Crispy Cheese Rice Puffs チーズライスパフ

I am not sure how my wife decided to make this. (Note from wifey: I decided to make this particular dish because by mistake we bought a box of rice krispies to make rice krispies treats at Christmas - for nostalgic reasons; they were one of my favorites as a kid - that was humongous. It had much more rice krispies than were needed for the treats. So, I was looking for other recipes to use up some of the excess.) (Note from Hubbie: Oh! I never had a rice Krispies treat before.) In any case, using the rice krispies cereal, she came up with this dish which is more suitable for a snack with a drink of wine than a dessert. The original recipe was called “crispy cheese wafers” came from Southern Living website. She made two versions; one using a muffin tin (left in picture #1) and the other flattened into a cookie or wafer-shape (right in picture #1).  This is a nice cheesy bite. She warmed them up in the toaster oven which made them crispy and warm. I ask my wife to contenue.

Ingredients:
2 cups (8 ounces) freshly grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese (I used a combination of smoked gouda, sharp cheddar and parmesan cheese
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cayenne pepper or to taste
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup crisp rice cereal

Directions
Mix together the cheeses, butter, flour, red pepper, Worcestershire and salt in a large bowl until mixture forms a ball that lightly sticks together and pulls in all the flour. (Hands worked best for this). Gently fold the rice cereal into the dough. Shape mixture into 1-inch balls using medium sized ice cream scoop. The original recipe called for placing the balls about 1 inch apart on a baking sheet and flattening each ball with a fork, making a crisscross pattern. I made several like that (#2) but I was afraid they would fall apart when cooked so I made some in mini cup cake tins lined with paper cups. I gently pushed the dough into the cups with my fingers (#3) Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until firm. Cool on pan on wire rack.

These made very satisfying savory bites. As you can see from the pictures the ones made free standing on the cookie sheet did not fall apart when cooked. They just spread out. The krispies in the dough formed a nice light crunchy crust and the interior texture was very tender and tasted richly cheesy. These got much better with time as the flavors melded together. They also toasted up nicely in the toaster oven.

Valentine’s day cake バレンタインデイケーキ

Although my wife has previously made this cake, Ricotta-filled Valentine's day "Wacky" cake, some years ago for Valentine’s day, this year she wanted to make the same cake in small individual bite-sized heart-shapes. Problem was we didn’t have any heart shaped pans that were small enough. This led to an internet search which resulted in the purchase of two red silicone heart shaped muffin sheets. Although my wife only filled the muffin cups half full the little cakes rose above the edge of the cups and came out looking round like the one in picture #1 with the cherry on top. The bottoms of the cakes appeared heart shaped as shown by the upside down one on the left in the pic. Bummer! If they were going to come out looking round we didn’t need to buy heart shaped “tins”. Our existing mini muffin tins would have done the trick. Nonetheless, regardless of their shape, they tasted very good. 

Ingredients:
For the cake
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbs. vinegar
1/3 cup oil
1 cup water

For the ricotta filling
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/8 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients for the ricotta filling until smooth and set aside. Mix the dry ingredients from the flour thru the cocoa powder in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until smooth. Fill the heart shaped “tins” with the cake mixture and top them with a scoop of the ricotta filling and half a maraschino cherry (#2). (Nicely heart-shaped). Cook at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until the ricotta topping firms up and a skewer comes out clean. (My wife noticed that the silicone pan did not conduct heat the same way a metal muffin tins would so it took about 10 minutes longer for the cakes to cook.)

Although the final product was not heart-shaped these little cakes were a perfect bite-sized treat to celebrate the end of the Valentine’s dinner. PA Dutch Wacky cake topped with ricotta cheese icing is a Valentine’s Day classic (at least for us).

Valentine‘s day sashimi dinner バレンタインデイ刺身ディナー

As Valentine’s day approached this year, I asked my wife what we should have to celebrate the day. She suggested a Japanese dinner of sashimi, 刺身 chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し, salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻きwith crispy salmon skin and sake (of course). She thought this was a highly appropriate menu since our first dinner/date many, many years ago was on Valentine’s day. On that occasion we went to a Japanese restaurant called “Azuma” in Cupertino. It appears Azuma is still in business at the same spot. 

Our on-line source of sashimi fish has changed during the years; some places went out of business or we found better places. Our most recent source of sashimi is “Yama Seafood” in New York. We recently got frozen sashimi fish from them. They have a few items which are not available elsewhere. One of them is called “Hagashi maguro*” はがしまぐろ or peeled tuna which we have not tried before. I thought this was the perfect tuna portion to make tuna shaped as a rose; appropriate for Valentine’s day. Other sashimi items from our freezer (from different sources) included “ankimo あん肝” monk fish liver, Hotate ホタテscallops and “uni shuto うに酒盗” preserved sea urchin.

*”hagashi 剥がし” is an adjective from the verb hagashu 剥がす ” which means to remove/strip/peel.  So “Hagashi tuna” means “peeled layers of tuna”.  This process was developed since some portions of fatty tuna or “ootoro 大トロ” can be very sinewy, making it unedibly chewy, which we don’t like. Although the sinew can be made more tolerable by making multiple shallow-cuts across the plane of the sinew the ultimate remedy is to remove the sinew by slicing along the white sinew lines and gently separating out the meat layer by layer. The result is an exceptionally smooth, soft, and melt-in-your-mouth textured tuna meat without any sinew; “Hagashi Maguro” or peeled tuna.

