Sukiyaki

It's pronounced "ski-yaki" with a silent "u".  This is one of Muzz's favorite dishes to cook for a group, but not too large of a group - maybe 8 people maximum.  It's the kind of meal that you cook at the table, and it literally means "cook what you like" (yaki means "cook" and ski means "like").  And we like meat and vegetables!

You'll need a hot plate with a cast iron pan to put in the middle of the table (Muzz insists that it must be cast iron!).  You will also need some platters to arrange the meat and vegatables that you want to cook.  A pot of hot rice, soy sauce, mirin or sake, sugar, and fish stock.  Muzz always offers everyone a raw egg to enjoy with their sukiyaki, but those eggs always go straight back into the carton at the end of dinner because noone wants a raw egg.  One of them ended up on the floor last week as I was putting them back in the carton after dinner - yuck, what a mess!  Muzz, skip the raw eggs!

SUKIYAKI:

Meat such as ribeye, 1 to 2 pounds
Vegetables, for example:
   green onion, several bunches
   chinese (napa) cabbage, 1/2 to 1 head
   bok choy, several
   any kind of mushrooms, 1/2 to 1 pound
   bamboo shoots, 1 or 2
   tofu, 1 or 2 squares
   konnyaku noodles (wikipedia says it's made out of a kind of starchy root vegetable)
Raw eggs hahaha
A pot of rice
Soy sauce
Sake or mirin (cooking sake with sugar added)
Sugar
Fish stock (you can get it in a can)
A piece of beef fat "suet"

First, cook your rice.  If you have a rice cooker, that will keep it nice and hot.

You want your meat to be sliced very thin, like 1/16 inch, which is even thinner than 1/8 inch.  Muzz used to be able to get the butcher to slice it that way by asking for it "Del Monico style".  Now she slices it herself by freezing the meat slightly and then slicing it with a very sharp knife.  Arrange the slices on platters.

The vegetables just need to be prepared for cooking:
   cut the roots off the green onions and cut to 2-4 inch lengths;
   cut the core out of the cabbage and cut into 1-inch wide strips;
   cut the end off the bok choy so the leaves come apart;
   slice the mushrooms, or not;
   slice the bamboo shoots;
   cut the tofu into 1-inch squares;
   rinse the konnyaku;
Arrange the vegetables on the platters.

Put the raw eggs in a bowl, don't break them!

When it is time for dinner, the platters of meat and vegetables come to the table, along with the bowl of raw eggs.  The soy sauce, sake, sugar and fish stock are on the table next to the cooking pan, which is in the middle of the table, within reach of everyone.  Turn the pan on, and grease it with the peice of beef fat "suet".  Take the suet out of the pan when it is greased up.

Now you can start putting some of the meat into the pan, along with some vegetables, a nice variety.  When the pan is full, add some soy sauce, sake or mirin, a little sugar, and fish stock, just a little spoon of sugar at a time, to taste.  If you are using mirin, be careful when adding the sugar because mirin is already sweet.  These ingredients become a kind of a cooking liquid for the food to cook in, and should be pretty much boiling or simmering, maybe medium high heat.  The proportions of soy sauce, fish stock and mirin depends on your taste, but maybe start with about 1/3 of each, or maybe a tiny bit more of the fish stock.

The food will cook fast, and then everyone can start eating.  Everyone should have a bowl of rice and some chopsticks.  You take what you want out of the pan with your chopsticks and put it on top of your rice.  Add more meat and vegetables (with your chopsticks!) to the pan as the food cooks.  You just keep eating and cooking!  As the liquid goes down, you can add more soy sauce, sake, sugar and fish stock.

You won't realize how much food you're eating, and you'll soon be sooo full!!!!!  Mmmmm!!  Sukiyaki is good good good!!!

MUZZ'S TWO CENTS:

By the way, you don't have to eat rice with sukiyaki to start.   A real pro will not fill themselves with rice; they eat the real stuff dipping every bite in the raw egg.    After a while they may serve themselves some rice.   The way one does it is, break an egg in a bowl. Stir it up with chop sticks.  Then you get what you want from the pot into the egg and eat.   This way, you look forward to the noodles at the end.     Love   Muzz

"Simply Amazing"

I don't make dessert too often... even though I have a whole book full of recipes from when I used to bake desserts for weddings and banquets at the Pointe on South Mountain.  (That was before law school of course..)

