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King Roll
キングロールサンド

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Doesn’t my King (mushroom) Roll look good?

I really love everything about king mushrooms.

Its firm texture is so unique and substantial that it can easily take the leading role.

I’ve never tried king mushrooms with mayo together, but it was so good.

Homemade vegan mayo is really a game changer.

First I cut the mushrooms into bite size pieces and sauteed them with a lot of garlic.

Then they were dressed with a mixture of vegan mayo, lemon juice, hot sauce, salt, and pepper.

But before I go on, I should talk about my beautiful buns.

I bought these hot dog pans many years ago.

Actually I quickly regretted because I’m not a big fan of hot dogs, and I didn’t think I would ever make buns for hot dogs.

I’m so glad I kept them.

So excited that I got to use these pans for the first time.

The buns turned out great!

Homemade buns are really the best.

They were light, soft, slightly chewy, slightly sweet, and super tasty.

I think a big part of my not liking hot dogs (even when I was eating meat) was that I didn’t like how those store-bought buns tasted.

The King (mushroom) salad was generously placed on the lightly toasted bun.

Yum!

Filed in Bread, Mushrooms, Sandwiches | | Comments (0)

Tonkotsu-Style V-Ramen
とんこつ風Vラーメン

Monday, August 13, 2018

I grew up eating ramen a lot.

It’s so popular in Japan, and when I found out that a lot of Japanese people post ONLY ramen pictures on their Instagram page, I was not surprised.

Some of them go out to eat ramen every day, and they don’t run out of new ramen shops to try!

Anyway, I’ve become a little more serious about ramen myself recently.

When I found this dried ramen noodles at Amazon which had great reviews, I had to order a package.

I also got myself a new bowl.

I always wanted to have a traditional ramen bowl.

I typically like a lot of toppings on most dishes, but when it comes to ramen, I’m probably a bit more traditional and stick with a few.

The most popular ramen topping is probably “Char Siu” or barbecued pork slices.

Instead of pork, I prepared yummy portabella mushroom slices.

The mushrooms were so delicious; a bit sweet and a bit spicy from these Japanese “shichimi” spices.

The noodles were cooked perfectly.

Ramen looked so good in my new bowl!

Made me feel like I was back in Japan.

I really liked these noodles as they are so authentic.

They have the right chewiness, flavors, and look.

The soup turned out to be super tasty too.

Tonkotsu ramen is known for its rich flavored soup.

“Tonkotsu” ramen became quite popular in the U.S., but I’m not sure if people really know what that means.

Tonkotsu literally means “pig/pork bones”, and you make your soup from them.

(My vegan version contains no pork or any type of meat, but it does have a similar rich flavors that are very satisfying.)

“Tonkatsu” is another popular Japanese dish in the U.S., and I sometimes hear people say “Tonkatsu” ramen, but that’s incorrect, unless the ramen is served with “tonkatsu” as a topping.

Tonkatsu is “pig/pork cutlet”.

Just a little not-so-necessary piece of information (lol).

But if you say “Tonkotsu ramen” correctly, you will certainly look like someone who knows your ramen (lol).

The soup was delicious as it was, but a little splash of this Yuzu hot sauce I found at Trader Joe’s brightened up the flavors.

I always wanted to take a picture like this.

If you eat good ramen, I think it’s obligatory.

And this is an acceptable way in Japan to finish your soup.

I do not recommend doing this in the western countries though.

Tonkotsu-Style ramen soup: onion and garlic sauteed in canola oil, water, kiridashi-kombu, tahini, soy milk, mirin, sugar, soy sauce, salt, pepper

Filed in Asian Food, Japanese Food, Mushrooms, Noodles/Pasta | | Comments (0)

Matcha Marble Bread
抹茶ぐるぐるマーブルパン

Friday, August 10, 2018

This was my first attempt to make this type of marble bread.

You make a separate Matcha “sheet” first, and then you roll it with regular bread dough to create the marble pattern.

This was before going into the oven.

Just out of the oven.

