Follow @SimplySho Things I cook, Things I eat

Things I cook, Things I eat

A Japanese guy that loves to cook & eat. I enjoy taking pics of food I cook for friends with my white iPhone 4.

I've definitely taken inspiration from stuff I've ate, or things I've seen on TV or online, but everything you see here came from my heart with no real recipes. I cook trial and error, just going along with the creative ride!

Follow my antics on Twitter @simplysho

Permalink Flukefish with Tobiko and Habanero Salsa VerdeWent for colors and a mix of refreshing spicy tang. Took some fresh sashimi flukefish which I drizzled with lime. You can see that it starts cooking it right away like ceviche. Topped it with tobiko eggs and a quick salsa verde. Added a little orange color and spicy kick with slices of habanero. Green Salsa- in a blender tossed in lightly roasted tomatillo, sea salt, and green onions. You can add a bit of cilantro in it too.  
Permalink Local Radishes and Salmon RoeAt the local farmers market, I found a variety of radishes. Some red, some purple, some white. I liked the bright colors and was inspired to come up with a full course meal based on radishes. I used every piece including the leaves to come up with 4 different dishes.This first dish, I wanted to showcase the entire radish so decided to hollow it out using a small spoon. Since Daikon radish goes well with soy sauce and sashimi/seafood as a tasty garnish I decided to put inside salmon roe which was soaked in soy sauce for few hours. Topped with minced shiso leaves and dill.
Permalink Pan Fried Gyu-Tan (Beef tongue) wrapped Shiso Leaves w/ Quail Egg & FatTire Baby Oyster Mushrooms I love beef tongue. While I can enjoy a nice cuts of steak meat, there is something about the texture and flavor of the tongue that does it for me. If slow cooked as Lengua in Tacos it melts in your mouth. If grilled on a hot iron plate as gyu-tan ( “beef tongue” ) in Yakiniku or Korean BBQ, its chewy but so darn flavorful. I wonder if I am tasting all the great flavors the cow enjoyed?Sprinkled some sea salt and sesame oil on the beef tongue before being grilled. Once the meat was cooked, in the same pan deglazed the tasty meat juices with Fat Tire Amber Ale and cooked up the small oyster mushrooms with a splash of soy sauce. The quail egg yolk when broken paired well with the beef tongue and the herbal aroma of the shiso. The mushrooms worked well on it’s own or with eggyolk. 
Permalink Hello Kitty ScallopsI swear Hello Kitty is everywhere. From graphics on EVA airline planes, to containers at Yogurtland, and with Sanrio creating Hipster Hello Kitty with thick rim glasses it’s on the dance floors next to a Pabst beer. From babies to 30 year old kids Hello Kitty is in. When some of my girlfriends came over to eat, one with a Hello Kitty iPhone cover and another with a Hello Kitty HappyMeals watch, I knew they’d enjoy a starter dish that looks cute, but tastes fun, and delicious. Taking on the colors of Hello Kitty( white face, red bow, yellow nose) I created this scallop appetizer. These are sashimi grade scallops topped with strawberry salsa, lemon zest, and sprinkled with red hawaiian volcano salt. The strawberry salsa just has bits of strawberry, garlic, green onions, cilantro, seasoned with salt and lemon juice. Eat it whole, you get the sweetness of the strawberries, tang of the lemon, balancing out the salty sweet fresh scallops. The volcano salt adds a nice soft saltiness and crunch. Cute for girls, but a dish I recommend for anyone for upcoming Spring parties! 
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Permalink Two halves make perfectStuffed Surf Clams,Took the surf clam, chopped up the clam bits along with oyster mushrooms, garlic, red onions, green onions, and cooked in olive oil and sauvignon blanc. Seasoned with sea salt. Garnished with red onions and radish sprouts.This Valentine’s, I did not have someone to send roses to, but I did get to spend some time cooking for and catching up with an old friend who has been there for me through life’s ups and downs. Made ramen (possible next post) and these clams as appetizer. I do love cooking. Girlfriend, wife, family, friends, pets, your passion, At the end, LOVE all. 
