The 10 worst toxins hidden in vitamins, supplements and health foods

We are getting more aware of having  "healthy","natural" food and supplement for our wellness. And we see more front labels of food saying "natural" "healthy" as their marketing term, which actually TRICK us to make us feel these products will help improve our health. That front label is not necessary so until we read the actual ingredient. Some are TOXINS ! Read this.
 
The 10 worst toxins hidden in vitamins, supplements and health foods

Best Simple French Toast with Whole Grain French Loaf

Here is the super simple,yummy, chewy, healthy way to make my favorite Sunday treat. After literally one day of purchase of French loaf, the bread gets dry and crust is no longer crispy and does not taste as good as freshly baked. This is the best way to use days old french bread. You can also use Italian loaf, but I like French loaf with thicker crust. Try to find the dense whole grain bread with crispy crust.

French Toast with Whole Grain French Loaf
( Serving: 2, Cooking time: less than 10 min.)

Ingredients

1. Whole Grain French Loaf: 4 slices (in 3/4" thick)
2. Egg: 2 extra large 
3. Soy milk: 1/4 cups
4. Pure Vanilla Extract: 1/2 teaspoon
5. Butter: 1 tablespoon
6. Maple Syrup ( Grade B) to taste

Direction:

1. In the bowel, beat eggs, add soy milk and vanilla extract.
2. Soak slices of bread into the mix until all the mix is soaked in.
3. In the pan with medium -low heat, melt butter and cook till surface gets slightly brown both side. 

My Shopping List:  Whole grain loaf  from LaBrea Bakery , Soy milk: Kirkland Original soy milk
Where: Costco

Potassium Bromate in bread: Cancer causing food additive

I was making french toast this morning. I was making with omega 3 packed brown egg, organic soy milk and organic vanilla extract. All sounded good (however I heard there is no health benefit difference between brown egg and white egg even the color of egg yolk is different). But I was using white bread to the healthy dip to make actually potentially risky food! I love bread and I usually stick with bread made with whole wheat unbleached flour with no or less preservatives. But once a while I buy white bread for the taste (smooth, fluffy, less grainy). Especially for french toast, I like using thick white bread over anything else.

But I was shocked when I saw the ingredients of the white bread I bought from particular store, it contains "potassium bromate". This additive is used to strengthen bread dough to increase the volume and to produce bread with a fine crumb. That's why the bread is fluffy and has fine texture. Most bromate breaks down with heat, but when bread is not cooked with high enough temperature, small amount of bromate may remain.

Potassium bromate is known as cancer causing additive. Lab found kidney cancer on mouse. It is banned to use in most of the country, but is it not banned in US. In California, under proposition 65, the law requires to put warming sign on the labels. I see these signs sometimes on the shelves but I find stores and packages made us uneasy to find out the little label.
The list of current proposion 65 has 22 pages long (!) of all the chemicals to cause cancer. Is it very important to read all list of ingredients on the label and avoid to consume these chemicals. It is said the amount and risk to cause cancer is small and it is safe by FDA, but imagine if we eat this small amount of 'said to be non- risky' chemicals every day every meal for entire life, which most likely we do in some degree, the amount is no longer small amount as they say. Please be responsible with your health!!

Pizza in Milan

My newest obsession: Milan, Italy ! I absolutely love almost everything there that I can find. Stylish people, amazing food, great coffee, beautiful details, fabulous shops, even the crazy traffic that will take you 30 min via 18 different streets to go to one small block away on the map by car around Milano Centro. It's like in the movie.

I thought it's amazing that, from my opinion, the food looks to be cooked simply using good raw ingredients and good olive oil in Milan. The taste is yet amazingly rich and deep.

And pizza they have is something you can't find in US unless you find the fancy restaurant on fancy street.  Shrimp, prosciutto and arugula on thin crust !! It is sooooo good. And the salad is simply served with no dressing. Only dressing is extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar on the table! And it tastes so good ! Now I am not so interested in blue cheese dressing anymore.

Sunscreen Ingredients we should avoid

 Summer is now almost here. I also take skin care seriously as much as food I eat. It got me attention when I know the truth about sunscreen. I used to only care about the number of SPF and the title of the sunscreen. But there are more important facts to know about the ingredients. According to EWG (environmental working group), lot of sunscreen lotion contain ingredients may damage DNA and skin cell and disrupt the body's hormone systems, some even may speed the development of skin tumors.

