Sushi Time!

So my mom left me many sushi supplies so I could make sushi, but I always wondered when I would have time to do it. But, putting some time aside resulted in a pretty good meal (with plenty of leftovers!). I already had seaweed, soy sauce, the rolling mat (a makisu), and rice vinegar, so I went out and bought fake crab, cucumbers, avocados, and sushi-grade salmon and tuna (from Loblaws).

Making the rice wasn't too hard, I followed the instructions from a website (which I can't find at the moment :( ). Basically you rinse the rice well, cook it with enough water, let it cool, and then add the su (which is the rice vinegar-sugar-salt mix). In fact, this site looks pretty legit (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/01/perfect-sushi-rice/). I didn't really measure out the su...I just eyeballed it and tasted it, then added the other ingredients if they were lacking.

Anyways here's the photo collection of the experiment...it got better as more were made :P

O yea I also used brown rice, which I thought wouldn't work or taste good but it actually turned out okay! Extra fibre for the win :P

So this was messy...they weren't pressed hard enough in the makisu, and thus fell apart when cutting.

Much better sushi when you press hard while rolling!

Cooking Chinese, Ordering Sushi

This post is about the actual Chinese food I make at home. I've got an assortment of food I'd eat more often, food I'd make much less often, and food to order when you're just craving.

First off is a simple stir-fried bok choy, sliced beef and vermicelli in the bottom there (though you can't really see it). Super simple, serves my veggie/protein needs, and relatively tasty (just add soy sauce).

On this day, I went full out making Chinese food you'd find in a restaurant. Little did I know how much salt and oil and that requires! This is why I don't make restaurant-style Chinese food on a daily basis, it is TOTALLY different from what Chinese people actually eat at home. However, on this day I pan-fried some chicken thighs marinated in oyster sauce, stir-fried asparagus and olives, and used the leftover oil from frying the chicken to crisp up some noodles. It was SO salty, and VERY oily, and I actually didn't feel very good after (or during the meal for that matter...I had to drink tons of water). It will be quite a long time before I fry noodles again.

On another night, my roommate and I decided to order sushi! It's always pricey and this one came out to around $35 dollars if I remember correctly....but it gave me the excuse to pull out these Japanese dishes that I rarely use. It also came with shrimp sushi (that was put in a separate container...due to my allergies).

Mmmm....

PS...I LOVE the Korean sushi roll (that's the one in the front with the fake crab, egg, cucumber, radish, and beef).

Sometimes I get frozen dumplings (though not often anymore), and decide to be lazy one night so I them out of the freezer. You simply boil them until they float (and I also cut it open because I'm still a novice at telling when it's cooked through). I had some Chinese vegetables that I stir-fried to complete the dish. I believe this is Chinese broccoli (Gai Lan). What's important is that it's green.

Look Ma, I turned Breakfast into Lunch!

Today was another great day where I woke up naturally 3 minutes before my alarm would have gone off haha. So I got out of bed and went to my fridge, which is quite empty right now. I realized I still had a little bit of egg whites left in a carton (equivalent to 1 egg really), so I decided to have an omelette. Since I like my omelette (and most meals) with lots of veggies, I stir fried some broccoli with garlic and sliced an avocado to eat fresh (I didn't cook the avocado). I took out the broccoli, added some oil the the pan and cooked the egg. The best part is that the egg picked up all the flavour from the broccoli, garlic, and chicken broth brown bits at the bottom of the pan :D

Since I ate half the avocado waiting for things to cook (that's only the other half you see in the picture), I was feeling kinda full after eating the egg and some broccoli. My appetite for breakfast has never been huge. So, I decided to use the leftovers as my sides for lunch. I cleaned the same pan and cooked up a salmon fillet (after microwave defrosting).

The salmon's got a hole in the middle because I cut it in half to check if it was done (and as always, it wasn't). I added two slices of olive bread and now I'm set for my noon time lunch with a friend :D

Thanks for reading!

Chili, The Weekend Pizza Pocket, and a Deconstructed Sandwich

I've always wanted to make chili for the longest time, but never had the guts to do it I suppose. It's just one of things that seems like a daunting task until you actually do it. So I did it :) Instead of ground beef, I bought a flank tip steak and chopped it up into bite size pieces (my family doesn't like to buy ground meat...I guess we're paranoid about contamination) and browned it with onions in a hot pan for about 5 minutes. Then, I added red/green/yellow bell peppers, V8 juice, and mixed beans. Threw in some garlic cloves, bay leaves, and chili powder and let it simmer for 45 minutes.

