Pumpkin Okonomiyaki for Halloween ハロウィーン向けかぼちゃお好み焼き

With Halloween approaching this is pumpkin season. So, we recently got a very big Japanese “Kabocha” pumpkin かぼちゃ from Weee. As I said it was very big so I was able to make three dishes from just half of the kabocha. They were: kabocha salad カボチャサラダ, salted kabocha 塩かぼちゃ and kabocha simmered with eggplant 南瓜と茄子の煮物. That left the remaining half, which my wife cooked in the oven and made a kabocha puree by scraping the cooked meat off the rind. Although she is planning to use it for other purposes, as I said it was a very big pumpkin and produced a lot of puree, so I used some of it to make a seasonal okonomi-yaki お好み焼き for lunch. As shown in the picture as a good measure, I also served the pumpkin salad as a side (shown on the left). The brown and cream colored dabs are additional okonomi-yaki sauce and Kewpie mayo. (They are helpful supplements for the okonomi-yaki.)

Ingredients and directions are the same as previously described. The only difference is I added some of the cooked kabocha puree (about 2 tbs) to the batter (#1). I added a bit more water to make the batter consistency correct. After 4 minutes of cooking on one side, I flipped to make  the pork belly side down and cooked 4 more minutes, then flipped again showing nicely crispy pork and the yellow pumpkin color in the underlying pancake (#2). I cooked 2 more minutes to make the bottom surface crispy. I spread on the oknomi-yaki sauce and added lines of mayo (#3). The cut surface shows the yellow pumpkin color (#4).

We shared one pancake as usual. I topped it with a julienne of pickled ginger, “aonori” 青海苔 dried laver, and bonito flakes (first picture). The texture was very moist as would be expected using kobocha puree. The squash flavor was subtle but clearly present. We maybe like this better than the version made with yamaimo (mountain potato). This is a nice seasonal variation appropriate for Halloween.　

Pan-Grilled Spanish Mackerel 鰆の塩焼き

We got one of the largest Spanish mackerels* we’ve ever had from Whole Foods (about 5 lbs.). As usual, we asked the fish monger to remove the head, tail, fins and gut it. I finished the preparation when I got it home by filleting the fish, removing the pin bones and gathering any residual meat by scraping the bones. I usually make miso-simmered 鯖の味噌煮 and ‘tsumire つみれ” fish balls. This time, since the fish was so big, I also prepared two nice deboned pieces  (from the mid section of the filets). I made “shio-yaki 塩焼き” or “salt grilled” fish using a frying pan. I served this with grated daikon or “daikon-oroshi  大根おろし” with soy sauce. This was particularly good; a nice thick but tender piece of meat with a nice flavor but no hint of fishiness. 

*Finding the appropriate Japanese name for the fish we can get in US can be difficult. Spanish mackerel may be close to “sawara 鰆”. Boston mackerel may be closer to Japanese “saba 鯖”. Certainly, Norwegian mackerel  is Japanese “saba” since it is imported to Japan as “saba”. We can get Norwegian mackerel here but it is usually cleaned and frozen. 

This is not a recipe but a record of how to pan-grill fish using a stainless steele frying pan and parchment paper. (I try not to grill fish using the toaster oven in order to avoid any lingering fishy smell.) Of course, a charcoal fire is the best but requires a bit too much work. 

Ingredients: (2 servings)
2 filet portions of Spanish mackerel (#1), with the skin scored to prevent the skin from breaking during cooking
Japanese sake and salt

1 inch segment of daikon, skin removed and grated, with the excess moisture pressed out
Soy sauce

Directions:
Place the two filets in a rimmed plate, top and bottom lined with paper towel. Pour in enough sake to throughly soak the top and bottom paper towels and refrigerate. 30 minutes before cooking, remove the paper towel and pat the filets dry. Sprinkle salt on both the flesh and skin sides. Cut some parchment paper to fit the frying pan. On medium flame, add the filets with skin side down (#2). Flip after 4-5 minutes or until half of the thickness of the flesh looks opaque (#3 and #4). Cook 3-4 minutes more or until the flesh becomes all opaque.

This method of using parchment paper works well; emulating grilling. Because of the parchment, the fish does not stick to the pan. This method can be used for marinated fish too. This is much easier than grilling or broiling using a toaster oven.

An Aside: We planted morning glories and moonflowers early in the spring and finally, we got a morning glory bloom…Just in time for the first frost? 

Oreo Muffins

Although using Oreo cookies appears to be the most common ingredient for cookie muffins, in the past, my wife made cookie muffins from leftover cookies. Recently, while at the grocery store, she saw dark chocolate Oreo cookies. (With dark chocolate filling not the usual white cream) and decided, although not completely traditional, she would use them to make another batch of cookie muffins.  Recently she is also into making mini-muffins bites. So, here they are; mini dark chocolate Oreo muffins bites. They turned out to be pretty good; with small bits of chocolate Oreo in them.