Some of ingredients used for 'chemical' sunscreen to avoid:

• Oxybenzone (notorious hormone disruptor)
• Octyl methoxycinnimate (hormone disruptor)
• 4-MBC (hormone disruptor)
• Retinyl Palmitate or Retinol * ( form of vitamin A = when applied to the skin in the presence of light, it can form free radicals that damage DNA and may develop skin tumors and lesions)

Better choice of ingredients for sunscreen:

• Mineral sunscreen contains UVA protection, which does not appear to penetrate the skin
• Zinc oxide (mineral sunscreen)
• Titanium dioxide (mineral sunscreen) **
• Avobenzone (3% for the best UVA protection)
• Mexoryl SX (ecamsule) (European chemical sunscreen formula)
• Tinosorb S and M (European chemical sunscreen formula)

Sunscreens Exposed: 9 surprising truths | EWG's 2011 Sunscreen Report | EWG's Skin Deep

*  Contradicting to the fact that Retinol or Retinyl palmitate is used in anti-aging cream to reduce wrinkles and sun spots and increase collagen to regain elasticity of your skin. However, it can't be used in the presence of light even with sunscreen. If you are using Retinol skin care product, use only at night and have very good sun protection during the day.

** Titanium dioxide controversy: although Titanium dioxide is listed as safe mineral, the form of ultrafine or namo particles (less than 0.1 microns = 100 nanometers(nm)) can penetrate the cells, leading to photocatalysis within the cell, causing DNA damage after exposure to sunlight. Coarse (less then 10 microns = 10000 nm) or fine (less than 2.5 microns = 2500nm) particles are safe and effective at deflecting and absorbing UV light, protecting the skin.

 This one is what I start to use this summer. Aubrey Organics Natural Sun SPF 30+ Unscented for sensitive skin and children 
So far, the coverage is very good. There is no typical sunscreen smell that I don't like. Lotion is kind of heavy. If you apply on your face and take picture with flash, I think the face will show very white......
There is same thing with SPF15. It is little more creamier than 30+ and less paste like.

Ramen Noodle Recipe with Vegetable: 1

Even I try to eat so called 'healthy', it's not like I eat salmon, broccoli and brown rice all the time. I sometimes even eat instant ramen noodle for convenience! But every time I do this crime, I add or avoid little to the package and suddenly it will make meal not so bad. Just find any kind of hard leafy vegetable in the fridge and cook and add. Also, one very bad thing about instant ramen is the soup base comes with it. It contains amazingly high amount of sodium and long list of chemicals. For instance, the one package of Sapporo Ichiban Miso ramen shows sodium of 663mg per 1/3 block of noodles with soup. It looks like one package contains that much, but actually three times more. That means, if you drink all the soup base, you will consume 1,989 mg of sodium by eating 1 pack. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day — or 1,500 mg if you're age 51 or older, or if you are black, or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease. I know the soup is what ramen makes good, but when I cook, I don't eat soup.
  
Miso Ramen noodle with Vegetables
( Serving: 1, Cooking time: 10 min.)

Ingredients

1. Instant Miso Ramen noodle: 1
   
2. Kale: 2
3. Broccoli crown
4. Organic carrots: 2 sliced
5. Shiitake Mushroom: 1 sliced
6. Organic green onion: 1 chopped
7. Sesami Oil (or Olive Oil): 1/2 table spoon

Direction:

1. Cut all vegetables and saute (except for green onion) with sesami / olive oil for 2 min with medium heat till some part of the surface of some vegetable (carrots) gets light brown. Cover and cook for additional 3+ min till vegetable is cooked. Don't cook to long. Cook vegetable as much as you desire if you like. Don't add salt when cooked. For less fat version, steam vegetable instead of sauteing.
2. Cook Ramen noodle as directed on package.
3. Add cooked vegetables and chopped green onion on top of noodles.

Carrot Cake after making Carrot Juice

After making carrot juice, I made carrot muffin using grated carrot bits left over from juicer. Even all the juice was sucked out from carrots, it was surprisingly very good. Since there are lots of left over carrot bits from making 2 litters of juice out of 3 kg of carrots. Here is the carrot cake I made using cast iron skillet. It's crispy at top and soft inside.

