UnRecipe: Ingredient Obsession - Red Pepper Power (Powder)

"RAAAAAAAWKS-aaaaaaannnne..... you don't have to put on the red light... " That is, unless you're putting on the red pepper powder. On everything. To be filed under "random purchase at the Asian grocer," I bought a large container of Korean red pepper/kimchee (kimchi) powder, aka, gochugaru. While I haven't made a single batch of fermented cabbage buried in a clay pot in the ground, I have been sprinkling that powder into pretty much everything else, WITH NO SIGNS OF STOPPING.

Korean-style tacos, complete with gochugaru-infused tortillas! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

FoodTrek: Gathering of Flavors at Kaisho

The term kaisho is a Japanese term for a place to meet or gather, but having a chance to further explore the menu at the Bellevue restaurant Kaisho, I would also call it a gathering of various Asian and Western flavors, and having them all meet for a delectable feast. I was doing the very arduous (not arduous) task of food/drink research and had the opportunity to sample several of Kaisho's dishes and cocktails. It was too much flava-flavor to keep all to myself, so I had to share on the blog. So here -- feast with your eyes, then  jump in your car and feast with your appetite!

East Meets West (and South) - Kaisho's Thai Fried Chicken and Kimchee Waffles - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Mixed Plate: The Wrath of Congee

Yo, all my Asian brothahs and sistahs from other mistahs -- are you ready to rumble?? Tiger Moms everywhere are ready to judge meals all over the world, and cast tired looks and furrowed eyebrows across tables at what's going to be served up for CNY! Chinese tradition would dictate you're busy fretting away over a traditional Lunar New Year meal coming up at the end of January, where we say farewell to the Year of the Snake and howdy to the Year of the Horse for 2014. It's a big deal, and it's an important time to gather with loved ones and welcome the new year properly, but I also get that it's stressful like any other holiday fraught with family and drama. I say... to hell with tradition -- invite all your non-judgy friends over, who love you just the way you are, not how many hours of piano practice you shirked as a kid, and serve up the new hotness that I am naming as the Next Big/Annoying Food Trend for 2014: Congee Brunch.

My submission to Food Fads of 2014: Congee Brunch - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: New Carb City

Getting old(er) sucks. Getting a new scale REALLY sucks. I can deal with the gray hairs (only my hairdresser will ever know!) and given the lack of tropical weather in the Northwest, I can hide under enough scarves and clothing to never show more than a few inches of rapidly crepe-ifying skin at a time. What I can't fight is the rapid decline of metabolism, which has zero effect on my desire to eat copious amounts of food. Pesky Human Body! So I'm always trying to think of food swaps or modifications that let me enjoy what I'm craving and leave out any extra stuff that will just add bulk, especially since we got the new digital scale, which has made things abundantly clear that numbers don't lie, so put that chocolate bar down!

Swapping rice with cabbage for mapo tofu - so-so results - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Eating Easter and the Sacrilicious Mushroom Log

I realize Easter Sunday was yesterday, but since this isn't a particularly traditional Easter meal, I'm posting it on a non-traditional day. I wasn't raised in a particular faith, just your typical Godless Heathen Asian Household. But we did dye eggs for Easter, which was something I really enjoyed. Even that acrid, sour smell that permeated the house as you'd drop the PAAS dye tablets into coffee mugs full of heated vinegar -- I'd dye those eggs like a boss, to get them as saturated with as much color as possible, knowing we'd be cursed with rainbow-hued egg salad sandwiches for a week. I don't dye eggs anymore, but I continue to hold eggs in high regard, since they are a pretty magical and wonderful food. So Happy Belated Easter -- let's Put an Egg On It!

Happy Easter - put an egg (or two) on it - Photo by Wasabi Prime

OMG a Recipe: I Want Hot Noodles

In the immortal words of comic book character Hellboy: I want hot noodles. "Pamcakes" are nifty and all, but sometimes you want noodles, and in my case, I had a specific craving for the Korean dish, japchae, a simple stir-fry of thin noodles, vegetables, sometimes meat, in a sweet-savory sesame sauce. If you're at all familiar with the Hellboy comic, or just read the link above to the little Pancake vignette, you'll understand why one can never go back to the Underworld farm once they've had japchae noodles, or pamcakes, for that matter.

