Almond Olive Oil Cake アーモンドオリーブオイルケーキ

This is a variation my wife made of “Hazelnut olive oil cake”. Instead of hazelnut flour (which is a very expensive flour), she used almond flour. She made a number of  modifications. It turned out very nice (#1). Since she used small amount of wheat flour, this is not gluten free.

Because of the olive oil, the cake is very moist and nice alomond flavor coming from both the flour and the almond essence. Since this is not too sweet, perfect for breakfast.

Ingredients
1 1/4  cups firmly packed almond flour
1/2 cup AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup + 1 1/2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil (medium quality is OK)
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
>1 tsp almond extract (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 20 cm/8" springform pan with olive oil then line with baking paper (parchment paper), then grease the paper. In a medium bowl, mix the almond flour, AP flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the olive oil, eggs and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes on speed 7 or 8 until it becomes pale and thick (like pouring cream or runny mayonnaise). Add vanilla and almond extract beat on speed one for 10 seconds. Add the Dry ingredients and mix in gently using a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes. It will puff up dramatically in the oven but it collapses as it cools. Remove from the oven and allow the cake to fully cool in the pan before releasing from the springform pan. This is a rustic cake that has higher edges and a flatter centre.

This is nice variation on the theme of breads made with exotic flours. This has a very moist tender texture and a nice flavor from the combination of almonds and olive oil. (They go surprisingly well together).

Egg-wrapped Kabocha カボチャの黄金焼き

I was trying to use up a kabocha カボチャ we got recently from Weee. Then, I saw this recipe on Youtube. It was named poetically as “golden grill 黄金焼き” due to the egg covering the kabocha. It was simple enough and I decided to make it. This dish is essentially cooked kabocha cut into a bite size pieces, coated with flour and then dipped in beaten egg and fried. The seasonings  are salt and pepper. I made this for lunch one day (picture #1). This is a pretty good dish and indeed nice golden look to it.

We had it with left-over gyoza 餃子 I made and new pumpkin salad, and spicy (not really) crunchy tofu square* (picture #2).

*I made some modification. I now coat the tofu after marination with a mixture of rice flour and potato starch which make really good crunchy crust.

Ingredients:
1/4 kabocha, skin shaved off (optional, many do not mind having the skin), cooked (either steamed, boiled, or microwaved) until soft and  cut into a bite size. 
AP flour for dredging
Salt and pepper to taste
One large egg beaten
2 tbs vegetable oil

Directions:
Dredge the kabocha pieces in the flour (you could season the kabocha pieces before dredging or season the beaten egg. I did the latter).
In the frying pan on medium flame, add the oil.
Dip and coat the kabocha pieces with the egg.
Cook one side until golden and turn it over (1 minutes each).

The original recipe suggest dipping into “aurora” sauce which is the mixture of mayo and catsup popular in Japan

So, from the one relatively small “Kabocha” we got from Weee, I made our usual traditional simmered kabocha, new kabocha salad with bacon and walnuts and finally egg wrapped kabocha. This was a nice combination of flavors but I had to wonder if it wouldn’t have been simpler to get the same effect by just cooking the kabocha pieces in scrambled eggs. 

Black Cod Marinated in Saikyo miso 銀鱈の西京(味噌)焼き

We have a quite a stash of frozen food including fish. This evening, we raided the stash and had black cod a.k.a. sable fish or “gindara 銀鱈”. I made “nitsuke 煮付け” or simmered in broth, and “miso-yaki” 味噌焼き or grilled miso-marinated. This is a variation of grilled miso marinated but I used “Saikyo-miso” 西京味噌, which is a Kyoto sweet white miso, so I can call this “Saikyo-yaki” 銀鱈の西京焼き. Although the miso itself is sweet (and salty), traditionally, more sugar and mirin (both are sweet) are added to the marinade. The amount of sugar in the marinade makes grilling a bit tricky since it is very easy to burn. I managed this by placing the fish on a piece of parchment paper in a dry frying pan. This worked well by preventing the fish from sticking to the pan and burning due to the high sugar content. I removed a thin wedge from the center of the filet since the small bones concentrated there are difficult to remove. It does not look pretty but worked well since cooking on skin side, it became flat so that the fish cooked evenly. I added a side of green beans sautéd in butter.

