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. 

Mashed Potato Blini マシュポテトのビリニ

Since my wife was on a roll coming up with roasted pepper blini, pesto blini and corn blini, she looked at the bowl of mashed potatoes in the fridge and was hit with a brilliant flash—potato blini. These were mashed potatoes she prepared when we cooked a whole chicken in the Weber grill. Usually, we place two aluminum wrapped Russet potatoes in the Weber with the chicken. She removes the skin of the potatoes. mashes them and adds butter, cream cheese with onions and chives (sold in a tub), seasoning it with salt. Then she pours in the juice accumulated while the chicken was resting. These potatoes are very nice and flavorful. We like them but we generally cannot finish them. From the leftover potatoes, my wife makes gnocchi (of which we have a backlog in the freezer). I often make “potato croquettes” (but again we have a backlog in our freezer). “Mashed potato blini” seemed like a perfect use of the left over potatoes particularly since there was no backlog in the freezer—yet. This turned out very well. The crust is crunchy but the inside is quite tender with mashed potato flavor and a hint of barbecue chicken. With this dish we found another way to use up leftover mashed potatoes.

Ingredients(X3): makes 14 blini
2 cups of mashed potatoes
6 tbs melted butter
3/4 cup sour cream
6 large eggs, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup + 2 tbs. cake flour 
1 Tbs + 1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
enough additional cream or buttermilk to make it the texture of pancake batter 

Directions:
Run the mashed potatoes through a ricer to work out any lumps. Put the riced potatoes in a bowl.  Add the egg, the melted butter and sour cream, then add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until well blended. (You may need to add more cream so the batter is the consistency of pancake batter.)

In a cast iron platar, melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Use the melted butter to grease each of the platar cups before adding the batter. Pour the batter into the cups until they are mostly full. Cook over moderately low heat, turning once, until set, about 5 minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining butter and batter.

This is a great way to use the left over mashed potatoes. The outside is crispy and the inside has a nice smooth moist texture. The overall flavor of the potatoes really comes through. These would be really good slathered in the butter for breakfast or as a side for lunch or dinner. 

Stir-fried Eggplant and Shiitake in Oyster Sauce 茄子と椎茸のオイスターソース炒め

This is another variation of stir-fried eggplant to which this version is very similar but I skipped a few steps to make it easier and quicker. Since we got very good fresh shiitake mushrooms which were very thick, I added to this to the stir-fry. It is difficult to see which is the eggplant and which is shiitake (Picture #1) visually but when tasting it, the differences becomes clear. The addition of the shiitake makes this dish more interesting than just eggplant. Thick, fresh shiitake almost tastes like meat. Perilla and ginger add their distinct flavors.

Ingredients: (about makes 8 small servings like seen in picture #1).
2 Japanese (Asian) eggplants (picture #2), each weighed about 110-115 grams, stem ends removed and cut into a large bite size by cutting on bias as you roll 45 degrees (“ran-giri” 乱切り)
2 fresh shiitake, large and thick, stems removed and cut into a similar size large chunks
1/2 tsp ginger root, peeled, and julienned, 
5-7 perilla leaves, finely chopped
1 tbs vegetable oil (I used peanut oil) with a splash or dark sesame oil

Seasonings:
1 tbs oyster sauce
1/2 tbs soy sauce (I used x4 Japanese noodle sauce)
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
1 tbs Shiaoxing wine (optional)
1/3 cup chicken broth, low sodium

Directions:
In a wok, add the oil on medium high flame. When the oil is shimmering add the eggplants. Starting from the skin side cook/brown for several minutes turning as needed.
Add the shiitake and cook 2-3 minutes more.
Add the ginger and stir.
Add the wine and broth (careful it may ignite).
When the liquid starts boiling, turn down the flame to medium and add the oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar.
Reduce the liquid a bit and add the perilla.
Check the seasoning and adjust

The combination of eggplant and shiitake work every well together with nice umami reminiscent of a meat dish. The addition of the perilla adds a nice bright taste which provides a good contrast. 

Fresh Corn Blini コーンビリニ

It is a local corn harvest season and my wife bought 12 ears of fresh corn. We rarely eat corn on the cob but often remove the kernels from the cob, then “milk” the cobs by scraping them with the back of a knife to extract all the goodness of the corn. Using a Vitamix blender, we then puree the fresh corn without adding any liquid. With this batch of corn my wife made, corn sage muffins, corn pudding/cake, and corn broth from the cobs. But there was still some corn puree left. We contemplated how to use it and my wife came up with the idea of corn blini. This was based on her previous experience with roasted red pepper blini and pesto blini. Turned out to be a pretty good addition to the crowd. 

