Sushi Bella

We went to Sushi Bella again today.

We ordered tuna and salmon sashimi, salmon and cream cheese roll, hot chicken wings & charshu miso ramen.

As usual the food is fresh and delicious - look at the size of those sashimi pieces. Personally, I didn't like the wings drenched in Frank's, but some like it sour like that. I thought their "hot" wings would be more like it was coated in chili or something other than Frank's.

The miso ramen was good too, depends how salty you like your food. It could have been improved if the ramen wasn't so soggy.

Sushi Bella is frustrating sometimes. The food and prices are always depending and good. The service on the other hand, needs improvement. They're nice and friendly, but here was what was wrong with today's meal:

• the food took a long time to come out, and when it did, they came all at once;
• the server brought us our bill before we even got our food;
• the servers weren't very attentive: we spilled soup on the table and they didn't come and help wipe it up; our napkin was used up and they didn't replace it; and my chopsticks were falling apart, no one did anything until I asked.

We will still go back, but probably for take out mostly.

Weisswurst with Potatoes and Sauerkraut

Tonight's dinner was inspired by Eating Well's Chicken Sausage with Potatoes and Sauerkraut recipe. We were at the German Christmas Market last weekend and Black Forest Meats & Sausages were selling five of their sausages for $13.00. We bought some weisswurst after having one at the market and used them in tonight's recipe in place of the chicken sausages.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 weisswursts, halved and cut into quarters
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 4 potatoes, halved and sliced
• 1 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 1/2 cup sauerkraut
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1/4 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 bay leaf

Steps:

1. Prepare all the ingredients first. You can pour the pepper and caraway seeds into the bowl of sauerkraut.

2. Heat oil in wok over medium heat. Add sausage and onion and cook for about 4 minutes, until brown. Add everything else and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes until potatoes are tender.

3. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Shiro Japanese Restaurant

On Sunday we were down on Main Street, and wanted to try a Sushi place we had never been to. We found Shiro Japanese Restaurant on the corner of Cambie and 15th after a search on Urbanspoon, and decided to give it a try.

It is a small, clean restaurant, and we were seated promptly. The waitress was friendly, and the service fairly quick. Unfortunately the prices have increased from the menu we saw on Urbanspoon, although they do have the new prices on their own website. Still relatively reasonable, not too pricey - but no longer cheap. 

We ordered a small tuna sashimi and a large salmon sashimi. 

The pieces are medium in size, and tasted pretty fresh. The wasabi was very good, possibly home made, maybe with some garlic mixed in. 

Then we had the smoked salmon roll and the house roll. The rolls were tasty, but the house roll had way too much rice. 

We also ordered tonkatsu, which was very overcooked and chewy:

Finally we had nebeyaki udon, which was pretty good. 

Overall a decent place, but not somewhere I would go out of my way to go again.

Five Spice Portobello and Broccoli Stirfry

Last night we adapted a recipe from kidspot.com http://m.kidspot.com.au/best-recipes/dinner+7/five-spice-lamb-and-brocollini-stirfry-recipe+2342.htm by substituting portobello mushrooms for lamb and made our own Chinese 5 spice powder.

For the 5 spice powder, we used:

Star anise

Cloves

Cinnamon

Fennel seeds

We didn't have Sichuan pepper, so we used chili powder instead. 

For the recipe, the ingredients we used:

4 portobellos

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp Chinese five spice powder

1 yellow bell pepper

1 head of broccoli

1 shallot

2 cloves garlic

5cm ginger (grated)

Vegetable oil

1/3 cup hoisin sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

First we chopped/sliced all the ingredients:

And then we combined the sliced portobello mushrooms and the 5 spice powder in a sealed bag to shake up and coat the mushroom:

Next you heat the wok with some vegetable oil until it starts smoking, then stirfry the mushrooms for 3-4 minutes. 

At this point I added a little more vegetable oil and added all the rest of the vegetables. Stirfry for ~3 minutes. 

We also made instant mashed potatoes, but rice would work also. 

After that, add the hoisin sauce and soy sauce, cook for a couple more minutes, and then serve. If it looks too thick, you can add a splash of water as well. 

And of course a dash of sriracha to finish it off. 

Fettucine Boscaiola

This is another recipe from Kidspot. They're recipes aren't really healthy, but they're quick.

Ingredients:

• 250 g fettucine (use more or less to your preference)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp margarine
• 10 slices bacon, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• 150 g shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• half a bunch of spinach
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 250 g parmesan cheese, shredded
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 500 ml cream

Steps:

1. Start the pasta first by boiling water. Once it's boiling, follow instructions on packet. When it's ready, drain and toss in olive oil to prevent it from sticking.

2. While waiting for the water to boil for the pasta, shred the cheese (you can skip this step if you bought shredded cheese).

3. Slice the bacon and dice the garlic. Add the margarine to the pan on medium heat. Fry the bacon for a few minutes and add the garlic.

4. While you're waiting for the bacon and garlic to cook, slice the shallots and mushrooms.

5. Add the shallots and mushrooms to the pan. Add wine and cream. Add some cheese to thicken the mixture. Bring to a boil.