Meatless Monday Japchae, not that you'd miss the meat - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I love japchae because I love bean thread noodles, aka saifun, aka sweet potato noodles, aka glass noodles, aka cellophane noodles. There's probably other names for the same thing, it's got as many aliases as ten Jason Bournes. I do think that's one obstacle to cooking Asian food, the shopping for the basic ingredients. Asian grocery stores are daunting; bottles and cans are labeled in another language, you need to know what you're looking for, even I get flustered when I'm shopping for exotic goods. Everything has multiple names and you have to be a master spy to recognize which aliases mean the same thing. Luckily most basic grocery stores are widening their "Ethnic Cuisine" aisle, even going so far as to dedicating a full section of an aisle to "Asian." And if you've never had or made japchae at home, it's one of those ridiculously easy things to make since the only somewhat unusual ingredient is the bean thread noodles. Like I said, I can get a package of this at our local Safeway, so here's to cuisine progress movin' on up.

So, why bean thread noodles/saifun? If you had to, you could probably swap the noodles out with an angel hair pasta, but there's a really lovely bite to bean thread noodles; they're stretchy with a distinctive toothy bite. They're made up of mung bean, sweet potato or yam starch and/or other root starches, but not wheat, so it's a nice gluten-free noodle to keep in mind. You don't taste any of the bean or potato starch and thin sauces cling to it nicely, so it's ideal for japchae, which uses a thin sesame oil-based sauce. This version of japchae is meatless, making it perfect for Meatless Monday. And it's not one of those dishes where it suffers from the removal of meat, since the bulk of the flavor expeience is in the multiple vegetables and sweet-savory sesame oil sauce. You could add ribbons of scrambled egg to add more protein, and adding shiitake mushrooms gives it an earthy, meaty flavor.

The Magic Bean (noodles) and whatever vegetables you want - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I put together this recipe based off multiple versions of japchae that I've seen. It's such a basic dish, and so easy and quick to make, which is probably why it's so popular in Korean cuisine. Fast, inexpensive, no fuss -- boom, the perfect weekday night meal. The primary ingredients for japchae are the bean thread noodles and getting the sauce to that just-right sweet-savory balance. Which is completely subjective -- some people will want more soy sauce, some will want to add more sugar, but it's an easy dish to push and pull flavors to your taste. The sesame oil is what brings everything together and really anchors the dish, so don't skimp on that.

Hot Noodles! Hellboy would approve - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Meatless Monday Japchae (perfectly good on other days of the week, I promise)

Ingredients
1 package (about 8 oz) of bean thread noodles (see above for more variations on the name)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 cup of chopped shiitake mushrooms (fresh or reconstituted dried)
Salt and pepper to taste

Any combination of favorite vegetables, but can include:
1 cup carrot, cut into thin matchsticks
1/2 cup wilted spinach
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 cup broccoli florets, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 cup bok choi, chopped into small bite sized pieces

Can also add cooked cubes of tofu or sliced ribbons of scrambled egg

To finish:
chopped scallions
toasted sesame seeds      
Sriracha hot sauce as condiment, because it goes well with EVERYTHING 

Heat a pot of water until boiling and cook the saifun/bean thread noodles. When the noodles are tender, but not overcooked, drain and in a separate bowl, toss lightly with 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil. This will flavor the noodles as well as keep them from sticking to each other.

Take a heavy bottomed pan or wok heat to medium high on the stove. Add the vegetable oil and start to cook down your vegetables until tender. Lower the heat to medium-low, and add the shiitake mushrooms, along with the tofu and egg, if you are adding those. Add the chopped garlic, soy sauce, remaining sesame oil and sprinkle on the sugar. Keep the soy sauce and sugar handy to adjust to your flavor preference. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the vegetables and sauce are fully combined, add the bean thread noodles and gently toss to fully mix the ingredients. 

To serve, top each bowl of japchae with a sprinkle of fresh chopped scallions, sesame seeds and hot sauce, if you want to add more heat. Don't be surprised if you can't stop eating, it's really that good.

Mixed Plate: That's Good Sandwich!

