margaret

As I said in the Dinner thread, reading this yesterday reminded me how much I used to like tteokbokki. I hadn't had it for a few years, since college, where I used to scam a Korean friend into making it for me every few weeks. She used her mom's recipe, I think, and it was sweeter than the tteokbokki I've had in restaurants. I liked that about it, though - the balance of sweet and hot is one of the things I like about this dish, and a little extra sweetness gave it a snacky feel. Chewy rice cakes, thick spicy sweet sauce, fresh green oniony flavor. I wish I had remembered to bring some to work today to snack on. Have you tried making this again, Kristin?

Margaret, did you see this thread? http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...=28253&hl=tteok is what you made similar to what I am talking about? if so do you have a recipe? Actually, reading that thread at work yesterday is what gave me the craving for it. Sticky chewy rice cakes. As for a recipe, I do it pretty much the same way as explained in the link on that thread. Big spoon of kochujang, shoyu, sugar, salt, some ground red pepper, all blended with some water until the proportions are right. I like mine a bit on the sweet side.

Bean curd braised in soy Tteokbokki (Korean soft rice cakes in a spicy chile sauce) Thinly sliced Japanese cukes dressed with rice vinegar Kong namul sangchae (soybean sprout salad) Daikon kimchi

I've never really liked osechi - but I don't think I've ever really had it prepared well. An older woman who used to visit the bar I worked at would bring in a huge tray of homemade osechi dishes every year, and they were always awful. She wasn't the best cook, though, in general - I remember she once brought in a box of homemade "choux cream," or cream puffs, that we all bit into to find that they were filled not only with cream, but also with (horrifying) smoked salmon. Anyway, I usually just ate the kuromame and left it at that. Last year my boyfriend and I ate toshikoshi soba and drank sake on New Year's Eve, and then ozoni the next day. That's about it, I think. We also took advantage of the sales on mochi at Japanese groceries and ate lots and lots and lots of them - either toasted with sato jyoyu and nori or else in zenzai (or oshiruko). I probably still have some in the freezer from last year. This is a nice site that explains a lot about New Year's foods in Japan - fyi.

Eating habits have been all over the place lately. Thursday: kimichi fried rice miso shiru with tofu and lotus root Friday: toasted cheese sandwich on sourdough with dijon mustard roasted sweet potatoes with curry mayo Saturday: scoop of vanilla ice cream rolled in brown sugar, cinnamon, and slivered almonds harpoon ipa late at night: a few bites of warm soba noodles in broth Sunday: penne with really simple tomato sauce - just garlic, tomatoes, some basil, s&p, evoo roasted cauliflower, roasted potatoes boring green salad

At Union Square on Saturday: Honeycrisp apples Acorn squash (3 for $2) Yellow onions Brussels sprouts Rosemary Parsley Radicchio Treviso A bag of tiny tiny potatoes from a man selling many varieties of tiny tiny potatoes. I don't remember what they were called, but I ate some last night roasted with olive oil and salt and they were yellow and sort of creamy and almost meaty tasting; boyfriend compared them to chestnuts. Huge cauliflower. The woman next to me as I was buying it commented on its beautiful color.

Just bumping this thread because it's almost nabe time again... I can't wait. Lately I've been thinking a lot about shirataki, but the weather isn't yet cold enough. Also yudofu. Does that count as nabe? Last winter I made a lot of kimchi nabe, and plan to again this year. Anyone else craving nabe now that there's a bit of chill in the air?

Aloo matar (crumbled potatoes with peas), Madhur Jaffrey's recipe. Spinach dal. Store bought naan. Pomegranates for dessert. Now drinking some sort of Barbera and thinking about eating chocolate.

I just did a google search to see what I could find on these - they sound interesting. The ume-shio seems to be made from ume that are salt preserved for about a month, until they begin to seep a yellow-ish juice they call white plum vinegar. Then the resulting juice is left to air dry for another half month, leaving behind the ume-shio. http://store.yahoo.co.jp/ume1/8080.html This web page recommends using it on tempura, grilled meats and fish, o-musubi and other rice dishes, etc. I can imagine it being nice on tempura. This is an interesting page about the kaiso-shio. It lists the steps for making it, which seem to be: Soak some seaweed (something called hondawara? Maybe Kristin knows?) in sea water, let it air dry on a rock. Repeat this process three times. Allow the seaweed to dry. Roast it to ash in a fire. Mix the ash with the concentratd seawater. Strain it through a piece of cloth. Transfer the water to a clay vessel, boil over a fire. The salt will begin to accumulate at the bottom of the pot. Take it off the fire quickly once all liquid is gone, and voila! kaiso-shio. This web page suggests using it on roasted potatoes. I haven't been able to find much on the other products you mentioned - I'll see what else I can dig up. Where in Japan did your friend get these? Edited for spelling problems.

