good & bad

Let's start with the good...

Ippudo in Ikeda brought back my favorite ramen, the Karakamen, a spicy tonkotsu broth topped with miso flavored ground beef and cashew nuts.

The bad part is when I reached to get a shot of my ramen, the camera literally flew out of my hands and part of it went *plop* into my ramen!

I was in shock for a few seconds before fishing it out.

Luckily, it wasn't the battery or memory card part of the camera that fell in, unluckily though it was the lens and lens cover...which is why my photo has a nice fuzzy texture to it.

After I got home, I wiped the camera down several times, hopefully it will be okay.

The weather has been flip-flopping between humid and cool.

Since I'm not much into standing by the stove these days, I threw together a wheatberry salad for dinner.

The good thing about this salad is that to cook the wheatberry and grain mixture, I threw everything into the rice cooker, which I totally loved because I didn't have to stand by the stove.

Recently, we had Jever Pilsner, a German brew.

Very bitter but really nice with all the nibbles and noshes we've been eating.

More good things than bad equals not so bad, hope your week is going well.

trying new recipes

With the weather being weird as it has, one day rain, one day clouds, all around humid, I stayed indoors and recently tried a couple of new recipes.

The first one was adapted from "The French Market" by Joanne Harris. "Thon aux deux haricots" (tuna with two beans).

This recipe was really easy to put together.

Instead of olives, I used capers.

Steam some green beans and sear some tuna in some olive oil, I did about a minute (or less) on each side.

Take the tuna from the pan and replace with the rinsed white beans to heat through. Add the zest of a lemon plus the juice, garlic, capers, basil and some cherry tomatoes.

Serve tuna on top of the veggies.

(I split a piece of tuna the size of my palm between Satoshi and I, I figured since I was serving it with beans, we didn't need to have a whole piece of tuna each (plus the price of tuna is kinda crazy!))

This dish was so refreshing and light.

The second recipe was from my blog friend, Pocky.

She suggested I try a splash of lime juice on my feta-watermelon salad.

Yum! another refreshing dish.

Satoshi kept commenting on how well feta and watermelon go together.

The last recipe was something I've made in the past, a wheatberry salad from Ina Garten.

This time around, I used pearl barley and wheatberry.

I roasted a red bell pepper and some zucchini.

For the dressing I used the juice of 1/2 a lime and a tablespoon of olive oil. I also added some minced white onion, tomato, Italian parsley & feta cheese.

I'm making these again! (soon!)

It's Friday, hope your weekend is a nice one.

wheatberry and orzo veggie salad

Dinner last night was inspired by a recipe read on the internet by Ina Garten for a wheatberry salad.
Here's the original recipe:
1 cup hard winter wheatberries
Kosher salt
1 cup finely diced red onion (1 onion)
6 tablespoons good olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 scallions, minced, white and green parts
1/2 red bell pepper, small diced
1 carrot, small diced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place the wheatberries and 3 cups of boiling salted water in a saucepan and cook, uncovered, over low heat for approximately 45 minutes, or until they are soft. Drain.
Saute the red onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-low heat until translucent, approximately 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the remaining 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of olive oil and the balsamic vinegar.

In a large bowl, combine the warm wheatberries, sauteed onions, scallions, red bell pepper, carrot, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the pepper. Allow the salad to sit for at least 30 minutes for the wheatberries to absorb the sauce. Season, to taste, and serve at room temperature.

Notes: I added about 1/4 cup of cooked orzo and lessened the wheatberry amount to 1/2 a cup. I also added more veggies like lettuce, okra, colored bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, sliced salami, capers and grated parmesan. The dressing I used was the lemon-oregano vinaigrette which I made before (here). Instead of soaking the wheatberries in the dressing, I put a little onto the salad and tossed it before eating. This salad had a chewy texture from the wheatberries and really went well with the rolls I made earlier today.

Enjoy!