Chestnuts and Apple Blini 栗とリンゴ味のビリニ

This is another one of my wife’s “variations on the theme of blini”. This started when I made “chestnut apple soup” as an autumnal dish. The soup was more of a potage than soup with a thick consistency, and good chestnut and apple flavors. While we were enjoying the soup, my wife mused that it would be a great ingredient for a blini. Thus, we have “Chestnut and Apple Blini”.

Ingredients:  makes 14 blini
2 cups of chestnut apple soup
6 tbs melted butter
6 large eggs, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour (next time I will try 1/2 cup chestnut flour and 1/2 cup AP) 
1 cup + 2 tbs. cake flour
1 Tbs + 1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
2 tsp salt
enough additional soup to make it the texture of pancake batter 

The ingredients and recipe for the chestnut apple soup are below. 

Directions:
Put the chestnut apple soup in a bowl. Add the egg, the melted butter and stir until combined. Then add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until well blended. (You may need to add of the soup 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.

Recipe for chestnut and apple soup.

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

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).

Although the soup had a very definite chestnut apple flavor the blinis did not. They had a nice texture and tasted great slathered with butter for breakfast but they did not taste of chestnuts like the soup. Next time my wife said she would try using chestnut flour in place of some of the AP flour.

“Bento” Lunch Box 弁当

Since the occasion called for it, I made a bento box which is something I rarely do. As usual, I used an adult sized two tier bento box. I filled the layers with whatever we had on hand. I would have included cooked rice but since we had arancini, I used that instead.

#1: Simmered kabocha Japanese squash かぼちゃの煮物  and blanched green beans サヤインゲン. #2: Cucumber and nappa cabbage “asazuke” 胡瓜と白菜の浅漬け(nappa cabbage is hiding underneath). #3: boiled and marinated quail egg うずらの味玉 and skinned Campari tomato. #4: Carrot salad 人参サラダ. #5: Ricotta cheese meatballs in marinara sauce  トマトソースとミートボール. #6: Arancini made with shiitake mushroom risotto アランチーニ. #7: Japanese omelet seasoned with “Shiro-dashi” 白出汁味のオムレツ.

I made the omelet just for the lunch box (two eggs beaten and seasoned with shiro-dashi*). I made the meatballs shown here in the marinara sauce a few days ago. I combined the meatballs and marinara sauce by cutting the meatballs in half, adding them to the sauce in a frying pan and heating every thing until it was warmed up and the marinara sauce thickened. I finished this by adding grated parmesan cheese. I let these two dishes cool before adding them to the lunch box.

*Shiro-dashi 白出汁: A concentrated dashi soup base. Japanese dashi broth (made from kelp, bonito flakes etc) with added light colored soy sauce. This is most commonly used to make “Chawan mushi 茶碗蒸し. I used a commercial bottled one. It adds both nice flavors and saltiness without adding color like regular soy sauce or concentrated noodle sauce would do.

This was a quite filling and nice bento.

P.S. As a side light shown in the following picture, the Christmas amaryllis are in full bloom. What a treat on a gloomy winter’s day. 

Gingerbread Pancakes with Date Sauce ジンジャーブレッドパンケーキ

One Sunday morning, my wife suggested making something different for breakfast. She found this “gingerbread pancake” recipe in the Washington Post. So as usual, my wife whipped up the batter and I cooked it. In the past, coordinating the production of our morning coffee with breakfast pancake making required some effort. It was difficult to balance the timing of the coffee with cooking the pancakes so both were served hot.  But now we are using battery-powered (rechargeable), bluetooth-connected coffee mugs called “Ember”. They maintain a specific temperature set via app. We can make our latte and it stays warm while we cook the pancakes. The pancakes tasted of gingerbread and were very fluffy (see picture #2). Initially for the sake of time, we did not make the “date sauce” (picture #1) but later we did and had it on the pancakes the next day as shown in picture #2.

