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.

Ahi Poke

 
 
This is Hawaiian version of tuna sashimi. Dice sashimi grade tuna and add minced onion, sea salt, soy sauce, black pepper and sesame oil. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Before serve add nori.



Next one is sauteed daikon and fried beancurd (daikon to age no itameni).

Anniversary Dinner at jw

It was our 36th Anniversary yesterday. We celebrated at the new restaurant in Gig Har bor,jw. We have heard a lot of good things about this restaurant, so I was really looking forward to eating there. For starter, we ordered honey walnut shrimp, zucchini crisps and today's soup. All of them were tasty, if not extraordinary.For Main I had duck confit pappadelle. It was delicious. Shinho had wild boar bourgignion which I thought was the best dish. My mother had seared scallops and I think it was midiocre, because the scallops were a little over cooked. For the dessert, creme brulee was very good, but banana pudding was very dry and tough. The service was excellent. They gave us a sample of wine and as we told them this is our anniversary, they gave us "Happy Anniversary" card and one of the dessert was on the house. Overall, we liked the restaurant a lot. The price was very reasonable. We will definitely go back again.

Tofu Ankake

 
We have been over ate during vacation, so we need to go back to healthy meal. This is stewed tofu with vegetable and seafood. Other dishes are kimpira gobo, hijiki seaweed.