LiO - Episode 2 Yaki Niku

Episode 2 of LiO. Enjoy!

Ginger Leek Chicken

Even before my days in Japan, I’ve had a long affinity to ginger root: cookies, sugar cured candy, tea, in green curry and of course as a soft drink (natural, not the Canada Dry stuff). Recently, I set out to try to make an original recipe using a lot of ginger.

Ginger Leek Chicken

1 piece about palm size ginger, minced or sliced
2 cloves or garlic minced
1 leek, sliced
3 table spoons of olive oil
200-300grams (8-10 ounces) of boneless chicken thighs
1/4 cup of white wine
2 tablespoons of nanpura
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
salt and pepper

In a medium pan, heat up the ginger, garlic and sliced leek with the olive oil until the leek starts to get a slight golden color. Cut the chicken into bite size chunks and season with salt and pepper. When the leek is ready(slight gold color), add the chicken, white wine, nanpura and oyster sauce, cover and lower the heat to a low flame. Let simmer for 10-12 minutes(internal temperature of at least 74/165 degrees C/F, stirring occasionally. Serve over salad, rice noodles, risotto or rice.

Taste of the Caribbean

Back at it next Friday the 15th at Common Cafe. Ayumi-san and her Caribbean cooking talents after a trip to, yep, the Caribbean. Come on down!

And now...

...$12 Grape fruits.

Pineapple Guts

One of the things I enjoy about the summers here is the mass amount of seasonal drinks that become available as soon as the temperature rises. I shouldn't expect anything less from the corporate marketing machines that fuel the local economy, but when I see "mandarin orange tea, limited time only", well, I always get suckered in. Actually, these drinks are not limited to the summer. Beer and tea companies also have "winter brews", and last fall I even saw a "changing of the foliage brew", which turned out to be a red lager.

This summer season my hands down favorite has to be "Guts! with vitamin B", a pineapple flavored sports drink that comes in at a shade under a one hundred calories. Granted, artificial pineapple flavor, but after my first sip of this refreshing elixir, my taste buds helped unearth a distant memory buried somewhere in the hamper of my mind.

Growing up in Puerto Rico there was a company named Old Colony that made two flavors of soda: grape and pineapple. School yard debates raged on which flavor was better. The prevailing sentiment was that grape was hands down the best, but yours truly was always a pineapple man. One thing my mates and I could agree on was that nothing was better than pooling our money, hitting the local bakery, grabbing a fresh from the oven loaf of garlic bread and chasing it down with your choice of Old Colony on a hot summer day.

Remember, Guts! is for men with passion!

Pseudo-Fish and Chips

My diet is mainly composed of any choice of meat or fish usually combined with vegetables in salad form or steamed. Recently though I was in the mood to make something different, perhaps a slight culinary challenge yet, pleasing to the taste buds. Coming home from work I knew I had some lovely chunks of tuna steak waiting for me in the fridge. My original idea was to lemon and pepper it and throw it over salad, but salad just didn't appeal to me this evening. My mind was racing at the same speed as the train I was riding. The sound of my mental recipe roller deck was clattering to a halt and nothing had distinguished itself yet. Just then Flogging Molly started to funnel through my headphones and the memory of the first time I saw them play paraded itself in front of my eyes. Watching Dave King fiery red hair belting out "Selfish Man" with a pint of Guinness by his feet and another giant version of said stout protruding through the Ashbury Park, NJ sky. I wanted fish and chips.

Luis' Pseudo Fish and Chips

Cup of bread crumbs

Tuna fillet

2 eggs

salt and pepper


Now making fries/chips is the easy part, so I'm not going to get in to that. Actually, cooking the fish is not all that difficult either, but you got to want to get your hands dirty. Cut the fillets in to any desired size. Personally, I prefer nugget size chunks that are easier to dip and eat with your hands. Drop some salt and pepper into a small bowl. Crack the eggs in to a bowl. Some like to use just the whites, I use yolk and all. If you keep the yolk, with a whisk or fork beat to until the are evenly yellow. Pour some oil into medium frying pan over a medium flame until you have more than covered the bottom of the pan. I prefer lite olive oil over any others. Frying is never the healthiest choice, but the rare times that I do I try to stick with arguably the best pan frying oil around. Look in to Macadamia Nut oil, which is a bit expensive but catchy on as another healthy oil.

You can either dip the fish in to salt and pepper or sprinkle it over with your free hand while holding the fish in you palm. Then dip the fish into the bread crumbs until all sides are evenly covered. Most fish and chips' fish is made with flour, baking soda and beer, but I like the crunchy texture you get with bread crumbs, plus this isn't a traditional style F&C recipe, so what the heck! You can lightly place the fish in the pan or use tongs. Now we are not deep frying here, so when you see the bottom start turning gold and crusting over, use your tongs to flip the fish to another side until all sides are a golden color. Place on a dish lined with paper towels or fresh newspaper to absorb some oil. Then transfer to another fresh towel/newspaper lined dish/bowl.

I wasn't happy with the high calorie tartar sauce options I found at the supermarket, so naturally, I made my own. I used low fat mayo, a squeeze of lemon, dash of apple vinegar, fresh cracked pepper, and with no relish insight I chopped some tsukemono. Tsukemono is the Japanese version of pickles but they used Asian cucumbers which are thinner and are also pickled with less salt. Also, malted vinegar wasn't readily available, so instead I used apple vinegar.

There you have it! A variation on a classic. Give it a try and don't forget to down it with a Guinness. The larger the glass, the better!

Tarde y sin reservación.

La vida es una mesa larga donde muchos comen, pero pocos disfrutan. O sea, poco saben lo que están comiendo. Algunos piensan que es la calidad de la comida que que es lo mas que importa. Otros la cantidad, mas es mejor. Hay unos que tienen muy poca comida pero aprecian lo que tiene. Para mi es la variedad. La oportunidad de sentarse y poder disfrutar y entender lo que está en mi plato.

Bueno, piense, ¿en que lado de la mesa come usted? ¿Como mide usted el exito o el fracaso que hacido su vida?

(Esto fue una lección para todos, nuncas mezcles hambre, pensamientos de su existencia y vodka rusa. Pero si no tienes remedio, por favor, con moderación. ¿Y yo? Bueno, a seguir mi propio consejo).