Made the tart last night after hearing all the hype around here. I liked it too. I'm really, really bad with pastry and dough and bread, and the crust was simple, even for me. It wasn't the best crust I've ever had, but for a five minute job I'm not complaining. Usually tarts leave me in a bad way. Didn't measure the mustard - just finished up what was in the jar. I like lots of mustard on everything, so I could've done with more. Kind of an unexpected flavor, but I thought it worked. I'll probably make this again, probably soon, before the tomato season ends. Maybe with the zucchini flan.

It's been hot and humid and sticky here the past few days, and a friend showed up from Japan with a case of somen just in time. It's customary in Japan to give gifts at this time of year, usually to members of your company or people in the neighborhood. Somen seems to be a particularly popular choice, so most people in Japan end up with pounds and pounds of unwanted noodles. So she brought her extras to us, poor and somen-deprived in the US. Lucky us. We chopped up tons of fresh shiso, lots of fresh garlic, some wasabi. No negi in the house, so we went without. Big bowl of ice filled with cold somen noodles. I've been waiting all summer for this.

Fill with mochi and add to oden. Stuff with hijiki-gohan. Hmm. Never thought about doing much else. I like that egg idea.

I agree for the most part about dairy and Japanese food, but make an exception for a nice foil-yaki with butter and shoyu. Mushrooms work particularly well. Tofu and cheese, ugh. Atsu-age and cheese, ugh.

I agree for the most part about dairy and Japanese food, but make an exception for a nice foil-yaki with butter and shoyu. Mushrooms work particularly well. Tofu and cheese, ugh. Atsu-age and cheese, ugh.

Is there a Chinatown anywhere near you? I usually buy things like gobo and shiso in Chinatown. You can also grow shiso really easily if you can find the seeds.

The "men" in mentsuyu just means noodles - there are different types of mentsuyu for soba, udon, somen, etc. - different strengths, some are sweeter, some saltier. Somen tsuyu is usually the lightest. You can also get ten tsuyu which is tempura dipping sauce. Most common would be just dashi (made from bonito flakes), soy sauce, mirin.

Bottled Kewpie mayonnaise (in the squeeze bottle with the red cap) is ubiquitous in Japan. I don't think making mayo at home is a very widespread practice. Plus, the flavor of Japanese mayonnaise is different from other mayonnaises - I have never even seen a recipe for Japanese-style mayonnaise.

The Kewpie website has a recipe page - it's all in Japanese, but the pictures are nice. Some recipes include mayonnaise fried rice, mayonnaise donburi, and "country cake" with fruits, nuts, and mayo. There's actually a whole section on their webpage called Mayonnaise World, with history, the roots of the product, descriptions of various mayonnaise products (cheese mayo, anyone?), Q&A, etc. Interesting stuff.

Here's an article about Mayonnaise Kitchen and the Japanese mayo obsession: Enjoy

Help.

I feel like I've professed mayo hate elsewhere on this board, but I can't say it enough - sometimes the Japanese uses for mayo make me seriously queasy. I don't like it to begin with, but can handle it on things like, as Kris said, on okonomiyaki and mixed into sauces. Squeezing it straight out of the bottle, cold, onto cold pasta. Dipping temaki-zushi into a big blob. One friend of mine just squeezes it onto plain hot Japanese rice. The very idea of a mayogarita does horrible things to me. Ugh.

Lots to do with konnyaku! Konnyaku sashimi - chilled konnyaku sliced thin with karashi (Japanese hot mustard) Konnyaku in oden - big chunks of konnyaku simmered in a fish/sake broth with assorted fish cakes, daikon, hard boiled eggs, fried tofu (I think there's an oden thread somewhere) Konnyaku steak - not too fond of this myself, becuase it really seems to emphasize the rubberiness of the yam, but some people like it. Actually most of this is in the konnyaku thread: here

Trader Joe's often does pretty well.

Friday nama harumaki (vegetable summer rolls) chow fun with fermented black beans cherries for dessert Saturday - a nice warm day, so a light (leftover) dinner more summer rolls sugar snap peas with mint and lemon zest Japanese rice more cherries Sunday - big lunch, small dinner salad, salad, and more salad - arugula with pear, walnuts, endive, smoked gouda and again, cherries

Thursday: Silken tofu crisped up a bit in a frypan, then crumbled, mixed with some blanched broccoli and dressed with garlic miso-kochujang-japanese mayo Kong Namul (Korean bean sprout salad) Braised daikon with scallions and sesame oil Cabbage kimchi Japanese rice