Tako rice and Matsutake soup for lunch タコ飯と松茸のお吸い物昼食

 This was a lunch we had one day. We had leftover frozen octopus rice or “Tako meshi” たこめし made from a kit we got from the  Rice factory. Although the original was not bad, the amount of octopus was rather small. Since I made tender simmered octopus タコの柔らか煮 a few days ago, I added slices of octopus legs to the previously made rice. Also we had matsutake mushroom 松茸 from Maine and made clear matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物. I added a dish of salted vegetable or “asazule” 浅漬け and simmered root vegetables and chicken similar to “Chikuzen-ni” 筑前煮.

I  just microwaved the rice to thaw it then added slices of tender simmered octopus with a small amount of the simmering liquid and further heated it. I also garnished it with fresh “myouga” 茗荷 from our garden. The addition of the simmered octopus made the Tako rice much better than the original.

I made this clear soup from broth made from a dashi pack (kelp and shiitake), with mirin みりん and light colored soy sauce 薄口醤油. I also added shrimp (sunk in the bottom), scallion and flower-shaped “fu” 花麩 gluten cake. I also added frozen zest of yuzu 柚子 citrus. This is a lidded soup bowl and when the lid was opened the subtle but distinctive aroma of matustake and yuzu wafted out. (The aroma of matustake is one of the joys of the matusake season).  I think Maine matsutake appears to have a better aroma than the ones we used to get from Oregon.

The below are basic simmered root vegetables including daikon 大根, carrot 人参, bamboo shoot 筍, shiitake mushroom (I used dried) 椎茸, lotus root 蓮根, kon-nyaku 蒟蒻 and sugar snap スナップ豌豆 (for garnish). This time I also included chicken thigh.

This is my usual “asazuke” 浅漬け. I just made myouga in sweet vinegar 茗荷の甘酢漬け. I thinly sliced and served next to the vegetables.

For a lunch, this was quite good. 

Spinach cheese puffs ほうれん草チーズパフ

This is one of those small cheesy appetizers my wife likes to made. She saw this recipe on line and also realized that one of the boxes of frozen puff pastry was getting old. On the top of that, she cooked 2 packages of baby spinach and was looking for the best way to use them. So, all converged to result in this dish. I helped in preparation and clean-up. This is cheesy with a nice lemony flavor from the lemon zest. The puff pastry was still good and made a light crispy shell. This is a bit on the larger side and half  per person is just perfect size for us.

As usual, I ask my wife to take over.

Ingredients:
One sheet of puff pastry
2/3 cup onions finely diced
4 garlic cloves finely diced
8 oz. Cream cheese
2 eggs
2 packages of fresh spinach, cooked and drained
1 1/2 cup feta cheese finely crumbled
4 tbs. Dill
4 tsp. Lemon zest

Directions:
Cook the onion and garlic in a frying pan. Set aside to cool. Soften the cream cheese by lightly microwaving it under the defrost setting. Cream the softened cheese together with the eggs. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until completely combined.

Cut the puff pastry into 9 squares. Roll out the squares so they are large enough the put in the greased cups of the muffin tin with the edges hanging over the sides (#1). (It was a bit tedious convincing the pastry to go into the cups. Also, the 9 filled cups would leave 3 unfilled in the 12 cup muffin tin. So I thawed some regular pie crust dough and used it for the remaining 3 cups.) (Digression: I made the remaining pie dough into impromptu cookies; roll out pastry, put butter and cinnamon sugar on half, fold the other half over, cook in toaster oven 400 degrees 15 minutes.)

Fill the pastry shells with the cheese mixture(#2) and fold the pastry hanging on the side over the cheese filling (#3). (Cover the cups with the pie dough with a round piece of dough like a pie topping.) Refrigerate 30 minutes. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes until the tops are golden brown (#4). Picture #5 shows the puff pastry puff while #6 shows the one made with pie dough.

Whether made with puff pastry or pie dough the result is highly acceptable. Lemon was the first taste to come through which melded into a savory onion, garlic cheese combo. Both pastries added a nice buttery crunch. Interestingly, the cream cheese mellowed out the feta very nicely. After biting into it you wouldn’t say “oh cream cheese and feta” instead you would say, “ a nice creamy savory cheese combination. What cheese would that be?”

