Spice Up Your Life With a Taste of Japan

*Fun Bento Box**Cute and Natural Food From California*

4/29/2013

Seared Shiitake Mushroom and Avocado Sushi Roll


Have you  been disappointed by vegan sushi?? Yes, I have!!!!!
I wasn't a big fun of vegan sushi until I had this seared shiitake and avocado sushi roll.
This is SO good!
Even my "meatarian" husband loves this.

I love seared fish sushi, so bought a cooking torch last year to sear fish by myself.
I seared shiitake with it, but if you don't have it, you can just sear it over high heat on the grill:)


Ingredients (for about 4 rolls)

4  Shiitake mushroom
2 Avocado
*Sushi rice (I used 2 cup of uncooked rice)
Olive oil
Salt

*See Sushi Cake post for sushi rice

1. Cut shiitake, drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt
2. Sear the shiitake (either with torch or on the grill)
3. Just roll it with sliced avocado!!!

See "Make My Sushi", if you are not familiar with sushi roll. I think this website is good.





bear bento


This is the first bento I made for my husband since we got married:)

- Chiken teriyaki
- Deviled Eggs
- bear rice ball (shiitake miso inside)

Hope he likes it!

4/24/2013

Baked Crispy Chili Bread


Made too much chili? Then make this crispy bread! 
Well, I wanted to make Japanese curry buns, but I was too lazy to make bread.
This is the easy recipe, using store-bought bread.
It's not soft like Japanese curry buns, but it's nice and crunchy :) 

What you need:

2 serving Chili
1 Potatoes
Bread crumbs
1 Egg
4 slices Store-bought bred
ketchup, curry powder, black peppers to taste
4 tbs Oil

1. Make mushed potatoes. I used 1, but it depends on how much chili you have left.
2. Mix mushed potatoes and chili over medium heat. (use more or less potato to get desired hardness)
3. Add ketchup, curry powder and pepper to taste
4. Roll out bread (spread butter if you want)
5. Put chili mix and fold in half
6. Brush the edges with beaten egg and press with fork to seal.
7. Dip the bread into beaten egg and then bread crumbs
8. Place on a baking pan and drizzle oil
9. Bake for about 20 mins at 400F








4/23/2013

Vegetarian Miso Chili and Corn Bread Bear Muffin


Watched the movie "Fork over Knives" with my husband the other day.
I had tried to avoid animal protein before watching this movie, but he LOVEs meat so I cook meat for him sometimes. But this movie makes me worried about his health!
Even though he still doesn't seem to care about it, I've started looking into vegetarian recipes more than ever before.

I found vegetarian chili recipe on food network.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/vegetarian-chili-recipe/index.html

I changed the ingredient as follow;

Ingredients
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 cup chopped red bell peppers
2 cloves minced garlic  
2  peppers, stemmed, seeded, and minced, depending upon taste
1 medium zucchini, stem ends trimmed and cut into small dice
2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 3 ears)
2 large portobello mushrooms, stemmed, wiped clean and cubed
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespooon ground cumin
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
3 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped 
3 cups cooked black beans, or canned beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup vegetable stock, or water
3 tablespoon Miso
Rice cheese

Directions
In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, garlic, and serrano peppers, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the zucchini, corn, and mushrooms, and cook, stirring, until soft and the vegetables give off their liquid and start to brown around the edges, about 6 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, salt and cayenne, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and stir well. Add the beans, tomato sauce, and vegetable stock, stir well, and bring to a boil. Add miso. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes. Add rice cheese.

Remove from the heat and stir in the cilantro. Adjust the seasoning, to taste.


I added 3 tablespoon Miso to this recipe to make it milder. ( I recommend less sodium one)
And rice cheese to get the consistency of a thick soup.

My husband loved this chili!! even though there is no meat in it.

And great cornbread recipe here
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/golden-sweet-cornbread/

I made it look like bear:)
All you need is fried pasta and cookie cutters!
 Fry a pasta noodle.
Cut and put where you want to place the ears and nose.

Make ears and nose using cookie cutters with another cornbread.
Join the parts using the fried pasta.