use real butter

Recipe: spicy tuna stuffed squid tempura

**Note**: Daring Bakers, it came down to the wire and I chose sanity over the DBs yesterday. Forge ahead and hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a great one. xoxo

I expect most everyone is in a complete state of food coma at this point. Am I right? We are actually quite happily not in food coma over here just because I’ve sort of had it with food lately (the making, the eating, the documenting). December is less than a week away and that entire month is about FOOD, so we gave ourselves a little break. Plus there was work to be done this morning. We had to pick a winner for the scarf giveaway.

your mission, should you choose to accept it…

Kaweah loves to participate in picking random numbers as long as the motivator is food. Try throwing a ball and she’ll run after the ball, then run right past it, then keep on running, until you wave a dog biscuit in the air and holler, “TREAT!” So the set up was to place ten pieces of paper numbered zero through nine around our great room with a bit of carrot on it. Then we let Kaweah into the room and recorded the first number she ate. Jeremy had to police her because the last time we tried this, Kaweah ate one number and then mowed through four more before we could stop her. Then we repeated this twice more. I’m sure some of you are thinking if she hits the first number, she’ll just return to the same place each time. Nope. Our good pup isn’t that bright. Seriously. She is totally in the moment.

jeremy chases after kaweah to make sure she doesn’t eat the rest of the numbers

our crazy random number generator gave us 983

We took 983 mod 221 (I know a few people said they weren’t entering, but anyone leaving a comment is considered entered because it’s too much work for me to remove them) and got #99. Congratulations to Dani of Dani Dishes! You win the scarf and you get to pick the colorway of your choice! I’ll be sending an email shortly. Thank you to everyone who shared what Thanksgiving was about to you. Food was probably the biggest along with family, and some of you really tugged at my heartstrings especially remembering those who aren’t with us anymore. It was so nice of you to share with me.

Our Thanksgiving was very low key foodwise because we are both swamped with work. I kept our “meal” simple, but special. Mostly, we just wanted to have a quiet day including a nice walk before sunset. I’m thankful for the little things as much as the big things in life.

this snow will likely last through the spring

someone was particularly happy and well-behaved today

definitely thankful for these two

What we ate for our Thanksgiving meal (it’s too early to be called dinner, too late for lunch) is known as Tiger’s Eye at our favorite sushi restaurant in South Pasadena. It is spicy tuna stuffed calamari that is tempura fried, sliced, and served with ponzu sauce. I didn’t have ponzu sauce on hand, so I had to make my own. The recipe I use calls for bonito flakes. I never have bonito flakes on hand either (although you can buy them in Asian markets and I recommend this – or better yet, just buy ponzu sauce). However, I did have a giant piece of dried bonito.

it looks like driftwood

pouring lemon juice and rice wine vinegar into the soy sauce and bonito flakes

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: dragon roll sushi

The Daring Cooks are making sushi this month! We have done quite a bit of sushi making (and more eating) here at urb so I was quite excited for the selection. Even with the familiarity, I was hard pressed for time to get this done. Because of that, it is with great sadness and yet relief that I am withdrawing from the Daring Cooks. This will be my last DC challenge.

daring cooks – one last cha cha cha!

I really have to thank the ladies of the DARING KITCHEN: beloved Lis of La Mia Cucina and sweet Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice. These two fine women give and give and give to all of the Daring Cooks (and Bakers). I don’t know how they do it, but I admire them for their love and enthusiasm, and especially for their friendship. Thanks, you beautiful babes!

Here’s the official line: The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

And once again, I colored outside of the lines which is probably why I should be leaving the DCs… I didn’t use their sushi recipe, I used the one I always use because we had a very small window of time to get this done. But I still learned a new technique and the sushi totally rocked (because it always does). I decided to try my hand at tempura frying based on this recipe from Allison who does all things sushi-related.

i thought the egg and ice water looked neat before mixing

whisking the wet and dry ingredients together

I think the biggest barrier to making tempura for me has always been the mystery of how to do it. Allison’s recipe is SUPER easy to throw together and so the true hurdle in tempura is the frying. I hate frying, but the more I do it, the more I lose my dread of it. We decided to tempura fry some alba clamshell mushrooms, asparagus, and shrimp. I didn’t have any softshell crab on hand, but tempura shrimp in a roll is another favorite of mine.

