i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
Both my 4 year old and 1 year old are fiends for ikura (salted salmon roe) so whenever I make the trip to the Asian supermarket (I now live far from Flushing), I always endeavor to buy some. It’s cheaper than ordering at the restaurant. …
We had prime rib at my mother-in-laws house for Christmas yesterday, and took home a lot of the steak as leftovers. An easy and delicious way to use it up was to cube it and make teriyaki. The sauce is very easy, with all the …
One of my favorite rolls is the Boston roll. I know, it’s weird right? For someone who loves raw fish as much as I do, why would I want to eat something that’s as common as some shrimp, cucumber, mayo, and lettuce in a roll?
But by golly it’s right up there with a nice jalapeno yellowtail on my maki scale.
Today I did a deconstructed Boston roll bento. Kewpie mayo really does make it, but if you don’t have it, add a pinch of sugar to your regular mayo.
You might be curious about the golden tomato looking thing and it’s what’s called a cape gooseberry. It is also absolutely delicious. It’s very sweet, and definitely like a berry rather than a tomato, even though it’s part of the nightshade family like tomatoes. It’s a physalis, so part of the same genus as the tomatillo, so their growth habits, with their cute paper like lantern husks are the same. Tomatillos stay green, cape gooseberries turn into a deep, golden orange color and become very sweet (almost like candy!) with a tropical flavor profile like a mix between a strawberry and a pineapple. I grew some this year with limited success because it was too late in the season when I found them, but I saved the seeds and will start them indoors for next year.
These, labeled as “golden berries” were bought from my local grocery store.
I also added some of my home made olive oil crackers (you can find the recipe here). It’s a simple Christmas theme, and I used some cherry tomatoes and shiso to make a “holly.” The bear is holding a piece of cheese cut out like a Christmas tree.
Recipe:
1. In a bowl, mix your chopped shrimp with the mayonnaise. Set to the side. Mix your sushi vinegar with the white rice and press the sushi rice into the bottom of your bento.
2. Sprinkle shredded nori on the rice. Add slices of cucumber and shredded lettuce on top and finish with the shrimp salad. Serve with soy sauce, wasabi, and pickled ginger (I pour a little bit of the soy sauce wasabi mix on top).
I was tired of buying crackers and thought it shouldn’t be too difficult to make, right? In my course of trying to become “supermarket independent,” this has been one of my better ideas. What more is that the kids LOVE helping, because it’s simple, with …
At one of the largest Japanese outlets in the northeast, Mitsuwa, they have onigiri in the flavor of spicy tuna and wasabi tuna. I really enjoy both, and usually buy one two munch on while I shop. I sometimes recreate it at home because it’s …
If you’ve never had cheese on your Japanese curry, you’re missing out! The combination is absolutely scrumptious! In this recipe, rather than putting vegetables in the curry (although you definitely can!) I used it plain, with just water.
I always have boxes of House Food’s curry (and cream stew and hayashi stew) stored up for those days where I’m too lazy to do anything other than throw a bunch of things in the pot. I love this brand the most, as it’s what I grew up with, although there are one or two other brands that I’ve tried.
Katsu curry is one of those foods that Japan took from other countries and made it their own–and how! There really is nothing else similar to it.
Recipe:
1. Follow the directions on the box for the curry (here, I just used plain water and no vegetables.) I used 2 cubes (which means the water gets reduced to 1/3 of what the recipe required.)
2. Arrange tonkatsu and white rice on a plate. Pour the curry around the rice so it pools.
3. Sprinkle shredded mozzarella on the hot curry so it melts and garnish with parsley flakes. Enjoy!
I had a single sweet potato I bought for sweet potato rice porridge (my youngest is getting over a virus right now and very picky about what she eats–but she loves sweet potatoes.) I also had some zucchini, red onions, as well as a bag …
Our second daughter was born in the year of the monkey–a sign that pretty much describes her to the T. Inquisitive, funny, mischievous, and very, very precocious, my cute little monkey girl inspired this bento today. You can use either chicken or pork–I just so …
It’s winter, with quite a bit of snow on the ground, so there’s very little for me to do in the garden, This means I can focus on a hobby I had abandoned after I had kids: Kyaraben (or “charaben”) making. Since it’s been a …