Arugula, tomato and salted duck egg salad with ginger vingaigrette
I don’t know how the weather is in your part of the world. Here in the tropics, the past weeks have been a bit insane. It rained for days, the heat dissipated, then …
Side Dishes
As good as the main course is, sometimes, it's even better when enjoyed with at least one side dish. The side dish can be anything, really. So long as the serving is small and it is not the main dish, it qualifies as a side dish. But, often, a side dish refers to a small portion of a vegetable salad or it can be starch in the form of rice, noodles or bread. My personal favorites include mango and tomato salsa, mashed roasted squash and Japanese cucumber salad.
Mushrooms and broccoli stir fry
Fast. Easy. Tasty. And with an option to make the dish vegan and not merely meatless. It can be a main course for non-meat eaters or a side dish for omnivores like me.
Tofu and shiitake braised in ginger soy sauce
Fried crispy tofu cubes, chunks of shiitake and vegetables and braised in ginger sauce, dark soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, oyster sauce, Sriracha and sesame oil. We had it …
Eggplants braised in soy sauce and gochujang
A truly versatile dish that I like to serve as an accompaniment to a meat, chicken or seafood main dish. The saltiness of the soy sauce and the heat of the gochujang …
Garlicky sausage mac and cheese
Store bought garlicky sausage meat is browned and combined with Mornay sauce before cooked pasta is stirred in. Fast and easy snack or a filling lunch or dinner.
Fast and easy cheesy bacon fries
Frozen fries from the grocery are cooked in the air fryer then smothered with cheese sauce, crumbled crispy bacon and thinly sliced scallions. A real crowd pleaser.
Hot spring egg (onsen tamago)
These aren’t ordinary soft boiled eggs. And they’re not the same as poached eggs either. With poached eggs, the white is fully cooked. Not so with onsen eggs where the …
Blanched napa cabbage salad
Stalks of napa cabbage are cut thickly, blanched in salted water and tossed with a savory dressing made with sliced scallions, minced ginger, garlic and chilies.