Seawater Uni, uni shuto and fresh myoga 海水ウニ、ウニ酒盗、茗荷

Although there is nothing new here, it is not common to have a new crop of myoga 茗荷 harvested from our own garden (just started), fresh salt water (seawater) uni “Kaisui-uni” 海水ウニ and uni-shuto うに酒盗 from Maruhide 丸秀, all available in the same time. Myoga is best enjoyed fresh and the season is rather short and requires some effort to harvest. So, I served a small dish of myoga with cucumber, and wakame as well as two small dishes of each kind of uni. For the occasion, I pulled out the small lidded containers we purchased in Nihiki market, Kyoto 京都錦市場 some years ago.

These covered small dishes make a nice presentation since lifting the lid reveals the contents as a pleasant  surprise. (On this occasion, however, my wife knew exactly what the dishes contained). From left to right are original uni shuto, salt water uni and the myoga dish.

Fresh uni from Maruhide is frequently out of stock. Recently however, fresh uni in seawater (i.e. uni in salt water with a salt concentration equivalent to seawater; about 3.5 percent) became available which was fine with us so we ordered it. We already had original uni shuto frozen in the freezer so we decided to have an “uni tasting festival” of both the seawater uni and the original uni shuto. As I mentioned before, most of the fresh uni is treated with “alum’ which makes it a bit firmer. The salt water uni is not treated or processed at all; just placed in seawater equivalent. As a result, it is a bit softer but has a pure uni taste. Dipped in wasabi and sashimi shouyu it is sublime uni enjoyment.

The picture below shows the original uni shuto(u). Maruhide is the only place this is made. Compared to other preserved uni (classic are “ Neri-uni” 練りウニ, “Tsubu-uni” 粒ウニ and less commonly “steamed-uni” 蒸しウニ). The former two are readily available in Japan and come in small jars. They are salted and some alcohol is added and processed (the details are not clear). Neri-uni is homgenized and paste-like and Tsubu-uni retains its original shape. Maruhide Uni shutou is closer to tsubu-uni but it includes some additional proprietary process. In any case, it comes frozen in a jar and tastes much better than any other preserved uni we have tried. This should just be enjoyed without any additional seasonings .

Finally, we enjoy the very unique and distinct flavors of fresh myoga. We just harvested this in the morning. I combined the myoga with cucumber and wakame (salt-preserved one) dressed in sumiso 酢味噌.

Nothing comes close to fresh, especially saltwater, uni. But Maruhide uni shuto comes in a close second. Each has it’s own rich distinctive taste that goes extremely well with a sip of cold sake. Also, because of the rich taste intensity a little goes a long way. The myogo is such seasonal late summer taste harbinger of fall. Its distinctive fresh somewhat sharp taste complemented the the rich uni beautifully. 

Instant Pot Egg Bites version 2 インスタントポットエッグバイツ

This is the second version of Instant Pot Egg Bites. The last one which was supposedly a recreation of  Starbucks’ egg bites was good but tasted a bit too cheesy rather than eggy when it got cold. So this time we changed the ratio of egg and cheeses so that it would taste more eggy. This is based on a recipe but, as usual, we winged it a bit. We added finely chopped prosciutto, shallot, and jalapeño pepper. This turned out to be quite good. It was smooth with distinct shallot and jalapeño flavors. The prosciutto added slight saltiness which also worked well. While both versions were very good. We probably liked this version better than the first version.

Ingredients (Recipe x1, 7 egg bites)
3 large eggs
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup soft cheese, like cream cheese, Brie, Boursin, or Laughing Cow (we used cream cheese)
1/2 cup chopped mix-ins, like cooked meats and/or raw or cooked vegetables (we used jalapeños, shallots and prosciutto)
1/2 cup shredded cheese, such as cheddar, Monterey jack, or mozzarella (We used cheddar and Monterey Jack)

Ingredients (recipe x2, 14 egg bites)
6 large eggs
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup soft cheese, like cream cheese, Brie, Boursin, or Laughing Cow (we used cream cheese)
1 cup chopped mix-ins, like cooked meats and/or raw or cooked vegetables (we used jalapeños, shallots and prosciutto)
1 cup shredded cheese, such as cheddar, Monterey jack, or mozzarella (We used cheddar and Monterey Jack)

Directions:
Combine the eggs, cottage cheese, soft cheese and other cheeses in a blender. Blend at medium speed for about 30 seconds, until smooth. Pour into molds 3/4 full. Evenly distribute the chopped veggies into the molds. Stir to further incorporate.

