Norwegian Mackerel Teriyaki 冷凍ノルウエイ鯖の照り焼き

We used to get fresh whole mackerel from Whole Foods or Hmart (via the Instacart) but we have not gotten whole mackerel for some time. At one time, I got frozen filets of Norwegian mackerel at our Japanese grocery store. I figured the time had come to use this. I was not sure if the filets were already salted (many frozen filets of mackerel appear salted), but there was no indication on the package. I thought about making salt grilled 塩焼きor miso simmered 味噌煮 but decided to make “teriyaki 照り焼き”. We served this with Shiitake mushroom risotto. A bit of a cultural mixture but both went well together. Since I took some care to reduce the fishiness, it had a good teriyaki taste (I did not use sugar in the sauce just mirin). The only problem (especially for my wife) is that these filets had quite a few small bones.

Ingredients:
2 frozen filets of Norwegian mackerel, thawed
2-3 tbs sake
Salt
AP flour
1 tbs vegetable oil

For teriyaki sauce
2 tbs mirin
2 tbs x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce

Directions:
After thawing, I wrapped the filets with sake soaked paper towels and let them sit in the refrigerator for 1 hour or so.
I then patted the filets dry with paper towels and salted them on both sides and let them sit at room temperature for 20 minutes and again patted dry the surface.
I cut a shallow oblique cut on the skin and then cut one filet into 4 portions.
I then dredged in flour.
I placed the filet portions skin side down in the frying pan with the vegetable oil on medium low flame.
I let it cook mostly from the skin side. After 5-6 minutes when the edges got opaque in the thick portions and top became opaque in the thin portions, I flipped it over to finish cooking (you can slightly under cook at this point since it is further cooked in the teriyaki sauce). Remove the fish and set aside. Wipe the oil from the pan clean.
Add the mirin and noodle sauce on medium high flame and let it reduce in half.
Add back the fish and coat all sides with the sauce until the liquid is almost evaporated.

I made the teriyaki sauce not too sweet. This was quite good especially for frozen mackerel and it was good to taste mackerel again after such a long time. But the bones were quite a botheration. When I filet the fresh mackerel myself, I remove most of the bones. I could have done this. Maybe next time.

Chestnut Apple Soup クリとリンゴのスープ

Some years ago, we gave up on preparing fresh chestnuts especially the North American variety. These have a characteristic tough inner membrane that goes deeply into the flesh of the nut and is extremely hard to remove. So we switched to already prepared roasted chestnuts that come in a pouch. These come from France and are infinitely easier to use. The only problem is we bought them last year in bulk (12 packages) and we have quite a few packages left. But this is chestnut season—time to bust into those packages of chestnuts. My wife suggested using them to make chestnut soup which we made before. In addition, we found several Fuji apples in the refrigerator. We bought them sometime ago but totally forgot about them. The surface of the apple was wrinkled and looked dry. When we tasted them after peeling the wrinkled skin and surface dried parts their texture was a bit mushy but sweet, juicy and certainly edible. My wife pointed out that we didn’t have parsnips which we often use in this type of soup and she suggested using the newly recovered apples instead. So, we made chestnut soup from the packaged chestnuts and apples and garnished with some left over sautéed shallot and shiitake mushrooms. Adding the apple made this soup sweet (in a very natural way) and great. We really like this. We had this as a lunch with slices of the baguette I baked sometime ago (frozen).

I essentially winged it although I did see some recipes using chestnuts and apples on the internet

Ingredients: (made a bit over 4 cups of the soup)

100 grams of the prepared chestnuts (we used the brand called Gefen)

2 medium onions, finely chopped

1 large stalk of celery, string removed and chopped fine

2 carrots, peeled and cut into small dice

2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped in small pieces

3 cups or more chicken broth

2 tbs olive oil and 1 tbs butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Garnish: (optional)

1 medium shallot, sliced

3 large cups of fresh shiitake mushrooms, cut into half and sliced

1tbs butter and olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a pan on medium low flame, add the oil and butter. When it is hot and the butter is melted, add the onion and celery and sauté for a few minutes,  Add the carrots and apples and sauté for few more minutes. Add the chestnuts (crumble as you add). Add the chicken broth and simmer for 30 minutes.

