Melissa D'arabian's Snapper with Fennel, Onion and Tomato

This was a great recipe which I tried for the first time. This recipe is from a Food Network star named Melissa D'arabian. I never made her recipe but I like watching her show because she has so many great little tips for house cook.

This recipe was not actually from her show but another show called "The best thing I ever made". In this show, many of the chefs and food network personnel share the recipe of the best thing they ever made on the specific topic. This particular episode was one pot wonder.

She made this using snapper but I used Cod instead since I like cod and cod was on sale at local market. This is really easy and amazing dish if you like fish. Even when you don't like fish, I think you will like this dish if you use mild fish such as cod. My husband is not a big fish fan but he LOVED this dish! My son also ate a lot so this dish is a definitely a keeper!

If you are interested in the recipe, click here to go to Food Network site for her recipe.


First, you cook Fennel and Onion in a pan.

Add tomato and saute more.

When it is soft, add white wine, lemon juice, chicken stock etc.

Add Cod (or any fish you like) and top with butter

Put it in the oven and bake till the fish is cooked

The  tricky part is that you have to use a pan which you can also put in the oven. And please be very careful when you take the pan out of the oven. Obviously, the handle is super hot but I forgot about this one time and had a bad burn on my hand so be careful!

This is a great easy meal which taste like something from a restaurant. I think you can also make this with Shrimp. Maybe I will try this with Shrimp next time.


By the way, I wrote about my son being daddy's boy the other day and that I feel like a third wheel sometimes. Lately, my son tells me that he loves me so many times. When I heard him say this it made me cry. It made me so happy. I understand that my husband spend less time with him and he really play with him when he is with our son so our son want to spend as much time as possible when my husband is at home. But it is also really nice to hear that he loves me also. Our relationship is getting better. Sometimes I think that maybe I was too strict with him. But I am very happy with how he is and very proud of how he interact with other people and hoe caring he is.

I will keep trying to be genuine and understanding mother. I am not perfect but I am trying. Every kid is different and I have to find what works best for my son. It is not easy sometimes but I am so happy that I can spend all day every day with him and influence him with our point of view and philosophy.

He is talking a lot now so it is so interesting and funny to have a conversation with him. He makes me laugh a lot and he is learning a lot every day. I thank everyday that he came into my life and I can spend time with him every day.

Lately, he started asking "Why?". Everything is "Why?" "Why?" He kept asking me why. I think it is great that he is curious but something I feel like he is doing this just to annoy me :-) But I assume that this is an important process for him to learn and I try to explain things over and over. Well, hope he is not kidding with me.

Growing up, I had my mom at home all the time. It was great to have her at home. If something happens at schools, I can tell her right away when I come home either good or bad. For me, I felt like things I wanted to tell her is not that important if time passes. The excitement or anger will go away with time. I hope I can be there for him when he is super excited or sad or angry and can listen to him when he really want to talk to me. I don't know what the future hold but I know I will always be there for him to listen. I hope he feels that I am always there to listen when he need me.... I guess it is every parent's wish :-)

Parenthood is not easy but I think you also learn a lot about yourself and my son is making me grow up also.

Homemade Salmon Nigiri and Negitoro Roll

The other day, we went to this big Japanese supermarket in NJ and had our favorite ramen noodle then bought some Japanese groceries. This time, we took our friends from Manhattan. One of them has been there but the other one hasn't so I was curious about how she would like it.

Well, seemed like both of them really enjoyed this visit to Japanese supermarket. I was very happy that they liked it!

Anyhow, we always buy negitoro when we go there and make sushi roll so I bought negitoro then I saw these beautiful salmon sashimi next to it. And it was on sale! I had to buy them. I bought two packages of salmon and two packages of negitoro.

Negitoro is always great but this salmon was also wonderful. They are beautiful and so fresh and very fatty! It said this salmon is from New Zealand.

Look at this salmon. Isn't it beautiful?

Negitoro is my favorite sushi of all. This time I made rolls with seaweed outside. I added more scallions and shiso leaves. They were delicious!