Ingredients: makes 14 blini
2 cups corn puree
6 tbs melted butter
3/4 cup cream
6 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup corn meal or corn flour 
1 Tbs + 1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
In a food processor, puree the corn until smooth; scrape into a medium bowl. (If you are not going to use the corn right away put it in a pan and bring to a boil to eliminate any potential bacteria from the corn).  Add the egg, the melted butter and cream, then add the flours, baking powder and salt and whisk until well blended. (You may need to add more liquid so the batter is the consistency of pancake batter.)

In a cast iron platar, melt 1 tablespoon of butter. 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 blini were wonderful. They had an incredible and strong corn taste that was very pleasant. The texture was lovely and moist. Tasted great slathered with butter for breakfast. 

Simmered Dried Daikon Threads 切り干し大根の煮物

I realized that I posted this same dish 14 years ago. Although the statute of limitation may have passed I am re-blogging this recipe. This is because in the intervening years additional sources of Japanese food items which previously were not available have become available and I recently got a new package of “kiriboshi daikon” 切り干し大根 (*digression alert) or “threaded and dried daikon” from “Japanese Taste”. So I decided to make this traditional dish (picture #1).

*”Kiriboshi” is an example of  Japanese language form referred to as “rendaku” 連濁 or “sequential voicing”. In sequential voicing, when two words are combined to make a compound word, the first consonant of the second word which would generally be “unvoiced” in the combination becomes “voiced” i.e. when pronounced you can feel your vocal chords vibrate. In this example, kiri 切り(is an adjective for the state of being cut ) and hoshi 干し is an adjective for dried. In the process of making a compound word meaning cut and dried “kiri+hoshi” becomes “kiri-boshi” i.e. the h in hoshi remains silent or unvoiced so it becomes b which is voiced. This is a common thing in combined words in Japanese. (This is Japanese grammar 101/102 the short course—enjoy). 

I served this as a part of starting appetizers. This is a very gentle slightly sweet (from the dried daikon. The drying process makes the daikon sweeter) taste was enhanced with “Umami” of kelp and bonito broth. In the picture below, the dish on the right is salmon kelp roll, blanched sugar snaps and skinned Campari tomato. The kelp for the salmon kelp rolls is called “Hidaka kelp” 日高昆布 from Hokkaido. It has a nice texture. I got this also from “Japanese taste”.

Ingredients:
1 package (30gram) of “kiriboshi daikon”, washed and soaked in water to hydrate for 30 minutes and drained. The excess water (the daikon) squeezed dry.

One sheet (a full size one) deep dried tofu or abura-age 油揚げ, soaked in hot water and squeezed dry, cut in half lengthwise and cut into thin strips.
One medium carrot, peeled, sliced thin on bias and then julienned.
Kelp and bonito broth, enough to cover the above ingredients, about 200ml.
2 tbs x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce (or 1 tbs each soy sauce and mirin).
1 tsp vegetable oil and a splash of roasted sesame oil
Green beans, blanched in salted water for 3-4 minutes, the amount arbitrary

Directions:
Add the vegetable oil with a splash of roasted sesame oil in a sauté pan on medium flame.
Add the carrot and stir for a minute, add the daikon and abura-age, stir briefly
Add the broth to cover the ingredients and simmer
Season it with the noodle sauce (or the soy sauce and mirin), simmer for 30-40 minutes until the liquid is mostly reduced
I did not cook green beans with the rest of the ingredients because they were very good green beans and I did not want to over cook them. I just boiled them for 3 minutes to cook them but keep them crunchy. Before serving, slice the green beans on bias and garnish.

This is a nice seemingly simple dish which actually has fairly complex combination of flavors and textures. The daikon is slightly chewy and the abura-age has a rough texture and almost tastes like meat. Perfect for a small appetizer. 

Chicken Tender Fry with Salted Plum Sauce and Perilla ささ身の梅大葉揚げ

We were trying to use up frozen items hidden deep in the freezer. At one time, we bought chicken from a special poultry on-line store. We were not particularly impressed with the quality of the chicken we got. One of items was chicken the tenders. We decided they had matured long enough in the freezer so it was time to use them up. This is a variation on the chicken tender yakitori with perilla and salted plum sauce and is  based on a recipe posted on line. This time I shallow fried (picture #2) instead of cooking in the toaster oven.

Because it was fried with a batter coating, it has a crispy outside and soft inside with flavors of perilla and umeboshi 梅干 salted plum (picture #1). This combination works well. This heated up nicely in the toaster oven as well.

