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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is one of them, and I was immediately drawn to the picture, more so than the recipe itself.
This is called “Lamb & Cucumber Salad Pitas” and found in Better Homes and Gardens.
So with this as a general inspiration, I decided to make my own version.
I had a little leftover rosemary dough, and used it to make pita bread.
Love it when they puff perfectly.
I prepared my cucumber salad with cucumber, red onion, olives, and mint.
The combination screams summer!
They were using lamb patty in the magazine, but my version has Moroccan spiced eggplant-tempeh ragu.
Here is the magazine again.
This is mine.
How did I do?
It’s been a while since last time I baked pullman bread.
Last weekend I was in the mood for a good toast and decided to make a loaf.
I only use my mom’s recipe for pullman bread; well, I have veganized it, quite successfully.
When I bought this pan, I thought it was big enough for the household of two, but since we go through it so quickly, I’ve started thinking about buying another pan.
I usually use a bread knife, but this time I asked my husband to slice it using an electric knife, and he (and the knife) did an awesome job.
I really love this bread.
There is nothing better than a good Pullman bread toast.
Isn’t it beautiful?
This cold noodle dish is THE summer dish people enjoy in Japan.
This type of extremely thin noodle is called “so-men”.
Interestingly, this particular brand named their so-men “Tomo-Shiraga”, which literally means “friend white hair”.
It’s the thinnest type of noodle found in Japan, and I guess the name is probably not too inappropriate (lol).
You cook the noodles (it takes no time!), and after cooling them down under running cold water, you serve them in a bowl full of iced water with ice cubes.
Just looking at this cools you down on a hot summer day.
Just a simple side dish is all you need.
What’s really important to So-men is preparing condiments.
There are so many different options, but the ones I got here are some of my favorites: scallion, Shiso (Japanese basil), grated radish (usually Daikon, but I used red radish), ginger, wasabi, and roasted nori (seaweed).
I love setting the table with a dish like this.
It reminds me of home.
When I sit down for a meal like this in front of me, it hits me and makes me realize something simple, “well I’m Japanese”.
Food often has a special power like that, really reminding you where you are from.
Now I’ll show you how to eat So-men.
You usually share a bowl of so-men with your family, but you’ll have your own small cup of chilled soup.
Use your chopsticks and scoop up noodles.
You don’t need a lot of noodles, just enough for one slurp.
Drop the noodles in your soup.
Add condiments to your soup.
Ta-da!
You have a perfect cup of noodle soup to enjoy.
Once you finish your noodles in your cup, repeat the process.
Add more soup and condiments as needed.
Thank you for reading.
I’m so excited about this post, because there are so many things that I want to talk about.
Well, first of all, I want to show off our new waffle maker.
I’ve been looking for this heart-type for a while, and it actually took a while to find one.
Unexpectedly this type of waffle maker seems rather outdated, and many stores do not carry it; apparently the Belgian style thick square one is the current trend.
Since my husband and I both like thinner, lighter, and crispier waffles, this was perfect.
I was so proud that our first waffles we made with this new waffle maker turned out delicious!!
It’s hard to see the color from the outside.
But the secret is hidden inside.
Now you can see the beauty!!
Getting the table ready.
One of the great supporting “actors” is Bourbon maple syrup.
Cayenne spiced caramelized walnuts.
And my V-butter, of course.
So so scrumptious!
Have a great weekend everyone.
