Monday, January 23, 2012

Nabe nabe nabe

its been a cold snowy weekend in NY, so I was visiting one friend after another doing nabe....
This is from the last one I had, my usual chicken nabe.  
This was taken into smaller bowls where we had it with daikonoroshi, ponzu and shichimi making it a mizorenabe.  
After the whole charade I put in udon and added miso, and made it misonikomiudon which was faaantastic cus of all the broth and flavor that came out of the pre-existing nabe.
I love how nabe is so versatile and easy yet so nourishing...perfect cold weather food!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Stewin...

in general, I love to stew things for hours...I feel like there has to be something good that comes out of long hours put into cooking, and the easiest thing to do is to just stew it.  
Maybe because of that, or just cus its easy and healthy I make tomato based stew-items pretty often.  
First off, the veggie stew...now look me in the eye and tell me this bright red isnt gorgeous!  
its just a big pot of crushed tomatos, lots of celery, cabbage, carrots, onions with a garlic and olive oil and salt.  Oh, and white wine.  So much juice comes out of the veggies that I dont even add any water!  
Next, next to that pot, I made pasta sauce, which I think can be called bolognese or ragu..
what I did is pretty similar to the veggie stew, but this one is completely different in the sense that it has shredded beef, making it much more oilier.  All the veggies are chopped much finer, and instead of cabbages I added dried shiitake.  The tomato is pureed instead of chopped, and the wine used is red opposed to white.  This, I like to go all out and flavor flavor flavor, so I added a small amount of anchovy sauce, bay leaf, and secret ingredients (which again are only called so just cus i never know till the last minute what Id like to put in, its basically a secret to myself more than to anyone...) soy sauce, mirin, worchester sauce(always thought this was called wooster sauce but if wikipedia says so, i shall follow suit...).  Oh, yes of course, LOTS of red wine....wont work without it.  The result of three hours of stirring and stewing is this beautiful brown sauce which almost tastes like demi-glace sauce.  A very rich, bold heavy flavor, probably cus of the red wine i used...
I usually drink the wine I use for cooking so by the end of the three or four hour cooking session, a lot of wine is consumed by me and the stews...it only tastes better that way :)

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Brunch at home

a friend came to visit Sat afternoon so I made brunch.  I had kale, which I never cooked before so went to my trusted cookpad for help!  It worked well...steamed kale then sauteed with olive oil, sliced garlic, smoked bacon and just added salt.  With the exact same ingredients, aside from the kale, I made German potato with potato and onions.  My secret ingredient (now not too much of a secret that I'm revealing it...) is anchovy paste.  Adds a kick to it.  The left over of this will be consumed by me later with beer!  Also had egg in a cocotte; lined cocotte with smoked bacon, drop an egg topped with cheese dressing (my French friend recommends sour cream instead, which without a doubt would be phenomenal and I shall try one day!) and place the cocotte in a pan of boiling water, leave there boiling till egg is done to preferred degree (mines runny cus I like to dip my bread in it).   Shared a venti bold from starbucks.  Brunch, is served.  :)  

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Uni Pasta

Since I love Uni so much, I try to make full use of it.  Hence, Uni pasta.
I have a recipe on cookpad as well; http://cookpad.com/recipe/1220632
ahhhh uni.  Gochisousama☆

Mizuna salad

was always interested in this recipe on cookpad for mizuna salad.
I made it with half done egg on top, and it was good :)
I think next time I'll make more...2ppl's amount doesnt seem to be enough for my huge appetite!

Hidechan Ramen-spicy

greasy, oily, fat, spicy, hot, garlicky - all of the above goes for spicy tonkotsu ramen at Hidechan.  
yumyum.yumyumyum♪

Uni


Dear Uni,

I love you so.  When I see a $9 pack of you at sunrise mart, I buy with no hesitation.  "Wait, but I will be eating out a lot this week" doesn't matter.  I will eat you-nay, I will make time to eat you.  On one of those gloomy days when a critical moment goes wrong, you are there for me.  Through thick and thin, (during the season, )you are my trusted companion, who can get me through tough times, and I thank you for that.  I hope to see you more often this year.  

Sincerely,
Cookpadding

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Hotpot

I tend to make this pretty often; a one man hotpot!
Usually nabe type things are good for sharing with others on a cold day, but given the fact that I live alone I end up with soooo much left over!! so I divide it into a few things...
This day, I made a simple basic chicken hotpot; bring the dashi broth to a boil and add garlic and ginger along with dried shiitake, then the chicken (with its bone) for basic flavor, then add hakusai cabbage, tofu whatever vegis i was able to find in my fridge (carrots, scallions etc).
Round one, I would take it little by little and eat with ponzu.  Round two, I would take a little more in a separate pot and make it into porridge.  Round three I added miso with Korean spices to make it a real deal hotpot, and added an egg.  Since the flavor comes from chicken, its versatile enough for a long run!
I have to switch pans to a smaller one every time I cook but its satisfying when I cook and utilize it long enough that the chicken meat comes off the bone without even trying!  

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!!
My new year's day tradition is to be invited to my neighbor's AMAZING osechi fiesta!!
They are incredible people...I would charge good money for this if I were them, so good god bless their souls!!!

house beer- they even make beer!!! and it was great!! 






This is Ryugan-age.  Ryu means dragon; very "year of the dragon" of them :) 
they like to mix other incredible dishes just to keep us entertained...so beef stew!!
chicken!!
Chirashi-sushi!!! 
Dragon fruit...tastes much more simple than how it appears... 

Wishing everyone an amazing year of the Dragon!!