Chicken, navy and green bean curry 白インゲン豆、サヤインゲン入りのチキンカレー

This is my wife’s curry project. This chicken curry is based on the recipe in Madhur Jaffrey’s “Quick and Easy Indian Cooking”. The original recipe is called “Chicken, Red lentils and Green beans in one pot” (or “ek handi ka murgh aur masoor”). Of course due to the ingredients we did not have, this recipe was modified to “Chicken, navy beans and green beans”. We thought this was a quite good curry. We served it over rice with the side of cold cucumber buttermilk soup whch went extremely well.

I added blanched green beans (haricot verts) just before serving (so that they would not become “grey” beans instead of green beans). The navy beans mostly melted into the sauce and made it nicely smooth and thick.

As usual, I will ask my wife to continue. I have to say the numbers of different spices and herbs are quite impressive.

Ingredients:
6 tbs vegetable oil
3 bay leaves
5 whole cloves
1 tsp ground cardamon
2 inch stick of cinnamon
3 onions, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp garam masala
1 1/2 tbs lemon juice
generous pinch of asafetida
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
14 oz can of navy beans
24 oz can of whole plum tomato, stem end removed and crushed
6 chicken thighs (we put them in a pan whole without skinning or deboning. After they are cooked and cooled down we removed the bones)
(Juice from the plum tomatoes reserved to provide added liquid later as the dish cooks)

The picture below shows the line-up of spices and herbs; from left to right are whole cloves, bay leaves, ground cardamon, sticks of cinnamon, turmeric, salt, gram masala, asafetida, cumin seeds, ground cumin, ground coriander, and cayenne pepper.

Among the spices, was garam masala (we use an authentic Indian brand). The asafetida is a little unusual (at least for us). It comes from the rhizome of the ferula plant (or giant fennel plant). It is used in Indian cooking as a flavor enhancer. It is supposed to add a smooth flavor reminiscent of leeks and onions (although we are not sure we could identify what it added to the dish.)

Directions:
Put the oil in a pan and when it is shimmering add the bay leaves through cinnamon and bloom them until the bay leaves turn slightly brown and the smell becomes fragrant. Remove the cloves (so no one eats them by accident.) (The bay leaves and cinnamon stick are large enough it is not likely someone would eat them if left in the sauce). Add the onions and fry until translucent and slightly browned. Add the garlic and cook until it becomes fragrant (but not burnt). Add the spices ground turmeric through cayenne pepper. Bloom the spices until fragrant. Add the beans and tomatoes and stir until blended. Add the chicken, skin side down and cover with the sauce. Cook on low simmer for 1/2 hour. Turn the chicken over and cook for another 1/2 hour. Add the reserved tomato juice as needed to keep the sauce from scorching.

This is another really good curry. All the spices blend and meld together making for a complex dimension of flavor. It is not hot but the cayenne pepper gives it a pleasant slight “buzz”. The beans basically melted into the sauce making it very rich and creamy. The spices infused the chicken meat which was very tender and basically fell off the bone. 

Blueberry puree and pecan muffin ブルーベリーピュレー、ピーカンマフィン

This is another variation on the theme of blueberry muffins. When we got less than perfect (in terms of the shape/consistency and sourness) blueberries, my wife slowly cooked and then pureed them using the immersion blender. You could add sugar and the puree worked well when added to our morning yogurt.  My wife tried using blueberry puree in muffins and found that it really added a blueberry flavor in conjunction with the whole blueberries. 

At one point she found the whole blueberries were gone but she had more puree than she could use in the morning yogurt. She didn’t want the puree to go bad so she decided to made a blueberry muffin “sans” the whole blueberry but just using the leftover puree as the liquid in the batter. She made this blueberry muffin with the puree as the blueberry “representative” and the addition of pecans to see how it works.  As you can see below, the entire muffin turned sort-of purple.

Ingredients
1 cup toasted pecans).
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs room temperature
4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup combination of buttermilk and blueberry puree (i.e. however much puree is available combined with buttermilk to make 1 cup) room temperature

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
(Optional) finely grated zest of 1 lemon. We did not use this.

Directions:
To make the blueberry puree, bring 1 cup of blueberries to a very low simmer in a small saucepan. Cook until the berries have broken down. Puree using an immersion blended. Cool to room temperature.

