Asian night at the Martins

This week has been hell for us. It was in all certain terms, “one of those weeks.” I had car problems and my dog had another bloody nose issue for two days. I swear, walking into our house from a long and trying day at work….all we could see was blood all over the kitchen floor. It looked as though someone had been violently stabbed while we were away at work. I couldn’t take it anymore…this has been going on for once a month and I’m frustrated and tired of worrying about his bloody noses. I decided to bite the bullet and pay the outrageous amount of money a vet would ask to get this thing fixed. Luckily, Baxter’s problem wasn’t a tumor (which is what I was dreading) but high blood pressure, which is easily treatable with medications. He’s also overweight and has to go on a diet, sorry buddy…no table scraps!

This weekend, we tried to relax a bit and forget the hectosity that was this week. Relaxing was short lived since we decided we’d re-do our office instead. The office has been a junk storage room for awhile, and so we thought it was high time to make it a proper office instead. That said, we put in some hard work this weekend and in doing so, I decided to make a dinner on Sunday to treat ourselves.

How could you treat yourself better than with a $16 piece of sushi grade tuna, a homemade wonton soup, vinegared sushi rice and a nice refreshing japanese salad? Tell me, how?

Pretty much most of the ingredients were easy to find at Whole Foods…except for the Tobiko. The way I got my grimey mitts on the Tobiko was simple. I went up to the guy at Whole Foods who prepares the sushi and asked him for some…okay….so I begged him for it. I’m not ashamed to admit it…I batted my eyelashes and begged him for some Tobiko. He looked confused and scared as if he would lose his job for giving me some tobiko, but he was kind enough to go in the back and get me some for free.

Now…before starting any weekend meal, you need to wind down a bit and relax. Enjoy the cooking…have a drink, particularly some Lambic Raspberry Framboise.

Celebrate all that hard work you’ve accomplished all week…and forget all your stress.

Next, get down to the nitty gritty…Start makin’ those wontons!

WONTON SOUP:

• Wonton wrappers
• Water chestnuts
• Shitake mushrooms
• Enoki mushrooms
• Straw mushrooms
• Broccolini
• 1 teaspoon of Ginger
• 2 cans of Vegetable Stock
• 2 cans of water
• 2 tablespoons of Mirin
• 2-3 tablespoons of Soy Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon of Rice Vinegar

In a pot, add the 2 cans of vegetable stock and water. To make the wontons, refer to my previous blog on making dumplings.

What is different about these dumplings and my previous dumpling attempt was that I included different ingredients, like the broccolini.

For the stock, add some of the the stuffing ingredients: water chestnuts, mushrooms, broccolini, enoki mushrooms. Also add the mirin, soy, rice vinegar and let boil for about 15 minutes. If you boil it for too long, the wontons will end up falling apart.

SEARED TUNA:

• Sushi grade tuna
• Sesame seed/Ginger (I bought a container with both ingredients at Whole Foods)
• Toasted Sesame Seed Oil

Remove the tuna from it’s wrapping and add sesame seeds to it. Since fish is naturally sticky, they will hold on. Add sesame seed oil to a pan and heat. Add the tuna and cook for 2 minutes on each side, removing it promptly from the pan.

I added a wasabi sauce to the tuna, which was extremely SPICY HOT. If you dare, you can simply make this by adding water to wasabi powder, but I warn you….It’s pretty darn hot. I topped the tuna with scallions and tobiko and served with sushi rice.

Also add a Japanese salad topped with enoki mushrooms, scallions and mushrooms with Ginger Dressing for a complete meal!

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