We used to have this wonderful sushi restaurant very close to our house so we used to eat sushi often but now we moved so we don't have any good sushi restaurant around. So I was really craving for good sushi!!!

My husband loved it also. We haven't given any raw fish to our son yet so I made vegetable miso soup and steamed sweet potato for him. It was difficult to make him try sweet potato in the beginning but once he tried it, he loved it. Lately, my son is refusing to eat vegetables. he used to love them. I don't know why all of a sudden he hates them. I asked other moms and read some stuff and seems like it is quite normal at this age and I am not supposed to force him to eat.

When I was kids, I couldn't eat a lot (now, I can not stop...) and there are many vegetables I didn't like. My mom never forced me to eat more or eat what I didn't like. Now, I love vegetables except green peas and some beans. So I guess you will grow out of it but it is difficult to see him refuse to eat something that I put a lot of effort to make. Well, I am trying to find a new way to eat vegetables. If you have any good suggestions, let me know!

He liked Okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancakes) If you don't know what okonomiyaki is, here is ther link to my old post.  I add lots of vegetables in this pancakes and he eat them. Also, when I make fried rice with chopped vegetables, he eats them. Well, I guess I have to keep trying.

Now, I am thinking about ordering organic vegetables from local farms in a box. I think this is fun way to eat new vegetables. They will just mix different kind of vegetables which are in season and send them to you at your door. I am curious about trying this.

Also, I am excited to plant some vegetables with my son this spring. This way, maybe he will be excited about eating vegetables which he grow himself!

Grilled Salmon Salad with Quinoa and Yogurt sauce

It has been quite nice temperature here in NY lately. I can definitely feel the fall approaching but not too cold to wear short sleeves. This weather reminds me of areas in California where I used to live.

I loved the weather in California. It was dry and warm all year around but one thing I realized after I moved to NY is that you appreciate summer more and also you can actually enjoy four different seasons in a year. I like warm weather and I don't like cold weather but at the same time, I kind of enjoy   a little bit cold fall night when I feel like baking or cooking something hearty.

Anyhow, I always buy salmon from Costco and this is also from Costco salmon. I froze half of it and used the other half for this salad. This is definitely a summer dish. I made this dish on Sunday.

Grilled Salmon Salad with quinoa and yogurt sauce!

The salad itself is very simple with romain lettuce, cucumber and corn with some store bought Caesar dressing.

On top of that, I added some quinoa with cilantro, raisons, pine nuts and garlic. This is something my friends told me about and I made it once before. The recipe is from Food Network. Here is the link for the recipe if you are interested. 

For salmon, I just sprinkle salt and pepper then sautéed with olive oil in a pan 6 mins each side.

Then, I made this yogurt sauce which is with greek yogurt, chopped cilantro, grated garlic and lime juice plus salt and pepper.

My husband absolutely loved this salad and especially the yogurt sauce. He was so impressed how I came up with this sauce but I have seen yogurt sauce with salmon in many places and I don't think it is nothing new but he was quite happy. Normally, yogurt sauce for salmon has dill but I only had cilantro so I used cilantro for both quinoa and yogurt sauce. For someone like us who love cilantro, this was great.

This is a great light dinner for hot night. It is super easy and healthy and delicious.

Enjoy!

Oven Baked Salmon with Fennel and Capers

This is a dish I learned from my mother-in-law. This is so simple and healthy but very tasty dish and also healthy.

It is super easy to make. First, you cut fennel and add them into a casserole with lemon and olive oil then bake in the oven until they are tender. (This time, I already had steamed fennel which I made for my baby for I used half of that so I skipped this step)

Then, you add salmon filet and capers and chopped parsley and more lemon juice and olive oil then bake more until salmon is cooked. Here, I also added chopped tomato since I had one tomato which I needed to use. This was great idea!! I set the oven about 400 degree and baked it for about 15mins.

This was super good and my husband loved it also. We had mushed potato for the side dish. Actually, this mushed potato was initially made for my baby but I took some out for us and added heavy cream, butter and salt, pepper for ours. I used Yukon Gold Potatoes. I love this potato. It is more yellow than other potatoes and it reminds me of the potatoes which I had in Germany.

