Monday, November 29, 2010

Exotic mushrooms and wild rice soup きのことワイルドライスのスープ

I am again drifting from the Izakaya theme but this is one of our favorite soup for special occasions. It is almost a cross between porridge and soup depending on how much wild rice I add. It can be certainly served as either "shime" (ending) or "opening" dish.

The original recipe came form the cookbook called "Openers", which has recipes and very artistic pictures of the appetizers and soups, i.e., "openers". We got this some years ago and it appears that this book is not available any longer. This soup can be a bit expensive to make depending on what kinds of exotic mushroom and types of wild rice are used. 

Mushrooms: For making soup stock, regular white button mushrooms are used, which will be pureed into the soup stock (see below). For the mushrooms in the soup, I used chanterelle, oyster (maitake, 舞茸), shiitake シイタケ, trumpet royale (very similar to eringi エリンギ or eryngii), alba clamshell, and brown clamshell (hon shimeji ホンシメジ) mushrooms this time. Cut them into relatively large pieces so that you can see and taste the mushrooms. Trumpet royale may be cut or torn along its length relatively thinly since it is rather firm. The amount and kinds of mushrooms you can use are totally up to you but using at least one exotic wild mushroom will make this soup special. Chantrelle and morel are two of my favorites and tend to be rather expensive.

Wild rice: Use 100% wild rice either true wild rice from the lakes of Minnesota or cultivated ones. I used the latter. Before adding to the soup, soak it in a hot water for one hour. Do not use a mixed wild rice and regular rice, which is often sold as "wild rice" in a ready-to-use box. You can not substitute wild rice with any other rice. The result will be totally different. So use wild rice. 

Mushroom Soup Stock: To make the soup stock, I sauteed the shallots, (thinly sliced, 5 medium), and carrot, rather finely chopped (one medium) in butter (2 tbs) in a large (12 inch) frying pan on a medium high flame for several minutes. It is ok to brown the butter in this process. I then add thinly sliced white button mushrooms (stem end removed, one package or about 15-20 small and medium ones) and sauté for 5-7 minutes. The reason I use a rather high heat is that the water exuded from the mushrooms needs to be quickly reduced leaving brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Deglaze with chicken stock (1/2 cup, my usual Swanson no-fat, low sodium) and turn down the flame to low. Put a tight fitting lid on the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. I add this to the stock pot with warm chicken broth (about 3 cups, again Swanson) on simmer. Using an immersion blender, I puree the solids in the soup stock. I put the pan in the sink to make spills easier to clean and blend. Once blended the pot goes back on the stove on simmer. 

I sauteed the mixture of the mushrooms from above in a large frying pan on a high flame with butter (2 tbs) for several minutes until the mushrooms are soft and browned without any liquid remaining in the bottom of the pan (picture on the left). I deglaze with brandy (2-3 tbs, I used Christian Brothers but it is up to you to use Remy Martin XO here). Be careful since it will ignite (I pour the amount of brandy in a metal cup before deglazing and flambe-ing). Let the flame die down and add the mushrooms to the soup stock. Add the drained wild rice (I only had 1/2 cup but you could use more, up to about 1 cup). I seasoned with dried leaf savory (1/4 tbs, if you have fresh savory, use fresh, 1/2 tbs, but I do not like to use "ground" savory) and fresh chopped thyme (sparingly, thyme can be strong, I used the ones still surviving in our herb garden). Actually, I add fresh thyme towards the end of cooking. I let it simmer for about 40 minutes until the wild rice is cooked. I adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. I served the soup garnished with chopped chives and freshly cracked black pepper.

This is a wonderful soup. In addition to all the flavors from the mushrooms, the wild rice really adds a nutty flavor as well as a thickness and unctuous mouth feel of the soup. We served this for Thanksgiving and Christmas in the past with great success. We had this with my wife's rye whole wheat bread tonight; an extremely satisfying combination. The wine we had was Bordeaux (unusual for us), Chateau Pavie-Macquin 2006. This is rather young and fruit-forward (for Brodeaux) without any funky nose. The earthy flavors of mushrooms went so well with this wine.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Nabemono 鍋物