It turned out okay, but my roommate said it was really good so I'll trust him on that :P I just felt there was something missing, so next time I think I'm going to make it from scratch (without the V8 juice). However, it was super easy and quick to make, and has been added to my repertoire :D

This weekend, I decided to make grilled cheese sandwiches just like I had back in the days of camping haha. I packed Monterey Jack cheese, pasta sauce, and cilantro in between two pieces of olive bread, and minced garlic to spread on the outside of the olive bread. I pan fried them on med-low heat, sprinkling oregano, salt, and pepper on top. The meal kinda doesn't match well with the whole 'eat healthy' thing I've been doing, but it was just one of those days where you give in haha. For three sandwiches.

For dinner I worked on my pan-fried fish (in this case, salmon) topped with a salsa made of onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives. I planned to have the salmon sitting on top of the salsa, sitting nicely on top of the rice (like I would imagine it in a restaurant), but that didn't really work out... Not bad though, just needed some salt.

Finally, I threw together a spinach/cilantro omelette, olive bread, and chopped vegetables today for a Deconstructed Sandwich. Now, it's not just my fancy name for this dish, because as I ate it, I would sometimes take a bite of each ingredient or I would build a mini open-faced sandwich playing with the order of the layers of food (wow that was a long sentence). In other words, I played with my food because I'm still very a much a kid at the dinner table.

(For my omelette I use two eggs and I add egg white for extra protein and volume of food)

The AM Snack

Being the Chinese guy I am, I was terribly craving some food so I made some instant noodles (NOTE: these noodles are not found in a cup and microwaved: those are GROSS. Who wants dehydrated veggies paper shredded into tiny squares? I successfully laid off of cup noodles since first year university *shudder*). My angry stomach may/may not have been caused by my Exercise Training class where we had to do some 1 mile runs, max weight workouts, and I was generally very sore from the day before too (hence I was yearning for protein).

So....I added some frozen scallops to the noodles for that protein. The noodle pack also came with those soup bases, but they shoot up the sodium levels on these noodles to 79% of your daily intake...which is insane. I added maybe half of that and some sesame seed oil and presto! Late night snack.

PS this totally breaks many rules of my new nutrition plan where I eat 2 serving of veggies with every meal and carbs only for breakfast/post exercise....but I was reading articles on hamburgers so the hunger got to me.

The New Nutrition Program

During a long absence out of town and watching the World Cup, I picked up a nutrition program that I'm semi-following right now. It's basically the 5 meals a day, protein every meal, 2 servings of veggies every meal, carbs for breakfast and after exercise only, etc, etc. I've become even more health conscious now that I've been doing this exercise training course. I also bought protein powder! But, it tastes kinda like fish so it might not the best one out there.

So this morning, I had Vector cereal with milk before my workout, and made myself a smoothie (with my new protein powder) for a meal. Cooked up salmon and deglazed it with balsamic vinegar, which is it looks so dark in the picture below.

It was kinda underdone but I don't actually mind it (thank you Japan). Threw some spinach and cucumbers underneath and ate it at work (which is why its in a handy box).

For dinner, I stir-fried some bok choy with a smashed garlic clove and ginger, deglazed with chicken broth and a little salt. Boiled some pork dumplings and voila!

The dumpling that's open was my tester. I like to know I'm eating something fully cooked...and since no one's marking me on presentation I frequently do it. But if you think about it, good chefs always taste their food before serving it to their clients, and since I'm my own chef and client, this would be justified :)

So Much Food, So Little Time...

So it's really hard to keep up a blog, especially one about food (which you eat EVERYDAY - hand down again anorexic guy). Since blogger.com has a new, annoying way to upload pictures, and the fact that it takes forever to upload them, I'll try my best to fight the urge to yell at Rogers (which would take me 2 hrs just to get in touch with a real human being). That being said, here we go:

Just cooked dinner, pulled the dumplings from the freezer and they took quite a long time to boil before being done. After cutting open the first tester, I found it was still cold inside...and pinky. Had to test a few more before I could tell they were cooked (better safe than sorry!). It was still delicious, with Taiwanese cabbage stir-fried in garlic and chicken broth underneath.

                               

Hmm so I guess this blogger won't center portrait-style pictures either...wait I can use the space bar to push it over....haha silly me, anyways, I woke up super early today (7am...after sleeping at 10:30pm) and went to the gym (I had some Vector cereal with milk and a banana). When I came back I made an omelette with peas and corn that turned into a scrambled egg...because I couldn't flip it all in one go. Better safe to have it cooked through though, runny eggs gross me out. Added an orange, plum, and apple juice to finish it off.