Ingredients:
10 chicken tenders, tendons removed and bi-valved (not cut through, just make a pocket)
10 perilla leaves

For Umeboshi  梅干しsauce or “Bainiki 梅肉 sauce
3 umeboshi salted plumes, meat cut off and finely chopped
1tsp mirin
1 tsp sake
1 tsp soy sauce
1 small pack of “kezuri-bushi” 削り節 bonito flakes 

For Batter
Equal amount of ”katakuri-ko” potato starch

Peanut oil for frying

Directions:
Umeboshi sauce
Add the chopped umeboshi fresh into a Japanese “suribachi” mortar, add the mirin, sake and soy sauce. Mix and grind using a pestle until smooth. Add the bonito flakes and mix to incorporate.

Smear the umeboshi sauce inside the bi-valved chicken tenders, close the tender and put the batter on one side of the perilla and encase the cut side, coat it with the batter and fry in the 180F oil, 1-2 minutes per side turning once (picture #2). Drain, cut in half and serve.

The umebishi sauce and perilla flavors are a very nice combination and frying makes it better. So there is no argument this is a good small dish to have.

Pesto Blini Prosciutto Cheese Sandwich

This is a sandwich my wife came up with for lunch. We made “pesto blini” some time ago and found out when we toast the blini, because of the olive oil in the pesto, essentially it fries in the toaster oven and makes a nice crispy crust. My wife decided this would make a nice sandwich. She would have used honey ham but we did not have it and, instead, used prosciutto (which we did have). She also added a slice of cheddar cheese before toasting. Melting cheese,  prosciutto and crisp pesto flavored blini are indeed a good combination. I served it with a side of cantalope.

Ingredients:
2 pesto blinis, spilt in half horizontally
Mayo and Dijon mustard
Slices of sharp cheddar or other meting cheese
Prosciutto or honey ham

Direction.
Place slices of the cheddar on one slice of the blini and toast both slices until the cheese melts
Smear the mayo and mustard on the other slices (picture #2)

Add the prosciutto (picture #3)

The prosciutto was a bit on the salty side and this sandwich may be better with honey ham or some other meat but it was still pretty good with nice pesto/basil flavor and crispy blini.

Vegetables in Cold Broth 冷製のトマトの煮浸し

Cold vegetables soaked in broth is the perfect dish for summer. I have posted cold simmered tomato and sugar snap soaked in salt broth before. I made a tomato dish similar to the one I made before but it differed because I did not simmer the tomato (Picture #1). I skinned the Campari tomato (by briefly blanching) and then soaking (but not cooking) it in the hot broth. I let it cool to room temperature and then refrigerated it. I blanched the Sugar snap then soaked it in the broth. I topped it with very briefly blanched “mitsuba ミツバ”. This preparation allows you to taste a fresher tomato flavor. The broth is also slightly sweet containing mirin and soy sauce in addition to kelp-bonito broth.

A few days later, I added simmered daikon and shiitake mushroom (picture #2, right). I also served salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き and seasoned egg or “ajitama 味玉” (left). The green is arugula sprouts which were growing in the window pot but needed to be thinned. I dressed with truffle oil.

Directions:

Vegetables I used are simmered daikon and fresh shiitake mushrooms, skinned Campari tomatoes and blanched sugar snaps. The daikon was first simmered in water with added one pinch of raw rice for 30 minutes. The seasoning broth is my usual kelp and bonito broth (I made it stronger with two dashi packs with 500ml of water) which was seasoned with mirin and soy sauce (not too strong to bring out the natural flavor of the vegetable). I did not cook the vegetable further, just placed in hot seasoned both and let it cool down and then refrigerated.

This is a very light refreshing dish to serve on a hot summer evening. The veggies have a very fresh flavor but a slightly cooked texture that make them a bit easier to eat. This is the essence of summer.

Yakitori de le Canard 鴨ささみで焼き鳥

Last time we had duck tenders as a cutlet, we said we will make Yakitori using the duck tenders (a.k.a. “Yakitori de le canard” 鴨焼き鳥). Finally we managed to do it. I thought about how to prepare it and decided to marinate it and then cook it in the toaster oven. Since it is duck, and Japanese generally think “kamo” or duck goes well with “negi” or onion more precisely Japanese “tokyo” scallion I also served grilled onion. (digression alert *). Since we recently got some really good green beans (which doesn’t happen all that  often), I also added blanched green beans on the side. The combination worked well and “Yakitori de le canard” was a great success (Picture #1).

* The Japanese expression is “鴨がネギを背負ってくる” meaning “duck flies in with onion on its back”. This expression is used when something fortuitous happens in your favor with little or no effort on your part. Or (if you are a conman) it refers to the perfect victim coming to you with money outstretched in their hand.

