Better Gyoza Technique

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/80 sec, ISO3200
“Small Gyoza” Cedar Park, 2019

こんばんは。How’s it going?

This evening I cooked up some frozen gyoza for Bay and me to eat for dinner. Over the years, I’ve gotten better at cooking gyoza, which I’ll admit doesn’t take much skill, but it’s a fun way to cook them nonetheless.

Basically, I put a little oil in the pan, then arrange the gyoza flat side down, in a nice pattern. Spiral is always a nice-looking design. Next, I get the pan hot and sizzling, then add a centimeter or two of water and cover the pan so that the gyoza steam through. After a few minutes, take the cover off and continue cooking until the water has disappeared. If you like, you can add a little sesame oil to the pan for flavor.

Cook until the bottom of the gyoza are golden brown and a little crispy, then use a spatula to loosen them a bit from the pan. To serve them up, put a large plate upside down over the pan, then with the palm of one hand on the top of the plate and the other grabbing the handle of the pan, turn the entire production upside down so that the plate is on the bottom and the gyoza fall off the pan and onto the plate. The sizzling, golden-brown side will be facing up.

If all goes well, you should have something that looks like this:

"Gyoza and Dog" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/60 sec, ISO3200
“Gyoza and Dog” Cedar Park, 2017
"Gyoza Dinner" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO2000
“Gyoza Dinner” Cedar Park, 2017

For dipping, we use ponzu or shoyu, and maybe add some chili oil as well. Sometimes we’ll just use good rayu chili oil by itself. It’s so good!

"ラユ" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/110 sec, ISO6400
“ラユ” Cedar Park, 2018

I hope you had a delicious day!

またね~

Mother’s Day Meals

Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 35mm, f/2, 1/75 sec, ISO1250
“Breakfast Burrito” Cedar Park, 2019

こんばんは。Mariko had a simple request for Mother’s Day: please feed me and let me watch my tv shows. 😆

With that in mind, Bay was tasked with preparing breakfast, and Koa would help with the grill at dinner, and also make sure Mariko had mimosas on-demand. 🥂

First up was breakfast, and for this, Bay made deluxe breakfast burritos with eggs, cheese, chorizo, jalapeño sausage, bacon, and hashbrowns. Since we couldn’t find super-gigantic tortillas, Bay divided them into smaller burritos, but they were still awesome. 🌯

Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 35mm, f/2, 1/75 sec, ISO400
“Breakfast Crew” Cedar Park, 2019

For dinner, Bay prepared garlic mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot, while Koa grilled the sirloin steaks on the deck barbecue. This was Koa’s first time grilling, so I helped him with the meat-thermometer and seasoning the 4 Top Sirloins from Omaha Steaks. They turned out nicely, with perfect medium-rare doneness. I threw in some broccoli for good measure, plus some rolls that Mariko had baked earlier, and it was a yummy dinner! 🥩

Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 35mm, f/2, 1/125 sec, ISO400
“Grill Crew” Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 35mm, f/2, 1/75 sec, ISO640
“Steak Dinner” Cedar Park, 2019

And as a little bonus, we also gave her a bouquet of fresh flowers. 💐

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
“Mother’s Day Bouquet” Cedar Park, 2019

I hope you had a nice day!

またね~

p.s. We ordered a bunch of food items from Omaha Steaks, and if you’d like to try the Top Sirloin steaks like we had, please click on the delicious-looking steak photo (affiliate link) below.

Monday Hamburgers with Homemade Buns

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/60 sec, ISO3200
“Burger” Cedar Park, 2019

The second meal I prepared on the new barbeque grill was hamburgers. Actually, I would have thought burgers would be the first meal, but steaks aren’t a bad choice either.

Anyway, the burgers turned out great. As usual, I used 80-20 ground chuck, but this time I added Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard to the mix. I think I did that last time too. This time, though, I used a fork to mix it all up before dividing the meat and forming the patties. I think this makes a huge difference because the ground beef doesn’t get as compressed so the cooked burgers have a nicer, coarser texture. And maybe they stay juicier too? I don’t know, but these were certainly moist!

Mariko made homemade buns, which were fantastic. Natural ingredients and no preservatives are healthier than store-bought, of course, and the taste of the freshly-baked, homemade buns cannot be beaten.

To round out the burger, the toppings were lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, jalapeños, mayo, ketchup, and mustard. Can’t go wrong with the classics for toppings!

I sometimes like to make simple burgers using just salt, pepper, and garlic powder, but the family really enjoys the Worcestershire/Dijon version so I’ll probably keep making those. Purists say that adding anything more than simple seasonings turns a burger into meatloaf, but hey, we like meatloaf too!

I’m wondering if there are any other things people like to add to the meat before grilling… I must do more research.

I hope you had a nice day!

またね~

Bread Fail

"Bread Fail" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/90 sec, ISO3200
“Bread Fail” Cedar Park, 2019

Mariko bakes some beautiful bread, but every once in a while something goes wrong. Today, for instance, a large loaf of sandwich bread didn’t bake correctly on the bottom, so it was saggy. The top half was perfect but the bottom half was dough-ey and not done. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all! 😆

"Bread Fail" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
“Bread Fail” Cedar Park, 2019

またね~

Scared Dog, Texas Weather, and Oyakodon

"Hiding Dog" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec, ISO3200
“Hiding Dog” Cedar Park, 2019

A huge storm rolled through today, producing a lot of lightning and thunder. Our dog, Lani, was so scared, she hid under the desk next to me. Sad, but cute too!

By early evening, the clouds broke and the air was crystal clear. It was beautiful.

"Clearing Skies" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/850 sec, ISO200
“Clearing Skies” Cedar Park, 2019

And then we had my favorite meal, oyakodon. So it ended up being a good day. 😄

"Oyakodon" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
“Oyakodon” Cedar Park, 2019

I hope yours was nice as well!

またね~

Indian and Sri Lankan Curries

"Curry, Rice, and Curry" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO2000
“Curry, Rice, and Curry” Cedar Park, 2019

Today we made two excellent curries: Aloo Matar (potato and pea curry), and Sri Lankan chicken curry. We had planned the Sri Lankan curry before the awful bombings happened, so that gave me several moments of pause while we were preparing the meal. Very sad news…

Before making the curries, I cooked a huge batch of Indian onion masala in our Instant Pot, some of which was used in the potato and pea curry. We froze the rest of the onion masala which will be great for our future curries!

Most of the ingredients can be found in supermarkets or smaller Indian markets nearby so we had most of them in the house. The curry leaves were the hardest to find, Mariko said, and had to be ordered online. I had never seen them before, so those were interesting to use.

I love curry so much, and these two will only satisfy me for a short time. In fact, I’m already thinking about Thai curry! 😄

Instant Pot Aloo Matar (Potato & Pea Curry)

The Best Sri Lankan Chicken Curry

Indian Onion Masala (Instant Pot)