a kitchen is a happy thing
Aug. 23rd, 2010 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksThe kitchen is entirely unpacked and organized and cleaned and put away and done and together and also, it is done. And there is room in it for all of us to be cooking at the same time, if we want to.
Tonight's dinner was both awesome and easy and a thing my household does bits of pretty frequently so I thought I'd write it up.
We had: rice, which is easy because we have a rice maker.
Sliced cold avocado with eel sauce.
Tilapia fillets/Quorn sauteed in sesame oil with chopped garlic and ginger, with eel sauce and a little chili for those who like it, over the rice.
Japanese omelet.
Asparagus grilled with a miso mop sauce.
Whole thing took about twenty minutes (barring rice), and very nearly met the color requirements for a correctly presented Japanese meal. (It wants something white, something green, something yellow/orange/brown, something red and something black/purple. It also wants things of each major flavor group and of varied textures and temperatures. If you go to the trouble, I find that the meal is usually balanced, healthy and interesting.)
For a Japanese omelet:
1 egg/person eating
soy sauce
mirin
dashi (ours comes in little pellets that you reconstitute in water; it adds umami but is probably not strictly necessary and also should be left out for vegetarians)
Beat eggs very thoroughly. For every two eggs, beat in 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce, 1/4 tablespoon mirin, and 1 teaspoon dashi in water. Adjust to taste (we like ours quite salty and not very sweet). Beat further until very foamy.
Usually this dish is cooked in a square pan, so that you can pour egg into half the pan, wait for it to set, pour egg into the other half, layer the first egg on top of the second, and keep on this way-- you end up with a multi-layered rectangular omelet with sharp corners. We actually own a tamago pan, but honestly you can just trim the eggs. To cook in a regular frying pan, wipe the pan with a few drops of canola or sesame oil and heat on medium-low for a minute or so. Tilt it towards you and pour in a very thin layer of egg, enough to coat the bottom without pooling very much. Once it sets, rotate the pan 180 degrees, tilt it toward you again, pour your second layer of egg, and use a spatula to flip the first layer down on top of the second (get it before the bottom really sets so the whole thing melds together). Keep doing this until you run out of egg, and when the final bottom layer sets get it out of the pan immediately.
Serve chopped into rectangular strips inside rolled sushi, in larger rectangular blocks as nigiri, or shredded in soups and some other dishes. Or just eat it, it's a good omelet.
Grilled asparagus with miso mop sauce (the concept is eternal but the sauce is mine):
a largish bunch of asparagus, maybe twenty stalks
red miso paste
cooking sherry
black Chinkiang vinegar/balsamic vinegar
mirin
mustard powder
Wash and trim the woody ends of the asparagus. Heat up a grill.
Mix about four tablespoons miso paste with about three tablespoons mirin and beat until it's mostly liquid. Add about four tablespoons cooking sherry and combine thoroughly.
I advise adding the vinegar in half teaspoon increments or less. I may have used an entire teaspoon, but I don't think quite. Taste frequently. Then the mustard, which you want in quarter teaspoon increments or less. Make sure everything is blended really well when you've got it where you want it and break up all the lumps.
Put the asparagus on the grill and brush the top with sauce. A pastry brush is good here. Turn it over immediately and brush the other side.
It should grill about a minute per side, or if like us you have a panini grill it should just get a minute. Asparagus is done when it's vivid green and slightly soft with distinct char lines, but not yet charred skin beyond the lines.
This sort of dinner is why I always tell people that Japanese food does not have to be difficult.
Did I mention that the kitchen is unpacked?
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost. There are
comments over there.
Tonight's dinner was both awesome and easy and a thing my household does bits of pretty frequently so I thought I'd write it up.
We had: rice, which is easy because we have a rice maker.
Sliced cold avocado with eel sauce.
Tilapia fillets/Quorn sauteed in sesame oil with chopped garlic and ginger, with eel sauce and a little chili for those who like it, over the rice.
Japanese omelet.
Asparagus grilled with a miso mop sauce.
Whole thing took about twenty minutes (barring rice), and very nearly met the color requirements for a correctly presented Japanese meal. (It wants something white, something green, something yellow/orange/brown, something red and something black/purple. It also wants things of each major flavor group and of varied textures and temperatures. If you go to the trouble, I find that the meal is usually balanced, healthy and interesting.)
For a Japanese omelet:
1 egg/person eating
soy sauce
mirin
dashi (ours comes in little pellets that you reconstitute in water; it adds umami but is probably not strictly necessary and also should be left out for vegetarians)
Beat eggs very thoroughly. For every two eggs, beat in 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce, 1/4 tablespoon mirin, and 1 teaspoon dashi in water. Adjust to taste (we like ours quite salty and not very sweet). Beat further until very foamy.
Usually this dish is cooked in a square pan, so that you can pour egg into half the pan, wait for it to set, pour egg into the other half, layer the first egg on top of the second, and keep on this way-- you end up with a multi-layered rectangular omelet with sharp corners. We actually own a tamago pan, but honestly you can just trim the eggs. To cook in a regular frying pan, wipe the pan with a few drops of canola or sesame oil and heat on medium-low for a minute or so. Tilt it towards you and pour in a very thin layer of egg, enough to coat the bottom without pooling very much. Once it sets, rotate the pan 180 degrees, tilt it toward you again, pour your second layer of egg, and use a spatula to flip the first layer down on top of the second (get it before the bottom really sets so the whole thing melds together). Keep doing this until you run out of egg, and when the final bottom layer sets get it out of the pan immediately.
Serve chopped into rectangular strips inside rolled sushi, in larger rectangular blocks as nigiri, or shredded in soups and some other dishes. Or just eat it, it's a good omelet.
Grilled asparagus with miso mop sauce (the concept is eternal but the sauce is mine):
a largish bunch of asparagus, maybe twenty stalks
red miso paste
cooking sherry
black Chinkiang vinegar/balsamic vinegar
mirin
mustard powder
Wash and trim the woody ends of the asparagus. Heat up a grill.
Mix about four tablespoons miso paste with about three tablespoons mirin and beat until it's mostly liquid. Add about four tablespoons cooking sherry and combine thoroughly.
I advise adding the vinegar in half teaspoon increments or less. I may have used an entire teaspoon, but I don't think quite. Taste frequently. Then the mustard, which you want in quarter teaspoon increments or less. Make sure everything is blended really well when you've got it where you want it and break up all the lumps.
Put the asparagus on the grill and brush the top with sauce. A pastry brush is good here. Turn it over immediately and brush the other side.
It should grill about a minute per side, or if like us you have a panini grill it should just get a minute. Asparagus is done when it's vivid green and slightly soft with distinct char lines, but not yet charred skin beyond the lines.
This sort of dinner is why I always tell people that Japanese food does not have to be difficult.
Did I mention that the kitchen is unpacked?
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost. There are
