Gyoza

Gyoza is one of those yummy Japanese foods that got me nice and chunky I love gyoza. Now I can make it.

Ingredient List:

1 lb ground pork

1 cup of cooked cabbage (shred some cabbage and boil it for a few minutes with a little salt)

2 green onions fine diced

1 T minced ginger

1-2 garlic cloves minced

2 T soy sauce

1 egg

Round won ton wrappers (they sell the round ones at Smith's)

Combine the above ingredients (excluding the won ton wrappers of course) using your clean hands to mix together well.   Once combined, lay the won tons wrappers (about 6 at a time) on the counter and place about 1 T filling in the middle of each wrapper. Brush the edges with water and pinch together the edges in the prettiest way you know how. 

Once all the wrappers a filled, heat 2 T vegetable oil in your biggest saute pan with a lid. Place the gyoza in the pan with the edges pointing to the sky. You will have to sort of push down on the gyoza to make a flat edge so they will sit up straight. 

Once the bottoms of the gyoza are browned, add a glass full of water in the pan. The water should go about half way up the gyoza. Turn to med-low and let simmer until most of the water cooks off.

Now you can buy gyoza dipping sauce at some stores, but it is just as easy to make it.

Gyoza Dipping Sauce:

1/4 c soy sauce

2 T rice vinegar

2 T hot sesame oil

Combine.  

Perfect Asian Sticky Rice

You've seen the pictures . . . I love me some asian food. In Japan I at rice three meals a day. When I got back home, I was disappointed at the rice. I figured that it was because it wasn't rice from Japan. I also knew that Japanese washed their rice. I thought it was just because that is a total Japanese thing to do. They take their shoes of before they go into their house, and they don't eat raw carrots, they are Japanese. Americans don't do those things, and they don't wash their rice. A friend of mine who lives here in hobble creek is from Japan, and she gave a Japanese cooking lesson (which was awesome, you are the best Yoshi!) she was teaching us sushi rice. She told us to wash the rice. Wait a minute, this is American grown rice, you don't need to wash it, that is like washing pasta first. So this is what I learned, you aren't washing it to make it clean, you are washing it to rinse away the starch. So if you want good sticky rice you have to rinse it first. Also, it must be noted that you should get a good brand of short grain asian rice. The best brand is NISHIKI, which you can buy at Smith's here in Utah. So cover the rice with water and drain 4-5 times. The water will progressively get clearer, but will not be entirely clear.

cloudy water on 2nd rinse

Instead of measuring the water out (because the rice will have water in it now that it has been rinsed) Use the hand technique. Put your hand flat on the rice (as shown in the picture) and fill the water until it barely covers your fingers but not your hand (barely encroaching on your fist knuckles). Now I use a rice cooker KITCHEN TOOL OF THE WEEK! (It was the first kitchen appliance I ever bought) so if you are doing it on the stove, forget about it! That is what google is for. Once I learned these techniques, I felt like I was back in Japan, but without the 35 extra pounds!

Soy Glazed Salmon

I hope all you in the cooking work like to invent food, nothing is more fun! I am good at inventing, but not so good at naming, and not so good at remembering what I did.  I guess I won't be writing a cook book any time soon. Tonight we had an Asian inspired salmon fillet, with fried rice. So here is what I did for the salmon. I used a fresh sockeye salmon fillet with the skin on, but any salmon would work I assume.  While the saute pan heated up, I rinsed the fish in cold water and patted it dry. Then I sprinkled it with kosher salt, then liberally sprinkled it with brown sugar.  Now normally I would put the fish skin side up, but with the sugar in play putting it skin side up would burn the sugar. So I put it skin side down.  Meanwhile, I combined about 1/4 c soy sauce and 2 T of rice vinegar, and 2 T rice wine.  Just as the fish started to go opaque  I flipped it over for about a minute to give the fleshy side a little sear, then I flipped it back over and poured the sauce over it.  By now, it should be about time to turn off the fish and let it rest with the lid on, you will have to be the judge on that one. Then I finished it off with a little lemon and sesame seeds. I served it over some fried rice (which you will have to tune in for the recipe later). All and all a tasty dish and a good way to cook salmon!

