Burdock "gobo" beef roll 牛蒡の牛肉巻き

When I made sukiyaki 鋤焼, I used a portion of the sukiyaki beef to make this dish. This type of roll is very common in Japanese cooking and they are popular in izakaya as well as side dishes in a bento box. This time I used gobo and carrot in the center and seasoned it in a teriyaki style.  I could have used asparagus, green beans, scallion (famous "negimaki" 葱巻き) or other vegetables by themselves or in combination. This dish can also be made with chicken or pork as well (pound it thin). Other options are to season it with a miso-based sauce or breading it to deep fry. My version is a relatively healthy drinking snack.

To make this dish I prepared the vegetables ahead of time (1 day before) which makes this dish quicker and easier.

Vegetables: I scraped the skin off the gobo with the back of my knife and cut it into small batons (2-3 inches long and 1/3 inch thick). I soaked it in acidulated water for 10-15 minutes with several changes of water. I cut the carrot in the same shape and size. I cooked the gobo and carrot together in salted water for 15-20 minutes and then drained. I let them cool.

Meat: I used the kind of very thinly sliced beef used for sukiyaki. If this is not available, you may have to pound the beef into very thin pieces.

Assembly: I spread out one sheet of beef and dusted it lightly with flour. I placed 3 gobo and 3 carrot sticks on the near end (#1) of the meat and started rolling as tightly as possible (#2). I also dusted the outer surface of the rolls with flour as well (#3). I made a total of 6 rolls.

In a frying pan, I added vegetable oil (2 tbs) on a medium flame. I browned the surface of the rolls (#4) starting from the seam side. You have to make sure all the surfaces are browned by turning the rolls 90 degrees after browning one side. I then added sake (1 tbs), mirin (1 tbs) and soy sauce (2 tbs) (#5).( Be careful about flare-ups). I shook the pan and turned the rolls so that all the surface was coated with the sauce. After 4-5 minutes, the sauce reduced and caramelized (#6). I made sure all the roll surfaces were evenly coated.

Here is the cut surface.

I cut the roll into 4 pieces and served.  It was nice eating this hot but this also tastes great at room temperature or even cold. The gobo has a nice crunchy consistency and all the flavors are very nice. After wolfing down the roll I served as a starter dish, my wife asked why I was being so stingy only serving one roll per person as a teaser. I told her that more dishes were coming and we did not want to fill up with this one dish. After a pause she said that was OK because the remaining rolls would only taste better the next day after the flavors had more time to meld...and she was correct. This dish will go with any drink perhaps a good sturdy Cabernet but we are partial to cold sake here.

Tofu steak 豆腐ステーキ

This is a fairly common Izakaya dish. It is easy and quick to make but tastes good. Again, there are a few variations to this dish. This is how I did it this evening.

I first made 1/2 inch thick slices (I made 4 for 2 servings) of firm tofu. I put them between paper towels and removed the excess water. Although, you do not have to, I decided to dredge them in potato starch or Katakuri-ko 片栗粉.

I added vegetable oil (2 tbs) in a frying pan (in retrospect I should have used a non-stick pan) on medium heat. I fried one side for 1 minute or until it was nicely browned. I then turned it over and cooked the other side for 1 minute. I drizzled undiluted "Mentsuyu" 麺つゆ (2x concentrate) from the bottle on the tofu slices. (You could use just soy sauce.) It sizzles vigorously. I turned down the heat and turned over the tofu slices one more time to coat all the surfaces with the sauce. Essentially no liquid remained in the pan.

I served this with a dab of grated ginger root, an put a little bit more "Mentsuyu" over the tofu slices. This is a simple but perfect Izakaya dish. This will go with almost any drink but we went for cold sake (again). I garnished with a plum blossom from the backyard where the tree just started to bloom. Spring is near.

