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. 

Custardy Apple Cake カスタードアップルケーキ

This is one of my wife’s baking projects. This recipe appeared as “Dori Greenspan’s Custardy Apple Squares” in Washington Post which drew my wife’s  attention. Since we get nice large Washington state Fiji” apples from Weee, this recipe appeared perfect to try. I helped by preparing the apple. This is very good. The layers of apple slices with custard in between (picture #1) is very refreshing and not too sweet. Perfect dessert for us not serous dessert eaters.

Ingredients: 
2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more softened butter for the pan
3 medium juicy, sweet apples, such as Gala or Fuji, peeled (1 pound/454 grams total)
Generous 1/2 cups (68 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cups (67 grams) granulated sugar
1 pinch fine salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 tablespoons whole milk, at room temperature
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting (optional)

Directions
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with a little butter.

Slice the apples from top to bottom using a mandoline, Benriner or sharp knife, turning the fruit 90 degrees each time you reach the core. The slices should be about 1/16 inch thick -- elegantly thin, but not so thin that they’re transparent and fragile. (If they’re a little thicker, that’ll be fine, too.) Discard or compost the cores.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder until combined.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt until the sugar has just about dissolved and, more importantly, until the eggs are pale, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then the milk and the melted, cooled butter. Add to the flour mixture and whisk to form a smooth batter.

Add the apples to the bowl, switch to a flexible spatula and gently fold in the apples, turning the mixture until each thin slice is coated in the batter. (I used my hand to individually coat each slice with the mixture). Scrape the mixture into the pan, smoothing the top as evenly as you can. It will be bumpy; that’s its nature.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until golden brown and puffed — make sure the middle of the cake has risen — and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for at least 15 minutes or completely. (I cooked this in the toaster oven and it took about 35 minutes.

Variations
You can add a couple of tablespoons of dark rum, calvados, applejack or armagnac or a drop (really, just a drop) of pure almond extract to the batter. If you have an orange or a lemon handy, you can grate the zest over the sugar and rub the ingredients together until they’re fragrant. You can also change the fruit. Pears are perfect, and a combination of apples and pears is even better. Or make the cake with 2 firm mangoes — the texture will be different but still good — or very thinly sliced quinces. Finally, if you want to make this look a little dressier, you can warm some apple jelly in a microwave and use a pastry brush to spread a thin layer of it over the top.

Appetizers; one with Shad Roe 酒のつまみ

Those are two sets of appetizers I made on different evening. One unusual one is a variation of the nagaimo-tarako gellee 長芋とたらこのジェル寄せ. Instead of “tarako” cod roe, I used shad roe since it was in the freezer and getting old. I made several dishes from shad roe including American classic of cooked with bacon.  In the picture #1, from left to right; 1. nagaimo-shad roe gelee 長芋とシャドロウのジェル寄せ, 2. Wakame and cucumber in miso dressing 和布と胡瓜の酢味噌あえ, 3. picked herring (from a jar) topped with yogurt dip, 4. daikon “namasu”  in sweet vinegar 大根なます, and 5. daikon kimpira 大根の金平.

Nothing particulary new but two may deserve some notes:

1. Nagaimo-shad roe gelee: 
Japanese tarako is slat marinated but not cooked. I used tarako without further cooking for this dish. 
Since Shad roe is not slated or cooked, i modified my recipe. I first removed the roe from the sacs and  marinated in  the equal mixture of x4 concentrated Japanese noodle soup and mirin for several hours in the refrigerator (good amount of the marinade get absorbed). 
After draining the excess marinade, I cooked the roe in the frying pan with melted butter in low heat until the color changes (or cooked). Let it cooled down and use it like tarako. 

I used 1 cup of Japanese broth with 3/4 envelope of unflavored gelatin. Seasoned with splashes of dark sesame oil and tabasco or sriracha. For the nagaimo layer,  I seasoned with small amount of sushi vinegar.

2. Daikon Kimpira:
I had the last of a good daikon from Suzuki Farm. I peeled (a bit thickly) and cooked with a pinch of raw rice grains (which can be used in simmered dishes such as oden. I cut the peels with skin in match stick and made kimpira with daikon green (from daikon from Weee we just got) and fried “abura-age” tofu.

In the picture #2, i served the nagaimo-shad roe gelee (top center), kelp salmon roll 鮭の昆布巻き (left lower) and salmon nanban 鮭の南蛮漬け (right lower). 

Cranberry sauce muffins クランベリーソースマフィン

We gave up some time ago on having turkey for Thanksgiving. (My wife described the turkey as a “stuffing delivery system”.) So we decided to just have the stuffing and skip the delivery system. Even though we don’t have turkey I still make “Figgy Cranberry Sauce”. It actually goes very well with other meats such as the roasted duck breast we had this year. Now after Thanksgiving, we noticed many recipes using left-over thanksgiving food started appearing on the internet. My wife found one such recipe for muffins using cranberry sauce. Although she found several recipes she settled on this particular one which was among the most straight forward. This muffin turned out to be very good.

Recipe came from Allrecipes.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup leftover cranberry sauce*
¾ cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*Ingredients and directions for the figgy cranberry sauce is below.

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin tray’s cups with paper liners. Beat the cranberry sauce, milk, oil, egg, and vanilla together in a bowl until well combined. Whisk the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt together in a separate bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until the batter is just moistened. Pour into the prepared muffin cups.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

To make the figgy cranberry sauce: 

Ingredients:
Frozen or fresh cranberries (12oz bag) (Do not thaw if you are using frozen).
Dried figs, coarsely chopped (1 cup)
Sugar 1/2 cup
White wine 3/4 cup
Orange peel, 2 long strips without pith
Salt, a pinch
Orange flavored liquor (I used triple sec), 2 tbs

Directions:
1. Soak the figs in hot water for 20 minutes.
2. In a sauce pan, add the wine and sugar on medium flame. Once it starts to boil reduce the heat and mix to dissolve the sugar.
3.Add, the cranberries, drained figs, orange peel and cook for 10 -15 minutes stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens.
4. Cut the flame and add a pinch of salt and the orange liquor and mix.

These muffins were quite good. They don’t taste of cranberries per se; the added spices are the predominant flavors. The cranberry sauce does however provide a small crunch element from the very small seeds either in the cranberries or the figs which is a nice unexpected addition to the texture. Also, since I did not remove the orange peel I used in the sauce it appeared as a surprise burst of orange flavor in random bites of the muffins.