Friday Dinner: Spring onion and sausage pizza

Spring onion is sweet onion that is available only in spring. Roasting it is a nice way to enjoy its sweet taste, but pizza is also a good option. I wanted to keep it simple to accentuate the taste of spring onion.

Spring onion and sausage pizza (for 3-4 people):
Store bought pizza dough (1 package) - I used whole wheat pizza dough
Spring onion (1 large)
Portabella mushroom (1)
Sausage (1 large) - I used spicy kind, but you can use any of your favorite sausages
Fresh thyme (2 springs)
Olive oil (1 Tbsp)
Salt (1/2 tsp)
Pepper
Shredded mozzarella cheese (1/2 cup)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Peel off the first layer of spring onion. Cut it into half and then slice it (not too thinly). Take off the stem of Portabella mushroom and slice it. Slice sausage.
3. Roll out or stretch out the pizza dough on a cookie sheet or baking sheet. I like to line the sheet with aluminum foil. Top the pizza with sliced spring onion, Portabella mushroom, and sausage. Put thyme leaves on the pizza. Drizzle olive oil over the pizza. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the pizza. Bake for 10 minutes.
4. Add cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes. In the last 5 minutes or so, turn the heat up to 425 degrees. Watch carefully so the pizza won't get burned.

I like to add cheese after 10 minutes or so because it burns really easily and it just needs to melt and brown little bit. I would recommend not rolling out the pizza dough too thinly because the onion sweats down quite a bit and the dough can get soggy.

I served it with salad with balsamic vinegar dressing.

Thursday Dinner: Beef and sugar snap pea stir-fry with hot and sour soup

Stir-fry is a nice quick dinner. With the time that you save, you can make soup for the side.

Beef and sugar snap pea stir-fry (for 2 people):
Sugar snap pea, trimmed (about 1 cup)
Boneless beef shank (6 oz)
Vegetable oil (1 Tbsp)
Salt (a pinch)
Rice cooking wine (1 Tbsp)
Garlic chili sauce (1 tsp)
Soy sauce (1 Tbsp)

1. Boil sugar snap peas until they get bright green and rinse under running cold water. Slice beef shank as thinly as you can.
2. Heat a wok or pan with oil over high heat. Once it gets smoking hot, put beef in. Add salt. Stir fry until the color of the beef starts to change. Add cooking wine. Once the wine evaporates, add sugar snap peas. Stir fry until beef get nice and brown. Add garlic chili sauce and soy sauce. Mix well and serve right away.

Hot and sour soup (for 2-3 people):
Beef broth (3 cups) - I only had 1 cup of beef broth, so I mixed it with water, but it was fine. You can also use chicken stock.
Daikon radish, peeled and cut into small sticks (about 1 cup)
Celery, cut into small sticks (about 1 cup)
Rice vinegar (1/2 cup) - If you don't want it to be too sour, you can put in less.
Soy sauce (1/4 cup)
Chili pepper (1/4 tsp)
Egg, beaten (2)
Potato starch or corn starch (1.5 Tbsp)
Water (1.5 Tbsp)
Green onions, chopped (3 Tbsp or as needed)

1. Bring beef broth, vinegar, soy sauce, and chili peppers to boil. Add daikon radish and celery. Once the soup comes to boil, turn the heat down to medium. Cook until the vegetables are tender.
2. Drizzle in eggs into the soup. Close the lid for a minute until the eggs are cooked.
3. Mix potato starch and water together to make slurry. Drizzle the slurry into the soup while stirring. Once the soup thickens little bit, turn the heat off and add green onions.

I used daikon radish and celery because they were in my fridge, but you can add any other vegetables like bamboo shoot, pak choy, spinach, chopped string beans, etc. Make sure you taste the soup before you add all the vinegar and soy sauce, because you might want to add less or more depending on how salty your stock/broth is and how sour you want the soup to be.

Don't forget a bowl of rice!

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Technorati Tags:stir-fry, snap pea, hot and sour soup

Wednesday Dinner: Chicken breast with tomatillo salsa and queso fresco

This dinner was surprisingly easy to make. The original recipe tells you to make crust with bread crumbs, but I skipped all that step and just grilled the chicken after rubbing the spices on. It worked really well. Tomatillo salsa was very good. I had never used tomatillos before, but I want to try using them in other dishes too.

Here is the recipe:
Herbed chicken breasts with tomatillo salsa and queso fresco

On the side, I had grilled and roasted sweet potatoes.

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Technorati Tags:tomatillo, salsa verde, queso fresco

Monday Dinner: Grilled sanma dinner

Grilled sanma or mackerel pike is one of my favorite Japanese dishes. Frozen mackerel pike is available at any Japanese or Korean store any time of the year, but the best time for mackerel pike is in the fall. Grilled fresh mackerel pike in the fall is just amazingly good and is one of the foods that I miss from Japan.

Grilled sanma (for 2 people):
Sanma/mackerel pike (2)
Salt
Grated daikon radish - optional
Soy sauce (as needed)

1. Preheat the oven to high broil. Wash sanma really well and pat dry. Salt both sides really well. Place the fish on an oven-safe plate or baking sheet.
2. In the middle rack of the oven, place the fish on the plate. Broil until the skin is nice and brown. Drizzle soy sauce over the fish and serve it with grated daikon radish.

It takes practice to be able to eat grilled whole fish cleanly, but once you get used to it, it's pretty satisfying to be able to get a big piece of fish off the bone.

Celery kinpira (for 2 people):
Sliced celery (2 stalks)
Julienned carrot (2 small carrots)
Soy sauce (1 Tbsp)
Mirin (1 Tbsp)
Sesame oil (1/2 Tbsp)
Sesame (as needed)
Chili pepper (1/8 tsp)

1. Heat a pan with sesame oil over medium high heat.
2. Saute sliced celery and julienned carrots until they begin to get tender. Don't saute them for too long. You want the vegetables to have some crunch.
3. Add soy sauce and mirin. Once they evaporate, add sesame and chili pepper. Saute for 10 seconds or so.

Kinpira is a Japanese dish, typically sauteed vegetables with a sweet soy sauce flavor. A variety of root vegetables can be used for kinpira.

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Technorati Tags:kinpira, mackerel pike, sanma