Ingredients (2 small serving of 4 duck tenders per serving)
8 Duck tenders
One medium onion cut into small wedges
2 tbs Ponzu soy sauce (from the bottle or equal mixture of citrus juice and soy sauce)
2 tbs sake

Directions:
Mix the sake and ponzu in a ziploc bag, place the duck tenders inside and remove as much air as possible and let it marinate overnight in the refridgerator.
Drain the marinade and pat the surface of the tenders dry
Skewer the tenders using a bamboo skewer (picture #2)
Skewer the onion wedges (picture #2)

Line the toaster oven tray with an aluminum sheet. Place the tenders and onion on a metal grate over the sheet and broil the duck tenders and onion 5-7 minutes per-side turning once until done (picture #3).

This was a good “yakitori”. The marinade (sake and ponzu) made the duck meat very tender and flavorful. I may have over cooked it a bit and the meat was lightly dry. the sweet onion went well with the duck. Next time, I can skip the skewering and  cook it in a frying pan.

Pesto Blini

Our window sill basil is still growing very well. Although we use cuttings for pizzas and salads etc, we still need to harvest a relatively large quantity of basil every-once-in-a-while. Although my wife made basil cake/bread, our default to use up excess basils is making pesto. But once the pesto is made, we have to use it in a reasonable time or freeze it. Once we freeze the pesto, we tend to forget about it. We used most of the last batch for pesto and red pepper sauce pizza. My wife came up with this to use up the remaining pesto.  “Pesto Blini”! This is an extension of “Roasted pepper blini”.  We had it toasted as a part of breakfast it had a nice crisp crust and the pesto flavor came through as a savory dimension. We have to enjoy this with other appropriate toppings.

Ingredients(X2.5) makes 17 blini
1/2 cup pesto
5 tbs melted butter
1/2 +1/8 cup cream
5 large eggs, beaten
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
In a medium bowl, add the egg, the pesto, the melted butter and cream, then add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until well blended. (You may need to add more liquid so the batter is the consistency of pancake batter.)
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a pyrex dish. Use the melted butter to grease each of the platar cups of a cast iron platar before adding the batter . Pour the batter into the cups until they are 1/2 full. Cook over moderately low heat, turning once, until set, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining butter and batter.

This makes a lovely savory crumpet like bite. It also provides a nice contrast to the usual flavors that appear for breakfast and it is a great way to use up pesto left over from pesto pizza.

Smelt Fry シシャモフライ

Smelt and Capelin (shishamo ししゃも) are all similar small fish and often (including myself) used almost interchangeably. Rarely I see “smelt” in a U.S. grocery store with head off and gutted. In oriental grocery stores, the whole fish is sold with head, gut and roe intact. If the fish has roe, all-the-better. Weee carries frozen “smelt” (label said capelin from Canada). We tried them twice so far and they are pretty good. The only problem is that it is sold in a package of 600grams (1.3 lb) of fish frozen together. I usually manage to semi-thaw them and divide it up into three or four smaller portions (7-8 fish per pack), vacuum pack and re-freeze them. It turned out these frozen smelt/capelin are quite good, probably best for frying rather than grilling. Japanese style slightly dried Capelin may be the best for grilling.

As suggested above, two common ways of cooking are grilled or fried. Frying can be “kara-age”; fried dredged with flour/potato starch, or tempura and fry with breading. The night I cooked the capelin I was also making arancini, so I breaded the capelin and fried it. I also fried  seasoned quail eggs. In the picture, the left two objects are halved arancini, center two are capelin fry and the right round one (half buried under the capelin) is a quail egg. Some of the capelin had roe and tasted especially good. The arancini was made from left-over shiitake risotto with a center of meting Mozzarella cheese which by definition could not taste bad.

There is no recipe for the Capelin fry. Dredge in flour, place it in egg water and bread it with Panko bread crumb and deep fry in 180F oil for several minutes. We are glad to now have reliable source  of smelt/capelin.

Icelandic Pumpernickel (Rye) Bread アイスランドのライ麦パン

My wife wanted to use pumpernickel flour (whole or dark rye flour) before it gets too old. We have already made “classic” pumpernickel bread and also German Black (Pumpernickel) boule. We found a recipe for “Icelandic Rye (pumpernickel) bread” at King Arthur Flour website. The recipe appeared interesting. Since it is a “soda” bread, my wife took the initiative for making it (soda bread is not my shtick). This bread turned out to be pretty good and the texture/density is something between the classic pumpernickel bread and Pumpernickel boule (picture #1). It is a bit sweeter and made perfect sandwich bread (picture #2).

This was a lunch. We happened to have a hot smoked (in Weber grill) pork roast. I made sandwiches with avocado slices, mayo and Dijon mustard.

