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Sushi

Posted in Asian, Ethnic, Fish, tagged Asian, Salmon, sushi, Tuna on January 18, 2009| 6 Comments »

sushi2

Sushi is one of the things that Brandon and I go out to dinner for the most. It was never something I was really interested in making at home (mostly because I was intimidated by it) but Brandon kept bringing up wanting to get a sushi kit. Lucky for us, we received a sushi set for Christmas from my sister-in-law’s boyfriend, Stephen. The set is from Crate and Barrel and came with everything you need to get started with making your own sushi – including really cute serving dishes.

We decided to stay in tonight and make sushi. We planned out our menu and made:

– Tuna nigiri
– Smoked salmon nigiri
– Tuna avocado roll
– Bagel roll
– Tuna roll with spicy mayo

All in all, I was really impressed by how well everything turned out. While it wasn’t exactly on par with our favorite sushi restaurant, it was really tasty and a great alternative to going out.

For this post I’m just going to post photos. I just don’t feel like I have a clear enough grasp yet on rolling the perfect sushi roll to walk you guys through it step-by-step but hopefully I’ll get there one day.

sushi3

I encourage you to try sushi at home if it’s something you’ve thought about doing. It was a fun activity for us to do together – very hands on. My biggest tip would be to make sure that you have really good quality fish (you don’t need as much as you think!) and buy sushi rice and follow the directions very closely. There are tons of online guides for rolling your own sushi and the instructions are probably far better than anything you’d get from me at this point. We used a Sushi book and the Cooking Light cookbook as guides tonight.

And I had to include this last picture of Brandon enjoying his feast!

bsushi

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Butternut Squash Curry

Posted in Asian, Ethnic, One Dish, Rice, Vegetable, Vegetarian, tagged Asian, Vegetarian, winter squash on December 9, 2008| 2 Comments »

butternutcurry

I love anything with red curry paste. I also love trying new meatless main dishes. If it weren’t for my meat-loving husband, it’s possible I would be a vegetarian. I try to plan a meat-free dinner at least once a week and I don’t usually eat meat with breakfast or lunch.

I came across this recipe in Gourmet a couple months ago. I have really been getting a lot of inspiration from Gourmet lately. I’ve found that they have a lot of recipes that are possible on a week night and don’t call for too many special/expensive ingredients.

I was really intrigued by this combination – spicy curry and sweet winter squash. I was really excited to try it. While this isn’t something that I would add to the regular rotation, I will definitely be making this one again.

Butternut Squash Curry
(Adapted from Gourmet)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp plus 2 tsp vegetable oil, divided
1 1/2 pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 (14-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk (do not stir), divided (I used light coconut milk and it turned out fine)
1 1/2 to 2 tbsp Thai Kitchen red curry paste
1/3 cup water
5 ounces baby spinach (5 cups packed)
1 tbsp Asian fish sauce, or to taste
1/4 cup salted roasted cashews, chopped
Cooked jasmine or brown rice
Lime slices, for garnish

Directions:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Sauté squash with cumin and 1/4 teaspoon salt until beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Add remaining 2 teaspoons oil to skillet and cook onion over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup coconut milk from top of can and cook, stirring, until fat starts to separate and look glossy, about 2 minutes. Add curry paste and cook, stirring, 2 minutes.

Add squash, water, remaining coconut milk and simmer, covered, until squash is tender, about 8 minutes. Stir in spinach and cook, covered, until just wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in fish sauce. Sprinkle with cashews.

Serve over jasmine or brown rice and garnish with lime slices.

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