Mushroom Spaghetti with Miso Cream Sauce

I love Asian mushrooms. I am so grateful that I can find shitake where I live. But in a bigger cities, more varieties are available. I brought "Enoki" from Florida. I love this mushroom. It's very long and skinny and a kind of crunchy. I should have bought different kinds of mushrooms at the Asian market that I went to. I decided to do creamy mushroom pasta, so I went to a store near my house to get shitake.

I remember that I had Miso cream sauce at a restaurant in CT before we moved away. I made it for chicken and it was good, but I thought it would be really nice with pasta.

When I was growing up in Tokyo more than 3 decades ago, Italian style pasta was not really common. Fortunately I was introduced to it by my father who had lived in Rome. However, if we go to a pasta restaurant (there were restaurants that serve only pasta dishes... they still exist), lots of dishes were very Japanized. We didn't like it at all. I also remember Western people were complaining about weird Japanese spaghetti dishes in 80's. I completely agreed with them at the moment. Nevertheless, now I look back, those restaurants seem to be the pioneers of fusion dishes.

This pasta could be easily on the menu back then though I don't remember seeing it.

*Mushroom spaghetti with Miso cream sauce*

Spaghetti 240 g

Olive oil 1tbsp

Garlic 2 cloves sliced

Mushroom of your choice 2 cups

Cream 2/3 cup

*Yuzu Kosho 1/4 tsp

Miso 2 tsp

Salt

< 1 > Start boiling the pasta.

< 2 > Saute garlic in olive oil and put mushrooms when garlic started to brown.

< 3 > Pour cream in and cook in low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

< 4 > Cook pasta to al dente. Keep 2 table spoon of boiling water.

< 5 > Dissolve Yuzu Kosho and Miso in the boiled water, and pour it in the cream mixture with pasta. Cook with medium heat for 2 minutes. If the miso is not salty enough, sprinkle with sea salt.

< 6 > Serve with Shiso if it's available. Putting bunch of Arugula is nice, also.

*Yuzu Kosho is citrus pepper paste from Southern part of Japan. It's made of Japanese citrus, Yuzu and chili pepper. I didn't know about it until 10 years ago until I was befriended with someone from Oita. She recommended to put it in Miso soup. I loved it so much and it became regular condiment in my house hold ever since.

I would think substituting is possible... Maybe grated lime zest and green pepper sauce? I need to try that sometime.

We enjoyed July 4th in St. Augustine. I loved the blue sky and beautiful architecture in down town.

Summer has come

I can't believe it is summer already. Summer started with my parent's visit and I didn't really have a moment to realize the fact spring is over. I took them to lots of places and that let me discover many things. How beautiful scenery is around here. How peaceful trees make me feel. The size of the sky and shapes of the clouds etc....

I don't have a green thumb. I call myself a "plant killer". But I am enjoying having a little garden and I got ambitious this year so I started growing Shiso which is basil like Japanese herb. When I was living in Japan 20 years ago, it was almost impossible to find fresh basil in even in Tokyo. Cooking books usually suggested to use shiso instead. Yet it is a lot different from basil. I associate the taste of shiso with traditional Japanese dishes so I am not a good candidate to describe the taste. However, shiso is nice with non-Japanese dishes, too. I particularly like to cook it with butter

It started to grow nice leaves, so I decided to make cold noodle with shiso for lunch.

*Ingredients*

1 Cup of water

1 1/2 Table spoon of Sugar

3 Table spoon of Soy sauce

1/2 Tea spoon of Salt

Crashed garlic

1 Table spoon of Fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 table spoon of Rice wine vinegar

1 Teaspoon of Sesame Oil

1 Japanese Eggplant

10 Cherry tomatoes

1 Scallion

3 Leaves of red shiso

3 Leaves of green shiso

5oz. of Somen Noodle

< 1 > Put water and sugar in a sauce pan and bring to boil, then take it out of heat. Put rest of the ingredients for the sauce and mix. Let it cool.

