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Definition: Mirin

YumSugar — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:01:33 -0700

Mirin
A low-alcohol sweet Japanese rice wine. It is essential in Japanese cooking and adds a sweet flavor to dishes, sauces, and glazes. It is also used to erase the smell of broiled fish. In dishes it is sometimes used instead of a sugar/soy sauce combo. It is often referred to as rice wine.

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Reader's Recipe: Sesame-seared Tuna with Coconut Rice

YumSugar — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:57:09 -0800

There are a few dishes out there that, no matter how full I am, I can always seem to find room for more. One of these dishes is tuna, just about any kind of tuna. Be it raw, seared, baked, or grilled, as long as it's tuna I love it. So when I saw that reader WhiplashGirlchild posted a recipe for Sesame-seared tuna with coconut rice I knew it was going to be a winner. To check out the recipe for this and a snow pea salad too, read more

Recipe submitted by reader WhiplashGirlchild

Last night, the boyfriend and I met friends at Jones, my favorite restaurant in Philly.

I ordered one of my favorite dishes there last night, the sesame-seared tuna with coconut rice, snow pea salad and wasabi-sweet soy sauce. They won't share the recipe with me, but I went online and found some very similar recipes. It sounds pretty easy, and I assure you, it's delicious!

TUNA

1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin (Japanese sweet wine)
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
4 (6 ounce) tuna steaks
1/2 cup sesame seeds
wasabi paste
1 tablespoon olive oil

In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, mirin, honey and sesame oil. Divide into two equal parts. Stir the rice vinegar into one part and set aside as a dipping sauce.

Spread the sesame seeds out on a plate. Coat the tuna steaks with the remaining soy sauce mixture, then press into the sesame seeds to coat.

Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet over high heat until very hot. Place steaks in the pan, and sear for about 30 seconds on each side. Serve with the dipping sauce and wasabi paste.

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RICE

Home-style Caribbean fare is often accompanied by coconut rice, a wonderful side dish to temper the heat of spicy food. Pair it with the spicy okra for a simple and satisfying vegetarian meal.

2 cups long-grain rice
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 (13- to 14-oz) can unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup water
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon salt

Rinse rice in a sieve under cold running water 2 to 3 minutes, then drain well.

Melt butter in a 2- to 3-quart saucepan over moderately high heat. Add rice and cook, stirring constantly, until it becomes opaque, about 3 minutes.

Stir in coconut milk, water, cinnamon, and salt and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, 20 minutes, then remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick and fluff rice with a fork.

Makes 8 side-dish servings.

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SNOW PEA SALAD

1 pound snow peas, trimmed
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin or dry sherry
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
a few gratings of fresh ginger

Steam the snow peas for NO MORE than 1 minute; then rinse them quickly under cold water and drain them well. Your goal here is to have them seem raw without being obnoxiously so. T

oss the drained snow peas with the toasted sesame seeds.

In a medium bowl, combine the other ingredients and toss the snow peas with them. Let the salad sit for at least 30 minutes before serving at room temperature.

Can also chill for a few hours and serve it cold.

Serves 4-6

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Fast & Easy Dinner: Warm Soba with Spinach and Tofu

partysugar — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:01:31 -0700

These days you can find the ingredients necessary to make tasty Japanese (and other Asian countries for that matter) dishes in most major supermarkets around the country. Soy sauce used to be the only common component, but now Mirin, miso paste, and even Asian vegetables - like seaweed are prevalent. Tonight's super swift dinner incorporates these flavors in a Japanese style noodle soup. Soba is a Japanese noodle made from buckwheat and it pairs nicely with mushrooms and spinach. Before you make it, you have to read the recipe, so read more

Warm Soba in Broth with Spinach and Tofu
From Food & Wine magazine
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4 large shiitake mushrooms, stemmed
Vegetable oil cooking spray
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
10 ounces soba noodles
5 cups boiling water
2 teaspoons instant dashi or 1 tablespoon miso paste (see Note)
4 ounces firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 cups baby spinach leaves
1/4 cup finely shredded daikon
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 sheet nori seaweed, cut into 1/8-inch strips (see Note)

Preheat the broiler.
Spray the mushroom caps with vegetable oil cooking spray, season with salt and pepper and broil 6 inches from the heat, turning the caps once, until lightly browned and tender, about 6 minutes. Let cool, then thinly slice the mushrooms.
In a small bowl, stir the sugar into the soy sauce and mirin until dissolved.
While the mushrooms broil, in a large saucepan of boiling water, cook the soba noodles, stirring once or twice, until just tender, about 8 minutes.
Drain the noodles reserving the boiling water, rinse under cold water and drain again thoroughly.
Add the boiling water and instant dashi to the saucepan. Add the tofu and shiitake and simmer just until heated through, about 2 minutes.
Add the spinach.
Transfer the soba to 4 deep bowls and spoon the dashi mixture on top. Garnish the soba with the daikon, scallion and nori and serve right away, passing the soy sauce mixture alongside.

