I usually like my Yakisoba, or Japanese fried noodles, with sauce.
But once in a while I get in a mood for simple salt version.
I also happened to have fresh lemons, and lemon zest went nicely with this salted version, with vegan scallops, broccoli, and scallion.
As always, my noodle dish has the 1:1 noodles and non-noodle ratio.
Tonkotsu?
No it’s TonKATSU.
I know they are spelled similarly, and I see people often use them incorrectly, even on the restaurant menu,
Tonkotsu is a type of ramen soup.
Tonkatsu is deep-fried pork.
Ton means pork, and Katsu means Panko-crusted deep-fried.
So I call this beautiful deep-fried tofu, T-Katsu.
And of course I have to serve it with julienned cabbage.
I don’t know why, but in Japan Katsu always comes with cabbage!
Completed with rice and soup.
Love my new blue-white plate.
It took me two visits to the store (and almost an hour on the second visit!), but I’m glad I came home with it.
My husband wanted pot stickers for his birthday weekend, but he did not tell me soon enough, so I was not able to make it happen.
It seems easy to make pot stickers, but finding vegan wrappers is actually quite challenging.
I kept looking, and a month later I found the right wrappers, so it was time to make a late birthday dish for him.
I usually like garlic chives in my pot stickers, but this time I was not able to get it at the right time.
So instead I went for basil, and it worked well.
I used to make 100, but this time I decided to make only what we could eat.
They are the best when eaten right out of the pan.
I usually don’t mind leftover, but pot stickers are one of a few foods that are not fun to eat once refrigerated, unfortunately.
So happy with the result!
I even got beautiful lacy skirt.
Last time when my friend and I planned brunch at our house, we had to cancel it because she did not fell well.
Well, we re-scheduled and today we go to finally do it.
I usually take a safe route and stick with traditional/basic food when I cook for someone for the first time.
But with this friend I felt I knew her food preference enough, and I was comfortable to be a bit bold about the menu.
I knew she likes Japanese food in general, and she seems to be able to be okay with (and enjoy) many Japanese-unique ingredients (e.g., miso, seaweed).
So I made a menu that features some Japanese flavors and presentation.
On the bottom (carbs) tray you’ll find two types of Onigiri (rice balls).
One was with vegan smoked salmon, capers, and dill.
The other contained homemade vegan meat, Shiso leaves, and sesame.
They were served with roasted Nori seaweed so that the rice balls can be wrapped in the seaweed sheet.
Oh, I also made miso soup, which was served separately.
Zucchini Tsukemono.
Tsukemono is a Japanese style pickles.
Some are close to the pickles you see in the U.S., but others have different flavors.
For instance, this was was marinated in salt, sugar, and sesame oil.
No vinegar.
This zucchini was from my mother-in-law’s backyard.
It was a big zucchini, but I liked that the seeds inside were not obnoxiously big; many large zucchini has such huge seeds, which I do not care for.
On the second (main) tray, you’ll find peanut tofu.
This turned out great!!
The rich peanut flavor goes so well with a bit of wasabi and soy sauce.
The texture was perfect too.
This traditional Japanese braised potato dish was also on the second tray.
These marinated grape tomatoes were sweet, fresh, and a perfect side dish this time of the year.
Pealed grape tomatoes were marinated in a mixture of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and maple syrup/agave overnight.
The top tier is of course for dessert.
Since this was brunch, I didn’t want it to be too sugary.
Having said that, however, a few cookies seemed very appropriate to be on this tary.
These are white sesame cookies and Kinako (roasted soy bean) cookies.
Along with the cookies I also served small nectarine yogurt cups and fresh grapes.
My friend brought me this beautiful bouquet of flowers!!
I was eying on this last time I was at the farmers market, so I was super excited.
The colors are amazing!
She said it’s called Butterfly Weed.
Apparently butterflies are attracted to it.
I didn’t notice until later, but it has such a wonderful fragrant.
A mild vanilla-like very pleasant sweet smell.
This is the individual setting I made for this blog photography.
I wanted to take some pictures this way before my friend arrived (I wanted to focus on us not on food during our time together).
We just each used a large plate to make a one-plate meal, but I thought it would be fun to make a setting like this for the picture anyway.
I’m glad I kept these bamboo leaves in the freezer.
These are great for this type of presentation.
I love girls brunch.
I think it’s good for mental health (lol).
I still need to work on my rolling skills, but this turned out so pretty!
I had some leftover vegan smoked salmon from last weekend, and I wanted to make lunch using it.
I’ve made so many different dishes with it in the past.
(You can search and find them with “smoked salmon”.)
They were all good, but you know me, I wanted to make something new, something I haven’t made.
I happened to have beautiful ripe mango, and I thought it would be great to put together a sushi roll.
Fresh and delicious!
Along with the mango, you’ll find cucumber, red pepper, and Shiso leaves.
Japanese like noodles, and there are always noodle dishes they enjoy every season.
Somen (cold dipping noodles) is one of their favorites during the summer time.
Noodles are served in an ice water, usually with ice cubes to keep the noodles cold.
And dipping soup, which is also cold.
They are usually served with various toppings.
Some of the popular ones are wasabi, scallion, Shiso leaves, and Nori roasted seaweed.
This time I decided to go with diced tomatoes, ground sesame, and scallion.
Dry ramen is not only easy to make, but also perfect for this time of the year.
It’s served at the room temperature or cold, along with the acidity in the sauce is refreshing.
Happy Friday.
I had craving for ramen for a while, and I finally had time to make one.
Ramen is one of the “YES” meals.
When I ask my husband if he wants ramen, his answer is always “Yes.”
Today I made rich soup.
I’ve tried different types of soup, but this is probably our favorite.
By the way, “Kotteri” means “rich (flavor)” in Japanese.
I make a noodle bowl like this often.
I just add whatever I have in the fridge.
Sometimes I have only a few items and other times there are multiple items.
This one is pretty close to my ideal set of toppings.
Natto.
Perfectly ripe avocado.
(I struggle with the ripeness timing of avocado. When I need it, it’s not ready, and when it’s ready, I have no plan to use it!)
Wakame seaweed.
This has been my recent favorite.
I keep a dried package in my pantry all the time.
In this bowl you’ll also find kimchi and diced tomatoes.
It looks like Ramen
Well, almost!
Something is missing, right?
Did you notice there is no soup.
I like regular ramen WITH soup, but sometimes I enjoy this type of “dry” ramen.
Everything is the same, but instead of being served with soup it’s served with some kind of dressing or glaze.
This vegan “pork” I made was perfect as a topping.
Yum!!