In the picture, the center is the tuna rose. The “hagashi” comes in rather thin layers characteristic of the layers between the sinew which are perfect for making a rose. This is done by cutting the layer lengthwise to the height of the rose, then slicing the layer perpendicularly into pieces about one inch long then laying the pieces with the edges overlapping slightly and rolled up to make a rose. I surrounded the rose with sliced cucumber and drizzled “sumiso 酢味噌” over it all. The upper center is three medallions of ankimo, Ten and 4 o’clock positions are scallops which I sliced horizontally in three layers (we like thin layers of scallops as sashimi) placed on a slice of lemon (Meyer lemon). In the 7 o’clock position, is “uni shuto うに酒盗” on a cucumber boat. I added yuzu kosho and wasabi on the bottom.

I served this sashimi platter with three sauces. One was mango chutney soy sauce specifically for the ankimo. The other two were ponzu and sashimi soy sauce.

The hagashi was not as fatty as I expected but was still quite good; much better than if it still had the sinew. The ankimo went very well with the mango chutney sauce but also went well with the ponzu sauce. The scallops were good with either wasabi or yuzu kosho. This was a very satisfying and filling sashimi plate.  (This sashimi plate was a bit better than the one we had in Azuma if I remember correctly.)

Fried “Renkon” Lotus Root with “Aonori” dried seaweed (laver) レンコンの磯辺揚げ

In the past, we could not get fresh “renkon レンコン” lotus root. We could only get packaged boiled renkon. Occasionally we got fresh renkon from our Japanese grocery store or Hmart (through Instacart). We are now getting fresh renkon any time we want from Weee.

Although renkon is called “lotus root” and written in the Japanese kanji ideogram “蓮根” meaning “lotus root”,  renkon is actually the “stem” not the root of the plant. I have posted quite a few renkon dishes in the past. When I receive fresh lotus root, I separate the segments, clean and dry the surface, wrap the individual segments in paper towel, vacuum pack, and refrigerate. With this preparation the renkon will last at least a few weeks or more. But sometimes I become complacent and let them sit in the refrigerator too long and the vacuum packed renkon goes bad. This time, I wanted to make sure I used up the renkon in time. So using the longest segment we got with this batch, I immediately made two renkon dishes, this is one of them. 

This is a variation of fried renkon chips made with onori 青海苔” called isobe-age*.  I got the inspiration for this dish from e-recipe website. I made a batter of cake flour, water and Japanese aonori. I shallow fried it and served it with kosher salt. This is a perfect small appetizer with the lovely salty briny smell and taste of aonori and the crunch of renkon.

* Aonori is dried seaweed also known as green laver.  When it is used in a dish the name of the dish includes the word “Isobe 磯部” (meaning “rocky beach”). This is because the briny smell of the aonori is reminiscent of the briny ocean smell characteristic of the rocky beach where it grows. So this dish I made is called “Isobe a-ge 磯辺揚げ” (or literally rocky beach fry).

This is not a recipe per se but a note to myself.

Ingredients:
3 inch long segment of fresh renkon, peeled and parboiled (for 3-4 minutes). This will prevent the renkon from breaking into fragments when sliced. 

Batter:
3 tbs. cake flour
1 tbs. dried “aonori” flakes
4 tbs. water (I used cold water from the refrigerator. The amount of water is just enough to make a pancake batter consistency).

Vegetable oil (enough to cover the frying pan bottom about 1/2 inch deep) for frying.

Directions:
Cut the renkon lengthwise in half, slice 1/4 inch thick crosswise to make half-moon shaped pieces.
Add the renkon slices to the batter to coat.
Add the oil to a frying pan on medium flame.
Make sure the oil is hot (test by dropping a small amount of batter into the oil. It should start sizzling immediately).
Add the renkon and fry for 4-5 minutes until slightly brown, turn it over and cook for a few more minutes.
Place the fried pieces on a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle on some salt.
Serve immediately.

These heat up well in the toaster oven—they actually got crisper. 

You can have variations of this dish. You can fry the renkon pieces as is for renkon chips, or dusted with flour, or regular tempura batter. By add a leavening agents (baking soda, baking powder) and/or beer instead of water to make the batter the fired renkon becomes a renkon fritter.

Salted “Kabocha” 塩かぼちゃ

The quality of “Kabocha かぼちゃ” Japanese pumpkin/squash” from Weee is excellent. In the past, the quality of kabocha we bought from other places was hit-or-miss. Sometimes, the texture was watery and did not have the dense texture or “hoku-hoku ほくほく” or sweet taste characteristic of good kabocha. In any case, instead of making the usual simmered kabocha, I made this “salted kabocha 塩かぼちゃ” using a kabocha we got recently from Weee. After checking recipes on-line, I used one of simplest ones I saw on Youtube. This was dubbed: “even watery kabocha turnes out sweet and “hoku-hoku”. Turned out the recipe was correct; I am impressed. Even without the addition of any sugar the dish was sweet with a subtle salty taste and nice dense texture (#1). 

Ingredients:
1/4 kabocha, skin mostly removed by shaving it off using a heavy knife, cut into half inch cubes
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Add the kabocha and salt in a bowl and coat the surface. Let it sit for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator until some water accumulates in the bottom of the bowl
Add the kabocha and accumulated water into a pan which snuggly accommodates the kabocha. cubes (I used a frying pan with a high rim)
Cover with a tight lid and on low flame cook until the kabocha is tender when tested with a fork (about 15 minutes)
Check occasionally and if needed add a small mount of water (I added 1 tbs of water after10 minutes)
After it finished cooking only a very small amount of water was left in the bottom of the pan. when cooled all liquid was reabsorbed into the squash (picture #2)

This is an excellent and simple way to cook kabocha.