homemade gyoza, rice, and miso soup.

As you know from my previous post, I bought lots of delicious Japanese ingredients at the local Chinese food store. One of those things was gyoza skins.

Originally I had planned to do a dinner party and make tons of gyoza...thank goodness I didn't because the pack mad much less than I thought!

I chopped up garlic, leeks, kikurage mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, edamame and sesame seeds and put them in a bowl. Add a little bit of sesame oil and mirin and tadaaa, you've got the mix for the inside of the gyoza! Ariel helped me make them; it was her first time! I ended up finishing them, but she did a pretty good job. I guess I'll have to thank my mom for turning gyoza-making into a family activity.

Then I fried them up and they were ready to eat! They were delicious, but definitely don't beat my mom's. I think next time I need to include some cabbage and tofu. AND SHRIMP.

udon noodles etc. in miso.

I don't often make Japanese food for myself (which will mostly likely change next fall, when I will have to cook for myself in a country where a rice cooker would be a convenient investment). I think it's because my mom does such a great job making dinner, so that whenever I try to make Japanese food, it just doesn't taste as hearty.

HOWEVER, sometimes the craving is so great that I can't resist it. I found a Chinese food shop that sells a handful of good quality Japanese foods (!!!), and there I indulged my inner Japanese. Things weren't too expensive but I made sure to calculate how much I was spending as I went along, just so I didn't go overboard. The first thing I went for was a decent pack of miso paste. As I've experienced from my mother's past experiences in miso testing, unless you're in a particularly explorative mood, don't mess around. Stick with what you know; there's nothing more upsetting than getting cozy for Japanese breakfast (rice + miso soup+ whatever) and having it taste too sweet. Or too salty. My favorite is shiromiso.

When I got home, I obviously made myself miso soup with tofu and a bowl of Japanese rice. A couple of nights later, this made its way into my stomach:


Udon noodles with shiitake mushrooms, carrot slices, and bamboo shoots in a miso broth. I made sure to drop an egg in right before the noodles were done. The egg cooks (boils?) in the heat of the broth so by the time the food makes it into a bowl, it's cooked just right – softly cooked with a little bit of goo in the middle.


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