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups (477g) Pumpernickel Flour (original recipe calls for “medium” rye flour)
2 teaspoons table salt
1 tablespoon baking powder 
3/4 teaspoon baking soda 
2 cups (454g) buttermilk 
1/2 cup (168g) honey
1/2 cup (170g) molasses

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325°F with a rack in the center position.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, honey, and molasses.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring to combine.
Transfer the batter to a lightly greased 9" pain de mille (pullman) pan and smooth the top. Lightly grease the lid, and place the lid on the pan. (We do not have a pullman pan so I just used a regular loaf pan. Luckily I put a tray underneath because the batter over flowed the loaf pan big time). Next time I will put the batter into two loaf pans.) 
Bake the bread for 2 hours. Turn off the oven and remove the lid from the pan. Leave the loaf in the turned-off oven for another 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and turn out of the pan onto a cooling rack.

Since this bread is denser than usual sandwich bread, I sliced it a bit thinly and made perfect roast pork sandwiches. 

Home Coffee Roasting 緑コーヒー豆の自家焙煎

I do not remember when I started home roasting green coffee beans but it was sometime ago. I started with  an electric popcorn popper, then over time used 4-5 different hot air roasters (many broke, some were discontinued. Only one hot air roaster is still working but I am not using it any longer). I also had a drum  roaster (Behmor 1600) on which I upgraded the control panel and it is still working but is a bit unreliable.  I am currently using a “Gene Cafe” roaster (picture #1).  I am not sure this should be classified as a drum or hot air roaster. It is probably more along the line of the hot air roaster.

General summary: Most roasters are too loud to hear the both the first and second cracks which are important determinants of the stage of roasting the beans have achieved. The roasters also produce a lot of smoke so they have to be used outside or in very well ventilated spaces. Over time, however,  I have discovered that the shape of some of the roasters make it possible to temporarily attach a drier vent duct to the roaster to channel the smoke directly up to the vent hood over the stove. With this temporary set-up the roaster can be used indoors under the hood. All the roasters, especially hot air roasters, are quite sensitive to ambient temperature as well as the voltage fluctuation. Some models have, although limited, programable temperature profiles. For some roasters the amount of green beans you can roast is also limited.

1. Hot air roasters: This type is easy to use but you cannot hear the first or second cracks to judge the roasting stages due to the loud noise made by the machine.

2. Drum roaster: Behmor 1600 (the current model is 2000AB plus) is the only drum roaster I have used. This is composed of a wire mesh drum and a radiant heat source in the back of the drum. This is a very quiet machine and I could hear both first and second cracks. There are some roasting programs you can choose or you could use your  own temperature profile. This worked well but their “smoke suppression system” does not really work and there was no way to attach a drier duct for venting so I could only use this machine outside. In addition the chaff collector is not very convenient and, in general, cleaning is not easy. The capacity is unusually large and it can roast up to 1 pound. The newer model appears to have more controls and other improvements. Over time and with much use the machine became unreliable. The drum would stop turning in the middle of roasting. I would have to shut off the machine and then restart it. As a result I would lose control of the timing of the roast and the beans would come out over or under roasted.

3. Current roaster: Gene Cafe, It has an off-axis glass cylinder drum and you can clearly see the beans while roasting (picture #1) . The chaff collector is large and quite good and allows the attachment of the clothes drier duct and can be used in-doors under the hood. When used outside without the noise of an exhaust fan under the hood I can hear the first crack very well but the second crack is difficult to hear. When used in-doors with an exhaust fan going, I cannot hear either of the cracks. It can roast up to 8oz of coffee in one batch. I am reasonably satisfied with this roaster but cooling takes a long time and chaff removal is not perfect.

To compensate these two short comings, recently, I added another coffee roasting contraption which is the “coffee cooling tray” (picture #2). This is rather simple device but works well. The fan and motor are located at the bottom layer sucking air from top and out. The top sieve has a coarse metal screen where the hot coffee beans get placed (#3) and the middle sieve has a fine metal screen to catch the chaff (#4).

A tiny metal “shovel” is included for stirring (#3).

While cooling, stirring the beans further removes the chaff which is collected in the second sieve (#4).

The hot coffee beans cool down very quickly and quite more chaff comes off. One of the major difficulties is that the Gene Cafe is not designed to be used with an external cooler. After it goes into the cool down cycle, the temperature has to come down below a certain level (I have not determined the exact temp) before you can stop and remove the cylinder/drum which defeats having the external cooling tray. The only way you can remove the cylinder while it is hot is to force it off (by unplugging the machine), removing  the cylinder and dumping the hot coffee beans into the cooling tray. This may not be good for the roaster, however. So, this is what I came up with.

