Matsutake "chawanmushi" savory egg custard 松茸の茶碗蒸し

I have posted "chawanmushi"  茶碗蒸し or Japanese savory egg custard before. "Chawan" means "bowl" (more literally "tea bowl" but this word is usually used to just mean a generic bowl) and "mushi" means to steam. Although this is a very popular dish in Japan, only rarely do you see it served in Japanese restaurants in the U.S. Since I got fresh matsutake from Oregon mushroom and I posted most of the ways I can think of to serve matsutake before, I decided to make chawanmush with matsutake.

Although I have traditional lidded containers specifically designed for chawanmush, I have been using a set of 6 small bowls for chawanmush for sometime (picture below). I am not sure where I got this one but probably by mail order. This must have been for export, since the traditional Japanese set is either 5 or 10. In any case, three eggs make the perfect amount for these 6 small bowls. The two important tips to make good chawanmushi is the ratio between the eggs and the broth and how to steam it.

Matsutake: I had two relatively large matsutake left. After I cleaned it, I sliced it. 

Eggs: I used 3 large eggs. Since the size of eggs is not uniform,  I measured the amount after lightly beating the eggs (this time, it was 150ml).

Broth: I made dashi broth using a dashi pack (kelp and bonito kind). The amount of liquid should be 3 times of the eggs. (In my case, the final broth should be 150ml x 3 =450 ml). I first measured about 400ml of the broth and I added light colored soy sauce or "usukuchi shouuyu" 薄口醤油 (1 tbs) and mirin (1tbs).  (Taste and if the saltiness is not enough, add salt instead of soy sauce to prevent further darkening the color of the custard. I did not need it this time). I added more broth to make it exactly 3 times of the eggs (in this case, 450 ml).

Egg mixture: I mixed the broth and the eggs trying not to make too many bubbles on the surface. It is important to strain the egg mixture through a fine sieve. If not strained, Chalaza and other chunks of egg white will congeal in chawanmushi producing a very unpleasant white hard spot.

Other ingredients: Since the main feature of this chawanmushi was matsutake, I only used a few other items in this dish; ginko nuts (prepared, in a can, 5-6 in each bowl) and thinly sliced chicken tenderloin (2). After I placed the ginko nuts and the chicken meat in each bowl, I poured in the strained egg mixture. If I had it, I would have used mitsuba 三つ葉 for granish but instead, I had to settle for thinly sliced (on a slant) scallion.

Steaming: I used an electric wok. I started on medium high heat with continuos steam for 2 minutes or so and turned it down to low intermittent steam. After 5 minutes when the surface became lighter yellow and congealed, I placed sliced matsutake and scallion on the top and continued steaming for another 15-20 minutes until a clear liquid started coming or from the custard.

I have to admit the difference between using fresh shiitake mushroom (my usual) and mastutake is subtle but there is a sublime subtle aroma and flavor of matsutake. This dish is so delicate only cold sake could be our choice of libation. Over the next few days I served the remaining chawanmush cold (I could have made cold broth which can be poured over it but I did not). Even cold, it is very good.

Tuna and Salmon roe 'yamakake" 鮪といくらのやまかけ

This post indicates than it is getting harder and harder for me to come up with new dishes to post. These are some of the dishes I served when we were tasting the new batch of G-sake "joy". The yamakake was the 4th dish after octopus sumiso-ae, braised potatoes and green beans and  "ankimo" with orange marmalade soy sauce.

The only variation of this "yamakake" was to add salmon roe or "ikura" to this dish. Again, the tuna sashimi is from frozen "yellow-fin" tuna block from my freezer which was marinated in sake and soy sauce (1:1) overnight.   I used home-grown perilla as the garnish. As usual, I dissolved wasabi in soy sauce and mixed it into the grated nagaimo before serving.

We  progressed into simmered eggplant (with Italian eggplant) served cold. We also reheated simmered chicken wings. This chicken wing dish is getting to be our favorite. It is so easy to make and tastes even better after a few days, reheated. At my wife's suggestion, I also cooked bone-in chicken thighs the same way. Instead of nice collagen from the skin and tendons of the wings, the thighs were much meatier and also tasted excellent.

The stewed eggplants are also nice to have since it also tastes better next day or later served cold. For this batch, I used a whole dried red pepper cut up instead of red pepper flakes, which made the dish a bit more spicy than usual.

There is nothing really new here but showing our Izakaya dishes in sequence.

Pasta with black truffle and cream sauce 黒トリュフとクリームソースパスタ

This is an extravaganza I prepared using the remaining black truffles. If we could not taste or smell black truffles with this pasta dish, we have to give up tasting truffles. I made this as simple as I can make it without garlic and without red pepper flakes; just olive oil, salt, cream, and garnish of chopped chives.

I just cooked the Angel hair pasta according to the instructions on the package. Meanwhile, I sliced off both ends of a black truffle and minced it. In a frying pan, I heated good olive oil and sautéed the pasta and mixed in the minced truffle, seasoned it with salt and cream (3-4 tbs) and reduced it for a few minutes. Off heat, I added thinly sliced truffles as you can see in the picture above. (I used a small sharp utility knife since I did not have a truffle slicer).

