Broiled Butterfish with Braised Shiitakes & Bok Choy

nobody@vox.com(julie) — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:23:32 -0700

If I were to be a Spice Girl, I'd definitely be Asian Spice. Number one, I'm asian (duh) and two, I just love asian flavors. It's always a go-to style of cooking for me. Salty balanced by sweet - you can't go wrong. On a recent trip to Ranch 99 (same trip as Win Hop Fung), I picked up two whole butterfish. People often forget that there are many parts of the fish that are yummy to eat besides the fillet. As a child I was known to fight for the eyeball, but that was just a stage that I've grown out of. Aren't you glad? Now if any of you come over for dinner, you can have all the eyeballs you want. :)

I marinated the butterfish in a ponzu dressing, that I got suckered into buying. I am a bonafide sucker. Not a fan of pre-made anything really (usually too many preservatives and other weird stuff), but on one of my trips to SM Seafood, they were giving away generous, card deck-sized samples of chilean seabass cooked in the said marinade. That's how they get you. While you have your mouth full, they give you their whole pitch about how great it is. Feeling obligated/guilty for eating such an expensive sample (Chilean Seabass, really?) and for taking up time he could have been suckering someone else, I grabbed one on my way out. A salesmen's dream consumer. Sigh!

Back to dinner... since these fish are so thin, they only take a few minutes under the broiler on each side. It was accompanied by garlic stir-fried bok choy and shiitakes that I had braised in oyster sauce. The butterfish had a million tiny bones in it, so eater beware! Other than the bones, I loved this simple, school night meal. I'm going to go look at the nutrition facts on the marinade bottle now just to give myself nightmares. :)

Happy Hump Day! Sorry for the lack of blogging. I've got a lot to catch up on, but I'll be back in town tonight. I've been in Napa for the Tour de Cure bike ride. Don't worry about me though. As much work as it was, I was able to fit in a few incredible meals. Most notably, one at the infamous French Laundry. Now I can die happy. :)

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Shiitake Mushroom Tempura

nobody@vox.com(julie) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:54:38 -0700

shiitake mushroom (bottoms up)

Yesterday, I was too tired to go to the gym (that one hour time change has totally screwed me up) but had too much energy to just curl up on the couch and watch BAD television. Believe me, I start watching some embarrassing TV. Cheaters, Bad Girls Club, Flavor of Love 3.... like the first two weren't trashy enough right? Don't get me started. This is also attributed to the fact that my remote control has been MIA since the first weekend in January! Imagine getting up to change the channel. If I felt like working out I would have just gone to the gym. :)
In order to avoid having my brain instantaneously turn into swiss cheese, I decided to have a foodie photo shoot. That just involves me rummaging through the refrigerator and taking advantage of natural light. Shooting in natural light really yields the best results. Here's one of my little shroom friends:

shiitake mushroom

I scored some giant shiitakes that were just beautiful. Here's another one that looks like a space ship:

shiitake mushroom

I was having fun playing with DOF and all, but the really fun part of the shoot was, of course, the eating portion of it. I sliced up the mushrooms to make some tempura. I cheated by using a prepared tempura batter. One of those ones where all you do is add cold water. After that a quick swim in hot oil and a sprinkle of salt finished them off.

shiitake mushroom tempura

Scrumptious! B kept saying that they tasted like candy.

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Broiled Butterfish with Braised Shiitakes & Bok Choy

Shiitake Mushroom Tempura