Steak Dinner

Okay. Imagine me trying to cook a steak. Well I did. I love steak, and I love them rare, and I would love to know how to cook a good steak myself. They say it all depends on the kind of steak it is, there's rib eye, round eye, top sirloin, strip loin, T-bone, something something and I could never remember which one's the good one when I'm at the grocery store, and I usually go for the cheaper ones as I don't want to ruin a good steak with my terrible cooking, it'd just be a waste. Also they're better on grill, and we don't have a grill at home. I remember someone telling me that since I like it rare I could easily pan-fry the steak a little bit on each side to keep the juices in, then pop it in the oven for a little bit. I've actually never tried it that way. But I have been pan-frying my steaks and they either turn out raw or overdone. I just don't know how to tell how cooked a piece of meat is!!  So for my steak, I usually just season it with salt and pepper and garlic (if I have any). I don't like too much strong flavors overpowering the natural flavor of my steak, that's why I never use any steak sauce or anything like that either. Now I wasn't sure if you were supposed to pound the steak to break the tendons but I did that once and the steak got so thin that it was overcooked really fast, guess I should have known, so I never pound my steak since. I've also added some shrimps and an egg. As you can see the egg was.. what the heck was it?? It wasn't scrambled, sunny side up, or easy over, it was just a pan fried egg. The shrimps, I like cooking shrimps. I always make sure I don't over cook them as it'd make them too dry and hard (learned that lesson), and all I do is pan-fry them in butter if I have some, with garlic if I have some, and always always with black peppers but never salt! I find that shrimps in themselves are already salty enough. So here's my attempt at a steak dinner, and as you can probably tell the steak is more cooked than how I'd like it to be!

Karasumi - Salted Mullet Roe

Here's something you don't see everyday. It's called Karasumi, or mullet roe. It's a delicacy from back home, like I've only remembered eating it once a year or something when I was little, and have only seen it served at weddings. I didn't really know what it is or how it's made except that it's some kind of salty fish roe, so I had to google it and according to our trusted wikiepedia, it is "a food product made by salting mullet roe and drying it by the sunlight [...] it got its name from its resemblance to a block of sumi (ink stick) imported from China (Kara) [...] Karasumi is a high priced delicacy and it is eaten while drinking sake." This is what they look like vacuum-packed, always vacuumed-packed. And to be honest they look more like lungs than ink sticks to me.

When I was little I could only anticipate till my parents decided to buy this delicacy for us, and now that I'm all grown up I can finally buy as much of these as I want and finally realize how expensive these things could be at fifty bucks a piece. So if I was able to purchase them and I want to eat them, I obviously had to learn how to cook them. It's always just been served to me and their before and after don't differ much so I've always thought you could just eat them up like in a microwave or something. Good thing I never actually tired that! I googled it and asked my friends who knew how to cook them and they said to just pan fry them for a couple minutes each side. And there's actually a wrapping that some say to peel off before cooking and some say don't, like my mom, because we don't want to waste any of this delicacy! It's edible I guess, kind of like those they use to make sausages, except these get hard and crunchy once you cooked them.

So they said to eat it with sake. But I'm not a sake person so I've got myself some plum wine instead. Also our way of eating it is to pair it with some raw pieces of daikons (white raddish) and slices of green onions and stack them up like a karasumi sandwich to balance out the saltiness. So here's my attempt at making it. Not bad at all.

Watermelon Slush

So in the summer I went blueberry picking with a friend for his church event. Apparently somebody knows somebody who has like a huge backyard just full of blueberry trees and they don't fertilize them or anything they just let them grow naturally. It's one of those U-Pick blueberries and thanks to the connection they said that we could pick as much as we want (or as much as we could carry) because the rest they'd just get people to come in with huge blueberry picking trackers and take everything. So I picked a lot of blueberries, I mean more than I would probably go out and buy to eat in a year. I'm not a fruit person, I know they're healthy, but I'm picky and lazy. But since these are free and blueberries are good for you, what the heck. So I ate a whole bunch and they would probably go bad before I could finish them all, so I throw the rest of them in the freezer to make frozen blueberries and they are awesome to eat in the summer time!!! Then one day I got thirsty and I thought, why not make a blueberry slushy?? And I did and it was awesome!!! On a side note, I had trouble blending the blueberries and the ice because the ice cubes would just get stuck and wouldn't blend? Apparently you were supposed to put either the ice or the fruit first? And also add some water? See now I forgot again I'm gonna have to figure it out next time.... Ice cubes first or fruit first....