< 2 > Slice an eggplant and cook it in small amount of oil.

< 3 > Slice cherry tomatoes and scallion.

< 4 > Roll shiso leaves together and chop them to skinny strings.

< 5 > Boil Somen. Somen is very thin wheat noodle. Be careful not to over boil it. After it's boiled, run cold water until it's cool.

< 6 > Mix the vegetable and sauce with the noodle and serve.

Somen is very thin and white noodle. It can be found in Asian stores. I use Korean version of it and it tastes very good. Sometimes I saw "Soba" on a menu of Asian restaurant and I was served Somen. Soba is buckwheat noodle. Thin white noodle is Somen. Although this recipe would be nice with Soba noodle, too.

To me, shiso makes dishes very summer-like. Because it's summer herbs. Coupled with summer vegetable (or fruits?) such as an eggplant and tomatoes, it is very refreshing. 

I'd love to play with this herb more during summer.

Ricotta vs. Béchamel Sauce for Lasagna

I didn't have an oven when I was in Japan.  It doesn't come with a stove like in USA.  So I was so excited to have one in the tiny tiny studio apartment in NYC.  I had a good recipe for meat sauce so I knew that would make great lasagna.  Since all the lasagna I had in the States were layered with ricotta cheese, I started to make it with ricotta.  I liked it, and J liked it.  I vaguely remembered that lasagna I had in Italian restaurants in Tokyo were usually made with béchamel sauce, but I thought that it was because it's hard to get ricotta cheese in Japan.  But as I lived in USA, I found that Italian cooking books suggest béchamel sauce for lasagna.  But using ricotta is so much easier.  You just have to go to store for it whereas you have to MAKE béchamel sauce.  So once a while I made lasagna with béchamel sauce when I feel like working hard.  J said it tasted different.  Not bad, but not same.  I didn't quite like the reaction, so I continued cooking with ricotta.

But One day, I realized that the milk gravy that is used for southern fried chicken is basically béchamel sauce.  I am not sure why fried food has to be smothered with butter, milk and flour, but it tastes good and J likes food like that, so I made fried chicken with milk gravy.  

And there was left over milk gravy a.k.a. béchamel sauce in the pan.  I had all the ingredients to make Lasagna next day.  So I decide to make 2 kinds of lasagna to compare the taste.

We definitely preferred the one with béchamel sauce.  It brings the taste of meat forward whereas the ricotta is watering down (or ricottaing down?) the taste of the meat.  I was wondering béchamel sauce will be too rich, but, no, it compliments the tanginess of tomato sauce and evens out the complexity of vegetables while the taste of ground beef and liver is brought to spotlights.  It was perfect.

I guess I will make lasagna with béchamel sauce now on.  

I finally started to sew something other than curtains.  It is so nice to sew in my own sewing room.  I'm making a dress for my daughter to wear for wedding next month.  

12 years old is not easy to make a dress for.  It can't be too cute, but it can't be too adult.  Such a complex  age.... The last bit of childhood is still there.  As much as I hope her to grow up, I will probably miss it when it is gone.

Spring is here and so are the Farmers Markets

The farmer's markets in my area are finally opened.  I am so happy!  Even though the scale of the markets are much smaller compared to Union Square Farmer's Market, there are lots of nice local produces.  And each town has their own market, so I can visit different ones easily and that's fun, too.

Tomatoes are very reasonable at the market and the wether is getting warm, so I decided to make fresh tomato pasta one day.  This recipe is adapted form the cook book written by Sophia Loren, the Italian actress, which was translated to Japanese and published in 74.  My parents must have bought it when it came out.  It is really a precious cooking book for me.  Same version translated in English is published in 98 as " Sophia Loren's Recipes and Memories".  The English version has more pictures of the actress and nicely styled food photos, but the Japanese one has more recipes.  

