Sakana Grill

Wendell picked these up the other day from Sakana Grill.  I really, really liked the first dish.  It has shoyu pork, eggplant and tofu.  I'm wondering if I can make it myself.  We'll see.  

Just FYI, the place opens at 2:00 pm, but "the kitchen opens at 3:00", just in case your husband is already on his way there when you call at 2:00 to put in your order. 

Also, I'm not real sure if the prices below are current.  I looked them up online.  And I think because I didn't say "plate" these are ala carte items and didn't come with rice, which kinda worked out 'cause there was more to share.

Nasubi Chanpuru ($15).  ❤️  ❤️  ❤️

Tonkatsu ($15).  This was just okay . . .  maybe a tad overcooked?

We think this came with the Tonkatsu . . . not sure.

Fried Saimin with Spam ($14).  Good; I liked the noodles, but it was a bit black-peppery.  I coulda done without it just fine. 

Day by Day

 Little by little.  Village by village.  Liberation comes.

Dd's Osso Bucco

OSSO BUCCO

Adapted from Dd’s Table Talk

 

2 veal shanks, 3-inch thick, 1# each

garlic salt and freshly ground black pepper

flour, for dusting

1 TB+ 1 TB olive oil, divided

½ medium carrot, chopped

1small onion, chopped

1 rib celery, chopped

1 large tomato, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 1/2 heaping tablespoons tomato paste

2 c. beef stock

2 c. red wine

½ tsp. dried thyme

2, 3-inch orange peels

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Generously season shanks with garlic salt and pepper. Dredge in flour well.

In a saucepot over medium high heat, brown shanks in olive oil. Remove. 

Add remaining olive oil into saucepot; sauté vegetables and garlic.  Stir in tomato paste until well combined. Return shanks into saucepot. 

Add stock, wine, thyme and orange peel. Bring to a gentle simmer.  Cover; leaving lid slightly ajar.  Simmer 2 hours. Turn shanks over every 30 minutes.

 

Transfer shanks to a serving platter.  Bring sauce mixture to a boil and reduce. Check for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed. 

For service spoon sauce over shanks.  Serves 2.

Epicurean Cutting Board

I bought this cutting board over 40 years ago from Sur La Table in Seattle.  I always wanted to get a little bigger one, but thought that it was just too expensive.

Well, after all these years, I finally got one.  It's an early birthday present from Landon.  

I mostly like it because it's thin and lightweight, although this particular model turned out to be a little thicker than I expected.  Maybe 'cause it's double-sided with a juice groove.  

I also like the density and smoothness.  And the puka.  It makes it easy to grab on to. 

I'm so happy!

Llama

 I can't help but chuckle when I look at llama photos.

Fried Saimin

I made this last month.  I kinda followed the recipe on the Foodland site.  I didn't use as much oil as the recipe called for, but still came out ono. 

This is the noodles that I used.

 

Ingredients

2 packages

fresh saimin noodles (cooked and drained)

4 tablespoons

oil

2 saimin dashi pack

6 ounces

spam (thinly sliced)

1 cup

cabbage (shredded)

1⁄2 cup

carrots (julienne)

1⁄2 onion (thinly sliced)

6 ounces

kamaboko (sliced)

3 ounces

char siu pork (sliced)

1⁄2 cup

green onions (sliced )

2 tablespoons

shoyu (soy sauce)

Instructions

1. In a frying pan over medium high heat; add oil then add the spam and char siu.  Stir fry for a few minutes.
2. When Spam and char siu is lightly browned, add cabbage, carrots, kamaboko, ½ of the green onion and onions.  Continue to stir fry for a few minutes until browned.
3. Add the cooked egg, saimin noodles and dashi packs. After stir frying add the shoyu.
4. Stir fry until shoyu is incorporated then transfer to a serving plate.

Note: garnish the dish with the rest of the green onion after plating.

Liliha Drive Inn Again

Liliha Drive Inn has become a favorite place to pick up food lately.  Everything so far has been ono.  I must mention that we don't really care for the mac salad which is usually included so we've been opting for "all rice" instead.

Beef Stew and Chicken Katsu Curry ($??)

Mini Garlic Chicken (sauce on the side) ($8.95)

BBQ Cheeseburger ($3.95) and French Fries ($3.75)

Garlic Shrimp ($12.45)

Mini Teriyaki Steak ($8.75)

Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins

I baked these the other day to make use of some of the humongous blueberries that my brother got for me (thank you, Cy).

The recipe is from Olga in the Kitchen site.  I lessened the amount of blueberries to 1 cup because I added 1/2 cup of chopped nuts and some tiny chocolate chips.  I didn't use a mixer (too lazy to dig it out) and my baking time was 35 minutes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour + 1 tsp for rolling berries
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 large eggs – room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries – rinsed and dried 

Instructions

1. Line a 12-count standard muffin tin with cupcake liners. Preheat the oven to a 375°F.

    

2. In a large bowl, beat together 2 eggs, 1 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 teaspoon fine salt with an electric mixer on high speed for 4-5 minutes. Eggs should be light in color.

   
   

3. Add 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Beat on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.

   
   

4. In a medium bowl, combine and whisk the dry ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp baking soda. Add the flour mixture to wet ingredients 1/3 at a time, beating on low speed with each addition just until combined. DO NOT OVERMIX or muffins will turn out dense. You can also use handheld whisk to mix in the flour.

   
   

5. In a small bowl, toss to coat 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries with 1 tsp all-purpose flour. Add the blueberries to batter and use a spatula to gently fold in blueberries just until combined.

   
   

6. Spoon muffin batter equally into muffin pan filling muffin cups 3/4 to the top (or until all of the batter is used up). Bake at 375°F for 25-30 minutes, or until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center, comes out clean. *If using frozen berries, increase baking time to 30-35 mins.

   
   

7. Let baked muffins cool in muffin pan for 5 minutes and then transfer onto a cooling rack until room temperature before enjoying. 

Lagoon Chinese Restaurant

 Who goes to a Chinese restaurant and gets a cheeseburger?  My brother, that's who.

Doesn't it look so good?!  But I wonder why the french fries cost double the cheeseburger.

Magazine Project

 Instead of tossing that magazine that you're done looking at . . .

tear out the pages . . . 

fold each into strips . . .

and weave them like so.  

Finally, assemble with packing tape to make a . . . . dunno what to call it . . . box? . . . . bin? . . . receptacle? . . .