Cooking – Page 36

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2007 mmm-yoso Cooking, Markets & Grocers, yoso-silly

Happy New Year!

There’s usually a pretty large amount of shopping that needs to be done around New Years eve. The Missus and I usually celebrate both the Gregorian and Lunar New Year. Japan officially accepted the Gregorian New Year in 1873, and have been celebrating New Year based on the Gregorian calendar since then.

So that would mean a few stops. First Nijiya:

Armed with my list(which turned out to be incomplete), I completed my shopping rather quickly, which gave me a nice opportunity to check out all the Osechi-ryori(Traditional Japanese New Years dishes) on display.

To me it seemed that there was a smaller variety of Osechi "Sets" this year, but that could just be me….

The industrious guy on the top in the photo below, almost made his escape after I took this photo:

The Obachan in front of me purchased $250 worth of food for New Years!

The next stop, Mitsuwa:

I noticed a smaller variety of Osechi here as well.

I found alot of "boxed" Osechi…sort of your generic, preboxed, impersonal, Costco-ized, Osechi:

Is this the future of Osechi? I hope not, it takes all of the fun out of Osechi Shopping.

So having purchased everything for our New Years meals, with only a few item omitted…well, I always forget a thing or two, it just wouldn’t be New Years without me rushing out to market. If anything, I’m consistent.

I only took a few photos, since I was busy cooking(and eating):

Of course Soba:

This year I added Wasabi Tobiko(wasabi flavored flying fish eggs), which added a nice "crunch" to the dish.

My own Osechi:

Karei Karaage(Deep fried flounder):

Lightly dusted with Katakuriko(potato starch), and lightly seasoned with sea salt and Shichimi Togarashi(Seven-spice chili pepper), and eaten with just a the lightest squeeze of lemon, and a tiny bit of Yuzu Kosho, a salty-citrusy-spicy condiment made with the rind of Yuzu, chili pepper, salt, and in this case a tiny bit of bean paste. By far the Missus’s favorite dish.

The Shishito Tempura was a close second:

I made some Matcha-Shio(Green tea powder mixed with salt) for dipping.

And some shrimp tempura:

And various Tempura(Kabocha, Satsuma-imo, Tamanegi, etc…):

Some Tofu, the Yuzu Koshu came in handy here as well.

And I haven’t been able to "retire" from making my Nishime yet, but maybe next year.

I guess we ate enough this New Year…better renew that Gym membership.

Of course, it’s always nice to settle in to watch the television after a nice meal:

Happy New Year!

Tailgate! The San Diego Holiday Bowl

December 28, 2006 Cathy Cooking, Recipes, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is blogging away and Kirk is taking a day off. You checked in, so stay and read for awhile.

Hello again. Football. College football. Bowl games. Yes, its that time of year. Ten years ago there were only 18 Official Bowl games, now there are 32. The Holiday Bowl is played here in San Diego.

The Mister and I have gone to every Holiday Bowl since 1984….we meet with "100 of our closest friends"and have a feast in the parking lot before the game. One couple smokes a turkey, looking for a 30 pounder every year. We don’t care who is playing. We eat, go in and watch the game, then come back out and fire up the burners, have hot cider, turkey soup, Irish coffee and leftovers and watch the parking lot empty. Yes, we go for the food.

Our little group, comprised of some great people from all over the world: Australians, Canadians, Japanese, plus a few good Lions, Optimists, Rotarians, Aggies, Bears and long time friends, gets together, each bringing enough food for themselves, plus a little more to share, in our "miracle" potluck feast.

So, yesterday we started cooking: Six pounds of bread dough to make rolls:

Which, when finished, were wonderfully browned and soft, light and just a tad crispy on the top:

Then, we have about 9 pounds of cross rib roast, 3 pounds of tri-tip and 7 pounds of ribs…

We usually buy small end rib roast, and its usually on sale between Christmas and New Year, but not this year and we kind of need a *lot* of meat…and we can cook roast beef, no matter the cut. Those 100 ‘close friends’ don’t really know our names, but they know that we are the "roast beef people"…and, trust me, all of this beef will be gone.

So, the infamous recipe: garlic, oregano, paprika…made into a paste with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Um, how much you say…well that’s 3 pounds of fresh garlic…and a liter of olive oil…and then the rest…to taste.

Oh you should smell my house right now!

You put the paste on the meat, into the oven that had been at 500° and drop the heat to 300° and put a thermometer in and wait for 118° and take the meat out of the oven. It continues cooking, trust me. We pre-slice and its, you know, medium rare.

Our seats will have this same view this year. I’ll report back about the rest of the food, later. Gotta pack up the pick up!

