Okonomiyaki

I have been pining over this recipe for years. Years. But I never wanted to attempt it until I tried it in a restaurant, so that I knew what I was aiming for. I could not wait any longer. And I’m so glad that this recipe is now in my repertoire. Here’s the recipe that I adapted from Serious Eats.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup dashi (I used instant)
• 2 eggs
• pinch of salt (will use a larger pinch next time)
• 1 cup shrimp, raw
• 4 slices raw bacon, halved
• 4 cups cabbage, shredded. I used coleslaw mix
• sesame seeds
• kewpie mayo
• sriracha
• okonomi sauce
• pickled ginger
• green onions

Method:

Combine flour, dashi, eggs, cabbage, shrimp, scallions, and salt. This recipe makes two LARGE pancakes, so take half of the batter and fry it up. When it’s getting brown on the first side, add the raw bacon to the wet side. Flip, carefully, and brown bacon on second side. Cook longer than you think you need to and be careful not to burn it.

Add the rest of the condiments to your taste when it’s done cooking.

Notes: Next time I will make small pancakes to ensure even cooking. I am also excited to try different variations. The husband is allergic to shrimp–and he ate two today.  He’s not feeling it. So I have to think of a replacement. Imitation crab? We’ll see.

Chiles Rellenos con Camarónes, Chorizo, y Arroz

I never thought I’d be looking to Guy Fieri for an idea on how to tie together shrimp, chorizo, and peppers. I knew I was going to stuff these peppers–but hadn’t figured out a way to tie it all together. So, I won’t say that I was inspired but he was able to practically put together the disparate parts swimming around in my brain. The boyfriend and I went kinda crazy at Winco today. Shrimp, chorizo, feta cheese, poblano peppers, eggplant… it’s going to be a busy cooking weekend.  My way of celebrating making it to spring break.

On to the stuffed peppers…

Here is the link to the Fieri recipe.

Deviations:

• Using brown rice
• Feta cheese–cotija would be more authentic, but I just like feta.
• No wine used
• Tomatoes used in the rice
• Roasting the peppers, first, then sweating them and peeling the membrane off the outside
• Not using jalapeno.
• Using enchilada sauce

Ingredients:

• tube of chorizo–oh, dear Lord, how I hate cooking with chorizo. It’s slimy, greasy, and doesn’t ever look quite right. But please give it a chance. I’m glad I did.
• an onion
• cumin
• 1 pound of shrimp
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 cup brown rice
• 4 poblano peppers
• 1 can enchilada sauce
• feta cheese
• lime
• chili powder
• salt and pepper

Method:

Brown the chorizo as best as you can. It’s kind of a yucky process. I’m sorry. Drain it when it gets mostly cooked through. Add diced onion, diced tomatoes, and red bell pepper. Saute for a bit. Add one cup of brown rice and saute for a couple minutes.  Add chicken stock and cook rice until tender.

In the meantime, crank your oven up to nearly 500 degrees. Take four poblano peppers and set them directly on the rack. Turn them over with tongs every few minutes, until the the peppers are blistered and black.  Take the peppers, throw them in a bowl, and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap.

Take your shrimp, douse them with lime juice, chili powder, cumin, and salt and pepper.

When the rice is done, halve the shrimp and throw them in the rice. Turn the heat off and let the residual rice heat partially cook the shrimp. Add half of a crumbled block of feta cheese.

Take the peppers out of the bowl and peel the blistered skin from them. Cut a slit in them and rinse the seeds out under running water.

Grab a can of enchilada sauce. Spoon some in the bottom of a casserole dish. Take a spoon and carefully overstuff your peppers. Place them in the casserole dish and cover with the rest of the enchilada sauce. If you’d like, reserve a handful of shrimp, slice them in half and lay them on top of the stuffed peppers. Cover in the rest of the crumbled feta cheese.

Bake in the oven on 400 until done.

Serve with tortillas and beans.

Sunday Menu Planning

Jeff and I have decided to cook around themes each weekend, in order to learn more about different cuisines and to cook and eat foods we might not otherwise try.  So, last weekend, everything I cooked was Mediterranean inspired and this week, I decided to narrow the focus a bit and cook Greek dishes.

All of the recipes on the menu this weekend come from the same website: Closet Cooking. I’ve blogged a little bit about this website and blogger before–and I can’t say enough about how much it inspires me to try something new each time I visit the site.

From this website I’ve chosen:

Spanakorizo

Baked Shrimp and Feta Pasta

Lemon Roasted Potatoes

Melitzanes Papoutsakia

I’ll post the process and progress either today or tomorrow.

Oh, one last thing:  As many of you know, I used to be a vegetarian.  Now, I’m not.  I haven’t really posted any sort of explanation or given much of you insight into this change.  I don’t intend to do that here and now, but I do have an idea for you to consider.  I have been reading Anthony Bourdain’s new book Medium Raw and Jeff and I religiously watch No Reservations on Netflix.  I love, love, LOVE Anthony Bourdain.  His opinion of vegetarianism is pretty clear.  He writes, in his book Kitchen Confidential:
“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans … are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”

He later rants:

“To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.

Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It’s healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I’ve worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.

Oh, I’ll accomodate them, I’ll rummage around for something to feed them, for a ‘vegetarian plate’, if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine.”

He has also said that choosing the path of vegetarianism is a “first world luxury.” This idea struck a chord with me.  I don’t know if I agree with his sentiments, but from a Marxist point of view, is he right? Are “first world” vegetarians classist? Imperialist, even?    Looking down upon their meat eating peers in their own country and abroad?

Most of the world’s population eats what they can afford and whatever is in season.  Period.  They eat what they have access to.  Most of the world cannot afford to be vegetarian.

So, if you can afford to, should you?

A lot can be said for not cooking

I spent the entire afternoon preparing for my classes this week–still in my pajamas, hair in a bun, materials sprawled out all over the living room floor.  I’m mostly prepared–I could do more, but I want to salvage the last remaining hours of my vacation.

It’s freezing here today–neither my husband nor I want to get dressed to purchase groceries to cook with–nor do we want to walk or drive to pick up take out.

Delivery?  Sounds perfect, doesn’t it?  A lazy and indulgent treat (which I indulge in too often to make it an indulgence) for the last evening of our holiday vacation.

We ordered Shrimp Foo Young, BBQ Pork, and Ma Po Bean Curd from the nearest Chinese restaurant.

My friend made Ma Po Tofu this weekend (here’s a recipe.  Not authentic, though, as it omits the Sichuan peppercorns.), which is supposed to be tofu in a meat sauce.  This “Ma Po Bean Curd” is vegetarian with “Green peas, shredded black mushrooms and bean curd sauteed in spicy sauce.”  Traditionally, the dish is made with ground beef or pork, so we’ll see how this vegetarian rendition tastes.  It might be Ma Po in name only and have nothing to do with the original dish.

Ma Po Tofu (mapo doufu) is  a traditional Sichuan dish, which uses Sichuan peppercorns.  Wikipedia describes the dish as ” a combination of tofu (bean curd) set in a spicy chili- and bean-based sauce, typically a thin, oily, and bright red suspension, and often topped with minced meat, usually pork or beef.”

Contrary to popular belief, Sichuan peppercorns are not spicy–although many Sichuan dishes are spicy.  They aren’t even related to peppercorns.  The Sichuan peppercorns are supposed to have a numbing affect, actually, to counter-balance the spiciness in the dish.  Here’s a Ma Po Tofu recipe with the authentic Sichuan peppercorns.

Random information: According to Wikipedia, “Ma Po” means old lady with a pock-marked face.