Yes it’s been a while.

Yes I know it’s been a while, but I haven’t really thought about what I wanted to make this blog.  I had a grand idea that I was going to do all these fusion recipes once I got to Japan and was going to have a grand old time.  But truth be told, I got here and the only thing I wanted to do was make American food, because I LOVE ‘MERICA!  But for reals.  I decided instead of just making an Asian/American fusion thing I’m just going to do a blog for food.  Anything I eat, or make I will be posting.  I think that’s more fun then just sticking to some super rigid thing.  So here is some recent fooding.  I made steamed cheeseburgers a while back and they were awesome, and last night I made Shrimp Scampi.  So yea.  Let’s do this.

 

Gyudon – Lazy beef

So a few days ago, Apple and I had one of her favorite dishes from japan, Gyudon.  Gyudon is a beef dish that is served over rice with grilled onions and served with a sweet brown sauce.  Most of the sweetness comes from the cooking wine, or mirin, and the natural sweetness of the onions.  It was interesting cooking a dish that I have never seen, let alone eaten before.  I knew what it was suppose to look like because of varies cookbooks I’ve seen and images of Apple eating it.  One of the keys to this dish is making sure that the beef and onions are cut thin. You want to julienne the onions and you want the beef to be thin, but not to shaved.

So let’s begin:

1 lb of Beef

1 lrg onion(yellow or red)

1/3 cup of cooking wine

2 TBSP of Sugar

1/4 cup of Soy Sauce

1/3 cup of water

To begin heat a wok or medium sized pot to medium heat and add your favorite cooking oil. Toss in onions and let them cook ’til translucent.  After they have come to the right texture add in the beef.  Cook the beef for 45 seconds, long enough to brown on both sides.  Turn the stove to high and add in liquid ingredients, starting with the cooking wine.  After the cooking wine has been in for 15-20 seconds add the soy sauce and allow it to coat the meat and onions;  Finally add the water.  Allow the liquid to come to a boil and cover you pot or wok for 10 min.  Once the 10 min is up remove from heat, stir and serve.

Keep it classy.

Gyoza, mmm mmm good.

So last week Apple and I had a gyoza and rice dinner.  For those of you who don’t know what Gyoza is, gyoza is the japanese name for potstickers.  It is a meat and veggie filled pastry that is either steamed or fried.  We do this whenever we have them and it’s usually a great cheap meal, especially on a lazy day like that one.  I tried to do something a little different with the gyoza and ended up ruining them.  Well not really ruined just not pan fried goodness that we have come to love.   So needless to say, I was a little disappointed in my mistake and needed to learn to fix it asap.  So tonight we had gyoza again and I HAVE LEARNED THE TRICK TO DELICIOUS PAN FRIED GYOZA.

So here goes:

Find a pot(medium or large)  and boil, or steam, the gyoza for about 5-7 min, depending on the instructions on the pack. Of course if you are making your gyoza by hand you’ll need to cook them a little longer 9-11 min  The next part is key;  Let the gyoza sit anywhere from 30 min to an hour.  You can cover them up and put them back in the refigerator but since mine where frozen I just covered and left them out on the counter for about 30 min.   So after the 30 mins were up,  I put 3 tablespoons of sesame oil in my cast iron skillet and put the gyoza back in for 10 min.  They came out gorgeous and oh so delicious.   Now I know what you’re thinking, Jolith why didn’t you make your own gyoza; Answer – it’s a little out of the price range for us at the current moment, and let’s face it, most asian families by store bought gyoza anyway.    :P

Keep it classy.

A place to call home.

So I decided to write a little more about what the blog is going to be about.  Of course it’s about my cooking adventures in Japan  but specifically it’s more about me trying to place myself as a chef.  I have always wanted to cook fancy foods like Barefoot Contessa, to serve friends and family; so with going to Japan my inspiration is going to be Japan’s version of Barefoot Contessa/Ina Garten,  Harumi Kurihara. During a bit of downtime today I got the chance to really look at the “Harumi Japanese Cooking”  that Apple and I got as a wedding gift.  The book is a little fancy, but not too fancy.  The book is more about bringing Japanese cooking to the Western world and so I’m going to embrace it and run with it.  I love the idea of being at a point in my life where I’m still learning so much and I love how japanese cooking really takes advantage of all of the sense and flavors.  So enough on that, I’m going to break down each of the sections I plan on writing about.  I will be adding to these as well as probably dropping them, if I don’t like what I’m doing.

