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!

Table of Contents 2026

January 2026
January 1     Happy New Year 2026 明けましておめでとうございます
January 2    “Ozoni” New Year’s Soup お雑煮 2026
January 5    Osechi from Sushi Taro 2026 すし太郎のお節
January 8    Chocolate Brownie Pudding チョコレートブラウニープディング
January 11    Japanese “Kabu” Turnip Simmered in Broth 蕪の煮物
January 14    Japanese Sweet potato Blini さつまいもビィリニ
January 17    Simmered “Satoimo” taro with squid 里芋とイカの煮物
January 19    Grilled Beef Tongue 牛タンの焼肉
January 20    Persimmon in Tofu Dressing 柿の白和え
January 23    Cauliflower-puree Blini カリフラワーピュレー　ビィリニ
January 25    Gingerbread Pancakes with Date Sauce ジンジャーブレッドパンケーキ
January 26    “Bento” Lunch Box 弁当

Lotus root salad with Yuzu-kosho Mayo 柚子胡椒マヨ蓮根サラダ

This is the second dish I made from fresh renkon (lotus root) we received recently from Weee. This a simple renkon salad. I have posted several renkon salads and this is a variation of renkon salad dressed in yuzu-mayonnaise. I think I saw a recipe on line from which I got the idea for this but could not locate it again. In any case, the dressing is made with mayo plus yuzu-kosho* 柚子胡椒 so in addition to yuzu flavor it has some heat from the yuzu-kosho. This was a really good dish. The renkon is crunchy. It absorbs the yuzu flavor which gives it a bright citrus taste. The mayo mutes the spiciness of the yuzu-kosho but it is still there. Just for green color I added blanched green beans.

* Japanese condiment/ paste made from chili peppers, yuzu peel and salt, which is then allowed to ferment. Usually made of green pepper but also made with red pepper.

Again this is not really recipe. Just for my notes:

Ingredients:
3 inch renkon, peeled, blanched and cut into small bite sized pieces.

Some green for color (blanched green beans, broccoli etc)

Dressing:
1 tbs mayonnaise 
1/2 tsp yuzu-kosho (more for spicier dressing)
1 tsp ponzu shoyu ポン酢醤油
(Because the ponzu also has yuzu juice in it the dressing gets a double dose of yuzu Japanese citrus flavor)

Directions:
Boil the renkon in salted water with a splash of rice vinegar for 10-15 minutes.
Let it cool to room temperature.
In a bowl, add the renkon and dressing and mix.
Add the green beans cut diagonally in a bite size. 

This is a very refreshing salad. The crunchiness of the renkon combined with the bright citrus taste and slight spiciness of the yuzu-kosho provide lovely contrast of flavors for any meal. 

Roasted Bone-in Leg of Lamb 骨付き子羊脚ロースト

Christmas and New Year are approaching. Since my wife likes lamb, we splurged and got a large bone-in (or as they described it, “minimally boned and halal”) leg of lamb from Whole Foods. Clearly this is too much meat for us but we figured once it is cooked we can eat it in several sittings and use it to make other dishes such as lamb stew. I thought about making a special dry rub for it but decided to go with the natural flavor of the meat and used only olive oil, salt and pepper. We hot smoked it using mesquite wood chips in the Weber grill. I soaked the wood chips and added them directly on the hot coals which were separated on either side of the center in a metal baskets so the lamb roasted on indirect heat. I maintained the temperature at 400F. The lamb was done in almost one and half hours cooking time. I set the meat temperature probe in the middle of the thigh fairly deep but not touching the bone and cooked it to an internal temperature of 140F. The meat came out really nice (#1). We let it rest covered loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil for 30 minutes while we cooked some Japanese sweet potatoes to go with it.

The doneness ranged from well-done (close to the shank) to medium rare (middle of the thigh meat). Close to the boned (or de-boned) end (the largest diameter potion)  was medium which I served (#2). I made a quick pan sauce and served it with mashed sweet potato.

This was a simple meat-and-potato affair but very satisfying. We had a Joseph Phelps 2022 Syrah.

This is a very good American Syrah that went perfectly with our lamb dinner.

