One of my favorite ads growing up was a Ritz cracker ad that showed a little girl with her grandpa. They’re talking about what stuff you can eat with a ritz cracker, and the grandpa at one point suggests “aspara-goose”. The little girl, who has a bit of a lisp, looks at him indignantly and says, “It’th not athparagooooth…. It’th athparaguuhhhhth!”
I thought it was the cutest ad =) Maybe that’s why I never minded eating asparagus…
But I digreess. Yesterday night, we did our first batch of Harumi Recipes:
Asparagus with Crab Mayonnaise Dressing
Scallop Saute with Miso Sauce
Beef on Rice
I brilliantly tried getting it all done in an hour (it ended up taking about an hour and twenty minutes), so there was a bit of mayhem in my kitchen. I usually like washing up along the way so I don’t use too much crockery, but tonight there simply wasn’t time, so let’s just say we had a LOT of washing up to do at the end. My lovely husband insisted on doing most of it though.
I need to plan better the next round… But anyway, here’s a quick run-down of tonight’s main ingredients and dishes:
The asparagus dish was great! I used a pack of baby Thai asparagus that Giant was selling for cheap. Easy to cook and flavourful.
The scallop dish (pictured at the top) could have been better. There was just way too much miso in the sauce even though I used a lot less than the recommended amount. I must have misunderstood something… 2tbsp of miso = miso soup rather than miso paste? Strange though, cos in her glossary she defined “miso” as a paste. Also I should have cooked this dish right at the end so it would be warm when we ate it. But it is essentially a very nice dish, especially when you sear the scallops just right. And the bed of watercress balances the flavour well.
The gyudon was good! Lots of mirin and sugar in the sauce, for sweetness. And some white wine to make it more aromatic.
My hubby was very pleased that we used lots of white wine yesterday evening. We have quite a lot of wine, and I don’t drink, so he’s very glad for any chance I have to use alcohol in my cooking. Actually every dish we had at this meal called for white wine.
Week 1 of the Harumi project: COMPLETE!
ha…crab meat and asparagus are my husband and my fav. Like i say if u manage to get the fatter one will be juicier. cut the asparagus shorter and chop of some of the ends. then remove some of the “skin’ and boil then. so sweet!
oh yeah next time add a bit of roe to the crab mayo…nice!
Thank you for the tips! I bought the Thai asparagus because that was all I could find that day haha… But they were good too though =)
Hey, how come you don’t post the recipes too? I was looking forward to learning more abt Jap cooking! I don’t have any Japanese cookbooks!
Oh! Happy to post if people actually want it =) Ok will look through my previous entries tonight and backpost a couple of the better and/or easier recipes…