I was so happy to see the beautiful marbles, because I put so much effort to it and I was really hoping that they would turn out okay.

I think they turned out so much better than okay.

This bread is slightly sweet but definitely not a “sweet” bread like the cinnamon rolls.

You can definitely taste the lovely Matcha, too.

It’s pretty inside as well.

There is definitely Matcha there.

You really don’t NEED to do this, because it’s delicious as it is, but since I baked two loaves, I decided to play with one of them.

This loaf was dressed with vanilla icing and chopped walnuts.

I love this picture so much, because it really shows how soft and flaky the bread is.

Lisianthus.

One of my favorite flowers.

My husband bought these for me at the local farmers market last weekend.

They are so elegant.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Filed in Bread, Breakfast | | Comments (0)

T-Roll with Mayo and Teriyaki
T巻き、マヨと照り焼きだれ。

Thursday, August 9, 2018

I make sushi rolls often, but I still get excited when I make one.

As a result, I tend to prepare too much stuff to roll in.

I don’t always do this, but it is fun to serve with sauce.

I happened to have just made V mayo using this recipe (except that I used apple cider instead of lemon juice).

What you see here are sushi brown rice, cucumber, sweet and spicy tempeh, avocado, and radish.

It barely closed!

So good!!

The mayo and teriyaki are a golden combination.

Filed in Asian Food, Japanese Food, Rice/Grains | | Comments (0)

Purple Potato Mini Tarts
紫芋ミニタルト

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Purple potato has quickly become one of my favorite potatoes.

Last time I got my purple potatoes at Whole Foods, but this time I got mine at a local Asian grocery store.

The skin color was a bit paler than the previous one, but when cooked it tasted just the same.

As I talked about it in this post, I love everything about it, but particularly the beautiful color.

Where have you been in my life, really?!

I happened to have a little left-over crust dough in the freezer that I needed to use, and I thought it would be fun to make a little purple treat.

Aren’t these lovely?

These tarts are filled with homemade V cream cheese and then topped off with buttery purple potato cream.

Recommended beverage?

Assam tea.

My decoration skills are limited, but I did enjoy making these little ones pretty with these purple flowers.

These are so small and a perfect bite size.

This is how it looks inside.

The pleasant slight tang from the V cream cheese, buttery sweet purple potato cream, and the flaky crust…

Mmm, Mmm, Mmm.

Filed in Potatoes/Squash, Sweets | | Comments (0)

RED Ramen
赤ラーメン

Monday, August 6, 2018

When people travel, they often bring something home.

For me it’s usually a food idea(s).

This RED Ramen was inspired by Vegan Tonyu Red (ramen) I had at Marukin Ramen in Portland which I visited last month.

I tried to upload my picture of their ramen, but for some reason I was not able to.

But trust me, their soup was red!

I mean really red.

When I first saw it, I instantly thought it would be way too spicy to eat, but it wasn’t.

It was spicy, but more than anything, it was tasty.

So now back home I wanted to make my own red ramen.

These are not really ramen noodles because they are a bit wider and flatter, but I like these.

First of all, they are vegan (no eggs).

And I like its ingredients.

Simple.

No artificial yellow coloring.

Believe it or not, lots of noodles contain artificial yellow coloring.

Next, I pick a bowl for my ramen.

This is not a traditional ramen bowl, but the “white x red” color combination with the unique design makes it a good candidate.

(I’m actually shopping for a traditional ramen bowl right now.)

Made in Japan!

Noodles go in first.

Soup, and then grilled king mushrooms and toppings.

My RED Ramen was super tasty!

And spicy.

So I think I accomplished my mission with this one.

Filed in Asian Food, Japanese Food, Noodles/Pasta | | Comments (0)

Southern Style Ticken and Waffles
南部風〝ティキン”＆ワッフル

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Chicken and Waffles is probably the best example of a great sweet-savory dish.

To tell you the truth, I’ve never had chicken and waffles in my life, and then I started a plant-based diet.

But I was always interested in the concept, and this morning I decided to make my vegan version.

If I would make chicken and waffles, I knew my “chicken” had to be the southern style fried chicken.