Sukiyaki すき焼き

When I think of Sukiyaki, it conjures up two unrelated memories in my mind. One is a Japanese popular song called "Ue-o muite arukou" "上を向いて歩こう"; translated into English, as "Let me gaze up while I am walking (and holding back my tears)". This was sung by Kyu Sakamoto 坂本九, who was later killed in a tragic commercial airplane crash in 1985. This is a melancholic song without any reference to food but, for some reason, was named "sukiyaki" when it was introduced to the U.S. The lyrics of the song and this English title have absolutely no relation to each other whatsoever except that both were from Japan--it is the equivalent to introducing "Moon River" as "Beef Stew".) Despite this, it was reportedly #1 on the Billboard magazine hit chart in June 15 of 1963.

Sukiyaki also reminds me of the very first time my wife and I visited Kyoto together so many years ago. Although we had visited Japan frequently we usually headed straight to Hokkaido occasionally staying only a few days in Tokyo. So the Japan my wife knew consisted of only Tokyo, Sapporo and other parts of Hokkaido. For her, Kyoto was an eye-opening experience--until then she thought all of Japan was like Hokkaido and was surprised to see how different it was. 

On that trip, one evening, we stolled along a narrow and crooked alleyway in Pontocho 先斗町. Since I did not do good research ahead of time (this was a time way before internet Tabelog and food blogs), we did not have any idea which restaurant we should try. Then, I found what appeared to be an old Kyoto house with a small wooden sign saying "Sukiyaki". Although it looked more like a residence than a restaurant, I made an executive decision and we went in. As we said "hello" or "konbanwa" at the small and deserted  "genkan" 玄関 entrance, a kimono clad "nakai" san 仲居さん or waitress, came out from behind the sliding "shoji" screen and greeted us. After removing our shoes, we were ushered up into a large Japanese room (10 tatami-mat room or 十畳間) upstairs which was just for us. We did not see any other customers and the "nakai" san made conversations with my wife (through my translation) and I while preparing sukiyaki at the table. It was such a different and pleasant eating experience. The room was elegant in a slightly shabby chic. It was so quiet and peaceful after the bustle on the streets below. I do not remember exactly but it was not outrageously expensive. (In later years, we visited Kyoto many more times. Every time we visit Pontocho, we see that the stores in the alleys have changed and new (chain?) restaurants and girly bars have started replacing old traditional restaurants and drinking places. Although we tried, we were not able to find our "sukiyaki" restaurant again. That meal turned out to be one of those poignant but fleeting experiences--kinda like the song. 

(Image borrowed from http://shigeking.exblog.jp/10388168/). 

This dish, sukiyaki, was invented after the Meiji restoration (1868) when Japanese adapted to eating meat (beef) and also is one of the Japanese foods accepted and popularized in the U.S. long before sushi and sashimi became popular. Sukiyaki 鋤焼 (suki 鋤 means a type of Japanese spades and "yaki" 焼き means to grill or cook. But I am not sure that was how this dish was originally cooked.) has two distinct styles; Kansai 関西 (includes Kyoto) and Kanto 関東 (Tokyo) -styles. Mine must be a Hokkaido 北海道 style. Actually, when I was growing up, my mother used to make sukiyaki with thinly sliced pork rather than beef, which was (and maybe still is) common in Hokkaido.

We have not made sukiyaki for ages but I found thinly sliced sukiyaki beef (frozen), which was not as nicely marbled as Japanese beef, at a Japanese grocery store and decided to make sukiyaki. Sukiyaki is traditionally cooked at the table and "the man of the house" is supposedly in charge of cooking and seasoning sukiyaki even though he usually does not cook. A traditional sukiyaki pot or すき焼き鍋 is made of cast iron、round and shallow with folding handles like one you see here. 

Ingredients: Besides thinly sliced beef, the most common items include tofu (especially grilled tofu or 焼き豆腐), Konnyaku thread or shirataki (白滝) (boiled for few minutes in water and washed in cold running water to remove its distinctive (read:awful) smell, shiitake mushroom (I used shimeji here), onion (either regular, thinly sliced, or Japanese "negi" scallion cut in 1-2 inch long on a slant), some type of greens such as spinach (I used a mixture of spinach and arugula here, which were very briefly blanched). My wife likes the more traditional edible chrysanthemum or shungiku (春菊)*. As seen on the left in the image below, I arranged the ingredients on a large plate before starting.