Nabe 鍋 means "pot". Nabemono is an all inclusive term of any hot pot dish but often the dish itself is called "nabe". Any dish you cook (usually on the table) in a pot (most often earthenware) with broth is called "nabe" or "nabemono". Sukiyaki  すき焼き, shabu-shabu しゃぶしゃぶ and oden おでん may be considered types of nabe in a broad sense but I do not think it is appropriate to include them in "nabemono". Depending on the ingredients and seasoning of the broth, you have many variations and many names of "nabe". Whatever the name, in cold winter days, nabemono is one of the most comforting  and warming dishes. The types of broth seasonings could be;

1) Dashi without seasoning; When your broth is not seasoned, you use a dipping sauce such as ponzu. Tarachirinabe タラちり鍋. Mizutaki 鶏の水炊き, and Yudoufu 湯豆腐 are three such examples.
2) Dashi and soy sauce based; Yosebabe 寄せ鍋 is the best example.
3) Dashi and miso based; Chankonabe  ちゃんこ鍋, Ishikarinabe 石狩鍋, and Dotenabe 土手鍋 are three such examples.

Since other ingredients will impart lots of flavor to the broth, the starting broth is usually a simple kelp broth. In terms of the ingredients, you could limit them to only a few items (like yudoufu in which only tofu or tofu and nappa cabbage are usually used) or you could add anything including sea food, meat, vegetables, tofu, fish cake and more, as is done in chankonabe and yosenabe. There are no rules (although there are some guide lines). The name of the nabe changes based on the ingredients, locality, and types of broth.
Here is one example I made one evening in a small one person pot. I am not sure what I should call this. A type of yosenabe but I used mostly vegetables and at the very end decided to add shrimp. I first made dashi from kelp and a "dashi pack". This is like a tea bag but instead of tea, combination of pulverized bonito flakes, dried fish and kelp (there are several different kinds) are placed in the bag. It is much better than granulated instant dashi but still very convenient. I seasoned the broth with mirin, sake and soy sauce (to taste, since I did not measure). I started with the ingredients which take the longest time to cook. In my case, I added daikon (halved and thinly sliced) and carrot (sliced a bit thicker than the daikon) first, then after 10 minutes or so, I added the white part of Nappa cabbage or Hakusai 白菜, tofu 豆腐, followed by (after 5 minutes) maitake mushroom 舞茸, green parts of Nappa, scallion, and finally shrimp.

The ingredients I could have added include fish (usually a white meat, hardy fish such as cod), chicken (cut up thigh meat), fish cakes, and shell fish. As a condiment, I used seven flavored Japanese red pepper powder 七味唐辛子. To finish the meal, I could have added cooked rice to make porridge, or noodles such as udon noodles but I was too full just eating the items I cooked. Traditionally, warm sake is the choice of drink but we like cold sake even in winter and with nabe.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Baked cornmeal drumett "tulip" 手羽元チュウリップのコーンミールオーブン焼き

I bought chicken wings over the weekend but we did not use them. I marinated them in sake and kept them in the refrigerator so that they would stay fresh for several more days. Since it was not feasible to grill them over a charcoal fire on a weeknight - not to mention that it is getting too cold and dark to barbecue after we get home, I baked them in the oven to make a Yakitori style dish. I decided to do a slightly more elaborate preparation of the drumetts and made "tulips".

It appears this "tulip" preparation is more popular in Japan than here. First, I cut off the wing tips (discard) and then separate the wings and drumetts. For making a drumett "tulip" (here is a visual aid), just loosen the meat from the bone and nick the skin around the joint so that skin and meat can be pushed down and inverted making a "tulip" shaped meat on one end with bone sticking out as a convenient handle. Naturally, I could have deep fried them but I decided to bake them in the oven instead. To make it slightly more interesting, I added a cornmeal crust.

I just evenly coated the the drumett tulips with light olive oil (using my hands) and season with salt and pepper. I made a mixture of yellow cornmeal and potato starch (about 4:1 ratio) and dredged the chicken. I prepped the wings as usual making a cut beween the bones through the skin and seasoned with salt and pepper. I placed the wings and drumetts on a baking sheet with a raised metal rack (I let the drumett tulips stand up with the meat side down). I baked them in a preheated 450F convection oven (very hot) on the top rack for 20-25 minutes until the surface is golden brown as seen in the above picture.

I served this with wedges of lemon and moromi cucumber. It is a bit healthier than deep frying and the cornmeal flavor is kind of nice. 