Ingredients (makes 4 pancakes) 
For the sauce
12 to 14 dates (8 ounces/227 grams) Medjool dates, (or any other kind available) pitted
3/4 cups (180 milliliters) milk
pinch of salt

For the pancake
1 1/3 cups (160 grams) whole-wheat pastry flour (or 2/3 cup (83 grams) AP flour and 2/3 cup (83 grams) regular whole wheat flour) 
1/2 cup (52 grams) almond flour 
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, plus more for serving
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup (240 milliliters) milk 
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons (40 grams) molasses (I used one tbs. molasses and one tbs. corn syrup to reduce the strong molasses flavor which husbandito-wa does not like) 
1 tablespoon oil, or melted unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
For the sauce shown in the next picture:
If the dates are very dry, soak them in hot water for 10 minutes to rehydrate them, then drain. In a food processor, combine the dates with a pinch of salt and process until finely chopped. With the processor running, drizzle in 3/4 cup (180 milliliters) of the milk, and continue to process, stopping to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula, as needed, until a smooth, creamy sauce forms. You should have about 1 1/4 cups. Set aside about half (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) of the sauce to serve with the pancakes. (Refrigerate the remaining sauce. It's great on toast, or as a topping for yogurt or oatmeal.)

For the pancake: 
In a medium bowl, whisk together the whole-wheat flour, almond flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt until well combined. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, the eggs, molasses, oil and vanilla until well combined. Add the flour mixture to the milk mixture and stir until just combined. It’s okay if some lumps remain.

Heat a skillet over medium heat until hot. Lightly oil the bottom of the skillet. ladle about 1/4 cup (60 milliliters) of the batter per pancake into the skillet. Cook until golden brown on the bottom and the tops are covered with bubbles, about 2 minutes, then flip and continue cooking until golden brown on the other side, about 2 minutes more.  Serve the pancakes topped with a dollop of the date sauce 

The pancakes had a very pleasant gingerbread flavor and were very light and fluffy in texture.  This was very different from our usual pancakes and made a nice change. We enjoyed them and they made Sunday morning special. We tried the date sauce with the pancakes the next day. It was very subtly sweet but truthfully didn’t bring much overall. But it was a good sauce and we will use what is left over on toast in the morning.

Cauliflower-puree Blini カリフラワーピュレー ビィリニ

This is one of my wife’s variations on the theme of blini. Besides classic blini with buckwheat flour, she made quite a few variations.  She made this because the cauliflower puree I made needed to be finished. I occasionally make cauliflower puree which is a nice item to have since it can be used as is or as a part of other dishes. We even enjoy it as a cold soup for lunch after adding some milk or cream. In any case, my wife decided to try Cauliflower-puree blini. We were a bit skeptical about how this would turn out but it turned out great. It was very moist and soft inside. The pleasing hardy cauliflower flavor really came through. The crust was nice and crunchy. We enjoyed it toasted and slathered with butter as a part of breakfast.

Ingredients(X3): makes 14 blini
2 cups of cauliflower puree
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:Put the cauliflower puree 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.)

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Use the butter to grease each cup of a cast iron platar, 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.

Persimmon in Tofu Dressing 柿の白和え

“Shira-ae 白和え” meaning “white dressing”  refers to dishes in which the dressing consists mainly of tofu. The dishes usually use vegetables or fruit (persimmon being the most common fruit used). But protein such as chicken can also be added. There are variations of how to season the tofu but one ingredient consistently used is sesame; either sesame paste and/or coarsely ground sesame seeds. White miso or light colored soy sauce is often used. You can use either silken (Kinugoshi tofu 絹ごし豆腐 or firm Momen tofu 木綿豆腐). This time I used left-over medium firm tofu, ground re-roasted sesame seeds and hummus which I made a few days ago. For saltiness, I used “Shiro-dashi 白だし*” from the bottle. I used blanched green beans and persimmon (picture #1) which is rather classic.

* Shiro-dashi is a versatile light colored Japanese seasoning made of  light-colored soy sauce and Japanese  dashi-broth which is available in a bottle. 

I served this as a part of the appetizers (picture #2) one evening. The left is “Russian” marinated salmon 鮭のロシア漬け with “ikura いくら” salmon roe.
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Substituting sesame paste with hummus worked very well. This is a good “healthy” appetizer.