This is based on the recipe from Sweetly cakes.

Ingredients:
325 g (2 ¾ cups) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
75 g (⅓ cup) unsalted butter, very soft or melted and cooled
75 g (⅓ cup) neutral vegetable oil
180 g (¾ cup + 2 tbsp) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
275 ml (1 cup + 2 tbsp) buttermilk, room temperature
10–12 Oreo cookies, roughly chopped
(Optional): 6 Oreo cookies, broken into pieces for topping, (We didn’t do this)

Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the very soft or melted and cooled butter, vegetable oil, and granulated sugar. Whisk until smooth and well combined.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then add the vanilla extract and mix again until combined.

Add about one-third of the dry ingredients and mix gently, then add half of the buttermilk. Continue alternating the dry ingredients and buttermilk, finishing with the dry ingredients. Mix just until combined without overmixing the batter.

Roughly break 10–12 Oreo cookies into chunks and gently fold them into the batter with a spatula (#1) & (#3). (My wife broke up the cookies in a plastic bag using a meat pounder. The result was a mess of the cookie’s chocolate filling stuck to the sides of the bag (#2). She said she would use a different method next time.)

Line a muffin pan with paper liners and divide the batter between them, filling each liner almost to the top.
Break the remaining Oreo cookies into pieces and add a few pieces on top of each muffin (is using this).
Place the filled muffin pan in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425°F.

Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F, then, without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 350°F and continue baking for about 12–15 minutes, until the muffins are well risen and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs (#4). 

These were fairly sweet basically “desert” muffins. The chocolate Oreo flavor really came through and the cookie pieces retained some of their cookie crunch. The small bite size was a perfect mouthful at the end of a meal.

Vanilla Pudding Cake

This is another of my wife’s baking projects. This is a variation on the various flavored pudding cakes she has been making recently. This time it was “Vanilla Pudding Cake” . This reminded her of PA Dutch cakes she likes to make. The recipe went together rather quickly and we had it as a desert. The cake layer on the top with vanilla sauce on the bottom. Very nice desert.

The recipe is based on one in the Simply Recipes.

Ingredients
1 stick (4 ounces or 113g) unsalted butter
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (143g) all-purpose flour, divided: 1 cup or 120g for the batter and 3tbs or 23 g for the topping.)  
1 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar, divided: 1 cup or 200g for the batter and 1/2 cup or 100g for the topping.)
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups hot water
Powdered sugar, for serving

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Put the butter in a glass 8x8-inch baking dish. Set it in the oven so the butter melts as the oven preheats.

Meanwhile, make the batter:
In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup (120g) of the flour, 1 cup (200g) of the sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in the milk and vanilla until smooth. When the butter has melted, remove the baking dish from the oven. Pour the batter over the butter.

Make the topping:
In a small bowl, mix the remaining 1/2 cup (100g) sugar and 3 tablespoons (23g) of flour. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the batter. Slowly pour the hot water over the topping (do not stir).

Bake the cake until the top is golden brown and the cake is set on top with a gooey pudding layer underneath, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and let it stand until slightly cooled, about 10 minutes. Dust evenly with powdered sugar and serve warm.

This is a very satisfying desert. Like the other pudding cakes my wife has made it has a slightly crunchy crust on a soft layer of cake with a layer of pudding underneath. While my wife had made chocolate and blueberry flavor this one was a very nice vanilla. Can’t go wrong with this as a desert.

Octopus Carpaccio 蛸のカルパッチョ

This is another variation of octopus carpaccio. In this iteration, instead of using balsamic vinegar I used  balsamic glaze which makes it less acidic and slightly sweet which went well with red wine. Since I had roasted red pepper sauce and “ikura” salmon roe I also added them as a garnish. We bought the octopus, which was from Japan, from Weee. The most common Japanese way of serving octopus is dressing it in miso-vinegar sauce or “sumiso 酢味噌” which goes well with sake but not with red wine. This version went very well with the red wine we were having..

Ingredients: (2 servings)
One octopus leg thinly sliced (The one we got was boiled and frozen).
1/4 sweet onion, very thinly sliced, 
1/4 small jalapeño pepper, seeded and deveined, thinly sliced 
thinly sliced  parmigiano reggiano, amount arbitrary
dabs of roaster red pepper sauce (or pesto)
Ikura salmon roe, not too much

Extra- virgin olive oil, balsamic glaze
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the bottom of the plate, drizzle on some thin lines of the balsamic glaze and olive oil. Spread the onion and Jalapeño pepper slices over the drizzle. Spread on the octopus slices. Add thin lines of the glaze and olive oil on top. Sprinkle on the ikura and dabs of the red pepper sauce. Top everything with thin slices of Parmesan cheese

This is a really good appetizer. I also tried it with pesto instead of red pepper sauce and we like the red pepper sauce better. Although we like to have octopus in Japanese style with either wasabi and soy sauce or with sumiso sauce, this type of carpaccio really works with wine but do not over do the ikura.