More Fake Japanese Food

One more delicious Japanese endeavor-






Ebi Furai (sound this out; it's Ebi Fry, meaning Fried Shrimp. They're super clever, the Japanese)

Ingredients:
- 1 lb of de-veined shrimp
- Panko Bread Crumbs
- Egg whites
- Flour
- Salt/Pepper/Chili Powder to taste
- Oil to Fry

How To:
1- Mix the salt, etc. in with the flour. Just enough to taste. I add Cayenne Pepper to most everything.
2- Beat the egg whites.
3- Heat the oil. It shouldn't be boiling, but it should crackle when water hits it.
4- Dredge the shrimp in flour, then dip in egg whites, and cover in Panko.
5- Put the shrimp in the oil and fry til golden. Remember to turn.
6- I like the shrimp on paper towels to get some of the oil off. Put on top of rice and eat!

And now promoting my favorite miso soup stuff: MINUTE MISO



This is basically concentrated miso paste. Boil some water, then add a spoonful of miso paste to taste. Add tofu, and green onions if wanted!!

Polenta is my new fave

I've been obsessing over polenta. My mom bought me a roll of it at Sunflower Market (my favorite grocery store) and I've been eating so much of it!



For those none foodies, polenta is basically Italian grits. It's hominy that's been stirred for hours and hours. But don't fret! The texture is different than grits; it's a much more solid texture and less grainy or gritty. (Puns!) The store bought kind usually comes in a roll, like a sausage. It's worth buying because making polenta is just too time consuming for those of us with lives. It's also very very healthy, as it's gluten-free, full of vitamins, and a great substitute for carb-tastic grains.

Here's my favorite recipe thus far: Southwestern Polenta!

Ingredients:
- Polenta (however much you feel like eating)
- Green Chile Sauce (I mean Hatch Chile, people! Greatest sauce known to man! Ever! But I'm sure that tomatillo sauce or Old El Paso will serve just as well!)
- Cheese! (Cheddar would probably be best)
- optional: I added an egg to this once, and it was good.

Instructions:
1- Saute Polenta (you can also microwave, fry, or bake it)
2- Add chile, cheese, etc
3- EAT!!!!

I know this is stupid, but I seriously just ate a piece of polenta while writing this. Trust me, there'll be more of this to come!

It's My Rice in a Pot

Please sing the title to the tune of “Dick in a Box.” Which was my mother’s idea. Love it!

Up until last year I didn’t understand cooking Japanese rice in a pot. I was just born with rice cooker on hand. Honestly. So when I moved to London for semester and accepted that I wouldn’t have my rice cooker, I realized it was time to learn to cope without it. After three times of awful experimenting, me and my Sansei mother finally had to resort to the Internet for a real recipe. So here’s the recipe, written by a Chinese girl who totally understands my plight.

1-Clean the rice. Swish it around in the pot a few times.

2- Put water in the pot, until it is about 3/4 of an inch above the top of the rice. A good way to measure this is to stick your thumb in -- the water should be about 1 joint of your thumb above the rice.(I use a one to two ratio. One cup of rice to two cups of water)

3-Put pot on stove, turn heat on high, and wait until it starts boiling. Like, actually boiling.

4-When it starts boiling, cover the pot with a lid and turn the heat down as LOW AS IT CAN POSSIBLY GO.

5-DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT TAKE OFF THE LID for at least 12 minutes. In fact, just walk away from the stove for 12 minutes. Just walk away!

6-After 12 minutes, if you're super impatient like me, you can take off the lid and look at the rice. It's not totally cooked! Surprise! Alright, put the lid back on (quickly!) and let it sit there for another 2 minutes on low heat. Then turn off the heat. And do not take off the lid. And let it sit there for about 10 minutes.

7-After 12, and then 2, and then 10 (that's 24) minutes, you can take the lid off, your rice will be perfect, and you can fluff it with chopsticks and serve!


NB: Japanese rice is short grain white rice. Not long grain Thai sweet rice, not long grain Chinese rice, not long grain anything! I don’t know why people have a hard time understanding the concept of short grain rice (which some people sushi rice, though that’s a totally different thing). But whenever I talk about this, people think I mean something that’s easy to cook, like brown rice. I’m not bitching, this is serious biz-nass!

Psuedo-Japanese Food

I’m half Japanese. And yes, I grew up eating with chop sticks and I ate rice at least 3 times a week. I have a rice cooker in college and when I studied in London I learned how to cook rice in a pot (which is hard, people!) Anyway, the point is I crave/need Japanese food about once a week. So I have been experimenting with easy ways to make my fave Japanese foods.

Katsu-don (yes, that’s a real word. It’s basically fried pork cutlets with rice)

Ingredients:
-2 pork cutlets
-Panko bread crumbs (you can use regular bread crumbs, but these are the best!)
-1 egg (I use the egg white, but you can use the whole egg)
-½ cup of flour
-Oil for frying
-Rice

Instructions:
1.Make Rice! Put it in a rice cooker. Or look at my instructions for rice in a pot.
2.Heat up oil in a skillet.
3.Set up your dredging station: Place the egg, flour, and Panko on individual plates. Then dredge: cover the pork in flour, then egg, then Panko.
4.Fry those suckers up! They should be crisp and golden. Yum!
5.This is the ghetto part: Put the rice in a bowl, then place the pork on top. Use soy sauce for flavor. You can add Rice Sprinkles (Furikake), miso soup, seaweed salad, whatever. That’s it!