Grilled Beef Tongue 牛タンの焼肉

We like beef tongue which is not always easy to get. We like tongue prepared Pennsylvania Dutch style; boiled with aromatic vegitables which gives it a nice tender texture which is particularly good as  a sandwich meat. Another favorite is tongue stew also made from Pa Dutch style prepared tongue. In Japan, the most common way to prepare beef tongue, either thickly or thinly sliced, is grilling it or “Yaki-niku 焼肉”. The city of Sendai 仙台 in the Northern part of the Japanese mainland is famous for grilled tongue. We tried it some time ago while we were there visiting Japan but we did not like it. It was very tough and too chewy. We recently found that Weee offers two kind of frozen sliced beef tongue. Although details were a bit vague, one kind appears to be thin sliced and the other is a thicker slice judging from the reviews. We got the kind that was very thinly sliced (#2). As per Japanese fashion, we seasoned it with salt and pepper and briefly cooked it in a frying pan and served it with wedges of lemon. Since we had left-over croquettes (potato with ground pork and chicken), we heated them up in the toaster oven and served them as a side. The thinness of the beef tongue slices really helped but they were still a bit on the chewy side.  Nonetheless it had a lot of flavor. This is good but not our favorite way to have beef tongue.

The tongue came frozen and vacuum packed (#2). Skin was removed and the meat sliced very thin. Once thawed, it is relatively easy to separate into separate slices. I salted and peppered only on one side after the slices were in the frying pan.

Knowing that the thinly sliced version of beef tongue from Weee is still a bit chewy, we suspect the thicker slices would be even more so. 

Simmered “Satoimo” taro with squid 里芋とイカの煮物

This is a variation of “simmered squid and daikon イカ大根” which I posted sometime ago. This dish came together because we had Japanese taro or satoimo 里芋 from Suzuki farm and some frozen squid from Vital Choice that needed to be used. The squid was in good condition. The bodies were cleaned and skinned. I made two dishes to use up the squid. One was squid and celery sautéed in garlic butter and the other was this dish. I used blanched Japanese “kabu” turnip greens (also from Suzuki Farm) as a garnish. It really added to this dish with its color, texture and distinctive flavor. I cooked the squid very quickly (for less than one minute. It will cook a bit more when it is combined with the satoimo in the simmering liquid). Then using the same simmering liquid, I cooked the satoimo. When it was done I combined it with the cooked squid. This is a good combination and we liked the texture of the satoimo. The squid was not chewy at all (thanks to short cooking).

Ingredients: (2 small servings)
170 gm frozen squid, thawed, legs separated and the bodies cut into rings
6 small Japanese taro “satoimo”, peeled, and soaked in water
Blanched daikon or kabu green for garnish (optional. any greenery will do such as broccoli or green beans)

Simmering liquid
1 cup Japanese broth (kelp and bonito flakes)
2 tbs or more (to taste) x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce

Directions:
Bring the simmering liquid to a simmer, add the squid and cook until color of the squid turns opaque and firms up (less than 1 minute), take it out and set aside. In the same simmering liquid add the satoimo and simmer for 15-30 minutes or until the satoimo is done (when it is tender when tested with a skewer).
Add back the cooked squid and warm them up for 20-30 seconds and serve.

This is a classic Japanese comfort dish. The squid adds a nice umami to the broth which is absorbed by the satoimo.  Japanese “kabu” turnip green also adds color as well as its unique flavor.

Japanese Sweet potato Blini さつまいもビィリニ

My wife has been making all kinds of blini variations. This time was Japanese sweet potato blini.

Ingredients(X3): makes 14 blini
2 cups of mashed sweet 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
1 Tbs. maple syrup (add more for a sweeter blini) 
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.

These had a very pleasing texture. The sweet potato flavor however didn’t really come through. Nonetheless it was good toasted for breakfast. Bottom line: any starch; potatoes, corn, whatever can be used to make a mighty fine blini.

