Strawberries and Tuna with Wasabi Dressing イチゴとマグロのわさび和え

I came across a very interesting recipe using raw tuna and strawberries. I just could not imagine how this combination would taste and wanted to try it. Unfortunately, the strawberries I can get around here are not of the caliber available in Japan and the tuna I can get is frozen yellowfin tuna. In addition, nanohana 菜の花 or rape blossom cannot be had in US and I had to substitute broccolini. So, at best, this was a variation on the original recipes but this is the best I could do with ingredients available to me. I can only imagine whether the original tasted better.  

At least, visually it appears similar to the original recipe.

Ingredients:

Tuna, half block, (I used my usual frozen yellowfin tuna), cut into 5mm cubes (#1)

Strawberries, 5-6 (or about the same amount as the tuna), cut into 5mm cubes (#2)

Broccolini, one bundle, only top portion, blanched in salted water and then shocked in ice water (#3), using a knife to remove the buds (#4).

Salt 1/6 tsp

For Sauce

Sesame paste, white, 1 tbs

Wasabi (I used real wasabi) 1 tsp

Mirin 1 tbs

Soy sauce 1 tbs

For seasoning broccolini buds 

Japanese noodle sauce, concentrated (x3)

Directions:

1. I sprinkled salt over the tuna cubes, mixed and let it stand as I prepared the other items.
2. Although this was not in the original recipe, I seasoned the broccolini buds with a small amount of mentsuyu 麺つゆ, Japanese noodle sauce, mixed well and then squeezed out the excess sauce (#4).
3. I mixed the strawberries and tuna cubes.
4. Using a round mold, I first packed a layer of tuna-strawberry mixture (#5).
5. I then layered the broccolini, packed tight using the back of a spoon (#6).
6. I mixed, the sesame paste, wasabi, mirin, and soy sauce in a Japanese mortar "suribachi" and mixed it well. I added more wasabi after I tasted it.
7. I poured the sauce around the mold, garnished the top with slices of strawberry and carefully removed the mold.

Strawberries and tuna are indeed an interesting and good combination. If both the strawberries and tuna were better quality, this could have been spectacular. The sauce was good but had a predominantly sesame flavor and the wasabi was not very forthcoming. I may change the proportion of the ingredients in the sauce if I make this dish again.  But this dish was still very good and unique. We had cold sake with this, which went very well,  but I wonder if chilled champagne might have been a better pairing. We'll just have to make this again to see. 

Blueberry bread with pecan ピーカンナッツ入りブルーベリーパン

This is a continuation of my wife's quest of  blueberry bread/muffins. This time, the major addition is a layer of pecans on the bottom which formed an almost fried in the butter pecan crust. Certainly. this is a good bread but we wondered if it might not be good to just mix all the pecans directly into the batter.

The pecan layer is on the bottom and is nicely crunchy with a pecan flavor.

Ingredients:

3 cups pecans

3 cups blueberries

6 cups whole wheat or AP flour (I used AP)

2 1/2 cups sugar

8 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter melted

2/3 cup Greek yogurt

1 1//2 cup milk

4 eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat the inside of two loaf pans with butter and evenly sprinkle 1/2 cup of pecans over the bottom of the pans. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a bowl. Combine the dry and wet ingredients. Add remaining pecans and blueberries. Spread into prepared pans. Cook in oven for 25 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (The original recipe said to cook for 75 to 90 minutes which would have been way too long). 

This bread is very good. It has a very moist consistency and the blueberries give a nice fresh burst of blueberry flavor. The pecan crust is also very nice. 

Beef Donburi 牛丼もどき

Sometimes the standard portion of beef you will get in the US can be rather large, either at a restaurant or at a market. I bought a good sized NY strip steak the other day. It was almost 1 pound and I was told by the butcher that was considered one portion! I thought one portion would be enough for the two of us but we ended up using it in three additional dishes (aside from enjoying it as a steak on the first day). This was the third dish I made from the steak. I did not follow any recipe. This is a cross between beef donburi or gyu-don 牛丼 and roast beef donburi ローストビーフ丼. Instead of a raw egg, I topped it with a soft poached egg. I added fresh corn and spinach since I happened to have them available. 

The yolk was almost totally runny but the egg white was cooked (Of course I used pasteurized eggs from Davidoson).

Again, I did not measure anything so this is not a recipe. I started with Japanese dashi broth (Bonito and kelp), added mirin, sugar and soy sauce to make a rather strong sweet and salty simmering liquid. I added thinly sliced onion and let it cook until the onion was translucent. I added fresh corn kernels (leftover from making shrimp balls) and spinach and cooked it until the spinach wilted (about 1 minute). At this point, the simmering sauce was a bit reduced too much so I added a small amount of hot water (from my InstaHot) and re-tasted it. 

I sliced the NY strip streak thinly which was cooked medium rare. I placed on the top of the cooked vegetables and placed the lid and let it sit for 1 minutes to warm it up (not to cook). I placed the vegetables with the simmering liquid (it was just right amount of two servings) on the top of warm rice (I used microwaved previously frozen rice for this) as seen in above picture.