OK…its about 11 p.m. and we are home. here are a few photos of food from the tailgate…. the infamous 27 pound smoked turkey with rice stuffing and the waay infamous sweet potato casserole

There were 133 of us this year and it seems that everyone brought something, from tangerines from the yard and cucumber salad, lasagna, pizza, Subway sandwiches, chicken, chips, many-layered dips and desserts galore..to the chili, hot cider and Irish coffee we had while waiting for the parking lot to clear.

Oh, the game was good too and the opening ceremonies, starting with a moment of silence for the military who have died in the war as well as for President Ford was moving. The flyover of the F-18’s after the Star Spangled Banner was exciting and loud.

Halftime was as loud and bright as ever with fireworks and a show put on by local schools and their marching bands and dance teams.

I hope this sort of gave you a small glimpse into what a Southern California tailgate is like. I need to sleep now!

What I did on Christmas Eve

December 26, 2006 Cathy Cooking, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is blogging while Kirk isn’t. Thanks for stopping by.

Hi again. This post isn’t particularly late. I had a busy Christmas Eve Day and photographed it so I could blog it. It isn’t like many of you were sitting around the house waiting to see what was going on here. Its also way past Christmas Eve and I would assume you have done whatever tradition your family does anyhow.

There are many food traditions upheld at this time of year. During Hanukkah, fried and dairy foods are traditionally eaten. Most Italians have seven courses of fish, the Polish eat a meatless meal on Christmas Eve and the Germans usually have goose. Most Scandinavians have pork as the centerpiece of their meal (Santa starts his journey from the North pole, very close to Finland, you know, and that Man does not look like he’s a fish eater).

Its traditional in Mexican households to have tamales for Christmas Eve dinner. The making of tamales at home is another tradition. My dear neighbor who had us over for Thanksgiving dinner this year (since I was basically helpless in a to-the-shoulder cast helping me to keep my broken, displaced wrist immobile) invited me over to help make tamales…and, of course, I documented it. Afterward, we went to a friend’s home in Lakeside for some more socializing before we headed home to wait for Santa.

So, tamales. Basically, stewed meat surrounded by masa (prepared corn meal) that is wrapped in corn husks and steamed until the corn meal is cooked. You could Google it, but I’ll just show you.

Ah, but the stewed meat. My neighbor cooked and skinned, shredded and boned chicken and a beef roast the night before. Then, in a blender, you put two types of dried chili’s

with chicken broth, some cooked tomatillos and mix the chili sauce with the shredded meats (we mixed both together) with spices-

salt, pepper, cumin, garlic and heated it all in large pots on the stove for about an hour, to get the flavor into the meat.

The lady who was teaching us had prepared the masa (all ten pounds of it) before coming over. So the assembly line started… Take the masa-

and spread thinly onto about 2/3 of a corn husk.

Put some of the meat/chili filling

onto the corn husk/masa, fold, stack

and then stack into

a tamale pot which has a tray on the bottom, allowing for the steam to rise . For about 2 hours, with extra corn husks on top of the tamales and the lid on the steamer..

Yes, we made over 8(eight) dozen of those lovely morsels. Viola! the finished product…so fresh tasting and with just the right amount of heat from the chili sauce, all you need on the side is some sour cream.

While the tamales were cooking, The Mister and I went to the home of the parents of some friends, and we had a nice feast.. salad, olives, sides and of course-

Roast beef, salmon with shrimp and scallops, mashed potatoes, gravy

some beautifully decorated (and tasty)Christmas cookies

and cupcakes for dessert, which was followed up by a visit from

Old Saint Nick, Himself!

I hope everyone is having fun celebrating their own traditions at this time of the year.

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2006 mmm-yoso Cooking, yoso-silly

Yes, I realize I’m a bit late…..it’s been a pretty hectic couple of weeks, more so than anticipated. But things finally started slowing down at around noon on Christmas Eve, and the Missus and I managed to take in a movie, Curse of the Golden Flower, this isn’t a movie blog site, so I won’t say much except….."don’t bother"….really….

At least I managed to take my requisite Christmas photo:

After the movie, on the way home, the Missus decided that She wanted a home cooked, Japanese style dinner….say what! At 5pm on Christmas Eve!!!! Good thing Nijiya’s open. So, here are a few photos….no big deal, just some home cooked stuff. I didn’t get photos of everything, especially of stuff I’ve made before like Kabocha Nimono.

Let’s see…while at Nijiya, a young man was bringing out some nice looking Tako(Octopus), so we bought some, and I made my Mom’s Miso Sauce:

The Missus wanted Agedashi Tofu, but told me to "make it good this time; the last time you made it, it sucked."