Whisk the dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl. Whisk 1 cup sugar and eggs in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous. Slowly whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk/blueberry puree, lemon zest (if using) and vanilla until combined. Fold wet mixture into flour mixture until just moistened (lumpy is fine). If the batter seems loose, let it mellow for 5 minutes, and it will thicken up (picture below).

Divide among 12 greased muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups) (picture below).

Bake at 425F until tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes (picture below).  Cool in muffin tins for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

This is not bad but blueberry flavor was not very strong. The amount of the puree you put in may be something to do with it but in it’s own right, this is a good muffin.

Octopus leg dressed in salted plum sauce タコの梅肉あえ

I have posted many dishes using octopus which we got from different sources. We like octopus legs (boiled and frozen) from D’artagnan and Great Alaska Seafood. Interestingly, both are “Spanish octopus legs”.  The offer we recently purchased from Great Alaska Seafood included quite a large amount of octopus legs so I have the luxury of using it fairly regularly. The last time I used it, after thawing, I reserved about 2 inches of the octopus leg to eat as “sashimi*” 刺身 and I made the remainder into tender simmered octopus タコの柔らか煮 using an Instant pot. We usually eat octopus sashimi with wasabi and soy sauce or sumiso but this time, I tried a different dressing using salted plum or “Umeboshi” 梅干し (I used some umeboshi we received quite a few years ago from my mother the last time she made it. We kept it in a sealed container in the refrigerator. It looked and tasted good). I also served two small appetizer dishes.

*Most common “sashimi” of octopus is previously boiled legs because raw octopus is extremely perishable. Real “raw” octopus can be had in Japan. The first time we had “raw” octopus sashimi was in Kobe 神戸 many years ago. Because of the location of Kobe, very fresh octopus from the Japanese inland sea 瀬戸内海 was available. Now, because of the advancement in the logistics of transporting fresh seafood in Japan, it is more readily available throughout Japan. As a matter of fact, we had raw octopus sashimi at Tako Grill in Kuroishi 黒石, Aomori prefecture 青森県 in Japan.

The upper left picture above shows the Octopus slices with salted plum sauce: タコの刺身梅肉和え.

Ingredients and directions: (two small serving)

2 inches of boiled octopus leg, sliced thinly into 8 -10 slices

For Umeboshi 梅干し “bainiku” sauce 梅肉ソース

1 “umeboshi” salted plum, meat removed and finely chopped until creamy.

1 tsp mirin, mixed in

For garnish

1 perilla leaf, finely julienned 

1 nyouga, thinly slices

Cucumber slices

I also served tender simmered octopus leg タコの柔らか煮.

Since we had a small portion of filet mignon left over from the day before, I thinly sliced it and dressed it in ponzu sauce ポン酢醤油 with grated ginger. The green is blanched sugar snaps in dashi broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

 

These small appetizers were great to start the evening.

Mackerel hand-shaped sushi 鯖の棒鮨

Shime-saba しめ鯖 is vinegar pickled mackerel and a very popular item in Japan. The best is fresh local “branded” mackerel (such as “Seki-saba” 関鯖) prepared in-house but, nowadays, the risk of Anisakis is rising possibly due to warming of the sea water. (The fresher the mackerel the higher the Anisakis’ risk. In addition, curing the fish in salt and vinegar does not kill the Anisakis but freezing does). We can easily get shime-saba in the U.S. packaged and frozen. Although there are so many varieties of  mackerel, most frozen packages coming from Japan to the U.S. use mackerel from Norway as I understand it. I have posted molded sushi made of shime saba which is called “baterra” バッテラ or “oshizushi” 押し寿司. This type of sushi is famous in the Kansai region 関西. In that post, I said that the classic preparation requires a thinly shaven sheet of kelp called “Shiroita konbu” 白板昆布 placed on top of the fillet of fish. Such a preparation is next to impossible to get here in US. Some days ago, however, I found a package of frozen mackerel with a sheet of kelp already on it in Tako Grill’s frozen case and got it. This must be a new product which became available recently since I saw the identical item at the Japanese grocery store as well as at Catalina Offshore products. 