Using the immersion blender or mixer, blend the vegetables, add cream (optional).

Garnish

Sauté the shallot until soft and edge is brown, add the mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes and season.

This soup is extremely good. The apple and chestnut are a perfect blend. The apple brings a fresh sweet slightly acidic sharpness while the chestnut is a deep nuttiness. The mushroom garnish is the final touch—bringing a mellow umami to the whole collection. The apple and the mushroom really made this soup special.

Bagel ベーグル

My wife was not into bagels but this dramatically changed after our recent stay at a hotel/B&B in California. It was a good comfortable accommodation. But essentially we did not see any hotel staff while we were there. There was no front desk and you communicate with the hotel owner/proprietor via digital communication and instead of a key you get a “code” which allows you to open the front door and your room doors during your stay. It had a spacious communal kitchen and dining room where we could self serve coffee, yogurt,  bagels/muffins, and fruit for breakfast. They had blueberry bagels and my wife really liked the bagel. While we were staying there we had bagel and cream cheese as a breakfast every day. So when we came back, my wife got a few varieties of bagels from Whole Foods and an on-line gourmet bakery to try. My wife thought these bagels were not as good as we had at the hotel. I reminded her that I did bake bagels many years go but felt it was not worth the effort since she was not particularly fond of bagels back then. Now since, she suddenly developed a taste for bagels I decided to try making some. As a trial run, I made 6 bagels (3 plain and 3 sesame, picture #1). They came out great with nice flavor and texture. (they were was slow fermented over night in the refrigerator) but the crust is a bit too hard and I thought I could improve on this.

The sliced surface shows irregular holes and a nice moist and slightly chewy texture (picture #2).

The original recipe came from the newly published King Arthur baking cook book called “Big Book of Bread”. The original recipe made 12 bagels but for this trial I halved the recipe and made six.

Ingredients (make 6 bagels)
DOUGH (I weighed everything)
413 grams unbleached bread flour, plus more for dusting
8.5 grams salt
1.5 grams instant yeast
269 grams warm water
Yellow cornmeal, for dusting

WATER BATH (this is the amounts in the original recipe)
1,816 grams (8 cups) water
42 grams (2 tablespoons) honey
18 grams (1 tablespoon) fine salt

Directions: (Although I tried to follow the original instructions, this is description of what I did)
Place all the dough ingredients in a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook and knead for 5 minutes after the dough ball is formed around the hook.
On the lightly dusted board, take out the dough ball and hand knead briefly to make a tight ball.
Place the dough ball in a lightly oiled bowl, turn over to coat all surfaces. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap.
Let it rise for 1.5 to 2 hours until the volume doubles (I used a bread proofing box at 85F).
I deflated and divided the dough into equal 6 portions by weighing (the total dough weighed 693 grams so one portion was about 115grams).
I made balls and with the seam side down, covered loosely with a plastic wrap and then a dish towel and let them rest for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile I prepared a rimmed baking sheet line with a parchment paper and lightly dusted with corn meal.
I flattened the dough ball into a disk and pushed my finger through the center to make a ring and placed it on the parchment (#1 in the composite picture)
At this point, I placed another sheet of parchment paper on top and then covered with plastic wrap. The plastic wrap didn’t stick to the baking sheet so I taped the sides to the baking sheet. I refrigerated it overnight.

Next morning:
I was not sure if I should let the dough bagels come to the room temperature or immediately boil them. (The instructions were silent on this topic). So I did not warm up the dough rings and I boiled/simmered them 3 at a time one minute on each side (#2 in the composite picture)
I placed the boiled dough rings on the parchment paper. I placed 3 one sided on a plate covered in sesame seeds and left the other 3 plain (#3 in the composite picture).
I baked at 470F (in convection mode, the original recipe calls for 475F) in the upper 1/3 position rotating the baking sheet at 10 minutes and baked for total of 20 minutes (#4 in the composite picture).

As I mentioned the bagels came out nicely and my wife likes them but the crust is a bit too hard and chewy. (I am not sure that the convection vs regular oven made the difference?).

