean dish and Shinho's favorite. I marinade beef in the mixture of soy sauce, minced garlic, ginger scallion, brown sugar, pepper and sake for at least one hour before grill. Sides are Iridofu ( stir fried tofu with vegitables), Agedashi nasu (deep fried eggplants in tempura sauce), sauteed broccolini with garlic.






Shinho is ready to dig in with beer to wash down the beef. He ate almost whole plate all by himself!

Chicken for tonight

June 18, 2011

I cook every day, so this blog is about family dinner I create every night. Not fancy meal. I am trying to make healthy, balanced meal including at least three kinds of vegitable dishes.

Tonight, I thought chicken sounds good. The main is crispy chicken with ginger scallion sauce(Koji's favorite). I deep fried boneless thigh and after sliced the chicken, poured ginger scallion sauce over the chicken. Sides are boiled cabbage with sesami ginger dressing, green beans and fried tofu, spicy cucomber and spinach namul.
Also we always have brown rice with them.