Partied Out!

It has been a great holiday. Non stop fun, constant playing. I have had a nice big dose of family and I am full, no dessert thank you! Last night we rang in the new year with the banging of pots, grandpa's fireworks show and cold duck. When we said it was time for the toast and we all just drank sparkling apple juice, my daughter Alta said, "I wanted toast!"  We skied all day yesterday.

Kayler, Porter, and Alta about to drop into Bishop's Bowl and Sundance Ski Resort, skiing the black diamonds!

On the way home we stopped costco for some party supplies (aka food). I made a beef stir fry  and I made this . . .

Don't know what this is? It is seared tuna. Give it to someone and they will love it, then tell them it is semi-raw fish and they will just die! (trust me, I did it to a few kids) If you love seared tuna, then you will love this!

Step one: buy fresh fresh ahi tuna (costco).

Step two: rinse it with cold cold water.

Step three: slice against the grain with a sharp sharp knife.

Step four: let it get to room temp before you cook it, say it twice.

Step five: mix 1/3 c soy sauce, 1/4 c rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon of chili paste and 2 T oil together.

Step six: get your cast iron or non-stick pan smoking smoking hot.

Step seven: drop a little oil in your smoking smoking hot pan.

Step eight: drop your sliced tuna into you marinade (step 5).

Step nine: drop your tuna into your smoking smoking hot pan.

Step ten: before you can even say, wow that pan is hot! slide your tuna off onto a plate and serve.  You literally want them on there for 30 seconds or less. You want it barely seared, mostly raw. Notice I repeated myself sometimes? That is because those things are so so important.  

Don't like raw tuna? Go to Happy Sumo order their Tuna Tataki, eat it, love it. Then try my quite different recipe, eat it, love it.

I know I never got around to blogging about Christmas, but I will leave you with a picture of a boy who really believes in Santa. He sat on his lap and talked his ear off, then he interrupted Santa mid sentence, "Santa I have a song for you!" Followed by a rousing rendition of, "Santa Clause Is Coming to Town."

Stir Fry Dinner

Healthy, yummy vegetables . . . .mmmmmmm.....

I cooked a stir fry today for Sunday Dinner. Stir fry for Sunday dinner doesn't seem right. I felt like the mother in "The Christmas Story" when they had to go the Chinese Restaurant on Christmas Day when the hounds got her turkey. Sunday dinner should involve some sort of potato right? However, a beef stir fry is one of my top favorites, and all the grandparents were out of town, so it was just me and the family. This is simple and healthy.

Ingredients:

Thin sliced steak

1/4 c soy sauce

1/4 c rice wine vinegar

2 T oil

1 t hot chili sauce (or rooster sauce, see picture)

2 garlic cloves minced

2 T dried onions or green onions

Add all the above ingredients together and allow the meat to marinade for about 30 minutes (not in the fridge, on the counter you want the meat to come to room temp)

Get some water boiling to cook some THIN spaghetti noodles (you got to get thin!) If I were to measure how much to use, clench a diameter's worth that would be the same circumference of a 50 piece. Rinse the noodles once they are done and set aside.

While your noodles are boiling, cut up whatever veggies you want for your stir fry, but you cannot neglect a yellow onion and 2 garlic cloves minced, they are important. I like, red pepper, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, broccoli, cabbage, bean sprouts, shelled edamae (you can buy frozen shelled edamae at Smith's).

You need two pans, one to cook the meat on and one to stir fry my veggies. I used my stove top griddle for the meat, and my wok for the veggies. For the meat you don't want it be crowded, so if you don't have a stove top griddle, use you largest frying pan. Get both pans smoking hot! Add about2 T of vegetable oil to both. Make sure the pans are really hot (notice I said it twice? its important) so when you add the vegetables it kind of makes you fear for your life it sizzles so loud. Give everything a toss, and cover with the lid. Put the meat on (pulling it out of any extra liquid), spread it around in the pan. Back to the veggies, lift the lid and give them another toss or two, and cover again. Back to the meat; move it around flip and such, and back the veggies for another toss. By this time the meat should be pretty dang close to being done, so remove from the hot stove and onto a plate. Check your veggies again, how do they look? Starting to cook. Remember, you want them tender crisp! Once they are at the beginning stages of tender crisp, add the meat and the noodles. Now some seasonings, add 1/4 c soy sauce, and 3 to 4 T of oyster flavored sauce (don't be scared, it doesn't taste like oysters, although I love oysters!) Now let me note, its not like I am measuring all this, I just PUT stuff in. So you have to taste it and say, "hmmm, still needs something . . ." Serve it with rice, steamed edamae, and some rooster sauce (for those who want to add a little spice) and it will be loved, I guarantee it.

