Posted by: mari | December 3, 2009

Blue Fin Tuna Cutting Performance Report

 

Have you ever seen a large tuna cut in front of you?  I never had, even though I grew up in Tokyo, and went to Tsukiji Fish Market very early in the morning… until last week.

Last Saturday, there was a fresh Bluefin Tuna cutting performance at Mitsuwa Market Place in San Jose.  So I dragged (actually they were excited to join me) my husband, my friend Jan and his son Eryk to Mitsuwa.  This is a highly unusual experience, not too many people, even in Japan has an opportunity to see something like this.

When we got there 15 minutes before noon, there were already quite a bit of audience around the “stage”, where beautiful fresh bluefin tuna (Hon Maguro) lay there quietly…  headless and tailless.

According to the store manager who was an MC, this 450 lbs beauty has just arrived from Spain.

There are many tools they use to cut the beast. (OK, first when it was laying there, it looked like a Spanish beauty, but once it was cut, it looked more like a cow!  Just see through the picture and video.  You’ll agree. No pun intended.) 

Among the things they have ready for probably the biggest sale day of the year (Mitsuwa’s own Black Fri…, um, Saturday), they have all these stickers for fatty tuna and very fatty tuna ready, right in front of us.  This is exciting!

First they cut two jaw part (kama) and auctioned them off. 

 

Video: cutting the kama (jaw part) out, and auctioning it — just like at Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo!

Who wants to buy one?   Had we known Jan would invite 10 people over, we should’ve bought them.  (One small problem…  We didn’t have a big enough grill.)  Some restaurant owners bought them instead.

 

After the kama, they needed to cut the loin part in half with a Samurai sword.  Around this time, I started to think it’s more of a beast, not the Spanish beauty….

Video: Cutting the loin part (Akami = red flesh i.e. Maguro) in half with Samurai sword.

Now the one of the loin is out, three men bring it to the table… 

They will be cut into chunks, then sliced into saku, the thin, rectangular piece of flesh that will be cut into sashimi pieces at home or restaurant.  (See pictures below.)

Then the belly part… Toro.  By this time, I’m totally thinking this is beef.  Doesn’t it look like one?

Once the tuna’s bone is exposed, now the women come out to scrape the meat around the bone, called Naka-ochi (middle scrapings).  Only men do the (showy?) cut, only women do the (not-so glamorous?) scraping…  Very Japanese, yet I didn’t notice until my American husband pointed it out. 

The loin that were cut in chunks are sliced thinner, and into rectangular shape, and made into saku…  Lots of them.

Once an MC, now back to the store manager, he’s busy doing whatever needed to be done to sell these highly valued (and priced accordingly) delicacy.

Chu-toro (Fatty tuna).  They were sold at $50/lb.   For something that has been just cut in front of your own eyes, it’s not a bad price (especially if I compare with what I would have to pay in Tokyo… or at our favorite sushi restaurant!

These are o-toro (very fatty tuna).  It almost look like beef…  perfectly marbled Kobe beef (top) or bacon (middle).

Monstrous bone from the gigantic tuna. The red flesh still on the bone is further scraped (by women, of course) and sold as naka-ochi.

Naka-ochi.  Since the fish is so big, even the scraped flesh is pretty substantial.  It was soooo delicious!

My dear friend Jan got so excited, he invited 10 of his friends right from the store, well before everything was over (actually more like “as soon as they started cutting the kama”.  To my surprise, pretty much everyone happened to be at home, and they joined us at Jan’s house for a major “After-Thanksgiving” feast. 

I’ll report about that later.

So… what do you think?

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Posted by: mari | December 1, 2009

Kitchen Tip du Jour: Do the Math on Paper First When Multiplying a Recipe

Do you ever need to double, triple or make it half or one third of a recipe?  If so, read on…  It could be your life saver (or at least your dinner saver!)

When you are following a recipe, and need to change the portion, don’t do the math in your head.  Write it down — ideally right next to the original volume of each ingredient, and how many serving it is for.  If you cannot write it down next to it (say, it’s your friend’s cook book, the recipe is online and your printer is broken, etc.), then at least write down the original measurement on a piece of paper, and write down the multiplier and do the math.

For example:

Original recipe  2 servings                          Your portion: 6 servings (6/2=3 is the multiplier.)

1 Egg                                             X3                  3 Eggs

4 oz flour                                    X3                  12 oz flour

2/3 cup water                          X3                  6/3 cup = 2 cups water

As you can see, especially when you have to deal with 3 (especially 1/3) it gets complicated. 

