Hmmm, tonight's Izakaya Alice menu didn't fare too well...
Any hints as to why? Maybe the sauce just was too heavy?
Baked Sockeye Salmon with Mustard Dill Sauce:
1. Mix 1/4 cup mustard (Dijon), lots of dried dill, dash of curry powder and ponzu.
2. Slather mustard mixture on 1 lbs sockeye salmon.
3. Bake.
Yah, it was easy to prepare in the typical Izakaya Alice way, but it just didn't get consumed at the usual rate. I wonder if I needed more lemon/citrus/vinegar to cut the grease of the sockeye salmon. Or maybe I should have washed the salmon in wine to get the fishiness out.
This recipe had so much potential, yet it just didn't get loved by my diners as much. I wonder what I could do better next time...
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
Izakaya Alice: Late night soups
This entire holiday weekend, we've sort of been off-schedule at the Bear Family household. The Papa Bear doesn't get up before 10 AM unless prodded, and the Baby Bear has been catching up on her celebrity gossip in the morning hours while the Papa Bear is sleeping away. The problem with starting the day late is that our hunger level is off-schedule...
For example, we had a huuuuuuge lunch-inner at 3 PM in San Francisco on Sunday (a somewhat non-memorable tapas place, except for the fact that the owner was SUPPPPPER nice). This made us not hungry until... 10 PM? Who wants to cook a major dinner at 10 PM? Surely not this Baby Bear.
Luckily, we had some ground chicken and eggs - which is all I need in addition to my usual pantry items (which is probably worth a post of its own - the Japanese staples entry!). I threw together an Izakaya Alice specialty - 10 min dishes that is satisfying enough to be a menu item on the Izakaya Alice line-up:
Chicken-tsukune soup:
1. Make tsukune (chicken meatballs) by combining and massaging together 1 lbs ground chicken, 2 eggs, 1 tbp (eye-balled) ponzu, a bunch of sesame seeds, and enough panko (JP bread curmbs) to give it enough consistency to make balls.
2. Make dashi enough to act as soup (~1.5 cups per person is more than enough; and yes, yes, I will do a dashi post when I have enough energy... You see, it's because I keep thinking the dashi post will be best with pictures and pictures take a long time to process...><). Flavor dashi with soy sauce for a touch of saltiness.
3. Add tsukune balls to dashi. I am so lazy, I don't bother making the balls. I scoop some of the tsukune material and drop it directly into the soup. It looks like an ellipical blob, but it works just fine. No mess!
4. Cook until all tsukune balls float (about 5-8 min). Chop one in half just to make sure it's cooked in the middle.
5. Add dried wakame (the kind that expands) and turn off heat. While you get all of the dishes ready for plating the soup and setting the table, the wakame will be ready!
6. I served the entire pot on the table with some grated yamaimo to top the soup (yamaimo also deserves a post of its own - my current obsession!). Add ponzu as desired while eating the soup!
This was sooooo super satisfying and it took literally 15-20 min to make. It was the epitome of Izakaya Alice - quick, healthy, and satisfying!
For example, we had a huuuuuuge lunch-inner at 3 PM in San Francisco on Sunday (a somewhat non-memorable tapas place, except for the fact that the owner was SUPPPPPER nice). This made us not hungry until... 10 PM? Who wants to cook a major dinner at 10 PM? Surely not this Baby Bear.
Luckily, we had some ground chicken and eggs - which is all I need in addition to my usual pantry items (which is probably worth a post of its own - the Japanese staples entry!). I threw together an Izakaya Alice specialty - 10 min dishes that is satisfying enough to be a menu item on the Izakaya Alice line-up:
Chicken-tsukune soup:
1. Make tsukune (chicken meatballs) by combining and massaging together 1 lbs ground chicken, 2 eggs, 1 tbp (eye-balled) ponzu, a bunch of sesame seeds, and enough panko (JP bread curmbs) to give it enough consistency to make balls.
2. Make dashi enough to act as soup (~1.5 cups per person is more than enough; and yes, yes, I will do a dashi post when I have enough energy... You see, it's because I keep thinking the dashi post will be best with pictures and pictures take a long time to process...><). Flavor dashi with soy sauce for a touch of saltiness.
3. Add tsukune balls to dashi. I am so lazy, I don't bother making the balls. I scoop some of the tsukune material and drop it directly into the soup. It looks like an ellipical blob, but it works just fine. No mess!
4. Cook until all tsukune balls float (about 5-8 min). Chop one in half just to make sure it's cooked in the middle.
5. Add dried wakame (the kind that expands) and turn off heat. While you get all of the dishes ready for plating the soup and setting the table, the wakame will be ready!
6. I served the entire pot on the table with some grated yamaimo to top the soup (yamaimo also deserves a post of its own - my current obsession!). Add ponzu as desired while eating the soup!
This was sooooo super satisfying and it took literally 15-20 min to make. It was the epitome of Izakaya Alice - quick, healthy, and satisfying!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Artichokes, Koo-style
I didn't get to describe in detail some of the deliciousness I experienced recently at Koo (San Francisco) with The Gourmand and Yamo, but there were three dishes in particular that I was really excited about. These three dishes, I have since then replicated at home with moderate success. Today's post is just a quick recipe post:
Koo-inspired artichokes...
1. Fill pressure cooker with 1 cup of katsuo-dashi (bonito broth, which I keep promising to share my recipe... I promise, I promise!)
