Japanese Omurice!

It's been a while. I'm starting to have fun here with friend I didn't think I would meet, but here I am. The past weeks have been great so far. I've been doing things I truly enjoy doing. Drawing, on an iPad with a stylus, is surprisingly not as terrible as I would think it would be.

Unfortunately the things I've been cooking recently all sort of suck, regardless of recipe or not. Maybe it's because I'm not really putting effort into cooking anymore. It's cold, all I want is hot stew and hot chocolate. Haha!

Anyway I tried making Japanese omurice for lunch today. It's basically ketchup fried rice wrapped in egg. Here's what I used.

I love my floral themed knife and cutting board. Go Daiso! Woot!

(That's milk in the eggs by the way. To make it fluffier.)

Here's what I got.

I tried my best? Haha. It's quite good, actually. The rice just needs to be cooked more. It's a tad too sticky. Having onions and corn is a good touch, because the little bit of crunch brings a more interesting texture to the dish. It's a relatively quick and brainless meal, so it's good for those lazy days. That being said, I really want to learn to make chawanmushi! It's near impossible to find chawanmushi here!

Surimi-stuffed Baked Mushroom with Colby-Jack Cheese

Since I picked up a whole lot of surimi (imitation crab meat) at Safeway (the Malaysian in me couldn't resist the 3 for $5 deal) I had to go look for recipes to see what to do with it all. I found one that included mushrooms, and so I decided to give it a try. I changed much of the recipe (especially the amounts) and used what was available to me. Instead of adding the cheese directly into the stuffing, I draped it across the top simply so that it looks better.

Ingredients:

Mushrooms, stems removed (8 ounces)
Surimi, shredded (4 ounces)
Cream cheese, softened (4 ounces)
Colby-Jack cheese, sliced (4 ounces to be on the safe side)

Seasoning: (this is what I took liberty with; feel free to add anything you like, as much or as little as you want. I'm listing all the options for different flavors.)

Sesame oil (for that extra oomph)
Garlic powder
Pepper
Chili powder

Steps:

First, remove the stems of the mushrooms. This is surprisingly easy to do, just bend them a little and they will break off cleanly. (Make sure you wash them first!)

You should pre-heat the oven to 350F now.

Next, combine the cream cheese, shredded surimi, and seasoning in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Then stuff the mushrooms! Try to pack it tightly so that it doesn't topple over.

After that, drape the cheese slices over it. make sure it coves nicely. If you're more of a cheese person you could add extra layers of cheese on the top as they melt pretty thinly.

Put it into the PRE-HEATED oven and bake for about 10 minutes.

You should get something like this.

Through the middle.

Verdict: This is best eaten fresh out of the oven. It's tender and juicy. It's savory and delicious. The flavor is released into your mouth as you bite down on the mushroom. I'd recommend this as an appetizer or side-dish, or even finger food for parties. Not quite a meal on its own. I'm glad I made it though, it's an interesting snack that I would never have thought about combining.

Valentines' Day and White Day

So~ White Day has just passed us by, and it dawned on me that I should probably blog about all the amazing things le petit ami has done for me. That would take at least a couple of lengthy blog posts however, so I'll just write about the significance of Valentine's Day and White Day instead.

I finally got to cook for him after a long hiatus. Also because I've been craving for fried eggplant, so I decided to give it a shot and try my hand at it.

I'm not tooting my own horn here but it turned out pretty awesome. xD

The onion cutting ninja at work.

Look at that!

Making curry~ It turned out too thin, as usual... @@

A relatively healthy... vegetarian meal, ohohoho!

Because of course we were saving ourselves for dinner, since le petit ami had already planned a pretty extravagant Valentine's dinner at La Risata! (The food explanation is copied from the menu given. I pretty much have no idea what it means, but it sounds terribly fancy and I'm compelled to type it.)

Super romantic setting! (I couldn't resist burning some of the petals on the table... I see fire and I want to burn things, sorry. xD)

A shot of something that made my whole body heat up into warm fuzzy chocolately feelings.

Cappasana e Fragole

Pan seared scallop on strawberry carpaccio and almond flakes topped with deep fried bresaola beef julienne

Paccheri Rippieni di Anatra

Pipe shaped dry pasta stuffed with chocolate flavored duck ragout on green peas cream

Okay, a little something about this dish. I was at first skeptical of it, because really, duck and chocolate? But I was floored, because it really tasted like duck and chocolate and it was good. I was so confused but yet delighted so I think it deserves a special mention. The cream went really well with the pasta and the stuffing, but imho they should've offered a main course (see below) that wasn't so thick and filling because this did a really good job of cream, meat, carbs and thick sauce already.