This is even more true when you are using a recipe from a different country — meaning those who uses metric system.  Since I grew up in Japan with metric system, I used to get confused with American measurement of oz and pounds often, resulting in quite a bit of frustration and less than perfect dishes.  Once I start writing them down, all I need to do is just to follow that amount.  Believe me, do the math first, then cook is so much easier than trying to do the math as you prep and cook! That kind of switch-tasking or multi/tasking end up costing you a lot of time.

So rather than trying to save time and end up with huge frustration and disappointment (and an inedible dish), take time to do the math on paper first when changing th portion of a recipe.  And as always, when adding stronger flavored ingredients and seasoning, taste as you add them gradually.  The same is true for liquids (water, broth etc.)

The biggest bonus: By writing down the convenient portion for yourself directly on the recipe, you will save the time to do the math next time!

So just remember to write them down!

Do you have any kitchen tips that help you save time and frustration? Look forward to hearing your tips in the comment section!

PS: This hold true for most of the things, especially for cooking that doesn’t require much chemistry or precision, yet not EVERYTHING is multiplied ie oil, salt, baking soda, baking powder.  Thank you Sam, for pointing that out.

  If you are cooking for a crowd, this resource gives you further details about super-sizing a recipe. 

 Another resource about reducing a recipe portion.  This one also talks about cooking time difference, etc. 

As a rule of thumb, the cooking time is affected by the type and size of the pan (esp. the bottom surface) heat, how much moisture the food cooked has etc. so it’s best to determine how much longer you need to cook by the look, smell and taste/texture.  Remember, a recipe is a guideline, not rules.

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Posted in Fast and Easy, Kitchen Tip du Jour, Time-saving Tips, tricks - batch | Tags: , , , ,

Posted by: mari | November 24, 2009

The World’s Easiest Cranberry Relish Your Family & Guest Will Love

One of the (very few) dishes my husband taught me is a Thanksgiving side-dish recipe that has been handed down from his grandma Henrietta.  She passed long before we got married, soＩnever had the honor of meeting her nor eating her dishes.  However, her husband – Keith’s grandpa – Park who lived till 101 told me how great of a baker Hanky (that’s what he called her) was, and excruciating details of her German cakes which he missed dearly.

This is actually a very simple cranberry relish recipe using a box of jello, yet the power of this should not be underestimated. It is very refreshing, and can double as a dessert. Both children and adults love it alike.  On top of that, it’s healthy — it has a lot of fruits such as apples, pears and oranges, in addition to cranberries, and doesn’t require cooking – I can say this is highly optimized. And it’s bright red, it’s festive and surely adds color to the table. If you have a food processor, it’s super easy.  It requires all familiar ingredients that are really cheap! Probably the most exotic and expensive ingredient is cranberries.

Whenever we make it, people always ask for the recipe and nowadays it became so famous, we get Thanksgiving invitations with the requests for this.

So I decided to post the recipe on my blog. My husband first resisted — “Nooo! It’s MY family’s secret recipe!”.  But those who eat it always ask for this recipe! And I grew up in Japan where’s there’s no traditional Thanksgiving celebration, I needed this for my readers!  So I asked “Wouldn’t it be great if your grandma’s recipe is enjoyed by more people in the world, not just by your immediate family?”

So here it is.  Kitchen Wizard is revealing another cooking secret, this one from her extended family.

Grammy Hanky’s Cranberry Relish

Ingredients:

  • 1 Small box of red jello (we like raspberry. Strawberry is a bit too sweet.)
  • 1 cup hot water (Do not add the second of batch of water, which is suggested on the box.)
  • 1 bag cranberries
  • 2 large oranges, peeled and segmented
  • 2 large apples, cored and cut in bite size pieces
  • 2 large pears (should be relatively firm), cored and cut into bite size pieces

Directions:

  1. Mix jello with hot water to dissolve. Put bit-size pieces of fruit in the food processor and pulse several times to grind roughly to about 1/4″ cubes or smaller.  Make sure the cranberries are ground up well — if they are not, it could be tart.  Depending on the size of your food processor, you may need to do it in two batches.
  2. When the jello is room temperature, add all the fruit including its juice. Mix well.  Chill in the refrigerator until set. (Because of the amount of fruit, it may not set completely.)

