Archive for January, 2011

Zucchini steak

January 23, 2011 at 5:43 am · Filed under general veggie dish ·Tagged , , ,

Zucchini steak on fish plate

This meal inaugurated an awesome fish dish that we received as a Christmas gift. Although the original intention is for fish, obviously, it works for veggies as well.

First, Yusuke grilled zucchini slices in the oven with black pepper and sea salt.

Meanwhile, he prepared a stir fry with carrots, bean sprouts, finely chopped mushrooms, and sliced white onions with a soupy soy sauce-based mixture.

The zucchini was beautifully arranged on the aforementioned awesome plate and then the sauce poured over.

fish dish

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Extra-special spaghetti

January 19, 2011 at 5:50 am · Filed under pasta & noodles ·Tagged , , , ,

This was a very special Saturday night dinner. All that was lacking was an opera singer belting “o sole mio.”

Yusuke began by preparing a tomato sauce from canned diced tomatoes. According to instructions that he read online, we squished the tomatoes before starting, to great dramatic effect in terms of kitchen splatter. He simmered the tomatoes in a frying pan with a bit of sea salt and white wine. The wine, in fact, was a very little bit, because to our surprise and chagrin, we had nearly run out.

He then added diced eggplant (soaked first to reduce bitterness), chopped mushrooms, and very finely chopped chives.

Next, he sautéed garlic in some olive oil until it was fragrant. Then he added some fresh clams in the shell and the tomato sauce in the pan. The whole mixture simmered until the clams opened. Magic!

The sauce and clams were served over al-dente spaghetti.

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Other gratuitous holiday food pics

January 16, 2011 at 6:30 am · Filed under dessert, general veggie dish, Misc., salad

Here is some stuff that we ate for around Christmas time.

A nice light salad.

Beautiful roasted root veggies. I love you, parsnips.

Turkey. No comment.

Cookies!! Good thing we had some cookie monsters around.

Apple pie, made by mom, photographed by my talented sibling. Click to visit his blog.

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Happy (belated) birthday

January 15, 2011 at 8:51 pm · Filed under dessert

I’m very tardy in uploading documentation of the wonderful pineapple upside-down cake that my mom made for Yusuke’s birthday. It was his first experience with this dessert, and it was delicious.

Just don’t count the candles.

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New Year’s Soba

January 1, 2011 at 5:06 pm · Filed under pasta & noodles ·Tagged , , , , , ,

We had a nice, quiet family New Year’s Eve, made special by traditional New Year’s soba (thin buckwheat noodles).

Yusuke put together his usual soba sauce:

  • soy sauce
  • mirin
  • sake
  • sugar
  • dashi
  • water

The “toppings” were boiled daikon, spinach, and carrots, along with raw white mushrooms. We also had some leftover teriyaki chicken that my mom had prepared. Finally, we had fortuitously procured a nagaimo from a nifty Japanese grocery store in Denver.

“Nagaimo” is literally translated as “thin potato.” I watched a video once about how they are grown; their long shape and tendency to grow straight down makes them quite labour-intensive to harvest. It’s very rare to come across them in Montreal, and they’re usually from China. But we’ve found Japanese-grown specimens a few times in Colorado. Nagaimo is frequently eaten raw. When grated, it becomes incredibly sticky (ネバネバ !) and can be poured over or mixed with noodles or rice. In this state, it’s called tororo. It can also be eaten with things like tuna (check out a description mid-way down this page) or veggies.

The soba-eating procedure is to pour broth in a bowl, add noodles, pile in veggies, mix everything up, and slurp.

Apparently the long, thin shape of soba is lucky for long life, and of course, a happy new year.

Bonne Année, あけましておめでとうございます, Athbhliain faoi mhaise dhuit.

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