April 21, 2010 - Scallop and chorizo pasta

You can't win 'em all.  Sometimes I pick recipes that don't turn out the way I had hoped for, and this recipe was one of them.  There was nothing wrong with it, but it just lacked the oomph that I was looking for.  It also seemed more like a stir-fry than pasta sauce.  Oh well.  Time to move on.

Slice up some tomato and avocado, drizzle some olive oil, and sprinkle with freshly ground salt and pepper, and voila!  A quick refreshing salad.  Even quicker if you don't meticulously place each slice on the plate like I've done here.

April 12, 2010 - えびとホタテの天津飯 (Tenshinhan with shrimp and scallops)

Japanese people like to do crazy things to other countries' cuisines.  Have you tried rice cake on pizza or fish roe in pasta?  Teshinhan is not as crazy as these but it is a dish we created as part of our interpretation of Chinese cuisine.   Good simple recipe for those busy weekday nights.

April 11, 2010 - Moussaka

This recipe is the best! I've tried a lot of moussakas in restaurants, but so far none of them have beaten the moussaka we make at home.  Yes, it's time-consuming (couple hours for prep and cooking), but definitely worth it, and an excuse to celebrate with some red wine!  It reheats really well too, so you can enjoy this luxurious dish for lunch while your co-workers sniff their way from the microwave to your plate.

April 5, 2010 - 味噌 ヒレカツ (Miso hirekatsu)

I'm originally from a city in Japan called Nagoya, where we are proud of our regional cuisine, and this is one of the most well-known dishes.  It's basically pork breaded with panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs), and deep-fried, and served with a miso sauce.  Here's the recipe (sorry, again in Japanese - future improvement for my blog!).  I like to use pork tenderloin because it's usually more moist and tender than other parts of the pig, but you can use other parts if you wish.  However, it is important that you go to your local Japanese/Asian grocery store to look for panko, because normal bread crumbs won't create the right texture.

March 31, 2010 - Pad Thai

Pad thai is a relatively simple dish - preparing the ingredients take a while, but putting it together at the end happens quickly in one pan.  Here is the recipe.  I've seen pad thai done wrong in so many restaurants that I'm very skepital to try them in restaurants where authenticity is not a sure thing, so it's nice to be able to make it at home.  I've even seen ketchup used as a base for the sauce, and that is just wrong...

As a fresh touch to the dish, I used the chives from our "balcony garden" which consists of a couple planters with mostly unsuccessful plants.

March 25, 2010 - Hainanese chicken

After making Hainanese chicken at home, I have now have a higher appreciation of this seemingly simple dish.  This recipe includes instructions on how to make the chicken, rice, and the chili sauce.  Poaching the whole chicken was the most difficult part because it was my first time.  It takes about an hour, and I had to be careful that the temperature of the water was maintained (hot but not boiling).  My conclusion is that poaching is one of the best methods of cooking chicken breasts!  I was very happy with how moist the chicken was.

March 22, 2010 - 肉じゃがとほうれん草お浸し(Nikujaga and hourensou ohitashi)

Nikujaga (literal translation: meat potato) is a stewed dish that commonly appears on the dinner table of Japanese families.  It's definitely comfort food, especially for the winter months. Even here in Vancouver, where Japanese restaurants are now ubiquitous, home-style dishes such as these are hard to find.  This is the recipe - sorry it's in Japanese (hopefully the Google translation function will help).

And of course, when preparing a Japanese meal, you can't just have one main dish, but a bunch of smaller side dishes.  I decided make hoursensou ohitashi, a simple but healthy dish of spinach flavoured with dashi and soy sauce.

March 18, 2010 - Palak paneer

Who says vegetarian food has to be boring? This is another recipe from Manjula's Kitchen, my default source for vegetarian Indian recipes.  I love cooking with paneer because no matter how long you cook it, this cheese never falls apart.  Making homemade paneer is still on my to-do list.

When cooking basmati rice, we usually put a blob of ghee (clarified butter) and sprinkle some cumin seeds in to the uncooked rice for extra flavour and shininess.

March 16, 2010 - Grilled chicken caesar salad

I usually put together caesar salads for a quick weekday meal, but his time I wanted to make it special with homemade croutons and homemade dressing.  I used Alton Brown's recipe for the croutons, but looked for another recipe for the dressing because I noticed it didn't have anchovies in it.  Isn't caesar dressing supposed to have anchovies in it? Anyways, I tried this dressing recipe.

In my honest opinion, the croutons were definitely worth it to make from scratch (incomparable to store-bought ones!).  The homemade dressing was good as well, but I think spending a little extra to get quality store-bought dressing is just as good and less time-consuming.  Making things from scratch usually saves money, but I'm not sure that was the case here.

March 14, 2010 - Bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese

This is a classic!  Smoked salmon, cream cheese, and capers on a bagel.  Usually this is where I stop, but since I had some leftover baby dill in the fridge, I thought, why not.  And what a difference it made!  It added a nice fresh flavour.  After taking a quick photo we packed the bagels and had a picnic at the Nitobe Memorial Park at University of British Columbia.   I wouldn't say the bagels matched the Japanese traditional garden atmosphere, but it was a peaceful afternoon of good food and no rain.