Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 35mm, f/2, 1/150 sec, ISO400 “Sizzling Pork” Cedar Park, 2019
So burgers and steaks are staples of the backyard grill, but tonight Mariko grilled up some sliced pork, which had been soaking in a Vietnamese-style marinade. It smelled absolutely amazing as it cooked on the barbecue!
But the pork was just one ingredient for the banh mi that we had for dinner. Cilantro, pickled radish and carrot, and jalapeño rounded out the filling for the homemade baguette. It was so delicious, and of course, there were no leftovers. 😆
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/80 sec, ISO3200 “Banh Mi” Cedar Park, 2019Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 35mm, f/2.2, 1/150 sec, ISO400 “Grilling” Cedar Park, 2019
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:
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/60 sec, ISO3200 “Gyoza and Dog” Cedar Park, 2017Photo 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!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/110 sec, ISO6400 “ラユ” Cedar Park, 2018
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, 2019Photo 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.
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.
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! 😆
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO2500 “Bread Fail” Cedar Park, 2019
またね～
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