I never thought I could be someone to get excited about food, but the menu I cooked this week really excited me. If you're joining me at this blog for the first time, this is part 10 in a cooking series I'm doing this year, documenting the food I cook (almost) every week for my family.
This week's menu includes:
Pork Tonkatsu: $18.99
Cauliflower: $8.99
Bok Choy: $13.99
Tempura Shrimp: $12.99
Teriyaki Tofu: $12.99
Lion's Head Meatballs: $39.99
Take out Total: $107.94
Tax: $8.91
Grand Total: $116.85
The menu this week was going to include lion's head meatballs. Because I was going to cook them the traditional way and fry them, I figured I'd find other things I could fry as well to maximize my oil. This is where tempura shrimp and tonkatsu were added to the recipe. I had a pack of frozen pork cut into tonkatsu pieces from September 2024 so it was about time to use it. No, it wasn't bad by any means. I vacuum seal all my meats in the freezer for long-term keeping and for these instances where they get stored longer than six months and I don't run the risk of the meat getting freezer burn.
Tonkatsu (top left):
I'm sure there are great recipes out there on the internet for awesome tonkatsu. I don't follow any because I just wing it. I love recipes I can "wing" because reading recipes and measuring ingredients slows me down. The more I can make by feel, the more efficient my cooking process can be. And as you all know, I spend hours cooking on my Sundays. For this tonkatsu, I had about 13 oz of pork cut into thin slices. I seasoned them with soy sauce, sugar, corn starch, cooking wine, and some salt. I added an egg to it for the coating and then dipped in panko before frying for about 2 minutes. These were very thin pieces of meat.
Cauliflower (bottom left):
We needed some vegetables and cauliflower were on sale this week. I hadn't cooked them in a while so bought one to make for the week. I'm pretty boring when it comes to cauliflower. My favorite way to eat them is to roast in the oven with some seasoning. However, if I don't use the oven for anything else, I probably won't turn it on just to roast cauliflower. So we are eating boiled cauliflower in salt water. I don't mind. It's actually a great simple taste compared to the strong flavors of other dishes I make. So although it's nothing special, it's a healthy vegetable. My daughter has no problem eating this. My son...has developed a certain amount of finickiness lately.
Boy Choy (top right):
This was a leftover green vegetable from last week's grocery run. Again, I've mentioned before how vegetables keep in the refrigerator for a week when kept away from excessive moisture. If they wilt slightly, that's not a problem as they can be submerged in water and rehydrated. Stir-fried with my usual garlic, salt, and sugar.
Tempura Shrimp (bottom right):
This may be my last batch of freezer tempura shrimp for a while. They came out darker than usual because I had already fried other things in the oil before frying the shrimp. I don't mind. They still taste great.
Teriyaki Tofu (top middle):
My current nonstick pan is a small one so I had to cook these in two batches. That was slightly annoying, but they cooked fine because nothing stuck. I'll take it for now. Eventually, I will need to pull out my pan with the larger diameter but that one is still brand new at the moment. Officially, I didn't add teriyaki sauce to this batch of tofu, just salt and sugar.
Lion's Head Meatballs:
I follow the recipe from Woks of Life. I've made this recipe many times and it's delicious every time. I've even baked them in the oven instead of deep frying in oil. The color and texture of the outside of the meatball is very slightly different, but the overall flavor isn't. I deep fried them this week as mentioned earlier so they are more true-to-the-recipe this week. I also figured out I don't really ever have to buy breadcrumbs. I didn't actually have breadcrumbs as the recipe called for. I ended up toasting two pieces of bread on low heat for an extended (15+ minutes) and then crumbling them between my hands into the mixing bowl. You could probably also smash them in a plastic bag before dumping them in as well. I was just trying to save on waste/dishes. I had fresh bread this time, but bread keeps in the freezer for a long time, and the only way to use frozen bread is to toast it. So I really never need to buy pre-made breadcrumbs ever again.
Approx Cooking Times: 3 hours
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