The second try
We finished the first batch and made the second with a few modification. I let the dough rings come to room temperature (let them sit for 1 hour) before boiling. Interestingly, in the first batch, the dough rings sank and then floated up to the top of the water after10 seconds or so but this time they floated to the top immediately.  I boiled each side about 30 seconds this time. I reduced the oven temperature to 450F and cooked them for 20 minutes.

The results were better. The crust was not as dark in color and slightly less crunchy but less chewy. The crust can be a bit less crunchy still. 

The third try

I made the hole in the center smaller to make the body of the bagel a bit thicker. I let the dough rings come to the room temperature (let them sit for 1 hour) before boiling,  I reduced the boiling time for 20-10 seconds each side. I preheated the oven to 450F, reduced it to 400F just before putting the dough in the oven. I cooked them for 25 minutes. 

I could have made the holes a bit bigger but the all bagel did not flatten out too much. The crust is very crunchy but not too thick. The inside is not too chewy and lots of flavors. We are getting close to having bagel perfection (at least based on our opinion)

The fourth try and probably final recipe

This is my 4th try and this is definitely the best one. The modifications are as follows;
1. After overnight fermentation in the refrigerator, let it sit for 1 hour to warm up before boiling
2. Boil for 10 seconds each side
3  Bake at 400F for 25 minutes
4. Instead of attaching the sesame seeds on the surface, I kneaded the roasted sesame into the half of the dough (3 bagels)  after the first fermentation as per suggestion of my wife.

In the picture #4, upper three are plain and the lower three are with sesame seeds. Both came out well with nice thin crunchy crust and perfect inside which is not dry or too chewy. The size of the holes is just right and the bagels have nice height. It has good flavor and texture. The sesame ones have nice sesame flavor but because the seeds were mixed into the dough rather than put on top they did not come off. (Slight digression alert: We also sprinkled toasted sesame seeds on top of the cream cheese we put on the sliced and toasted bagel. Again this addition intensified the sesame flavor but the seeds stayed put.) 

We think this is most likely our final bagel recipe.

Crispy Enoki Mushroom エノキのパリパリ焼き

This is another dish made using enoki mushrooms. I have posted quite a few enoki dishes. Turns out this is one of our favorite enoki dishes. It is fairly easy and quick to make and works well as a drinking snack. It is pre-seasoned and has a nice crunchy crust and nice softer texture inside with lots of enoki flavor (#1)

The recipe came from the major soy sauce maker Kikkoman website (in Japanese).

Ingredients:
1 package (200grams) enoki mushroom エノキダケ, cut off the bottom (about 1/4)  but make sure the  mushrooms are still connected at the bottom end
1-2 tbs vegetable oil for frying
4 tbs “katakuriko” 片栗粉 potato starch

Marinade
2tbs soy sauce (I used x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce)
2tbs sake
1tsp grated ginger

Directions:
Make 7-8 portions of the enoki mushroom still connected at the bottom, flatten and marinade for 10-20 minutes at room temperature
Drain the marinade and dust the mushroom bunches with the potato starch
Using a non-stick frying pan on medium flame, add the vegetable oil and fry each bunch of the mushroom, flatten using a spatula
Turn over several times until both sides are brown and crispy for about 5 minutes (picture #2)

Since the enoki is long, I cut each bunch into two portions. No sauce is needed since it is pre-seasoned (marinated). This dish will go well with sake or wine.

P.S. This year, we planted both moon flower and morning glory seeds along our fence on the side yard. The moon flower started first and, for a while, both morning glory and moon flowers were blooming. The moon flowers are finished and now the morning glories are indeed putting on a glorious display. Only problem is that as the morning glory gets going in earnest, frost will come and it will be season over.

