Yummy Umami

Tasting the Fifth Taste - Umami Burger

Ronson treated us to Umami Burger (the Los Feliz location) last Thursday. It Agnes' idea, and how could we pass up trying a new place? It was a fun, relaxed evening. Going out on Thursday night is great; as Agnes says, "you feel like you get a jump start on the weekend". Also, you don't have to deal with the weekend crowding, noise, and too busy wait staff.

I enjoyed the food and the decor, which had a kind of retro Japanese feel - it reminds me of the original Godzilla movie for some reason... To start, Jimmy and Ronson had the Thai House beer and Agnes and I shared the Umami Cocktail (cucumber-infused Japanese soju, yuzu, and clear seaweed noodles) According to our waitress, the crunchy seaweed noodles was supposed to have the "highest amount of umami". The drink was pleasantly refreshing but some of us were a little baffled about what exactly is umami -  the noodles having very little flavor. I should have done background research before our outing...

We started with a simple looking but surprisingly tasty Market salad, followed by burgers and three sides. Many burgers on the menu sounded good but Jimmy and I finally picked the Truffle and Casablanca (lamb, pickled apricots, tender greens and pomegranate aioli) burgers to share. We also tried the Triple Pork Burger that Agnes ordered for everyone to try. The burgers are a bit diminutive in size - perhaps appropriate to the Japanese theme - with a suprisingly soft, and sweetish hamburger bun. I thought the bun a little too soft, but in hindsight, a firmer bun may have made it harder to appreciate the juicy and more delicate texture of these burgers.  All the burgers were good but I found the Casablanca burger the tastiest. Our three sides were the hand cut fries, sweet potato fries, and onion rings, all which were pretty good, but I wouldn't say any of sides or the housemade ketchup or aioli condiments stood out.

It was too dark to take any decent pictures but Agnes took this shot of the cool sign near the Salaryman side of the restaurant.

Eater has a nice blog and pictures about it at http://la.eater.com/tags/umami-burger

Old Fish, New Twist

Escolar with Lilikoi Lime Salsa and Fresh Herbs & Brown Rice with Almonds, Lime and Furikake

We were given two pieces of frozen Escolar a couple weeks ago so it was time we ate them.  I actually took a piece out to defrost a few hours before dinnertime - I don't often think ahead like that!

Our first introduction to Escolar was at the South Pasadena Farmer's market. We were in front of the fish vendor and overheard someone speaking glowingly about Escolar. Our interest piqued, we bought a piece to try, got home, and looked up recipes on the internet. Some of the comments online warning of the possibility of getting sick after eating the fish was unnerving! I finally went ahead and prepared it, but took the precaution of preparing even smaller than recommended portions of fish. Of the few recipes I found for Escolar; Escolar with Tomato Chutney seemed most appealing as 1) I happened to have some yellow pear and red cherry tomatoes that were amazingly good, and 2), given the oily nature of the fish, the other recipes utilized butter sauces that seemed too rich.

The first time I made this recipe, some time last year, I adapted from the recipe so I could use what was on hand and wouldn't delay dinner with a trip to the market. I substituted fresh ginger juice instead of minced ginger, in case the minced ginger could be a tough texture to chew, and I used chipotle jam in place of the chili flakes and tamarind, which I didn't have.

the original recipe is here:
http://restaurant-hospitality.com/recipes/rh_imp_10851/

Last night I made the chutney with eyeballed amounts of
chopped Heirloom Cherokee tomato (seeds removed and excess water squeezed out)
chopped Yellow Bell Pepper (seeds and excess pith removed)
minced Jalapeno Pepper
Lilikoi Jam to taste
Lime Juice to taste
finely sliced Basil , Lemon Basil and Cilantro
Salt

Jimmy sliced two pieces of Escolar from the piece we had; we tried to keep each serving around 3 ounces. After salting and peppering, he seared them on the grill, with beautiful grill marks, and finished them in the toaster oven. I put together the ingredients for the chutney, which comes out like a salsa for me. I thought it would be fun to plate the fish by piling the salsa on top of the fish but spooned only the liquid to surround the fish. I garnished with some of the fresh herbs, which I had reserved.

Escolar with Lilikoi Lime Salsa and Fresh Herbs

I happened to have a little Lemon Basil which I threw in to use, and I think it was really good in this recipe. I've never used it before and it has a delightful scent and aroma.

I had made brown rice in the rice cooker and at the last minute wanted to make it a little more interesting. I decided to add a little butter and soy sauce (how I liked eating rice as a kid) and then dropped in some sliced almonds for texture. In keeping with the tropical twist of the fish, I added some lime juice. Finally, I sprinkled in some Furikake and mixed everything together. Voila, a five minute "pilaf"!

 

Brown Rice with Almonds, Lime and Furikake

So, the result? I thought the fish turned out well. It has a nice mild flavor, and a great texture without being meaty. It was surprisingly moist for not appearing oily at all. The salsa complemented nicely and I think, allows you the option to not have to serve this dish piping hot. I really like how ridiculously easy and tasty the rice was. I will definitely make this rice again!

what's for Breakfast?

