Sake-Steamed Clams with Sriracha Compound Butter

Seafood and I have come a long way. As a child and into my teenage years, I generally avoided it (except for the occasional tempura shrimp or in “fish and chip” form). Then when I was in college, I had several seafood dishes that expanded my horizons and changed my attitude towards things of the [...]

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Grilled Shrimp Tacos with Jalapeño-Ranch Sauce

It’s recipe swap time again! This week’s theme was Mexican. Both of us have been fortunate enough to grow up in California where we have eaten some of the best Mexican food outside of Mexico, something we missed greatly while we were in Japan, where there wasn’t an enchilada or a torta in sight (nor [...]

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Miso-Sriracha Glazed Salmon with Spicy Slaw

After two flavorful dinners from The Sriracha Cookbook — Ultimate Sriracha Burgers and Camarones a la Diabla — it was time for Sriracha dinner night #3. In this recipe, Sriracha plays a more subtle role, adding just a hint of spiciness to a sweet glaze balanced by the savory flavors of miso and soy sauce. [...]

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Camarones a la Diabla

Among many things, my friend Miriam and I share an affinity for making lists, browsing the store Anthropologie, and putting Sriracha on everything (except popcorn; we tried that; too soggy). We also love the same dish at Los Pericos, a taqueria in downtown Santa Cruz – Camarones a la Diabla, shrimp in a spicy, smokey [...]

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[1st post-baby dinner!] Grilled Red Trout Fillets, Artichokes, and Salad with Grilled Lime Slices

Hello oishiifood followers.  This is a guest post by Dustin.  As you all know, Brianna does most of the writing for this wonderful collection of recipes we’ve come up with/tried.  I’m usually the “behind the scenes” guy doing my part in the kitchen and behind the camera.  So it’s a treat for me to share [...]

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Olive Oil Poached Tuna with Caper-Olive Vinaigrette

They say you learn something new every day. Well, yesterday we learned about poaching. Fish, in particular. It’s a pretty cool process. You allow a 1 inch-thick cut of fish (like tuna, halibut or salmon) to sit at room temperature for an hour. Then you submerge it in a bath of warm oil and immediately [...]

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Red Trout Fillets with Meyer Lemon

After revealing the vast quantities of things we consumed over the holidays (and keep in mind, those were just the highlights), I’m happy to kick the year off with fish! For some reason, I was craving fish for a change (like red meat, fish hasn’t been at the top of list the last 5 months, [...]

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Pan-Fried Red Trout Fillets with Mizuna-Mango-Manchego Salad & a Simple Mango Cocktail

After weeks of writing about Swedish food and travel adventures, it feels both strange and comforting to once again be blogging from our own kitchen! This is a meal that we made a few days after returning home, but it had to wait in line until now! My cousin Nikita came over to cook dinner [...]

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Chili-Lime Shrimp Stir Fry & (our best yet) Miso Soup

Finally. FINALLY! We are back! Since I last posted, I joined the world of twitter. Immediately I thought of the episode of The Daily Show, where reporter Samantha Bee makes fun of the “tweet” frenzy. But nevertheless we’re jumping on the bandwagon. If you aren’t already, please follow along here. (You can also view our [...]

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Vegetable Lo Mein with Salmon

Our bowls and chopsticks often inspire me to make dinner. Each one tells a different story and conjures up a different time and place. These bowls were hand-crafted at a local artisan shop downtown and were given to us as a wedding gift 3 1/2 years ago. I love that they have little indentations on [...]

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Spicy Shrimp Caesar Salad with Tortilla Crisps

If you love Caesar salad, you’ll be a fan of this one. I first came across this recipe while watching TV in Japan. I used to watch the Japanese version of the food network called “Foodies TV,” my favorite place to learn the Japanese words for boil, steam, grill, etc. Other times I would laugh [...]

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Halibut & Cannellini Beans In Tomato-Rosemary Broth

Halibut!? Why did we have that? Just for the Halibut!! Haha. Sorry. Bad joke but a delicious fish! This meal was lighter than we were expecting, but it was warm and comforting on a cold night. It definitely needs to be accompanied by lots of sliced bread to soak up the extra broth and a [...]

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Barbequed Trout with Herbs & Potatoes

When I was a little girl, I refused to eat seafood. It’s really unfortunate because I must have missed out on a lot of delicious experiences. For example, in Felton, a small town outside of Santa Cruz, there is a restaurant called The Trout Farm Inn where you can C.Y.O.T. (catch your own trout) in [...]

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Tempura: Out of the frying pan and into … my mouth

Hands down, tempura is my favorite Japanese food. And yes, I cheated below and used a picture from our lunch in Kyoto two weeks ago. My student Mieko and her husband Koichi invited us over for a Father’s Day dinner last Sunday, but we were so enthusiastic about eating the tempura hot out of the [...]

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Coconut Shrimp

First things first, I’d like to say a very enthusiastic “Happy Mothers’ Day!” to my amazing Mom, my favorite cook who has continually inspired me to explore all things culinary! Second, Oh how we love these crispy shrimp with a tropical flair. This is one of our favorite recipes when we want something that tastes [...]

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Raw Tuna & Leek Salad with Ginger-Soy Sauce

A few weeks ago one of our students, an old man in his 70s, handed us a small paperback cookbook called Japanese Favorites. Finally, some guidelines for making a few of the things we’ve tasted and enjoyed while living here. What I love about Japanese cooking is that the ingredients themselves, their colors, and textures [...]

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Beer-Battered Salmon Tacos with Zesty White Sauce, Guacamole, and Shredded Cabbage

Friday night fish tacos was Dustin’s brilliant idea. Our supermarket was out of cod by the time we finished class at 7pm, but they had salmon so our recipe was quickly adapted! These reminded me of some fish tacos I ate from a little stand in Ensenada, Mexico about 8 years ago. As the Japanese [...]

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Roll Out!

It doesn’t get much simpler than fresh raw fish. Add crisp nori, fresh lettuce leaves, a bowl of sushi rice and a variety of sliced vegetables and you have temaki-sushi: a typical weekday do-it-yourself dinner for many Japanese families. Unlike other Japanese meals, it’s ok to use your hands. In fact, it’s encouraged! We had [...]

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Sizzling Hot Shrimp

You can control the amount of chili that you add to this dish, but we recommend adding enough to make you sweat. In this cold weather, it feels better. This dish is based on a recipe for shrimp pil-pil that I recently came across in a Rachael Ray Magazine. It originates from Spain where it’s [...]

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Tuna & White Bean Salad with Pesto Crostini

I spent a few hours on Christmas day sitting in front of the fireplace with my new 12 Best Foods Cookbook. Now that we’re back in Japan, it’s been a fun challenge to think of new recipes that use these foods. Of course before we got the book we used tomatoes, broccoli, blueberries, onions, walnuts, [...]

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