Cold Ramen Noodle

Cold Ramen noodle is something you normally eat in hot summer time. Howverer, I had one cold ramen noodle package left in the freezer so I had to use this. Probably, I could have made this into hot ramen noodle but I also had tomato and cucumber in my fridge so made cold ramen noodle.

The sauce was sesame flavored sauce and it is great with cold ramen noodle and vegetables. The yellow thing is egg. It suppose to have some chicken also but I did not have chicken at home so decided to skip that.

I also had side salad with the noodle. I didi't think it was a great idea because the cold ramen noodle itself was like a salad so it seemed like we had two salads. Oh well, good to eat lots of vegetables, right?

On Thansgiving, our friend gave us this package of Fererro chocolate. The white one in the middle line is my favorite. (You can tell from the picture, I guess) It is coconut flavor and it is so good! I wonder if I can purchase this coconut ones only :-) If you like coconut, I am pretty sure that you will like this one also :-)

Today, it is a beautiful weather in NY. It supposed to go up to 18C (65F). I can not believe it is Dec. This is so nice. Sunny warm wether makes me so happy. It is amazing how the weather affect my mood.
I think this is true to many people since everybody in my neighborhood is happy today :-)

I should go for a bike ride to enjoy this perfect weather. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day also.

I don't know why but it seems like my spell check fuction is not working. I am sorry for the misspelling in advance :-)

Japanese Pot stickers (Gyoza) and Pork Bun

Pot sticker is a very popular dish in Japan. It actually is a Chinese dish but I think Japanese people modified it  little bit. Normally, many Japanese household buy ready to make gyoza wrapper from the supermarket.

I am one of them. I never made the gyoza wrapper myself. Japanese pot sticker wrapper is very very thin so I think it will be difficult to make it at home.

Anyway, I made lots of them at once since it is time consuming task to make gyoza and freeze them for later.

I actually posted the gyoza recipe in a previous post so click here if you are interested in the recipe.

It need some practice to make those shapes but I think after a few of them, you will get the hang of it.
I used to make them with my mom when I was little so I had lots of practice on this.

I make dipping sauce with soy sauce, white vinegar and spicy oil called "ra-yu"

Some people like eating gyoza with ramen noodle, others like to eat with white rice. I like it both ways.

At home, we usually eat them with white rice.

Ramen noodle is also very popular item in Japan. You will find many different style of ramen noodle depend on the region. I like "Tonkotsu Ramen" from Hakata which is in southern Japan. Actually, I have never been to Hakata but Tonkotsu Ramen is so popular, you can find many Tonkotsu Ramen place in Tokyo. Tonkotsu means pork bone so the stock of this ramen noodle was made from pork bone.

Back to my gyoza. I realized that I did not have enough wrapper for gyoza filling so I thought about what I can do with these leftover gyoza filling.

I remember seeing pork bun in a magazine the other day and decided to make my own pork bun with gyoza filling.

The dough was bit too tough and it was supposed to be smoother but it came out OK. I steamed in a frying pan.

It does not look too great but it tasted good. I think it was pretty good for my first try. I am very proud of myself. My husband also liked these pork bun. I don't think he ever had pork bun before.

He ate many gyoza and also pork buns.

I was wondering what else I can make these pork bun with. Maybe I can put some peanut butter inside to make sweet bun.

Those buns are also popular in Japan, especially in winter time. It is a great snack. You will find different kind of buns at any convenient store in winter. I have seen pork bun, sweet red beans bun, pizza bun, curry bun and so on. I am sure there are bunch of more flavors which I don't even tried.

After making all the pot sticker. I seal them in a freeze back and date it and store in the freezer.

I think it is also fine to freeze those buns. I did not have any leftover to freeze so I did not freeze them this time but I think it will be a great snack. I think kids would like those also. You can make it with their favorite filling and freeze it and whenever they are hungry after school, you can take it out from the freeze and microwave it. I think it is healthier than eating store bought snacks :-)

Side dish dinner

Last night, I did not quite know what I wanted to cook. I had potatoes which I wanted to use so I made sautéed potato with onion and bacon. Also, I wanted to try this iceberg lettuce salad recipe which I saw on Food Network the other day so I also made it. And I had a package for Japanese "Takikomi Gohan" which is some vegetables in steamed rice.

These were all seemed like side dish and I had no main dish. But we enjoyed them so it is OK.

This is called "Iceberg Wedge salad with warm bacon dressing". You can find the recipe for this at Food Network site.  I like the combination of bacon and sugar-red wine vinegar dressing.

Here is the potato dish I made. I know it does not look too good. I think I add too much green (chopped Cilantro) but it tasted good. This is so easy. Here is how you make it.

1. Peel potatoes and cut into slices.
2. Microwave the potato for about 5 mins.
3. Slice bacon and onion. Chop garlic. Sauté them in a frying pan until soft.
4. Add potato to the frying pan.
5. Add chopped cilantro or parsley and salt, pepper.
6. Serve while it is hot.

For Japanese Takikomi Gohan, I used packaged mix which I just add with some rice in the rice cooker so I don't really do much for this one.

It got some carrots, hijiki(a kind of seaweed), gobou(burdock roots), fried bean curd and so on. When I was growing up, I did not like this kind of rice. I liked regular white rice better but now I like it one in a while. This kind of rice has flavor so it is also good to make rice ball with this kind of rice.

Anyway, yesterday's dinner was all side dish but it was all really good :-)