Pour 1 cup of water into the Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker. Cover the egg molds and put into the wire steam rack. Grasping the handles of the steam rack, lower the egg molds into the pot.

Cook the eggs on “steam”: Secure the lid on the pressure cooker. Make sure that the pressure regulator is set to the “Sealing” position. Select “steam” then adjust the time to 8 minutes (for single batch and if making a double batch, increase the cooking time to 10 minutes.)

The pressure cooker will take about 10 minutes to come up to full pressure. Cook time begins once it has reached full pressure.

When the timer goes off, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then perform a quick pressure release by moving the pressure release knob from “Sealing” to “Venting.” It will take a minute or two for the pressure to release completely. Remove the egg bites from the pressure cooker.

These were very good egg bites. They tasted more eggy than cheesy but the cheese flavor came through nicely enough. The shallots and jalapeño gave a nice spiciness while the prosciutto added some saltiness. The texture was very smooth almost like a very firm custard. These would be lovely as an egg substitute for breakfast or brunch as well as an appetizer with a glass of wine.

Pigs in a blanket (PIB) ピッグインブランケット

When we got steaks from Omaha Steaks, we also got assorted packages of several different raw and cooked meat products as part of the promotion. One was hamburger  meat which prompted us to bake hamburger buns and make cheeseburgers. One of the additional packages was hotdogs. I am not sure when was the last time we ate hotdogs but since we had them in the freezer my wife proposed making “pigs in a blanket (PIB)”. The origin of this dish is not clear but hotdogs wrapped in “Pillsbury’s mini-crescent rolls”  appears to be the most common rendition in the U.S. (This was the stand-by dish my wife ate as a child.) My wife proposed we “kick-it-up-a-notch” and use frozen puff pastry instead of the Pillsbury mini-crescent. (Besides we didn’t have any mini-crescents but we did have frozen puff pastry which was getting old in the freezer). In keeping with the classic version of PIB she added cheese. (Just exactly like they were made when she was a child). Unlike the cheeseburgers we made some time ago, in which my wife insisted as a hamburger “purist” no ketchup or mustard should be involved, she insisted the case of hotdogs was completely different; ketchup and mustard, preferably mixed together were absolutely required. The PIB were good but the cheese ran out and made little puddles of crispy cheese on the bottom of the pan. I thought these were pretty good with the “required” amount of ketchup and mustard (As shown in the picture below, I did not mix the two together although my wife did). (We used Dijon mustard).

Ingredients (made 8 small P-in-Bs):
4 Hotdogs, thawed and cut into half
1 frozen puff pastry, thawed and cut into 8 long strips
Monterey jack and cheddar cheese (enough to stuff the hotdogs)

Directions:
Cut the hotdogs in half making 8 short pieces
Slit the hotdogs but not cut trough (may be better to make a pocket rather than cutting through to both ends)
Stuff the slits with the cheese (either cheddar or Monterey Jack)
Wrap it in the strips of puff pastry (see below)
Bake at 400F for 25 minutes (we used our toaster oven in convection mode).

