We had “Shabu Shabu” tonight. This is my favorite food, and I used to eat this once or twice a year at Zakuro Ginza in Tokyo. (was very expensive for that time for my pocket). Since I started living in US, I had a craving for “Shabu Shabu”, and decided to cook myself. With a knife, I sliced many steak meat and fingers over the years, but enjoyed the food. Ten years later, my uncle told me to buy the meat slicer. I freeze the NY strip steak, and defrost a bit with microwave, then slice. I have not had any accident since. I wish I knew sooner.
Cooking is very simple. You just “swish and swish” the thin sliced meet in boiling water. This hot water becomes the beef broth and cooks with vegetable later. Napa cabbage and Tofu soaks up the beef broth, which is the best part of this dish, I think.
Finished up with my daughter’s birthday cake.
Happy Holidays!
A foot of snow came down from 9am to 3pm on Friday.
It is certainly beautiful.
I cooked the turkey dinner tonight. I brined 6lb of the turkey breast overnight in one gallon of water dissolved with a cup of kosher salt and 1/2cup of brown sugar in the refrigerator.
I inserted the instant thermometer in the turkey about one hour in the cooking as someone of my family suggested. It took about 3 hours to reach 163, struggled after 150. I was expecting 2.5 hours or so.
It was a tiny bit dry side, but everyone enjoyed it.
When we were cleaning the kitchen, we noticed something wrong with the thermometer. Its clear cover over the meter was melted, and its needle got stuck. The cover is made of plastic, not glass!, to my surprise. That why it took more than I thought. Now, I am really glad that the turkey was not over-cooked. I guess I have an issue with the thermocouple recently (Oxyprobe is the thermocouple, too.) Do things always come in three’s?
“Shichimenncho” in Japanese…. Translate to “Seven faced bird”. The name comes as it turns the colors of head, red, purple and blue when excited. Not native bird in Japan, I think. Yes, it’s Turkey.
I had not tasted turkey growing up in Japan. I am not fond of its taste. It’s a bit gamy for me, and I think this is very difficult bird to cook well. Brine worked well for me in the past. I was just amazed the amount of salt for its application, but the cooked turkey was not salty at all.
Over the year, our family spent time out of town during Thanksgiving. This year, we are going to Aruba. I am looking forward to see the turquoise color of turquoise, seas, sky….
The bisque firing is done, and ready to glaze when I get back.
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