This little number isn't in that book though.  We just had way too many apples in the house tonight so I was going to make an apple side dish.  After I cooked them, they looked like they just HAD to have some ice cream next to them (or on top of them, or under them..)  :-)

It came together very quickly:

SAUTEED APPLES WITH BROWN SUGAR AND CINNAMON:

Just peel a couple apples, cut them in half and use a knife to cut the core and stem out.
Sprinkle the insides with cinnamon.
Get a frying pan and melt a couple tablespoon of butter, then sprinkle sugar over the melted butter.
Lay the apples in the pan on top of the sugar, cinnamon side down.
Now sprinkle the "round" side of the apple with cinnamon and sugar.
Let the apples cook for a few minutes until the "down" side is a little brown (caramelized!).
Turn them over and add a tiny bit of water to the pan and cover it.
In a couple minutes, the apples will be cooked.
The water, sugar and butter will have turned into a sweet cinnamony syrup.
Put the apples in a bowl with some ice cream, and spoon the syrup over the apples and ice cream.

"Simply Amazing!!!"

Street Food

sigh...  I love street food...  Sadly, I and others like me who have to live in America don't have many choices when it comes to street food, aside from the hot dog carts outside the courthouse and the ballpark.. although those ARE the best hot dogs!  :-)  We have a few more options if you go to the state fair, or the art festival, or some other street fair, but technically, to me that's not actually "street food", it's more like "fair food" or "festival food" even though it IS yummy!  mmmm... fry bread... corn dogs... navajo tacos... meat on a stick... Asian noodles...

It's probably "laws" or "liability" that prevents us from enjoying one of life's most basic pleasures: the ability to walk down the street on any given night and experience the aromas and comforts of food being cooked right there on the sidewalk, in front of us.  In Nogales, Sonora, one block outside America, the taco vendor cooks tacos on his portable flat-top grill (I didn't have any -- I think they were blood tacos he was making..) but I could have!  And in Puebla, there is a lady on almost every corner cooking chalupas.  In Ocho Rios, jerk chicken and pork, fried plaintains..  so nice to just stroll and eat, stroll and eat!

Japan has a rich and delicious tradition of street food.  From the oden carts (a hot stew with daikon radish and fish cakes in broth) to takoyaki (chunks of octopus cooked in batter and served on toothpicks) to yaki-imo (roasted sweet potato) to yakitori (bite-size chunks of teriyaki chicken on a stick), the pedestrian has many, many choices when it comes to your street food options.  The sweet potato vendor even has his own song: yaaaaki-imoooooo, ooooishiiiii yo! (translation: yaki-imo: yo! it's delicious!)  When it's a festival, or "matsuri", your street food options increase exponentially.  From grilled squid, okonomiyaki, and dango (mochi), to the little fish on a stick pictured above being roasted over hot coals at Gion Matsuri in Kyoto, festival food is the best!!!

I could go on and on dreaming about the street food I love so much....  in the winter it's so comforting to warm yourself by standing near the food being cooked at the side of the road....  so, although not always seen on the street, you can easily convert Muzz's teriyaki chicken recipe into yakitori by cutting the chicken into chunks and putting the chunks on a skewer.

TERIYAKI CHICKEN OR SALMON:

Boneless, skinless chicken - or - Salmon filet (take out the little bones with needlenose pliers)
Soy Sauce (1/4 to 1/2 cup)
Crushed Garlic (5 or 6 cloves)
Sugar (1/4 cup?)
(optional: ginger, olive oil, red chile flakes - Sarah's additions to the recipe)
Sesame seeds (irigoma)
Green onions

Salmon: cut the filet into serving size pieces
Chicken: pound the chicken to about 1/4 - 3/8 inch thick.  You can use a meat mallet or the bottom of a pan.  For less mess, put the chicken in a large ziplock bag, one piece at a time, and pound it inside the bag.  I prefer thighs for this recipe....
Yakitori: just cut the chicken into 3/4 to 1-inch chunks and put on bamboo skewers that have been soaking in water, 3-5 chunks per skewer.

Using a wire whip (or maybe it's called a whisk) stir together the soy sauce, garlic, and sugar in a bowl.  Add a little ginger, olive oil, or red chile flakes if you like those flavors.  This is your teriyaki sauce.

For teriyaki salmon, go ahead and place the salmon filets into the teriyaki sauce for 15-20 minutes.  You can cook the salmon on the outdoor grill or in the oven at 350 degrees.

For teriyaki chicken, dip the chicken peices in the teriyaki sauce just before placing it on either the outdoor grill or on the stove top in a grill pan (the pan with the raised ridges).

When the chicken is done, slice the chicken into 1/2 inch slices and serve over hot rice.  Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions.

No need to slice the salmon before serving it.  Just put it next to (or on top of) hot rice.

If you want to make teriyaki glaze, simply cook the leftover teriyaki sauce in a small pan, add some corn starch to thicken it, then strain out the garlic bits.  You really don't need the glaze; this chicken has plenty of flavor just by being dipped in the teriyaki before getting cooked.

And the yakitori -- you really need to cook these outside, where passers-by can truly appreciate the aroma of the grilled chicken wafting through the crisp fall air as they stroll down the sidewalk....  mmmmmmm!!!!!