In retrospect, to prevent the melting cheese from running out, it would be better to make a pocket in the hotdogs instead of cutting through to the ends. Another option would be to place the shredded cheese on the strip of puff pastry, wrap the cheese up by merging the both ends of the long edges of the pastry and then flatten it to the original width before wrapping the hotdogs. Nonetheless this was a nostalgic trip for my wife. These brought back some of the joy of one of her favorite childhood dishes. She did observe, however, that these hotdogs did not seem as flavorful as the ones she remembers. She mused that the brand used back then was probably Oscar-Mayer. I do not have any opinion since I am not sure I have ever tasted an O-M hotdog. To head off the possibility of a trip to the grocery store to retrieve a package of O-M’s I reminded my wife that the “taste difference” may be due to the difference between the taste buds of a child versus an adult. Nonetheless, she said the adult taste buds really liked this batch. While it was not part of my childhood I quite liked it too.

How to defrost a frozen tuna block 冷凍鮪柵の解凍方法

 This is a continuation of the frozen bluefin tuna block from Great-Alaska-Seafood saga. This is mostly to document for myself how best to thaw a frozen sashimi tuna block (since we have a number to which this process will need to be applied). In any case, we tried “Chu-toro” 中トロ this time. This was a relatively small  block and was perfect for the two of us. I served two slices as is (left) and made one slice into “Aburi” 炙り (right) (which was possible due to the recent acquisition of a new small kitchen torch. More about that later). This is better than the “akami” we tasted before (due to the thawing method or the fact this is chu-toro is unclear but probably both).

I made the remaining tuna into our usual “pseudo” negitoro  擬制ネギトロ. served with slices of cucumber and small sheets of nori (this is “Korean nori” 韓国のり. Since there was a bit too much tuna to  make all into “Negitoro”,  I also served one slice of tuna as well.

 

Now onto the main topic. I knew there were special instruction on how best to thaw a frozen tuna block which I may have seen on several YouTube videos. Most of the time, however, I am too lazy and just take it out from the vacuum pack, wash it in cold running water, blot it with paper towel, place it on the folded paper towel, wrap it with a plastic wrapping and thaw it in the refrigerator. This time, I looked at several instructions and decided to record the best method as far as I could tell.

How to thaw a frozen tuna block:
1. Remove the tuna block from the vacuum pack.
2. Quickly wash the surface using cold running water to remove any “saw dust”.
3. Soak it in 40C, 4% salted warm water for 3-5 minutes or until the surface becomes soft.
4. Quickly wash and blot the surface with a paper towel.
5 Wrap it completely with a sheet of paper towel.
6 Place it in the ziploc bag and remove the air, seal or Using a “Food saver” type vacuum bag and device, vacuum pack (see below).

7. Submerge the vacuum packed tuna in ice water for 1 hour or until thawed (below).

Digression alert: Every set of instructions I came across also provided some “scientific” explanation of each step. I am not sure of the validity of those explanations but the following is my understanding of the science behind each step. The warm salt water process may activate myoglobin oxidation which, especially in “akami”, makes a better red color without extracting or infusing liquid (over exposure to oxygen may make the tuna darker or “black”). Because of the much better heat conduction of water (20 times greater than air), the tuna will quickly thaw without increasing the temperature in the ice water than in the refrigerator. This process allows the tuna block to go through a -5 to -1C temperature zone which is conducive to the formation of ice crystals in the meat more quickly than if it is left to “thaw” in the refridgerator. A shorter time spent in that temperature zone supposedly improves the quality of the tuna meat because the formation of ice crystals can break the cells or form holes making the meat mushy.

As a side note, I got a new small kitchen torch since the old one failed to ignite last time. Instead of a larger torch which would use a standard size butane canister, I chose one that requires charging the butene gas like a cigarette lighter like the one I had before. Also, I had some leftover butane canisters from the previous torch I had. My reasoning was that we had a difficult time to use up and discard the standard butene canisters that we used with our old table-top gas cooker, basically because we seldom used the cooker. In any case, this one is compatible with Zippo butene canister which comes in a much smaller size.

This torch works well. It ignites easily and the flame size can be easily adjusted. I made “aburi” 炙り quite quickly with a nice char. I salted the surface before torching.