”Boti Gosht” Indian style Meat Cubes インド風の豚肉キューブ

Whenever we get a large bone-in, skin-on, hind-or fore-quarter pork (called picnic cut), I do secondary butchering to produce one large and one small roast. We cook the large roast in the Weber grill and make the small roast into Chinese-style simmered pork using the InstantPot pressure cooker. I cut the remaining trimmings into small chunks and cook them in the InstantPot. We usually use these to make some kind of curry but this time my wife used them to make scrapple. After all this, we found ourselves with leftover roasted pork. My wife decided we should use it to make something interesting that we hadn’t made before. She came up with this Indian-style meat (pork) cubes dish based on a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbook “Quick and Easy Indian Cooking”. (The original recipe called for uncooked cubes of goat/lamb/pork.) This is a highly seasoned dish but does not include the extra sauce characteristic of a regular curry. In any case, this turned out to be quite good. It was quite spicy (but not too spicy, at least for me). (My wife ate it topped with yogurt to mute the spiciness a bit and she said it was very good), with lots of flavors. 

Ingredients
3 tablespoons vegetable oil 
1 or 2 onions roughly diced
½-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and very finely chopped 
4 cloves garlic, peeled and very finely chopped
15 fresh or dried curry leaves, if available
1 pound boned shoulder of lamb or pork, cut into 1-inch cubes (We used the left over roasted pork cut up) 
2 teaspoons store-bought garam masala
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 fresh, hot green chile, finely sliced
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1½-2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:
 Saute the onion in a frying pan until soft and lightly browned. Add the ginger, garlic, and curry leaves and stir until wilted. When the garlic is wilted add the spices to bloom their flavor.  Add the meat. Add enough chicken broth so the ingredients in the pan do not scorch. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove the lid and cook, uncovered, until all the liquid has gone. Stir as you do this and be careful it doesn’t scorch. Then stir in the lemon juice.

Chilean Sea bass with Steamed with Japanese Turnip 蕪蒸し

When we got some Japanese “Kabu 蕪” turnips from Suzuki Farm, I made this dish called “Kabura-mushi 蕪蒸し”. This is a Kyoto cuisine specialty for winter time. The main component is grated turnip mixed with whipped egg white which is then steamed. The classic, as I understand it, uses a type of lightly salted “amdai 甘鯛 snapper called Guji ぐじ” . I suppose you could use shrimp or other white fish or you do not have to use any seafood. I used the tail portion of Chilean sea bass since that was available. I also added shiitake mushroom. This was a really good comforting dish. The Japanese “kabu” turnip adds an interesting slightly pungent (in good way) taste and nice soft consistency. The  “ankake 餡かけ” sauce is gentle and thickened with potato starch (the classic version uses “Kudzu” 葛 starch)*. We like this dish very much. For a good measure, I also added a small dab of wasabi.

*Yes, this is starch derived from the roots of dreaded kudzu plant. It is often used in Kyoto cuisine.

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

1 medium (about 180 grams) Japanese “kabu” turnip, skin peeled, grated and drained of excess moisture

1 egg white whipped to hard peak

1/4 tsp salt

Two pieces of white fish (I used the tail portions of Chilean sea bass)

2 fresh shiitake mushrooms caps sliced

other optional items may include  edible lily bulb, “gin-nan 銀杏” ginko-nuts.

For sauce

1/2 cup Japanese “dashi 出汁” broth

1 tsp x4 Japanese noodle sauce

1 tsp mirin

1 tsp potato starch mixed with 1 tsp water or sake (for thickening the sauce)

Directions:

Place the fish filet in the bowl, place the kabu-egg white mixture on the top, scatter the mushroom in the periphery, steam for 10 minutes in strong steam (see picture 2)

For sauce:

Heat up the broth add seasonings, taste and adjust, add the starch slurry and mix until thickened. Make sure the sauce comes to a boil (otherwise sauce will revert to watery state quickly).

Pour over the steamed dish and top with a dab of wasabi.

Amazingly, my wife really liked this dish. I may make it again when we get some more “kabu”.

Chili Crisp Cottage Cheese Flatbread カッテージチーズフラットブッレドと食べるラー油

My wife is always looking for new baking projects. She came across a flatbread recipe using cottage cheese. In addition, this recipe included “chili crisp*”. We are usually not interested in “very spicy” food. In our household, we keep “Tabasco” and “Sriracha” and use them sparingly or as part of a marinade. We used to have a Japanese version of chili infused oil or ra-yu ラー油 but since we used it rarely, it oxidized by the next time we wanted to use it. Since my wife asked for “chili crisp” for this recipe, I looked into it. The Chinese version appeared to be too spicy for us and we do not particularly like tongue numbing Sichuan pepper which many Chinese brands may include. So I settled for a Japanese mild version of chili crisp from ‘Momoya 桃屋**”.

*Spicy chili infused oil “辣油” is a traditional condiment in Chinese cuisine. In Japan, it is known as “ra-yu ラー油”.  Chili crisp or chili crunch  is a variation chili oil in which bits of chili, garlic and other solids are included. This became very popular during the  COVID time (2020 on) in the U.S. and many brands (including some U.S. brands) became readily available. In Japan, this was known as “eating ra-yu  or 食べるラー油”.

