Fish is one of those things that I always vow I’ll cook more of. The other day I had a fabulous miso black cod at my favourite sushi joint and it was so good I was inspired to make it at home. Black cod is buttery, rich and silky.
I have a bag of mochi sitting in my fridge, just waiting to be puffed up, brushed with soy sauce and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. Grilled mochi makes the best snack: it’s fast, filling and completely satisfying.
Most people, when they think of clay-pot chicken rice they imagine glossy brown chicken, sweet and juicy Chinese sausage, and fluffy soy-saucy rice served in a clay pot. I, on the other hand, just picture the rice cooker of my childhood. Growing up, we didn’t have a clay pot, but that didn’t stop my mom from making this traditional Chinese dish. Instead of a clay pot, she’d cook everything in the rice cooker for a fast, one pot meat of tender chicken, sweet sausage, earthy mushrooms and soy-sauce-soaked rice.
My favourite sushi restaurant makes a fantastic tamago-yaki. While we sit at the sushi bar and watch the chefs making sushi, I always eye the big golden yellow block of tamago. Their tamago is perfect: solid, yet still layered, with no burnt parts. Mike likes to judge sushi restaurants by their saba/mackerel sushi, but I use tamago as my benchmark.
When I’m out for dinner I like checking out what other people are eating. I tend to do it unobtrusively – although Mike begs to differ – but when something really catches my eye, I’ll ask the staff what the dish was. Mochi-iso was one of those dishes for me. I only saw it for a second, but seeing those pale-golden puffs drizzled with sauce sitting on top of seaweed strips made me want it instantly.
The Momofuku name is a registered trademark of Momofuku and David Chang. I'm just using it (fair use?) to refer to his restaurant and cookbook.
All original content and photos is © 2010 copyright & all rights reserved Stephanie Le.
momofukufor2.com is where I document the little tips and tricks I learned while cooking through the Momofuku Cookbook by David Chang and Peter Meehan.
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