Anyway, this is a great dish for busy night. I would definitely repeat this dish again. Also, I loved adding tomato so it is more colorful!

Things I recently made and cook books I recently borrowed

Summer is finally here and I am enjoying my first summer with a baby. Sometimes, it is too hot but I put him in a water bath outside my house and he loves it. We take him to the beach sometimes also. He doesn't really like the ocean water. I think it is too cold. Anyhow, my life is perfect with him!
He is already 5months and we just started to give him solid food. we started with rice porridge. (He is a half Japanese :-) It is interesting to see how he develop. He is growing up too fast!

Well, I have been cooking more lately but just didn't have time to update my blog. So I would like to upload some of the things I made recently.

First of all, I made biscuit. I had homemade biscuit the other day at a restaurant in Brooklyn and I wanted to try making it myself ever since. Here is how it came out.

Not bad, right? It tasted good also! I didn't know how easy to make biscuit at home. I love having it with butter and strawberry jam when it came right out from the oven. Yum!

I used the recipe in this book which I had for this biscuit.















Also, I made an indian dish. This is chicken with some indian spices with lots of cilantro and tomato. My husband and I love this dish. I didn't make it super spicy this time so we didn't need to be crying while we ate. For some reason, I love eating spicy food when it is hot.

Next, I made salmon and napa cabbage. Salmon is just with salt and pepper and sautéed in a pan. Napa cabbage is cooked with bacon and some vinegar. I love this cabbage dish. I can eat a bowl full of this cabbage.

And, this is a edamame salad. We love edamame and we eat them quite often but I never had it in this form. This is a warm salad with mushroom, roasted bell pepper, snap peas and so on. I found this recipe on Martha Stewart magazine. I bought frozen shelled edamame. For flavor, I used vinegar and chili paste and stuff so it is a bit spicy but very good. To my surprise, my husband liked this dish. It is very healthy but tasty dish.

Speaking of edamame, I bought edamame plant this year for my container garden. It is growing some edamae but it is just like 5 of them so I don't really know what to do with them.

I also got basil for my garden as I always do every year. This year, basil has been growing really well so I have already harvested them twice and made pesto pasta. This pesto was really good. I wrote it down the recipe so I would like to upload it some other time.

I went to the library the other day and borrowed some books again. One of the book I borrowed was for my husband. This is from my favorite Japanese author named "Kotaro Isaka". He is very popular in Japan and I found that one of his books is finally translated into English. I always wanted my husband read one of his book so I borrowed it for him.

This is the book.

I read many of his book but I actually haven't read this one yet. I thought about reading it in English but I decided to get it in Japanese and read it in Japanese.

My husband finished reading it and he liked it.

He said he didn't like the first half of it but then he got into it and really liked it when he finished reading.

I went to this Jpaaneses used book store called "Book Off" in Manhattan the other day and purchased the original version of it. I am excited to read it. My husband ask me every day if I read it already or not. But I still have other books to finish so I haven't really started yet. (Plus, with a baby, my reading time is quite limited right now)

Other than the above book, I borrowed lots of cook book again. I realized that there are many celebrates publishing cook book lately.





This is a cook book from an actress "Eva Longoria". Since her parents are Mexican, I thought I can get some good Mexican recipes from this book. I liked many of the stuff I saw. I am excited about trying it.










This is my favorite celebrity chef Jaime Oliver's cook book about food from American continent. There are many dished which looks really good from all different regions. Very interesting book.











This is a book from iron chef Cat Cora. I actually have never tried her recipe so I would like to try something from this.













This is a cook book from Trisha Yearwood. I think she is an country singer (I am sorry but I am not sure about who she is)

In this book, there are lots of American classic recipes and some of them looks really good. I would definitely try her chicken salad and chicken casserole.







When I borrow or buy cookbook, the most important feature is pictures of the dishes. I don't like cookbooks without any pictures of the dishes. All of these cookbook above had many pictures of the dishes. However I wish they have pictures for each and every one of the recipe they have in the book.

Anyway, I am excited about trying some of the dished from these book. The only problem is that it is too hot to cook lately!

