#ottanoms

[ottanom]

Chip Wagon With A Mix: Bite This

Bite This is a chip wagon with a personal twist on it. It's run by a woman named Don who is just as cool as her wagon.

Bite This serves everything you'd expect from a chip wagon and more. They serve stir fries to normal fries and they're all delicious. This venue is walking distance from Westboro Station (so the Westboro area) and is always packed. 

They make awesome food and you can even write on the tables! Just ask for a marker. 

A warning for people allergic to nuts, as you can see in the picture you can ask for peanuts in some of the stir fries so you might want to keep that in mind if you're allergic. 

Don is actually going to open another joint soon so I'll keep you guys posted. Very fun and tasty meal you'll get here.

[ottanom]

Where to learn how to make Japanese meals easily.

Ok guys, one of the things I love trying to make are Japanese meals. One of the best places I found was easiest to learn was actually watching Japanese people doing cooking videos, not some cookbook because usually the cookbooks are written by Americans and half of the stuff is wrong as I found out via these videos. The best place to find out how to make easy Japanese meals is actually a youtuber called runnyrunny999. I can't stress how easy it is to follow his videos. He's not a chef, but he can show you how to make basic Japanese meals. Here is a link to his channel. I'm always so inspired when he puts up new videos (btw he doesn't talk in Japanese throughout the video, if he does there are subtitles). Again I really hope you check out his videos and even try out his recipes. I'm sure that will make him happy. I definitely want to make tempura and soba (cold) this summer because It looks like it's going to be a hot one. 

here's a link to his channel http://www.youtube.com/user/runnyrunny999?feature=watch

[ottanom]

Spicy Tuna Onigiri

Ingredients you'll need for this recipe:

rice (obviously) about a cup to a cup and a half

water

tuna

mayo

to make it spicy (you can do with with just mayo tuna) sriracha sauce

toasted nori sheets (seaweed paper)

Directions:

Make the rice like normal. Pretty much for every cup of rice you put the twice as much of water (eg. 1 cup rice/2 cups of water) add some salt to taste if you like.

Put the pot with the rice and water on an element and put that on High. While waiting for it to boil, stir the rice around to prevent it to stick to the pot. When the water is at a boil, put a lid on it and turn the element on low. That's very important! Do not keep it at high.

Set a timer for 20 mins and in the mean time you can prepare the other ingredients.

Time to make the spicy tuna mayo.

Open the can of tuna and drain well. Empty the contents in a bowl and add a table spoon of mayo, then add as much of the sriracha sauce as you like. Mix the contents thoroughly.

When the rice is done let it cool. The rice will be going on your bare hands so make sure it's at a tolerable temperature before handling. In the mean time you can cut the nori. You can cut the nori how ever you like; long rectangles, short rectangles, triangles, there aren't any rules on this what so ever though I would recommend using the creases that are already on the nori as guides.

When the rice is cool enough, make a bowl of salt water and it's as easy as it sounds. Wet your hands with that water to prevent the rice from sticking to your hand. Put a big spoon full into your hand and make a shallow hole to place the tuna in.

Like shown above. Wrap the rice around the contents and start forming into a ball or triangle shape. Then wrap that up with one of the nori cut outs you just made. Keep doing this until you run out. Then. tadah! You finished making your delicious onigiri!

I know mine look bad but they were very tasty! 

[ottanom]

Beef Nachos

Stuff you'll need for this meal:

Beef or chicken (dice chicken into small bits)

cheese (preferably cheddar) 

Nacho chips (nothing fancy)

salsa

and to add some kick hot sauce

you can also add green onions

Now time to cook. It's super easy really, cook up the meat and flavour it to your liking.

While the meat cooks you can grate the cheese. 

When cooking beef it doesn't really matter if the meat is a little pinky

but if it's chicken make sure it's white or else you'll get sick.

Now's the fun part. Combine the chips, meat, salsa and cheese in a oven dish like so. I'd recommend putting the cheese on last so it melts evenly.

Put it in the oven (preheated at around 325 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 10-15 mins to let the cheese melt and heat it all up. Then pull it out and eat your fill!

[ottanom]

Tonight's Dinner

Nachos! Woooooo! For the vegetarians or vegans, what is your take on nachos? Send recipes or pictures. Have fun guys!

[ottanom]

Chicken Parmesan

Things you'll need for this meal:

Chicken breasts though in our case we accidentally bought strips for stir fry which worked perfectly.

parmesan (you can use mozzarella if the parmesan is too expensive)

pasta sauce (homemade or just in a can)

pasta noodles (spaghetti or capellini are our favourites for this meal)

break crumbs (you can make your own with a mortar and pestle  and crackers)

two eggs

flour

and we're adding spinach to the sauce because we don't want to eat a salad with it.

To put a hand full of spinach in the sauce just place in a bowl and use kitchen scissors to cute it up finely like so:

and just throw it in the sauce. It's like a healthy ninja! Can't even taste it.

Now it's time to start cooking. Get two pots, one pan, and three bowls (or one bowl and two plates), the two eggs, flour, bread crumbs and pam or butter.

With the biggest Pot, fill it with water and a small pinch of salt and turn the element to high. Preheat the pan and spray with Pam or just put some butter on it, spread it around to coat the surface, and turn the element to medium. The sauce will go in the other pan and just plop the cut up spinach in there. Turn that element in between low and medium. Throw some pepper and what ever else for taste, remember the chicken is the main star in this meal so don't over power with the sauce.

Now it's time to bread the chicken. I'm going to explain how to bread things for those who don't know. With the three bowls, crack the two eggs in one and mix them like you were making scrambled eggs. The second bowl put a lot of flour, and the last bowl is bread crumbs. Now take the chicken breast or strip and cover it with flower (roll it around in there), then punk it in the egg bowl, then coat that in bread crumbs. Repeat process to the rest of the chicken (breast or strips). 

By this point the pan should be hot enough. Place the chicken in the pan and pan fry until fully cooked. If you're not sure if it's fully cooked, just pierce the chicken with a clean knife and see if it's pink on the inside. While you're doing this preheat the oven at 300 degrees (Fahrenheit). When the chicken is done place the chicken on a plate then sprinkle the cheese on it and place in the oven.

When the water boils, take a hand full of noodles and put them in the pot. Cooking times vary depending on what noodles you use so keep a good eye on it. To check take a strand of noodle out with a fork (blow on it to cool) then eat it to see if it's at the right texture. When done, drain the boiling water into the sink with a strainer (make sure it's a fine strainer as to not lose any noodles). You can put the noodles back in the pot and turn off the element to cool (DO NOT PUT THE POT ON THE PREVIOUS ELEMENT!)

You're almost done, just pull the chick out of the oven (careful it's hot) and to serve just put the noodles on the plate, some sauce, the chicken, and then a little more sauce and top with more cheese.

This meal goes well with white wine, but I chose a rose because I wasn't feeling white.

So here's the finished product. Very yummy chicken parmesan. I hope you guys try this at home and add to the recipe. I'd love to see your take on this meal. 

[ottanom]

Tonight's Dinner

Chicken Parmesan. For those vegetarians please submit a vegetarian/vegan alternative of this meal. Can't wait to see them.

[viviku]

I'm sure most of you don't care but

My first post was put up last night on my other blog, Ottawa Noms. It's basically a review on the sushi place I'm addicted to. Tonight I'll be posting a recipe as well. Please check it out.