Is there nothing more perfect than a sandwich? Soft or crispy bread, a favorite combination of ingredients stacked within like edible playing cards. Served hot or cold, sliced or left whole for your jaw to wrestle with. The possibilities are endless and the cuisine styles can originate from all over the globe, and lately, my obsession has been with the Vietnamese banh mi.

Banh Mi from Wild Ginger - perfect summer food - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I can't remember the first banh mi I ever tried, it was likely here in the Pacific Northwest when I first started eating pho, but I can recall the wonderful combination of flavors, textures and temperatures coming together in a sandwich -- I never realized could be so marvelously complex! I was hooked. This traditional sandwich born of French colonialism in Indochina is the perfect marriage of a beautifully crisp and buttery baguette, loaded up with Asian flavors like different cuts of seasoned pork, fresh herbs like cilantro, and the sharp zing of pickled vegetables, all coming together in a heady dressing of fish sauce. There are variations, of course, but the basic flavor and temperature elements are there: hot/cold, sweet/savory, fresh/preserved. It's something that's best enjoyed freshly-made, or the bread gets soggy or stale, and you lose the sizzle of the freshly cooked meat contrasting with the chill of the vegetables. It's the perfect summer food, which I'm surprised hasn't hit the Cool List for trendy seasonal things to make outside of burgers and ribs -- get on this Food Cool Hunters, why aren't you trending this to the hungry masses already "so over" spiral-cut hot dogs??

Sandwich sampling, with pork chicken and tofu - Photos by Wasabi Prime

 I had a chance to indulge my banh mi craving when Wild Ginger started making them for their online ordering menu -- I was on the move in downtown Bellevue one sunny afternoon and decided to pick up lunch for myself and the Mister. I tried several of their banh mi offerings -- they make a pork, chicken and tofu version. The seasonings are similar with the pork and chicken, with lemongrass and ginger, and they come with a very strong fish sauce-forward dressing, so don't plan on any close-quarter meetings or whispering sweet nothings into a special someone's ear. The dressing is something you can add as much or as little of, but I didn't mind its flavor intensity so I used the whole container on the sandwiches and let it mellow for a bit, just to let it soak into everything. The Mister was eating the same thing, so we could be equally fishy. I appreciated the dressing on the tofu version, since the flavor is much more subtle -- their tofu was lightly marinated and the bread had an herb/wasabi mayonnaise on it that was refreshing, but fish sauce always adds that unctuous, earthy flavor. I love any excuse to eat bread, and the baguette had that sturdy crisp outer shell, and a soft, spongey interior to soak up all the sandwich flavors. Chicken and tofu were tasty, but go for the traditional meat of choice, pork, the Magical Animal. They season it nicely and it's got a tender, flavorful bite, and with the summer weather, it tastes even better when you're eating it outside.

At-home variation of banh mi with a Korean kick - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Getting my banh mi fix made me think back to my Sandwich Love History. I was used to the typical peanut butter on Wonder Bread (crusts cut off, of course) of my youth, and then leveling-up to an Italian style grinder or hoagie from Giuliano's, this family-run bakery and delicatessen in Gardena, near where I grew up, in Torrance, California. They've been around since the 50s and it was my first introduction to a big ol' Italian-style sandwich, full of different meats, cheeses,  peppers, the works, on their own bread, which just sopped up all the seasonings from the pickling brine and their house made dressing that they would add onto the sandwich. If I had to think of the first sandwich that changed the way I thought about a particular food, it would be the Giuliano "Torpedo" Italian sub sandwich, hands-down -- from their hoagie teachings, I learned to understand that sandwiches could be complex and flavorful. I've since added the banh mi to my Sandwich Love History, along with other cultural goodies like the Cuban sandwich, various tortas and the muffaletta, all signs that I was never destined for bologna and cheese.