Marinated Chicken Tender Cutlet 鳥のささみのカツレツ

We like chicken “sasa-mi” 笹身*  tenders and made quite a few dishes and posted them in the past. One of the problems with chicken tenders is that they tend to get dry when cooked. The best way is to make sous vide skin-on, bone-in chicken breast , then remove the tenders from the breast after cooking. This will provide succulent and chicken tenders. I serve these tenders by teasing them into small strands by hand and usually dressing them in sesame dressing. But only one tender can be had per chicken breast half. Other ways of cooking including Yakitori 焼き鳥 works well but over cooking happens if you are not careful. Japanese will serve undercooked (on purpose) or even “raw” chicken tenders but it is not safe to do so here. In any case, I came up with marinading the tenders in ponzu and mirin mixture (hoping the acidity of ponzu may further tenderize and keep them moist and the sweetness of the mirin mitigates the sour taste of the ponzu). I marinate them at least a couple of hours before breading and deep frying them (Chicken tender cutlet). The night I made these chicken tenders they had been marinating over night. Since I had hot oil when I cook them this way, I also fried some arancini I had made some time ago from left-over mushroom risotto. (I shaped the risotto into balls with cubes of Mozzarella cheese in the middle then breaded and froze them. I discovered you can deep fry frozen arancini and they come out really nice.) I served this with fried “renkon” 蓮根  lotus root marinated in X4 Japanese noodle sauce and then dusted with flour. I also served spicy tofu cubes (previously cooked and just heated up before serving in the toaster oven) (pictures #1). 

*Chicken tenders are called “sasa-mi 笹身” in Japanese. “Sasa” is a type of smaller bamboo plant (broad-leaf bamboo) and the shape of its leaves are similar to that of chicken tenders. “mi 身” means “meat”.

The chicken tender cutlets were indeed very nice. The tenders came from Whole Foods. We usually do not buy chicken from Whole Foods but these tenders are one of the best we can have. The round item shown on the left in the picture is the arancini cut in half (you can just see the melted mozzarella in it). The center item is the chicken tender cutlet and beside that on the right is renkon (picture #2).

Ingredients:
One package (1.5lb) chicken tenders
2 tbs Ponzu shoyu
2 tbs Mirin

Flour, egg water and panko for breading
Peanut oil for frying

Directions:
In a quarter gallon Ziploc bag add the ponzu and mirin, and the chicken.
Knead to spread the marinade and remove the air as much as you can and let it marinade at least few hours or overnight in the refrigerator

Remove the chicken leaving the marinade.
Bread it with the flour, egg water and Panko bread
In 180F oil, fry for 3-4 minutes turning until crust is golden brown and the center of the thickest part is opeque.

This was quite a meal. The tenders, arancini, and fried renkon were really good. Plenty of crunch with different profiles of flavors. (My wife really likes chicken tender cutlets made this way). The left-overs warm up perfectly in the toaster oven. 

Prosciutto-wrapped Haddock 生ハム巻きハドック (コダラ)

Haddock is not fish we usually cook but we had some in our freezer which we received as part of a “white fish sampler” from Vital Choice. Although we finished all the “Chilean sea bass” and almost finished all the “sable fish or black cod”, sole and haddock were left behind. So we decide it is time to try the haddock. I was not familiar with this fish in Japan but the Japanese name is reportedly either “Kodara コダラor montuski-dara 紋付ダラ”.  From our previous experience, haddock is not our all time favorite. If you are going for “cod family”, true cod is much better. Then, my wife found this recipe for “prosciutto-wrapped haddock”. We thought wrapping in prosciutto may give the haddock an additional dimension and make it a bit more interesting. The original recipe was a “baking pan” affair in which the main and side dish are cooked in a baking pan in the oven. I decided to cook the haddock as well as the vegetables in a frying pan. The haddock was much better this way but still faces stiff competition from Chilean sea bass and sable fish. As a side I cooked green beans, shallot and skinned Campari (or cocktail) tomato in the same frying pan I cooked the fish.

Ingredients:
One filet of haddock, thawed and cut into two small servings, skin removed (I removed the skin but skin is very delicate and probably not need be removed).
Prosciutto, enough to wrap the two filets (2-3 slices)
Black pepper
Olive oil and butter

For the side
10 green beans, blanched
1 shallot, sliced 
2 Campari tomatoes, skinned
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Season the haddock with pepper (but not salt since prosciutto has enough salty flavor), wrap the filets with the slices of prosciutto 
In a 10 inch non-stick frying pan, add the olive oil on medium flame. When the oil is hot add the shallot and sauté until lightly caramelized, add the green beans and tomato and cook for another minute, season with salt and pepper
Push the vegetables to the side to make space in the center of the pan. Add the olive oil and butter and place the prosciutto wrapped filets
Cook one side for 1-2 minutes, turn it over and cook another minutes or until done.
Serve it with the side of the vegetables and wedges of lemon.

