"Bon Voyage" Brenda Lunch

Today I had lunch with my good friend Brenda in Millbrae because she's moving to Thailand for 8 months- crazy! She isn't Asian, she doesn't speak the language, and this is a new job... way to go Brenda in jumping out there! Anyway, before she leaves the Bay Area, I had to see her, catch up, and wish her good luck abroad. Hopefully Jeremy and I can make a trip out to Japan as I am hoping, and maybe Brenda can meet us over there- that would be fun and something we have talked about doing since high school :)

So for lunch we went to the Shanghai Dumpling Shop in Millbrae my friend Cindy told me about. Apparently there is a SF branch also, and that shop just so happened to come up in conversation with a few other friends... very strange and coincidental indeed! We ordered some xiao long bao which is something they're known for and some pan fried pork buns. We also got the Shanghai wonton soup and dajanmien (black bean sauce noodles).

Overall, I must say that it was not the best I've had before, but you don't find the xiao long bao in very many places around here so not bad! Everything was good, but not great, thats all. Besides I was going there for the company more than the food. Plus, I didn't know if Brenda wanted Asian since she is going to Asia, but the location was crucial as a place for us to meet somewhere in between and not too far south from her since she has a lot to do before her trip.

Brenda, I'll miss you but be safe and have fun!!

Top 3 Dish Recipes

Thank you to my friends that have commented on my blog along the way! Who knew I had friends that actually read my craziness :) As suggested by Miss Molly, I have decided to pick my top 3 surprise favorite dishes and put the recipes I used here with my slight tweakings. Enjoy!

#3: Mabo Tofu

• Ground beef 70 g
• Ginger (minced) 1 tsp
• Garlic(minced) 1/2 tsp
• Soft tofu 80g- cut into large cubes since they will break apart
  
• Miso 1 tsp
• Soy Sauce 1 tsp
• Brown Sugar 1/4 tsp
• Sake 1 Tbsp
• Dashi 1/2 cup
• Corn or potato starch 1/2 tsp dissolved in 1 tsp water
• Green onions 1 strand chopped for garnish
  

1. Heat a little oil (a little bit of sesame oil enhances flavor), then cook the ground beef, ginger and garlic together. Try to break up the meat pieces.
2. When cooked mix in the ingredients from miso to dashi and distribute flavors evenly. Then add in tofu trying not to mix too much as the tofu breaks apart easily.
3. Add in the corn starch and water mixture and cook a few minutes longer, so that it thickens a little.
4. Turn off the heat, add the green onions, and enjoy with some rice!

#2: Sukiyaki

• Dashi 1 cup
  
• Brown sugar 2-3 Tbsp
  
• Sake 1/2 cup
• Mirin (sweet cooking sake) 1/2 cup
• Soy sauce 1/2 cup
• Water 1 cup

1. Feel free to chop up any vegetables you want to put in! I would recommend Napa cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, firm/grilled tofu, shirataki/konnyaku noodles, and green onions. Don't forget the thinly sliced beef available at asian markets to swish around in the soup as you cook your dinner!
2. Mix those together for the base of the soup. These should heat together to cook the alcohol off (plus it'll cook off while the vegetable are put in).
3. Put the vegetables in and when they're ready to be eaten, start getting vegetables and "shabu shabu"ing the meat!

*Traditionally it is dipped into raw egg (it gets cooked by the heat so not dangerous) but I didn't make my friends do that :)

And now drumroll please...
#1: Nikuman (steamed beef buns):

For the bun:

• bread flour 150g
• all-purpose flour 150g
• sugar 30g
• a pinch of salt
• instant yeast 4g
• baking powder 10g
• milk 40ml
• water 100ml
• butter 15g

1. Mix them all together until it combines and forms a dough. I had to knead it with my hands after the standmixer was finished to bring it all together. Let it rest for 30 min. You can make the meat filling (recipe below) in the meantime.
2. After 30 minutes, break off pieces and roll them out into thin rounds (as round as you can get it) and add the filling. Wrap it up and twist at the top to create a seal.
3. Let it rest again for 15 min.
4. After 15 minutes, steam them for 15 minutes and you're done!