Anyway, off topic. Basically what I'm trying to say is that whenever you get thirsty in the summer time but you are too picky and lazy to feed yourself fruits and you want some delicious organic goodness, make yourself a fresh fruit slushy. I actually do like fruits, I just don't like getting messy eating them. For example, apples. My hands get sticky and I'm left with the core of the apple. Oranges. My hands get sticky too and I'm left with the peel. Bananas, etc. So since the blueberry slushy, I've also made myself a strawberry blueberry, a blueberry watermelon, and basically just whatever fruits I happen to find in our fridge that I could blend into. Wish we had bananas so I could make a strawberry banana shake!! Love those!

So here's a picture of my watermelon slushy, all that was left for me to blend. No need for the recipe, just blend whatever fruits you wanna eat in liquid form and ice and add some water and blend! And do figure out which one you put in first, ice or fruit, sorry I can't remember. And yes it is a beer glass, I just wanted it to look fancy.

Omelette

One of my favorite dish is the egg omelette. I just love all the sausages and mushrooms and peppers, melted in cheese, folded into a hot fluffy egg omelette. The concept is simple: egg batter, cheese, and whatever ingredients you want with your omelette. And I mean I could fry up an egg, it may look ugly but at least it's not burnt. So I thought I would try and make my own omelette! I didn't want to reach too high so I just looked into the fridge and I found some green onions and mushrooms and I went and got myself a bag of those shredded cheddar-mozzarella mixed cheese. I also looked up some recipes and got the jist of how an omelette is made. So here I have it, three eggs batter into the pan, throw in my ingredients, then throw in the cheese and I waited.... As easy as I thought this would be, my eggs ended up being overdone! I was waiting, and then I tried to fold it over in half but the eggs kept breaking apart so I waited longer and I guess I waited a little too long because by the time I folded the omelette it was more like a pancake than a hot fluffy omelette... It was still good, but the overdone omelette gets too much and I had to force myself to finish it at the end and it wasn't enjoyable..

Cold Noodles

So I ran out of udon but I wanted to have some cold noodles so bad. I looked around the kitchen and I found some flat vermicelli and I thought, hmm, these..... should work. You can find these noodles in Asian isles in dry packs. It says vermicelli but they're not like the Vietnamese pho, there are actually several different kinds. There are thin ones where you usually have them stir fried?? with ground pork and mushrooms and shallots, the flat ones that I used I think are usually cooked in soup.

See the difference? Anyway, so I tried cooking and chilling it the same way I did with the udon, but I only had green onions to spare this time, which was fine for me. I also threw in a raw egg because again, I saw on that "Dochi" show the Japanese eat raw egg mixed with rice and it looked good and I don't mind the taste of raw egg, ha! The result was.... not bad, but not as good as cold udon though. And I also found out later that you could eat the egg yolk raw but not the egg white but I forget why...

Cold Udon

Okay. This dish is so easy, anyone can make it without screwing it up!!! Now I know I said I won't post up any recipes but this dish is so easy and delicious that I just have to share it with you guys, in case there are any non-cooks out there like me looking for a quick and easy fix. So basically what you'll need is udon and make sure they're fresh! By fresh I mean the ones you find in frozen isles, not the instant vacuum-packed ones that you find in the dry isles those are gross. Pay a bit extra and you'll taste the difference! Then you'll need instant dashi, they're like the Japanese bouillon cubes but made from bonito (dried, fermented, and smoked skipjack tuna) blah blah blah, anyway, they're for fish stock. Now don't be shy to buy more than you'll need for this dish because trust me you'll add it to pretty much anything for cooking, adds a great flavour. I actually use it a lot even in my cooked vegetables. And you'll also need grated ginger, grated daikon (those big white radish), and chopped green onions.

So cook the udon just like you would with pasta, you don't want to overcook them. I forget how long, maybe like 5-10min in boiling water? I usually take a bite to test the chewiness. Once they're cooked, drain it and run it under cold water, according to my mom it makes them not soggy? We do that with pastas too. Now if you've already got the ginger and the daikon grated and the green onions chopped just leave everything aside for a moment. Dissolve a baby spoonful (?!) of the instant dashi in a bowl (your serving bowl will do if you're only making it for yourself) in hot water, you don't want too much dashi because it's actually pretty condensed, and don't mind the undissolved bits at the bottom you won't notice them at the end.

Now I forget you also needed some ice cubes, it's for chilling the udon. I guess it's not that big a deal but it's just faster and chillier with ice cubes. Just mix the udon in ice cubes till it's chilled. Throw the udon into the bowl with the dashi base, throw on the ginger and the daikon and the green onions and VOILA!!!! Okay that was a lot of bullshit for such simple recipe, here's the shortened version:

fresh udon - frozen ones, not vacuum-packed
grated ginger
grated daikon
chopped onions
baby spoonful (?!) of dashi (Japanese fish stock)
ice cubes (maybe like 6?)