I covered the surface with warmed steak slices. Meanwhile I poached eggs (using pasteurized Davidson eggs) and top each donburi. We broke the yolk and let it mingle with sauce and meat. This dish was not roast beef don (which is usually served with Japanese style onion sauce) and flavor is more similar to gyu-don. This was our lunch on our off day and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Blueberry bread with rolled oats 押し麦入りブルーベリーパン

To celebrate the season (this was in July), my wife is on a quest to test all possible blueberry bread recipes. This is another variation she made. The difference between these blueberry breads is rather subtle.  This variation includes rolled oats 押し麦. For breakfast, we served this with yogurt and cherries.

Actually, if you look carefully, you can see the rolled oats in the bread.

Ingredients:

2 cups blueberries

4 cups flour

2 cups sugar

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

2 cups Greek yogurt

2 eggs

1 cup butter melted

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup oats

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter and dust 2 loaf pans with flour. Toast the oats in the toaster oven until they become brown and fragrant. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a bowl. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Fold in the blueberries (the batter will be stiff so it may be difficult to get them evenly distributed as indicated by the picture above.) Bake for about 50-55 minutes. 

This bread tastes like a very rich pound cake with moist texture and a crunchy cookie crust (at least when it just comes out of the oven. Over time the crust is not as crunchy but is still good.) The oats kind-of disappear, although they do add some nuttiness because of the roasting and some additional texture. This bread is an appropriate celebration of blueberry season. 

Shrimp and cucumber salad with "Kimisu" egg yolk vinegar sauce 黄身酢の和え物

When I made shrimp balls (which required egg whites), I was left with two egg yolks. I was pondering how to use them. The yolks were from regular not from pasteurized eggs, so making mayonnaise was not feasible. Hollandaise sauce was another possibility but I settled for Japanese "Kimisu" 黄身酢 sauce. I have posted "kimisu" previously. That one came out a bit thinner than I wanted. This time, my kimisu sauce came out very thick and creamy. I made a small starter salad with shrimp, cucumber, wakame sea weed 若芽 and Campari tomato.

Since I had, tobiko roe とびこ I used it as a garnish on the top.

As you can see the kimisu sauce did not just run down the sides and had almost a soft mayo texture.

I used salt-preserved (not dried) wakame which tasted better.

Chef Kitayama of Sushi Taro told me that he froze the eggs he used for his sauce and then removed the egg yolks for kimisu to make a thick creamy texture. It was too late for that and, rather than winging it, I looked up recipes to accomplish thick and creamy kimisu sauce.  Among the many variations of recipes I settled on this recipe by a professional Japanese cooking teacher. He suggested to use a whisk and double boiler and whisk in air to make it creamy. In addition, the seasoning was slightly different from what I was doing. The original recipe used 3 egg yolks but I had only two. I had to make proportional changes in other ingredients to accomodate. I also reduced the sugar (my instinct told me otherwise it would be too sweet).

Ingredients (enough to dress 6 of these small salads):

Egg yolks, two

Rice vinegar 2/3 tbs

Mirin 2/3 tbs

Sugar 1 tsp

Light colored soy sauce  2/3 tbs

Dashi broth 1 1/3 tbs

Salt to taste

Directions:

In the upper pan of a double boiler, I combined all the ingredients. When the water in the lower pan started boiling, I turned it down to simmer and put the upper pan over the boiling water and started whisking vigorously.  I occasionally removed the upper-pan to prevent the sauce from becoming scrambled eggs. After it started thickening, I kept it on the heat and kept whisking for two more minutes. I cut off the heat and kept whisking for another minute or two and let it cool down. After it cooled, I put the sauce in a small seal-able container and kept it in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it  (According to this recipe, it will keep 2-3 days refrigerated).

Shrimp: I thawed frozen shrimp, then cooked it by gently boiling it in salted water with a dash of sake for 2-3 minutes. I sliced the shrimp in two lengthwise and cut the resulting strips in half.

Cucumber: I used one American mini-cumber washed and salted, rolled on the cutting board and let stand for 10 minutes, then washed and dried using a paper towel and sliced thinly. I salted it and kneaded it and let it stand for another 10 minutes. I squeezed out the excess moisture and dressed the cucumber in sushi vinegar. I squeezed out the excess dressing before assembly.

Wakame seaweed: I used the "raw" salt preserved kind. I washed off the salt and soaked in filtered water for a few minutes. I squeezed out the excess moisture and dressed it in sushi vinegar.  Excess dressing squeezed out before assembly.

This was certainly a nice thick and creamy kimisu sauce. When I took it out of the refrigerator, the sauce was stiffer than I wanted it too be, so I added a small amount of broth and mixed it in to loosen it. In retrospect, I should have added more vinegar to loosen the sauce. I could have used a more assertive vinegar flavor in this sauce. In any case, using a whisk and introducing air made this kimuzu sauce very thick and creamy. The entire small salad tasted great.

