Tempura

 

A few days ago, Shinho said,"Hmm, I want to eat tempura..." I don't make tempura often because it is a messy job. But I got fresh vegetables and shrimp (from Costco not from Gig Harbor), so I decided to make tempura. Shiso was especially good, but eggplant, zucchini and green beans are all good, too.

Radish and Shungiku

 
 
I like radish. Maki told me the delicious way to eat radish. Slice radish thinly and put them on buttered bread. Butter and radish are good match. But it does not go well with rice, so I made radish with sesame dressing (gomazu ae). It was very good.

Fresh and tender shungiku is delicious. Today I cooked shungiku with egg (tamago toji). It was also very good.

Main dish was Mabo Tofu.

Crab for Dinner

 
 
 
Yesterday Shinho and good friends of ours went crabbing at Gig Harbor public pier. They caught big ones including one huge dangeness. They were very good. We were all very satisfied.




I got a lot of fresh vegetables from my friends. I am very excited to use them. Today I made seafood and scallion salad with miso dressing(sumiso ae), shungiku no ohitashi, fried green beans with oyster sauce and karaage(fried chicken).

Dinner with Friends

We invited the couple from Hawaii whom we met last summer at the Gig Harbor Pier. I didn't have much time to plan, so I made very simple menu. Ceder planked salmon, Black bean, corn and quinoa salad, ratatouille and mixed green salad. Nothing new, so I didn't take pictures of them. Shinho and I had a very good time with them.

Summer Vegetable

 
 
We were invited to our new friend's house for lunch today. After the delicious lunch they showed us their beautiful garden. They grow many many flowers and vegetables. They were very generous to let us pick some of their crops. I wanted to use them for dinner. So here are the dishes I came up with those veges. Spicy shungiku and calamari salad, roasted zucchini with sesame chicken and green beans with sesame dressing. Nothing tastier than fresh vegetables.

Chilled Shabu Shabu

 

I think this dish is perfect for the hot summer day. Since the meat is sliced paper thin, it takes only several second to cook. I used paper thin sliced pork and dust each slice with potato starch. Boil water and cook the meat in the boiling water for a few second. When cooled served with thinly sliced onion and pour ponzu, ginger and scallion sauce over.

Summer Japanese Dinner

 

Summer came late this year. I made typical summer vegetable dishes like eggplant and bell pepper in miso sauce (nasu no nabe shigi), stewed green beans (Ingen no nimono). The main was seared scallop with brown butter lemon sauce (not Japanese). And Hiya yakko, chilled silken tofu with shiso, grated ginger and bonito flake.

Asparagus Mimosa

 
 
This asparagus recipe is from the book PLENTY. It is a beautiful dish and doesn't require many ingredients, just asparagus, eggs, extra virgin olive oil and caper.
Main was ceder planked sockeye salmon. It was very good. Another wonderful summer dinner.

Lamb Chop

 
 
 
Shinho gave three choices for dinner to Maki and Sayce, ceder planked salmon, steak or lamb chop. Sayce chose lamb chop. This is the lamb chop with pistachio tapenade which Maki made during the 4th of July weekend and everyone liked it. It was really delicious. I made gazpacho, roasted eggplant and bell pepper, fried green beans with garlic and quinoa with black beans and corn. Perfect dinner for hot summer day.

Shrimp in Curry Sauce

 

This is quick and easy recipe I found in Gourmet magazine several years ago. Mince onion and ginger in food processor and saute with melted butter for several minutes then add curry powder and saute for a couple of minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to boil. Add shrimp and cook for another a couple of minutes until shrimp is done.
I served it with oven roasted zucchini and tomato on the side.

Dinner at Celilo

 
 
 
 
 
 
We went to Celilo for dinner while we were visiting Columbia Gorge. I found this restaurant when Shinho and I were in Hood river and I liked it very much. I think it is as good as the top restaurant in Seattle. They change menu seasonally and use locally grown vegetables and fruit.
I didn't take photo of our appetizer and I am sorry for that because the presentation is equally good as the taste. We had a late lunch (it was another wonderful meal at Skamania Lodge) and were not so hungry, so we shared two appetizer. One was Salmon mousse with salmon roe and the other was Pork belly BLT. Both were very good.

For Main, Shinho had Rib steak (of course!), Sayce had Grilled Salmon, Maki had Rattatuille and I had Summer vegetable pasta. All dishes were delicious! We shared dessert, too. Blueberry and yogurt sorbet and cherry claffoutti with anglaise sauce. Yumm!!!

Tuna Steak

 

I used frozen yellow fin tuna for the steak. Generally I don't like frozen fish so much, but as for tuna I prefer frozen one. I think I over cooked a little bit. I liked it rare. The sauce for the tuna was soy sauce, mirin, ponzu and wasabi mixture and black sesame seed.

Sides are from left hijiki, spinach with bonito flake and scrambled tofu with vegetable.

Healthy Meat Loaf Aug. 12

 

I call it Healthy Meat Loaf because I added tofu and grated carrot. One pound of meat and 1 package of tofu (squeeze out water). Roasted fingering potato and sauteed green beans on the side. Other side dishes are shungiku salad and kimpira gobo.

Tofu Chigae

 
 
Chigae is Korean spicy stew with beef, tofu and vegetables. I don't make it very hot, but if you have chigae at Korean restaurant, it could be really hot. Shinho likes it.


Next one is kind of escabeche. I pan fried salmon not deep fried and marinated in rice vineger dressing with sliced onion.

Rolled Pork

 
 
I love shiso, Japanese basil. I use them in many ways this summer. Today I made shiso rolled pork. First marinate thin sliced pork in soy sauce and sake mixture. Then spread sliced pork, put shiso on top and roll. Dust it with flour and deep fry. If you like it more crunchy, use panko for coating.


Side dishes are same old cucumber(sunomono), sauteed spinach with egg and deep fried eggplant in tempura sauce.

Summer Chirashi Sushi

 

We had lunch with a couple whom we met recently at YMCA. I made chirashi sushi. I call it summer sushi, because I put summer vegetable like cucumber and shiso. They brought us vegetables from their garden. So I used those vegetables for dinner. Ingen no gomaae (string beans), shungiku no ohitashi, sauteed zucchini with garlic and sesame and left over from the lunch. Vegetables are very fresh and very good.

King Crab

 
 
Today is my mother's actual birthday. We already had wonderful birthday dinner last Saturday, so I just made her favorite food, crab. I made crab egg fu-yong. It is Chinese version of crab meat omlet. She also enjoyed king crab legs with lemon. (no melted butter for her)

I think Shinho enjoyed both birthday dinner more than my mother.

Grandma's Birthday

 
 

We celebrated my mother's 85th birthday today. Paul, Jane and her mother came and they brought sushi which Peter made and black cod. Thank you, Jane, Peter and Paul. They were so delicious!!!
I made tritip bulkogi, and several kinds of vegetables.

We ate and talked a lot and had a wonderful time together. My mother looked very happy.