The Best Carrot Juice ever for me

I am not really crazy about carrot juice. The juice I have had from store is either too strong and bitter, or too sweet yet  too much "carrot" taste without any other taste. (of course it's carrot taste because it's carrot juice...) But I changed my mind after I had this one. I use organic carrots because then I don't need to peel the skin. Carrots have a lot of nutrition near skin. But at the same time, non-organic carrots have pesticide or other chemicals on the surface and it could make juice taste bitter. That's why I use organic carrots. Just wash well and cut the top and put in the juicer.

Carrot Juice
( Makes 2 litters)

Ingredients:

1. Organic Carrots: 3 kg (6 lb 8 oz)
   
2. Organic Strawberry: 7 big pieces or 200g
3. Organic Fuji Apple: 1

Direction:

1. Put everything in the juicer.
2. Save carrot bits from juicer for carrot cake or muffin!!

Chicken Drumsticks with Shiitake Mushroom and Tomato Red Wine Sauce

Another my favorite chicken drumstick recipe. It's fantastic dish for economically challenging time. It's fantastic dish for not so economically challenging time too. Again, easy. But this time I took time to cook chicken (1 hr) to make very tender. Make sure you take out skin before you cook (for health benefit = less fat). It will still taste really good without skin flavor.

Chicken Drumsticks w/ Shiitake Mushroom and Tomato Red Wine Sauce
(Serving: 3~   / Prep time: 5 min / Cooking time: 1 hr 45min)

 

Ingredients:

1. Chicken Drumsticks skinned (1 kg)
   
2. Onion: 1 medium-large (200 g) sliced
3. Organic ripe Tomato on the vine: 4 large (400 g) cut in 1/8
4. Shiitake Mushroom: 120g, sliced
5. Chicken Broth (low sodium): 1 cup
6. Red Wine: 1 cup
7. Bay leaves: 3 leaves
8. Sea salt: 1/2 teaspoon
9. Olive oil: 1 tablespoon
10. Butter: 1 tablespoon
11. (option) Marinara sauce: 2 table spoons
12. (option) Worcestershire sauce: 1/2 tea spoon

Direction:

1. In the pan (I use cast iron skillet to cook), melt butter and saute onion for 5 min and set aside.
2. In the same pan, pour olive oil and saute seasoned (sea salt) chicken for 5 min flip the drumsticks and cook additional 3 min till surface is lightly brown.
3. Add cooked onion, shiitake mushroom and tomato and saute for 2 min until mushroom is cooked.
4. Add red wine, chicken broth, bay leaves. Cover (mostly, but not completely) and cook with low heat for 1 hour.
5. Uncover and (add marinara sauce and worcestershire sauce for more taste if you need) cook with medium low heat till sauce gets thick about 30 min. Stair sauce occasionally.

* Sauce tastes better when you use fresh organic ripe tomato on the vine and it will make difference in taste where and when you get tomato. If the tomato itself is tasty, then you don't need to add marinara sauce.

* Originally this recipe was cooking with white wine. But I start using red wine and I like it. So I changed the recipe a little bit for red wine.You can substitute red wine with white wine.

The best and healthier Pancakes : Whole wheat Blueberry Pancake with soy milk

This is by far the most healthiest pancake recipe using whole wheat flour and unsweetened soy milk. Although it sounds bland, it tastes actually really good !! As you can see, I don't put any refined sugar in the ingredients. I use maple syrup (real maple syrup) instead. 

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancake w/ soy milk

( Makes 8 large pancakes)

Ingredients

1. Organic Whole wheat flour: 2 cups
   
2. Baking powder: 1teaspoon
3. Baking soda: 1/2 teaspoon
4. Fine grain sea salt: 1/2 teaspoon
5. Egg (organic): 2 large
6. Unsweetened soy milk: 2 cups
7. Unsalted butter: 2 tablespoons melted
8. Maple syrup (organic, grade B): 2 tablespoons
9. Organic Blueberry (frozen or fresh): 1/2 cups

Direction:

1. Melt butter. Use microwave (for convenience) for 20+ sec till butter just melt.
2. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt). Mix well.
3. In a separate bowl combine eggs, soy milk, melted butter, and maple syrup. Mix till all ingredients are well combined.
4. Add wet mixture into dry mixture. Use spatula combine the mixture like slicing the batter. Don't mix too much. Flour doesn't need to be completely mixed.
5. Heat the griddle to medium high. Pour batter and equally divided blueberry on top and cook till bottom is golden, edge of the pancake is cooked and till the bubble shows up on the top side batter. Flip the pancake and cook the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

* Using pancake griddle makes it perfectly even heated pancake. If you don't have it, use non- stick coated pan. Then you don't need to worry about putting extra butter or other grease on the pan to cook. The batter already contains butter in it. Butter is saturated fat. It's not good to consume much.