We love serving it with turkey in place of regular cranberry sauce or relish, or you can eat it as dessert as well, with or without whipped cream. We normally make a double batch, using the large jello box, and using 1/2 – 2/3 for the actual Thanksgiving, and save the rest for us to eat later.

Oh, this is also great when you are sick! When I had flu and pneumonia 2 months ago and didn’t want to eat, I asked my husband to make this, and I ate it everyday.

So there you have it.  Try it and leave me a comment on how you and your guests loved it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Posted in Dessert, Fast and Easy, Healthy eating, Recipe, Vegetarian, cooking, food, healthy, tricks - batch and fridge | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: mari | November 17, 2009

(Almost) Less Than 5: Sautéed Eggplant with Miso

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Sauted Eggplant with Miso

Many years ago, my fridge (or especially freezer) looked like a morgue.  No more. Ever since I started Kitchen Wizard, my kitchen is a lot more organized and that has helped me decide what to cook much quicker, and also reduced waste significantly.

They all have the labels with dates and contents, I know exactly what I need to use up soon, and for what.

Today, that item was grilled eggplant.  As some of you older readers remember, I posted a series of eggplant recipes over the summer. Throwing eggplants on the grill whether we plan to eat on that night or not, along side our chicken and sausages is a must for us, because they are one of the most convenient and versatile thing to have on hand. As the day gets colder and shorter, we don’t grill out much, but they are still handy in fall and winter too – for different dishes.

So I decided to make an easy Japanese dish that can be made with pantry items.  This really is a cinch if you already have grilled or sautéed eggplants (ideally cooked in vegetable oil, not olive oil). Obviously, grilled eggplants are healthier – it uses much less oil and salt.  You can also stick the whole eggplants in the toaster oven until soft. You can use a conventional oven too, yet a toaster oven heats much quicker (doesn’t require pre-heating), plus uses much less energy.

If you are vegetarian/vegan, omit the meat or chopped shiitake mushrooms as substitute.

Sautéed Eggplant with Miso

Ingredients (2-3 servings):

  • Ginger, sliced: about 1 ts
  • Green onions, chopped: about 3
  • Crushed chili (optional)
  • Japanese, Chinese or Italian Eggplants: (ideally already grilled) 5-6
    • This is a cinch if you have already grilled or sautéed eggplants. Cut in bite size pieces. You do not need to peel skin for this dish.
  • Ground meat: 4oz (100g)
  • Sake: 2 TBS (sprinkle 1 TBS on the meat, mix 1 TBS into miso to create paste.)
  • Soy sauce: 1 ts
  • Sugar: pinch
  • Miso: 1 – 2 TBS

Directions:

  1. Heat oil in a skillet. Cook sliced ginger and green onions (and chili, if you are using) on medium-high heat until fragrant. (If you don’t have cooked eggplants, add oil and sauté sliced eggplants. Add a little bit of salt to shorten the cooking time).  When soft, move toward the edge of the pan.
  2. If you have the cooked eggplants, add to the onion ginger mixture. Add ground meat and any sake residue, and cook until brown.
  3. Add soy sauce and pinch of sugar, and mix in the miso/sake mixture. Taste and adjust seasoning.  Serve hot with steamed rice.

Kitchen Wizard Leftover Make-Over Tip:

If there’s any left over, add hot water and miso and make eggplant and ground meat miso soup.  Add extra green onion on top.

This is a kind of dish they serve at Izakaya as well as at home in Japan…  So maybe you should have some beer or sake with this, and pretend that you are in Japan!

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Posted in Dinner, Fast and Easy, Healthy eating, Leftover Make-over, Recipe, Vegetarian, cooking, food, healthy, lunch, time-saving | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: mari | November 13, 2009

Foodbuzz Blogger Festival 2009 Report: Part 3 (Nov 7, Saturday Evening)

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My third post from Foodbuzz Blogger Festival is the recap from the Feast and Award Ceremony held at Greenleaf Produce Warehouse in the Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco.

As soon as we walked into the building, we were greeted with fabulous glass(es) of wine from Bonny Doon.

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Also awaiting us was a cornucopia of seasonable vegetables… This will be great!

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Foodbuzz has teamed up with the crew from “Outstanding in the Field” to bring us an extraordinary evening of dining in an urban, farm-to-table setting.  Look how long our community table is…  unbroken for 250+ people!  If you need to go to the bathroom, you have to go to either end, unless you are smart enough to sit on the bathroom side, right next to the stairs leading to it, like me. (It wasn’t on purpose.)

