#153 Sashimi Lemon Dipping Sauce

It takes a lot of patience to shape thin slices of raw fish into salmon roses. It was very challenging, without proper research and especially when my stomach was growling! Very little patience was left, since there's the picture taking that needs to be done. :)
The end result, is a nice image, looks nothing like a rose :/, but I did a very good job on the leaves and stem I believe, I used the wasabi paste extracted from a tube, so that part was very easy. For this recipe, I just wanted to share a really tasty dip for your sashimi, or thinly sliced raw seafood. It is very simple to make, here's how:

SASHIMI LEMON DIPPING SAUCE

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
1 green onion, (green part only), chopped finely

Directions:

1. Heat vinegar, sugar and sauce in a small saucepan, stirring, until sugar dissolves.
2. Remove from heat, add rind; let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Sprinkle sauce with onion.

Recipe adapted from Tasting Japan, Australian women's weekly magazine

 

This weekend, I learned a few do's and don'ts in Japanese etiquette, but here is what I learned about serving Sashimi:

When serving sashimi with soy sauce and wasabi on the side, it is traditional to serve the wasabi and soysauce separately, that is, not to mix the ingredients. This is because the wasabi does nothing to enhance either the flavor or sensation of the sauce. And, you don't know how much wasabi your guest wants in her/his soysauce! Leave the mixing to them.

Another important thing that I learned is, you can use your own chopsticks to take food from the communal dish if no serving implements are provided, but turn them around and use the clean handle end. Turn right way around again to use them for picking up your own food. :) Good to know!

Blogging is great. If I didn't have this blog, I don't know if I would even try making my own salmon roses! :) When I ate sashimi with friends  at restaurants, which I have- so many times, nothing compelled  me to learn more about it. I simply know it was Japanese food, raw, tastes good and then enjoyed it while catching up. None of our conservations revolved around food, it was always about our busy lives and all the crazy stuffs around us. Starting a food/cooking blog definitely opened my eyes,  I learn so much, I see food and home cooking in a different light now; cooking to me  is no longer a task, but a really fun, intimate activity at home, it helped me personally develop things within me that I didn't know I had. I am  also falling in love with food photography.  I think it is time to retire my point and shoot camera. :)

#125 Greek Yogurt Dijon Aoili

Aoili is  a Provençal traditional sauce sauce or dip. If a quick preparation is desired,  most recipes commonly use mayonnaise, because it is mayonnaise-like; to make it from scratch, garlic paste, a good amount of olive oil, lemon and egg yolks are required . We completely removed mayonnaise from our diet a long time ago, and I didn't want to put too much oil in our food that night so I looked for a substitute; my guess was right, to make a healthier aoili,   fat-free greek yogurt can be used.  I found a recipe that uses dijon mustard, which I love, so I chose it as our dip for our roasted Artichokes. It  tastes great less the fat. :)

GREEK YOGURT GARLIC & DIJON AOILI

Ingredients:

1/4 cup fat-free greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients and let stand for 1 hour before serving.

#104 Mother's Day weekend, Serving 10 and the much beloved Pizza Magherita

This weekend, I had a taste of how busy it is to run a bed & breakfast place. Haha! We had guests over, (Yay!) well, actually they were my good friend's guests, and we all kind of stuck together from Friday to Saturday. Very fun and chill. It was a great weekend spent with amazing and genuinely nice people who carry funny and very intelligent conversations, wear smiles- all the time, love laughter, love good food and love planet/star gazing. We brought the massive telescope out, and I saw the moon, Jupiter and it's moons, Saturn and it's rings and a few bright stars, all in one night..which I was told was rare. Cool stuff!  I also had the pleasure of making breakfast and lunch, for...10 people, who know a lot about good food. Taking on the big responsibility of being an instant chef for a day is a remarkable experience for a neophyte food blogger like me, did I say yes to it because of the blog? Well, yes- it was definitely something to write about and cherish for many years to come, but I mostly did it  out of love for  friends; it was really fun cooking, but mind you, it was very, very nerve wracking around 15 minutes before serving.. It's been ages since I cooked for more than 4! Although I was on the brink of a major panic attack making 5 different breakfast dishes: pancakes, eggs, sausages, bacon and hashbrowns and preparing the table with breads, fruits and yogurt and all others in 1 hour, I kept smiling because I already said early on that I did not want help!..haha..to my relief, everything went fine for breakfast. I used our pancake recipe, but added whole eggs, and everyone loved it! There was nothing on the breakfast menu that I want to write about because the dishes were very simple, so I will only post 3 dishes that we enjoyed for lunch and dinner this weekend. First off is Pizza, we served several with a variety of toppings, but the recipe that I will share is the one that everyone went gaga over. We made our own tomato sauce to use for our Pizza Magherita. A variation  of pizza that uses only tomato sauce and cheese. You can add any topping that you want, but I learned that making a good sauce and simply adding fresh basil leaves is more than what you need for a satisfying pizza. The fresh mozzarella cheese tastes very different from the shredded ones. Absolutely delicious! This is by far the best one I made to date, and the pizza dough that we used is perfect. You  can keep left overs for two days in the fridge, and it was still be tasty and the dough will be soft but not mushy. I was worried that we went overboard with the pizza sauce, but no, its a really great tasting sauce. We used sugar plum tomatoes that we got from Trader Joe's,  some fresh herbs and lots of love to make this fantastic Pizza Magherita.

PIZZA MAGHERITA

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough, recipe here
Fresh Mozarella cheese, sliced
Sugar Plum tomatoes, or cherry tomatoes, halved
Fresh Basil


FOR THE PIZZA SAUCE:

Ingredients:

8 ounces organic tomato sauce
24 pieces of sugar plum tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes)
4 pieces of large fresh basil leaves
6 pieces of fresh oregano leaves
1 small onion
1 small garlic clove
2 pieces of mint
1 tablespoon water
3 pieces of brown mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 500 F degrees.
2. In a food processor, blend sauce recipes until smooth, best if made in advance and chilled for 1 hour.
3. Form pizza dough into a circle, then spread a thin layer of the tomato pizza sauce.
4. Top with sliced fresh mozzarella cheese and halved sugar plum tomatoes. (you can use cherry tomatoes too)
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
6. Scatter fresh basil leaves over your freshly baked pizza.

 

 

Looks like Christmas, in the Spring. It really felt like it was Christmas time, it felt like I'm home with family being with these amazing people. There was Bob who said, "you're in the family now".  And there's the lovely ladies who said, "thank you, it was delicious" a million times. And then there's also the gentlemen who uttered the word "fantastic, outstanding, thank you" so many times. I heard and saw so much love and so much kindness  not just towards me, but towards everybody in a span of 6 hours, and more during dinner. Lunch ended with hugs. Simple things like kind words, touch and smiles can truly move hearts, it was a Saturday morning well-spent, indeed. :)

 

Happy Mother's Day to all Moms especially to my beautiful mother! 

It was one of the best Mother's Day weekend, what would have made it perfect is if I had my entire family together. Next Mother's Day will be the best one ever!

#94 Chimichurri

Ah, this green herb sauce was too good! Our first time, and definitely not the last. This delicious and simple sauce originated in Argentina  is served for meats or on the side for just about everything. :)

CHIMICHURRI 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup packed fresh parsley
3/4 cup packed fresh cilantro
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process until blended and the herbs are finely chopped, about 1 minute. Pour into small bowl and refrigerate.

Recipe adapted from Abigail Johnson Dodge

Nunca es tarde cuando la dicha es buena. :)