asian

a closet 95% vegetarian

in ,

yep. that's me. although, i suppose i am not so closeted anymore, and the people whom i eat with most knew this already. we'll call it an experiment, a recovery stage from {restaurant challenge}. though i am enjoying eating vegetables more than ever now, and the tastes of dead that i do eat {the safety 5% carnivore left in me} actually taste better now that it's not like ohmygod let me have twelve shackburgers. i see what vegetarians mean now, when their reaction to any person in a dining group saying, oh no we can't go to [insert name of meat centric restaurant here], there are no options for so-and-so, is becoming wide-eyed, wavey hands oh no no it's ok don't mind me i'll find something, i'm sure! but the group still opts not to go to fette sau or hill country or whatevs. it's with good intentions, absolutely, but i think there are a few others who would i identify when i say, choosing to be vegetarian was like choosing the expensive comfortable bra. it's for myself, to make me feel better, not for social implications or to have attention brought to it or to burden others. but of course when you find someone else with the same one you want to talk about it and wear them together. and about why 5% of me is carnivore: make it for me and i'll eat it, invite me to luger's and i'll go, order pig tails at traif and i'll try them. the meathook rapture dog at smorgasburg? that fell under the category of research. also, schnitzel always will be the exception. k, maybe i'm like 8% carnivore. anyways, when the f did this blog take on this tone? let's learn to make
whole wheat barbecue carrot buns! 
for the buns, use this recipe, the one that has been in my fammy forever, but replace two of the cups of flour with whole wheat flour.
heyyyy hot buns!
while the buns are doing their first rising, make the filling using this recipe from dirty candy. i substituted hoisin for the vegetarian oyster sauce and when the only carrot juice at the trader joe's had mangoes in it, i decided to use water. topped em some with cilantro, served em with sriracha {click on the sriracha link it is hilarious}. and they came out amazingly!!!! they are more kosher than their pig equivalent and you can eat seven billion of them without feeling pooey!! they are really ridiculously delicious. in fact, it's lunch time, ima go eat leftovers.

-yeh!!

konichiwa!

in , ,

look at all this sushi that i made!
i've been in the kitchen all day long,
makin sushi rice,
chopping veggies,
and watching anime listening to iron & wine.
i made enough sushi for like a million people for dinner for three. 
it's like one of those things where you get on a roll
and you just can't stop. hehe. roll. like sushi roll. get it?
i had the entire day to sush {v.}, so i started with the rice,
and used this recipe. which i doubled, because there is no
such thing as too much sushi rice. 
 is there anything better than freshly made sushi rice?
yes! and it's freshly made tamago atop of freshly made sushi rice:
say hi, little tamago friends!
tamago always has been and always will be my favorite sushi. 
even though stoopie always makes fun of me because she says that
it's sushi for beginners since it's not dead.
i used this recipe for it. instead of a tamago pan,
i used a large thin square pan and multiplied the recipe by 1 2/3.
the largeness and thinness of the pan made for lots of itsy bitsy layers. 
ooh and i used rice vinegar instead of mirin. 
it was so soooo delicious and sweet and refreshing!!
the sushi rolls i made were:
veggie {cukes + carrots + avocado}
eggie {tamago + cukes + carrots}
kimchi {kimchi}
the spicy fatso {avocado + sriracha mayo}
the peppery slut {scallion + red pepper + sriracha mayo}
the jody special {kimchi + cukes + sriracha mayo}
the italian stallion {scallions + red peppers + tofu}
in my sushi restaurant, there are no fishies!!!
and
i whipped up some toasted onigiri filled with refreshing kimchi. 
onigiri are non-photogenic little suckers. but they real good.
mum steamed up some dumplings!
and for dessert...
red velvet mochi ice cream ballz
yes, they're as good as they sound.
this is the recipe that i used. it is a little scary because
the measurements are in grams... i kind of half-assly converted it,
but since the ratios are easy i just used:
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 water
and when it says cornstarch as needed it really means 
coat your entire kitchen in cornstarch because if you don't you're fucked.
fresh mochi is so sticky. but so worth it.
after i patted it out, i filled it with ben and jerry's 
red velvet cake ice cream!!! it has little chunks of red velvet cake 
and cream cheese frosting swirlies in it. not exactly japanese,
i know. but amazing. fresh mochi isn't as chewy as the one from the store.
it's light and sweet and gooey. you want to make this right now. conquer the sticky.
 so the good thing about this is that there is now enough sushi
in the fridge to feed me for about a year. 
wanna come over and eat some?
you can bring the sake.

-yehchan!!
  



the annual dumplings of the world festival

in , ,


there is no christmas goose in my family. 
rather, there is,
here, go to the living room and fill this dough with potatoes for samosas.
or. dip a ball of risotto in bread crumbs so that we can fry them and make arancini...
it's really hilarious to walk around my house on christmas day 
and see a bunch of family friends sitting around, 
drinking mulled wine, 
and making dumplings.
this is stoopie and her pierogi-lovin boyfriend. and pierogi!
and empanadas with vegan sausage {??!?!!?} represented south of the border
new this year was a scary feat,
that we conquered with ease and chickens.
alls we did was use our secret fammy potsticker recipe, 
and then added some gelatinized chicken broth in with the filling {yeah, they were even kosher...}
and they were fantastic!
take that, joe's shanghai :-)


next year's mission?
dessert dumplings...


xoxo


yeh