A sushi's birthday

I attended another birthday. The place: Zono Sushi. Location: Glendale, CA. They also have a branch in Burbank and Pasadena.

This place is known for their bento lunches, which are quite filling. We were a group of about 20. So I'm sure the servers were overwhelmed the the many directions coming at them from left and right. The server takes our orders and shortly after serve us with some complimentary boiled edamame.

The meal comes with the traditional miso soup. My favorite soup.

Miso Soup

Since we were a large group I'll only show you what my mom and I ordered. Let's just say it was a good mix all around.

 Clockwise from top left: Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura, Chicken Katsu with Ponzu sauce, California rolls, White rice, Mixed greens salad with Miso dressing and crispy wonton strips, Fried Gyozas with sauce, Pickled seaweed and a slice of cantaloupe.

My order (clockwise from top left): Crab and cheese puffs, Salmon Teriyaki, Mixed Sushi, Steamed white rice, Mixed Greend salad with Miso dressing and crisp wonton strips, Pickled Seaweed, A couple of Gyozas and cantaloupe slices.

My favorite was the Crab and cheese puffs. They're very much like Crab rangoons. Crab meat mixed with cream cheese, wrapped in a wonton wrapper and deep fried served with a sweet and sour sauce. The sushi was your ordinary combo of albacore tuna, salmon and, I think, yellowfin tuna.

Of course no birthday can't be complete without the cake.

The cake for today was a fruit tart cake with meringue frosting. Oh, we also got some complimentary mochi from the kitchen. The flavors were strawberry and vanilla. I had forgotten to take a picture of it. By the time I did remember, it was already gone. But it was good. Really filling at the same time.

Oven-Fried Eggplant

It's Friday, the 13th. Ooooo...Cue scary Halloween/Twilight Zone theme music. Have your lucky charms with you at all times. I'm not very superstitious. I've walked on several cracks and my mom is still walking upright. I do have certain rituals I do to keep myself in the "good luck vibe." I've thrown the occasional salt over the shoulder and a "knock on wood" every now and then. Are you superstitious? You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to.

Just like the my baked zucchini sticks, its relative cousin is the oven-fried eggplant. It's alter ego is the deep-fried kind. We're veering away from the alter ego for a moment to concentrate on the cousin.

Here's a neat little trick I learned from a friend to help it stay crispy. I cut the eggplant into 1/3-inch pieces toss them in a little salt and lay them flat on a baking pan for 1 hour. 1/2 hour would suffice. This takes out the moisture from the vegetable, so you'll get water droplettes on them. Pat the pieces dry with a paper towel them dredge them in the usual breading method of flour, egg wash, and my favorite, panko crumbs.

Baked them for 20-25 minutes and what I was left with was a nice crispy, yet still slightly tender inside. A healthy version of the fried stuff

Serves 2

Oven-Fried Eggplant

2-3 long Japanese eggplants (cut into coins)
1/4 c flour
1 egg - beaten
1/3 c milk
2-3 c panko
salt and pepper
horseradish mustard dip (recipe below)

Cut the egg plants into 1/3-1/2 inch chips. Place on a baking pan and sprinkle both sides with salt. Let it sit for at least 1/2-hour to let the moisture out of the eggplant. Then pat it dry with a paper towel.

Preheat your oven 400˚F

Cut the egg plants into 1/3-1/2 inch chips.

Create three breading stations
1 - flour seasoned with some salt and pepper
2 - Egg with milk - seasoned with pinch of salt
3 - panko crumbs

Bread each piece of eggplant 1, 2, and 3 in that order and place on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake for 25 minutes. Give the pieces a flip half way through for an even browning.

Horseradish mustard Dip

2 Tbsp sour cream
1 1/2 Tbsp horseradish mustard
1 tsp lime juice

Combine all ingredients together.

Broccoli with Cheese Sauce

A combination of vegetables and cheese. Also a classic meal from yesteryear. You can't go wrong with that. Broccoli and cheese. Broccoli with cheese. Broccoli topped with cheese. A cheese sauce.