Healthy Broiled Mackerel Dinner

I had Mackerel in my freezer which I bought the other day when I went to a Japanese supermarket. I felt like eating something healthy so I decided to use this mackerel for dinner.

There are many ways to cook Mackerel. I thought about broiling, cooking with miso and frying and ended up using a very simple traditional Japanese way of eating. Just broiling with salt. I made rice, miso soup and also had fermented beans with the broiled mackerel. Now, this looks like a very traditional Japanese meal.

Before broiling the mackerel, I made a few slit on it and marinated with sake and salt for about 30mins.
Then, I washed it and sprinkle some salt and put them under a broiler.

I broiled each side for about 6mins each and it cake out perfectly.

It reminds me of home and it was really good quality mackerel. I loved it.

The only downside of this dish is that the house smells like fish after cooking. However, I have this air refresher from Fabreze which a scent of Gain. Gain is my favorite laundry detergent. I found this air refresher the other day and it has been great for eliminating unwanted odor in the house. Plus, your house smells like Gain! If you like the smell of Gain, I am sure that you will like this air refresher. The great thing is that it eliminates odor and leaves the good scents so it won't be mixed.

Things I made a few years ago

Yesterday, I made Okonomiyaki which I make quite often and nothing special to this blog anymore so I would like to upload some of the things I made a few years ago.

First, this is chicken roll with tomato sauce. I don't even remember what I put inside but it looks pretty good. For the side, I made potato gratin which I love.

Next one is corn salad. I think I dressed this salad with cilantro sauce. This salad is very colorful with some red and green pepper. It is perfect summer salad.

This is one of my favorite dish which I made in my life. It is swordfish with coconut curry sauce. When I made this dish, I was so surprised how good it was. I think it was a recipe from Wolfgang Puck. I was sure that I will be making this dish more but I realized that I haven't made it since then. It might be time to make it again!

This is safran chicken dish. I think this was a recipe from Giada de Laurentis from Food Network. It was lighter than I thought it will be. It was pretty good. Looks pretty also.

This is pumpkin soup which I made with milk. It is very mild tasting and great for winter season. This dish made me feel cozy and warm.

Last dish is blueberry cheese cake. This is a recipe from my favorite chef Tyler Florence. It is a bite size cheese cake and so yummy and cute!

Sometimes, I like watching some of my old food photos. It motivate me to cook more and try something new. What should I made today? It makes me feel so happy and excited to think about what I am going to cook next!

BBQ at our Landlord's Place

On the weekend, my husband and I were invited for a BBQ at our landlord's place. It was a beautiful day and they have a nice back yard so it was a wonderful BBQ.

First, we had chips and dip as an appetizer. The dip was chili cheese dip and it tasted really good! I definitely would like to try making this at home sometimes. (I forgot to take picture of this dip, though..)

Then, we had salmon with avocado tomato salsa. The salmon was perfectly cooked and the salsa goes really well with the salmon and it looks pretty. I think this is a perfect summer dish! I lover it.

Then, of course you have to have hamburger and hotdog for BBQ.

We also had two different kinds of salad and corn. My plate was so colorful!

After BBQ, we enjoyed talking and had dessert. I brought banana pudding and they liked it so I was very pleased. They made apple cake and this apple cake was the best apple cake I ever had. It is very moist inside but outside was little crunchy and was perfect. They told me that this is a family recipe. They let us bring some of the cake home so I had it again for next morning. It was delicious! I have to ask her for the recipe of this apple cake.

After dessert, I was so full and they brought out this liquor called Sambuca. It is a liquor from Italy and they say that drinking this help you to digest. So I tried. It was little bit like liquorice but very sweet so it is easy to drink. I ended up having three glasses. (It was a small glass!!)

It has been four and half years since we started to rent the house we live right now. When we moved to NY, we went to see many apartments in the area but didn't find anything we liked. However, when walked into this house, we just fell in love with it  and we immediately liked the landlords from the first time we met them. We are lucky to live in this house and have such a nice landlord. We have our get together a few times a year and every time we have meal together, it is always great time.