The taste? Well, this amount of truffles, we should be able to taste them. They definitely had a good earthy aroma wafting from this dish. The taste? I am not sure. It has a interesting texture and more aroma than the taste. Although my wife said it was something familiar, something she has tasted before. 

We decided  to go with a very inexpensive (but got 90 from Robert Parker) Riondo Prosecco for this dish. This effervescent light wine with floral note was perfect without overwhelming the truffle.

Black truffle with creamy scrambled egg 黒トリュフとクリーミーいり卵

When I ordered fresh matsutake from Oregon mushroom, I also ordered two small black truffles (from France). My wife says that even when the dish is advertised as having truffles she can't taste anything special. When we went to Paris, she ordered a dish that was smothered in tuffles and she said maybe there was something there but she wasn't sure. So, I decided to splurge and got two Burgundy truffles (left in the image below). This way we could experience truffle by itself so we could identify what flavor the truffle had and find out what the hoopla was all about. The first dish I made was designed to highlight the flavor of truffles.  These truffles have a nice earthy aroma which became more pronounced when they were sliced (right in the image below).

I decided to make an egg dish with truffles as the first dish since eggs and truffles are known to go together well. Instead of regular scrambled eggs, however, I used bain marie to make some very creamy scrambled eggs.

I first cut off the both ends of the truffle (right in the image above) and minced it into fine cubes. I then added that to two beaten eggs with cream (2 tbs) and a pinch of salt. On bain marie, I scrambled the egg mixture using a silicon spatula until the eggs reached a very creamy texture. I divided the creamy scrambled eggs into two small egg shaped containers, garnished with thin slices of truffle, chopped chives and freshly cracked white pepper (below).

I have to say that the aroma of truffles is very subtle and, by itself, they do not seem to have much taste. The textural contrast between the creamy scrambled eggs and truffle is nice and added a "je ne se qua" to this very nice scrambled egg. The eggs seemed to absorb the flavor and made it seem like the whole dish was truffles. We couldn't help but compare this flavor the the subtlety of Matsutake. Both mushrooms have a very distinctive flavor but truffles are definitely much more subtle. My wife said she found the flavor surprisingly familiar... so THIS is the taste of truffles. Does this mean she actually tasted truffles before and just didn't realize it?

Marinated tuna bento 鮪の漬け弁当

This is another way to present a one bowl "donburi" dish. Instead of a bowl, (which is "donburi" 丼 in Japanese),  however, I used a rectangular Japanese lacquer box. This is a very common presentation for grilled eels called "una-juu" うな重. (Lacquered square vessels are called "juubako" 重箱、since they can be stacked, "juubako"  means stacked boxes). Mine was not a "juubako" but a two-tiered bento box, so I will call this dish "marinated tuna bento" but I could have called this dish "tuna-juu" ツナ重. This beautiful Japanese lacquer bento box in "Tsugaru-nuri" 津軽塗 (see the picture below) is from Northern Japan (Tsugaru is an area near Aomori 青森). It was a gift I received a long time ago from one of my friends but I have not used it for many years. For this occasion, it was perfect since this has two stackable rectangular compartments.

This post is actually the continuation of a "fresh wasabi rhizome" post. That means the center of attention is the small mound of wasabi in the picture below. The rest of the dish was just to highlight the wasabi (this could be a case of the tail wagging the dog). I made marinated tuna or 鮪の漬け for this. This time I marinated the tuna overnight which made the texture of the tuna somewhat slimy which may not sound appetizing but many Japanese like this particular texture in marinated tuna.

I made the marinade as I posted before (a mixture of soy sauce, sake, juice of grated ginger, and ground roasted white sesame seeds). I did my "yubiki" 湯引き preparation as before, sliced the tuna and marinated it in the refrigerator.

I made sushi rice and spread it on the bottom of the bento box. I then covered the surface with marinated tuna. As garnish, I used Jabara-cut cucumber, avocado, scallion (briefly microwaved with splash of sesame oil), strips of nori and perilla. Of course, the most important garnish is the freshly grated wasabi.

I served it with miso soup (see above, with tofu, scallion and wakame seaweed).

The slightly slimy texture of the tuna, of course, does not brother me and even my wife sort of liked it. We spread a little of the wasabi on the each slice of tuna before eating. The is a sublime combination of flavors and textures. We almost used up this small wasabi daikon after all these dishes.