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The Leftover Queen, Jenn DiPiazza and Yours Truly, the Leftover Wizard, Mari Suzuki. (Could be the url for my next site?)

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My name tag was flipped backwards many times, and people chuckled about me being “well-prepared” with a packet of Alka Seltzer…  just in case! (In case you are wondering…  I didn’t need it, because the dinner was much lighter with more vegetables and seafood. )

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Taste of fall…  Variety of Japanese mushrooms in beautiful wooden bowls waiting for hot dashi for our first course.

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We mingled around the entrance area with a glass of Bonny Doon wine. This area is also the starting point of the long snaky community table.  Wonder how long it was…  Notice the boxes of produce on the top left side. 

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Chef Dennis Lee of Namu Restaurant near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco  has sourced local, organic produce as well as sustainable and pasture-raised meats to create a spectacular seasonal menu with traditional Korean influence.  Therefore, the first to appear on our table was picked vegetable platter, including familiar kimchi, as well as pickled broccoli and greens.

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A few words from our hosts tonight from Greenleaf Produce warehouse, Outstanding in the Field and Foodbuzz before dinner started.

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Our first course, Mushroom dashi, maitake, shimeji, enoki mushrooms.  It reminded me of osumashi (meaning clear) dashi broth I often have back home in fall… It was very soothing on a cold evening, especially after a huge meal the night before.  The chef used a very small amount of picked vegetables (the white triangular thing floating in the photo) that added a nice citrus-y flavor to the broth.

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Psshhhhhhhh!!  They even brought us their own sparkling water with a pressured bottle.  Fun!

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Just like at a Japanese homes, they only gave us chopsticks.  Alexa from Foodbuzz told me that they had brought in forks and knives just in case, yet I didn’t see anyone with them. (Thank God, it was Japanese style chopsticks which are made of wood, and rather short.  The kind they use at Korean restaurants are often metal and super heavy, and those at Chinese restaurants are super long and slippery, both too hard to use even for a native Japanese who grew up with them!)

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Our second course: Udon, grilled Monterey calamari in a browned butter ponzu reduction, cucumber, kaiware, frisee & yellow pear tomato with chojang & semame vinaigrette.  Cold and refreshing, this is perfect for summer, or for my lunch, anytime!  The calamari were sweet and perfectly cooked.  The vinaigrette seemed to be very similar to the juice from kimchi, so I’ll definitely make it when I buy a jar of kimchi! (I love leftovers! Even the brine of the picked things! Leftovers ROCK!  Right, Jenn?)

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Third course: (according to the menu):  Sea trout baked with dashi kombu, fried garlic and Japanese curry powder. 

Now, we found it was actually salmon.  And I don’t know if it was baked with dashi kombu.  Not only I didn’t see it, I didn’t taste it either.  Maybe because of the super generous size, it was almost raw inside, and under-seasoned for the size of the fish.  Given that I was born and raised in Japan, and my sushi in-take has significantly decreased due to the economy, I was gladly finishing up the quite a large amount of fish left on the plate, but many diners decided not to finish. Clearly, the disappointing dish of the evening.

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On the other hand, we loved Mushroom risotto with Koshihikari rice, crispy maitake mushrooms.

The risotto was creamy and the fried maitake was like umami bomb! The portion was a little too small for all 8 of us, especially since many didn’t eat much salmon, 2 people didn’t get any. Luckily, the wait stuff granted our wish for a little more.

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Fourth course:  Roasted brussels sprouts, ponzu fried garlic, guanciale, bonito flakes. 

This was clearly the huge winner!  Everyone couldn’t stop talking about it, even well after dinner.  For some reason, the table next to us didn’t finish, so we were treated with extra.  Sweet! 

These cream-colored shavings that looks like grated Parmigiano Reggiano is actually bonito flakes which we Japanese use often for everyday cooking (but not much so in Western dishes.)  My guess is not only garlic, but brussels sprouts also got some treatment with ponzu (which also a staple in a Japanese kitchen including mine).  Expect me to make a similar dish for Thanksgiving and beyond!

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The main – Soy braised beef cheeks and oxtails, baby carrots and fingering potato, OB Beer and denjang demi. 

This was quite good, especially the tender cheeks…   Again, the next table left quite a bit on the plate, so we took a liberty of finishing them all for them.  On a side note – I loved these people who shared our area!  I didn’t even have to be the one who initiates with ”Hey, there a lot left on their plate and they seem to be done.  Shall we take it?”