2. Throw in artichokes to the pressure cooker (my pressure cooker fits 4)
3. Cook on high heat until the pressure cooker starts to make that pressure-cooking noise.
4. Turn heat to low and cook 2 min.
5. Turn off pressure cooker heat and let pressure come back to normal.
6. In the mean time, make the dipping sauce.
Dipping Sauce:
1. Heat extra-virgin olive oil and sautee a handful of chopped garlic cloves.
2. Once the garlic is fragrant, add salt and generous amounts of dried rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage.
3. Turn off heat and let oil cool.
4. Add vinegar, mirin, and more salt (if needed) to taste until a slightly tangy, subtly sweet, fragrant taste is acheived.
In Koo's version, the artichokes were soaked in the sauce, but I decided to season it with a dipping sauce. It's less messy at home because your fingers don't get sticky with the sauce, since you're just dipping the tips of the artichoke leaves. If you don't have garlic allergies like I do (I can't eat raw garlic - it makes me throw up), this sauce can probably be made without sauteeing the garlic, but the frying gave it a really nice toasty scent.
Koo-inspired artichokes...
1. Fill pressure cooker with 1 cup of katsuo-dashi (bonito broth, which I keep promising to share my recipe... I promise, I promise!)
2. Throw in artichokes to the pressure cooker (my pressure cooker fits 4)
3. Cook on high heat until the pressure cooker starts to make that pressure-cooking noise.
4. Turn heat to low and cook 2 min.
5. Turn off pressure cooker heat and let pressure come back to normal.
6. In the mean time, make the dipping sauce.
Dipping Sauce:
1. Heat extra-virgin olive oil and sautee a handful of chopped garlic cloves.
2. Once the garlic is fragrant, add salt and generous amounts of dried rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage.
3. Turn off heat and let oil cool.
4. Add vinegar, mirin, and more salt (if needed) to taste until a slightly tangy, subtly sweet, fragrant taste is acheived.
In Koo's version, the artichokes were soaked in the sauce, but I decided to season it with a dipping sauce. It's less messy at home because your fingers don't get sticky with the sauce, since you're just dipping the tips of the artichoke leaves. If you don't have garlic allergies like I do (I can't eat raw garlic - it makes me throw up), this sauce can probably be made without sauteeing the garlic, but the frying gave it a really nice toasty scent.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
A Noodle Lover's Favorite
I love noodles.
I can easily live without another grain of rice in my life, but if I were to swear off noodles, I'd be in some serious dietary stress.
Just to give you an example of my noodle-y obsession, I had at least one noodle meal for six out of the seven days for the past week:
Friday: Pho at Beef Noodle #1, San Jose.
Saturday: Stir-fried noodles at a mediocre Vietnamese restaurant.
Sunday: Noodle break!
Monday: Pho at Pho Binh.
Tuesday: Ramen at Kahoo, San Jose (soon-to-be-reviewed).
Wednesday: Ramen at Himawari - my favorite ramen shop in the Bay Area. Despite all the new shops opening, Himawari is my #1 favorite.
Thursday: Mixed so-men and udon in dashi soup.
My aunt and uncle who were visiting me from Japan reminded me that I always loved noodles. My poor aunt, who is not a big fan of ramen, told me that the last time she ate ramen was when she was in San Francisco last year!
The reason why I love noodles so much is because of its texture. I love feeling it flip and flop inside of my mouth, resisting my bite while dancing on my tongue. Soggy noodles are the biggest sin; even the best broth cannot rescue over-cooked noodles. As a noodle-texture lover, my favorite noodle dishes play up to the texture-aspect of noodle-y goodness...
Whenever I am making noodles at home, I try to add different noodles into one dish - spaghetti and parpadelle, so-men and udon, bo(stick)-ramen with pseudo-hand-pulled ramen. I love how fun noodles are when you mix more than one width, girth, or chewiness into one bite. Of course I have to stagger when I put the quicker cooking noodles into the pot, but the trouble is only 1/10 of the deleciousness.
...
......I might have to go make a bowl of mis-matched thickness noodles now!
I can easily live without another grain of rice in my life, but if I were to swear off noodles, I'd be in some serious dietary stress.
Just to give you an example of my noodle-y obsession, I had at least one noodle meal for six out of the seven days for the past week:
Friday: Pho at Beef Noodle #1, San Jose.
Saturday: Stir-fried noodles at a mediocre Vietnamese restaurant.
Sunday: Noodle break!
Monday: Pho at Pho Binh.
Tuesday: Ramen at Kahoo, San Jose (soon-to-be-reviewed).
Wednesday: Ramen at Himawari - my favorite ramen shop in the Bay Area. Despite all the new shops opening, Himawari is my #1 favorite.
Thursday: Mixed so-men and udon in dashi soup.
My aunt and uncle who were visiting me from Japan reminded me that I always loved noodles. My poor aunt, who is not a big fan of ramen, told me that the last time she ate ramen was when she was in San Francisco last year!
The reason why I love noodles so much is because of its texture. I love feeling it flip and flop inside of my mouth, resisting my bite while dancing on my tongue. Soggy noodles are the biggest sin; even the best broth cannot rescue over-cooked noodles. As a noodle-texture lover, my favorite noodle dishes play up to the texture-aspect of noodle-y goodness...
Whenever I am making noodles at home, I try to add different noodles into one dish - spaghetti and parpadelle, so-men and udon, bo(stick)-ramen with pseudo-hand-pulled ramen. I love how fun noodles are when you mix more than one width, girth, or chewiness into one bite. Of course I have to stagger when I put the quicker cooking noodles into the pot, but the trouble is only 1/10 of the deleciousness.
...
......I might have to go make a bowl of mis-matched thickness noodles now!
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