Bake-n-Bake: Mushroom Waterfall

We keep trying different ways of doing our chores, hoping to find something that worked. Today seemed to work out pretty well because Hirono and I were able to actually sit down together at the dinner table to eat. It mainly involved cooking a Saturday dinner that fulfilled three requirements:

(1) Non-carb NHE
(2) Can be enjoyed mostly tepid.
(3) Can be served to the girls.

Its not as hard as it sounds.

Tonight was fried sea bass and a colorful vegetable dish. The inspiration came when the local Whole Foods finally stocked salt pork again. Pork fat rules!

I crispy-fried sliced salt pork. Its more like pancetta than bacon, but milder still and more salty. Pour out most of the oil and all of the pork over a pile of shimeji mushrooms lightly tossed with rice wine and soy. The mushrooms get cooked enough to make a wonderful sauce with plenty of texture. Reserve enough oil in the fry pan to crispy-fry three, thinly cut sea bass filets. Fry 'em nice and crispy. Sprinkle gomashio (a mixture of roasted sesame seeds and sea salt) on two of them before the final flip.

Shimeji drenched in pork fat


We then fed the girls some parboiled, diced tomyo. Alongside were the plain piece of sea bass cut in half and a toddler-fist sized clump of sticky rice. They ate it all. Leia scarfed down her rice in great mouthfuls, chewing widely and grinning.

Fried sea bass

Two hours later they were bathed and put to bed. A large mound of tomyo is parboiled and used as a noodle for the mushroom sauce. I was in a hurry and arranged mine as a simple waterfall. The tomyo was served hot enough to heat up the mushroom sauce and was fibrous enough to act as noodles for the extra salt.

Mushroom Waterfall