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Ben Dehan, the founder and CEO of Foodbuzz.

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Staff from Foodbuzz, Greenleaf Produce and Outstanding in the Field who collaborated and worked hard to make this evening a huge success!

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And over dessert of Koshihikari rice pudding, cookie crumble and Frog Hollow Farm’s Warren pear, the winners of the 2009 Foodbuzz Blog Award was announced.

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Thank you, chefs for the delicious food!

It was such a special evening, it was very sad that it came to an end…   To me, this meant the end of this year’s festival, because I needed to attend another food related event at UC Berkeley (“The Gastronomic Influence of Japanese Hybrid Food”, obviously very important subject for me) on Sunday morning.

Thank you everyone at Foodbuzz, Outstanding in the Field, Greenleaf Produce Warehouse, Namu Restaurant, Bonny Doon Vineyard and Frog Hollow Farm, and Chef Ian from Hog Island, and everyone else who was helping to make this event a huge success!

And of course, all other sponsors, participants who provided amazing food, drinks, venues and services!  You all are amazing!

Last but not least, thank all the bloggers from around the world for the opportunity to share our passion of food! I really enjoyed meeting with you all, and can’t wait to see you again soon!

If any of you wants to experience this, it’s highly recommended.  Start writing a food blog regularly, and become a featured publisher of Foodbuzz. This certainly was the best decision I made this year!

Next week…  We go back home to the home cooking.  Something easy, healthy and tasty.  How about some Japanese dish you can make with familiar ingredients?

So stay tuned…

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Posted by: mari | November 11, 2009

Foodbuzz Blogger Festival 2009 Report: Part 2 (Nov 7, Saturday Afternoon)

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The Day 2 of the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival started with the feeling of overindulgence…  I thought I didn’t eat too much, yet if I put all I ate last night side by side, it probably was a lot more than usual.  Sometimes I get too excited in the sight of good food, especially when I didn’t have to pay, and forget the fact that I’m not in my 20s (nor in 30s) any longer.

With my strong commitment not to overeat, and a packet of Alka Seltzer sneaked in my name tag (the best antidote for over-indulgence, both food and drink, in my opinion), I ventured again to downtown San Francisco.  The afternoon event was called “The Taste Pavillion”, and have over 50 of Foodbuzz’s favorite producers, brands, wineries and chefs share their fabulous creation with us…  I was excited with somewhat shaky confidence not to over-eat, because this is from 12:30 and 3:30, and the dinner is from 6!

The first taste for me was Tri to cook’s  “Savory Pumpkin Bread Pudding” (photo above).  It was one of the winner for the Nature’s Pride Recipe contest.  She used only 1/2 cup pumpkin and 1/4 lbs of chicken sausage for 2 1/2 cup of bread, so the result was subtle yet really delicious. I highly recommend this recipe.  One of these things I need to recreate for my poor husband who didn’t get invited (again).  Luckily, I have some pumpkin and chicken sausage in the fridge! This will be great for holiday party as well.

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The second, which is also from another winner was Ravenous Couple’s “Fried Halloumi Cheese Toast“.  I rarely eat Halloumi cheese, yet this was quite yummy, and super easy to make, so next time I go shopping, I’ll be putting in a package of Halloumi in my basket!  This will be perfect for healthy holiday party appetizer, as well.

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Oh, yes!  Seafood!  We didn’t have any last night except for the oysters, so I was really excited! You have to give me a credit for asking for the smaller version, shown above. (I forgot who this was from… Sorry…)

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Chad Gillard from Aunt Else’s Aebleskiver (Danish round pancake). Chad and I had a very good conversation about what else we could use these pan for — of course, giant takoyaki!  I was so excited about this, end up spending my entire yoga class on Monday thinking about all different usages and recipes for this.

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Mezzetta had some interesting cocktails made of red pepper and strawberry.

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Beer Braised Frank Steak on Garlic Polenta (Mezzetta).  The bigger one is normal portion, the little one is for me. This was quite yummy, I wanted to ask for more, but more tables in sight to visit stopped me.

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Tomato Soup also from Mezzetta. It’s very pretty and festive for holiday parties.  Parmesan crisp was really yummy, yet the soup tasted as if I was drinking tomato sauce. I would’ve liked it better if it was less tomato-ey.

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Sajen JAMU turmeric and ginger-turmeric drink.  It may sound weird to some, but they were both very refreshing and delicious! Perfect after (almost) over-indulgence!