6. Add spinach and cook until it starts to wilt.

7. Toss the fettucine in and coat.

8. Plate and sprinkle with cheese to serve.

9. Adding some chili sauce gives it more flavour.

Beef Stroganoff

Today's recipe was inspired by Kidspot, however, we found it very unhelpful.

Ingredients:

• 400 g blade steak - they're the cheapest kind at Safeway but were sold in a huge pack. We noticed 700 g was too much for us personally, so we just used 1/3 of the package
• 4 mushrooms - it's not on the ingredient list on the recipe but it's in the instructions
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, diced
• 2 tbsp quinoa (the recipe called for cornflour, which we couldn't find and didn't want to buy a huge packet of anyway)
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 tbsp salsa (we also didn't want to buy a big can of tomato paste for just one dish)
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 cup beef stock (which we made with 1 cup water and 1/2 a beef bouillon)
• 2 tbsp flour (optional)

Steps:

1. Start your rice first, as that will always take the longest.

2. Dice the onion and garlic. Cut the steak into cubes and coat with quinoa and nutmeg.

3. Cook the onion and garlic in as much oil as you prefer on medium heat until they start browning. Then add the beef and wine.

4. When the beef turns brown, add the mushrooms. Cook until soft.

5. Add the salsa, stock, sour cream and cover to cook for about 15 minutes.

6. We found our stroganoff to be very liquid-y, so at about 14 minutes, we added 2 tbsp flour. If you like it more liquid-y, then this step is optional.

7. Serve on rice.

8. It was pretty flavourful already, but I always like a bit of extra kick in my food.

A Quick Breakfast

Just a quick breakfast of fresh Weisswurst sausage, eggs, and cheddar cheese. 

Mmmm. 

Beef and Kidney Bean Wrap

Another recipe inspired by Kalyn's Kitchen. We had some left overs from before so we used it in this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp peanut oil
• 400 g ground beef
• 1 cup kidney beans
• 4 tbsp of the fish rub from yesterday's dinner
• 1 leek
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp sriracha sauce
• 1 tbsp water
• zest from 1 lime
• juice from 1 lime
• 1 head iceberg lettuce

Steps:

1. Always start the rice first (if you're eating with rice). We added some frozen vegetables in 5 minutes before the rice was done.

2. Wash and chop up the vegetables.

3. Cook the beef, beans and fish rub in the oil on medium heat until the beef is brown. While the beef is cooking, mix the fish sauce, srirachi sauce, water, zest and lime juice. Mix it into the beef, then add the leek and cilantro. Cook for a few minutes.

4. The original recipe only has a beef filling. We added rice and topped with srirachi.

This was a really good dish. The mixture of cilantro and lime juice gives it such a complex taste. Originally, we thought it wouldn't be enough. After adding the beans and beef, it was more than enough for two people to have dinner and lunch the next day.

Pecan Crusted Salmon with Butternut Squash

Today's recipe was inspired by Kalyn's Kitchen. Although the salmon was relatively quick to make, the meal took longer because of the squash.

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 2 salmon filets
• 4 tbsp chopped pecans
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper corn
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1 tablespoon jalapeno honey mustard
• 1 tsp mayonnaise

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.

2. Place the squash cut-side down in a pan with a 1/4 inch water and bake for 35 minutes.

3. You don't need to start this step until you have about 15 minutes left on the timer for the squash. Turn the oven up to 425°F. Put pecan, salt, pepper corn, rosemary, mustard and mayonnaise in a food processor and blend.

 

4. Coat the salmon with the mustard mixture. Remove the squash from the oven and place the salmon in for 10 minutes.

5. Put a tablespoon of butter in each half of the squash, add a tsp of cinnamon powder and drizzle maple syrup on top. When there is 5 minutes remaining in the salmon timer, put the squash back in the oven.

6. At this point, you can probably quickly whip up some instant mashed potatoes.

7. When the fish and squash are done, plate and serve.

Vegetarian Quinoa Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Today's recipe was inspired by this yummly recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup quinoa
• 1/2 stock (recipe called for vegetable stock, but we had some chicken bouillon left over)
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 4 portobello mushrooms
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup red kidney beans, washed and drained (from can)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• juice from one lemon
• 1 cup spinach
• 2 ounces regular goat cheese

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Remove stems from mushrooms, place stem side down on a pan, brush with olive oil, and heat for 5 minutes. Once removed from oven, flip over.

2. Heat 1/2 cup water. When it starts boiling, add quinoa, bouillon, and rosemary. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and let it cook for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove from heat and let sit, still covered for another 5-10 minutes or until water is absorbed.

3. While the quinoa is cooking, wash and cut the spinach into strips.

4. Drain wash and mash the beans.

5. Add garlic and lemon juice to the beans and mix well.

6. In a medium bowl, add spinach, bean mixture, goat cheese, and quinoa.

7. Divide mixture evenly into the four portobello mushrooms.

8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until filling is lightly brown. Serve.