ingredients including: alba mushrooms, masago (fish roe), quail eggs

the goods: maguro (tuna), large dry scallops, wild-caught gulf shrimp

**Jump for more butter**

Local readers often ask me where I get my Asian groceries. The truth is that I hunt and gather Asian groceries wherever I go. Typically when I visit my grandmother in California, I’ll bring an empty duffel bag and pack a small boatload of hard to find items to take home with me. For special ingredients required to prepare big meals like on Chinese New Year’s Eve, I make the trek to Denver’s H-Mart because their Asian produce is probably the best selection and quality in the state and the store is huge by Colorado standards. Pacific Ocean Market in Broomfield is another good source for Asian groceries (the produce is pretty disappointing, although I haven’t been back in a year so maybe it’s changed). I’ve even purchased a Peking duck there before. But I have to admit that I quite hate driving all the way to Denver or even to Broomfield just to look for basics like Three Crabs Brand fish sauce, bean thread noodles, Shao Xing cooking wine, hoisin sauce, chili garlic paste, black vinegar, or pickled mustard greens. Luckily, I have access to a well-stocked little store in Boulder, Asian Seafood Market.

they carry more than just asian groceries

it’s a little store that packs a lot of goodies

One of the first things I did after moving to Colorado was search for an Asian grocer. I found a couple of tiny places that had less on their shelves than I have in my cupboards. This would not do. Luckily, I stumbled across Asian Seafood Market which happens to be on my normal grocery shopping route in town. Like most of my favorite places to buy Chinese, Thai, Japanese, or Viet ingredients, this place was packed to the hilt. There are no empty shelves. The more I delve into Asian cooking, the more I am finding at this little local store. It’s a little like an adventure in the good sense. And if I can’t find something, I can always ask Maria.

owner: maria nguyen (left), sweet pastries and fresh longans

Maria Nguyen was born in Vietnam, but eventually settled in California. She told me she had terrible allergies in California back in the day. When she moved to Boulder over 20 years ago she opened Asian Seafood Market, building the business from scratch. And her allergies went away. Maria has a precise knowledge of the store’s inventory. If I can’t find something, she’ll shout down the aisle to ask what I’m looking for and then either show me where it is or shout that it will be restocked on Wednesday, or Thursday, or Monday…

indian dal (top left), dulce de leche from argentina (bottom left), and oodles of rice (right)

I often bemoan the fact that Boulder doesn’t have a good authentic Chinese restaurant (according to the Official Jen Yu Council of One on Authentic Chinese Restaurants in Non-Coastal US Cities). Luckily for me, I am moderately competent at cooking Chinese food and so I like having a dedicated Asian grocer in Boulder. Just a short list of things you can find: noodles, rice, beans, lentils, Asian vegetables and herbs, frozen fish, live crabs, spices, sauces, pastes, vinegars, flours, starches, frozen dumplings, frozen pork or vegetable buns, wonton and eggroll wrappers, mushu shells, edamame, fishballs, tempura cakes, ice cream (e.g. green tea, red bean), mochi, kimchi, quail eggs, miso paste, soft drinks, tofu, daikon radish, udon noodles, a few boxes of seasonal fruits, canned fruits and vegetables, dishes and cooking equipment, Asian candies, Asian snacks, curry pastes, dulce de leche…

canned jackfruit, lychee, mangosteen (top left), customer for scale (bottom left), 8.5 pounds of chili paste! (right)

daikon radish and bok choy (left), cute little rice bowls (right)

I’ve been shopping at Asian Seafood Market for over four years – much of that time as a passive patron. When I underwent chemo last year, there were long stints where I didn’t venture by the store because I wasn’t cooking as much and I definitely wasn’t eating as much. At one point while paying for my groceries at the register, Maria said she hadn’t seen me in a while. I smiled and said I had been… busy. I had thought I was some sort of invisible customer, but from then on we have made small talk whenever I come through the store. I consider it my store in many ways because Maria checks that I find what I am looking for and tells me about what is fresh and what is on special.

miso paste and jars of kimchi (left), little frozen mochi treats (right)

Asian Seafood Market sells wholesale and retail, and they can arrange for special orders if there is something you need. The store receives new shipments of dry goods every Monday, fresh produce on Wednesdays, and Japanese products on Thursdays.

Asian Seafood Market
The Villa Shopping Center
2829 28th St.
Boulder, CO 80301
Ph: (303) 541 9377
Monday through Saturday: 10am to 8pm
Sunday: 10 am to 7 pm

Full Disclosure: I am writing this post of my own volition and without compensation from Asian Seafood Market.