Since my wife made corn broth, we used it to make corn rice as another side. I also served “asazuke” 浅漬け salted vegetables (daikon, nappa cabbage, carrot and cucumber).

Ingredients: (two small servings)
1 filet of black cod (sable fish) or “gindara” 銀鱈 divided into two portions (for us small eaters)

for marinade
3 tbs Saikyo miso 西京味噌 (kyoto sweet miso) 
1 tsp sugar
2 tps mirin 
1-2 tbs sake (adjust the amount so that the miso mixture is easily spreadable but not runny)

Directions:
On a piece of plastic wrap large enough to wrap both filets, spread half the marinade in the center in the size of two filets.
Place the filets on the marinade and spread the remaining marinade on the surface of the filets and wrap with the plastic wrap.
Place on a plate and let it marinade overnight in the refrigerator.
Remove as much of the marinade as possible using a silicon spatula.
On the bottom of the stainless steel frying pan on low flame, place the parchment paper
Place the filets skin side down on top of the parchment paper and cook for 4-5 minutes
Flip it over and cook another 4-5 minutes or until done.

The is one of our favorite fish (Chilean sea bass, salmon belong in this group). The corn rice had a very nice corn flavor without any corn kernels in the rice and went well with the fish. The green beans were unusually high quality—very sweet and rounded out a really good meal. 

Matsutake (from Weee) Touban-yaki 松茸の陶盤焼き

In past years we have gotten fresh California chestnuts 栗 and matsutake 松茸 mushrooms to celebrate the tastes of autumn.  But trying to get these items from various sources was a bit of a hassle and several times the quality of the items left a lot to be desired. So this year we sort gave up on enjoying these delicacies. Then we discovered that Weee had fresh matsutake. I was not sure of the “grade” of this matsutake or place it originated (I assumed somewhere in North America). The amount of just right (8oz or 226grams). We used to get 1lb which was a bit too much for us to finish before it went bad. Knowing that Weee’s grocery quality is quite good, we decided to get it. It turned out this was better than what we had been getting before. We had this fresh matustake grilled on “tou-ban” 陶盤 or shallow earthen ware disk with half dome lid. I also added ginko nuts to complete the autumnal theme (picture #1). We really like this and the quality was excellent.

This is how it came (picture #2). It is from “Pacific Northwest” (assume to be Oregon and Washington states).

Upon opening, this is so-called “grade 1-2”.  Caps are not open or very slightly open and compared to ones we used to get the surface is not all dried out and much cleaner.

These matsutake could be cleaned just using a wet paper towel (picture #4). In the past, I had to use a knife to removed the surface to clean it since dirt was embedded and surface was very dry. So this is much better. The cut surface was clean with no “worm holes”.

We wanted to have this in the simplest way and decided to “tou-ban” grill. We had this served with a “spritz” of Meyer lemon juice. The matsutake had its usual subtle but distinctive smell and the texture was better than others we had before. This was quite a treat. Weee came through again!

Kabocha salad カボチャサラダ

Halloween season is coming and we got a Japanese “Kabocha” カボチャ pumpkin (or squash) to celebrate the season. I have posted quite a few kabocha dishes. The most traditional is simmered kabocha カボチャの煮物. Although I have posted  “kabocha salad” カボチャサラダ, this is a new version with more ingredients which I saw on YouTube. Besides cooked kabocha, it has bacon, onion, celery and walnuts. The dressing is mayo with soy sauce. As suggested I served with fresh cracked black pepper.  With bacon and walnut, this cannot be bad.