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Snap peas in dashi broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし

This is a very healthy and refreshing small dish which goes well with sake or any drink. Recently, Dave Perry recommended two Izakaya cookbooks to me called "Otsumami Yokocho" おつまみ横町. There are two volumes. Both are called "drinking snack alley". The second is distinguished from the first by the additional phrase in the title of  "Mou ikken"  もう一軒 meaning "one more place". This is an appropriate name for the second volume because this phrase is a classic nagging request made by drinking enthusiasts (read; drunkards) who have finished their first rounds but don't want the bar hopping to end..."just one more place". In any case, I got these books from Amazon Japan (The shipping was more than the cost of the books). These two volumes each contain recipes for 185 small dishes which go well with drinks. Many of the dishes are rather simple (or easy to make) and some are not really new or original but the two volumes still contain a good number of dishes that I would like to try (and post) - thank you Dave, I can continue my blog a bit longer. This is the first such dish (page 12 of the second volume). 

Disclaimer: As usual, I often read these recipes but then I end up doing whatever feels right for me, so the end result may be different from what is described in the books.

Snap peas, Japanese name is "sunappu endou" スナップ豌豆, is the hybrid developed in the U.S. but very popular in Japan as well. We like it more than snow peas. This is a rather simple but elegant and healthy dish especially for an Izakaya snack and also taste good.

I removed both ends of the snap peas and blanched them in salted boiling water for several minutes, until cooked but still crunchy. I drained and put in ice water to stop cooking. I drained again and patted dry with a paper towel.

I made a broth from a dashi pack (kelp and bonito in a tea bag) and added salt to taste. I let the broth cool to room temperature and then refrigerated. I added the above blanched snap peas to the broth and let it marinate in the refreigerator overnight.

It has nice crunch. It has a sweet taste (enhanced by mild saltiness in the broth) with subtle dashi flavor. You feel good eating this, a totally guilt free drinking snack. You can have this instead of edamame 枝豆.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Pork loin Barbecue 豚のロースのバーベキュー

Pork is definitely the most popular meat in Japan, at least, when I was there (especially in my parents' household). Most of the time Japanese use thin slices or ground pork rather than a big hunks of the meat. Japanese style thinly sliced pork belly 三枚肉 is most commonly used in Japanese dishes but it is not easily available here in US. More recently, it appears that roasts including pork roast is getting popular in Japan. Although I posted a dish using leftover roasted pork, I decide to post it again with more details.
The cut of pork we got was a loin. I trussed it (lower left) first. I then cut thin slivers of garlic (5-6 cloves). Using a boning knife, I make 1-2 inch deep multiple slits in the meat and inserted the garlic slivers (below, right). You should make sure all the garlic slivers were completely inserted into the meat so that it will no burn on the surface.
I smeared olive oil all over the pork and applied my dry rub consisting of salt, pepper, clove, cinnamon and cumin (below, left). I use an equal amount of salt, pepper, and cumin and less amount of cinnamon and clove but this is totally up to your taste. Like my chicken, I hot smoke and babecue in a Weber using indirect heat. I put a temperature probe to the middle of the meat and when it registers 145-150F, I take it off the weber (below, right) and cover it loosely with aluminum foil and let it sit for 10-15 minutes on a plate. I remove the trusses, slice, and served it with its own juice accumulated in the plate on which the pork was resting. The Crust has nice flavors and au jus is also very nice and we can only have au jus when it was just barbecued.
This time, I served the pork with ratatouille (I made this the day before) and mashed sweet potato. My wife made the sweet potato. The sweet potatoes were cooked in the same Weber with the pork, covered with aluminum foil. She added butter, chopped chives, and soy sauce (Yes, soy sauce). I did not remove the garlic from the slices of pork but if you use it for sandwich, it may be wise to remove the garlic from the roast as you slice it. As you can easily imagine, the leftover pork is very handy to have for the weekdays.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Braised Daikon green and Jako 大根葉とじゃこの炒め物

This is another one of those small nothing dishes which goes so well with sake and goes even better with hot white rice. I mentioned before that the daikon we see in the U.S. usually does not have the greens attached. But this weekend, I got one that did. When I get diakon greens, I try to make some kind of small dish from them. This is a variation on the same theme. This time, I braised them with small semi-dried and salted fish hatchlings called "chirimenjako" 縮緬雑魚 or "jako" for short.