Guancia Brasata

Red wine braised beef cheek with oven baked pumpkin and potato cake

Like I said, a mouth full of carbs. Makes me full just looking at it.

Salmone con Risotto ai Funghi

Butter fried salmon steak served with mushroom "chiodini" risotto with spring garlic butter and sautéed beetroot

Millefoglie di Banana

Layers of thin chocolate and banana mousse on Berries Coulis

Okay so technically there was only one raspberry and one blueberry but oh well. The mousse surprised me, because it's banana flavored but yet it was strangely appealing. Three wasn't enough. xD

We took at short detour back to Lake Gardens, the place we spent the beginning of our relationship to have a proper sit down and talk about everything under the sun moon. I'm really grateful we did, because we cleared away uncertainty and doubt and made way for trust and love. :)

And now onto White Day~! White Day is one month after Valentine's day (March 14th) and is generally considered an "epilogue" of sorts of V day. Since I forgot White Day last year (though it's totally the guy's responsibility to celebrate! Hahaha!) I got le petit ami chocolates, because #typical and #generic.

He surprised me more than what the chocolate was worth though, in a way. Even though I knew he had won Avril Lavigne's concert tickets from RedFM's Instagram contest, it was only one ticket... By sheer luck and generosity on RedFM's part they gifted us two instead, so... FREE CONCERT!

We had by far the worst KFC ever (it came in a big truck... guys never buy food from trucks.) and I accidentally hit a lady with our complimentary glow sticks and despite the eager crowd that rushed to the barricades and blocked everyone else's view, I enjoyed every minute immensely with this adorable baka! ♥︎

Too bad we weren't really prepared for the concert... Otherwise we'd have lightsabers ready! Whoop! xD

In a way I'm thankful I've never been the butthurt type to hate on these couple-days when I was still single (ohohoho) so I can say without being hypocritical that sometimes being stupidly in love on special days really is just so much fun! xD

I can't stress how awesome being in love with your best friend is. :') Good times are to be had, always!

Popin' Cookin' Sushi Candy Set~!

I love doing craft things, and I love food. I also love my sister, so obviously it works together.

A few weeks back she brought back Japan's popular Popin' Cookin' self-make candy series, where you are given sachets of powder and everything needed to make miniature food that looks exactly like the real thing. It's amazing. Also I don't dare to eat it.

It has Japanese words! Hence, imported! *wild applause*

Apparently the Japanese are nuts about packaging everything.

These are your materials!

So the point is to transform everything you see in those small packets of powder and make it into candy in the shape of sushi. MAGIC.

The good thing about the Japanese is that they're really detailed, and literally you need nothing else. Just water, and even then they have this small space in the middle to hold JUST enough water for everything, it's amazing. Everything fits exactly right, right down to the amount of power to even how many drops of water you need.

This is 'rice'. Considering how it is just water + powder, after mixing it 

for a minute or so, it becomes fluffy and airy. IT'S MAGIC.

Powder for the "tamago".

After following instructions and mixing everything, this is what you get.

That's also how you make the fish roe to top off the sushi... just drop 

a certain solution into another solution and it will instantly become 

the texture of fish roe. It really is magic.

The rice placed on "plates" that's on the packaging itself...

Making sushi! (Look at that roe!)

Final product~

All in all it was a really fun experience! We didn't dare eat it because it even smelled super sweet and it literally is just sugar powder + water, so we didn't quite bother.

It did subtly show us the amount of detail the Japanese put into their work, as well as how innovative they are. Instructions guiding you through the whole thing were done on the packaging itself, eliminating need for an extra piece of instruction leaflet. And even though we didn't understand Japanese, the diagrams were clear enough to guide us through the whole thing, and it was pretty straightforward as well!

Because, Food.

You know what you're missing in life? Home-cooked food. I know I am.

Finally had my mom's special home-cooked 红枣面线汤 (vermicelli in jujube soup), which is brilliant, because she's brilliant like that. (I'm awaiting her black pepper mushroom noodles.)

Here, be jealous.

