Sushiiiiiiiiiiiii

The last two days have been busy and sushi-filled. I have took like a thousand calls. I'm not even kidding.

Anyway. ^_^

For days 5 and 6, I had homemade sushi! Look at what an average person can accomplish with a bamboo mat:

 There's not much to say here. I tried my very best to make my cucumber slices look good--I cheated and used a shredder. I also, for the joy for it, made both a traditional Japanese veggie roll and an inside-out American-style roll (which was harder and much much stickier.) We have imitation crab here, avocado (butter for people who want to lose weight, yum!), carrots, cucumber, sushi rice, nori, sesame seeds, and, of course, seasoned rice vinegar!

Of all the things I need to remember, I think I need to focus more on my rice. Way too sticky and gluey, not as easily chewable as I've been reading about. 

Today my bento box FINALLY came in the mail, so I can now do wonderful things for lunch. Tomorrow, though, will be another hectic day as Husband and I pack up to go to IL and see our new nephew.

BUT....

Tomorrow, to give you a hint....is leftovers day. Okay, so that was more than a hint, but still. Leftovers. Mmmm!

No grain of rice will go to waste in this house!

Does anyone have any suggestions for foods to try? My work schedule has been crazy lately, so I feel like I'm in a rut where I just want to make instant Japanese food--the total opposite goal of the blog and the project. Next week, though, I have more time. I hope to make salmon teriyaki and gyoza and leek soup. Things to think about ^_^

-- AlyBear

Days 3 and 4 – A Flavorful Mix of Udon, Sweet Rice, and Failure

So...

Yesterday was post-free. I had to return to work a mere 8 hours after my 12-hour shift, and although I did eat Japanese food, I didn’t post about it. I came home and feel asleep.

Don’t judge. ^_^

But, my Japanese-In-A-Pinch was: udon. Instant udon, too!

I bought these noodles knowing I’d probably need them at some point during the two weeks. Because I like to be well rounded, I packed my little pyrex container with some torn bok choy leaves, shitake mushrooms, nira chives, and diced extra firm tofu. It took me under two minutes to shove that in the container, grab the udon package, and steal some Pocky on my way out the door.

Once it was dinnertime, I pulled my container out of the fridge and added the udon noodles. These noodles are very thick and soft. I love them! I used hot water from our water cooler and continued to cook the noodles in the microwave for a few minutes before adding the chicken broth packet.  The shitake flavor blended with the nira and chicken packet, and the tofu was so creamy…

Instant udon is so simple – like giant ramen!

Once it was all stirred all together, according to custom, I made sure to slurp my noodles.  The girls in the office laughed at me, but they all said it smelled pretty tasty. ^_^

Today, though, has been a small failure. I’ve slept for almost the entire day. Literally.

Sleep….sleep…sleep.

My Japanese cooking has consisted of re-warmed rice with soy sauce and mirin, and some scrambled eggs Husband made me for dinner. Not exactly a culinary feat—but I did eat my rice and eggs with chopsticks.

But! Tomorrow will be better! I’ve planned my meal, and I’m very excited to share. Share my idea, that is. Not my food. Yummmm!

See you soon!

-- AlyBear

MmmMmmFood -- Kani Meshi

 

Today’s dish is a type of takikomi gohan, or rice dish, called kani meshi. Takikomi gohan dishes are made of rice with a soy sauce/dashi base and fish or tofu with seasonal veggies. The dish is named differently depending on what is in it – kani meshi has crab meat as its flavoring ingredient.

It’s MmmmMmmm Good. Just like Campbell’s soup. But with fishy flavors.

^_^

The Technical Details:

At the Asian market, I purchased a little jar of niboshi dashi, or dashi grains made from dried sardine stock. I tried very hard to have an open mind about it, because the Wiki article’s description of how this dashi is made was far from appetizing. So, I tried to visualize the dashi as being happy, dolphin-like sardines swimming around in broth and winking at me every time I look in the pot.

And then I gave up and just dealt with it: the heads and entrails of the sardines are ripped out to prevent a bitter flavor and the empty sardine husks are soaked in water.

Apart from that graphic description, dashi is same thing as granules for chicken or beef soup stock. Add water and go! So simple, and so fishy. But the taste is pretty amazing.  

The Recipe:

For my kani meshi, I used the following:

2 cups cooked rice

1 cup dashi stock

2 tbls soy sauce

2 tbls mirin

1 pkg snack-sized imitation crab, diced

Sprinkled salt

These ingredients have been adapted from kani meshi recipes I found online, so I’m sure there are many other variations. I was mainly drawn to the recipes with mirin because of the sweet taste it adds to soy sauce. I used imitation crab because, let’s face it, I’m cheap.

I also added in some chopped carrots, cucumber (kyuri), and Chinese chives (nira). I topped the dish with some toasted sesame seed and bits of toasted nori. More glamor shots of my finished product:

The Daily Adventure:

This is enough for both my lunch and my dinner, since I’m going to be at work for over 12 hours today. With my kani meshi, I have Pocky, a pluot plum, and green tea.

I know I said I wanted to use unprocessed food as much as possible, but…I love Pocky. So I’ll make an exception. This is Sweet Milk Pocky, and it tastes very rich and wonderful. I still think I like strawberry best. 