This wasn’t too bad, the Missus enjoyed the tentsuyu, and I think She prefers this made with soft tofu, instead of silken tofu.

A Sunomono, made with whatever I could find…in this case Cucumber, Wakame, and Small Dried Shirmp.

Along with some Hijiki Nimomo, I also made some Daikon Nimono, simple simmered Daikon.

We purchased some pretty good Shiba Zuke(pickled cucumber and eggplant, maybe a tad too salty), and some really good Takana Zuke(pickled Mustard Greens), I really enjoyed the Takana, I wish I could find my Mother’s recipe for it…..

We both had Katsu Don, and today with the warm weather we’re having I made some Zaru Soba:

It was fun getting back into the kitchen, things had been so hectic, it had been a while. Plus the kitchen still smells real good! ;o)

I hope everyone is enjoying a great Holiday Season!

Some Revisits – Shanghai City, Golden City, and Other “Stuffs”

December 17, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Cooking, Niu Rou Mian, yoso-silly

Well, it’s been tough, since having that amazing dinner at Urasawa, I haven’t been able to bring myself to eat for over a week. HA, yeah, right! I’m obviously joking. I’ve got about 5 more posts regarding restaurants in the Los Angeles area, including places like Deerfield Garden, and Santouka Ramen, albiet the Torrance location. But I thought I’d return back to San Diego, and do a post on a few revisits to various restaurants.

Shanghai City

*** Update – Shanghai City has closed and is now Spicy House.

The recent cold and rainy weather was perfect for Niu Rou Mein, so we made our way to Shanghai City. Looking back at my original post, I realized how terrible my photos were, so I brought my camera along.

Every Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 3pm, Shanghai City features a Chinese Breakfast menu, and though prices have gone up a bit:

Most items are still priced at a reasonable $4.95-$5.95 range, and there is no discernable difference in portion size between the weekend specials and during other times. One thing I have noticed, is that Shanghai City is much busier during weekend mornings since we first started coming here in 2001. Also, the crowd is now a bit more diverse, with more than a few Non-Chinese customers.

I of course had my bowl of Niu Rou Mein($4.95):

Just as good as always, the broth is spicy and rich, the noodles still have a nice “pull”, and the beef is moist, and tender with a nice flavor.

In order to get me out of the Niu Rou Mein habit, the Missus decided to order a few different items, starting with the Chao Nian Gao(Stir Fried Sliced Rice Cake) with Pork($4.95):

Unlike the version we enjoy at Chin’s, this dish was totally overwhelmed with the flavor of Sesame Oil, and you couldn’t taste anything else. The rice cakes were very soft, but not mushy, almost like noodles, and I enjoy my Nian Gao a bit less cooked.

The Missus also ordered the Pickled Mustard Greens and shredded Pork Noodle Soup at Chin’s so She thought she’d order that($4.95), instead of her old standby, the Eel Noodles Soup.

And though the noodles were good as always, the mustard greens had very little in the way of flavor, ditto the pork, and the broth while it looked rich, was on the mild side.

And of course, we couldn’t leave without some Xiao Long Bao($5.95):

And though the quality of the Xiao Long Bao at Shanghai City can be wildly inconsistent, and the wrapper a bit on the thick side, we still think it’s the best in San Diego. We have also noticed that during busier periods the XLB at Shanghai City is a bit better, probably due to turnover.

Shanghai City
3860 Convoy St
San Diego,CA 92111
619-278-5883

Closed Tuesdays

*** An updated post on Shanghai City with new prices can be found here.

**** Golden City has closed

More Golden City – Yep, again! This time in the mood for some Roast Duck, we ordered a whole duck($15.95, $8.95 – 1/2 Duck):

I was surprised at how good this was! Really. Not oily, and not salty, roasted to perfection, this was much better than what I expected. Many restaurants will pour broth over the duck before serving to rehydrate the meat….no such thing here. It is not cheap, but quite good. I’ve never really ever gotten into the really sweet and lousy plum sauce that’s served with roast duck……And Duck Fried Rice made with leftover duck is always a good thing!!!