I really do miss home-cooked food. I'm sick of all the nonsense on campus, where food is plainly just edible. I live to eat, not eat to live. #firstworldproblems

Due to my super long schedule, I can't cook for myself as much as I'd like to. Which is a huge shame, because I think my cooking is quite fantastic and inventive, and also because I'd like to practice cooking awesome food more, but no. C'est la vie. I have to live with whatever expensive edibles they pass off as food in campus. :(

It's also quite alarming how much people love salt nowadays. Le petit ami has a salt-tooth, in addition to his sweet-tooth, and because I'm not ignorant about high-blood pressure, it kills me a little when we eat out because I know whatever we're eating is most likely loaded with it.

Not like we can do much about it... I simply just don't have the time to cook. Maybe next year, I'll start on all those recipes I've saved up.

How to Impress People With Your Non-existant Cooking Skills

I've never been any good at cooking. The best I've done is make instant noodles. But for all the other cooking-idiots out there, there are tricks to come up with a ridiculously simple dish that would impress people who previously never thought you knew how to turn on the gas.

Fried rice is the epitome of a ridiculously easy meal. An 8-year-old can fry rice. So can you.

The best thing about fried rice is that there are no fixed recipes for it. You can add anything you like, and excluded anything you don't like. Even to that though, there are some basic things you should have, which I will list.

Things you need to prepare:

• A wok. Or frying pan, but a wok is better. 

See, this is how cooking fried rice feels like.

• Oil. Any sort of oil would work. If you don't have any, butter is a nice substitute. Margarine is not advisable.
• Rice. (Cooked rice, mind you.) You can use left-over rice from the day before, but make sure it has been refrigerated. Leave to room temperature if that's the case.
• Vegetables. Many people are disgusted with vegetables and don't want them anywhere close to their mouths, but vegetables are found in many dishes for the simple reason that they are good. And I mean taste-wise. Vegetables add flavor to the dish, and since fried rice is generally tasteless, you MUST have at least one kind of vegetable to mix. (The more the merrier!) A good base would be cabbage and carrots. I personally like to add tomatoes.
• Eggs. Crack them open and beat them until they have bubbles on the surface. Personally I like to add a small dollop of mayonaise to make the egg fluffier. Beat continuously. Make sure the egg mixture is very light and bubbly!!!

Bubbly egg, like this.

• Meat. (Optional) Take a small piece of meat, boneless. Let it thaw if it's been kept in the fridge and make sure it's soft.
• Seasonings. Here you can go crazy. Get soy sauce, salt, a small amount of ajinomoto if you so feel like, but keep in mind that this will be how your fried rice will taste like. If you feel like sweet fried rice, sure, but a good tip is to NEVER overdose on the salt.

Great, now that you have all these things, it's simple enough after a short grocery trip. Now comes the fun part. You get to play around... WITH A MOTHAFUCKIN' KNIFE.

Cutting shit up, with a chainsaw.

First, you cut shit up.

Get the meat and SLICE, DICE and STAB THE THING until it's dice-sized cubes. If you think you're chef enough, marinate the meat to get some flavor.

Now get the green stuff. Chop the vegetables until they're just shreds of fiber. Don't mash them though. Small pieces will suffice.

After all this, don't forget to clean the blood off your weapon knife and keep it. Set the wok or pan over the stove and let it heat while you take a rest. Here, have a beer for all that hard work. After the wok heats up (you can stick your hand onto it to check its temperature, however insurance does not cover intentional self-burning), add about two spoonfuls of oil. Let the oil heat up.

If you have prepared meat, fry it first. throw them into the wok gently and stir fry. Basically just move the meat around with the spatula so it doesn't stick to the wok. Fry until cooked, then take them out and leave it aside.

Add more oil. Now time to fry those leafy green things! Just stir them around until they look cooked. Make sure they go through immense pain. Take them out.

You can already imagine the screams.

Now we fry the egg!! Add oil again. Pour the egg mixture and let it cook. You don't have to worry about it not being perfect, you're going to mess it all up anyways. Try to let it cook until it's not too liquid, but still soft.

Now after this, throw the rice in. Add whatever seasoning you feel like, and mix the rice thoroughly with the egg. By this point you should lower to a small fire. Mix together the rest of the stuff you've cooked and then make changes to the dish according to taste.

When you deem it edible, spoon it out on a plate and there you have it: Fried rice.

Yeah your shit ain't gonna look as good as this, but just

 be sure you don't put anyone in the hospital.