Which brings me to the real meat of this post: making an inspired sandwich at home. I wanted to do a Korean-style sandwich, using cooked pork marinated in ko-chu-jang (spicy pepper paste), some pesto lime mayo to keep things cool, and a heaping portion of kimchee to bring both heat and pickled chill to the sandwich party. What to call it? A Kimchee-wich? A Kim Jong Ill-in' Hoagie? I don't know, that's still in progress.  Everything was piled between a soft sandwich roll -- it had to be soft, as I knew this beast would be stacked high with ingredients and a crispy bread would have just been a mess to eat, likely breaking apart upon first bite, or worse, scraping up the roof of your mouth like an errant tortilla chip. I think the construction of a properly balanced sandwich must be done like an architect designing a building -- strong base flavors, a combination of texture and temperature for interest, but always with the notion of structural integrity in mind. There's nothing worse than a sandwich coming apart like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and your shirt has a full serving of lunch all over it. Failsauce.

Sandwich with a side of... spicy peanut curry? Why not - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Don't ask why I paired my Korean-inspired sandwich with a Thai spicy peanut curry. I knew the sandwich would look lonely on the plate, all by itself, I didn't have chips, and the curry was for the rest of the week's lunches. This post caught me on a Kitchen Experiment day, I admit it. In a better-equipped situation, some spicy jalapeno potato chips from Tim's Cascade would have been the ideal snack side. Fries are too starchy, unless they were maybe shoestring-cut sweet potato fries. A cucumber salad would have been perfect. But this was a Sandwich Lab moment, testing a new combination of flavors and ingredients for potential future barbecues. I think making this sandwich for a large group would be perfect, grilling up some marinated pork tenderloin, slicing thin and layering it with kimchee over a pesto mayo-slathered bread. I get this cartoon image in my head of a ridiculously long loaf of bread, piled high with sandwich fixings, like something Dagwood would make and Blondie would inexplicably shrug off in a 1950's anti-depressant haze. I think this version of a Korean barbecue sandwich would be a little less disturbing than that and much more delicious, don't you think? Carry on, Summer!

Coming soon, to a barbecue near you - Photos by Wasabi Prime

FoodTrek: Seattle State of Mind

We are lucky. We are incredibly lucky. This thought was running through my head when I was at an event in Seattle, celebrating the opening of a new Korean restaurant and bar, Chan, and being surrounded by so many incredible food writers, bloggers and edible enthusiasts. If there's a New York State of mind, then there can definitely be a Seattle state of mind when it comes to what you're eating.

Yes, sliders are everywhere, but they sure are cute to photograph! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Nestled in a cozy little spot in the courtyard of the Inn at the Market on Pine, right by Pike Place Market, Chan is joining the well-populated ranks of Seattle restaurants, expanding palates into the realm of Korean cuisine. It's not a giant restaurant, it's small and intimate, looking almost like a little sushi place, with its long communal bar area where a lot of the guests will likely sit (the place was in party-mode, so most of the tables and chairs were moved out so the group could mingle). Along with flavorful food, Chan focuses on sustainability, using local ingredients prepared with familiar Korean seasonings and flavors, like spicy pepper paste, fresh ginger and garlic, all balanced out with sweetness.

Friday night at Chan in Seattle - like a foodie-reunion! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

It's an open kitchen – you see everything being prepared, so there's no hiding what's being worked on. It almost feels like you're in the home of a friend who has a big, airy kitchen, and you're the lucky guest, enjoying a cocktail or two while someone cooks dinner. Chan's menu is a mix of modern and traditional, with familiar items like a marinated grilled pork bulgogi, pickled vegetable banchan, and newer twists like layering the bulgogi into friendly little sliders and a sticky-sweet-spicy take on chicken wings. The names on the menu may not yet sound familiar to your ears, but you take a bite and it's instant recognition of flavors you've probably had before, and it emboldens your palate to try everything.

Tasty bites; bulgogi, savory rice cakes, chicken wings and the almighty slider - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Chan is part of a growing interest – I see more Korean-style restaurants opening up, and they're not trying to be slaves to tradition, but experiment with the food and present the base flavors in a way that's approachable to everyone. I think Korean food is a perfect combination – it's refreshing with spiced pickled vegetables, and satisfying with grilled marinated meats cooked to a sizzling finish. It's savory-spicy-sweetness, the right mixture that appeals to so many tastes. Chan's proximity to the Market makes it an easy choice for visitors, and it's food cooked with sincerity, something that Seattleites can get behind and support. Where other cities would shove a large tourist trap-style chain restaurant close to a popular city destination, Chan is a small, pleasantly tasty oasis that's presenting a slice of what makes Seattle so special.  Exotic, flavorful and sustainable – a good mantra to have, and very much what I'd consider a Seattle state of mind.

