A comfort food.
Soup and stew type food is perfect for this time of the year.
Creamy, spicy, flavorful, and tons of mushroom and tofu chunks in one dish.
What not to love?!
I usually like my Katsu with Japanese worcestershire sauce or sweet miso glaze.
Those are my go-to sauce.
But this time I wanted to try something different.
Something spicy…
An action shot is still so hard to take.
I need more practice.
This was actually really good!
The glaze was spicy and sweet at the same time.
As you can see I like a pile of shredded cabbage between the rice and the Katsu.
The phrase, called “Ma-Go-Wa-Ya-Sa-Shi-I” has been popular in Japan lately.
It’s a kind of reminder or a piece of guidance for healthy-eating.
Each syllable represents a category of food, and they encourage you to include food from all those categories in your meal.
Ma is for Mame: Beans, in general. This can also be generalized for tofu or soy milk.
Go is for Goma: Sesame. This category also includes nuts and seeds.
Wa is for Wakame; Wakame is a type of seaweed, but it can be any kind of seaweed.
Ya is for Yasai: Vegetable.
Sa is for Sakana: Fish. Apparently I skip this as a plant-eater.
Shi is for Shiitake: Shiitake is a type of mushroom, but it can be any type of mushroom.
I is for Imo: Potato. Any type of potato, or squash, or root vegetable.
Can you spot all the M-G-W-Y-S-I in this bowl?
M: Kidney beans; soft tofu
G: Sesame seeds; sunflower seeds
W: Salted kombu
Y: Cucumber; tomato; spinach; arugula; sprouts
S: Enoki mushroom
I: Konjak (it’s made of a kind of potato); Chestnut (this is a tough one! It’s “nut” but the texture and taste are more like potato’s? No?)
We were just in Chicago and we stopped at Mitsuwa, a large Japanese grocery store, on our way home.
It’s pretty easy to find many Japanese food today.
I can find most of the things I need at the local Asian grocery store, and a few things I cannot find there, I can get them from Amazon.
But this salted Kombu seaweed is one of a few things I like but cannot get, so I was happy to find it at Mitsuwa.
They happened to have a flea market at their parking lot, and I bought some old magazines and books.
I got them for a dollar each!
You can buy new Japanese magazines and books, but they are still pretty expensive in the U.S.
(Magazines are usually double the price.)
Even my husband found something he liked at Mitsuwa.
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.
This is a perfect summer salad.
Fresh and light.
I made “Mozzarella cheese” with silken tofu.
I have another recipe for vegan Mozzarella, but this tofu version is much easier, and still delicious.
Just sprinkle salt all over the Tofu.
Wrap it with layers of paper towel, place in a container, cover, and refrigerate for 2-3 days; excess liquid is removed and the texture becomes creamy.
(Next time I will probably use cheesecloth instead of paper towel. With paper towel, I had to change it a few times as it gets soaked quickly.)
The white, red, and green color combination is just beautiful!
Served with Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Very satisfying.
I like any type of curry, and Thai curry is not an exception.
Garlic chives are one of the things I look for when I go to an Asian grocery store.
The other toppings other than the garlic chives you will find in this beautiful bowl are tofu crumbles, sprouts, and hemp seeds.
My mother-in-law and I had been talking about going strawberry-picking for years.
For some reason, it didn’t happen until yesterday!
My mother-in-law found a berry farm close to her house and invited me to go with her.
They open at 8:00 a.m. and we were there before 9:00 a.m.
We went there on Friday because I happened to not have to work yesterday, and I also thought it would be less crowded than Saturday when we had initially planned going.
When we got there it was still cooler and there were few people, but when we left there were definitely more people and it was much warmer.
So we got there at the right time.
My mother-in-law was like an expert!
She was fast and picked so many more than I did within the same amount of time, AND I definitely took more breaks than she did (apparently).
It was fun, but it was also a lot of work!
Now I definitely have much more respect for farmers.
I picked 4 lbs, and my mother-in-law picked 8 lbs.
This bowl was made of brown rice, garlic tofu crumbles, fresh hand-picked sweet strawberries, radish slices, Shiso leaves, and scallion.
Served with sweet soy glaze.
DELICIOUS!
Here are beautiful sunflowers from my hubby!
It’s one of my favorite flowers, and it just melts my heart when he surprises me like this.
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 wake up hungry most of the time.
I think it’s healthy, right?
On weekends I can’t get out of bed fast enough because I’m ready to eat (lol).
(During the week? It’s a different story.)
I like to buy my yogurt unsweetened and add sweetness myself so that I can adjust the sugar amount.
This ↑ is my current favorite combination, Forager plant-based yogurt and Trader Joe’s fig butter.
Fig butter (or jam) is too sweet for me to eat by itself, but it is great when eaten with yogurt.
This is fig “butter”, so it’s pretty thick.
Sandwich: homemade sesame “almost bagel”, homemade vegan
cheese, BBQ tempeh, turmeric tofu, mashed avocado.
The sandwich was served with yogurt with fig butter, wilted kale, and tomato slices.
My husband (from MN) and I (from Japan) usually eat the same thing at home, but once in a while I prepare two different dishes, one for him and one for me.
Today was that kind of day.
I wanted to make him a sandwich for breakfast, but I had craving for Somen noodles (Japanese thin noodles).
So this is what I made for myself, using similar ingredients.
My husband was happy with his meal, and I was happy with my meal.
Spring rolls are fun to eat, but not fun to make!!
I’m pretty good at folding things (e.g., pot stickers), but not so good at rolling things.
It’s hard to roll things tight, which is my problem.
This time I was faced with extra challenge, and some of them did not even close.
I probably put too much stuff inside.
But because of that you can see what’s inside (you have to find something positive in everything, right?).
If I remember it correctly, inside were homemade seitan meat, turmeric tofu, carrots, cabbage, peppers, noodles, sprouts, and cilantro.
Served with three different sauces, peanut, sweet chili, and black bean.