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Sweet and sour shrimp

I am always experimenting with Asian food. Love love love Asian inspired food. Tonight we had sweet and sour shrimp.

The best place to buy shrimp is Costco. They sell the nice big tiger shrimp and they are already deviened, which saves tons of time. Tonight I tried frying the shrimp, like they would do in a typical Chinese restaurant. In retrospect, I would have been better off pan frying them, saving all the effort of frying, (which is a pain in the rear) and saved the calories. So lets "pretend" I pan fried them and I guarantee it would have been just as good. First, lets get to the ultimate sweet and sour sauce. This was inspired by a cooking class I went to at Thanksgiving Point, I just added two ingredients. I love cooking classes, so if you ever need someone to go to a cooking class with, call me!

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/2 C of each following, white vinegar, water, catchup, pineapple juice

1 c sugar

2 T soy sauce

1/4 t ground chili paste (see picture)

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil, turn to a simmer and thicken with a corn starch mixture ( 2 T corn starch 2 T water). Add slowly till you have the desired consistency. The chili paste is optional if you are afraid of anything spicy, but trust me, it is good! Keep sauce warm if you are going to use it for the following recipe.

Prepping the shrimp:

Remove shells and tails of the shrimp (about 15 big shrimp) and marinade in 1 egg white 3 T rice wine vinegar, 3 T soy sauce. for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile cut up half an onion, half a red pepper, a handful of carrots. You also need pineapple, about a cup fresh or canned.

Heat about 3 T oil in your wok and get it really hot. Coat the shrimp lightly in corn starch and drop into the wok. Cook shrimp till they become pink (2-3 min) and remove from the pan and set aside.

Add another T of oil and add the veggies and stir fry till tender crisp ( 4 min, make sure your wok is hot!) Add pineapple and give it another minute or so.

Return shrimp to the pan and pour the warm sweet and sour sauce over the shrimp.

Serve over rice. This will feed 4 adults.

I also served it with some stir fried cabbage, and it was so yummy! But that will have to be for another day . . . .

kitchen tool of the week

I love the kitchen. When we were planning the building of our house, I drew exactly how I wanted the kitchen and said, "now work around that." Along with loving the kitchen I love the kitchen tools. So every once and a while I will highlight a favorite kitchen tool. Today . . . .

the meat grinder

I just got this not too long ago. Every year I can salsa with my mother-in-law and we have used the timeless and painful method of hand grinding all the peppers (which you must do if you want any real flavor or spice in your salsa because is squeezes out the juice while it grinds the peppers). So this year I got the meat grinder and I felt like a old lady entering the technology age.


Lucky for me, salsa isn't the only thing I use a meat grinder for, I actually grind meat for it. For instance, my chicken lettuce wraps.

Pre-meat grinder I would pulse raw chicken in my food processor, which works just fine. You can add just about any ingredient to these lettuce wraps and they would probably taste good, as a matter of a fact I never really do them the same twice.

Ingredients;

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, ran through meat grinder or pulsed in processor

1-2 cloves garlic crushed

diced green pepper (maybe 1?)

fine diced red pepper (half of a pepper?)

fine diced carrots (8-10 baby carrots?)

fine diced mushrooms (6-7?)

1/4 c soy sauce

2 or 3 T of oyster sauce

1/4 t chili paste (optional)


Saute this all together in a hot oiled pan. Do some tasting to see if you need a little more soy sauce. You can also add other ingredients, celery, water chestnuts, tofu, green pepper . . . . .