The Global Recipe Project Cookbook
Contest Ends May 30th
Bayview Bacon Sushi Burrito – Delish!
A new dining adventure awaits you on the Northeast corner of South Kinnickinnic Avenue and East Oklahoma Avenue in Bay View… Sushi GO!
For all of the dining options in Bay View – and there’s stiff competition here, my friends – sushi restaurants are still uncommon. There’s room in the local dining scene for a casually trendy place to meet friends for sushi and wine, and the proprietors of Sushi GO! are working enthusiastically to fill that space.
California Roll (8 generous pieces per order)
You can, of course, find the usual suspects on the menu – ginger salad and miso soup, California rolls, veggie rolls, etc. If you’re an American sushi joint traditionalist, you’ll find these familiar comforts exceptionally well prepared. The ginger salad is lightly tossed with a flavorful dressing – no big glop of orangey-pink dressing here. The miso soup appears to be made with pressed tofu, and is quite enjoyable.
The real stars of the Sushi GO! menu are the sushi burritos. I’ll confess to being a former sushi burrito skeptic, because I was (wrongly) envisioning the football sized monstrosities at actual burrito chains. Well, get that out of your head. The sushi burritos at Sushi GO! are just the right size to be satisfying without being excessive, are made with well prepared rice and sheets of nori, and are filled with delectable combinations of ingredients.
Try the Bayview Bacon Sushi Burrito! As the menu says, this gem is filled with “Crab Salad, avocado, cucumber, bacon fat caramelized onions, [and] bacon.” The crab salad is excellent, and the bacon is a fabulous thick cut variety favored by connoisseurs. The Bayview Bacon Sushi Burrito is ah-mazing, and let me interrupt before anyone gets precious about “traditional” sushi ingredients. While exploring sushi offerings in every district of Tokyo, I saw Japanese diners relishing everything from fried eggs to miniature hamburger patties on their sushi. Anything goes. Anything. Bacon? Yes, please!
Spicy Tuna Roll (8 pieces per order)
Amanda, one of the proprietors, was friendly and welcoming. She walked me through the menu, and even offered a generous sample of their Spicy Tuna Roll made with honey sriracha aioli (delish!). I visited at lunchtime with pint-sized diners, and she made them feel welcome.
Pint-size Sushi Aficionado with a California Roll
I can’t wait to return soon during evening hours for sushi and sake.
Gochisosama Deshita!
“It was quite a feast!”
Planning a visit? Check out SushiGoMKE.com or stop by at 2110 E Oklahoma Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207
Are you looking for an easy way to jazz up your weekday lunch?
All over Tokyo, food courts and convenience stores sell triangles of sticky rice filled with all sorts of wonderful goodies. Called onigiri, these snacks fit easily in the palm of your hand, are quite filling, and are very affordable – many cost the equivalent of $1 or less. Our whole family enjoyed sampling onigiri filled with pickles, plums, smoked salmon, and even hard boiled eggs. Our favorite were the plum-filled snacks, which we are creating today.
Onigiri mold
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The results of Crowded Earth Kitchen’s ramen poll are in! Today we’re making Crowded Earth Kitchen’s version of Shoyu Ramen, the most popular type of ramen which is flavored with soy sauce. The recipe below is pretty simple to make, and offers great flavor without a long list of hard-to-find ingredients. We’re also using pork tenderloin instead of pork belly, because pork tenderloin is more affordable and more readily available in much of the US. If you’ve enjoyed ramen with pork belly, I think you’ll find the taste of this recipe very comparable.
Two tips: First, don’t skimp on the pork stock or the chicken stock. If you have time to make your own, that’s what I recommend. If not, look for good quality stock from a butcher or specialty grocery store. Ramen “is” the broth… if the broth is just OK, your finished product will be just OK. If your broth is delicious, your ramen bowls will be delicious! Second, if you have time, it’s worth preparing your pork tenderloin the day before you enjoy your ramen bowls.
Let’s get started!