* Eat with Maple syrup.My favorite - GRADE B ORGANIC. More amber flavor and nutrition.

My Shopping List: Organic Whole wheat flour, Grade B organic maple syrup, 365 Organic Unsweetened Soymilk
Where: for flour:  Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market 
for maple syrup, soy milk : Whole Foods

Roasted Rack of Lamb with Glazed Soy Maple Syrup

It's about the time to celebrate the going year and coming year. It was interesting year for me and I am excited about the new year. So, I just cooked this very easy lamb dish to get ready celebrating! I heard this combination of soy sauce and maple syrup is good to tone down the distinct lamb's gamey flavor. I use organic "Grade B" maple syrup. This unrefined sweetner is not only tasty as caramel flavor, but it's nutritious rich in minerals and vitamins. I will talk about that later more in depth. 

Roasted Rack of Lamb w/ Glazed Soy Maple Syrup
( Serving: 2+ , Cooking time: 20 min.)

Ingredients

1. Lamb rib rack (frenched: fat is already cleaned and bones are exposed and ready to be cooked): 1lb +
   
2. Low sodium Soy Sauce: 1 tablespoon
3. Maple Syrup ( Grade B): 1 tablespoon

Direction:

1. Heat the oven to 375 °F.
2. Mix low sodium soy sauce and maple syrup.
3. Marinate Lamb with sauce and sit for one hour in room temperature.
4. Roast Rack of Lamb bone down for 20 min for medium rare (time varies). 

My Shopping List: Lamb rib rack 1.15 lb $13.79
Where: Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market

How to enjoy food with less fat

I hope everyone had happy Thanksgiving. I had a wonderful one and I ate so much. Thanksgiving dinner has actually pretty healthy ingredients. We just need to look at and notice how to cook and how to eat these healthy ingredients not to be super fat dinner. Here is the few easy trick to cook same ingredients but less fat at the end. Start this and make it as your dairy habit.

1. Take out skin from meat
2. Eat sweet fruit and vegetable like kabocha, sweet potato, banana instead of butter base sweets
3. Cut vegetable lager so, when you cook, oil or other cooking agent will absorb less.
4. Flash the fat with boiled water for fatty meat like pork and beef. It will also help make taste absorb into meat better.
5. For stir fried vegetable need to be cooked longer time, use microwave to cook 70% and then cook in the pan with oil, such that it will use less oil.
6. Steam instead of sautee.
7. Bake with oven or toaster oven instead of deep fried. Need only little sprinkle of oil.
8. Use coated pan to cook. You need less oil or butter for non- stick pan.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti w/ Shrimp and Peas and Garlic Butter Sauce

I got the 100 % whole wheat spaghetti, which I was not really the fan of because it's not that chewy as normal pasta. But I want to replace the habit of eating white flour to whole wheat flour for the health benefit. We consume so much of flour product, and benefit of white flour is really nothing besides it helps to make stomach bigger. Whole wheat pasta has more than twice the fiber ( ave.5g fiber for 2oz dry pasta) than normal pasta (2g fiber for 2oz), which we all know how good fiber does in our body. What I don't  like about the whole wheat pasta is that the texture of pasta and surface of the pasta doesn't absorb spaghetti sauce well. To ease this problem, I cook pasta little bit longer to make softer and add small butter right away to mix with hot pasta. And add this sauce! The richness of the sauce and lightness of whole wheat pasta matches pretty well.

 Shrimp and Peas w/ Garlic Butter Sauce
( Serving: 2, Cooking time: 15 min.)

Ingredients

1. Uncooked shrimp
   
2. Yellow Onion: 1/4 medium large chopped
3. Green Onion: 3 sprig chopped
4. Green Peas (frozen)
5. Crimini Mushroom (Fresh Italian Brown Mushroom) sliced
6. Olive oil : 3 tablespoons
7. Garlic: 1 clove chopped or pressed
8. Butter: 1/2 tablespoon
9. Parmesan Cheese
10. Salt / Freshly grounded Pepper

Direction:

1. In a pan, put olive oil and heat it. Add onion and green onion and sautee for about 5 min. 
2. Add shrimp, garlic, mushroom, 1 tablespoon water, little bit of salt and pepper and cook till color of shrimp change to orange. Do not cook to long as shrimp will get dry and tough.
3. Add Parmesan cheese and butter, cook additional 1 min.
4. Pour over cooked whole wheat pasta!

