Weekday lunches

I know, I know… I haven’t written anything for a long long time… I have been working a lot (so lots of takeouts or bf’s cooking), and got really sick for weeks… so, I am, finally,  back to the kitchen. Yeah!

Pan-fried oyster mushrooms
2 big oyster mushrooms (cut into 2cm chunks)
1 tsp of miso
2 tsps of mirin
2 tsps of water

Pan fry mushrooms on a wok and brown each side with a tbsp of olive oil about 10 mins.

Then mix miso, mirin and water in a bowl and drizzle over the mushrooms. Then add black sesame (optional).

Done 🙂

Stir-fry beef with choi sum and baby kale stems
I save the stems from the baby kale that I made salad with. So I add the stem to this dish. If you have any leftover veggie, add them.

0.5 lb of beef (thinly sliced)
Marinade:
Juice of half a lemon
2 tsps of corn starch
1 tsp of sugar
1 tbsp of sesame oil and soy sauce
Leftover stem from baby kale
Choi sum (chinese greens) 10 pieces

Marinate the beef for 2 hours.
Pan fry all beef over high heat until brown with a tsp of oil. About a min each side. Remove and set aside.
Clean the wok and add a tbsp of oil over medium high heat.
Cook all the veggies in the wok for 5 mins. Season with salt, pepper and chili pepper. Add the beef back in and cook for another 3 mins.

I also made some octopus sausages with broccoli 🙂

Tonight’s dinner

To continue my Thursday fun day,  I made dinner. Hahahaha. I wanted to make pasta,  soup and salad, but it seems too much for a weeknight meal, and it’s too hot to eat all that. So, instead, bake fish in pockets 🙂

Bake halibut with onion, tomato and mushrooms

1/4 onion (sliced)
1/2 tomato (sliced)
A handful of mushrooms (sliced)
Pinch of thyme and saffron
1 piece of halibut (8oz)

Preheat the oven at 400F.
Line a big piece of parchment paper,  add onion in the middle. Top with tomato, and onion.  Season with salt and pepper.
Then season the halibut with thyme,  saffron,  salt and pepper. Put it on top of the veggie.

Seal it up by folding the edges. Bake for 20 mins. I top it with some orange zest and a squeeze of orange juice.
Done 🙂

I also made a pocket with seabass, onion, tomato and kale.

Weekday lunches (this week)

I miss spring break. No studying, sleeping in, hanging out…. I wish I could be young again…. so jealous… and because of that, I don’t feel like cooking at all (yes, I am LAZYYYYY, so what?!?!?!)
Instead of cooking everything,  I cheated. I went to my neighborhood japanese market, Tozai, and get all the finished ingredients, all I needed to do are assembling and making some veggies.

I made some saute greens,  and saute mushrooms with some jalapeño and tumeric.
Now, assembling bentos
2 tablespoons of rice (I mixed it with japanese seasoning powder)

Then some greens

Top it with seaweed

Then some red rice (rice cooked with red beans)

Top with more seaweed.
And in a separate container, I have some chicken karaage and tofu and mushrooms.
Seriously,  what not to be like, everything was done in 30 mins.
Within an hour, I am resumed to my couch potato position. Lovely 🙂

Tonight’s dinner

Since we have some leftover cold cut from our wino Sunday,  I made some open faced sandwiches for dinner.

4 slices each of cheddar and asiago
Some salami,  prosciutto
1/3 of baguette (thinly sliced)

Put sliced baguette onto a tray, spray them with olive oil and top them with chili flakes and parsley. Put them under the broiler for a min.
Top each one with cheese, cold cut and more cheese on top.
Put them under the broiler again for 3 to 4 mins, until the cheese gets bubbly

Thursday dinner

Since I am not working today (woohoo), I had a haircut and went for a few drinks,  I decided to make a kinda heathy dinner.  Steak salad with mixed mushrooms miso soup. I am the queen of the world!!! Esp after 5 gin and soda. Hahaha

Steak salad with  mixed greens

A bag of mixed greens
1/2 a pomegranate
4 mini sweet peppers (thinly sliced)
1tablespoon of acai vinegar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 lb of flank steak
1 teaspoon of cilantro
1/3 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of mixed herbs
1/2 teaspoon of zung (pepper, salt and chili mixed from Temecula)

Score the flank steak, and marinade it with cilantro,  garlic powder,  mixed herbs and zing for 30 mins.

In a medium high heat pan, sear the steak about 3 to 4 mins per side. Let it rest for 15 mins before slicing.
In a big bowl,  add greens,  pepper and pomegranate together.  Toss to combine, and add vinegar and oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Leftover friday

After a long and weird day of work, I just want to just dive into my pajamas. So instead of going to a restaurant,  I opened the fridge,  wah-lah, leftover! Haha
We had salad,  lasagna and baked mackerel (not leftover,  but only 20 mins from cleaning to eating)

Baked mackerel
Take the meat off the bone, and start the oven 400F. at Season fish with some salt, spray some olive oil on top. Bake them for 20 mins.
Squeeze some lemon juice on top.
Serve.

Shabu shabu at home

After a long day of work, I was thinking my honey and I should go out for a date night. Shabu shabu!! But then my brain says, hey, do it at home, and you can save $$ while you can drink and pass out.
The statement I had from my head was so convincing that I went to Mitsuwa and got some pork and kobe beef, mushrooms and veg, use some miso soup as broth. Yeah, dinner as ready 🙂

Monday dinner

Worknight dinner usually starts with drinks (gotta drink my day of work away). Tonight we start with junmai sake.

It’s a good cold sake, a little less than 20 dollars,  but it hits the spot.
While I was drinking away, I made ramen. Nothing fancy, just some good ramen. I saw it on an instant noodles documentary,  and I just had to get it. (I found it on Amazon)

Added some fishcake and a poached egg with some green onion. Wa-lah. Our dinner is half way ready.

Adding a quick salad – romaine heart with cherry tomatoes and pancetta

Duck tongue and peppered shrimps (bought them in a Chinese restaurant)

Dinner is served 🙂

UDON!!!

Since my darling and I are watching ‘Udon’ tonight. We decided to have udon for dinner♡
I went to a Japanese market on my way home, they are getting ready to close, but the nice Japanese lady still let me in. I told her that I am making udon tonight, then she told me what kind of udon is good, and what I should put in it 🙂
So, this is a modification of her version (by adding whatever I have in the fridge)

2 bags of udon dashi

1 small bunch of green onion (thinly sliced)
2 eggs
1 small stick of fishcake (sliced)

1 bunch of kale (optional)

1/4 of a small napa cabbage (sliced)
6 mushrooms (halfed)

2 frozen udon (the Japanese lady said frozen is better)

Microwave the udon for 1 minute.
In a pot, bring 4 cups of water to boil, add the udon dashi in. Add kale into the broth, cook until is done, about 5 mins. Set it aside.
Add the napa cabbage in and cook for 1 min, set it aside.
Add the eggs in for poaching, for 3 mins and set them aside.
Add mushrooms and udon into the broth, cook for 2 mins and stir periodically.
To assemble,  put the noodles into bowl, top is with a poached egg, kale, napa cabbage,  mushrooms, and fishcake.
Add hot broth into the bowl and garnish with green onion.

Time to slurp!