Real wasabi from Oregon 本物のオレゴン州産山葵大根

Real wasabi root is wonderful stuff especially if you compare it to the fake kinds you get in a tube or in powder form. That stuff is mostly made from Western horse radish and artificial coloring. (Freshly grated horse radish is wonderful stuff in its own right but it is not wasabi). Real wasabi daikon (root of wasabi plant or wasabi Rhizomes) have been produced in the U.S. especially in Oregon for some time. We got wasabi daikon from "Real wasabi" once  (before we started this blog) but it stopped selling fresh wasabi daikon and, instead, only sold prepared and frozen real wasabi-in-a-tube, real wasabi powder and real wasabi containing dressings. The prepared frozen wasabi-in-a-tube is not bad but it has some additives and became dry making it difficult to squeeze out of the tube which I posted before. To my delight, this company re-started selling fresh Rhizomes. The problem is that the smallest unit they sell is 1/2 lb. that is too much to use it up before it spoils unless you are running a sushi bar. (I was told it can be frozen but I have not tried it) and the shipping becomes almost as expensive as the wasabi when ordering the smallest unit.

When I ordered "matsutake" 松茸 from Oregon Mushroom, I found that they also sell wasabi rhizomes in 2 oz increment (2 oz is about one rhizome). I took advantage of this offer and ordered some wasabi with the fresh matsutake and other fresh mushrooms.

The above is a 2 oz wasabi daikon. It arrived with some discoloration on the surface which needed to be shaved off and cleaned but otherwise it was in OK shape. Traditionally, you are supposed to use a shark skin grater for grating a wasabi daikon but I used a porcelain grater which works just fine. After removing the skin from the portion to be grated, I used a nice circular motion to grate it. The enzymatic action develops the flavors and spiciness. The initial aroma is especially wonderful which can be only experienced when you grate it yourself. I planned an evening centered around fresh wasabi.

I tried to get good fresh tuna sashimi from Catalina Offshore products coinciding with the arrival of the wasabi rhizome but fresh sashimi blue fin tuna has been out of stock at Catalina for some time, so I resorted to my backup frozen saku (block) of yellowfin tuna.

I started with tuna nametrou なめろう but added fresh grated wasabi.

This is a mixture of nattou, tuna cubes and egg yolk 卵黄マグロ納豆 (from a pasteurized shell egg) with fresh wasabi.

Cubes of tuna and avocado 鮪とアボカドの角切り with fresh wasabi.

If you have not tasted freshly ground real wasabi, you are missing a lot. The fresh wasabi does have some heat but it is much fresher and flavorful than the stuff served at sushi bars that cleans out your sinuses. All these "usual" suspects I prepared as driking snacks got upgraded one notch by simply adding fresh wasabi!

In between these dishes above, we also had baked marinated tofu and one more dish to follow (to be continued).

Grilled Matsutake and Ginko nuts 焼き松茸と銀杏

This is the ultimate taste of autumn; grilled matsutake 松茸 and ginkgo nuts or "gin-nan" 銀杏. Of course real Japanese Mastutake cannot be had here in the U.S. and, even if available, it would be prohibitively expensive. Last year, I posted several dishes made with North American matsutake. We had the first matsutake of the year at Tako Grill and after that, I promptly ordered matsutake from Oregon Mushroom as I did last year. The price appears to be a bit higher this year but "cheap" compared to either Mexican or Japanese matsutake. The Mexican mushroom is closer in appearance to the Japanese kind and they fetch higher prices. The appearance and smell of the North American matsutake are not as good as the Japanese but the will do for us.

The simplest and the best way to enjoy matsutake is simply grilled and eaten with a squeeze of "kabosu" カボス citrus and salt. I also added grilled gingko nuts or "gin-nan" 銀杏 (I could have collected gingko fruit from gingko trees in our areas but the effort for preparation and not so pleasant smell of the fresh flesh of the fruit forced me to use a canned prepared gingko nuts instead). I served grilled matsutake and gingko nuts with small wedges of lime (since I did not have "kabosu" or "yuzu" 柚子 fruit, this is closest I can come) and salt. I opened a bottle of Juyondai sake 十四代 I had for this occasion (above). (I have one more left).

You can enjoy the subtle but distinctive smell and flavors of matsutake in its pure form. The combination of matsutake and gingko nuts is ultimate autumn flavors but I went further and also served boiled North American chest nuts (below) to complete the autumnal theme. Juyondai brewed from Yamada-nishiki 山田錦 was nicely fruity with subtle "umami" dimensions.

Matustake preparation: In the image #1 below, you see how dirty it was when I received it (#1 left). I first used a dump paper towel to remove the dirt but you need to use a sharp paring knife to scrape off embedded dirt (#1 right). You really have to make sure all the dirt and sands were removed (#2). I prepared special bamboo skewers by shaving regular bomb skewer into very thin skewers so that it will not break the gingko nuts when pierced (#2 shown with two cleaned matsutake).

To prevent the matustake from getting too dry while being grilled, I sprinkled sake over the sliced matsutake (sliced in 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick) and let it soak in for 3-4 minutes before grilling. Since I could not use a charcoal fire this time, I used a Japanese diffuser and a metal wire grill to grill directly over the gas fire (#4). I used a rather hot fire to make grill marks and also cook the matsutake quickly without drying it out (for 3-4 minutes or less). The gingko nuts only grilled for only 1-2 minutes but you have to be careful not to burn the skewers.

We throughly enjoyed the good sake and this autumnal collection of goodies and opening Juyondai was definitely worth it.