Mushrooms & Napa Cabbage Miso Soup

I love my veggie tasty, so I made this side dish for a last weekend's meaty lunch. The weather was indeed a bit too warm for a hot soup, but still...miso made things so tasty we would've consumed this in our underwear dripping with sweat if we had to ^_*

Quite a seksi idea? Ahem! No, I didn't think so.

What's seksi though...is this bowl I got from Franc Franc, from a quick shopping trip with Lia of Bentolicious. We both went crazy and I am so glad I did. I love my purchases!

Recipe
- 1 small napa cabbage, sliced
- 1 cup mushrooms of your choice
- hot water
- miso paste
- a touch of sugar
- crunchy seaweed paper/strands for garnish (optional)
Bring a pot of water to boil, add napa cabbage, cook until they reach the desired level of crunchiness/softness, add mushrooms, add miso paste bit by bit until you reach the desired level of flavor, balance it with a bit of sugar. Garnish if you wish.

In 30something C weather like this, turn on your fan/aircon (or take off clothes?) and start slurping.

Miso Grilled Pork

Another crazy easy "recipe" for you.

Marinate pork meat (I am using pork neck, it has even fat marbling, stays tender and juicy no matter how you cook it) with miso paste, mirin, and a bit of sugar, preferably overnight in the fridge. Grill in 250C oven until golden brown with charred bits before serving. Tastes amazing with rice or noodle soup.

Happy Friday, y'all!

*A Pleasant Surprise: Cheese Pork Balls with Creamy Mayo Sauce, Beef Pineapple Fried Rice & Vegetables with Chinese Miso

Who doesn't love pleasant surprises? Hehe I surely do! I love the surprises such as...finding $20 notes in my jeans pocket, fitting into my 6 years old micro mini skirt or skinny jeans (unfortunately, no luck in this area nowadays) , finding my favorite sausage, Beddar with Cheddar on SALE!!...or finding the muffins I thought I was gonna fail miserably actually taste fan-bloody-tastic! ^_^

Yesterday afternoon, I was out for a girl's tea time, when my sous chef called and said that he was gonna cook something. I was so worried to hear that he was gonna cook without my supervision (lucky sous chef, in the kitchen, I am such a dominatrix tyrant!)...I expected to reach home finding my kitchen had collapsed into broken pieces...dirty dishes and bowls piled mountain high in my tiny sink...oil, flour, and various ingredients covering the whole kitchen floor...and a tasty dish :)

I was pleasantly surprised to find the kitchen was still there...with minimum spillage on the floor, everything was still in place, and I didn't get just one tasty dish...there were one, two, three, FOUR tasty dishes! Wow! You guys know me...I am all "The More, The Merrier" girl when it comes to tasty treats hehe!

SC shares his recipes below:
Cheese Pork Balls with Creamy Mayo Sauce

- 1 lb minced pork
- salt, pepper, sugar, chicken powder, corn starch
- your choice of cheese, cut into small cubes
- olive oil
- mayo
Marinate minced pork with salt, pepper, sugar, chicken powder, corn starch and a bit of oil. Roll into small balls with a piece of cheese inside. Microwave for 5 minutes to minimise frying time. Fry pork balls in hot oil until golden brown, set aside on paper towel. Heat up mayo in a hot pan, add pork balls, mix well.

Vegetables with Chinese Miso

- 0.5 lb baby bak choy
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- 2 tbsp chinese miso
- olive oil
Clean veggie, saute garlic and ginger, add veggie, add Chinese miso

Beef and Pineapple Fried Rice

- small canned pineapple
- 0.5 lb minced beef
- a handful of green peas
- 2 eggs, beaten
- olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 sprig of spring onion, finely chopped
- salt, pepper, sugar, chicken powder
- 1.5 cups of rice, preferably cooked the day before and left overnight in the fridge
Saute garlic, spring onion, beef, add eggs, pineapple, green peas, rice, mix well, season, serve.

...and he also did an encore of his Tasty Steamed Tofu

Hmmm, I could really get used to this kinda pleasant suprises ^_*

Spicy Spinach with Miso Sauce - Quotable Quotes?