Bacon cheese egg bites ベーコン、チーズ エッグバイツ

 We like small bite-size items, either savory or sweet. We are not sure how we came to order these silicon moulds for the Instant Pot. Maybe we got an email ad or my wife read the recipe somewhere. We ordered the silicon moulds from Amazon and we made these small bacon cheese egg bites. When we tasted them just coming out of the mould, it was like egg custard but after it cooled down a more cheesy flavor came through. Overall it is very good but slightly too salty for us.

Later we learned this is a variation of Starbucks’ Bacon & gruyere egg bites. We have never had this at Starbuck. Since we did not have gruyere cheese, we substituted Monterey Jack and Irish cheddar cheese. We used the recipe that came with the moulds. My wife made the batter and poured it into the moulds and I cooked them in the Instant Pot.

Ingredients (make 14 bites using the silicon moulds):
3 large eggs
4 bacon strips
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup shredded Gruyere cheese (we substituted Irish Cheddar).
1 cup cream cheese or cottage cheese (we used cottage cheese)
3 tbs cream
1 tsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp rice starch (flour)*

*we think the use of rice flour (starch) is to claim this is gluten free.

Directions:
Cook the bacon and break into smaller pieces. Place the bacon pieces in the bottom of each mould (#1)
Add the remaining ingredients to a blender and blend for 20 seconds
Fill the silicon mould to 75% full (#2)
Attached the lids to the silicon moulds.
Place 1 cup of water to the Instant Pot and lower the two silicon moulds with trivet
Place the lid on the Instant Pot with the pressure knob to seal. Using “Steam” function, set time to 7 minutes.
Let it depressurize (7-10 minutes) and open (#3).
Loosen the egg bites using small spatula and invert onto the plate to unmold (#4).

As I mentioned, when we tasted these while still warm, it tasted eggy/custardy but once it cooled it tasted more cheesy. The texture was smooth and velvety like a rich thick custard. It was a little bit too salty for us. (The cheese and bacon are very salty so probably we can omit the additional 1/4 tsp salt). I can see why these are popular. It is hard to eat just one. 

Fatty tuna sashimi from Catalina 大トロの刺身

Some time ago, I got a small block (5 oz.) of frozen fatty tuna from Catalina Offshore Products. I was not sure if this was chu-toro 中トロ or Oo-toro 大トロ but upon thawing, this turned out to be very fatty Oo-toro. I tasted a small slice and it was very rich. You cannot eat too much of this but the portion we had was just right amount for two of us. Sometimes, oo-toro has layers of sinue between the fatty meat. Visually this piece appeared to have some. So I made shallow cuts across the sinue to make it easier to eat. But it turned out the sinue was not any botheration. In any case, I served this oo-toro three ways.

The first two slices were served as is (left and below). As mentioned, I just made several shallow cuts across the sinue.

The second piece I tried to make as "Aburi" 炙り but when I tried to fire up the small kitchen torch I use for this purpose, it did not ignite. So, I used a hot frying pan instead which did not add any char marks or char flavor. I seasoned it with Kosher salt before searing and then squeezed on some lemon juice.

 

The last one is cubes of the tuna dressed in mayonnaise, yuzu-kosho 柚子胡椒, x4 Japanese noodle sauce and chopped perilla. Yuzu-kosho flavor cut through the fat.

This was just the right amount of fatty tuna for one luxurious sitting. Perfect for cold sake.

Bangladeshi White Chicken Korma チキンコルマ

This is another of my wife's curry projects. (She has been making curries about once a week. We really like having them for lunch.) This recipe is based on a recipe in the cookbook  “Curry Easy” by Madhur Jaffrey which my wife got recently. This is a yogurt based white curry. 

 We added blanched green beans and skinned Campari tomato. I also garnished it with Japanese pickles called “Funkushin or Fukujin-zuke” 福神漬け to add some colors.