Instead of using a mold to shape the sushi, I made it freehand which is called “Bou-zushi” 棒鮨 (“bou” means a rod or stick). The picture below shows the “saba-no-bouzushi” 鯖の棒鮨 I served as the ending shime dish one evening. As you can see, the surface of the fish is covered with a layer of thinly shaven kelp.

Ingredients:
One package of frozen vinegar cured mackerel as described above, thawed, tail portion cut and tucked in to make an even width.
Sushi rice (my wife made fresh rice for this).


Directions:
Instead of using oshizushi mold, I formed a log of the sushi rice about the same length and width as the mackerel by hand (you need to wet your hand).
Using a silicon sushi rolling mat (relatively recent acquisition, you could use a regular bamboo mat covered with plastic wrap or wet tea towel), place the mackerel skin or kelp side down.
Place the log of the rice onto the mackerel.
Press the rice lightly against the mackerel and roll the silicon mat (top image in the picture below)
Tighten the mat and also press on both sides of the rice to make the rice and the mackerel form a slightly flattened cylinder and unroll (bottom image in the picture below).

Wet the knife and slice about half inch thick (below).

In this cut surface, you could see bottom rice layer and top mackerel layer and surface kelp layer.

This was a very satisfying dish. The layer of mackerel was very thick, but very tender and well seasoned. My wife really like this and said the ratio of sushi rice to fish was perfect. With the addition of kelp layer, it is authentic and tastes better (I think). Since I did not have to find and soak the mold ahead of time, this method was a bit easier to make.

Cold cucumber soup and aspic addendum 冷製胡瓜スープと胡瓜ゼリー

 Because we got 4 large American cucumbers instead of the 4 mini cucumbers we ordered for our recent groceries delivery, we decided to use them to make cold cucumber soup and cucumber aspic. We served the aspic with dill sauce. Although both dishes were very good and we ate each one individually for several lunches, my wife came up with the idea of combining the two. She placed the aspic in a bowl, poured in some of the soup and topped it with the sauce.

The result was an example of “the whole being greater than the sum of its parts”. The soup combined with the dill topping acted like a sauce which perfectly complemented the aspic. Cucumber was the predominant flavor but subtle differences in the flavors of the various ingredients that went into the soup versus the aspic added a pleasing complexity. In the future, we think this would be the preferred way to serve these two dishes so we decided to write this addendum to make that point. This cucumber combination also worked very well especially with the chicken curry we had with it for lunch. 

Cucumber aspic 胡瓜のゼリー

This is the second dish we made using the large American cucumbers we got through grocery home delivery by mistake. Since my wife is into anything “aspic”, this was “the dish” for her. It turned out to be remarkably good. For the picture I added slices of Japanese cucumber as a topping garnish and made an instant dill sauce. My wife later made a different sauce for this dish which is based on dressing for cucumber salad. and it worked well. The cucumber flavor of the aspic was very subtle. Most of the cucumber flavor seems to have come from the garnish of Japanese cucumbers but the aspic had a nice texture and fairly complex flavors.

This is based on the recipe on cooks.com.

Ingredients:
2 large American cucumbers, peeled and seeded, grated (I used a Japanese grater to get a fine grated texture)
1/2 c. cold water (We felt that plain water brings nothing to the “show” so we used lightly sweetened cold mint/black tea that my wife makes for the summer months because it was available. Chicken stock would probably work too).
1/2 c. boiling water
2 tbsp. Knox gelatin
1 tsp. grated onion (we used Vidalia onion)
2 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. vinegar (we used sushi vinegar)
2 tbsp. lemon juice
Dash of Tabasco sauce (we used Sriracha)

For sauce
Version 1
1tbs Greek yogurt
1tbs sour cream
1 tsp lemon juice
1tbs chopped dill

Version 21/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
2 Tbs. sushi vinegar
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1tbs chopped dill

Directions:
Bloom the gelatin by soaking it in the cold water for 5 minutes. Then add the boiling water, stir until thoroughly dissolved, then add all the other ingredients. Put into molds and set in refrigerator to congeal. Yield 6 servings.