They seem at odds with each other, yet they taste so good. A simple steaming of the broccoli cook it until it's tender. I was tempted to add some pasta into the dish, but...actually I don't have an excuse why I didn't add the pasta. Come to think of it, why didn't I? Laziness maybe? Whatever the reason while the broccoli steamed away, I made a simple cheese sauce. Making a simple roux and adding a Mexican blend of shredded cheese with ricotta. It added an extra creaminess to the sauce.

Serves 2-3

Broccoli with Cheese Sauce


2 heads broccoli (chopped in sizable pieces) or 1 package frozen broccoli

Cheese sauce:
1 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp flour
1 c milk
1/2 c shredded cheese
1/2 c ricotta cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Place the broccoli pieces in the steamer and steam until tender.

Note: To steam in the oven. Place the broccolie in a cake pan or pie tin. add a small layer of water at the bottom and cover with foil. Place in a preheat 350˚F oven and bake until tender.

For the cheese sauce:
In a sauce pan, melt the butter and add the flour. Combine until like a dough-like substance. Then add the milk and stir until milk becomes slightly thicker. Add the cheese and stir again to combine.

Once the broccoli has been cooked through, serve on a plate and top with the cheese sauce.

Mashed Baked Sweet Potato with Aioli

I was trying to make sweet potato fries, but what I ended up with a smashed mess. I made the fries the same way I always do by seasoning with some olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika. Then I added some shredded cheese into the mix and that's when it took another direction. As I baked the fries, the cheese melted and cooked faster than the sweet potatoes, just to the point when the cheese became crispies. So in a last ditch effort to salvage what I had on the baking sheet, I decided to mash them. They were slightly soft and the consistency was just right for them. I added a little bit more shredded cheese and...voila! Baked mashed sweet potatoes.

For the "gravy" I made a simple aioli. I know you wouldn't find it paired together, but I've been known to pair sauces and condiments with dishes that don't really match. Some of you readers probably do the same thing. I also had some leftover egg yolks that I needed to use up. I was tempted to make a hollandaise sauce, but I didn't want to lug out another pan to clean, so I opted for a simple aioli. Again, this is something you wouldn't necessarily see paired with mashed sweet potatoes, usually you'd find them with meats and certain vegetables.

This is going to sounds totally weird, but they taste really great together. They really do. I dare not lie. You're just going to have to try this for yourself to see what I'm talking about.

Serves 2

Mashed Baked Sweet Potatoes with Aioli

3 small sweet potato (peeled and cut into strips)
extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper
paprika
1 c shredded cheese
aioli (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 375˚F

Season the sweet potatoes with a drizzle of olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika. Mix well to combine. Then add half the shredded cheese and mix.

Place the sweet potatoes onto a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. The sweet potatoes should be soft and cheese melted.

Remove the sweet potatoes from the baking pan and mash with in a bowl. Mix in the remaining cheese.

Serve with the aioli.

Aioli
1 large garlic clove - crushed
2 egg yolks
juice of half lime
salt
pepper
1-2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp horseradish mustard

Whisk together the garlic and olive oil. Whisk in the egg yolks. Continually whisking add the lime juice and horseradish mustard. Season with some salt and pepper to taste.

Baked Kabocha

I know two kabocha recipes in a row. But I couldn't let this sit and wait. Call me pumpkin head, if you want, because I'm crazy for the stuff. It's been cracked open and it's whispering "eat me." "Sure thing," I happily reply. I've been seeing a lot of roasted pumpkins and squashes lately. A couple examples over at Girlichef (here) and For the Love of Cooking (here). I've decided to jump on the bandwagon. Why, you ask? Well because I want to and I had the other half kabocha from when I made that kabocha bread in the fridge giving me the puppy dog eyes.

This is one really simple. I quartered the remaining kabocha and generously spread some butter on the top and gave it a nice generous sprinkle of some brown sugar. Baked it until it was tender. That's all there is too it. Nothing else to do but sit and wait. Fee free to change up the brown sugar for spices and herbs of your choice. But for my version the sweet melted syrupy sugar with bites of pumpkin a simple awesome weeknight dinner. Yummy!

Serves 4

Roasted Kabocha

1 medium kabocha (deseeded and quartered)
butter
brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 400˚F

Spread a good about of butter on the flesh of the kabocha and sprinkle a generous helping of brown sugar on top.