Serves 4.

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Reader Recipe: Asian Stroganoff/Drunken Noodle Combo

YumSugar — Tue, 22 May 2007 06:58:32 -0700

I love looking through my pantry and "inventing" recipes with the resources at my fingertips. Sometimes you end up with a fantastic creation that you might not have tried before. Over in the Lite'n it Up recipe group, TeamSugar member mymaria posted a pantry creation that she calls Asian Stroganoff/Drunken Noodle Combo - and from the looks of it, it looks like a pantry hit! It's a hearty egg noodle dish full of ground turkey, sautéed veggies inside of a sweetened soy flavoring. I can't wait to try this one at home and suggest you do the same! To check out the recipe, read more

Asian Stroganoff/Drunken Noodle Combo
Recipe Submitted by mymaria

I played around with a combination of recipes I already had lying around and what I had hanging around in my fridge and pantry and came up with this recipe. It's a cross between a stroganoff and drunken noodles I would say:

cooking spray
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 lb ground turkey
1 egg
1 cup chicken stock*
2 tbs cup low sodium soy sauce
3 tbs mirin
1 tbs brown sugar
broad egg noodles, cooked according to package directions**
1/2 nori sheet, diced
2 tbs sesame seeds, toasted

Cook noodles according to package instructions. While noodles are cooking, saute onion and peppers over medium high heat until onions are soft. Add ground turkey and continue cooking until it is no longer pink. Once it almost cooked all the way, add egg and scramble and mix into mixture until thoroughly cooked. Meanwhile, combine sauce ingredients (chicken stock through brown sugar). For each serving, use large bowl and place noodles, then meat/vegetable mixture, then pour sauce and then sprinkle with sesame seed/nori mixture. Ratio of noodle/meat to sauce is so there is liquid but it's not really soup like, but of course, serve according to taste. Enjoy!

* I always use Better than BouillonTM products to make my stock. Highly recommend using this product if you don't already use it.
** I always use the No Yolk noodles, great taste and less choleterol and fat than regular egg noodles.

Today's Special: Vegetarian Burrito With Asian Flavors

partysugar — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 08:57:41 -0800

Eating food that is packed with many flavors is a great way to incorporate a healthy diet into your lifestyle. There are so many tastes at once that your brain gets fooled into thinking you are eating a lot more than you really are. Today's Special is a perfect example of a simple, flavor packed meal that is filling, delicious, vegetarian friendly, and good for you. Soy sauce, mirin, and scrambled eggs get paired with pepper jack cheese, black beans, and a flour tortilla to create a dinner that will enliven your senses. A dish that is both Asian and Mexican at the same time? Your stomach won't know what hit it. For the recipe, read more

Vegetarian Burrito With Asian Flavors
From Linda Furiya

2 teaspoons canola oil
1/2 cup spinach
1 egg
1 teaspoon mirin
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 green onion, chopped
1 small garlic clove, chopped
1 large burrito-size (about 9 1/4 inches wide) flour tortilla
1/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapenos
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds
1/4 cup canned black beans
1/4 cup steamed rice
1/3 cup mung bean sprouts (optional)
Sriracha sauce or regular salsa
5 cilantro sprigs, chopped
1/2 fresh lime

Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Add the spinach and saute until just wilted. Set aside.
Beat the egg in a small bowl. Add the mirin, sugar, soy sauce, green onion and garlic.
Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon oil in the same skillet and scramble the egg mixture in it.
Microwave the tortilla between two slightly damp paper towels for 30 seconds.
Place the steamed tortilla on a 10-inch-long piece of aluminum foil.
Put the cheese in a pile in the middle of the tortilla. Add the scrambled egg and sauteed spinach. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the egg and spinach.
Add the black beans and rice, and if desired, mung bean sprouts. Add sriracha sauce to taste. Sprinkle on the cilantro and squeeze lime juice over all.
Using the foil as a base, fold the bottom third of the tortilla up over the filling, pushing down on the pile as you roll forward. Take the left side of the tortilla that has no filling and fold it over the filling. Do the same with the right side, shifting the filling as it forms a tube shape.
To hold the burrito together, wrap the foil around the burrito the same way.
Twist close the top if you are saving it for later. This will keep in the fridge for one day.
Reheat in a 350° oven for 20 minutes. When ready to eat, simply peel the foil back as you eat.

Serves 1.

Per serving: 450 calories, 15 g protein, 51 g carbohydrate, 20 g fat (3 g saturated), 213 mg cholesterol, 768 mg sodium, 5 g fiber.

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