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A chef (sorry, forgot which restaurant he’s from) drizzling fennel oil (I think), on his dainty creation. I thought it was smoked salmon with cream, but it’s actually cubed beets with meringue.

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Kerry Gold Irish Butter and Cheeses.  They had 4 different kind of cheeses – Dubliner with Irish Stout, Aged Cheddar with Irish Whiskey, Ivernia, and forth one???  Probably Reicester? All of them were really, really really good! (Yes, another thing I love about Ireland!)

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Another perfect appetizer from “Made in Napa Valley” Autumn Savory Tartlets. Since I was on a “diet”, I asked for the filling only… It was really delicious, especially the Creme Topping made with their Vineyard Pantry Blue Cheese Mustard and Gorgonzola cheese! I think both the sauce and filling can be Kitchen Wizarded into many different dishes… I can’t wait to experiment!

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Lots of fancy chocolate…

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Iron Chef Morimoto has his own beer now. Brewed by Rogue Ales, he has 3 soba (buckwheat) ales. My favorite? Black Obi … taste a bit like Guinness.

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I caught Doug Collister, VP Operations from Foodbuzz when he was sneaking out of the venue with a loaf of Nature’s Pride bread in his hand and a bottle of wine in his back pocket!. These people working for Foodbuzz are most fun, gracious people. It must be a fun place to work for! I feel honored to be associated with as one of their Featured Publisher. (That’s how I get invited to all these fun events and dinners you read about.)

Ahhh…  Looking at these pictures makes me hungry…  

It was such a fun event.  I’m not on my temporary “diet” any more, I want to go back to Metreon and try all these food again…  Maybe in my dreams, or by recreating those I loved.  My husband and friends won’t complain with the latter option!

To be continued to Foodbuzz Blogger Festival 2009 Report: Part 3 (Nov 7, Saturday Evening). (Another) amazing dinner at Greenleaf Produce Warehouse and Blogger Award Ceremony…

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Posted by: mari | November 10, 2009

Foodbuzz Blogger Festival 2009 Report: Part 1 (Nov 6, Friday Evening)

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Last weekend, I attended Foodbuzz’s First Blogger Festival.  We had 250 fellow bloggers from all over the US and several people even came from other countries, and get to spend the weekend with lots of great food, drinks and friends!

The photo on top is the view from  the rooftop terrace of Hotel Vitale, where we had a welcome reception, mingling with fellow bloggers.  I’ve been living in San Francisco Bay Area for 13 years, but boy, what a welcoming view!

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Then at 7pm, we moved to the Ferry Plaza for “Taste of San Francisco Street Food Fare”. Here’s Chef Ian Marks from Hog Island Oyster Company shucking away these pristine oysters, while answering questions. (They have twice a week Happy Hour (Mon & Thurs 5-7pm, so if you are in San Francisco, don’t miss it!)  Their oysters are so good, my friend Elizabeth’s mom and brother ate 6 dozen each! (not at the festival, thank god!)

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This is San Francisco, so we gotta have something vegan AND raw!  Creation by Chef Leland Jung of Alive.

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Checking out all the food options….  Everything looks good…

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This was one of the most popular… Porchetta sandwich from Roli Roti.  These people seem to have several trucks and hit various farmers’ market throughout the Bay Area.

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For those of you who are thirsty, and want something nonalcoholic, they had variety of tea from Ito-en.  The green one in the middle is something I’m very familiar with in Japan.  The US version looks exactly the same except they have this “Oi Ocha” written at the bottom.  They were perfect to wash out the fat from all these yummy food… (The same concept with dim sum and tea.)

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Lots of people, lots of fun.  These people also love to talk about food all day long, and they are not afraid to stop the conversation to say “Excuse me, I need to grab that!”, just like me!

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Porchetta getting grilled for sandwich.  The fat drips down to season the potatoes…. Yum!  Many people found this sandwich out of this world.  Warning: This sandwich is very rich.  I asked for a 1/4 and couldn’t even finish.

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Very tasty potato and chorizo taco from Tacolicious.  Even though I was overly full at this moment, it’s my favorite combination, I had to have it.  Unlike the sope version at Tacubaya in Berkeley,  this is much lighter and less greasy. I loved Tacolicious version even better. Oh, and the mild green salsa was spectacular! They also had short-rib taco (looked amazing), and black-eyed peas for vegetarian folks.  I need to go back to the Ferry Plaza soon for more, soon.

