Yelpmailed

Seems unreal but I could see this happening. I always read the reviews on yelp with a grain of salt. I've never seen anyone wearing a yelp shirt, that'd be pretty lame.
Read here.

Rib-eye goodness

Tonight was thin cut rib-eye with fried onions and rice. Serves 2

.77lb of thin cut rib-eye
1/2 yellow onion
4 garlic cloves
grapeseed oil
miso paste
1/2 lemon (juice)
1/2T butter
white wine
rice
salt/pepper

Dice the onion and garlic, set aside separately. Pre heat the pan then oil.
Pat dry the rib-eye, add salt & pepper to both sides. Place into pan (12") for around 3 minutes each side or longer to cook more well. Remove from heat and tent on plate.
Add the onions in, cook for a few minutes, stirring/shaking. Add in the garlic. After a minute, add in enough white wine to deglaze. Scrap off the sucs and stri around. Put lid on top as it reduces. I reduces til most of the wine was gone.

In a small saucepan, add miso pate, butter, and lemon juice. Heat and mix until combined.

Add it all together:


Yummy!

Pork Medallions with Pan Sauce and Gratin Dauphinois

Tonight's meal was pork medallions using pork tenderloin cut into ~1/2" slices and then slightly flattened more using a pan. The potato gratin recipe I've used before, here's the recipe. The pan sauce was made using sucs, shallots, garlic, red wine, 1T butter, and chicken broth. Some baby bok choy was steamed in the rice cooker, set for 5mins.

I wanted a more cooked/baked looking gratin so I single layered the red potatos out over a pan. I added leeks on top and a glove of garlic with around 7mins left in the oven.



The medallions, gratin, bok choy covered with pan sauce

Overboard Curry Beef with Rice

Tonight was beef curry with Japanese rice. Ever wanted the super sticky rice? Just follow the instructions on the rice bag. 1.5 cups of rice to 2 cups water....sticky. Don't want it so sticky, do the 2:2 ratio. I picked up some cut up beef made for cooking with curry. I coated the beef in flour. The pan was preheated then the oil. The beef was added and cooked ~3 minutes per side. The beef was removed with lots of sucs left. 2 diced cloves of garlic tossed in. I deglazed with a little red wine. As it reduced to just a little left, some chicken broth was added in. As it reduced the beef was thrown back in and mixed together. Reduce into there's not much sauce left, the remaining will be thick and coat the beef nicely. The curry was boiling in it's package for 3-5 minutes. Sesame seeds sprinkled on top of everything.

viola!

Panko Chicken

Another yummy round of panko chicken. The miso sauce goes very well with the chicken and rice. A zesty lemony salty miso tang that goes POW into the taste buds :) The original recipe is here.

1 chicken breast
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup panko
thyme
japanese rice
carrots
grapeseed oil
2 spoons miso paste
1/2 lemon

I cut the breast into two pieces and pounded with a sauce pan to flatten. The chicken goes thru the flour, egg, panko and onto a plate as I warmed up the pan. The chicken is cooked 3 mins per side and removed onto paper towels to soak up the oil. The chicken is tented with aluminum foil and is rested as I boil the carrots and make the sauce.

2 heaping spoonful scoops of miso paste was added a saucepan over low heat. As it heated up, I squeezed in 1/2 lemon. Stir and heat until mixed together.
Thyme was sprinkled over everything.

Akasaka take-out

Akasaka is a hole in the wall Japanese restaurant near another hole in the wall place called Foo Foo Tei. Akasaka specializes in sushi and Foo Foo Tei is famous for ramen dishes. You'd never find either just driving around because it's tucked amongst warehouses and regular homes.

The yelp review can be read here.

Here's what Eva ordered:

The spicy tuna roll


Chirashi bowl

Pork Chops with Marsala and Fennel

Pork Chops with Marsala and Fennel was tonight's meal. The recipe can be found here.
It would probably be even better using pork tenderloin or chicken. I didn't have any marsala and used red wine. The sauce with the onions and fennel came out so good.

The onions & fennel cooking


The final dish


A closer view of the onions/fennel



And a side of baked sweet potato fries