Yes, you can pickle that, Chan - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I felt lucky to be at Chan for the event, but one of the biggest reasons I felt so fortunate was that I was surrounded by such great company. I saw so many people I hadn't seen in a long time and many that I've chatted with over Twitter or Facebook, but we've never managed to meet in real life, at least until now. Seattle has a diverse and intelligent food community. I know this isn't breaking news – a lot of cities have food-smart folks, I just appreciate the fact that this area has a combination of people with restaurant industry background and enthusiasts who put a priority over where the food comes from. There are a lot of people here who garden or regularly buy their produce from farmers markets and community supported agriculture subscriptions. Nobody's perfect, we can't eat every meal in an artisan organic way, but it's something people strive towards and there's an overall sense of awareness over true quality. It makes going to an ingredient-conscious place like Chan feel like less of an eco-trendy sound bite and more of a regional movement towards getting everyone to a better place. And there's a great base of people who express these ideas in their own way, whether it's what they cook, write or photograph. It was a good reminder for myself to be aware and thoughtful, to value the ingredient and those who wave this banner every day.

Spicy sticky goodness - chicken wings done right - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Enter the Dragon

I know we just rang in the new year on January first, but now you get to ring it in again, twice as loud, with three times the food. And I'm especially excited as it's literally my year, along with many other lucky little Dragons out there. It's Lunar New Year, and it's Year of the Dragon, baby!

Get your dumplings on, it's New Years! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I don't really do a big Chinese New Year celebration mostly because... well, I'm not Chinese (not that it matters), and it's usually just the Mister and myself for those several days of feasting, so a big multi-course meal for the two of us seems extravagant. But I try to do little things, like make homemade dumplings, just to get into the spirit of the season. I always go back to my staple, a copy of Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings, a great cookbook that has several dumpling skin and dough recipes. She focuses on as much of the dough as the filling, and that's half the trick, having the dumpling itself be the right consistency and have flexibility to seal everything up soundly. A lot of dumpling books suggest using store-bought skins, which is fine in a pinch, but I was feeling the craving for pan-fried dumplings, called sheng jian baozi in Shanghai, similar to gyoza or potstickers in Japan. It's basically dumplings filled with meat and vegetables, wrapped in dough, sealed up into a pouch, then pan-fried. Gyoza tend to just have the bottom part of the dumpling browned, then steam-finished, with a little water put into the hot pan to help release the dumpling from the surface. The Chinese equivalent usually winds up being a rounded patty, seared on both sides in a hot pan.

I made a batch of the basic dumpling dough from Andrea's book and cooked up some leftover cabbage and vegetables I had in the fridge to stuff into each little dumpling. Yes, just vegetables, not even pork -- outrage, I know. I could have been more of a slave to the traditional filling, but the thing I like best about dumplings is the fact you can fill it with whatever you want, and it's the perfect solution for taking care of oddball vegetable scraps. Heaven knows we're still nibbling through a fridge full of oddball ingredients, and that included a lone bag of cole slaw vegetables. Don't ask why we had it, I didn't even remember why I bought it, but there it was, a wealth of shredded cabbage. Woo -- party!


Asian New Year for all - quick Korean style bibimbap - Photos by Wasabi Prime

While I could have stuffed my face all day with crispy pan-fried dumplings -- and don't get me wrong, I totally would if I could -- I made another dish full of vegetables. I love the Korean dish bibimbap, which is typically a combination of different vegetables and cooked meat, tossed in a spicy sauce, served over rice and topped with a marvelous fried egg. Yet another case of Put an Egg On It, but this logic is sound, because this logic is delicious, as the runny yolk just adds richness to the food. In a situation where you want a fast meal, bibimbap is one quick-fix that most people could throw together with things in their fridge and pantry. We had a variety of vegetables from our CSA box, I had some scraps of turkey, so I cooked everything up in a skillet and made a finishing sauce that included ko-chu-jang, a hot bean paste that you typically find at Asian markets, in the Korean foods section. It's seriously the bomb-diggety of flavor and I love using it. The salt content is scandalously high, but it's Asian food, so of course it's packed with sodium and likely MSG. But I don't care, I love this paste because just a little dab of it mixed into your stir fry will add a shot of savory as well as heat. I like black bean paste, which is more common in Chinese cooking, but it's got a deeper flavor and not the heat that I was looking for, so if I want a kick, I go with ko-chu-jang.