Some of my friends love collecting inspirational quotes.
They are generally super profound, highly philosophical, inspirational, motivational, clever, and bursting with positiveness to the level of life changing...and normally, they are quoted from noble, profound, smart, clever, famous people who are no longer with us, such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Einstein, Confusius, and so on...these quotes are normally used as instant messenger additional nicknames or facebook status ^_^

Some possible objectives are:
- self inspiration/motivation- inspiring/motivating others
- a reflection of current mood/state of mind/current personal events/one's principals/emotional experiences
- serving as a hidden passive-aggressive message for the "benefit" of others (hehe)
- perception management, i.e. trying to make others think that I am wise, smart, emotionally stable, etc LOL
- simply showing off

While I too, use quotable quotes to achieve all of the above objectives at some point, most quotes that I chose sometimes make me feel intellectually and philosophically inferior. I am sure you'll agree after reading my recent, newly discovered quote:

"Sleep 'til you're hungry, eat 'til you're sleepy. " ~Author Unknown

OHOHOHOHOHO....I swear by it and really practice it (which was the other night's case, where I had a truckload of carbs before 19:00, slept right after meal until 22:00, woke up, had a super late supper and slept again at 1:00 am 'til the next morning LOL)...

and this dish tastes superb with rice:
Spicy Spinach with Miso Sauce

Recipe
- a bunch of spinach, cleaned, chopped length-wise into 3 parts
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 or 2 small red chilli, chopped
- 2 tbsp miso paste
- 1 tsp sugar
- olive oil and water

Saute garlic and chilli in hot oil, add spinach until slightly cooked, add miso paste, stir in sugar, add a bit of water (I like it saucy) bring to boil, serve with steamed rice and a meat dish

For all the celebrity chefs out there, here's a spinach quote for you:
"Never eat spinach just before going on the air" ~ Dan Rather

Miso Fried Rice & My Dirty Dirts

Feeling a bit Japanese? I bought a pack of miso for just HK$10 at Jusco 10 Dollar Plaza last week. Instead of using it as soup base for ramen/udon, I decided to use it with Indonesian national staple, RICE :) (The real reason is, I don't have any ramen/udon on hand, so, rice it is. So much for creativity. hehe)

Ingredients
(serves 4)
- 2-3 tbsp of miso paste, dissolve with 2-3 tbsp of water, add 1/2 tbsp of sugar
- 2 cups of overnight rice
- 1 ball of lettuce, sliced thinly
- HK$15 ground meat (I used porky pig)
- soy sauce
- 1 stalk of spring onion, finely chopped
- 1 egg
- cooking oil (I use olive & sunflower mix)

We added shredded lettuce for the extra crunch (OKOK. I give up. I'll tell you the real reason: I was too lazy to cook a separate dish of vegetables)

On a hot wok, saute ground meat with soy sauce, set aside. Saute some of the chopped spring onion with a bit of oil, stir in the rice, add miso sauce, add lettuce (you can add the lettuce the last if you like it super crunchy, almost raw), crack egg, mix well, add the rest of the chopped spring onion, serve.

I've been tagged by Michelle of Greedy Gourmet, and I've posted my reply on my alter ego blog, Living La Vida Rita. Check out my dirty dirts there. LOL

Oh, and Jaden of Steamy Kitchen shared how dinner related decisions were made in her household, I couldn't help myself but shared my dirt in this area too (this was posted as my comment in her blog):

Decision Making Process
me: so who's gonna cook tonight?
xx: you, i have no idea, no inspiration, nothing
me: ok, we're having beef then
xx: beef..ok, how will u do the beef?
me: saute with blablabla
xx: ok, sounds good, i'm gonna cook it
me: wat the!! #@$@$@##!!! tat was MY idea!!!
xx: no! tat was MY idea!!!

----at the supermarket-----
me: so, we're getting beef eh? will$25 be enough?
xx: yeah, no no make it 30
me: look at those braided chicken chops, only $10!!!
xx: wow!!!!!! and they are NOT expired!!!
both: ok we're having chicken chops tonight