* Fresh Tomato Pasta (For 4)*

2 large tomatoes

10 green olives

3 teaspoon capers

1/2 small onion

A bunch of parsley

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 table spoon oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

1 box of your favorite pasta 

< 1 > Chop tomatoes to bite size.  Chop olives and capers to small pieces.  Mince onion and parsley.  Crash garlic with the blade of large knife so the extract will seep out. 

< 2 > Put everything together and keep it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.  (It will keep 1-2 days).

< 3 > Just boil the pasta to al dente and pour the tomato sauce over and serve.  Don't forget to take out the garlic cloves.

I always feel like that I should put fresh squeezed lemon juice in when I'm putting all the ingredients together, but it is not called for.  The tartness from olive and caper is enough, yet more gentle than lemon juice so the sweetness of the tomato stands out more.

Don't press garlic through a garlic press.  The juice comes out from the crashed cloves is just right amount of garlic taste.  More than that will be overbearing.  A slight garlic taste is more suited for this dish.  I have to admit that even though I'm a garlic lover.

This pasta makes me feel like it is finally spring.  It was nice weekend lunch.  Although we had a cold spell this week.  

The strawberries are in season right now, too.  I found a gallon of them for $10.  That is a lot of strawberries and we ate them in many ways.

Strawberries with pancakes, strawberry mojito, strawberry and grapefruits sorbet, strawberry roll cake, strawberry and rhubarb pie.....  They were all very enjoyable.  Simple strawberry sorbet is in my freezer right now.

Other thing that I must write is these donuts at the Farmer's Market.  These donuts are very famous in this area.  Mennonites fry them and glaze them right in front of your eyes.  I am not a big donut fan.  Not a even small fan either.   I only eat them every 3 to 5 years.  I love sweets like tarts and cakes, but I was never attracted to donuts. 

There is always a long line of people trying to buy these donuts.  The first time I saw it, I though: they are probably good, but I definitely wouldn't stay in the line for 20 minutes to get something like donuts!  But J sent me for them one day because he ate it at his office and it was very good.  The day, the market was not too crowded because it was early and drizzling a little, so I stayed in line for 5 minutes.

These donuts are not donuts that I knew.  It's fluffy, light, not greasy, not too sweet, has nice aroma of vanilla, so simple.  They are the best donuts I've ever eaten.

Now that I know that they are the donuts form heaven, I must fight the urge to stay in the line every time I go get fresh vegetables....  It is spring now and summer is around the corner.   I can't put on weight right now.

Smoked Salmon and Avocado Pasta

We are renovating 2nd floor right now.    I have to tell you the house J bought for us is very old.  It's built in mid 40's which is not a surprise at where we live.  But the couple who lived here were old and weren't taking care of this house well besides whatever the renovations they did was very unprofessionally done.  So by the time this house was on sale, the couple was long gone, the house was unattended for years on top of the original messed up conditions.  It is true because of it, we had a such a bargain.  I didn't look at this house until the day of the closing.  I was busy in North East.  So it was such a shock to see the state this house was in....  but we took out the carpeting from entire house, cleaned up, had the kitchen remodeled, painted the wood paneling walls.  It's slowly coming together.  The one thing (which is most important factor to me to pick a house) that I love this place is its size and layout.  It's not huge, but adequate for 3 of us.  It has funny little place or hallway to play around.  So even though it is far from my dream house yet, I'm happily waiting it to be the one someday.

So the entire 2nd floor is demolished to have new electric, air conditioning system and walls installed.  Which is great!  Yet when the lunch time comes, I feel too self conscious about cooking something has strong aroma such as frying garlic.  They are working hard and cooking some nice smelling food and not serving them seems to me not nice.  

But I do get hungry.  And I don't want to eat PB & J every day....besides the fact that we don't keep bread in the house since J is trying to avoid gluten as much as possible and our daughter doesn't care for a sandwich.

So the cold salad pasta is actually great lunch for me to whip up.  All I have to do is to boil the pasta.  It doesn't create aroma of cooking.  I just have to cut ingredients and mix.  