Ingredients:
1/2 small kabocha pumpkin, seeds removed, skin shaved off (optional)
3 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 small sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 celery stalk, de-string (or peel), cut across in thin slices
1/3 cup of walnuts, toasted and chopped 
2 tbs mayonnaise
1 tsp soy sauce
salt and black pepper

Directions:
Place the onion and celery in a bowl, add 2 pinches of salt and mix. Let it stand ofr 5-20 minutes and knead until more water comes out. Wash in cold running water and squeeze out any excess moisture and set aside
Cut the kabocha in small enough pieces to fit into a silicon microwave cooking container, add a small amount of water, place the lid and microwave until soft (4-5 minutes)
Mash the kabocha while it is hot
Add the bacon and walnuts
Add the mayo and soy sauce
Add the celery and onion and mix

Garnish with freshly cracked black pepper and serve

This is a good dish as a drinking snack. The kabocha provides a creamy base. The bacon adds enough saltiness without adding any salt.

Enoki mushroom frittata エノキ オムレツ/フリッタータ

We like mushrooms. Our favorite is shiitake. Maitake 舞茸 or hen-of-the-woods is also great. Although it may not be one of our absolute favorites we also like enoki エノキ mushrooms and we have made many dishes using enoki mushrooms. Actually, many years ago, when we were dating, we went to a Robata-yaki restaurant in Japan town, San Francisco. One of the dishes we had was enoki wrapped in foil and grilled with miso and butter. My wife said it was first time she had enoki and later I recreated the dish many times. It was one of our favorites. In any case, this is a new enoki dish I saw on YouTube and made it for lunch one day. There appears to be some variations but it is essentially, an enoki omelet or frittata. It was really good. Since I had some roasted red pepper sauce, we added it on top and it went very well. On the side I served coleslaw and skinned Campari tomato (picture #1).

Ingredients:
1 package (200gram) fresh enoki mushroom, root ends cut and removed, separated and cut into one inch segments
3 large eggs
2 tbs “katakuri-ko” 片栗粉 potato starch
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbs vegetable/olive oil

Directions:
In a bowl, add the enoki and the potato starch and mix to coat
Add the eggs and mix well
In a non-stick frying pan on medium low flame,  add the oil and when oil is hot, add the enoki/egg mixture, spread and flatten with spatula
Place the lid and cook for 5 minutes or longer until the bottom browns and the surface looks dry
Flip and cook the other side for another 3-4 minutes (picture#2) so that the mushroom is cooked and lighly brown
Remove from the pan and cut into wedges and serve

We had the remaining half later heated up in the microwave oven which came out very nicely. This is easy to make and we really like the texture and flavors of enoki with eggs. Interestingly the mushrooms loose their distinctive shape and meld into the egg mixture. They add a type of density to the mixture which has an unctuous mouth feel. We will make this again.

Strawberry Blini いちごビリニ

This is another variation of blini/crumpet my wife made. This time it was strawberry blini. This happened because of the strawberry we bought sometime ago were not really sweet and as a result we weren’t quick to eat them. I “processed” the fresh strawberries the usual way by washing them, removing the hull, cutting into half or quarters, then placing them in a sealable container with enough triple sec to coat all the pieces. With this treatment, the fruit lasts quite a long time in the refrigerator. After a few days, the surface red color leaches out and the entire strawberry pieces turn red but the taste is the same. We often add this to our breakfast yogurt. This time, the strawberries were not really sweet and they stayed in the fridge without being used. So, finally we decide to either use them or throw them out.  Since my wife has been on a roll making different favored blinis (roasted pepper, pesto, corn, and mashed potato), she suggested making strawberry blini. They came out surprisingly really nice. Slightly pink colored inside with nice tender texture, crunchy crust and subtle but definitive slightly sweet strawberry flavor. We had this as a part of breakfast.

Ingredients: makes 16 blini
2 cups strawberry puree
6 tbs melted butter
3/4 cup cream
6 large eggs, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 + 4 Tbs. cake flour 
1/2 cup sugar 
1 Tbs + 1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla 
1 1/2 tsp salt
enough strawberry juice to bring the batter to the consistency of pancake batter.  

Directions:
Heat the strawberry Triple Sec mixture in a sauce pan just until it starts to boil. Cool and drain the liquid but reserve it for future use. In a food processor, puree the strawberries until smooth; scrape into a medium bowl. Add the egg, the melted butter and cream, then add the flours, sugar baking powder, vanilla and salt and whisk until well blended. (You may need to add some of the reserved strawberry juice so the batter is the consistency of pancake batter.)