These daikon greens were a bit on the tough side as you can see from the picture--the stalks are thick. So I blanched them in salted water first (for 2 minutes) and shocked them in ice cold water to bring back the bright green color. If the greens are tender, you can skip the blanching process. I squeezed out the excess water and chopped them finely. In a frying pan, I heated 1/2 tbs of dark sesame oil and saute one package (probably 3-4 tbs) of frozen "jako" and sauteed until they were slightly brown and crunchy. You may want to taste the "jako" at this point since the saltiness may vary quite a bit and the amount of soy sauce needs to be adjusted accordingly. I then added the blanched and chopped daikon greens and sauteed for 1-2 minutes. I added 2 tsp of sake, 1 tsp of mirin and 1-2 tsp of soy sauce.  I braised until the liquid was almost gone. You could mix in roasted white sesame seeds as well. I made this one a bit too salty so this is better with hot white rice. Just mix it in and enjoy.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Rice with butter and soy sauce バーター醤油ご飯

This may not be post-worthy but I realized this represents a regional way of eating rice peculiar to the "Hokkaido dialect" of Japanese food culture and may be worthwhile to "document". Although many Japanese really appreciate (or pretend to appreciate) simply cooked white rice for its subtle flavors, many Japanese children and Westerners find it boring. (Many Japanese adults may also harbor the same opinion privately but do not want to appear unsophisticated or childish by expressing it). Even those who appreciate plain white rice sometimes want additional seasoning.

Furikake seasoning ふりかけ is the mixed seasoning used for this very purpose. It is very popular even in the U.S., and many different varieties are available; some are made specifically for kids and some are for adults. I even know somebody who uses furikake to season cottage cheese (Could that somebody possibly be my wife?). I made the big mistake, early in our marriage, of showing my wife, the way I used to eat rice when I was a kid. I just added a pat of butter to hot rice, let the butter melt first and then mixed in soy sauce as seen below. It had been a long time since I had rice that way. My wife immediately took a liking to it and this is her favorite way of eating fresh, piping hot, white rice. In horror at what I had unleashed I had to warn her about the impropriety of enthusiastically putting together her "favorite" rice at a restaurant. While eating rice for dinner at my mother's house in Sapporo, I reminded my mother of how she used to serve butter and soy sauce rice to me as a kid and how I had made the mistake of introducing my wife to the dish. My mother abruptly put down her chopsticks, got the butter out of the refrigerator, distributed it all around followed by the soy sauce. While mixing the ingredients into her rice she mentioned she used to eat her rice like that as a kid but hadn't eaten it in a long time. She took a bite, sighed and said it sure was good! 


I thought this was a fairly common way for Japanese (especially kids) to eat white rice but apparently that is not the case. This appears to be peculiar to Hokkaido. I guess that makes sense since dairy and specifically butter production are primary industries in Hokkaido.

It is always a bit iffy to season plain white rice in public by doing such things as pouring soy sauce, broth or simmering sauce from, say simmered fish 煮 魚 or miso soup over the rice. But many Japanese will do exactly that in private. If I pour miso soup over my rice, I would call it にゃんこめし meaning "cat rice" but, for people from other regions of Japan, "cat rice" is rice topped with bonio flakes and soy sauce and, they may call it "nekomanma" ねこまんま (the meaning is the same, i.e., "cat rice"). The fact that there is a specific name for this type of rice (albeit a bit derogatory) indicates many Japanese are eating rice in this (unacceptable) manner.  I do not recommend doing this in public, however. Why such doctoring of rice is frowned upon by Japanese is "not logical" as Mr. Spock would say. After all, many donburi どんぶり dishes are made using rice in a seasoned broth with toppings and dishes called hiyajiru 冷や汁 and ochazuke お茶漬け are indeed rice in a broth. It appears that as long as it is prepared in the kitchen or is meant to be consumed this way, it is a "legitimate" dish and can be eaten in public. But if you improvise at the table by pouring soup over rice, it is not OK; go figure. I think there was a lengthy discussion on this subject (in Japanese).

If you have not tried this butter soy sauce rice, I strongly suggest you try it, at least once, and let me know if you like it. You could eat this with seasoned and roasted nori "ajitsuke (yaki) nori" 味付け(焼き)海苔 which was my favorite way of eating rice as a kid (and even now). I am not responsible if you find the comforting flavor of this dish addicting.