Ingredients:
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. Cardamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
4 bay leaves
3 onions roughly chopped
4 chicken thighs
3 Tbs. Grated ginger
6 garlic cloves peeled and lightly crushed
1 cup greek yogurt
1 tbs. Vinegar
1 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Put several Tbs. Peanut oil in a frying pan and bloom the spices cinnamon through bay leaves in the hot oil. Add the onions and sauté until they are translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant. Add the yogurt, vinegar and salt. Stir to make a creamy sauce. Put in the chicken and cover with the sauce. If more liquid is necessary add some chicken broth. Cook on simmer for about 1 hour or until the chicken is completely cooked.

This is a nice curry. It seems that the recipes in this cookbook are a bit simpler than the recipes in the other Madhur Jaffrey cookbooks we have. This one was very nice and a bit different from the usual that we have made which was good for a change. The sauce is creamy and the spices are flavorful and fairly gentle but slow heat will creep up on you. rice and Japanese Fukujinzuke pickles, this is a good curry.

Watari bune Daiginjo 渡船純米大吟醸

This sake “Watari bune, junmai daiginjo” 渡船純米大吟醸 was a gift from a friend for a recent occasion. This is a really great sake with a slightly effervescent feel and fruity, crisp but very complex flavors. This should definitely be drunk cold. This sake is brewed by “Fuchu-homare” 府中誉 which is located in Ibaragi prefecture 茨城県. The sake rice or “sakamai”  酒米 used for this sake is also called “Watari bune” which is supposedly a very rare near-extinct sake rice which relatively recently has been revived. The famous and most popular sake rice “Yamada nishiki” 山田錦 is reportedly a descendant of this rice. Also the name “Watari bune”  渡船, which means a  “ferry” or “ferryboat”, is very fitting for sake from Ibaragi which is known for Tone river 利根川 and its estuaries criss crossing the flat delta before pouring into the Pacific ocean.This area also contains large lakes. (Such areas rich in water ways and lakes are called “Suigou”  水郷). Such topography would require use of ferries i.e. “Watari bune” to navigate the water ways.

In any case, a great sake calls for great “Tsumami” ツマミ or small sake snacks. We were lucky to get fresh unprocessed fresh “uni” sea urchin in salted water from Maruhide 丸秀 called “Ensui uni” 塩水ウニ. We also recently got frozen blocks of Bluefin tuna from Great-Alaska-Seafood. We served these items on recently acquired Japanese plates. The soy sauce in the small round plate is also a special “sashimi” soy sauce.   

I made the tuna three ways (two shown directly below. One came later). The first was straight sashimi (upper left in picture). The second was “Negi-toro” ネギトロ with slices of cucumber (lower left in picture). We enjoyed this negi-toro as a kind-of hand roll on a small sheet of nori (not shown) with the cucumber slices (shown).

This uni from Maruhide (shown upper right in the picture) is not processed with the usual “alum” and only soaked in salt water with salinity consistent with seawater. As far as I can tell, Maruhide is only source in the U.S. where we can get this. As an aside: my wife can sometimes taste the alum on uni. She immediately passes her portion to me when this happens. Not exactly a hardship for me, since I can’t taste alum. (She can also detect the alum used in some brands of baking powder).  The consistency of the uni in salt water is slightly softer than alum processed ones but it is absolute pure fresh uni. With just a little bit of wasabi and soy sauce and a sip of the sake, you cannot get anything better.

We needed a few more “Tsumami” to go with this sake. We had more tuna, this time “zuke” tuna 漬けマグロ, in which tuna slices are marinated in x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce for few hours so.  I served it with wakame and cucumber dressed in sumiso sauce 胡瓜とわかめの酢味噌あえ (left). Since my wife made blini a few days ago and we had Keta salmon ikura roe thawed, we made our usual “blini topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon and ikura” (right).

All these items are again perfect accompaniment for this wonderful sake.