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And last but not least…  Strauss Family Creamery Ice Cream.  We got to taste both vanilla and coffee, and both were delish! I was worried that it may be too heavy, but it wasn’t… Probably one of the best ice cream I’ve had..  Organic and Kosher.

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These are the gifts we got from our sponsors! I’m so excited to cook with them!

Thank you the FoodBuzz team and our generous sponsors for the great evening!

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Posted by: mari | November 9, 2009

And Finally… Doria Proper Way… (In Case I haven’t Convinced You…)

"It's Not (Only For) Bleeding Chowder! It's Seafood Doria Now!"

"It's Not (Only For) Bleeding Chowder! It's Seafood Doria Now!"

To show you that you can make some doria with white sauce leftover (or from scratch), here’s the recipe to make some doria proper way.  Of course, you can make this into a vegetarian version by using things like spinach, cauliflower, asparagus, etc.

Do this when you have time though… It takes a while…

Doria Proper Way…

Ingredients (2-3 servings):

  • Cooked rice: 2 cups
  • Butter: 1 TBS
  • Onion, chopped: 1/2 cup
  • Chicken or shrimp, bite size: 1/2 lbs (200 – 250g)
  • Mushrooms, sliced: 5-6 (Optional)
  • White Sauce:
    • Butter: 3 TBS
    • Flour: 3 TBS
    • Milk: 3 C
  • Grated Cheese, gruyere, cheddar, etc: 2 oz (50g). If using Parmeggiano Reggiano, grate with Microplane, you’d only need about 1 oz or less.
  • Panko (optional), 1 TBS
  • Salt and Pepper

Directions:

  1. Make buttered rice. Melt butter in a skillet, sauté day old or thawed rice, season well. Many dorias in Japan has ketchup mixed in.
  2. Sautee chopped onion or leek until soft. Add seafood (shrimp is most popular) or bite-size chicken & sliced mushrooms. Season with Salt and Pepper.
  3. Make white sauce: Heat butter in a skillet, add flour and stir well until it’s cooked. Add heated milk, whisk consistently, and cook until thickened, and there’s no lumps nor floury taste. Season with salt and pepper. Add the seafood/chicken mixture.
  4. In shallow oven proof dishes, layer buttered rice thinly & lightly (2/3 – 1″), and pour over the white sauce. Top with grated cheese (and panko if you like), and bake until golden brown.

Kitchen Wizard Tips:

  • Grate extra cheese, and save it in a sealed container.  Use it when you make pasta, soup, salad, toast, etc.
  • Make extra white sauce, cover it with plastic wrap on top, squeeze the air out completely to prevent thick skin from forming.  Use it for something else later. Huge time saver!

As you can imagine, you could make this with short pasta instead of rice. Then it’s simply called “gratin” in Japan as well. In this case, you should mix the cooked pasta with heated sauce (or chowder) first, and top it with more sauce, before adding cheese.  It tastes better that way, than biting into bland pasta.

Now I figured out a quick way to make a decent doria, I can guarantee we’ll see them on our table more often.  I may even serve it to our guests and see if they can figure out how I made it.  : )

Try both, and please post which one you liked it.

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Posted in Dinner, Leftover Make-over, Recipe, Vegetarian, brunch, lunch | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: mari | November 6, 2009

Leftover Make-over: Chowder to Doria 3: “It’s Not Only For Chowder! It’s For Seafood Doria Too!”

"It's Not (Only For) Bleeding Chowder! It's Seafood Doria Now!"

"It's Not (Only For) Bleeding Chowder! It's Seafood Doria Now!"

As I mentioned on Monday, as I was enjoying this creamy yumminess of “Not Bleeding Chowder!” inspired seafood chowder, I realized this smoked-fish-less version would be also good to be turned into a doria, a quintessential Japanized yoshoku (western food).

It’s basically some buttered rice in a heatproof dish with white sauce with some kind of sautéed meat or seafood with onion (chicken and shrimp are popular) and baked with lots of cheese on top.  Something I loved as a child when I was growing up in Tokyo, along with the macaroni version which we simply called them “gratin”.

Since my mom never wanted make something complicated, nor white sauce, for me they were something I’d order when we go out to eat.  To give her some slack, to make doria from scratch, it takes more than 1 hour, and you have to deal with making white sauce.  And the challenge is, there are no dorias in the restaurants in the US!