For the meat filling:

• thinly sliced beef- 6 slices - pre flavored with the cornstarch and sake combo below
  
• japanese cooking sake wine 1 TB
• cornstarch 1/2 TB

Mix the cornstarch and sake together to dissolve, then add the meat while you prepare everything else and start adding it in. Mix everything well!

• chinese cabbage about 4 leaves (I cheated and used leftover sukiyaki cabbage with konnyaku noodles since it was already cooked)
  
• garlic 2 cloves, minced
• ginger about half the size of a golf ball, minced
• shiitake mushroom 1/4 cup, sliced
• slight sale and pepper

I hope you guys enjoy! Let me know if you try any of them or if you have any other dish or project suggestions!

Last day!

Today is the last day of the project and I made it! 30 Japanese dishes in 30 days! I had a hard time deciding what to make as my last 2 dishes, and wondered if I should've invited my old roomies over to celebrate the last day, but I was a little too last minute on it. I ended up deciding on shira-ae which I had wanted to make, and the reason I bought my suribachi. I also made crispy rice balls with salmon... and to top things off, I even made mitarashi dango or sweet mochi balls that I love.

Dish 29. Shira-ae- This is one of my favorite light side dishes that my Mom makes so I needed to give it a whirl. It is basically vegetables cooked in a soy sauce, then mixed with ground sesame and "smashed" tofu. It all mixes together to almost make a vegetable dish with a creamy tofu sauce. I know it probably doesn't sound very good and the picture doesn't help its cause either (I forgot to take a picture before I took some on my plate), but if done well, it really does taste awesome! I guess you have to like the taste of tofu though... either way, my version was fine but definitely way below the level of my Mom's shira-ae. Next time I go home I'll have to study up on what my Mom does!

Dish 30. Yaki Onigiri aka Crispy Rice Balls with Salmon- What I did was use the toaster oven to crisp up the rice balls that I had molded with a little soy sauce on the outside. I tried a low heat and cooked it for quite a while, but maybe the best way is to broil it in a short period of time so it really crisps up. In the end, it wasn't too crispy, and the bottom side stuck to the foil when I tried to flip the rice balls. It still tasted good with the salmon and green onions placed on top, but it just was not the same as, say a Gochi, crispy rice ball! I'll definitely have to experiment on that some more to see how I can create it without a nice grill or some special tools.

Bonus Dish: Mitarashi Dango aka little mochi balls with a sweet sauce- This is one of my favorite street food items when I'm in Japan. Little grilled mochi balls on a stick covered with a sweet sauce. I used a mix of mochi flour and shiratama flour to make the little mochi balls. The texture didn't come out perfectly the way I had hoped, but they were still quite tasty. It was actually better when it cooled off rather than right away. I made the sweet soy sauce, but added a little sesame and it made it even better!

Overall, I think the project was great and I can't really believe it is finished. It was a bit anti-climactic tonight since I didn't share it with anyone and the food wasn't fantastic but I did it! Now I'll have to go back through the items that I was good at or that I think would be good items to further experiment on! Wish me luck as I continue on this journey of trying to figure out what would be potential future business opportunities!

2 more days! 2 more dishes!

There are only 2 more days and 2 more dishes to go... I am definitely going to make shira-ae with my new suribachi before this project is done, but what should that last dish be? A dessert or a big BAM! finish dish? Mitarashi dango, a cooked fish dish, miso stir fry... the list goes on... It is also difficult since this week is fiscal year end close which means... unpredictable work hours and a tired Amy that comes home.