Place on a baking sheet and bake until tender. roughly 45-60 minutes.

Kabocha Bread

Tis the season for pumpkins of many kinds. So many pumpkin recipes that I can't get enough of. I had gotten another kabocha from the farmers market and I already have another one waiting patiently and eagerly to be used. Well suffice to day, I was clueless as to what I wanted to make with it. But I wanted my pumpkin!!

For this one I adapted by banana bread recipe once again and added some pureed kabocha to the mix as well as ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. I also replaced half of the granulated sugar with brown sugar. Awesome delicious pumpkin bread with almond slices that's perfectly fit for the season. You know I just realized that the recipe is pretty adaptable to almost anything you can put into it.

Makes 1 loaf

Kabocha Bread

1/2c granulated sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter (softened)
2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 c sliced almonds
1 c pureed kabocha or canned pumpkin puree

--
To puree fresh kabocha or pumpkin:
heat in the microwave for 5 minutes. The slice in half. Heat for another five minutes to cook until tender. Let it cool for several minutes before handling. Scoop out the flesh and into the food processor or blender. blend until smooth. You may also mash them, if you don't have either.--

Preheat oven to 375 ˚F

Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, baking soda, salt. Set aside.

Cream together both sugars and butter. Beat in each egg. Slowly mix the flour mixture.

Then add the kabocha and almonds. Combine well.

Put the batter in a lightly greased loaf pan. Baked for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Let the loaf rest for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

Production Eats - No. 7

I decided to start numbering them. I think I've overused "This week in..." Besides, this is turning into a series the more I work on sets. So Here's #7.

This week I had worked on three shows. Heroes, Parks and Recreations, and The Forgotten. The first two were short days, so there wasn't any meals for that. I did have a nice tasty Chinese Chicken Salad with Teriyaki dressing from TJ's. After we were released early from Parks and Recreations. I love the ready made meals from there.

An upside from working the first two, I was happy to work in a scene with Amy Poehler on Parks and Recs. I've been a fan since she was on Upright Citizens Brigade. The latter show, The Forgotten, stars Christian Slater. *heart fluttering* Amazingly enough he still looks the same after 20 years. Remember Heathers, Pump Up the Volume, Billie Jean? Anyway, onto the food.

First, some mixed greens with kidney beans, garbonzo beans and peppers. The dressing was a vinaigrette on some kind. I couldn't really make put what it was, but the heat from the peppers helped give the salad a nice little kick to it.

The main dish

Clock wise from top: Angel hair pasta with pesto, a meatball with marinara sauce, sauteed veggies, a dinner roll, spaghetti, chicken cacciatore with mushrooms.

I enjoyed the meatball and angel hair pasta. I'm a sucker for pesto, so that was a given that I would like it. The dinner rolls was alright though it tasted a bit mushy, so I sandwiched it with the meatball I did enjoy the mushrooms from the chicken cacciatore, too. Overall is was an average meal nothing special.

Also, this past Tuesday I attended a small birthday dinner for a good friend of mine. The celebration was at Fuddruckers in Burbank, CA. It's a chain to restaurants that sort of reminds me of a T.G.I.F in decor with memorabellia stuck to the walls and games area for the kiddies. It's a place where you order you burger and side or whatever you prefer. They cook the meat the way you like it and you basically put in whatever condiment you want to your liking from the condiment bar. Simple.

I had a crispy chicken sandwich with some American cheddar on top. I piled on some tomato slices pickles and lettuce. I ordered the meal so mine came with a side of thick cut fries that i dipped in some honey mustard sauce. That thing was huge! Luckily, I had saved up my appetite for that night, so I had no problem finishing off my meal.

A few others had ordered the ostrich burger, a regular beef cheeseburgers, and veggies burgers.

To end off the night, we headed off to Yogurtland just down the street and had ourselves some froyo (frozen yogurt) for dessert. I always get the plain tart flavor because I like to taste the toppings when I mix them in. My toppings for the night: some fresh strawberries and granola topped with an animal cracker cookie. I didn't want to over do it as I was already stuffed from dinner. Seeing good friends and having good conversations. All in all it was a fun time.

Lastly for your enjoyment I give you little toy robots walking aimlessly. It was a "sci-fi"-theme kind of night.