**Japanese condiment maker “Momoya 桃屋” started selling a Japanese version of chili crips which was dubbed as “Looks spicy but not too spicy ra-yu 辛そうで辛くない 少し辛いラー油” in 2009 which was a big hit in Japan.

So my wife started making the bread but at the last moment her friend called and I was left to do the final preparation; making the dough balls, let them rest. Preheating the cast iron skillet. Pressing and stretching the dough balls in to 7 - 8 inch disks without making holes and cooking them in the cast iron skillet. The picture #1 is the result. I included the Japanese chili crisp in the picture (on the side).

This is how we enjoyed it (picture #2). Just dip the bread in the chili crisp. (We subsequently found that spreading the chili crisp directly on the bread works very well too.) The bread and chili crisps were wonderful. The fried garlic adds a nice crunch and the oil is flavorful but not hot; just a bit of buzz which suits us just fine. The bread on its own also has nice flavors.

Ingredients
3/4 cup (170g) cottage cheese, whole milk preferred
1/2 cup (114g) water, warm
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons table salt
1 cup (14g) cilantro, leaves and tender stems*
2 1/4 cups (270g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1 tablespoon (22g) chili crisp, plus more for brushing
vegetable oil, for brushing or greasing

*Or substitute with dill, parsley, or a mix

Directions:
To make the dough: In a food processor, process the cottage cheese, water, yeast, sugar, and salt until smooth, 20 to 30 seconds. Add the cilantro, flour, and 1 tablespoon (22g) chili crisp, in that order, and process in about 8 to 10 second-long pulses, until the dough comes together and starts to gather around the blade.

Scrape the dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until increased in volume by about 1 1/2 times, 30 to 45 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead it gently, sprinkling with additional flour as necessary, until it's smooth, springy, and less sticky, 30 to 60 seconds. (The dough was extremely, wet and sticky and required the addition of a fair amount of flour to make it workable.) 

Divide the dough into 4 pieces (about 150g each) and shape each into a tight ball. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until puffy and relaxed, 15 to 30 minutes.

Toward the end of the rise time, preheat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Working with one dough ball at a time, stretch or roll into a 7" to 8" round. Brush the top with vegetable oil, then place, oil-side down, in the skillet. Cook until brown underneath and bubbled on top, 1 to 2 minutes. Brush the other side with oil then flip the dough and cook until brown on the second side, 1 to 2 minutes.

While one flatbread is cooking, shape the next.
For an extra spicy finish, brush the warm flatbreads with chili crisp before serving.

Sweet Potato muffin with Dates and Cranberries サツマイモマフィン

This is another of my wife’s baking projects. The original recipe appeared in Washington Post as “Sweet potato bread with dates and cranberries” but she converted it to muffins. One of the reasons she made this is that we got some Japanese sweet potatoes a week ago and she wanted to use them before they went bad. This recipe was a bit unusual in that the dates were pulverized with oil, eggs, and milk and become a part of the wet ingredients.  The original recipe also calls for fresh cranberries but we didn’t have any so we used dried cranberries (craisins). Since craisins have added sugar and dates are quite sweet, we were afraid the muffin would be too sweet but it was just pleasantly sweet. The texture appeared dense but was very tender. Overall, this is a good unique muffin/bread. We enjoyed it for our breakfast. I ask my wife to continue.

Ingredients
1/2 cup (120 milliliters) neutral oil, (We used Crisco)
1 1/2 cups (190 grams) pitted dates
1 cup mashed, roasted sweet potatoes (We used Japanese sweet potatoes)
1/3 cup (80 milliliters) milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (65 grams) whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup (65 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (60 grams) almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup (95 grams) fresh whole cranberries (We used craisins)
1/2 cup (60 grams) chopped raw pecans

Directions:
Prepare 2 sweet potatoes by piercing the skin, then putting them into a silicone cooking container with a little water. Cover and cook in the microwave until tender (about 4-5 minutes). Remove the skin. Mash them and then run them through a ricer to get rid of any remaining lumps. 

Place the dates in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the sweet potato puree, oil and milk and pulse until smooth. (Small bits of the dates will remain.) Add the eggs and vanilla, and pulse to combine. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

In another large bowl, whisk together the whole-wheat, AP, and almond flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the sweet potato mixture, and stir just until evenly incorporated. Stir in the cranberries and pecans; the batter will be very thick.

Transfer the batter to the prepared muffin tins. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes then remove from the pan.