Quick Quiche

 This is today's lunch. You can make this in 15 minutes. I used halved toasted croissant as a crust. In a oven proof sautee pan, swirl olive oil and add butter. Sautee sliced red bell pepper and asparagus ( cut 1 inch long) until softened. Meanwhile in a mixing bawl, mix 4-5 eggs and a half cup of cream, salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the sauteed vegetables. Add shredded cheese (whatever you like). Cook until the bottom is browned. Transfer the pan under the broiler and broil until the egg mixture is set and golden brown.
Cut into the wedge and serve on the toasted croissant.
You can use any vege and cheese.

Panko Fried Oysters and Mackarel with Ginger Miso Sauce

 Shinho bought fresh oysters from Minterbrook Oyster farm. They were very big. I like smaller one better, but they were good for frying.
 This is one of popular Japnese dish, Saba Misoni. Mix 1 cup water, 4 Tbs miso, 2 Tbs brown sugar, 1 Tbs mirin 1Tbs sake. Bring the miso mixture to boil in a shallow sauce pan, add thinly sliced ginger (about 1 Tbs). Then add the fillet and cook with medium high heat. When the sauce is thickened and the fish is cooked, add scallion and cook for a minute.

Shumai

 The first photo is the glass noodle salad. Next one is shumai, Japanese version of pork shumai. I used Chinese wonton skin which is larger and thicker than Japanese shumai skin, but it worked.

California Halibut

 I found California Halibut at Costco. It said, fresh and wild. So I bought them. The fillet is much smaller than halibut. They look like founder. Is California halibut a new name of flounder?

Anyway I lightly salt and peppered  them and dusted with flour and pan fried, poured lemon butter sauce over the fish. They were delicious, just tasted like sole.

Salmon with Soy Ginger Sauce

 
Nothing new recently. I think I made similar one before. I need some new inspiration. Grocery shopping here is not so much fun. I wish we had more variety of fish.

Sesame Crusted Tuna

 

Cod with Leak

 
Shinho likes leak. We went to grocery shopping together the other day and he got a bunch of leaks. I made potato and leak soup and still have some left. So I came up with this recipe. Braise leak in chicken broth and add cod. I think I should have sear cod with butter first or added some cream to finish.

Stewed Hamburger

 
Make hamburgers and browened them in sautee pan. In medium sauce pan, sautee thinly sliced onion until browned. Add red wine and canned chopped tomato, tomato paste. Add hamburger and simmer for 30 minutes.

Omurice

 
This was our lunch several days ago. Omurice is a Japanese style omlet chicken fried rice inside.

Roasted Chicken Breast with Tomatoes, Capers and Olives

 
This is also from the NY Times.
Combine 2or 3 chopped tomatoes, the juice of a half lemon, capers and olives. Lightly grease the pan with olive oil, then put the chicken in the pan and pour the tomato mixture over it. Roast until cooked through.
Very light and healthy. I roasted broccoli and red bell pepper with chicken.

Mediterranean Fish Chowder

 
This is another recipe from the NY Times. And I like it a lot. It is very healthy and easy. You don't need fresh fish. Frozen white fish like cod, tillapia works fine. Required many ingredients like anchovi, saffron some herbs, kale, canned tomatoes, tomato paste. But you can cook in one pot and it is delicious!

Kalbi

 
I was surprised to find the kalbi beef at the Albertson. And it was cheaper than Asian Market. I was not sure if it is good cut or not, but I bought it anyway. I marinated in soy sauce, sugar, minced garlic and ginger and black pepper mixture. It was surprisingly tender and delicious.

Cod with tomato garlic sauce

 
I had this dish at the Bee and Thistle Inn in Conneticut many years ago. Salt and pepper the cod, then dusted with flour, then dredge the cod in egg wash. Heat the pan and add 1 Tbs olive oil and 1 Tbs butter. When the butter melted and bubbled, add the cod. For the sauce, sautee chopped tomatoes and scallion and minced garlic with butter and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Menchi Katsu

 
 
Menchi Katsu is Japanese panko breaded deep fried hamburger. Japanese hamburger is quite different from American's. Finely chopped onion, bread crumb and eggs are added to the ground meat. Usually it is served with shredded cabbage.

The next photo is several kinds of vegetable sides.

Chicken Florentine

 
I found good recipes for chicken breast yesterday on NY Times Magazine. I was going back and forth between mushroom sauce and florentine and finally I decided to combine two recipes into one and I think it was delicious.

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.