1. I line up an extra roasting cylinder and the cooling tray turned on next to the roaster.

2. After the roasting is completed, I put the roaster into the cooling cycle. Wait about 1 minute until the temperature comes down below 400F then unplug the machine (making sure the cylinder position allows me to remove the cylinder when it stops). 

3. I remove the cylinder and dump the hot coffee beans into the cooling tray and place the spare cylinder back into the roaster(You could put back the original cylinder after dumping the beans but this is difficult since the cylinder is hot and seemingly expands enough to make putting it back more difficult.)

4. Plug the roaster back in and turned it on.  Start “roasting” and immediately turn it to the cooling cycle and let it cool down until it stops. (I am hoping this procedure is the least harmful for the roaster).

So, is all this effort worth it? Although I think I know what I like in my coffee/expresso drinks, I am not sure I can differentiate beans cooled quickly vs slowly in the roaster cooling cycle.  Other factors such as beans, roasting level, grind, how the espresso is brewed may make more significant differences. Never-the-less, I try to do everything in the right and consistent way so that I can have coffee we like.

Tofu, Egg and Garlic Chives Stir Fry 豆腐ニラ玉、木耳入り

This is one of the left-over control dishes. I had a package of “medium firm” tofu 豆腐 which just reached “BUB” (Best Used By) date, the last of garlic chive ニラand wood ear mushroom 木耳. So, I made this dish for lunch one day. I sort of got an idea from some of the recipes I saw on the Web and YouTube. Based on my memory and CCK (Common Culinary Knowledge) I  winged it. The seasonings could be improved but overall this was a quite good satisfying dish and fairly healthy and nearly vegetarian (I am not sure if oyster sauce really contains oysters or their derivatives). Depending on how much seasoning you add, this could be a side dish for rice but I seasoned it lightly and we had it as a main dish for lunch.

Ingredients:
One package of tofu (I used medium firm but firm would be good), drained and cut into cubes (#1 in the composite picture).
Two eggs, beaten and seasoned with a pinch of salt (#2)
Wood ear mushroom (optional, this was leftover, I blanched, washed it previously and cut into small trips, the amount is arbitrary) (#4)
Garlic chive, washed and cut into short segments, the amount arbitrary (#4)
2 tbs vegetable oil or peanut oil and a splash of dark sesame oil

Seasonings (#2): (premix, #2)
2 tbs oyster sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry or mirin, which makes it sweeter, or sake)

1 tsp Ponzu sauce

Directions:
Add the oil to the non-stick frying pan on medium high flame and cook turning once or twice until the surface is lightly browned (2-3 minutes) (#1 in the composite picture)
Reduce the flame to medium and pour in the egg mixture (#3) cook until the edges are set and gently turn and coat the tofu cubes
Add the seasonings and cook for 30 seconds mixing gently
Add the garlic chive and wood ear mushroom (#4)
Mix and toss to combine for 30 seconds to 1 minute
Splash the ponzu sauce and a small amount of sesame oil and mix to finish

I felt a bit self righteous finishing up the tofu, garlic chive and wood ear mushrooms by making this dish and nothing wasted. But better yet it was pretty good. The tofu went extremely well with the egg coating. The tofu and egg had similar texture but each brought a slightly different taste which was interesting in the same bite. The wood ear mushroom brought its own element to the dish in the form of a slight crunchiness that offset the tofu/egg texture. The garlic chive contributed a distinctly but mild garlic taste. Not a bad left-over control dish which can bear repeating. 

Cucumber in soy sauce 胡瓜の醤油漬け

I would like to have fresh cucumbers (if available Japanese cucumber but American mini-cucumber is a great substitute). Usually American min-cucumbers come in a pack of 6. If not used within 2-3 days, they go bad (white specks, either bacteria or fungus, develop on the surface).  I make several kinds of cucumber salads and pickles in an attempt to use up the cucumbers.  Currently our favorite pickled cucumber is using leftover pickling liquid after making the daikon pickles. In addition, I also try to preserve fresh cucumbers by placing them in a Ziploc bag and pouring enough Vodka to coat all the surface plus a bit more and then I squeeze out as much air from the bag as I can. With this treatment, the fresh cucumber last about one week or a bit more. I am always looking for other recipes to use cucumbers. I saw this recipe in one of the Ko Kentetsu You Tube episodes. It is easy enough and looks interesting. This is marinated about 3 days. It is still crunchy. Soy sauce and vinegar make the foundation but the addition of ginger and a small slash of dark sesame oil really make it.