(*We love shungiku for its distinctive taste and even tried to grow it without much success. You could occasionally get it fresh at the Japanese grocery store but the availability is sporadic at best.)

Seasonings: You should have your seasonings handy while cooking sukiyaki; soy sauce, sugar, and sake. I do not use a premixed seasoning liquid or warishita 割り下. Just add these seasonings as you add more ingredients; sprinkle sugar, splash soy sauce and then sake. Since this is done by the man of the house, he does not measure anything (right, image above).

Cooking:  We did not cook the sukiyaki at the table this time. I placed a sukiyaki pot on the stove on medium low heat. I first melted a bit of butter (or you could use a chunk of beef fat) and spread the beef over the butter. The proper and traditional way of serving sukiyaki, is to season the meat after it has browned with sake, sugar and soy sauce. Then all the diners taste a small portion of this first cooked meat, since this is the only time browned meat was available to taste. (The rest of the beef added later is just cooked in the seasoning liquid). I do not see much advantage in this custom and I cooked everything together as you see on the right in the picture above. The vegetable and tofu exude water but if the liquid is not enough or the seasoning is too strong you could add more sake or dashi. I put on the lid and cooked it for 5 minutes or until the onion was done.

Serving: The classic way is to serve a raw beaten egg in the bowl as a dipping sauce (shown in the second picture above.) (of course, I used pasteurized shell eggs for this). The egg will cool the suskiyaki and make it taste better for sure. We just had this as a drinking snack rather than a meal with cold sake. This is such a classic dish and even the inferior quality of the beef did not detract.

"Tarako" cod roe omelet 鱈子のだし巻き

This is another "teiban" 定番 or regular item in Izakaya. Although using a spicy tarako or "(karashi) mentaiko" 辛子明太子 appears to be more common than using regular tarako roe. I like using regular tarako with Tabasco mixed in, so I can control the spiciness.  I am not sure you will find this dish in any place other than an Izakaya or similar low-key eatery unless you make it at home. Some variations exist including adding a nori sheet or cream cheese.

It was a Tuesday night. I thawed a package of tarako the previous weekend but I did not get around to using it. So, I had to start using the tarako soon, hence, this dish.

I usually make a dashimaki with three eggs but this one required 4 eggs and I could have done a better job forming the roll.

Eggs: I used large brown eggs (4). I added dashi broth (4 tbs, leftover from making another dish), sugar (2 tsp) and a pinch of salt and mixed well in a bowl.

Takako: I opened one roe sac by cutting the membrane along the long axis. Using the back of my knife, I scraped off the roe from the membrane and placed it in a small bowl. I then added sake (less than 1 tbs) and Tabasco (as much as you like) and mixed well to attain the degree of spiciness and consistency I wanted. I then made it to a rectangle with the width equivalent to that of a square Japanese Omelet pan. If you like, you could roll this in a nori sheet (if you do this step, wrap the tarako-nori roll in a plastic wrap for few minutes until nori sheet gets moist and keeps its form before placing it on the omelet).

On a low flame, I heated a square Japanese omelet pan and added vegetable oil (my pan is non-stick and I added oil to just barely coat the surface). The pan should be hot enough so that the eggs start cooking immediately but not too hot for the eggs to start bubbling. I poured enough egg mixture to thinly coat the bottom. When it was half cooked, I added the tarako mixture, about one inch from the far edge of the pan. Using a spatula (one wide enough almost encompassing the width of the pan is best), I lifted and draped the 1 inch portion of the omelet over the tarako, and started rolling (You also need to tilt the pan to help with the rolling action. I did not do as well as I could have). I repeated the same process three more times, adding vegetable oil to the pan as needed. I ended up with a rectangular omelet which looks exactly like a Japanese dashimaki omelet from outside (albeit a bit fatter). But, of course, when you slice it, you will see semi-cooked spicy tarako inside.