This was a very light refreshing dish perfect for a hot summer day. Although the cucumber taste was very subtle the entire refridgerator smelled of cucumber as the aspic was solidifying (which was a very pleasant smell). The flavors were subtle but complex. No single one stood out. For example there was a slight hint of the mint from the tea and a slight hint of the onion. We could have used a bit more hot sauce. The texture was very smooth and pleasing. The sour cream based sauce with the dill really finished the whole dish nicely. Maybe getting the wrong cucumbers wasn’t such a bad mistake after all. 

Cold cucumber soup 冷製胡瓜のスープ

Getting home delivery of groceries is very convenient but one problems that the quality of the fresh produce may be quite variable since we cannot inspect the product before buying. Broken eggs are not uncommon as well the the delivery of wrong items. We have also disable the automatic option for substitutions if the item we requested is not available. This is because the substitutions may not be always appropriate. For example, the substitution of shallots for jalapeno. Talking of wrong item being delivered, we recently received 4 giant American cucumbers instead of a package of 4 mini-cucumbers. (We like these because they are the closest in taste and texture to a Japanese cucumber). Although we do not like regular American cucumbers rather than throwing them out, we tried to use them. This is one of such attempt. We made cold cucumber soup with mint and buttermilk. We had it as a lunch with our usual potato salad and coleslaw. I also served skinned Campari tomato with broccoli and pecan, apricot bread. This was certainly all home-made vegetarian salad and soup lunch which was quite good and filling

Since I had few Japanese cucumbers (from our Japanese grocery store), I garnished the soup with several slices and chiffonade of mint leaves from our herb garden.

For both coleslaw and potato salad, we used home made Greek yogurt (from heirloom yogurt my wife makes regularly) which make it very creamy and also healthier (hopefully).

Since I made miso salad dressing several days ago (recipe from Washington Post, subject of another post), I dressed Campari tomato and blanched broccoli.

Although we jointly prepared the cucumber soup, I peeled, chopped and blended but my wife was in charge and ask her to take over for the recipe.

The recipe came from Southern Living on line.

Ingredients:
21 oz. cucumbers (in our case this was two big American cucumbers)
2 cups whole buttermilk
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (we used home-made)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (from our herb garden)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon, plus more for garnish (we did not have fresh, we used 1 tsp dried)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice plus 1 tsp. lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:
Peel, seed, and chop 2 of the cucumbers.
Process chopped cucumbers, buttermilk, yogurt, mint, tarragon, lemon zest and juice, and salt in a blender until very smooth, about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.
Chill 1 hour or overnight.
We served with slices of Japanese cucumber and chiffonade of fresh mint leaves.


This was a quite nice cold soup. I usually do not particularly fond of buttermilk but for this soup, the buttermilk really tasted great. The slices of Japanese cucumber added nice fresh cucumber taste. One thing that was kind-of odd was that the soup was effervescent. You can see the little bubbles in the pictures above and interestingly the bubbles didn’t go away after the soup had been in the fridge for some time. The bubbles added to texture giving the otherwise velvety smooth soup and somewhat grainy mouth feel. Nonetheless it was a very good cool refreshing soup.

Take-out sashimi from Tako Grill タコグリルからのテイクアウト

We have been taking out omakase sushi and sashimi 刺身と寿司おまかせ from Tako Grill since March of 2020 after it closed for dining-in. I have posted a few of these take-out sashimi and sushi dishes. I usually re-plate them on two plates for one serving each. I usually use rectangular plates but this time, I used round plates we got recently which are currently our favorite.

Today’s sashimi was Oo-tro tuna 大トロ, hamachi はまち and botan-ebi ボタン海老 (could be Argentinian red shrimp). All were quite good. I also use all the trimmings such as the daikon or perilla from the take-out box.

I re-arranged the uni and squid sashimi  rolled in perilla leaves ウニとイカの刺身大葉巻き into a small dish with julienne of perilla 大葉 and nori 刻みのり, dressed with wasabi-jouuyu ワサビ醤油.

We also got 4 deep dried shrimp heads (extra benefit of Botan ebi sashimi) which were also great. We got nearly filled up with these assorted sashimi but we finished with the serving of sushi  (including one California roll with real lump crab) that was the last part of the take-out. We really enjoy this sashimi and sushi feast at home with cold sake. It is a great to kick back, relax and enjoy our meal with sake libation in the comfort of our home without having to worry about a drive back from the restaurant through traffic.