                      

Watching Toy Story 3 is a pretty good way to kill time as pictures load :P
I always wanted an excuse to use balsamic vinegar in a savoury dish and I got my chance. Made a salad yesterday for lunch, using arugula, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers. Topped it off with a pan-seared salmon to which I added balsamic vinegar to the pan at the end, and a little on top of the salad as well. Delicious.

Toy Story 3 cut out on me, time to study for a midterm this Saturday :S I had a pita with the salmon salad to fill me up, and used some good 'ol salsa. I was chowing down on a tub of hummus every week and I felt it was a bit unhealthy, so I switched over to a healthier option (although I think it does have more sodium...)

Alright time to backtrack a bit. Went home for the weekend, my brother made ribs using a dry spice rub, apple wood to smoke it, indirect heat, probably 3 hours in the barbecue, and this picture does NOT give the size of this dish justice. It was piled a good foot above the dinner table (there are 3 racks in there). Good stuff bro.

                     

Alright last one for now. The day after the barbecue we went to 168 Sushi Japan Buffet on Dundas St., west of Erin Mills. I was SO stuffed afterwards. But then again I worked out once we got home, to my surprise. Their food is pretty good for a buffet. Try it out! (It will put you back about $23.00 with tax and tip on top for dinner).

Kay gotta study now, thanks for reading if you got this far! I would like to do shorter blogs so that my labels don't become super long (so I can reference what I ate/build ideas of what to cook in the future). Ciao!

Keep Fishin'

And we're back after an extended absence! I apologize, as I away for several reasons:

1) Midterms/projects due the past week

2) My mom was here and cooking, so I felt like it wasn't an honest representation of what I make, but I now that I think of it I should share anyways

3) Not only is the title of this entry representative of what I cooked, but it's also a great song by Weezer (there are MUPPETS in the video. Need I say more?)

Just had a great Kenpo X workout from the P90X series, and wasn't craving anything too heavy (and I also got a pull-up bar that came with a nutrition guide suggesting not to have starch after 12 pm!) so, I stir-fried asparagus and whole tomatoes topped off with a fish fillet.

Everything was going fine when I cooked the veggies, until the water all evaporated at the bottom and starting burning/smoking D: As I panicked to shut off the smoke detector and turn down the heat, the fish fillet got a little burned as well. Had to throw out half the veggies :( My new stove is way too powerful on full heat.

However, topping off the fish with my hometown neighbour's garden-grown chives and using cilantro with the veggies made it so much better. Can't tell if it's a burnt taste or the Greek seasoning in the veggies haha.

Anywho, I've added some other things I've eaten in the past week:

Here's a steak I made two nights ago, with the first batch of asparagus and mushrooms and a side of potatoes. I just simply boiled the potatoes with a little salt, stir-fried the veggies with garlic and ginger most likely, and the steak with Montreal Steak marinade. I used an electronic temperature sensor to get my steak to medium-well but it was super bloody and red when I cut into it. Threw it back on the grilled-pan some more and it got to the texture I really like, but was interestingly still REALLY red. I suppose I like it more medium than I thought?

Finally, here's some typical Chinese food I have: dumplings and a veggie bun. I got these minced chicken dumplings from Wal-Mart, and I feel like I've betrayed Chinese supermarket brands haha. The veggie bun came from T&T Supermarket back in Sauga when my parents came over. The filling is a little sweet, but not like dessert.

Thanks for reading if you got this far! This was a long update since I've been gone, but I'll hopefully keep updating more often :D

I could really use a glass of white wine or sparkling juice after that fish fillet haha

Cheers,

Jay

Grand Opening

Welcome!

If you are a malnourished student in university like I am, fending for yourself from textbooks, extracurriculars, and all of life's time-consuming things, then we have a lot in common.

This blog will be all about food, because it is delicious (most of the time). Who doesn't like eating? Ok hand down anorexic guy. I'll be posting trips to the supermarket, prepping, cooking, and most wonderfully of all, EATING :D I am horribly sorry if it makes you hungry when you read this at 2am in the morning, but if it inspires you to cook as well, three thumbs up to you.

For my first blogged meal, I stir-fried some scallops, broccoli, mushrooms, and red bell peppers. I made rice with a few veggies the night before so I heated it up and topped it off with the stir-fry. Made it simple with garlic, ginger, and salt, topped with green onions. Could've used a little sauce, as it was kind of dry with all the rice. Still tasty though! (I love scallops).