Fake Oyako-don (Oyako is the characters for parent and child, in this case referring to the pairings of egg and chicken)

Ingredients:
-Chicken (I used rotisserie chicken, but you can use leftover chicken or bother to make your own)
-1 egg (or 2 if you want)
-Onions
-Soy sauce
-Oil
-Rice

Instructions:
1.Once again, make rice!
2.Heat up oil in a skillet.
3.Slice however many onions you want (the onions are traditionally in slivers).
4.Sauté the onions, then add the egg (I personally scramble it in a separate skillet, but you can cook it in the same pan), and add the chicken (this is mainly to heat it up). Add soy sauce for flavor.
5.Add on top of the rice. That’s it!

NB: Both these donburis (Japanese for rice bowls) have their own special sauce, like oh so many Japanese dishes. So by just using soy sauce it’s still the idea without taking up much time.

The Scramble

Hello World! Long time no blog!

So my life has been insanely, grossly busy. I’ve been cast as Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And between classes, work, homework, and rehearsal I have essentially no time to eat. So these next few posts will be completely dedicated to my new favorite “fast” foods.

First up, The Scramble.
I found out this summer I’m hypo-glycemic. Which doesn’t really mean much or change much about my diet. But it does mean that I have to eat more protein! So I’ve been eating a lot of eggs in order to maintain my energy level. I also love this dish because I get a full serving of vegetables in.

Ingredients:
-1 or 2 eggs (and use the full egg. Egg whites are less fatty, but they also contain less protein)
- any vegetables you like: spinach, tomatoes, onions, garlic, artichokes (I’ve been obsessed with artichokes since I started eating them this summer), etc. I also add tofu sometimes, for fun!
- Cheese!

1) I just sauté the veggies together. I do the onions first as they take longer, then tomatoes, spinach, artichokes, etc. Garlic is always last because if it burns, your meal is dead.
2) I usually just make scrambled eggs like normal, then add the veggies on top. And finally, cheese!!!

Enjoy!

Who's Chicken?

Here are three chicken recipes that I've totally stolen from cookbooks. But they're so good I had to share!

Flamin' Poultry (serves 2)
Ingredients:
- 2 teastpoons butter
- 1/4 cup hot sauce
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast, halves, cut into bite size pieces

1) Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the hot sauce and mix.
2) Add chicken, stir to coat, and cover. Cook for about 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Crispy Cracker Chicken (serves 2)
Ingredients
- 1 egg white
-1/2 cup crushed crackers or chips (Wheat Thins, Triscuts, Tortilla chips, etc)
-1/2 grated Parmesan cheese
-2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
- I like to add chilli powder, dried basil, or whatever

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degress F
2) Beat the egg white well. In a separate dish, mix the crushed crackers and Parmesan.
3) Rinse and pat dry the chicken breasts. Coat first with the egg white, then the cracker mixture
4) Plce the chicken in a pan and bake for about 35 min., until the chicken is cooked through and the cracker coating is crispy.

Finally, Chicken Delight (serves 2)
Ingredients
- 2 Chicken breasts (or turkey)
- Handful of basil leaves
- 8 cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup of miso or bouillon

1) Lay a sheet of foil on a baking tray and place the chicken breasts on the foil.
2) Tear the basil leaves, halve the tomatoes, and toss over the chicken
3) Using a teaspoon of bouillon or miso, mix a half cup of boiling water to make a stock and then pour over the chicken.
4) Fold over the foil to make a parcel and bake in the oven on 400 degrees F for 20 mins.

I love all these. They're hella simple and make great leftovers.

San Fransisco- The Ferry Building

Possibly the greatest food day ever was the Ferry Building. It's a building, by a ferry, that's just food. Lot's of it. And different kinds. We went on a Farmers Market Day and had some of the best peaches, nectarines, and strawberries ever! Then we went inside for some shopping! Here's the rundown:

- While standing around the farmers market we spied Elizabeth Faulkner (from Top Chef Masters). We then proceeded to spend about 20 mins deciding whether or not we should ask for her picture. By the time we manned up, she had left.

- We stopped by Boccalone, a sausage place owned by Chris Cosentino (Food Network celeb chef). Is it sad that my mom and I get crazy excited by Food Network Stars?

- We stopped at a mushroom place and got a piece of Dark Chocolate w/ Black Truffle Oil. Fancy; it was $4 for an oz of chocolate.

- For lunch we got a Delica bento box with rice, hijiki salad (a form of seaweed), a traditional seaweed salad, and fantastic pork katsu (breaded and fried pork). Tasted like Japan.

- We got Chai High Honey. Basically it's a honey that will flavor black tea to taste like Chai Tea. Yum!!!

- We tried cheese at Cowgirl Creamery (a renowned SF cheese place). I got fresh chevre (my fave!!) and my mom got a Humbolt, a cow's cheese available only on the coast of Cali.

- After all this we got a coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee. It's a special Japanese-style drip coffee that is the strongest stuff I've ever tasted! I've had lots of coffee (that's a different post) but this stuff kicked my butt! I couldn't even finish it.

-Finally we got the best raw oysters from Hog Island Oysters. I love raw oysters! And this is a pic.



We got the 6 different oysters. My fave is the one with peppers in it. I believe it's from Virginia.

Hungry yet?