Breakfast Challenged

Breakfast is rather inconsistent in our house. Leisurely and more substantial breakfasts are generally reserved for the weekend, but weekdays, its often grabbing a bowl of cereal, or skipping altogether.

I need to find more for our breakfast menu. Sweet pastries or breads seem unhealthy for everyday and I feel I have to pace how often I eat eggs, and for that matter, bacon! My repertoire is limited; omelets or scrambled eggs sometimes accompanied by sausage or bacon, cold cereal or oatmeal and every once in a while; kanji (rice porridge) and canned toppings for an Asian style breakfast. 

It finally being slightly cooler today we had hot cereal -oatmeal- for a change. I topped it with some leftover cooked apple and caramel sauce I got from a friend. (We had made Tarte Tatin at her house earlier in the week). I grabbed a few pine nuts, sliced almonds, cashews and chopped a little dried apricot as a topping, and spooned the caramel mixture over everything. Not super healthy, but still a nice change :)

What can I make for breakfast that is healthy, tasty and doesn't take forever? Even today's oatmeal took over half an hour, being the steel cut variety. 


 

quick stir frys

dinner in under 30

Jimmy is clearly the faster cook; and tonight he whipped out two Chinese dishes - like that! Rice was already cooked, so that helped too. We got these vegetables from the Chinese vendor at the South Pasadena market - we like buying our asian veggies, garlic, ginger, kabocha squash and Okinawan sweet potatoes from him.

Fish Ball with Chives

Broccoli with Hunan Ham

Brining Olives

DIY experiment 

 
Jimmy has been eyeing these olives at the Farmer's market.. He wants to photograph them and  try brining them too.

 

raw olives

washing the olives

He's going to put them in a bowl of salt water to sit in the fridge for at least a week.

We'll check back later :)

quick bites - 5 minute pizza

Toaster Oven Pizzetta

Had a late breakfast today and wanted a snack around 3:00 pm. We had leftover tortillas from making breakfast burritos... Been thinking of making pizzettas with them and bought cheese especially from Whole Foods yesterday. The guy at the cheese counter was very helpful, not only did he recommend the Taleggio for making pizza, I found out something great; that Whole Foods will cut down their pre-wrapped cheese wedges and sell you an amount that you want. I'd been avoiding buying cheese because we've found it impossible to consume the sizeable slabs before they turned into lab experiments.

Jimmy had started snacking by eating his consuming passion of the season - figs; this time wrapped with leftover prosciutto. It hit me that that could be potentially great as a pizza topping...

So I started yanking from the fridge-
leftover tortillas
partial bag of arugula
remaining prosciutto slices
roasted tomato slices
roasted garlic
Mission figs
delightfully small wedge of Taleggio cheese
chopped green onions

Fig, Prosciutto, Roasted Garlic and Taleggio Pizzetta

I smeared 2 cloves of roasted garlic onto a tortilla, tore the soft Taleggio and prosciutto into small pieces and distributed it evenly. The figs were sliced into rounds and layered next. Finally, I sprinkled some leftover chopped green onions for color. I set the toaster oven to broil, slid in the pizzetta and waited till the cheese bubbled and the tortilla got browned on the edges. Success! We wolfed that one down and went on to make a different flavor.







Roasted Tomato, Arugula, and Taleggio Pizzetta

First, I distributed pieces of the cheese, followed by a layer of arugula, then the slices of roasted tomatoes, and finally some thin sliced onion. I drizzled a small amount of olive oil and slid the tortilla into the oven the few minutes for the cheese to bubble. That one got eaten pretty quick too.







I think we'll keep tortillas on hand - and they seem to freeze well too!

bento lunch

jury lunch #7 - the last one -
Salmon Yaki and Lemon Simmered Kabocha



One of my favorite lunches is eating bentos - Japanese box lunches - from the food court at Shirokiya, a department store in Hawaii. I always have a hard time deciding which one to choose and try to get a combination that has the most of my favorites things to eat.

I had two old takeout containers I thought I could use to pack lunch. Then I had to think of what to put in them that would be good eaten at room temperature... In the fridge was a small piece of defrosted salmon and some leftover raw tuna from last night's hand rolls. I remembered a recipe for salmon yaki (in a cookbook that Jimmy had just borrowed from the Pasadena Library) which I luckily had all the ingredients for, so I made that. Last night, at the South Pasadena Farmer's market, we had picked up a kabocha melon, so one of our favorite recipes from Elizabeth Andoh's Washoku - simmered kabocha with lemon was part of lunch. This dish is almost better the next day, even cold! I packed the rice with furikake shaken on top, placed the melon, and fish on top and slid some slices of vegetarian duck for some variety. I tried to slice the tuna into something resembling sashimi, and packed that separately. My salmon wasn't as tasty as I hoped - I'll have to work on improving it - but lunch was still pretty good.

Jury duty lunch has been a pretty good exercise in improvisation under time pressure. I'm not good at it, so I hope I've gotten better for it :)