This is not bad. It really “kicked-it-up-a-notch”. But if we have a choice we would choose other fish. We may try this with true cod or halibut.

Hiyaoroshi Sake “Shichi Hon Yari” 七本槍 純米ひやおろし

“Shichi Hon Yari” 七本槍純米ひやおろし is the second hiyaoroshi we tasted. This one is from Shiga prefecture 滋賀県 (near Kyoto on the shore of lake Biwa 琵琶湖, the largest lake in Japan). This is “junmai 純米” made from “Yamadanishiki 山田錦” sake rice. We tasted it cold. To us, this sake tasted dry, clean and fruity and the taste profile close to ginjo. We didn’t think it had a pronounced “rich” umami flavor. We felt that the previous hiyaoroshi we tasted (Shonai Bojin 庄内美人) had a richer and umami-laden taste profile. Interestingly both sakes are located in a similar place on the Tippsy sake’s profile charts. 

As before, I prepared “sake-no-sakana 酒の肴” or drinking snacks which go well with the sake. We defrosted “Ootoro 大トロ” fatty tuna (from Riviera Seafood Club). It was slightly sinewy and layers tended to separate but the sinew was not bothersome to us. The quality was quite good. I served in three ways; straight sashimi, salted and seared with one side torched or “aburi 炙り” and marinated or “Zuke 漬け”. All were pretty good but I liked “aburi” the best. Also we had scallop sashimi ホタテの刺身 also from  Riviera. We also had the last of “uni shuto ウニ酒盗” from Maruhide 丸秀 and “squid shiokara イカの塩辛” (my wife calls it “squid and guts”) we got from a Japanese grocery store frozen (from Hakodate Hokkaido 函館北海道).

 

All these sashimi and shuto and shiokara all went well with cold hiyaoroshi sake. This was a great way to celebrate the change of season to fall. 

Hiyaoroshi Sake Dewanoyuki “Sho-nai Bijin” 出羽ノ雪 庄内美人 ひやおろし

It is the season for “Hiyaoroshi ひやおろし” or “Akiagari 秋上がり” sake. As I mentioned in the previous post, this type of sake is bottled in the spring and cold-aged until the following fall. It is considered a seasonal sake and available in autumn in limited quantity. We can now enjoy some of the hiyaoroshi sake without visiting Japan in autumn thanks to “Tippsy sake”. This year we got two kinds. The frist one we tried is one from Yamagata prefecture 山形県 (which is known for many excellent sake breweries; some are considered  “cult” sake such as “Juuyondai” 十四代.) called  Dewanoyuki Shonai Bijin Hiya-oroshi” 出羽ノ雪庄内美人. It is “kimoto-junnmai 生酛純米 made from sake rice varieties Dewakirari 出羽きらりand Miyamanishiki 美山錦. We tasted it cold. We really like it. It has nice rich “umami” and nice fruity finish but dry and not yeasty. 

Of course, to enjoy a good sake like this, we need good “sake-no-sakana 酒の肴” drinking snacks. This is what I served. From top left clockwise; sugar snap peas in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし, Wakame sea weed in ponzu sesami oil dressing わかめのポン酢胡麻油あえ, in the next square dish are seasoned boiled egg or “ajitama” 味玉 and pickled daikon and cucumber 大根と胡瓜の漬物, in a round small dish is  urchin shutou ウニの酒盗, in the small bowl is herring in wine sauce (from the jar) which I added sour cream dill sauce. 

While we really like both of them, among the two hiya-oroshi sake we tried this year we particularly liked Sho-nai Bijin. (the other one will be posted soon).

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. 

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” which is called “seion 静音” 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 which is called “dakuon 濁音”. 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.