They are such a great story teller and we just can't stop laughing with their stories. Especially, we like when we talk about their childhood memories growing up in Brooklyn and Queens. It is very interesting and always very funny. I am happy that we have a good relationship and I look forward keeping this great relationship with them :-)

Yummy! Sweet & Sour Marinated Salmon

I like reading Japanese magazines with lots of recipes and household tips. Since it is not so easy to get Japanese magazine around where I live, I keep old magazines and read them over and over. Sometimes I go to "Book Off" (a Japanese used book store in Manhattan) and buy old magazine for $1.00 or so.

I found this dish in one of those Japanese magazines. I like sweet and tangy taste so I was pretty sure that I would like this dish and I was right! This dish was so good and I was impressed! This is perfect summer dish and I know I will be making this dish more often. I just loved it!

I was supposed to use celery but didn't have it so I omitted celery and used parsley leaves from my garden (container garden that is...)

This is an easy dish to make.

First, you need to slice carrots and onion very thinly and saute in a frying pan with some olive oil. When they get soft, add white vinegar and sugar and salt and pepper for taste. (The amount is depends on how much salmon you use. I used about 1.5lb of salmon and used 10 table spoons of vinegar and 3 tea spoon of sugar) . Transfer this mixture into a container.

Then, cut salmon into pieces and sprinkle with salt and pepper then dust with some flour.

In a frying pan, add some olive oil and saute the salmon both side until the surface is crispy and cooked all the way through.

Transfer the salmon into carrot and onion mixture and let it sit for 20minuits or so.

Add some chopped parsley and mix well.

This dish is great for both room temperature or cold. I liked both ways. When I have this cold, it is kind of like salad. It is sweet and sour and very refreshing. It is a perfect dish for summer!

This is so easy but surprisingly good dish! I hope you will like it also!

Salmon Dinner & My favorite tea time

I was another healthy dinner at Mausi's place. Salmon with green onion and sesame. These green onions are from my container garden which I reported yesterday. Isn't this awesome that I can just pick up bunch of green onion from my garden and use it for dinner. It is definitely fresh!

We had salmon with rice and broccoli. This broccoli is easy. I just cut into pieces, put in a microwave safe bowl, sprinkle salt & pepper, olive oil and some shredded cheese and microwaved for 4~5 mins. That's it! This is a perfect easy side dish for salmon dinner.

Well, today, I would like to talk about something which my husband and I are really enjoying right now. It is out tea time after dinner with our favorite tea. We like drinking tea and especially I drink all different kind of teas (see, I am from Japan, you know)

The teas which we love right now is the ones which we bought in Germany. The company's name is Ronnefeldt and their tea is just amazing!

This is the Earl Grey tea which has a wonderful aroma.

And this is some kind of mix with Darjeeling and something else.

Both of these are loose leaf tea. I love loose leaf tea better because I think it taste better when I pour hot water directly over the tea leaves (without putting them in tea bags). These teas are just so wonderful.

I checked Amazon but I couldn't find these tea there. I am not sure if I can get this tea in the U.S. I should have gotten more when I was in Germany :-)

If you like tea, I think this company's tea is worth trying. Especially "Tippy Golden Darjeeling Earl Grey" is just amazing. The aroma relaxes you whole body and mind and it makes me very happy. My husband told me that he was thinking about and looking forward having tea already during the dinner! It is that good.

Another tea which we are drinking quite often lately is Rooibos tea. This tea is popular in South Africa. We were drinking this tea even before our friend came to visit from South Africa but when they came, they brought this big package of Rooibos tea! So now we can drink it more! Sometimes in the U.S. it is a  little bit difficult to find Rooibos tea in a regular super market. Sometimes they have it , sometimes they don't so it is great to have this big package at home.

I normally add sugar to my black tea but never to any kind of Japanese or Chinese tea. I also found that I don't need to add sugar for Rooibos tea. It is similar to some type of Japanese tea and I like drinking this tea with meal and so on. Also, I heard somewhere that Rooibos tea is good to make you young! I really want to believe this :-)

If you have a chance, please try Ronnefeldt's Tippy Golden Darjeeling Earl Grey. This might be the best tea I ever had.