Celebrating the new year in little ways at the house of Wasabi - Happy 2012, Dragons! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Definitely not a traditional way of celebrating Chinese New Year, more like Celebrating Year of the Wasabi, cooking up some things I like to eat. And it was a nice excuse to make a fresh batch of dumpling dough, a reminder that it's not that much extra work and you get so much more out of the result. The dough is more elastic, less likely to break if it's overstuffed (which I always do), and it cooks up beautifully, crisping in the pan but still staying tender and delicate. Regardless of whether or not you celebrate Lunar New Year, a new year is all about fresh starts, being ready to tackle new things and also continuing to find ways to celebrate the things we love, so this meal being a mix of old and new, was a good way to start the year on a good foot. To all those fellow Dragons out there, let's totally rock 2012!

OMG a Recipe: Takeout Cravings Made at Home

Everyone has really specific food cravings. For some, it's a big juicy hamburger, all the fixin's, with a side of crispy fries. For others, maybe it's an ooey-gooey cheese pizza, straight from the oven. Thankfully in our modern delivery-friendly times, we can order almost anything to be sent straight to our door or zip past a drive-thru and receive instant gratification. My cravings are a little different -- I really love the spicy heat of savory beef over a cold pickled salad, or the creamy richness of a peanut sauce. Living in the Seattle area, it's actually not difficult to get any of this -- even in Duvall, where I live, we've got two Asian/Thai places and a few teriyaki places right in town. But what if you're not as lucky, or if this craving hits at an odd time and all the restaurants are closed? Wonder no longer, I'm going to lay some Wasabi Knowledge on you.

Spicy beef over cucumber salad - restaurant meal, quickly made at home - Photo by Wasabi Prime

It was a dark and stormy night... well, more like a weird weather day, where the sun would be shining, but the rain was pouring down. This kind of weather means Wasabi is as lazy as sin, I don't want to leave the house, even to pick up delicious takeout food, so it's MacGyver Meal Time, and I match food cravings to what we've got on-hand. We had just gotten our latest CSA box of magical mystery fruits and vegetables. Which at this time of year is kale, kale, kale... and oh yeah, more kale! But there's some other things that show up, like broccoli and at the time, a late harvest cucumber or two, with skin as tough as leather. We were also getting other late summer things like eggplant, which people either cheer with joy or look at it with quiet bewilderment, as it's not a vegetable people deal with regularly, given its seasonal particulars. But it's a good thing, and it went so well in a creamy peanut sauce.

Putting together all the favorite flavors to answer my food cravings - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I wanted a Korean-style BBQ, kind of similar to kalbi, with the spicy-sweet sauce. I had a steak defrosting in the fridge, and with it still slightly icy, it's easier to slice the beef super-thin. I marinated about a pound of thinly-sliced beef for about a half hour (or more, if you have the time) in a mixture of: 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon Sriracha or 1/2 teaspoon of chili flakes. You just mix everything together by hand until it's all coated. For the vegetables, use what you have -- I chopped up broccoli and kale with some thinly sliced onions. In a hot wok, add a little cooking oil, quickly stir-fry the beef until it's browned, then add in the vegetables to finish Use a little watered-down soy sauce to deglaze the wok and help make a sauce. Add more sugar if you like it on the sweet side. If I'm cooking more vegetables, I'll remove the mostly-cooked beef so it doesn't get rubbery, and give the vegetables more time to soften before adding the meat back in. In this case, the kale wilts fast and I like my broccoli with a little crunch, so it just needed minimal cooking time. This is usually how I do a fast beef stir fry at home; no real measuring or fussing with sauces, I just use what's in the fridge. If there's fresh ginger, garlic and/or scallions, I add it. Fish sauce is nice as well. If you have a container of spicy Korean kochujang sauce, which is like a spicy barbecue sauce, I'll add a little spoonful of that to finish, but again, if you don't have any of this stuff handy, the basics listed above will do fine.