Melt 1 Tbs. butter. In a cast iron platar, use the melted butter to grease each of the platar cups before adding the batter . Pour the batter into the cups until they are full using the largest ice cream scoop. Cook over moderately low heat, turning once, until set, about 5 minutes or more per side. Repeat with the remaining butter and batter.

These were remarkably good. They had a tender texture, were slightly sweet and had a loverly subtle strawberry flavor was very distinctive and pervasive. Another small element of surprise was when we pureed the strawberries we noticed there were a lot of very small seeds. We discussed whether we should try to remove them and if so how. We decided that would be too difficult so we just left them in. Turns out the seeds provided a very nice and very small popping crunch in each bite—not so much as to be bothersome, just a pleasant addition to the texture.  The possibilities for blinis are limitless.

P.S. We found out that this tastes really good with strawberry whipped cream cheese. The strawberry on strawberry flavor is very nice. 

Hen-of-the-Woods Grilled Cheese 舞茸のチーズ焼き

We like “hen of the woods” or maitake 舞茸 mushrooms. They have a nice firm meat-like texture and flavor. We cooked maitke many different ways and posted them in the past. Currently, maitake cooked in sage brown butter seems to be our favorite. Recently I saw, this simple but very good recipe on YouTube  (in Japanese) and tried it. I forgot to take a serving picture but picture #1 shows how it looks when serving. The idea is very similar to “cheese mochi rice cake”. We really like this dish. It is easy to make with crispy cheese and mushrooms. We thought we really do not need any kind of sauce.

Ingredients:
One package (85grams) of hen of the woods “maitake”, torn and separated into small fronds
5-6 slices of low-moisture Mozzarella cheese

Directions:
In a non-stick frying pan on medium-low flame add a few slices of cheese and place the maitake on it (I made two as seen in picture #2)

As the cheese melts and the bottom browns for a few minutes, flip it over using a silicon spatula (picture #3) and brown the other side for a few more minutes (picture #1).

This is a really good dish. We will add this to our regular maitake dishes. It is full of umami and almost feels like eating a piece of meat.

Five appetizers お通し５品

This is a plate of 5 appetizers to start the evening. Nothing particularly new but several good small dishes with quite a variety. Because of the ponzu in the eggplant dish and “ikura” salmon roe with qual eggs, we chose cold sake.

#1 Spicy (not really) marinated firm tofu ピリ辛豆腐. I usually do not get firm tofu but they did not have any other kind at the grocery store this week. I used the same marinade (soy sauce, sriracha, grated ginger and garlic, sesame oil, rice vinegar and mirin). The only variation is I coated the tofu with a mixture of AP flour and potato starch before frying. This worked well producing a crunchy crust and well seasoned center which was not too firm.

#2 Salmon kelp roll  鮭の昆布巻き. I started making this not just for New Years. This is a great appetizer We can keep it for some time in the refrigerator. It can also be reheated to last longer and with a good quality kelp (Hodaka kelp 日高昆布) which I recently got, this tastes better than before.

$3 Cold marinated eggplant 冷製レンジ茄子のポン酢漬け. This is an easier eggplant dish to make since the egg plant is cooked in the microwave oven. The bonito flakes 鰹節 topping is a must.

#4 Eggplant and shiitake stir fry with oyster sauce 茄子と椎茸のオイスターソース炒め. The addition of chopped fresh perilla leaves really makes this dish. Enjoying with a small perilla leaf adds to it.

#5 Marinated boiled quail eggs with pickled cucumber and ikura salmon roe 味付けウズラの茹卵. The quail eggs are served warm (skewered and heated up in the toaster oven). We boil fresh quail eggs rather than use canned eggs. Quail eggs have large yolks relative to the overall size of the egg. In addition the yolks have a very creamy texture even when the egg is completely cooked which we really like.

Even though these dishes are quite small they add up and are fairly filling. They are a great way to start the evening meal.