Cook the udon like pastas, make sure it's chewy. Run it under cold water to keep it from sogging up. Dissolve dashi with hot water in the bowl you're going to eat with. Chill the udon with ice cubes (in another bowl if you'd like). Put udon in the dashi bowl, throw on ginger, daikon and green onions. Done.

When you eat it you wanna mix everything up as you go to get all the flavours. And here's mine.

Oyakodon - Chicken and Eggs Rice Bowl

So there was this show in Japan called "Dochi," which means "which one," where two hosts invite several Japanese celebrities, and they proceed to talk about two different dishes with some similarities (ingredients, type of dish, etc.) with visual and physical presentations and step by step process of how it's made with the best quality of ingredients. The celebrities get to decide which dish they would rather have at the end of the show and it's hard because both dishes look so deliciously good, and whichever dish with the most "wants" whoever guessed it get to enjoy it. They have chefs on the show to cook them so this is how I learned it and it's quite simple. I have heard of the dish, but I've never actually had it, and seeing how easy it can be made and how delicious it looks with all the ingredients I like, I thought I've got to try and cook this! Oyakodon (chicken and eggs over rice) basically means "parent-offspring rice bowl." It's nothing nasty because if you think about it, chicken and eggs have the parent-offspring relationship. I even saw a salmon-kodon (I just made up that name) in manga once, with cooked salmon and salmon roe over rice (personally I would prefer salmon sashimi with roes over rice)!! Anyways, so as I was watching the show I jotted down the tools and the ingredients I would need and I guess maybe this was a peasant dish? The tools and the ingredients aren't actually hard to find, any Asian groceries carry them. One of the things I need was this weird pan I think specifically made for this dish.

See oyakodon was basically cooking chicken and onions in bonito soup, throw in the eggs then cover and let it simmer. And the flatness of the pan is so it's easier to slide it onto a rice bowl. Here is a picture of how an authentic, real, restaurant quality oyakodon supposed to look like.

And here's how my oyakodon turned out.......

Not so successful. There was too much soup, eggs over done, too much onions, and not enough flavor in the soup. I tried making it a couple more times afterwards and there was always too much soup, so in the end I kind of gave up and that pan just sits in my cupboard now. Good thing it didn't cost me too much.

Steamed Dumplings

Ever go to dim sum and have one of them juicy hot steamy bite size pork dumplings that come in stacks of bamboo trays? Well these are it, and they come in frozen at most Asian grocery supermarkets, just like the regular dumplings. You can't really go wrong with these steamed dumplings as long as you don't rush cooking them. And anyway you don't really have to steam them, just cover and simmer in shallow boiled water and it'll work its magic! One time I got cocky after I've made them a few times and I was hungry so I turned the stove on HIGH and didn't remember to move the dumplings soon enough to make sure they don't stick (because frozen things stick when you cook them in water) and the bottoms got burnt and they do not taste good burnt! So slow down!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies. Probably one of the easiest baking one can do, but I still seem to be able to screw up on it. I like my cookies chewy and bite size, but mine seem to always come out too thin and burnt and I couldn't figure out why. I mean I followed the recipe to a tee, and I've picked the simplest recipe I could find (I guess even chocolate chip cookies could have a variety!). So in order to achieve the perfect rounded shape of the chocolate chip cookies, I popped them into the oven in the exact size and shape as I would expect them to come out, and you could only imagine the turn out.... Also notice the tray I decided to bake them with. If you're a baker I could already hear the "tsk tsk tsk."

Chicken and Veggies

I actually learned this simple dish from one of my ex. Basically it was just chicken breast with Campbell's cream of chicken or mushroom with some veggies. He showed me how you could just cook the chicken and the veggies in a pan then cover and steam for a bit with the sauce. Simple enough, but sometimes I still overcook the chicken breast and it gets too dry....

Dumplings

One of the easiest dish to cook at home is probably dumplings. Yea you'd think it's easy when all you have to do is throw in the frozen dumplings into boiling water and boil till they float up and they'd be all set to eat! I have done exactly just that one time, pulled out the dumplings only to find them undercooked. So I learned cooking still takes time, not just by the physical reaction of the food.

Here are some pot stickers. Basically dumplings but you simmer them in a pan with some water. And no, it's not as easy as putting dumplings in a pan and simmer them in water, sometimes if the heat is too high the dumplings get burnt (I've done it), or the dumplings apart (I've done it as well) and I'm not sure why... still need to figure that one out.