Japanese “Kabu” Turnip Simmered in Broth 蕪の煮物

We recently received another order of Japanese vegetables from Suzuki farm which included Japanese “kabu 蕪” turnip with attached greens.  I immediately separated the greens and blanched them in salted water. This way, both the turnips and the greens last longer. (If the greens are left attached they quickly go bad and then make the turnip go bad too.) In any case, I made this classic simmered dish with “kabu 蕪” turnips and “abura-age 油揚げ” fried tofu and garnished it with the blanched turnip greens. This is a very comforting dish with the distinctive but subtle flavor of kabu and the more assertive flavor of the greens. The abura-age also adds a nice texture and flavor, This is good as a side dish or appetizer.

Ingredients (for two servings)
4 small “kabu 蕪” Japanese turnips, peeled and quartered.
1 large or 2 small abura-age 油揚げdeep fried tofu, soaked in hot water to thaw and to remove excess oil, moisture squeezed and cut into small triangles.
Blanched turnip greens as garnish.

Simmering liquid:
1 cup Japanese broth (made of dashi pack which contain bonito flakes and kelp)
2 tbs “shiro-dashi* 白だし” Japanese seasoning sauce (from a bottle).
1 tbs mirin

*”Shiro” means white or clear and “dashi” means broth. This is a universal Japanese seasoning sauce available in a bottle at most Japanese grocery stores. It is made out of dashi broth, white or light colored soy sauce, mirin and sake. Since I usually do not keep white soy sauce or light colored soy sauce in our household, this is very convenient to have especially when you do not want to add dark color to the dish. I often use it to make “chawan-mushi 茶碗蒸し” and a dish like this one when I want to keep the turnip’s light in color.

Directions:
Add, the turnip and abura-age to the simmering liquid and simmer with a lid on for 10-20 minutes or until the turnip is cooked and soft
Garnish with the turnip greens
Serve warm

This is not as elegant as “Kabura-mushi 蕪蒸し” but a very good simple dish laden with umami and unique flavors of “kabu” turnip. 

Chocolate Brownie Pudding チョコレートブラウニープディング

When my wife made “Lemon Sponge Pudding” using a recipe from Marsha Adams’ “Cooking from Quilt Country”, she spotted this recipe for “Chocolate Brownie Pudding”. It is made in the classic “Pennsylvania Dutch” style basically with a batter put on the bottom of a baking pan and the makings of a chocolate syrup poured over the top. Then as it bakes they reverse with a brownie like cake forming on top and a chocolate sauce forming on the bottom. She had never tasted it before so she decided to make it. This pudding is not particularly photogenic but the taste is really great, moist and very chocolaty. The recipe recommended to served this upside down so the brownie part is on the bottom and chocolate sauce/goo is on the top making it look somewhat like an amorphous dark mass (picture #1). The pecans added nice crunch in contrast to otherwise soft consistency.

After it was cooked, the top became a brownie and bottom was a chocolate sauce (picture #2).

Ingredients: 
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
I teaspoon salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa powder, divided (2 Tbs. used in batter, 4 Tbs. used in sauce) (I used King Arthur double dutch dark cocoa) 
1/2 cup milk 
2 tablespoons butter, melted 
I teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup chopped pecans
1 cup brown sugar
1½ cups boiling water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, and 2 tablespoons of the cocoa into a large bowel Add the milk, butter, and vanilla; mix until smooth. Stir in the pecans transfer to an oiled 1-quart (10 x 6-inch) baking dish. 

In a medium bowl combine the brown sugar and the remaining 4 tablespoons cocoa. Sprinkle over the cop of the chocolate mixture. Pour the boiling water over all. Do not stir in. 

Bake 40 minutes or until the top appears to be firm. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes before cutting. 

This is without a doubt one of the best desserts ever. The brownie/sauce texture combination is extremely pleasing. The taste is a rich velvety chocolate. This one went really fast! 

Osechi from Sushi Taro 2026 すし太郎のお節

Like other New Years, we picked up Sushi Taro osechi box on New Year Eve. Although there is some changes/improvements every year, we have posted osechi dishes in details before. In any case, this is a real treat.  The left is the bottom box and the right is the top box.