So enjoy your after dinner tea time while you relax, talk, read or watch TV. In my house, this is one of the great joy of the day and we look forward to this tea time every day.

Lunch and delightful afternoon with a friend (Panko Crusted Sole)

My friends from Queens came to visit me the other day. We never hang out by ourselves but we have seen each other so many times. It was very very nice to spend one-on-one time with her and get to know her more.

We went to a small restaurant for lunch. This resutaurant has a variety of items on their menu and I always find it difficult to pick on dish to order.

This time they had a lunch special and I found my favortie fish on a lunch special so I decided to order that. It is Japanese Panko crusted Sole. Sole is one of my favorite dish but it is quite expensive sometimes. This sole was lunch special and was not expensive at all but it tasted great.

I love Japanese Panko becuase when you fry them, it is extra crispy. It seems like Japanese panko is getting popular here in the U.S. since I see tham in a regular supermarket and in lots of restaurant menue and recipes.

After lunch, we went to a farmers market and came back home and spend the afternoon talking about a lot of different things. She is my age and very nice to talk to. I am excited to hang out with her more often. Since she is having a baby soon, she will be very busy after the baby arrives but I hope that I can help her somehow during those busy days :-)

It was so much fun and when we realized it was already 7:00pm. Time flies when you are having fun :-)

The funny thing was that my husband had a business dinner that night. And when he came home, I asked him what he had for dinner. He told me that he had Sole!!! How funny that both of us ordered sole that day without realizing it :-) I would like to belive that it is a special telepathy between us.

Salmon, Savoy Cagge & Bacon, Broccoli & carrots Plate

When I was in Frankfurt, I went to this food court which is on top of a department store. They had buffet style lunch by the weight. I like eating lots of different stuff so I got lots of different kind of dishes on my plate. One of the thing I loved was braised cabbage and bacon.

This seemed easy enough for me to make it at home so I bought savoy cabbage and made it at home. Even though I can eat bowl full of this dish, I thought it will be better to have something else since this dish was more like a side dish, I made sauteed salmon and another side dish broccoli and carrots sauté.

I don't make too much side dish normally so most of the time my dish is only one main stuff on a plate but this time I had salmon as a main and TWO side dishes. This is a very healthy plate.

Anyhow, broccoli & carrots are just sauteed in a pan and flavored with soy sauce and sesame oil. Easy.

For salmon, I just sauteed them in butter and oil with salt and pepper. That's it. Simple.

I remember making this salmon sauté in elementary school cooking class. (Yes, we had cooking class in Japan :-) I loved cooking class. It was so much fun!

However, I never really cooked at home back then so I didn't know much about cooking. And I asked people around me if I should wash vegetables with detergent or just water. After hearing this, my friends only ask me to wash some dishes and they did not let me cook. I think they were scared how I would ruin the dish. Oh well, look at me now! I can cook now :-)

I think I always liked cooking. I vaguely remember being in a cooking club when I was in a elementary school. (A part of the reason for this is that I am horrible with any kind of sports :-)

Anyway, let's make that braised cabbage & bacon. Here is the recipe.

Braised cabbage & Bacon
Ingredients
Savoy Cabbage     1
Bacon                  about 5 strips
Homemade Chicken stock     about 2 cups
Soy Sauce               2 table spoon
Sugar                     2 tea spoon
Salt                        1 tea spoon

1. Cut the savoy cabbage into thin strips or small pieces. Also cut the bacon into small pieces.

2. Saute bacon in a pan, then add cabbage.

3. When cabbage start to get soft, add chicken stock and simmer.

4. When cabbage is tender and the stock is half of amount, add soy sauce, sugar and salt. Keep it simmer for a few more minuets.

5. Serve!

Isn't it super easy? This is great side dish for many dishes. (Actually, I can eat this as a main dish  with some rice :-)

Even my husband who is not keen on cabbage loved this dish. The favor from bacon goes great with cabbage and you can eat quite a big amount of cabbage this way.

This was my first time using savoy cabbage but I think it is more tender and fluffy than regular cabbage. I like this cabbage. I will try to use this cabbage more often from now on.