This is a sublime dish; nice salty taste and interesting texture of tarako in the center with mild spiciness and the surrounding omelet has nice conforming sweetness. We did not need any soy sauce because of the enough saltiness from the tarako. You need to have sake for this dish. Good effort by me on weekday night. Only problem may be that this dish is high in cholesterol.

All leftover mini-casserole 残り物キャセロール

This is not really blog worthy but we liked it very much. One evening my wife gave me a list of small odds and ends leftovers which she tasked me to "clean up". The list consisted of: 1) cooked Spanish flavored rice, less than 1 cup, 2) one small cooked lamb chop, 3) 4 asparagus previously sauteed in butter, 4) two florets of cooked cauliflower (a part of baked veggie dish). I did not ask why such small amounts were left over or why she didn't just throw them away--my task was to come up with something using them.

I first buttered two small ramekins and packed each in layers from the bottom up, starting with the Spanish rice, followed by the cauliflower finely chopped, the lamb finely diced, and the asparagus chopped. I then beat one egg and seasoned it with salt and pepper, added tiny cubes of cold butter (1 tsp) and poured it over the top layer of asparagus. I then grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese over it. I baked in a toaster oven for 10 minutes at 400F.

This was surprisingly good. With very interesting layers of flavors. It turned out to be very satisfying dish. We used up all the leftovers--my task was completed.

Chicken Patty, miso flavored, with pine nuts 鶏の松風焼き

This is a variation of chicken "tsukune". The addition of pine nuts and miso make this dish distinctive. I used 1/2 lb ground chicken. Add white miso (2 tbs), mirin (2tbs), panko (1/2 cup), flour (2 tbs) and toasted pine nuts (3 tbs) and 1 egg. Mix and put in small square baking dish (I sprayed with "Pam" to prevent sticking) so that the thickness is about 1/2 inch. Put it in a 350 F oven for 15 minutes.

I think this was in one of the recipes for "Osechi" お節料理 or New Year Dishes which I saw on-line some time ago. I have made this for New Year. In that case, I cut the loaf into the shape of "Hagoita" 羽子板 and insert tooth picks to mimic the real thing and brush mirin and add "aonori" 青のり for green "pine" needle color as instructed in the original recipe (left in the above picture).

The taste is great and goes well with any drinks including red wines.

Duck breast salad with grilled shiitake 鴨胸肉と焼きシイタケのポン酢酢の物

This is another quick dish I made from the leftovers we had as a starter dish of the evening. There is no recipe for this, I just concocted it on a whim. I had roasted duck breast leftover and I thought the combination of onion and ponzu with duck will be good.

The amounts are for two small servings as seen above. I fist thinly sliced red onion (1/3 medium). I salted, kneaded, and soaked it in water for 5 minutes and wrung out the moisture with a paper towel. Cucumber was sliced obliquely very thin. I salted and squeezeed out the excess moisture (one small American mini-cuke). I thinly sliced the duck breast (cooked to medium rare with nice uniform rosy color) and then cut it into wide strips (4 thin slices per serving). I also found fresh shiitake mushroom (4, small) left in our refrigerator and decided to include it in this dish. I washed and broiled them in a toaster oven (it is sort of steam broiled). After a few minutes before it gets dried up, I removed the shiitake and cut into thin strips and dressed with a small mount of soy sauce.

I mixed all the ingredients except for the shiitake in a bowl and dressed them with ponzu shoyu ポン酢醤油 (from the bottle) and a splash of a good olive oil. I topped it with the grilled shiitake and sprinkled roasted white sesame seeds on top.

For an impromptu dish, this was a great success. The onion is strong enough but not too assertive because of the salting and soaking in water. The addition of the olive oil contributes depth of the dish. We had this with "G sake" from SakeOne. The very first US brewed sake we really like. This is a wonderful pairing. I should have made more since we had more duck breast.