*It's like pasta with cream sauce, but no heavy cream. 

Cheese Omelet with Bolgnese Sauce

Here is what I make next morning with Bolgnese sauce I made yesterday.
Cheese Omelet with Bolgnese sauce !! I use Gruyere cheese. For less fat, make egg white only omelet with low fat swiss cheese instead. (or no cheese, it's still really yummy.)
Besides the spaghetti, I can eat anything with this sauce !

Super easy Spaghetti Bolognese Sauce

 I love Italian food. I don't have Italian mom, but this is my mom's recipe I grow up with and tweaked little bit in my way. This is the simplest spaghetti sauce ever and taste pretty good. Hardest part is chopping the vegetable. The finer, the better taste of sauce. I can use this sauce for many dish. Spaghetti Bolognese, Lasagna, and my new breakfast menu:  omelet ! 


BOLOGNESE SAUCE


(Prep time: 15 min., Cooking time: 1 hr 45 min.)

Ingredients

1. Ground Beef: 1 lb (15/85 is my favorite, use 5/95 for less fat)
   
2. Organic Celery: 2-3 stalks finely chopped, make 1 cup
3. Organic Carrots: 2 large or 3 medium finely chopped, make 1 cup
   
4. Onion: 1 medium large finely chopped, make 1 cup
5. Crimini Mushroom (Italian Brown Mushroom): 4 oz chopped
   
6. Olive oil: 6 tablespoons
   
7. Red Wine: 4 tablespoons
8. Low sodium Tomato juice or Tomato base Vegetable juice: 2 qts (64 fl oz)
9. Bay leaves: 3
10. Salt / Pepper: 1/8 teaspoons sea salt, freshly grounded pepper
11. Beef broth concentrate if necessary for extra taste

Direction:

1. In a 2.5 qts sauce pan, sautee chopped celery, carrots, onion with olive oil. Keep stirring for10-15 min with medium low heat.
2. Add ground beef, red wine, salt and pepper and sautee till it becomes lightly grown for about 3 min.
3. Add 1 1/2 qts of tomato juice, bay leaves (and beef broth concentrate). Cook with medium low heat for 45 min. Stir the sauce occasionally. 
4. Add mushroom and the rest of the tomato juice (1/2 qts) and cook for additional 45 min.

* Sauce tastes the best next day
* I use the low sodium tomato (or vegetable) juice because the normal tomato juice has too much salt in and this will make sauce too tangy. The lower the salt intake, the better for your health too. The sauce tastes slightly varied depends on the tomato juice.

My Shopping Cart: Low Sodium Garden Patch (vegetable juice) 64 fl oz
Where: Trader Joe's

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

There are many kinds of way to cook stuffed cabbage rolls. Most popular one is with tomato sauce. But I love making with clear broth. I can taste of cabbage rolls itself more than with strong tomato sauce.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Beef Bouillon Soup

( Makes 8 rolls)

Ingredients

1.  Green Cabbage: 1 large (use 8 leaves)
2. Ground Beef: Lean (96/4) 1/2 lb
   
3. Ground Pork: Lean 1/2 lb
4. Onion: 1 small finely chopped
5. Butter: 1 tablespoon
6. Panko: 3 tablespoons
7. Milk: 3 tablespoons
8. Egg: 1
9. Fine sea salt: 1/2 teaspoon
10. Freshly grounded pepper: 1/4 teaspoon
11. Nutmeg: 1/4 teaspoon
12. Organic Celery: 1 stalk with leaves, cut in 1/4
13. Organic Carrot: 1 large, cut in 1/2"
14. Bay leaves: 1
15. Water: 4 cups
16. Beef bouillon cube: 1
17. Black Pepper corn: 3

Direction:

1. In the large pot, boil water.
2. Remove center core of whole cabbage and place cabbage into pot. Cook for 2-3 min. till leaves are bright green and tender. Take out whole cabbage from pot and remove outer leaves. Put cabbage back into pot and repeat till you have 8 leaves. 
3. Slice off the hard center vein of cabbage, set aside.
4. In the pan, sautee chopped onion with butter for 3 mins. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
5. In the small dish, add milk into panko and make it well soaked.
6. Place ground beef, ground pork, panko mix, egg and salt, pepper, nutmeg in the bowl with the onions, and mix together with hands until well blended. 
7. Place 1/8 of mixture on a cabbage leaf, starting from stem end, roll the cabbage up. Use wooden toothpick and tuck together at the end. repeat 8 times.
8. In the pot, place cabbage rolls and pour water, celery, carrot, bay leaves, pepper corn and bouillon cube. Cook for 30 min.