Overall, very tasty, but it's 12:30 in the morning, I'm very full, and there's quite a bit of this left. I think I'll have leftovers for breakfast. NomNom. ^_^

-- AlyBear 

Baby Bok Choi Bunny Thief and Bento

Today was my big, travel-to-the-Asian-market-and-buy-stuff day. Husband was super thrilled that I woke up early with an overflowing barrel of energy.

Not. Hee!

Sleepy insomniac is sleepy…but I pulled and I tugged and bribed, and we made the hour drive down to Indy with very little road rage involved.

We went to the market and, I’ll admit it, I felt a little awkward.  Everything was, obviously, listed in another language. While I had definitely done my homework over the last few weeks, that homework was done in the safety and fluffy warmth of my bed with a laptop, not in the middle of a bustling market. I took my time, though, asking the super helpful staff if I couldn’t find something I needed.

I also drug Husband to Meijer and the local Marsh back in Muncie because I wanted to see what the World Foods/Asian sections had to offer back at home base. Surprisingly, there was a decent selection of sauces, noodles, and rice. However, these stores were lacking in some basic flavorings. And I used to think Meijer had everything...jerks.

As you can see from the following pictures, I made a Japanese Cuisine haul. Seriously. Dunno how it all fit in the car. Almost had to leave Husband in Indy to make room:

As you can also see from this picture, we have a baby Bok Choi thief amongst us.  Somebunny wanted to see what was up with all the food on the table:

In addition to these purchases, I’ll be using some of our regular food supplies: chicken, pork, beef, eggs…you know, the boring stuff.  I also got my very own pair of Japanese chopsticks with a beautiful dragon design, and a Bamboo sushi mat.

I’m the master now. Mwahaha.

And, once I got home and took a nap from all that shopping, I set about making my bento for work. I’m working the night shift tonight, and so I was excited for the chance to try making bento.

For this bento, I cooked tonkatsu, a popular dish in Japan made from a breaded pork cutlet. I also made sticky rice in the shape of a panda’s head and used nori (seaweed wrap) to add ears, eyes, and a mouth. For my fruits and veggies, I cut up a pluot plum in a flower shape and used two strips of cucumber as flower stems. Finally, I had a small packet of pocky and a grape-flavored ramune drink. This is what my hard work looked like:

And then I ate it. All of it.  ^_^

I’ve brought some udon noodles with me to work in case I get the 4 am munchies, but I think I’ll save them for later. I leave work at 7am today and will be coming back in at 6:30pm for a twelve-hour shift, so stay tuned to see my Japanese-Cuisine-In-A-Pinch Plan, because I doubt I’ll have time to make anything too extravagant. .

See you tomorrow!

--- AlyBear

NomNom...Food! Japanese Food!

So, starting tomorrow, I embark on my first great food adventure – Japanese cuisine. My goal is fairly simple: for two weeks, I will eat only authentic Japanese food prepared with Japanese ingredients by me, in my kitchen, using traditional methods.  I intend to use food that is as unprocessed as possible; this means I will look for organic and natural ingredients and use fresh fruits and vegetables for most of my dishes.

Well…maybe it’s not all that simple. ^_^ And, you may ask yourself, why would someone who loves cheese and potatoes and instant, throw-it-in-the-oven-and-wait lasagna do something like this?

It’s so simple:

1.     I was recently diagnosed with lactose intolerance and IBS. But, I’m in love with cheese. Like, if a block of cheddar had tried to steal me away from Husband back when we were dating, I’d have done it. But love hurts, and so do I when I eat cheese. So, I need cheese-free recipe options, and Asian cuisine seemed the obvious choice.

2.     I have a family history of colon cancer, as well as several other ailments that can be connected to weight, health, and eating habits—over-consumption of red meat and under-consumption of vegetables being a major problem. Japanese cuisine incorporates a low-fat fat, smaller portion, higher-quality approach to eating that focuses on the seasonality of food products.

3.     I want to see if two weeks of eating unprocessed, healthy food has an impact on my energy levels and my overall health.

4.     I’m bored, and my husband demanded I find a project.  Demanded. He threatened to force me into a craft group or a sewing circle if I did not find something to do with my spare time.

All these things considered, I chose Japanese cuisine over other Asian possibilities because I didn’t want to fall into the trap of ordering Chinese takeout for dinner (that’s what cheaters do!), and because I love sushi. I want to really work hard and cook for this food adventure. And I want sushi. Lots and lots of sushi.

For your reading pleasure, I will update this blog with pictures and thoughtful posts about my adventure each day for the next two weeks. I plan to talk about the recipes I’m making and show off my amateur technique as I go.  Honestly, I’ve been very excited about this project, and I hope to share some of that excitement!

Project starts tomorrow, and so I’m dragging Husband down to Indy. I want to visit the One World Market, one of the closer Asian markets recommended by Wu, a Chinese student in Husband’s graduate program. I’ve begun planning out my meals (because, I mean, I hear udon noodles and nori wrap can be hard to come by in a pinch), and I’m going to stock up on some authentic essentials.

Leave comments, questions, or suggestions about something you’d like to see me try. Suggestions are the best. In fact, I suggest you leave a suggestion. ^_^

-- AlyBear