Ingredients:
3 American mini-cucumbers or 2 Japanese cucumbers. 
Fine julienne of ginger root

Marinade:
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs rice vinegar
Small splash of dark sesame oil

Directions:
Cut the cucumbers length wise in half
Remove the seeds using a small spoon
Cut the cucumber on a bias in bite sized pieces

Add the cucumber, ginger and the marinade to a sealable container. Close the container and refrigerate. 

You can enjoy this immediately or in few days.

We like this. It is very easy to make and slight sweetness combided with the sesame oil and ginger really make this a good side dish or “Hashi-yasume” 箸休め meaning “chopsticks rest” so that the chopsticks take a brief rest after heavy lifting of main dishes.

Dassai 45 and Dassai blue comparison 獺祭45とDassai Blue 50 の飲み比べ

“Dassai” 獺祭 is a well known and popular sake in Japan and US. We like it for its very clean, fruity flavors. We used to get  “Dassai 50” daiginjo 獺祭50大吟醸. But the Dassai 50 is not sold any more. It was replaced by “Dassai 45” in 2019 (In Dassai 50, the sake rice is polished to 50% of the original volume, in Dassai 45, it is polished to 45%).  We learned that Dassai (brewed by Asahi Sake Brewery 朝日酒造 in Yamaguchi 山口県) established a sake brewery in Hyde Park, NY some years ago. However, this is the first time we obtained several bottles of  the NY-brewed sake “Dassai Blue 50”.  Interestingly, Dassai Blue is labeled as “Type 50”. I assume that indicates 50% polish like the old Dassai 50. My understanding based on an article I read,  was that they used imported Japanese “Yamada Nishiki” 山田錦 sake rice. But another source of information (again, not their website) indicated the rice is grown in Arkansas. (Further more, I would have to wonder what water source* they are using in the brewing; NY tap water, Hudson river water, or Hyde Park artesian well water???) In any case, one evening we compared Dassai blue and Dassai 45 (picture #1).

*One on-line store website indicates the sauce of the water is a “local well”. But again, this is unofficial information.

The Dassai Blue, when first tasted, has a definitive tingling/prickly sensation on the tip of the tongue. It is like very lightly effervescent. Then comes a very subtly sweet and Dassai signature fruity taste.  As it sits in the glass, the tingling character diminishes indicating indeed this might be the effervescence. The “Dassai Blue” label indicated “keep refrigerated”. I wonder if the label “keep refrigerated” means, “Blue”may be  “Nama” sake 生酒** or not heat-treated and slight fermentation happened in the bottle producing the effervescence. (Again no details are available from the brewery and these are all our conjuncture).

**Another unofficial information indicated “Blue” only had one “hi-ire” 火入れ heat-treatment instead of  usual  two (after pressing and bottling).

The Dassai 45 is a classic Dassai, clean, fruity and smooth in the mouth—no effervescence or tingly sensation.

Which one do we like better? It is hard to say. Dassai Blue’s tingling sensation is not unpleasant (we had similar effervescence in other “non-sparkling” sake). According to the label (picture #2), they are aiming to surpass Dassai brewed in Japan but not just to reproduce it. We can certainly enjoy either Dassai.

To enjoy sake, we need some “otsumami” おつまみ appetizers. For Dassai tasting, I served warm chawam-mushi with ginko nuts, shrimp, shiiitake mushroom and the garnish was our home grown fresh “mitsuba” 三つ葉 which added a nice unique flavor (left in picture #3). The center is eggplant, shiitake and wood ear mushroom brased in oyster sauce and ginger 茄子と椎茸のオイスターソース炒め. The right is garlic chive “ohitashi” ニラのお浸し topped with golded thread omelet.

In the past we tried a few US brewed sake and Dassai Blue in definitely one of the best. Only one which is in the same class is “Sho-Chiku-Bai” daiginjou 松竹梅大吟醸 brewed from California-grown “Yamada Nishiki” sake rice. But these two cannot be compared in the same way. Sho-Chiku-Bai was produced in very limited quantity, is not readily available and has a much higher price point. On the other hand, the Dassai Blue 50 is very reasonably priced and relatively widely available.

Mitsuba ミツバ

Mitsuba 三つ葉 is a sort of Japanese parsley mainly used as a garnish or topping for certain dishes such as soup, katsu-don カツ丼 and chawan-mushi 茶碗蒸し. “Mitsuba” in Japanese means three leaves since it has three leaves. It has a very distinctive and unique flavor. In the past, I rarely got fresh ones at our Japanese grocery store and I could get dried ones which do not have much flavor. I tried to grow it a few times from the seeds (from Kitazawa seeds) which was not a great success for some reason. This time the mitsuba we planted in a pot on the window sill grew quite nicely (picture #1). 