I used super extra tofu from Trader Joe’s.

The tofu was microwaved for about a minute to remove excess water.

I tore pieces up so that each piece had an irregular shape to make them look like chicken.

They were marinated first for about 15 minutes, and then coated with spiced flour before deep-fried.

And voila!

How beautiful isn’t my “Ticken”?

And here is the end result.

The waffles were light, crunchy, and slightly sweet.

My Southern fried Ticken was placed on the waffle.

Served with fresh baby arugula/spinach and radish salad, homemade curried fig mayo, and a little drizzle of maple syrup.

This was absolutely delicious, y’all!

When you make a bite with everything, waffle, Ticken, salad, mayo, and maple syrup, the flavors explode in your mouth.

I would personally give it the title of the king of sweet-and-savory brunch.

After the big meal, I thought a little walk would be a good idea.

So my husband and I strolled down to the local farmers market.

I was really hoping to find figs, but no luck…

Instead, however, I found beautiful flowers, and my husband bought these bouquets for me.

The yellow color always brightens up my white kitchen and my spirit!

Happy Sunday everyone.

Note to myself…
Southern Style Ticken: super extra tofu (torn with hands), marinade (soy milk, a lot of Louisiana hot sauce; it curdles; keep it refrigerated), spiced flour (1.5 cup (more than enough but easy to work with) all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of paprika, salt)
1. Microwave tofu for about one minute and remove excess water. Sprinkle salt generously. Cover and refrigerate for 10~15 minutes.
2. Marinate the tofu in the marinade for about 15 minutes.
3. Put marinated tofu in the spiced flour and coat well. Splash the marinade on the tofu and coat with the flour again to create the clumpy bits. Deep-fry in 350F oil until browned and crispy.

Filed in Breakfast, Tofu | | Comments (0)

Almond Sticks with Double Icing
アーモンドスティック、ダブルアイシングがけ

Saturday, August 4, 2018

I did not know how much I liked almonds until my recent trip to Portland.

This Almond Ring at Sweetpea Baking Company was one of the best pastries I’ve ever had, and I went to the bakery three times during the three days we had in Portland!

My Almond Sticks were created with the inspiration from the Almond Ring.

First, my Japanese Pullman bread was lightly toasted and then cut into sticks.

Homemade V-butter.

Lots of almond slices.

Two kinds of icing: Almond and Coffee.

These were so good and a perfect breakfast.

Isn’t it beautiful?

One of my favorite color combinations, too.

So classy.

Recommended beverage?

Black coffee.

Cherry is probably my favorite fruit this time of the year.

They are so juicy and sweet.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Don’t tell me you never do this.

Filed in Bread, Breakfast | | Comments (0)

V-Cheesy Quesadilla
Vチーズたっぷりケサディーヤ

Friday, August 3, 2018

Quesadilla!

I call it the Mexican king of snack.

This quesadilla was ready for a little Friday happy hour because luckily I happened to have this “mozarrella” I had made the day before.

The cheese melted perfectly!

A beer please.

I mean, a Corona, please.

Filed in Mushrooms | | Comments (0)

Moroccan Eggplant & Cucumber Salad Pitas: MAGAZINE vs. I Vol.1
モロッコ風茄子ときゅうりサラダでピタパン：雑誌-対-あたし

Thursday, August 2, 2018

This is an ultimate one plate dinner, if you ask me.

Warm homemade rosemary pita bread just out of the oven, served with Moroccan spiced eggplant and tempeh ragu and cool cucumber-mint salad.

The idea came from a magazine.

My mother-in-law always has a stack of magazines for me to take home whenever I visit her.

The variety is unbelievably wide, from familiar ones to unusual ones, and I always find unique magazines I’ve never heard of, like ones that specialize in birds, or Victorian style, or simply good old days…

My recent favorite way of spending my evening free time is going through these magazines while taking a bath.

When I find something interesting (e.g., recipes, perfume flavors, or kitchen items, clothing brand, etc.), I tear off the page.

Now these pages are slowly accumulating.