The Gailan with Dried Fish($9.95), is Chinese Broccoli stir fried with dried-roasted fish:

The first time we had this, it was sublime; the Gailan had been peeled and so was soft and tender. The crisp dried fish added a salty-sweet flavor, and the garlic added a nice punch to pull it all together. It had been stir fried to perfection. The second time we had the dish was on a Sunday evening, and it was borderline terrible, the fish was hard and almost inedible, the Gailan was not peeled and tasted bitter, and was extremely fibrous, and the garlic was burned, and worst of all the dish had not been cooked correctly and it was slightly oily. We put it down to it being Sunday, and perhaps it was the ‘B’ team cooks running the show. So third time a charm? Well this was sort of a “tweener”, the Gailan had not been peeled, but wasn’t very bitter, and had been cooked well, the fish was perfect, but only a scant amount was provided. The garlic was burnt and bitter, I don’t quite know what to say. Wildly swinging inconsistency is quite frustrating, and causes quite a dilemma…I mean, how can I recommend this dish if it’s never the same twice?

Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Open Daily 11am – Midnight

I tried making the Gailan with Dried Fish, purchasing the dried fish from 99 Ranch Market.

I first toasted the fish in the toaster oven, peeled and blanched the Gailan, and thinly sliced a few cloves of garlic. I did a simple stir fry, and ended up with this:

It was okay, but I’m sure that I didn’t use the right type of fish, it didn’t taste right. Also, I should have used the Big Kahuna to cook this but was too lazy, high heat would’ve made a big difference. Still, it wasn’t too far removed…….

So stay tuned, between the various restaurants visited in the LA area, I’ll do a few posts on places like Kayaba, and even this place:

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Postscript – By request I added a photo album of Urasawa photos, and even did an album from the AKC National Championships.

Cheap, quick dinners at home

December 10, 2006 Cathy Cooking, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. It’s just Cathy blogging today.

Last week, Ralph’s, a local grocery store, had a few items for sale. Brisket was on sale for $1.30/pound. A slab of beef ribs went for $1 a pound, asparagus, carrots, sweet potatoes and some prepackaged organic lettuce was marked down to $2 and the large Macaroni and Cheese container from Stouffer’s was priced the same as the small container. OK, dinner… and then some.

The Mister put a dry rub on the brisket. (He mixed garlic powder with Montreal Seasoning) and then put wood chips (after soaking in water) on the hot side of the grill (in foil) and left the meat on the indirect heat side of the grill…for about two and a half hours-when the fat on top started to caramelize-

He put the vegetables in foil and topped with butter and Herbes de Provence and placed on the indirect heat side of the grill. That was a meal..and sandwiches for a few days.

The brisket was moist and pretty tender.

The next day, he put the same dry rub on about 4 pounds of the beef ribs and grilled for about 20 minutes on each side-until the flames got as tall as me- and we made the Stouffer’s Mac and Cheese and the salad… Altogether we spent less than $10 and got at least five meals. I enjoy shopping only for sale items and seeing what kind of meal can be made…a little game.

and, for those who asked:

The smoked turkey, made on Sunday after Thanksgiving by The Mister…its wonderfully juicy and not too smokey, just right! This was one of those generic 16 lbs or less turkeys, frozen for $4 at Vons. Turned out to be the best meal(s) of all.

Thanksgiving Day with friends

November 23, 2006 Cathy Cooking, What Cathy Eats!

This is Cathy’s Thanksgiving Day menu. Enjoy!

Hello again. Happy Thanksgiving Day.

As you know, I had an incident involving gravity 23 days ago and basically am one handed. This does not lend itself well for my using knives, or any sort of tool normally used in cooking…go ahead, try to make scrambled eggs using only one hand, I dare you… I have seen a frying pan defy gravity and fling itself onto the floor in front of me. My dear neighbor graciously invited us to her house for the annual feast of thanks. This worked out perfectly- we made (OK, The Mister made) the starchy products and my neighbor made the main course..it was great fun and easy for me…I can’t even wash dishes by hand with this cast on….

The appetizer of raw vegetables, gherkin pickles, olives and dips. (dinner rolls in the background)…

Some condiments (and those desserts in the background)..

A very nice spiral sliced ham, cooked in an oven bag- it came out very moist.

The turkey, cooked in an oven bag and with *really* good stuffing (must be the butter used to saute the onions and celery)…

Side dishes- the Green bean casserole, always a favorite.

The mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn.

These were *excellent* baked beans.

of course, dessert…pumpkin pie, chocolate bourbon pecan pie, whipped cream and some kona coffee.

We hope all of you had a good day spent with family, friends, people you love.

Thanksgiving Eve

November 22, 2006 Cathy Cooking, What Cathy Eats!

A quick post. The Mister just took two of these chocolate Bourbon pecan pies out of the oven and the house smells wonderful!

It’s just the refrigerated/rolled pie crust, unbaked, a handful of chocolate chips on the bottom, the recipe for pecan pie from the Karo Syrup bottle and you soak the pecans in Bourbon overnight.