Because of that, I, too probably made it only a few times in last 20 years, which equals the number of times I ate doria, because they are nowhere to be found in the US (except for, of course, these Japanese Yoshoku restaurants in Los Angeles.  A bit too far!)

Now with my “It’s Not Only For Bleeding Chowder!”, it can be for doria too.  Very easily.  Especially if you have some of these rice balls in the freezer.  If you do, microwave it first so that butter will melt.  As I confessed in my last post, this is a super-short cut version.  I will post the proper way to make a doria on my next post.

Seafood Doria

Ingredients (2-3 servings):

Directions:

  1. Mix butter into hot rice and season well.
  2. Pour seafood chowder on top of buttered rice.  Then top with grated cheese.  Optionally, sprinkle with some panko.
  3. Bake in 400F oven until bubbly and golden brown. (If both the rice and sauce are hot, you can broil it in the oven or “Toast” setting on toaster oven until golden brown, about 7-8 min.)

Yummy doria in 1/3 of the effort and time! I love it!

The next post…  Another way to make doria, another useful trick when you already have sautéed chicken or shrimp, or white sauce. Or if you are in a mood to make this from scratch.  Also few key time-saving tips, so that even if you make this from scratch, you can still optimize and save time and effort later.

Yes… Kitchen Wizarding is all about optimizing your resources (time, money, ingredients, etc…) in the kitchen.  Maximized food with minimized effort.

So stay tuned.  You can subscribe to Secrets of Kitchen Wizard via email (best in my opinion), RSS or Facebook Networked Blogs application.  Click the link from the top right of the page, right below the red pots on the header photo.

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Posted in Dinner, Fast and Easy, Leftover Make-over, Recipe, Vegetarian, brunch, lunch, time-saving, tricks - batch and fridge | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: mari | November 5, 2009

Kevin Dundon’s “Duncanon Seafood Chowder” Recipe (Basically “It’s Not Bleeding Chowder” from Raglan Road”)

OH MY GOD!  OH MY GOD!  OH MY GOD!

This morning, I got a comment on my blog from Kevin Dundon, THE chef who created the “It’s Not Bleeding Chowder” who cooked for U2, about my post! 

He commented,

I am delighted that you are featuring my recipe on the your web site for more recipes checkout http://www.kevindundon.com

Good Eating

Kevin

To someone like me who loves to cook, loves to eat good food, plus loves everything Irish -especially cute, talented, smily Irish men, it was like the real GOD talking to me!

Can I say it again?  “Oh my God!”  It’s like my prayers answered.  My Irish God is smiling down at me!

As you can imagine, in my mind, I hear Bono singing away “It’s a Beautiful Daaaaaaaaay!”, and also “When Irish Eyes are smiling”.  I told you, I love them both.

I’m very excited, honored, astonished…. and a bit embarrassed.  So THE Kevin Dundon saw my picture? (Compared the one on his site, it looks shabby…)  He even saw my recipe? The cabbage comment?  And I wrote “fish stock or CHICKEN stock” to make it more accessible?  Geez.  

I might take that Chicken broth out and change to water, since the God said fish stock or water.  And take the cabbage comment out….  Make the real version with more seafood with shells and replace the photo…  And now to think about it, I think the version we ate at Raglan Road might have had fennel infused broth and cubes of fennel in it.  I forgot about it…  It’s nearly 2 years ago, and my memory is fading! I’m not 25 any more!

But he’s the best chef in Ireland who can charge a lot of Euros for his creations. On top of that, he cooks for people like U2 and Queen Elizabeth!  On the other hand, I was just trying to translate my memory of that tasty creation to an everyday table, easily.

It’s time to shut up my evil little voice.

Anyway, maybe it was your prayers too…  On his website, there is a recipe for “Duncanon Seafood Chowder” which is basically the same with Raglan Road’s “It’s Not a Bleeding Chowder!”

So here it is. Kevin Dundon’s real seafood chowder recipe.  Enjoy!http://www.kevindundon.com/duncanonSeafoodChowder.html

Me? Of course I’ll make the God’s real version soon!

When I do that, I will add more seafood with shells to include a photo of a more impressive chowder on this post.  (I can’t copy and paste that beautiful photo from his website, you know?)

Oh, and for those of you who have been waiting for the doria recipe, don’t worry, I’ll post it tomorrow.  I just wanted to share my excitement, and his recipe with you. : )

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Posted in Dinner, Recipe, Soup, brunch, lunch | Tags: , , , , , ,

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