The finished stir fry was served over some lightly pickled cucumbers. I partially skinned, sliced and seeded the somewhat tough cucumbers and let them sit in a light brine of a few spoonfuls of sugar and rice wine vinegar. It was more like a cucumber salad, as the vinegar didn't really have time to fully penetrate the slices, but it was fine. The crunchiness of the cold cucumber was nice with the spicy heat of the stir fry. It's a nice alternative to serving the beef over rice. Not that I didn't have rice -- I made a pot of steamed brown rice and saved it for one of my favorite at-home quick meals: spicy peanut sauce simmered with.. well, anything.

Pantry peanut sauce, at your service - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Keep plain peanut butter around. Unless you have an allergy, this should just be a rule for households. I rarely have peanut butter sandwiches, given our lack of bread around the house, but I swear we go through a giant jar of Adams u-stir-the-crap-outta-this-thing peanut butter every month. Either that, or we have Peanut Butter Elf Thieves silently attacking our cupboards. Or maybe it's just Indy -- she loves the stuff.

My go-to peanut sauce, which is generally pretty easy to make if you keep certain things handy in the pantry is this: 1 can of coconut milk (full-fat or low-fat, doesn't matter), 1/2 cup of plain/unsweetened well-stirred peanut butter, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 cloves of chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon (or more) of Sriracha or a sprinkle of chili flakes. 1 teaspoon of chopped ginger if you have it. This is my pantry peanut sauce, when I have a Thai food craving and am too lazy to go out. I realize not everyone keeps coconut milk around, but it's a canned good, it'll keep for a while, so when you see it on sale, buy a couple and keep 'em on hand. You'll be thankful you did. Personally I really like the Trader Joe brand -- it just tastes more fragrant. It's somewhat Thai-inspired, just with less ingredients, but easy to make at home without buying the premade jarred stuff.

I usually brown and soften the vegetables I'm going to have with this sauce first -- in this case, it was eggplant and some onions. Oh yeah, and big surprise - KALE! When the pan is still hot, I put in the peanut butter, as the heat will help melt it down. It's still sticky as all get-out, so I start adding in the other liquid ingredients and sprinkle in garlic and Sriracha as I mix, getting everything incorporated. I add the coconut milk in last. It really brings everything together, will deglaze the pan and helps completely melt the peanut butter down.When it's all incorporated, I add in small cubes of extra firm tofu -- again, optional, but since this is a vegetarian dish, the added protein can't hurt. I could add it earlier, but mixing the sauce would just pulverize the tofu into mush, so I wait until the sauce is combined, so it can fully simmer in the mix of flavors.  I also throw in handfuls of unsalted peanuts for extra crunch. Not a requirement, but it's a nice textural thing. Take heaping spoonfuls of this stuff and pour it over rice and enjoy. Spicy, creamy, crunchy and stick-to-your-ribs good -- and it's fast. By the time the rice is done steaming, the sauce and vegetables are done.

Orange chicken, inspired by... mall food court! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Remember the weird, day-glo orange chicken that's offered in the super-Americanized Chinese food places that haunt most food courts? Of course you do. It's alarmingly orange and oddly addictive, if you've spent any amount of your teenage life mall-ratting and perusing tapes at Sam Goody. It's orange in description-only, as an orange off the tree would not recognize this sauce as being a second cousin, once-removed, from his uncle's cousin's side of the citrus family. I found myself thinking of this mall-food when we had a bit of leftover orange juice from a brunch at our house. I know it's for drinking, but I thought, let's make a sauce out of it! Good idea? Meh, it's not like I was drinking bleach.