Oh, and we are practicing with the new smoker and $1/pound turkey legs tonight, too.

The finished product came out moist and tastes more like ham than turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving from mmm-yoso!

Meat by the Side of the Road-really

November 20, 2006 Cathy Cooking, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! is NOT on vacation. Cathy is blogging while Kirk is not. You are here. Continue reading.

Hi again. This is a good, true account of my life.

One day, about 7 years ago, I had occasion to be driving to the house of a friend, daily, in Valley Center (Just north of Escondido, where the Wild Animal Park is located). It was the week before Easter and I noticed, in front of Fat Ivor's (one of 4 restaurants in Valley Center- google it) this yellow trailer, off the side of the road …it says "Optimist Hams and Turkeys" (for now, the turkeys is crossed out..more about that later)…and I drove on by. I asked my friend about it and she had lived in Valley Center and said she saw it there, on occasion, for all the years she had lived there (about ten years at that point) . As I was driving home, I had to stop (you all know I *had* to stop). Here is a better photo, with Fat Ivor's, which is perpendicular to the road, in the picture:

As you can see, some friendly, Valley Center Optimists are sitting under a cover, waiting to chat with you.

I was curious that first time…and back then they were selling half and full smoked hams and also smoked turkeys. The Optimists were using the smoke pit at Fat Ivor's after hours and then sealing the meat in double wrappers. They had a handout, indicating 100% of all proceeds would be used to help Youth in the area, like this handout this year:

Oh, and I happened to be *very* hungry that first time. Back then the half ham was $25…today its $35 and it is *well* worth the price.

The ham is not at all salty nor is it dry. It is deeply smoky, not artificial, and anyhow, I recall I tore through the two layers of thick plastic on the way home, while driving, to tear off a piece of that ham.

Remember, The Mister, born in Finland; smoked meat is something he craves, and he knows what he likes (smoked cheese by the way, is just plain *wrong*).

I've been getting a half ham every holiday since. The half ham is $35 this year, the full ham is $55. It became less cost effective to smoke turkeys. (Something about having to have them reach a very cold temperature within two hours after smoking).

Note that sometimes they run out, but you can order and pay and pick up another day. It's only available these three Holidays a year (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter) and is *worth* the drive.

Aren't you glad I stopped? I am.

The yellow trailer, in front of Fat Ivor's 27961 Valley Center Road, Valley Center, CA 92082. Starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the Saturday before Christmas and the Saturday before Easter

Midweek Madness

November 15, 2006 mmm-yoso Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes

Wow, it's Wednesday already. Here are a few midweek odds and ends.

Kayaba

One half of the new food stands in the Mitsuwa Marketplace has revealed itself.

From what I understand Kayaba will be doing Soba, Katsu, and the like. I'm hoping for a Santoka Ramen as well. One can always hope……

The Missus had a hankering for Una-Don, so I purchased some Unagi from Nijiya, but decided to make my own quick and dirty Nitsume(Eel sauce). We've purchased the bottled stuff, and found it either to be too salty, or too sweet, or having strange flavors. So I decided to try a slight modification of an interesting recipe I found in DK Kodama's Sushi Chronicles from Hawaii, which I purchased on my visit to Sansei a few weeks back. The recipe is pretty easy, and after seeing the amount of Sake in it I had my doubts, but it turned out to be quite good. Maybe a tad on the sweet side, but not bad at all.

The recipe uses some short cuts, like hondashi…which worked out well, since I didn't happen to have a whole bunch of Eel trimmings lying around. The recipe also calls for the Hondashi to be boiled…which made it a fishy-bitter during the first pass, so I cut the amount in half, and added it right before the reduction process, and it worked. I'd been taught never to boil anything after adding Hondashi, but in this case it worked during the low boil. Purists may just want to skip the recipe, if it hurts too much.

Easy Unagi Sauce(Nitsume)

2 Cups Sake
1/2 Cup Mirin
1/2 Coy Sauce(Yamasa or Aloha)
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Hondashi

1 – Mix all ingredients except Hondashi in a pot. Bring to a boil stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat to medium-low and add Hondashi.

2 – Reduce mixture by half to a light syrup.

3 – Store in a tightly sealed container and refrigerate. According to the original recipe this will keep for up to 1 month.

I still don't quite know what to do about the Missus's other current obsession:

Have you ever known anyone who craved brussel sprouts???? With Nitsume??? And Rice???

One last item – mmm-yoso's very own Cathy Doe has been recovering from illness, so I'd like to make sure to tell Her to hang in there, and get well soon. She's still posting too..what a trooper!