Shrimp balls, two colors エビ団子の二色あげ

It was getting to be a corn season (it was July when I made this dish). Fresh local corn in husk was reasonably priced and plentiful in the grocery store.  Last week, I got 10 ears of corn. My wife made fresh corn pudding (amazingly, 10 ears only made 5 small ramekins of pudding, so each ramekin had 2 ears worth of corn in it, but it was the pure concentrated essence of corn). This week I bought 5 ears. I did not know what I would make, so I just boiled them in salted water briefly and removed the kernels (by cutting them off using a chef's knife) (see #1 in the composite picture below). I found this recipe on line and decide to try it. It is essentially ground/chopped shrimp made into a ball covered with chopped corn kernels and soybean (called two tone shrimp balls since one is green and the other yellow). The oil I used may have been a bit too hot since the balls browned quickly. I served them with two kinds of salt; green tea salt and ukari ゆかり(dried powdered red perilla with salt).

This was much more difficult to make than I had thought especially forming the shrimp paste into balls. This may be due to the imprecision of the amount of egg white and potato starch I used.

Ingredients: (the amounts are from the original recipe which reportedly makes 8 small dumplings)

Shrimp, shell off, 120g (I used about 8 medium count frozen shrimp, thawed in running water. I salted them and let them stand for 10-15 minutes before using) 

Egg white：10g、potato starch：1/2 tsp (this was how the amount of specified in the original recipe. I ended up using egg white from one egg and much more potato starch.)

Corn kernel 60g (I just used a part of what is shown in #1)

Soybeans, boiled, shelled 60g (I used frozen soybeans and used only part of what is shown in #2)

Egg white, potato starch, salt

Directions: (I modified the recipe as usual, especially as I had no idea what 10 grams of egg white was. I probably added too much egg white which then forced me add more potato starch).

1. I chopped up both the corn kernels and soybeans. I squeezed out any excess moisture using a paper towel.

2. I finely chopped the shrimp until it stuck together with a paste-like consistency. I added the egg white (about 1 egg worth). After adding the egg white, the shrimp paste became very soft. I added about 2-3 tsp of potato starch and a pinch of salt. 

3. Wetting my fingers, I made small balls (total of 8), dredged them in potato starch, then coated with egg white. I then covered the surface with either the corn or soybeans. It was still rather soft and difficult to make into a ball.

4. I dropped the balls into a 350F oil (#3), which immediately started browning (#4). The oil may have been too hot.

5. I fried them turning several times for 3-4 minutes.

This was a nice dish. It essentially had the nice firm texture of shrimp. The corn variation was the better of the two--the sweetness of the corn perfectly complemented the sweetness of the shrimp. We are not sure about the soybean version. The soybeans did not add much flavor to the dish.  We tried both types of balls with two kinds of salt, green tea and red perilla flavors, both were good. We also tried with soy sauce but the soy sauce overwhelmed the subtle shrimp flavor of the dish. If I make this one again, I may simple mix the corn and/or soybeans into shrimp paste and fry it.

Parmesan Broccoli Balls (a.k.a Stuffing balls) パルメザンチーズ ブロッコリー ボール

We had some blanched broccoli left over from last weekend and my wife found this recipe on line. This appealed to her since it is basically bread stuffing in ball form. It is amazingly good, although it is not dietetic. 

You can see small florets of  broccoli are embedded in the ball. I also served it with more blanched broccoli and skinned Campari tomato topped with mayo and Dijon mustard.

This was baked in the toaster oven but still developed a nice crunchy crust. Since it has a good amount of butter, even baked, it is like oven fried.

We made some adjustment to the original recipe, since we did not have garlic salt or margarine (we do not use margarine in any case). We also sautéed onion and garlic before mixing in.

Ingredients:
One head of broccoli, thick stem removed and discarded, separated into florets, blanched in salted  water and cooled (original recipe calls for frozen broccoli).
1 (6 ounce) package flavored dry stuffing mix.
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (it was a bit of work to grate this much).
1 medium onion, finely chopped
5 eggs, beaten (original recipe calls for 6)
3/4 cup butter, unsalted, melted (original recipe calls for margarine)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

One clove of garlic chopped and 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt (original recipe calls for garlic salt)

Olive oil for cooking onion and garlic

Direction:

1. In a frying pan with olive oil, saute the onion and garlic until soft and onion is semitransparent (#2).
2. In a large bowl, mix broccoli, stuffing mix, Parmesan cheese, onion, garlic, eggs, butter, pepper, and salt (#1). 
3. Cover, and chill in the refrigerator approximately 1 hour, until moisture has been absorbed.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
5. Roll the chilled mixture into 1 inch balls, and arrange on a medium baking sheet (#3 and 4). We used a medium sized ice cream scoop to portion out.
6. Bake 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until browned.

We really like this dish. This may replace my wife's stuffing for the holiday dinners. The amount of butter, eggs and Parmesan cheese make this dish not particularly diet worthy. We wondered at the role the broccoli played in this dish but decided, although the flavor is subtle, it helps. There was too much for us to eat at once so we froze most of it. This reheated very well in the toaster oven. Having something like this to pull from the freezer as a quick hors d'oeuvre is really handy and can make a workday evening a little more special.