Permalink Nacho ordinary super bowl food! Kalbi beef and Kimchi Salsa NachosMy friend threw an annual Super Bowl party at his home. Pot luck style, people bring in food or drinks, but I waited till the last minute to figure out my dish. Often when I cook, I find inspiration not from a recipe book, but merely just browsing the local grocery store and looking for the freshest or first ingredient that comes to mind. It’s superbowl Sunday, so the storefronts are piled with beers and chips. Lots of tortilla chips and bottled salsas. I have always loved big hearty nachos, especially the one’s from UC Santa Barbara’s Freebirds. Drunk partiers wait in long lines to order Burritos or Nachos (pick and choose toppings SF mission style). A big Styrofoam container filled with chips, cubed carne asada steaks, lettuce, guac, pico de gallo, onions, cilantro, the works. At the end it’s 2 pounds of great food shared among your friends. Inspired by the chips in the front of the store, the nachos from my college town, and probably an influence by all fusion taco trucks I’ve had. Decided to make some Kalbi/kimichi nachos for the party. Kalbi BeefSince I was going to chop up the meat into cubes, I went away from the traditional short ribs of kalbi and instead went with chuck steak. It was cheaper, has great fat (flavor) and I didnt have to deal with the bones of the short ribs. I marinated the cubed meats in traditional Kalbi sauce. I recommend the recipe from maangchi.com. But if you find store bought kalbi bbq sauce, try that out too. Kimchi Salsa,Basically a Pico de Gallo but with korean pickled twist. The store had a bottle of kimchi sauce, made by a kimchi company. Just chopped up tomatoes, cucumbers, thinly sliced onions green onions and had it sit in the kimchi sauce for an hour. If I had to make this dish again, I would probably have cubed up some daikon radish to add more crunch to this. Also to balance the kimchi salsa, squeezed a bit of fresh lime and orange juice for some citric acid to liven things up.Layered the chips on a plate and put some shredded mozzarella cheese that I microwaved for 20 seconds (dont put it too long unless you want soggy chips, if you have time, the oven is better to melt the cheese). Cooked up the marinated steaks in a pan till they were nicely browned then generously poured the hot steaks onto the chip bed. Topped it off with the Kimchi Salsa and some green onions. The Pats didn’t win, but these chips did for my friends.
Permalink Sous chef helping me out with cutting out the Gyoza wrappers while I prepare other stuff. Friends wanted to do Gyoza night.  Growing up cooking with my mom, I’ve made plenty of gyoza/filling but she always bought store bought wrappers. Now that I am all about cooking from scratch, had to google gyoza wrapper. Behold! first result I find is of blogger La Fujimama that I’m a fan of. And it was so easy! warm water, flour and salt? While I am very comfortable with other parts of cooking, man, I am scared of baking, but the more I make simple recipes requiring dough, I am starting to gain courage, hopefully simple breads and cakes in 2012.
Permalink I had a little fun on a sunday afternoon while watching Tebow. Decided to use the food blender and try making different colored gazpacho. Various ingredients used were green peppers, yellow peppers, roma tomato, green onions, romaine lettuce, parsley, basil, anaheim peppers, serrano peppers, habanero peppers, garlic, chives. I am still experimenting with with consistencies to figure out how to layer the colors together, as well as figure out how each color/flavors can work with each other.Dash of yellow/habanero on top thats cooled by red tomatoes or green of the lettuce? More veggies, more time, more results.  
Permalink Pork tsukune (meatball) yakitori skewerMade some gyoza potstickers. Took the leftover gyoza filling Pork, nappa, ginger,garlic, shitake, binded with egg flour on skewers. Roasted them. 
Permalink Sliced pears, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, black peppers and sea salt. Easy 3 minute appetizer. 
Permalink Dessert from my “mushroom iron chef challenge”. Rum and brown sugar soaked oyster mushrooms and peaches cooked in red wine. On a butter roll with Apple jam. 
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If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Permalink Bacon wrapped shitake and enoki mushrooms
Permalink Uni, quail eggs, dash of soy sauce.. the delicious spooner