Ikura sushi

Salmon roe (ikura) for sushi is prepared by soaking them in soy sauce and Japanese rice wine (sake). The process helps in removing the strong fishy flavor and makes the texture of the roe smoother and lighter. Each individual roe remains swollen, lightens up in color, and the texture becomes more enjoyable to the palate.

If you think that the taste of the roe is too overpowering, just add quail eggs and cucumber slices to neutralize the flavor.

Since the salmon roe are immersed in soy sauce, one does not need to add more later on.  A little wasabi enhances the sweet flavors from the richness of the roe.

This type of sushi is a bit easier to prepare than the others since you make the shape like a battle ship :D not the usual round form.

Click here for recipe.

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"An egg is always an adventure; the next one may be different."
Oscar Wilde

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Late popcorn/cracker nights

Hubby and I love late night shows. In English, that is. Back home we would watch marathons of our favorite shows...at that time that would mean Friends, Buffy, Charmed, Spin City and so on...

That habit hasn't changed until now. We would still watch late at night but this time with the inclusion of Japanese and Korean telenovelas, animes, Japanese movies and other trilogies and movies we watched as kids. We have included other favorites as well...Ugly Betty, Smallville, How I met your mother and a lot more but we still watch Friends and Spin City. We love Spin City with Michael J. Fox was the lead role but Charlie Sheen's era has laughable moments too.

Episode above "The Gambler" was when Paul, Stuart and Carter rope reformed gambler Charlie into their poker night, and are responsible for his subsequent gambling bender. Earlier in the story, Charlie received football gift from the Mayor. It was signed by a famous player (name slipped my mind) and is worth about 15,000$ but at the end of the story was revealed to be actually 20,000$. Charlie almost sell the ball in order to finance his gambling...

In this same episode, Caitlin tries to teach the mayor to be more self-sufficient until they find him a maid. She however became attached to the idea of teaching the mayor the ropes of maintaining his home...or self.

Just like many episodes, I like the twist wherein Charlie walks away from gambling and chose to simply turn around. The show has actually lots of such scenes which hubby and I enjoy watching...

Oh, late nights like this are perfect with popcorn or shrimp crackers...the kids would stay with us only to munch.

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Tuna, is that really tuna?

Tuna and Butterfish sashimi

This is the color of tuna I'm used to eating, a hint of pink to red. I would have preferred it pink marbling with white (fat) though. I cannot be sure if this is yellowfin (ahi), big-eye or bluefin (surely not bluefin as this is hardy in the market here). All I know is that the texture  and taste is far different from what I had from one of the Japanese restos I had back home (below photo). Sure, the maki tasted good but the tuna sashimi was all wrong like this is the kind that I read about fishing companies trying to make imitation tuna. I cannot find the link for now but a lot of restaurant seem to prefer this cheaper version of the so-called tuna...

You've read and heard about sushi grade tuna and the different types which are best for sushi and all those topics. This plays a big role on tuna pricing. :) Of course, how good the tuna tastes depends on other factors too...not only on the species, but the season when the fish is caught even where it is caught.

As for the "grade" well, when tuna is caught, it gets pierced with a long probe and evaluated for color and fat content. The greasier the probe comes back, the higher the grade.Not very scientific huh? And this doesn't have anything to do with the freshness at all, only the taste. There is also another variable to consider, tuna cuts. The mid-section near the belly is the fattiest and most expensive, and the tail is the cheapest.

All that being said, I could say that what I often had at the nearest Japanese resto from home must be a higher grade tuna...both for the taste and the freshness that makes me disappointed about the other plate in the photo up here.

I anyway enjoyed the beef soup which I traded with hubby. :D I had beef at first with rice then he exchanged his soup with mine.

I forgot the name of the resto, but it's a Japanese fast food joint we hurriedly went into feeling the pangs of hunger malling all day...it's not Tokyo Tokyo nor Teriyaki boy, I really forgot...lol

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Enjoy!

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Almond Chicken

Next  time I'll certainly use chopped almonds...whole ones turned out hard to bite. :D Serving above is for the little boy...I don't think my tummy would be satisfied with a little portion but I'm trying to cut down on rice....haaays. (FitYummyMummy is a must!)

Feel free to make adjustments...I'm not much into measuring exactly but this is the recipe I followed...it really calls for blanched almonds but I only had whole ones.

Ingredients

* 3 tablespoons soy sauce
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon cornstarch
* 2 teaspoons sherry
* 3 pounds chicken, skin removed, meat removed from bones and cut into bite sized pieces
* 1 1/2 cups peanut oil for frying
* 1 cup blanched almonds
* 1/3 cup sliced mushrooms
* 1/2 cup diagonally sliced bamboo shoots
* 1/2 cup diagonally sliced celery
* 1/4 cup thinly sliced onion
* 10 whole water chestnuts, thinly sliced
* 1/4 cup peanut oil
* 1/3 cup chicken stock

Directions

1. Mix the soy sauce, salt, cornstarch, and sherry in a large bowl. Stir in chicken; cover and refrigerate.

2. Heat 1 1/2 cups of the peanut oil in a large, deep skillet. Fry almonds in the oil until golden, about 1 minute. Drain fried almonds on a paper towel.

3. Drain all but 3 tablespoons of oil from the skillet. Stir in the mushrooms, bamboo shoots, celery, onion, and water chestnuts. Cook and stir vegetables for 1 minute. Remove from skillet.

4. Heat 1/4 cup oil in the skillet. Cook and stir the marinated chicken in hot oil until no longer pink in the center, and the juices run clear, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in cooked vegetables, chicken stock, and reserved soy sauce mixture; simmer until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in fried almonds before serving.

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