Archive for May, 2013

Wafuu chahan

May 23, 2013 at 7:24 am · Filed under rice ·Tagged , , , , ,

wafuu chahan

Yuuummmmm, these photos are making me drool. This post gets two for good measure.

I’ve labeled the dish わふうチャーハン, that is, Japanese style fried rice (wafuu chahan).

The first step was to soak dried hijiki, a wondrous thin seaweed, kindly sent to us by my mother-in-law in Japan. (I also love kombu, nori, and wakame, but I think hijiki is my favourite.)

Yusuke began the cooking stage by sauteing shredded cabbage and chopped okra with a bit of sesame oil.

He then added the now-soft drained hijiki to the sizzling pan.

After the veggies were cooked, he pushed them to the side of the pan and poured beaten eggs onto the hot surface. After the eggs stared to cook (like an omelette), he added hot pre-cooked rice and mixed everything together.

At the very end, he added some seasoning to taste:

  • sea salt
  • black pepper
  • dashi powder
  • soy sauce

So. Good.

DSC03158

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Avocado/tomato/onion salad

May 19, 2013 at 12:02 am · Filed under salad ·Tagged ,

avocado-tomato-onion salad

This was a lovely raw salad.

The first step was to soak sliced white onions in water to make them a bit less pungent. After a while, the onions were drained and mixed with chopped tomatoes and avocado.

The mixture was marinated in the following:

  • olive oil
  • lemon juice
  • rice vinegar
  • salt
  • pepper

You could also put a bit of sugar or honey if desired, but Yusuke opted out.

Yusuke noted that (as he learned from my mom), soaking avocado in lemon juice and/or vinegar helps it keep its colour and last longer.

He let the flavours percolate for about 30 minutes, but it could’ve gone longer (we were hungry). Very tangy, great with a meal of soup and fried rice (coming soon).

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Wasa-cabba-cado

May 9, 2013 at 8:05 am · Filed under general veggie dish, stir fry ·Tagged ,

cabbage

That is, cabbage and avocado with wasabi. Ok, so the colour in the photo looks rather unfortunate. But this dish was FANTASTIC. Yusuke made it, of course, but I hope to replicate it sometime.

Yusuke began by sautéing garlic until the aroma was released.

He then added strips of cabbage and stir fried them with olive oil.

He then mixed in pieces of avocado (neatly scooped out with a spoon). While much of the pieces stayed in tact, the avocado added a lovely creaminess.

The main seasoning was わさびじょうゆ　(wasabi-jouyu aka wasabi + soy sauce). He squeezed out about 3 cm of wasabi from the tube, mixed it with soy sauce, and poured it into the cabbage. He also sprinkled in a bit of sea salt.

One could also add lime or lemon juice if desired.

YUM.

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Sandrino in Fremantle

May 5, 2013 at 8:40 am · Filed under restaurant

mussels

We finally got around to trying a WA specialty, chili mussels. We made the 40 minute trip to Fremantle one Saturday, arriving precisely in time for lunch. We opted for Sandrino, an Italian restaurant on Market Street. We had most of the sunny patio to ourselves and got to people watch while waiting for our food.

The main attraction was 1/2 kilo of chili mussels. We definitely couldn’t have managed the full kilo! The tomato sauce was fantastically garlicky, with a generous amount of green and red chilis. We ordered extra bread to get all of the sauce. The mussels themselves were very tasty, nearly up to the standard that we sampled in Galway, Ireland.

salad

Our second dish was a smoked salmon salad with spinach, pine nuts, avocado, and most deliciously, roasted pumpkin. Yummmm.

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