Frozen bluefin tuna block from Great Alaska Seafood 冷凍オーストラリア産の黒鮪

 We have purchased quite a few items from Great-Alaska-Seafood. We tried frozen sashimi-grade yellowfin tuna or "kihada-maguro" 黄肌マグロ blocks which were on a par with the ones we can get at our Japanese grocery store. Recently we received an email from Great-Alaska Seafood about a special offer for Australian aqua-cultured sashimi-grade blackfin tuna, "Hon-maguro or Kuro-maguro" クロマグロ. In general I am a fan of any tuna but I tend to like blackfin a bit more than yellowfin. Great-Alaska’s advertising was pinpointed targeting. They clearly “had-my-number/Knew-where-I lived”/had-me-dialed-in”. I instantly succumbed to the offer and ordered the tuna. If I recall correctly I had to call a special number (rather than order on the internet) and the offer was good for only one day. The offer consisted of a total of 8 lbs made up of 8,1 lb packages,  half-and-half chu-toro 中トロ and akami 赤身.  As you can see below, the blocks were irregular in size and inconsistent in shape. I surmise that because they were not cut like Japanese “saku” blocks which are neatly of equal size and shape they probably could not be used in a Japanese sushi bar for example. 

Each packages are marked either  “akami” (left) or “chu-toro” (right) .

We first tried the smallest package which was marked as “akami”. I served two small dishes.

The picture below shows a dish of straight forward sashimi with cucumber sunomono きゅうりの酢の物 with tomato garnished with “ikura” salmon roe. The akami was certainly better than the frozen yellowfin tuna and good enough but not great.

I also made it into cubes of tuna and avocado 鮪とアボカドの角切りon a bed of arugula dressed with soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil.

So bottom line is that this is not bad. It is certainly better than yellowfin tuna but it was not truly great. Nonetheless we are satisfied that we have this choice and will have absolutely no trouble “choking” it down .

Ikura from Vital Choice バイタルチョイスからのイクラ

 I am always looking out for alternative sources of sashimi items such as "ikura" salmon roe. Depending on the source, the quality and price vary a lot. Our Japanese grocery store almost always has it but the per ounce price is very high. Other sources often have Ikura but the roe are a smaller size with a smaller diameter.  We like salmon roe with a 5 mm diameter rather than the smaller ones. Sometimes the roe are identified as trout roe, but often the type is not specified so it is very difficult to know exactly what type of salmon roe we are getting. We learned "keta" or "chum" salmon roe fits our preferences best. Recently we have gotten frozen keta salmon roe from Vital Choice. It came as a package of three, 7 oz. glass jars. The price was about average, and the quality was quite good. The 7 oz jar size was also a good size for us because we could generally finish it in 5 days. We have prolonged the shelf life of ikura by adding a marinade. (I use a mixture of x4 concentrated 'mentsuyu" Japanese noodle sauce and sake). Since we used up three of the jars, I went back to order the same but the only choice at that time was a 2 lb. (almost 1 kg) tray. I thought that would be way too much for us to use up before it went bad unless we could somehow divide up the quantity into smaller portions. But the offer was too good to pass up so I took a chance and ordered it. Turned out the pack could be subdivided (see discussion below).

 Ikura can be used many different ways. The below is an appetizer of home-made blini, cream cheese, smoked salmon, ikura and chopped chives.

Another way we like it is as a topping for cold "chawan-mushi" Japanese savory egg custard.

The picture below shows how we received the package (#1). It was packed with dry ice and solidly frozen. Once I opened the lid, I saw the package was divided into 4 compartments. Each compartment was about 1/2 lb. or 8 oz). Fortunately for us, using a small plastic spatula, ikura in one compartment could easily be removed (#3). I vacuum packed three blocks (#4) and placed them in the freezer. I let the remaining block, thaw in the refrigerator for a few hours (#5).  Although the center was still solidly frozen, the peripheral portion started thawing and crumbling away from the still frozen section. I placed the crumbled portion into a separate plastic container with an airtight lid and put it back in the freezer. 

I left the remaining ikura in the refrigerator to thaw. The amount was about 1/4 lb (or 4 oz). It was just the perfect amount for us to use up in a few days. I refroze the portion which was semi-thawed (#6). Later I thawed this and it looked and tasted fine. So, buying 2 lbs of Ikura is very feasible…it was quite good, I might add.