Innie or Outie

Here’s a seafood meal Hubby made, Papa’s Tuna Pabuca Dinner:

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For the tuna pabucas he used onion sautéed in olive oil, tuna, panko, fresh rosemary, and egg. He formed the pabucas, sautéed them in olive oil, then smothered the pabucas with a cream, butter, cheddar, fresh rosemary, basil, scallion, Worchester, and white pepper sauce. The greens were frozen spinach sautéed in sesame oil with dried garlic chips. The rice was sprinkled with dried parsley flakes. To complete the meal hubby added a small salad of iceberg lettuce, arugula, cherry tomato, chive, and herbed croutons topped with a creamy sesame dressing.

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Here is a simple dish I came up with to make use of some of that somen (noodles), Beef Curry Noodle Crunch:

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Per serving, 70 grams uncooked somen, 1 1/2 cup heated curry, 1 teaspoon sweet pickled daikon, 1 tablespoon zasai (pickled turnip). Prepare somen according to directions, rinse and strain, place on paper towels to remove excess liquid, divide into two piles per serving, deep fry, place on paper towels to remove excess oil, plate, ladle on curry, top with daikon, and place zasai on the side.

Another fried rice recipe from hubby making use of Obon leftovers, Papa’s Everything But the Kitchen Sink Fried Rice:

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For the dish, hubby sautéed diced white onion in sesame oil, and stirred in diced precooked boiled pork roast, steamed shrimp, diced kamaboko, chopped leek, white pepper, precooked rice and soy sauce. After plating, the mixture was topped with cracked toasted sesame seeds and julienned pickled ginger.

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As an accompaniment to the dish, hubby chose a canned “oriental-style” (similar to egg drop) soup.

Another method of preparing somen, which is usually used for cold noodles, Papa’s Tuna Yakisomen:

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For this meal, hubby combined 2 julienned yellow bell peppers sautéed in sesame oil, 1 can tuna (drained), 1 teaspoon white pepper, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 4 cups cooked somen, 1/4 cup tsuyu sauce, and 1 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes. After plating, he added 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, 1 tablespoon pickled ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked toasted sesame seeds to each serving and gently tossed.

Sometimes we get caught up in various activities in life, limiting preparation time for meals. This is one solution hubby came up with for an impromptu outdoor barbecue, Papa’s Grilled Chicken Thigh Dinner:

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Hubby began by preparing a simple marinade of fresh rosemary leaves, dried thyme flakes, tsuyu somen sauce, seasme oil, and white wine vinegar. He placed the ingredients in a zip-lock plastic bag, added chicken thighs, and let marinade in the refrigerator for about one hour until the BBQ charcoals were ready.

Meanwhile, he placed potatoes in the microwave and half-baked for about five minutes. After removing the potatoes from the microwave, he cut in half and wrapped in a foil packet.

As the potatoes were baking in the microwave, hubby took some frozen mixed veggies out of the freezer, placed in a foil packet, adding some dried garlic slices, white pepper, sea salt, and olive oil.

Once the charcoals were at the right temperature, hubby placed Papa’s Grilled Chicken Thighs, Papa’s Simple Grilled Foil-Wrapped Veggies, and Papa’s Grilled Foil-Wrapped Half-Baked Potatoes on the grill and cooked until done (about 30 – 40 minutes).

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This was a tasty and simple meal that Hubby threw together, Papa’s Gratin Dinner:

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While at a local restaurant supply market, Hubby found this Potato and Bacon Gratin:

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The only preparation for this entr̩e was to pop it into the microwave oven. (The sauce was tasty, but I found the ingredients to be a little lacking Рmainly no onions.)

To accompany the gratin, hubby made a simple and light side dish, Papa’s Tomato-Free Salad:

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Although he forgot to pick-up tomatoes, the salad – which consisted of iceberg lettuce, arugula, julienned yellow bell pepper, chopped fresh chives, cucumber slices, herbed croutons, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and topped with a creamy cheese dressing – was still light and packed with flavor.

To complete the meal, hubby added two types of fresh bakery bread, Toasted Garlic Bread with Walnuts:

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He simply sautéed the bread slices in olive oil with minced garlic paste. (The walnut chunk bread was extremely tasty when prepared in this manner.)

This is a simple and light meal for those hot summer days, Chicken Nugget Salad:

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Sauté chicken nuggets in olive oil and flavor with Italian seasonings. Cut into bite size chunks and toss in a salad of choice. I used iceberg lettuce, arugula, julienned yellow bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, chives, and chopped fresh basil, parsley, and rosemary leaves. Then drizzled the salad with a whole grain mustard/white wine vinaigrette.

To accompany the salad, I used Bleu Cheese Toast Strips:

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Simply toasted bread with bleu cheese melted on top and then sliced into strips.

This is another of a local supermarket’s take-out riceballs (onigiri) that had julienned konbu (seaweed) and deep-fried shrimp with rice wrapped in a sheet of nori (another seaweed product).

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This is a tasty outdoor meal hubby prepared, Papa’s Grilled Baby-Back Pork Ribs Dinner:

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For the ribs, hubby used honey, minced red chili peppers, rosemary, white wine vinegar, white pepper, soy sauce, and Mirin allowing for several hours to marinade prior to placin on the grill.

Accompaning the entrée was Papa’s Basic Grilled Sweet Corn on the Cob:

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Hubby simply sliced the cob in half and grilled as is and added a serving of Papa’s Grilled Foil-Wrapped Mushrooms and Bell Peppers as the finishing side dish of the meal.

Since various produce in our yard are starting to ripen, I came up with new dishes to make good use of some of the crop, Spicy Tuna-Basil Pasta:

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For the dish, I used diced onion and minced red chili peppers (from the yard) sautéed in olive oil, minced garlic paste, canned tuna flakes, soy sauce, white pepper, chopped fresh basil (from our herb garden), dried oregano flakes, tossed with hot cooked pasta then sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese.

To balance the spiciness of the pasta, I used the the citrus (shikwasa) from our yard in creating a side dish, Tangy Miso-Carrot Lettuce Wrap:

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For the wraps, sauté thickly julienned carrot and onion slices with fresh rosemary leaves (from our herb garden) in sesame oil. Remove pan from heat and add red miso paste and citrus juice. Let the mixture cool, then wrap in iceberg lettuce leaves.