Dried shiitakes, ginger, onion, and garlic
Ingredients (Serves 6)
16 ounces dried wheat flour ramen noodles
1 cup thinly sliced greens (I used baby bok choy)
1 cup sliced bamboo shoots
3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and halved
(Optional) 1 sheet nori (seaweed), cut into six pieces
For the meat:
1 pound pork tenderloin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon white wine (I used Umeshu)
For the broth:
3 quarts pork stock
1 quart chicken stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce, optional
1/4 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, sliced thin
Directions
Step 1) Prepare your pork tenderloin. In a small bowl, combine salt, sugar, and white wine to make a paste. Rub this paste all over your pork tenderloin. Let your pork tenderloin rest in a baking pan, covered, in the refrigerator for at least one hour or overnight (overnight is best). Then, roast your pork tenderloin, uncovered, in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Check your pork tenderloin with a meat thermometer – the internal temperature should be 145 degrees. Allow your pork tenderloin to rest for 10 minutes. Slice thin and refrigerate.
Step 2) Prepare your broth. In a large pot, combine pork stock, chicken stock, soy sauce, fish sauce, dried shiitake mushrooms, onion, garlic, and ginger. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, until volume is reduced by half. This will take approximately an hour, depending upon how gently or vigorously your pot simmers. I prefer a slow simmer. Allow broth to cool, then ladle or pour through a sieve into a second pot. This will strain out all of the flavor additives (mushrooms, onion pieces, garlic and ginger), leaving you with a clear, flavor-packed ramen broth! At this point, you can freeze your broth for future use, refrigerate your broth to use tomorrow, or return your broth to a gentle boil and proceed with Step 3!
Step 3) Prepare your noodles. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook your noodles according to package directions. DO NOT OVERCOOK YOUR NOODLES. When in doubt, it’s better to undercook the noodles a bit, as they will continue to cook in Step 4. Mushy noodles make terrible ramen. Seriously… don’t overcook the noodles!
Step 4) Assemble and enjoy! Here’s the fun part. First, transfer a serving of cooked noodles to a large single-serving bowl (your biggest cereal bowls will work). Second, arrange a few slices of pork tenderloin, a hard boiled egg half, a few bamboo shoots, and a few sliced greens around the edges of the bowl. Don’t mix up the toppings like you would for American-style soup… each ramen topping should occupy its own place along the edge of the bowl. Third, carefully ladle hot broth over the top of everything, to warm the ingredients. The broth should just barely cover the top the noodles… don’t drown your ramen bowl in broth. Fourth, place a small square of nori on the top of your bowl and serve immediately!
When you make this ramen, I’d love to hear from you! Please let me know if you are now as ramen obsessed as we are here at Crowded Earth Kitchen!
Steamed Pork Dumplings
Nothing pairs more deliciously with a bowl of authentic ramen than a side of dumplings. While snacking our way through Tokyo, we sampled an endless variety of dumplings. Feast your eyes on the photos below, and answer our quick poll at the end! We’ll use your feedback to create an amazing dumpling recipe just for Crowded Earth Kitchen viewers. 🙂
Steamed Pork and Cabbage Dumplings with Spicy Sesame Chili Sauce
Giant Pan-Fried Pork and Shrimp Gyoza
Steamed Pork Shumai with Peas
These are just a few of the wonderful dumplings we enjoyed. Pick a favorite, and we’ll recreate them for you!
Shoyu Ramen with Dumplings and Rice
Ah, ramen. There are approximately 80,000 ramen restaurants in Japan. Try to wrap your head around that for a moment… that’s three times the number of McDonald’s restaurants in the entire world. Volumes of cookbooks have been written about ramen, the quintessential Japanese comfort food. Revered chefs from David Chang to Ivan Orkin have perfected their own signature bowls. You haven’t tried a bowl of real ramen yet?
Well, you simply must.
Here at Crowded Earth Kitchen, we’ll be happy to share a simple and delicious ramen recipe. We need you, our readers, to point us in the right direction! Would you prefer a ramen flavored with soy sauce (Shoyu Ramen) or a broth that’s even saltier (Shio Ramen)? Does a fermented broth (Miso Ramen) sound lovely? Or, would you prefer to go all in with a fatty but delicious pork stock (Tonkotsu Ramen)? They’re all delicious, it’s just a matter of personal taste.
Many ramen shops have a vending machine such as the one shown here. Customers place their orders and make their payment at the machine, then give a ticket (like a receipt) to the server and wait for their food to arrive.
Vote here, and we’ll create something just for you!
We have a problem here at Crowded Earth Kitchen, friends.
We. Can’t. Get. Enough. Sushi.
We’re back at Uobei Sushi in Shibuya, Tokyo, sampling Continue reading
