dinner post

I had to take a photo of dinner, because it was so pretty (dinner doesn't normally look like this, I promise you).
I was planning on serving rice with it and making some imitation crab maki sushi, but the rice did NOT cook properly (it was mush on the bottom and crunchy on the top). I took the imitation crab and mixed it with some cabbage, mayo, sesame seeds and pepper to make a salad.
The sausage slices are a honey garlic smoked sausage cooked with a bit of garlic and some teriyaki sauce.
Frozen veggie dumplings with homemade gyoza sauce.
And finally, the part I am most happy with is the Cha Soba (green tea buckwheat noodles) - served cold, I lightly toasted some nori over a burner and cut it into thin strips, made some soba tsuyu (dipping sauce) and served it with some wasabi and green onions (as per several websites when I was looking up how to serve the cha soba). I mixed the wasabi and green onions into the dipping sauce and dipped the noodles in before eating them. The noodles are so refreshing and the wasabi complimented the flavour so nicely.

I always wondered about all the different sauces they serve at Japanese restaurants, and once I started incorporating some of the cuisine into my cooking, I learned that those sauces are all pretty simple and only require 3-4 main ingredients used in different combinations.
My next goal is to make gyoza from scratch! I'll probably wait until we're moved in to our new house before tackling that.

Bento #24

Today's main dish is cold soba noodles with dipping sauce, nori furikake and chives
Top tier has 1/2 an apricot and 1/2 a clementine, frozen corn, snow peas and tomatoes.
Not much protein again, only 1/2 a hotdog cut into 2 crabs.
The white wedges are Pajeon - a Korean pancake with chives - the little pig container has some jeon dipping sauce in it.

PaJeon (makes about 10 pancakes in a small frying pan)
2 cups flour
2 cups water
2 eggs
chives, chopped fine
salt & pepper

mix all, let rest for 10-15 minutes
heat a little bit of oil in a small frying pan
pour in batter, sprinkle with more chives, seafood, whatever you want.
cook over medium for 5-6 minutes until golden brown
flip and cook other side 5-6 minutes until golden brown

Jeon Sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tbsp vinegar (distilled white)
1 stalk scallion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp Korean dried hot chili pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil


I think tomorrow I'm going to go out and buy some tofu when I'm picking up some fresh veggies. I'd like to try a couple of tofu recipes out.

The Mister and I bought a house - we're moving in a little under a month!
I will be so happy to get out of my tiny apartment kitchen (I have 1 small piece of countertop and two cupboards for food!) and into something with space to move and prep multiple items at once!