All are very good but our absolute favorites are “An-kimo terrine 鮟肝豆腐” and “Karasumi Japanese bottarga 唐墨”. We try to finish most  perishable first and finish everything at the end. When it comes to “delicious treat”, this is tops.

“Ozoni” New Year’s Soup お雑煮 2026

New Year has arrived and we are now in 2026! As usual, we had our regular breakfast on New Year’s day consisting of cappuccino, yogurt with fruit, and baked goods. We had the New Year’s soup or “ozoni お雑煮” and other auspicious Japanese New Year foods for lunch (picture #1). Along with the soup I served daikon-namasu 大根なますwith ikura イクラ salmon roe and sliced boiled octopus (small bowl right upper) as well as a number of additional sides of auspicious goodies (shown as a group on the left). 

Our ozoni doesn’t vary much every year. The mochi 餅 rice cake is encased in a deep fried tofu “abura-age 油揚げ” pouch as per my wife’s request. However, this year instead of pieces of chicken meat, I made small chicken dumplings from ground chicken which worked well.

The additional auspicious sides I served were a mixture of some from the Sushi-taro osechi boxすし太郎のお節 and some I made. With this combination I think we covered most of the New Year’s auspicious food items (picture #3).  

The items from the osechi box included; white and red kamaboko fish cake 紅白蒲鉾 (top left), kuro-mame black bean 黒豆, small bait fish “arima-ni” 雑魚の有馬煮 (both middle left),  Kazuniko herring roe marinated in miso 数の子の味噌漬け on the “hanawa-renkon 花輪レンコン” (middle center). 

Since I made “datemaki 伊達巻” New Year’s omelet, I served a piece of the one I made (middle center) although the osechi box also had it. This year, instead of making the omelet as I usually do on the stove in the rectangular pan I use to make dashi-maki, I baked the omelet in a small baking dish at 390F or 200C in the toaster oven on convection mode for 20 minutes. It cooked up OK but came out with uneven thickness which made it difficult to roll nicely. (This method needs a bit of more work to achieve “perfection”).  I also served salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き (middle right), Russian marinated salmon with ikura 鮭のロシア漬け (lower left) and fried salmon filet in sweet vinegar 鮭の南蛮漬け (lower right) all of which I made and which were the rest of my contribution to the occasion. 

We had our usual symbolic sake with this. We hit the osechi box more in the evening.

Happy New Year 2026 明けましておめでとうございます

2025 was a somewhat eventful year but we came through OK and are looking forward to what 2026 brings. To celebrate the New Year, we usually decorate in the Japanese style by getting a disposable plastic “Kagami-mochi 鏡餅” containing individually wrapped mochi. Although, according to Japanese tradition, New Year’s decorations are “disposable” because they should be renewed every year, we felt the Kagami-mochi was a bit wasteful especially since we almost never ate the mochi that came in it. (Besides, this year it was completely sold out by the time we tried to order it, so we had to come up with an alternative). As an innovation, we went with an “Arita-kiln 有田焼” Kagami-mochi decoration, which being ceramic, is permanent and can be used year after year. The top comes off and the bottom segment is hollow. So theoretically, we could place fresh mochi inside in keeping with Japanese tradition. In any case, we are very satisfied with this new decoration shown is the picture below. 

Since according to the Chinese zodiac calendar this is the year of the horse, we displayed several horse zodiac figures we have collected over the years. We got the horse in the back on the right, last year (2025) at one of our favorite stores called “Kuroda-ya 黒田屋本店” next to “Kaminari-mon 雷門” in Asakusa 浅草. The one in the back on the left is from the same store but we got it in 2017. The small wooden one in front, is part of a complete set of zodiac figures we got many years ago but could not recall when or where. (My wife thought maybe Kyoto but wasn’t sure).

In any case, we managed to pick up “Osechi お節” from “Sushi-taro すし太郎”. I made a few New Year’s dishes. We are ready!