*Smoked Salmon and Avocado Pasta*

For 2 servings

1 avocado

2 oz. smoked salmon 

10 cherry tomatoes

1/4 red onion

2 table spoon capers

2 tea spoon Dijon mustard

2 tea spoon extra virgin olive oil

Freshly squeezed juice form 1 lemon

2 tea spoon white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Your favorite pasta 1/2 lb.

< 1 > Start boiling water for cooking the pasta.

< 2 >  Chop avocado, salmon, and tomatoes to bite size.

< 3 > Slice the onion into thin strips or mince.

< 4 > Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.

< 5 > When the pasta is cooked, mix with everything in the bowl and serve.

Both avocado and salmon contains lots of fat, so I hold off the amount of olive oil in this dish.

This actually will be really nice on a hot summer day.  But It is getting pretty nice here in east TN.  I hear birds singing in the morning.  The are very colorful.  I can't wait till spring....

February has passed....  I can't believe it's already March!  Here is the review of the sweets I made in the last month.

There are lots of chocolate sweets because of Valentine's day.  I actually lost a week worth of data because the construction upstairs cuts off the electricity suddenly.  So there should have been more sweets...  However the sweets that I made during the time were actually not really successful.  Especially the tartlets that I baked with raspberry tinted very pale pink pear compote. It somehow resembled too much like a mini chicken breast.  It really did.  Those were called chicken breast tarts by J and our daughter.  It could have been perfect for halloween with some red sauce drizzled over it though.

Brussels Sprouts and Pear Pasta with Balsamic Reduction

I love vinegar.  I think vinegar is very important part of the salad dressing.  It really change the characteristic of the salad depends on which vinegar is used.  I keep at least 4-5 different vinegars at home.  Red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, white balsamic vinegar with fruits infusion, rice wine vinegar, Chinese black rice wine vinegar are in my refrigerator right now. 

I change the type of vinegar for the salad depends on the main dish.  I would use red wine vinegar if I'm cooking creamy tomato sauce pasta which has natural sweetness.  I rather have some strong tartness for the salad.  But For anchovy pasta, I'd use balsamic to balance out the harshness.  Sometimes I mix the vinegars, or mix with citrus.

For years I was buying very reasonable balsamic vinegar at a super market.  It was alright.  But when I double the budget for the balsamic vinegar, it really tasted so much better.  It brought my salad eating experience to the next level.

I bought nice looking Brussles sprouts thinking to bring to the Sunday dinner at my father in law.  But He was cooking hamburgers that day so I ended up not bring them.  Therefore, I had quite a lot of Brussles sprouts on my hands.  

I decided to venture a little bit.  I roasted the sprouts and pear in the oven and mixed with thin spaghetti and balsamic reduction.  That sounds a little too sweet, so I curved sharp parmesan cheese to tie everything together.

*Brussels Sprouts and Pear Pasta with Balsamic Reduction*

1/2 lb. pasta of your choice

8~10 Brussles sprouts

1 pear

2 table spoon extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

As much parmesan cheese as you wish to use

< 1 > Cut the Brussles sprouts to half, and slice pear to thin pieces.

< 2 > Mix with 1 table spoon olive oil in a baking pan and bake it 15~20 minute at 400F.

< 3 > Cook the pasta to al dente.

< 4 > After the sprouts and pear is roasted and pasta is cooked, mix them with the other table spoon of olive oil and salt & pepper.  Serve it on a plate and curve the parmesan cheese onto the pasta.

< 5 > Sprinkle balsamic vinegar reduction all over and it's ready!

*Balsamic Vinegar Reduction*

Just boil down balsamic vinegar to the half of original volume.

You might want to start it when you start boiling the water for the pasta.

I personally think Gorgonzola will be nice instead of parmesan.  But any sharp cheese will bring the sweetness of the vegetable, fruits and the reduction together.

This dish is very light and has spring feeling...  I think it will be a nice complement with pork or duck.

So I have about 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar reduction left.  It comes in handy.  I drizzled it on onion and liver the other night.  I'm going to drizzle it again on beets and goat cheese salad tonight.