I'll have to think a bit but if anybody has good ideas for a simple but exciting finale dish, let me know! Of course I'll need this idea tomorrow or wednesday afternoon at the latest :)

J-Food Day 27: Nikuman and Ginger Potato Beef

I'm blogging on time before bed! Today's food was actually quite exciting and delicious! I decided to make Nikuman, or steamed meat buns, and a ginger potato-beef dish for dinner. For dessert we still had the array of desserts that were in abundance in our home this week!

Dish 27. Nikuman- I had never made steamed meat buns before but I had this odd craving for one so I decided to make it and I'm going to say they were awesome. The bun came out fluffy, soft, and not too sweet, and the filling was

quite tasty also! I followed the bun recipe I found online but tweaked it slightly by mixing different types of flour and decreasing the sugar.

For the meat, I used thinly sliced beef pieces

and actually ended up using the napa cabbage and other veggies that I had from the leftover sukiyaki! The flavors were bold so they worked out perfectly and saved me time- win win! Both Jeremy and I loved these buns. There were 7 made, and only one remains in our fridge... maybe I'll become a bun specialist if they were this good the first time :)

Dish 28. Ginger-Potato & Beef- I used the same thinly sliced pieces of beef, but prepared it ahead of time with a little sake and potato starch to soften it up. I then flavored it with ginger, and added in the potatoes to cook and soften. Once that was done, add a little soy sauce flavor, some green onions and sesame seeds... voila! Simple and tasty! Jeremy and I swallowed this up too, even though my favorite of the night was still the buns! I heart carbs :)

J-Food Day 26: Sushi

I'm one day behind on actually posting my blogs now, but last night was sushi night! I made both nigiri and rolls, yummmmm...

Dish 26. Sushi- Everybody knows I love sushi, so I've made these at home before! Plus growing up, we used to make sushi at home all the time so I've had some practice :) This time we had salmon nigiri and I stepped up the rolls by including salmon, unagi, avocado, cucumber, and shiso leaves. Yummmmmmm... I still have to step up my cutting skills a bit more, but after talking to my Mom a bit about how to cut without squishing the rolls (and not getting a super expensive sushi knife), she gave me some tips and I definitely did better! Jeremy loved them too and we swallowed up all the ones that I made! I would definitely say it was a success :)

J-Food Day 25: Sukiyaki

Yesterday I think was the first time I cooked for a crowd during my Japanese Food Project! I made Sukiyaki for a birthday celebration dinner for me. They gave me a hard time for cooking my own birthday celebration, but given the circumstances, and given how much our friends do for us, this was something I was delighted to do- plus sukiyaki is so easy!

Dish 25. Sukiyaki- For those that don't know what sukiyaki is, it is basically hot pot but with a stronger, sweet soy sauce broth. All I had to do was create the sauce with a mix of mirin, dashi, dashi soy sauce, soy sauce, grated ginger, sake, and brown sugar. Cook it up to let the flavors meld, and add in all the chopped vegetables! The vegetables I included were napa cabbage, enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, green onions, and tofu. We also had thinly sliced beef to "shabu shabu" in, as well as rice and udon as complements for the meal.

There were 6 of us eating; Jeremy and I, the Ls, and the McCarthys at the McCarthy home. We had some edamame as an appetizer, sat with the hot pot in the middle of the table and swooshed our way through dinner! I think this was the first time for all of them with sukiyaki and they liked it, woohoo! I think it's a super easy and fun thing to do with a party, plus it accommodates a lot of different tastes. Who doesn't like sweet soy sauce? Well who in their right mind doesn't like Japanese food is my real question, but then I'm sure Jeremy would tell me I'm biased :)

The other fun part of the evening was the collection of desserts. We brought our package of cookies that I've made throughout this week, the Ls brought chocolate covered macadamias from Hawaii, and the McCarthys provided me with a wonderful pink frosting birthday cake. I got to blow out my Winnie the Pooh, 1 year old(er) candle. What other way would I want to celebrate my birthday than with good friends, good food, good desserts (separate category), and good conversations?