Which food we should buy organically to avoid pesticide exposure? : " Dirty 12"

We live in the era of convenience with technology. And toxic chemicals creating convenience does a lot to our health problems. Fruits and vegetable (non-organic) grows with pesticides. And we also eat them (with food). Pesticide will increase risk of:

• leukemia
• cancers (brain, lung, lymphoma, kidney)
• generic damage
• decreased fertility
• asthma and allergies
• liver and pancreatic damage
• Nerve damage
• disrupt hormone function
• birth defects
  

Even the amount is small, it's still there. It is said that washing them does not wash pesticide away. We won't see any sadden difference in health by eating them, but in the long period of our life time, it's better not consuming them now for our better future especially children.

We can reduce the risk by eating organic food. "Organically grown" food uses no synthetic fertilizer or pesticide. Environmental working group (EWG) has a list called "dirty dozen". This data is based on USDA pesticide data program(PDP) tested between 2000-2008. This test is done with food already washed or peeled. It is estimated that if we eat these "dirty dozen" food organically, pesticide exposure can be reduced up to 80%. It's ideal we eat all food organically, but given the economical reason, buy at least these12 top (most pesticide contaminated) food on the list organically.

"Dirty 12" (most toxic)

1. celery
2. peaches
3. strawberries
4. apples
5. blueberries
6. nectarines
7. sweet bell pepper
8. spinach
9. kale
10. cherries
11. potatoes
12. grapes (imported)
    

See full list of 49 fruit and vegetables here:
The Full List | Environmental Working Group

Papaya shake I am very proud !

This is the beginning of the day. Papaya(+) shake. More accurately, papaya w/ banana + orange shake. I tried adding bunch of other fruit, but so far, this is my favorite combination.

Papaya
Banana
Orange
Non fat yogurt
Orange Juice
Low fat Milk (or soy milk)

Abs exercise

This may be the note to myself. Tummy exercise !! Summer is coming !!
http://health.msn.com/weight-loss/slim-down-for-summer/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100257661&gt1=31048

Sake Poached New Zealand Red Snapper

I got wild caught New Zealand red snapper (whole) from the market.
Cook with sake and eat with little bit of ginger soy is my favorite way to eat them...... >^_^<
It's so tender and tasty.

Tonight's dinner: Sake poached red snapper w/ shiitake mushroom, Green mix (broccoli, cauliflower, green bean, romanesco: I love this Italian vegetable!), Grape tomato, Israeli couscous w/ garbanzo bean, Snapper egg drop soup.

********************************************************

SAKE POACHED NEW ZEALAND RED SNAPPER W/ SHIITAKE MUSHROOM
(Serving: 2, Prep time: 5 min., Cooking time: 15 min.)

Ingredients:

1. 1 wild caught New Zealand red snapper (1 - 1 1/2 lb)
   
2. 4 large shiitake mushroom, sliced
   
3. 1 green onion, sliced in 1/2"
   
4. 1/2" ginger root, sliced
   
5. 4 tablespoons sake
   
6. salt / pepper

Direction:

1. Rinse red snapper and put in a roasting pan. Lightly salt and pepper both side.
2. Pour sake in the pan.
3. Put sliced shiitake mushroom, ginger, green onion on top of red snapper.
4. Cover and put in the oven. Bake about 15 min.
   
5. Take pan out of the oven, set aside to cool off about 3 min.

* Eat with little bit of low sodium soy sauce with grated ginger.
* If you get red snapper in the fish market and when they clean the fish for you , ask to take fish head ( if you are ok with fish head) and use it for snapper soup. It will make great soup stock. Put the head into dashi water, add sake, ginger block, green onion. Cook for few minutes, and slowly pour lightly beaten egg, cook till egg forms for 20 seconds.

My shopping cart: Wild caught New Zealand red snapper (1 lb +) $7.20
Where: 99 Ranch Market