Consider this one a work in progress: I put about a cup and a half's worth of orange juice in a small pot and let it simmer until reduced by about a third. I added some soy sauce and sesame oil, then a few dashes of rice wine vinegar. It was a lot of "bit of this, bit of that," pushing and pulling the flavors in this orange juice concoction. I was trying to avoid adding more sugar, as the juice has plenty on its own. There's just no way to get it to the syrupy-sweet flavor of the mall food version, nor should you want to. The final result was just a savory orange-flavored sauce, but kind of ho-hum, to be honest. It went into a stir fry of chicken, onions and... say it with me now: kale. Let no one say we don't eat our greens at the Wasabi household. The final dish wasn't alarmingly orange, which is probably a good thing. I just wanted to see if I could make a sauce from orange juice. I think if I do this again, I'm using fresh pineapple, letting it simmer with the orange juice and letting it break down during the reduction, since it's got quite a bit of liquid if you use fresh chunks. You can't beat its sweetness and while I'll have to balance out the double whammy of acidity with oranges and pineapple, I think it will give me a more zippy, bright-tasting sauce. Revisiting this UnRecipe will have to wait until we're saddled with a surplus of orange juice, as it's another thing we tend not to keep around the house. Maybe it's a weird thing to want to make -- bad Americanized Chinese food -- but we're all products/victims of our upbringing, and we've all put our time in a mall food court or three. I just try to find a way to make a slightly less scary version at home.

Asian-inspired dinner at Casa de Wasabi, on a sunny/stormy day - Photos by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Slip Sliding Away Into a Food Trend

What is up with sliders, people? Every freaking restaurant has them. As if having one hamburger isn't enough, now you can get two to three mini ones, albeit adorable, but often with less meat, more bun and a higher price. Blame my Depression Era parental voice talking, but in my best Hank Hill (from Mike Judge's King of the Hill) voice, I gotta say, "that ain't right."  Not to say the concept of sliders is a bad one, but these days I'm eating more things at home, and the recent family visit with Auntie S., it prompted some experiments in Wasabi Kitchen Stadium to put together BBQ pork shoulder with a kimchee slaw, between split ju bao.

The slider phenomena hits our home kitchen with much tasty results - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I thought of this recipe months ago, while visiting my parents in Hawaii. It's the land of kimchee and all things pickled, often served with some savory meats. It doesn't take culinary rocket science to mash those things together into a moment of "duh," and have a kimchee/pulled pork lightbulb blink on over one's head. I had been cooking out of Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings book lately, and her ju bao (baked bun) recipe has been a favorite. A sticky, milky yeast dough, it makes for some attractive buns -- no naughtiness intended, unless you like a giggle or two -- and instead of filling them with pulled pork, I decided to make a batch totally plain and just split them to use for the kimchee pork sliders.

They make for great little buns, but they are oily little buggers. You wouldn't think it to look at the innocent little flaky gems, but I guess that flakiness has to come from somewhere -- pure, delicious oil! Once cooled, I stored them in brown lunch sacks, and the oil from the dough really made quick work of the bags. It made me think of that episode of The Simpsons where Homer is trying to become medically obese to permanently work from home, so the wily talents of Dr. Nick (Hey, everybody!) encourages a diet where any food that renders a piece of paper as clear as glass from the oil is A-OK for Homer's new meal plan. The brown paper sacks filled with these flaky buns that soon became transparent made me long for washing oneself with a rag on a stick. If you've seen the episode, you're probably laughing, but if not, you're most likely recoiling in horror at the thought of such a thing. But don't be scared. These little baked buns couldn't have been more heavenly.

Delicious, rich ju bao - innocent until you place them in a brown paper sack - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Health concerns aside, I moved forward, using the slow cooker on a three pound cut of pork shoulder, letting it cook down until it was shreddable-soft. and mixed it with some fermented bean paste and soy sauce. I took a whole bottle of kimchee, chopped it into smaller pieces and mixed it with a store-bought mix of cole slaw of shredded broccoli, carrots and cauliflower, as they're more hearty, colorful, and our food processor motor decided to crap out on us. It's prepared bags of veggie shreds for the time being, until I get a new kitchen shredder. Each little bun was split and stuffed with the slow cooked and seasoned pork, and a heaping bit of the kimchee slaw.

Once, twice, three times a pork slider dinner. It was nice to take on a restaurant trend in the comfort of one's own home, mostly because it meant there were several platefuls of these things to pick on for a few days. The nice thing about an UnRecipe like this is, you can do whatever you want with them, filling it with whatever your craving, be it mini burgers, Sloppy Joes, or yes, kimchee and slow-roasted pork.