I added this home-grown fresh mitsuba to the usual chawanmushi I make (picture #2). I mixed the stalks which were cut into small pieces into the egg mixture but I added the leaves just 30 seconds before serving. This time I served chawanmush hot just out of the steamer.

Althouhg mitsuba is not a major component of the any dishes incuding the chawanmushi, I really like the unique flavor.

Garlic Chive Dumpling ニラ頭饅 or 韮菜万頭

We used to grow garlic chives or “nira” ニラ in our herb garden but it failed in two ways: 1) the garlic chives were very fibrous except when we harvested them very young and 2) they grew like weeds taking over the entire herb garden. The plant had deep roots that were very hard to extract. It was quite a lot of work to get rid of it and we are not completely successful even now. (Digression alert: Some years ago we hired a gardener to do the spring clean up which included the herb garden. When he found out the herb garden contained garlic chives he specified the clean up would include everything EXCEPT the garlic chives.) Although we did make quite a few garlic chive dishes, we gave up growing our own. We have been shying away from even buying garlic chive for a while (besides it is not readily available). Since Weee almost always carries garlic chives, we tried them. They came in quite a large bundle (about 1 lb). We tried it in several dishes and, even though they were fully grown, the garlic chive were not fibrous at all.  We added garlic chives to our stir-fried dishes, soup and as a “ohitashi” ニラのお浸し. We still had some garlic chives left so I started looking for new recipes to use them. I came across a recipe by Koh Kentetsu on YouTube.  I was not familiar with this dish. I am not sure if this is based on a known Chinese dish or invented in Japan but it is apparently very popular. 

A quick internet search indicated that “nira-manju” or “garlic chive dumpling” was “invented” in a Chinese restaurant called “Niramanju Fussa” or “韮菜万頭福生” near the Yokota American military base 横田米軍基地. In any case, I have not tasted or seen the “original”. I made this based on the Koh Kentetsu recipe but I ended up making some changes (in the seasonings, not intentionally. Since I made this dish from memory after I saw the YouTube video). This is in the similar ilk as gyoza 餃子 and shumai  焼売 but maybe even better. We really like the garlic chive flavor and cripsy skin (picture #1). It re-heated nicely in the toaster oven. Since I seasoned the filling adequately, we did not use dipping sauce.

The innovations of his recipe is to use two sheets of store-bought wonton skin to encase the filling and the instructions of how to encase the filling very easily for a home cook. It was cooked exactly like gyoza producing a nice crispy skin on both sides (picture #2) and juicy inside.

Ingredients: (made 10 good-sized dumplings, see picture #2)
1/2 lb ground pork
1/4 lb garlic chive, finely chopped (about 1/5 in)
6-7 medium shrimp, thawed, and minced (optional)
1/2 tsp minced/graded ginger (original recipe used only ginger juice)
1/2 tsp minced/grated garlic (optional,  original recipe does not use this. My wife felt this added too much garlicky flavor)
1 large cap of fresh shiitake mushroom, finely chopped

Seasnings:
1 tsp Shao Xing wine
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp dark sesame oil

20 Wonton skins

Directions:
Add the meat, shrimp, garlic, ginger and seasonings in a bowl and mix well
Add the mushroom and garlic chives and further mix and cover. Let it stand in the refrigerator for a few hours
Using a medium sized ice cream scoop, make balls of the filling and place them on a rimmed baking sheet.
Place the wonton skin on top of the filling balls (I moistened all the edges to make sure it would stick)
Using all five fingers, press down on the edge and turn several times until the sides of the wonton skin adhere to the filling. Then flip it over (picture #3). (If you just steam this, you are making “garlic chive shumai” ニラシュウマイ).

Place the second set of wonton skin on top (I also moistened the outer edges). Using the same process, turn and totally encase the filling to make sure all sides are attached to the filling and each other
Press gently to make a disk (picture #4)

(I covered the dumplings with a plastic wrap and refrigerated 1-2 hours before cooking but this is not needed. I just wanted to have all the dumpling assembled before cooking them in the evening.)
Using a 12 inch non-stick frying pan, I added the vegetable oil with a splash of sesame oil on medium flame and browned one side (2-3 minutes) and turned it over to brown the other side for another 2-3 minutes (picture #2)
Add a small amount of water (about 1/4 cup). Cover with a tight fitting lid to steam for 2-3 minutes or until the steam stops coming out.
Remove the lid and let the moisture evaporate. Keep browning the bottom and the other side with the addition of a small amount of sesame oil toward the end of cooking.

This is a really nice dish and easier to make compared to gyoza (because you do not have to clip the edges). A good amount of garlic chive adds a nice flavor (my addition of garlic was a bit too much for my wife, I will omit it next time). This is a perfect small dish with drinks.