I made the salad with baby spinach, arugula, cherry tomatoes, blood orange, and emmental cheese pieces for lunch.  Instead of making salad dressing, I sprinkled salt, pepper and olive oil.  Then squeezed half of a lemon over and served it with a balsamic vinegar reduction on side.  it was nice.

Simple Anchovy Pasta

This is the dish my father cooked a lot.  I guess he liked cooking this because it is so easy to cook and tasty.

All you have to chop is the garlic.  I remember him teaching me how to cook it before I left home.  It became my husband and daughter's favorite dish with some modifications, but I actually prefer the way my father cooked because it's so simple so you can taste anchovies.  Yes, I love anchovies.  I always have them in my pantry.

*Anchovy Pasta*

2 cloves garlic 

 2 Table spoon olive oil 

7-8 fillets anchovies

Salt and pepper to taste

Your choice of pasta 200g

Dried red chili pepper optional

< 1 > Start boiling the water for the pasta.

< 2 > Heat the oil on a large frying pan and cook the sliced garlic.

< 2 > When the garlic is golden, put the anchovies in.  They will break up to small pieces as they are cooked.

< 3 > If you are using a red chili pepper, please put it in the pan.

< 4 > After boiling the pasta al dente, sauté everything in the pan and put salt and pepper.

I used anchovy syrup that I recently bought instead of salt.  I was so excited to have it after ordering it on line.  But as soon as I received it, I started to suspect that it might be very similar to fish sauce from south Asia.  So I called my daughter in to the kitchen and we did the taste test.  The difference is significant.  The fish sauce is much much saltier.  But the undertone of the fish is very similar.  

Considering the fish sauce is 1/5 of the price of the anchovy syrup and 10 times more volume is packed in a bottle, and taste very strong... which means I can dilute it, I probably won't buy the anchovy syrup again.  Yet, it is nice to have this around to use as little essence.  It also looks really nice on the kitchen counter.  But my daughter makes me put it away because it reassemble to maple syrup too much and she is afraid to make mistake of eating it with her French toast.

When I cook anchovy pasta for my family, I chop one big vidalia onion and cook it with the garlic.  That's how J likes it.  He also puts a big scoop of sour cream at the table.  I feel like it is turning into a different dish, yet it tastes nice, too.

But I have to admit that I enjoyed this pasta tremendously in the afternoon as my father cooked it.  He didn't use the dried red pepper in it, but it was a nice touch.  I realized by writing the recipes on my blog that lots of the dishes that I loved as a child have become J and my daughter's favorite dishes...which is really nice.  We came from completely different back ground and now lots of the past is incorporated into their lives, too.

Simple pasta goes well with anything

I love eating pasta as a main dish.  We did that so much when we were young and didn't have money in Manhattan.  We must have had pasta 3 - 4 times a week.  I can come up with different kind of pasta every time at least for a few weeks even I was cooking pasta that often.  But after doing it for 5 years or so, we got kind of burned out on that.  

Now that my husband is trying to avoid to eat too much carbohydrate, pasta has become a side dish.   But since it is difficult for me to eat rich pasta with main dish, this is the recipe I do often.  It goes well with lots of things because it's so simple.  

*Ingredients for 3-4 servings as side dish*

1/2 lb. of Pasta ( Angel hair, Thin spaghetti, Linguini anything you like)

1 Lemon, squeezed

1 cup of freshly grated parmesan Cheese

2 table spoon of extra virgin olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

< 1 > Cook the pasta to al dente.

< 2 > Mix with the rest of the ingredients.

< 3 > Sprinkle parsley or basil if you like.

**Variation**

Use unsalted butter if you want to make it a little richer

Press 1 clove of garlic and add to the mix for garlic lovers

Use anchovy syrup insteadof salt 

Lay the pasta on a bed of Arugula and put a few slices of Prosciutto on top to have as a lunch dish

Oh no.  Now I'm thinking about Prosciutto....  How I miss Bronx!!