First and probably the one I’m most excited about:  Rock out with your Wok out.  Starting in June I will be cooking a recipe from “Harumi Japanese Cooking”  and placing the final product and the recipe here.  I’m going to start with something easy and work my way up to more difficult things.  As I don’t have a large selection of ingredients yet, I will be doing things that are readily available.  This section will also be the days when I get creative and I start doing my fusion ideas.  Thanks Heather!  It was a great name.

Next up:  The Best Thing I’ve Ever Ate!  Basically I will share with everyone some of the best food I’ve ever eaten.  It’s going to be restaurant based mainly because I can say, “My mom’s fried chicken is the best in the world.”  But no one can really eat it, because it’s my mom, and she is anonymous.  But I will talk about places in both America and Japan that had some of the best things ever.  I’ll do this fairly regularly but have no set plans on exactly when.  The first will be the best fried chicken at a restaurant.

Last, for now:  Homesick days.  Homesickness happens to everyone, I don’t care how much of a tough guy/gal you are you get homesick for something when you are so far away.  Significant others, a pet, a place you like to eat regularly, family; whatever it is there is something you miss.  On these days to get myself out of the funk of homesickness I will cook something that I miss from home:  Mac and Cheese, BBQ Chicken, gravy meatballs.  So of course this won’t be regularly but it’ll be fun and a good way to counteract homesickness.  

I have a few more ideas for cooking ideas, but for right now that’s what I’m going to concentrate on.  Thanks for reading again.

Keep it Classy.

Oh yea, I almost forgot.  This post is called “A place to call home”  because Apple got her placement in JET.  We will be somewhere in the Kansai area!

I Love Food

Hey!  You can call me Jolith, Jo, or Blueberry(if you are coming over from Apple’s blog)  This blog is about my journey in Japan as a chef.  Places I eat, anything food related will be posted here.  Now for a little bit about me:

I have loved food and cooking for as long as I can remember.   As a kid I use to sit at the kitchen table as my mom cooked, and I would pretend to mix ingredients together.  On occasion my mom would let me put the finishing touches on various dishes:  Tomato sauce on meatloaf, crumbles on a pie, stuff like that.  On rare occasions she would even let me toss the chicken for her fried chicken.  As the years went on I got to do more and more in the kitchen.  The summer I turned 12 was the time I finally got to start cooking on my own.  My mom had went back to work full time so I was left alone most of the day during the summer.  I started by cooking some pretty simple things:  BBQ chicken, Mac and Cheese, Meat Loaf, Spaghetti and Meatballs.

Around 15 I started getting a little more bold and one day I made an entire roast chicken.  It turned out like a 15 year old made it, rubbery and not that great.  But hey I did it on my own and I was proud of what I had done.  Of course high school hit and I stopped caring and started just eating lots of junk food while at work.  The summer before my senior year I took my first cooking class.  American Cuisine of the 20th century.  It was a overview of all the cuisine that we have here in the states.  From Southern food, to German, to American Italian.  I learned to make a variety of different things(and to this day I have forgotten most of it, stupid high school brain). By the time I met Apple I had basically stopped cooking, If I set my mind to it I could still do it, but most of the time I just didn’t really care.

Fast Forward again to Summer of 2007.  I had just moved back to my hometown and moved in with a friend.   I had to start cooking on my own again to save money and so I went back to buying cookbooks and generally falling in love with cooking again.  I had perfected my steaks by Spring of 2008 and had gotten pretty good at making a variety of Shrimp dishes.  It’s now 2010 and I am about to embark on the greatest journey ever.  As I cook in Japan I will post the foods here and anytime Apple and I go out to eat I’ll make sure I take pictures of the foods I eat.  A few other things will be :

1.) Rock out with your Wok out – One day a week(maybe more!) I will cook a recipe from my Harumi cookbook or whatever japanese cookbook I have.

2.)  The best thing I ever ate –  Much like the Food Network show, I will describe a dish that changed my life in some way, and try to add a picture if I can.

3.)  Homesick days – There will be days when I just want something that I had from home and I will make sure I post it on those days, it will help me feel better and just be a good thing to eat!

Well for now that’s it.  Thanks for reading and good eating!